A Chasing After Wind

 

The end of Consequences makes no sense to me.

 

Faith just…comes back? As if nothing happened? What happened to Wesley wanting to get her back to England to face the Watcher's Council? And even if he had a change of heart, what about the guys who were with him? Where did they go? What happened to Angel trusting Faith so little he wouldn't even to talk to her if she wasn't chained up? What happened to Faith herself believing that trusting anyone would lead to "jail for the rest of [her] young life"?

 

Maybe Faith thought going to work for the mayor would protect her from the authorities, but I doubt she thought Mayor Wilkins had any authority over the Watcher's Council.

 

And the worst part? We don't even see Faith make the decision to come back. It happens off screen. We don't know what was said between her and Buffy.



 

This article about Kaylee Frye made me think about parallels between Kaylee and Faith.

( Hungry and horny )

Still watching Angel season four, partway through Salvage. Two brief thoughts:

1. I like the idea of Faith/Gunn.

2. How does Faith know nothing about Connor? Had Angel not visited her in awhile? Had he somehow failed to mention his son? Does make me wonder how often Angel visited her, and what they talked about.

No matter how many times I watch Five By Five, it will still be amazing.

I just finished re-watching Who Are You. I really like the short scene between Forrest and Faith-in-Buffy. I mostly don't like Forrest, nor find him well-written, but I really like that scene. Are Faith/Forrest fics a thing? I love Faith's hypocritical observation that he said "stay out of other people's lives." And of course Forrest wondering if "Buffy" really cares what he thinks...a very important moment for Faith.

I get irritated by Buffy in Sanctuary as much as the next Faith fan, but I've always been bothered the level of flack she receives from fandom for saying Angel, "I'm sorry. I can't be in your club. I never murdered anybody."

( You can't possibly know what she's going through )

Still re-reading gabrielleabelle's Buffy polls, and I've gotten to her poll on This Year's Girl.

Her third question jumped out at me: "Looking back at events up till this episode, do you think Buffy had done everything that could be reasonably expected of her to reach out to Faith?" There's a lot of discussion in the comments about whether Buffy did enough to help Faith, and what should realistically have been expected of her, Faith-wise.

The question itself demonstrates for me a problem with how fandom talks about the Faith/Buffy relationship. Because no one ever asks, "Did Faith do enough to help Buffy?" Buffy can be condescending with Faith, and she is the senior slayer - but the end of the day she's Faith's equal and peer, not her superior. It's not even clear if she's older or younger than Faith. Buffy isn't Faith's watcher, mother, or therapist. It's not fair to either girl to expect Buffy to take responsibility for Faith as if Faith were a wayward child (which, I mean, she kinda is, but not in relation to Buffy). Buffy had her problems, too, and if she is responsible for Faith, shouldn't Faith also be responsible for her?

We almost certainly don't see Faith's first murder. I even see fans who take for granted that Faith only ever murdered one person (the volcanologist), but in fact we see Faith murder on camera for the first time in Choices. She seems very cool about it, giving the impression that this isn't the first time she's intentionally ended a human life. Even looking at Graduation Day Part 1 in isolation, there's no reason to believe this is Faith's first murder, and plenty of reason to believe it isn't. Again, she's very cool, and she tells the professor "I'll make it quick," as if she knows what she'd doing. When Buffy see the newspaper article about it, she immediately knows Faith committed the murder. She explains that the murder is "One of her pieces. I recognize the brush work." "Pieces", as if Faith has had a few of them. Later in the episode, during their fight, Buffy says to Faith, "All that killing, you afraid to die?" The line certainly implies that there was more than one murder and one accidental kill. The assumption of some fans that Faith only murdered one person has no basis in the text.

It is interesting to me that Faith's first accidental kill is a huge deal - a whole episode devoted to the immediate fall-out - but her first murder is possibly not even referenced or shown on screen. When did Faith cross that line?

I have been doing a Faith rewatch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Angel the Series). I've just finished Revelations, and have thoughts:

1. Gwendolyn Post is really cool. And so good for Faith! I kind of wish she had been for real, even if it would have complicated evil Faith arc and left us Wesley-less.

2. I'm not quite sold on Buffy and Faith's buddy/buddy relationship. They were starting to hit it off at the end of Faith, Hope, and Tricks, but the "we're dating" joke and how casually comfortable they are with each other still seems a little out of the blue.

3. I don't want to hate on other people's ships, but Buffy/Angel still have anti-chemistry to me (until the Yoko Factor and after - then I like their dynamic as exes).

4. Note that Faith responds positively to the idea of her watcher being very bossy. Faith-the-rebel secretly craves order. I wonder what her first watcher was like.

5. I 100% understand why Faith turned down Buffy's offer of friendship at the end. When Faith pushed Buffy for information about Angel early on, Buffy turned her down. Buffy has spent much of their friendships keeping Angel's survival a secret. Faith has lied to Buffy, too, (hello, Kakistos!), but that doesn't change the fact that Buffy's offer of friendship is one-sided. Faith trusts Buffy. Buffy doesn't trust Faith.

6. I'm okay with the clothing fluke. It's silly, but it's okay. Guilt-ridden Willow is entertaining, anyway.

7. I am 100% on the Scoobies' side during their confrontation with Buffy. She wronged them deeply, especially Giles. Xander, on the other hand, crossed a line in telling all to Faith and encouraging her to kill Angel. Angel's death should not have been his decision. Faith should not have found out like that.

So this is about Faith.

Or maybe it's about Buffy. I'm not quite sure.

I was originally planning on having better organization to these thoughts, but I didn't like my initial plan, and making new one would be, like, work. So, it's a little scattered.

This is about how the bad slayer/good slayer dichotomy contributed to Faith's turn to evil. This is also about the ways in which Buffy's actions contributed to Faith's turn to evil.

This isn't an argument that Buffy was mean and rejecting to Faith and therefore it's totally understandable that Faith would run to the mayor. Buffy wasn't mean and rejecting to Faith. She wasn't a perfect little saint, but she was very kind to Faith.

That's actually part of the problem.

In my experience, we in fandom have a tendency to focus on blame. Don't get me wrong, I love blame! The sci-fi/fantasy TV shows I enjoy are full of characters making horrible choices. By all means, blame away.

But sometimes this blame prevents people from analyzing what actually happened. Why characters made the choices they made. How they react to each other, influence each other. Obsessing over what was who's fault can make it hard to see the complexities of a situation. If a conversation between two fans turns into an argument over which character wronged which character the most...well, there's a lot that a conversation like that is going to overlook, no matter how smart and respectful the fans in question are.

One more thing to think about before I start: Suppose someone says or does something the can only interpreted as good and fair. I'm not talking about a bad thing disguised as good and fair, but something genuinely good and fair. And this interaction leaves you feeling bad and dirty, even if you haven't done anything wrong, or haven't done anything that wrong...

Who is at fault? Are you at fault, for feeling attacked when you aren't? Are they at fault, for making you feel bad? Is anyone at fault?

So. A handful of thoughts about the good slayer and the bad slayer.

( Do you think you're better than me? )