Warren Mears

[itsnotmymind]

One of the neat things about Warren Mears as a villain is how he is paralleled with just about every major character on the show. There are Warren-Buffy parallels, staring as early as “I Was Made to Love You”, Warren-Willow parallels (Here’s a little one: In “Seeing Red”, Warren calls Buffy “super-bitch” while fighting her. Willow does the same thing in “Two To Go”.), and Warren-Spike parallels. And there are even Warren-Faith parallels, despite the fact that Faith doesn’t even appear in seasons five and six of BtVS.

The parallels between Willow and Warren are particularly noticeable in the scene in "Villains" where Willow creates an image of Katrina to taunt Warren. What “Katrina” says to Warren, and what Willow says to Warren about Katrina. Change “Warren” to “Willow” and “killed her” to “erased her memories”, and everything "Katrina" says, word-for-word, that is said could be applied to Willow and Tara. Presumably, this is Willow's subconscious guilt speaking. This fascinating vid illustrates the parallels between Willow and Warren.

The Warren-Spike parallels start as early as “I Was Made to Love You”, with the Buffy-bot. As someone online once pointed out, Warren and Spike both give up their robots, but they don’t give up their warped ideas about romance. They are on opposite trajectories: Warren going down, and Spike going up. And they both get there through attempted rape.

In the scene where Willow taunts Warren with a vision of Katrina, you could change “Warren” to “Spike” and “killed her” to “tried to rape her” and then everything "Katrina" says, word-for-word, could be applied to Spike and Buffy.

There is one difference between Spike and Warren, which probably helps to explain why the former gets love from fandom, and the latter doesn’t (well, okay, this and James Marsters' good looks). When Katrina asks, "How could you say you loved me, and do that to me?” Warren replies, so suddenly that it startles: “Because you deserved it, bitch!” It’s an instinctive reply. It’s very revealing.

But Spike has a very different instinctive reply about what Buffy deserves in a Joss-written scene in “Hell’s Bells”. When he sees that coming seeing him with a date genuinely upsets her, he offers to leave.

"No,” Buffy says. “No, I ... you have every right to be here. I pretty much deserve—”

Spike cuts her off. “That's not true, you...” He looks at the ceiling, a frustrated by his own reluctance to hurt her (foreshadowing his frustration with his guilt in the crypt scene in "Seeing Red"). “God, this is hard.”

There is also Spike’s last words of the season: “So you'll give me what I want. Make me what I was. So Buffy can get what she deserves.” I had been spoiled for the fact that Spike gets a soul, but I also knew there was controversy in fandom about whether or not Spike chose to get the soul, or was tricked into it. It was this line that made me realize it was his choice. I could believe that Spike would have the chip taken out so that he could kill Buffy and her loved ones, but I could not believe that he would think she deserved it.

Also, despite the parallels between Spike and Warren, Spike’s initial reaction to his realization that what he had tried to do was rape is more like Jonathan and Andrew’s that Warren's--shock and denial.

Despite Faith's absence in the seasons were Warren is present and alive, there are also Warren and Faith parallels. It’s obvious that Steven DeKnight re-watched “Consequences” before writing “Dead Things”. Many others have pointed out the parallels between the argument between Buffy and Spike in the alley, and Buffy and Faith’s arguments in “Consequences”, but I don’t know that I’ve seen anyone discuss the ways in Warren's reaction to killing Katrina mirrors Faith's.

Both Faith and Warren start their downhill spiral by killing someone accidentally. How they get there is very different--Faith, despite a lot of reckless behavior, was doing her job as a slayer, ridding the world of vampires. Warren was trying to become a master criminal and force his ex-girlfriend to take him back. But their reactions to the unintentional killings are similar: Their first instincts are to take no responsibility and dump the body. They deny feeling guilty about the person they killed (a denial that is more convincing in Warren's case than in Faith's). They are quick to emphasize to the people who were by their side (and who arguably share responsibility for the death) that the guilt must be shared. Faith tells Buffy, “You were right there beside me when this whole thing went down. Anything I have to answer for, you do, too. You're a part of this, B. All the way.”

When Jonathan asks in shock what Warren has done, Warren tells him, “We did this. Me, and Andrew, and you. It's on all of us.”

Both Warren and Faith try to frame the same person, Buffy, for the crime, refusing to consider the possibility of taking responsibility themselves. “I'm not going to jail,” Warren tells Jonathan and Andrew when they suggest going to the police. When Buffy suggests that it will be worse for Faith if she doesn't come clean to Giles and Wesley about what she has done, Faith denies that anything could be worse than jail for the rest of her young life. Perhaps there is a difference here--Faith assumes she will get the harshest consequence possible; Warren doesn't want to accept any consequences at all. But for both of them, the refusal to accept consequences leads to the same result: Now there is nothing to stand between either Warren/Faith and further acts of murder and mayhem.

In some ways, Faith has more in common with Andrew, who thinks getting away with murder is "kinda cool", but hadn't seriously considered doing it before. Angel warns Faith that “to kill without remorse is to feel like a god." Killing opened up for Faith possibilities that she hadn't considered before. For a girl who had been abused, neglected, and powerless for much of her life, the ability to take a human life offered a kind of power that she could only imagine before.

For both Warren and Faith, their first genuinely evil act is attempted rape--although in Faith's case her assault of Xander happens after her accidental killing of Finch, rather than being prelude to the accidental murder as Warren's mind control of Katrina was.

Both Faith and Warren end up not-so different: A core Scoobie goes after them, looking for blood after Faith and Warren attack her lover. Willow and Buffy have different motivations--Willow is out for revenge for Tara's death, Buffy is trying to save Angel's life. Both have different results:Willow succeeds in killing Warren, who cannot match her power. Buffy and Faith are equally matched, and despite losing their battle, Faith is able to foil Buffy's plans and escape with her life, even if she's stuck in a coma. Her death is only metaphorical.

Neither Scoobie is that repentant about their actions. Buffy and Willow may have some remorse about their act of murder/attempted murder, but neither has a lot of regrets about who that act was directed towards.

“A murderous, misogynist man. I mean, do you understand what he did?” Willow asks Kennedy, in “The Killer In Me”. She says, "I killed him for a reason.”

“You had it coming,” Buffy tells Faith in “This Year’s Girl”.

But while Warren's death ends any chance he might have had at redemption, and he reappears only to tempt Andrew to the dark side and represent Willow's inner darkness, Faith gets a second chance, and is inspired by her experience being Buffy and Angel's example and support to come back from the dark side.

Comments

[local-max.livejournal.com]

I had never considered the Faith parallel before, but you're right -- that is actually really great.

I think that Warren gets a bad rap, because, well, he is clearly monstrous and evil, but his function is to reflect the monstrousness and evil within the gang itself. He also mirrors Xander, albeit less explicitly (the one key Warren-Xander scene is in SR, wherein Warren gets back at his male bully by performative masculinity, which plays into Xander's issues directly; Willow and William were not so much physically bullied). And as a result, I'm generally tempted to say that there is real good there within him. I *do* think he loved Katrina on some level, and is not lying when he says "I love you" to her in Dead Things; from his perspective, he loves her totally. And I think his reaction to Katrina ("Make her go away!", a very Willowy phrase) demonstrates guilt, albeit guilt that he can't process because he's already committed to supervillainy. In general, as with Faith in s3 and Willow at the end of s6, Warren's commitment to supervillainy comes because of a death, which is irreversible, and the full commitment to evil seems to be the only option left available to deal with the guilt. In Willow's case, the deaths are first Tara, and then Warren, and both are inflected with guilt (Tara at not being able to fully make up to her what she'd done, Warren at, you know, killing him). Warren, like Faith, has people actively encouraging his descent into evil -- Andrew sort of plays the Mayor role. And most importantly, there is no one at all trying to pull Warren back from the brink of evil, with the possible exception of Jonathan, who is ultimately too weak-willed and mostly distrusts him immediately. Buffy and Angel try for Faith; Buffy and the Scoobies, in different ways, try with Spike; the whole gang tries with Willow. Warren kills the one person whom he wanted to see him as good, and so there is no going back.

(Well, his mother might have stopped him.)

Thanks for the link to the vid! I am looking forward to it. I love Willow/Warren parallels.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

He also mirrors Xander, albeit less explicitly

I think I had noticed that in that past, but didn't have much to say about it. But it is true.

Good point about Faith, Willow, and Warren having their fall-into-darkness because of their guilt over deaths, and the deaths all, in a way, representing the loss of the chance to be a good person.

Andrew is the Mayor is an interesting comparison because the Mayor is an authority figure to Faith who is already committed to evil, and who intends right from the start to craft her into his personal assassin (although of course he also genuinely loves her--Joss characters and their contractions). By contrast, Andrew is Warren's follower who is arguably less evil than Warren is. But he does encourage Warren, and give Warren an audience to impress, which probably encourages Warren to be more evil than he would have been otherwise--but Warren also gives Andrew the support and courage to be more evil than Andrew would have been otherwise, a dynamic that continues after Warren's death. Whereas I don't think Faith affects the Mayor that way.

If it hadn't been S6, the Scooby gang probably would have tried to reach out to and redeem the geeks (which I guess they ultimately did with Andrew), but as it was, they were too involved with their own problems. So things with Warren and Andrew and Jonathan got a lot worse than they might have in a different situation.

You haven't seen that Willow-Warren vid? I would have thought that you would have.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the delay. No internet (or very little) for a few days.

I agree that the Mayor and Andrew are very different -- their only (or primary, at least) similarity is that they both encouraged Faith/Warren's descent into evil, which is something most of the other characters didn't have -- though Spike had his Dru, and Willow had Amy and Rack (though all fulfilling different roles).

I have only started breaking into vids lately, which is why I haven't seen the Willow/Warren one until now.

The other important point about the Willow/Warren scene in Villains is that I think Willow knows on some level (probably not consciously) about the connection between them -- I do think that Katrina is there precisely to articulate Willow's guilt about how she treated Tara, and her irrational belief -- which I believe she has -- that she is responsible for Tara's death. (Irrational because while she abused Tara, she didn't make her come back to her and didn't shoot her; otoh, Tara wouldn't have been in Buffy's house, practically a war zone, if it weren't for Willow.) It's one of the reasons I think that Willow really did recognize what she did to Tara on some level, even though the guilt and self-loathing doesn't have any way to come out directly.

With Warren, as with Angel at times and Willow and Faith and Spike and Buffy (in Dead Things) and Anya (in Selfless), he can't seek forgiveness because his crime is too great. The others eventually find ways to ask, or are given forgiveness and love even if they don't think they deserve it. Warren interests me so much because there is never a point at which he can get it. That Andrew eventually gets something like it in season seven shows that Warren maybe could have got it too -- Andrew was not as evil as Warren, but was even more friendless than Warren was after Dead Things.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Another layer of Willow's guilt over Tara was that she probably believes that Tara was the "price" for bringing Buffy back. She thought she could get away with the faun as a sacrifice, but the gift (Buffy) was too great, which she always suspected. As Anya points out, the ghosty-evil-spirit thingy Willow characterized as a "price" is actually a gift-with-purchase.

Your comment earlier made me think that Dr. Horrible is in many way the kinder, gentler, more romantic version of Warren, which I hadn't seen before. Hmmmm.

While there is a smidge of parallel between Warren and Xander, I've got to think that Jonathan is much closer to Xander's "shadow self". Their fantasies are similar, their admiration for Buffy (and by extention, other women) is clear, their history will outsiderness and bullying seems comparable. Jonathan is an example of how Xander might have ended up if he had fallen in with a different crowd...but he always had Willow. Jonathan had nobody, as far as we know.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all counts especially the first. Even if Tara was not literally a price for the resurrection, she dies because she was in Buffy's house, killed by a guy gunning for Buffy. The cutting in Villains between Willow saying "Bring her back" and Buffy's eyes opening point out the parallel, and Willow does manage to save Buffy but not Tara in Villains. It's also part of the stew of resentment toward Buffy that explodes in Two to Go: she subconsciously thinks she traded Tara's life for Buffy, and Buffy doesn't even want to be alive (or so Willow believes -- Buffy, by Two to Go, does want to live, but she hasn't figured out why quite yet).

[kikimay]

Great meta!
I think that Willow and Buffy feel that they have the right to be hateful, because they are both victims of Warren (He killed Tara) and Faith (Because she stole Buffy's body) Buffy and Willow are the heroines, but they are also human beings, in this case pretty vengeful human beings.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's hard to be empathetic when you're in pain, especially towards the person who caused your pain. And people do seem to possess an innate desire for, I don't know what you'd call it, balance? Justice? We hate the idea that someone can do something horrible and then just go on with their life. (But we're also selfish about--wrongs done to us are naturally more important than wrongs done to others.) It's hard to blame characters for being vengeful, even when their actions are only making the situation worse.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Terrific essay! You make a lot of parallels that I had perhaps noticed but hadn't fully sussed out (such as the attempted rapes of both Katrina and Buffy - which also is mirrored by Willow mindwiping Tara; both Tara and Katrina verbally call out the violations of their minds/bodies. )

"Killing opened up for Faith possibilities that she hadn't considered before. For a girl who had been abused, neglected, and powerless for much of her life, the ability to take a human life offered a kind of power that she could only imagine before."

Those sentences made me think of Willow immediately, the way magic gave her power and the way it spiraled out of control. I had NEVER thought to compare the two of them before, although it's interesting in hindsight that in S3 Willow faces off with Faith in the Mayor's office after having been kidnapped. I think it was one of the first times we got to glimpse a stronger, tougher, more confident version of Willow.)

While I definitely saw the parallels between Warren and Willow, and the torture/flaying scene made that explicit, I felt that the writers dropped the ball on that in that last three episodes of S6 & S7. We're told that Willow feels the need to atone for murdering Warren (she also murdered Rack but that is never brought up.I think the phrase used is "killed A man".) I don't get the sense that she fully accepts responsibility for violating Tara, or at least that's never acknowledged onscreen as far as I remember. (In TKIM she feels guilty for kissing another woman. Seriously?) I suppose the writers didn't want Willow to lose all likability? the problem of course then is that in S7, it still comes off as "fear of magic addiction" rather than a basic personality issue.

Speaking of not atoning, in regards to Buffy/Faith, I never got the sense that the writers really saw, or wanted us to see, Buffy as a murderer, even if that's what she is that Faith didn't die was sheer accident.) And it seems hypocritical - Buffy had harangued Faith for murdering a man earlier in the season, but when she came to Faith's apartment she was clearly out for blood. (I suppose her kissing Faith's forehead in the hospital is meant as a form of apology, but it still comes off a little icky to me. And I love Buffy as a character, don't get me wrong. I think that was another ball dropped by the writers.)

And THANK YOU for pointing out that what happened between Faith and Xander was attempted rape (and possibly full rape? The show cuts to commercial at that point so it's impossible to know how far it went. Xander clearly looks terrified, but while I've seen TONS of writing about the AR in S6, I've seen very little mention of the Faith/Xander rape in contrast. I suppose it's the cultural notion that men are the sexual aggressors and can't be raped that blinds us? It astonished me when Xander later said "We have a connection." WTF?

That went on longer than I meant to, sorry.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Long comments are love!

I had NEVER thought to compare the two of them before, although it's interesting in hindsight that in S3 Willow faces off with Faith in the Mayor's office after having been kidnapped.

I've always thought of Faith and Willow as being opposites in a way: Until her experiences in Buffy's body, Faith never fully realizes the happiness that comes from doing good for its own sake. Whereas Willow is very much aware of that happiness, but is so greedy for it that eventually her own feelings of being good become more important than actually being good.

I suppose the writers didn't want Willow to lose all likability? the problem of course then is that in S7, it still comes off as "fear of magic addiction" rather than a basic personality issue.

I don't really know what that was about. I think if you read between the lines, Willow's story is well-done, but you do have to read between the lines. I'm still not entirely sure if she ever fully acknowledged to herself what she did to Tara. It's possible she did, but it's hard to tell from what we see on the screen. I do think there's plenty of evidence that she considers her problem to be a personality thing rather than a magic addiction, but you do have to read between the lines.

And it seems hypocritical - Buffy had harangued Faith for murdering a man earlier in the season, but when she came to Faith's apartment she was clearly out for blood.

That's something else that should have been handled more explicitly. I've thought sometimes that maybe she considers Faith an exception to the murdering people rule (for example, she tells Dawn and Xander in "Villains" that the reason killing people is wrong is because the police should handle human crimes--but the police couldn't handle an unrepentant Faith). Maybe she changed her mind? She does kill the key knights in "Spiral", when they attack the van, so she seems to not be opposed to killing people in self-defense. I think Buffy's behavior after killing Faith is in character: she walks around in shock until she realizes that Faith is alive, and then she just sort of forgets about--goes into denial. But I always thought it odd that neither Giles nor her friends were worried that she was going to go evil (I guess Xander expressed a little concern before she went off to kill Faith, but that's it). I would expect Giles to be concerned, at least.

Xander clearly looks terrified, but while I've seen TONS of writing about the AR in S6, I've seen very little mention of the Faith/Xander rape in contrast. I suppose it's the cultural notion that men are the sexual aggressors and can't be raped that blinds us? It astonished me when Xander later said "We have a connection." WTF?

I don't think I fully made the connection that what Faith did to Xander was an attempted rape until someone online pointed it out, but yeah, it really is. I think Xander claiming they had a connection predates her assault of him, though. Afterward, he doesn't have much good to say about Faith. But there really should have been more follow-up. (Especially since the writers had Faith joke in S7 about how she'd slept with Xander before Anya)

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of Faith and Willow as being opposites in a way: Until her experiences in Buffy's body, Faith never fully realizes the happiness that comes from doing good for its own sake. Whereas Willow is very much aware of that happiness, but is so greedy for it that eventually her own feelings of being good become more important than actually being good.

Oh good call! I hadn't even thought that one through like that, but you're absolutely right. So thought about in that sense, both Faith and Willow are mirrors for Buffy but each other as well. Part of what I LOVE about BtVS is the complexity of inter/relationships, esp amoung the female characters. It's never just on one level.

I don't really know what that was about. I think if you read between the lines, Willow's story is well-done, but you do have to read between the lines. I'm still not entirely sure if she ever fully acknowledged to herself what she did to Tara. It's possible she did, but it's hard to tell from what we see on the screen.

I think we agree on that point, actually. I just watched the last three eps of S7 (which I like more and more despite the problems - and NONE of the seasons are perfect IMO ) and Willow's repeated contention is "I might lose control" if she uses the magic. I think the closest she really comes is in GiD, when she drains Kennedy and Anya to open the portal and says later "It's how it works...it's how I work." That seems a more honest assessment, implying that it's not the fault of the magic per se. (On the other hand, she's doing the spell in order to get Buffy out of the portal, which Buffy had explicitly told her to do beforehand "Find a way", not for personal gain or happiness.) So, still some mixed messages there.

But I know I'm nitpicking at the point. (Although the show wouldn't be the most written-about program on television, with its own academic studies, if it weren't so nit-pickable.)

But I always thought it odd that neither Giles nor her friends were worried that she was going to go evil (I guess Xander expressed a little concern before she went off to kill Faith, but that's it). I would expect Giles to be concerned, at least.

Exactly. In essence Buffy frequently breaks her own moral code to help people she cares about (Angel, Spike, Willow), but I agree that was badly handled, esp. after the whole "we don't kill people" speech she'd been giving. (And it wasn't an act of self-defense, per se. I'm glad the writers didn't kill Faith off, though.)

As far as the knights in Spiral, I have NEVER had a problem with that, although I've seen long conversations on the ATV Club about the morality of that - (and very little discussion about what she did to Faith, oddly enough). So I know others are bothered by it but, hello? They ATTACKED Buffy in order to kill Dawn. Self-defense here. That seems very cut-and-dried to me.

I think Xander claiming they had a connection predates her assault of him, though.

You could be right, I haven't watched S3 since - the first time I watched it. (Which was only a couple of months ago, granted.) And I don't have any desire to do a S3 rewatch yet. My feeling is that it came afterwards, and therefore my astonishment, but it wouldn't surprise me if I was wrong. (My memory is notoriously wonky.)

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Here via selenak, very interesting.

Xander's "connection" to Faith: it's all in "Consequences". The Scoobies are discussing Faith trying to frame Buffy and Xander decides to talk to her alone because he thinks they made a "connection" when she had sex with him in "The Zeppo": he goes to confront her and she tries to rape him. Some Xander-haters try to suggest that this is delusions of grandeur about his sexual skills, but I think it's more innocence: he doesn't really believe that anybody can have sex without emotion.

[boot-the-grime.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty extreme hater view - or a case of severe gender stereotyping (even though the show thoroughly reversed genders with Xander/Faith). By that logic, one may say Buffy was having delusions of grandeur about her sexual skills when she was surprised that Parker blew her off.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU for clarifying that; my memory is wonky after all. I'm wrong (no surprise). I probably will rewatch that season again, but pay more attention to the Faith arc next time.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Here's bit more clarification, if you want it. Faith's attempted rape of Xander was also very close to attempted murder, what with the choking and all. It was unclear where it would end up. She didn't get far, though, because Angel clonks her over the head and drags her back to the mansion and chains her up.

Season 3 has some really disturbing stuff in it, and all of the Scoobies behave horribly at some point, Giles included. It's got all the foreshadowing for Season 6 right there.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Agreed with that last part, and that's why I guess I could get upset at the characters at times throughout the seasons, and can oftentimes tell when they've thrown a wrench in the works soap-opera-style just to move from Point A to Point B, but rarely do the characters ever behave OOC. It's all there already, which is part of what makes them fascinating - they're imperfect, messy and REAL.

[boot-the-grime.livejournal.com]

Well, there's Buffy's line from Two to Go: "Killing changes you. Believe me, I know." It's debatable what she was referring to - it might have been her job (she does wonder in The Gift is the Slayer is 'just a killer' after all), but in any case, Buffy doesn't consider herself a not-killer. Although she said in a different situation in Sanctuary she wasn't a murderer.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

I thought her claim not to be a murderer in in "Sanctuary" is particularly interesting, because in the same episode she tells Kate that locking Angel in a cell where he will be exposed to sunlight is murder--which means, killing a souled vampire is murder. Which means Buffy is an attempted murderer twice over by Sanctuary: Once with Angel in Becoming, and once with Faith in Graduation Day.

[boot-the-grime.livejournal.com]

I thought Xander said that they have a connection before the AR happened, referring to their sex in The Zeppo?

But they totally dropped the ball on the aftermath of Faith's AR - I don't think it's ever mentioned again, and Faith never apologizes and even jokes in S7 about her sexual history with Xander.)

(I thought that it was just attempted rather than full rape and she quickly switched from trying to rape him to trying to smother him - maybe because he didn't get an erection, which could have easily happened involuntarily, of course, but it not happening might have made her change intentions from AR to attempted murder.)

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

But they totally dropped the ball on the aftermath of Faith's AR - I don't think it's ever mentioned again, and Faith never apologizes and even jokes in S7 about her sexual history with Xander.

The lack of apologizing makes sense because I think Faith gave up on apologizing after Buffy threatened to beat her to death, but she and Wesley managed to have conversation about her torture of him even without apologies, so there could have been something between her and Xander. There wasn't.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Excellent and thought-provoking meta! Thanks for posting this.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And you're welcome!

Here from buffyversetop5

[yourlibrarian]

Very interesting look at how Warren sheds light on the motivations and actions of the other characters.

Re: Here from buffyversetop5

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Thank you.