everything i need to know i learned from Buffy...

I could probably write a short "book" on the title of this post, but I don't have enough room here & well I wanted to write an entry because I feel like I neglect this blog. So when I got an idea for it, I figured I would jump on it. :-) So here are 5 things I've learned from watching Buffy (as always, the potential for spoilers exists, so read at your own risk).

1) The older I get and the more I learn, the less I really know.

In "Lie to Me," (S2) Buffy put it this way "the more i know, the more confused I get." It seems to me, that the older I get, the more confusing things become. Right and wrong don't seem as clear. Decisions are more difficult to make. Risks are higher. So much for that childhood notion of mine that I would know a lot more stuff by the time I was in my 20s!

2) Love makes you crazy

I love the way Willow put it in "Some Assembly Required" (S2) "love makes you do the wacky."
Emotions make us do/think/say crazy things--especially when it comes to love and attraction. It blinds us--makes us not think logically and clearly. This also seems to hold truer the older I get.


3) Adulthood can suck, but that's normal.

I never cared for season 6 until about a year or so ago. I watched it through again--and realized that as dark as it is, it's also quite accurate about the entrance into adulthood. It's confusing, dark, strange, depressing...this is not to say that I have died and come back to life or suffered from an addiction or unhealthy relationship as some of the characters did, but I can *understand* why they made choices they made (albeit poor ones at times). The term "quarter-life crisis" comes to mind. Mid 20s is an awkward age to say the least. But it's comforting to know that you can get through it with strength and a little help from your friends and family. If Buffy can make it through season 6, I can too.

4) You don't have to be a "superhero" to matter

Buffy was the slayer. Willow had magic. Xander...had no supernatural power, but he had the ability to see/relate/feel ("the heart" of the group). I've never had a special "power" or skill...mostly im intuitive and creative. Sometimes that doesn't feel like much, even when it might be. In "Potential" (S7), Xander and Dawn put it this way:

Dawn:Maybe that's your power.
Xander: What?
Dawn: Seeing. Knowing.


5) We'll get through this together.

One of my favorite episodes is from S6 "Once More With Feeling." In one of the opening songs the cast sings "what can't we face if we're together." In the past several years, I have really come to learn the deep value of community--whether it be church., school, work, etc...when it's absent, I feel a drastic difference in myself. Sometimes it can't be helped--sometimes alone is what you are faced with--but it's not forever.

Till next time,

--Prophecy Girl

overidentify much? the two 'verse characters i can relate to the most

BtVS is a very relatable show on many levels--whether it be a character (s) or sitation(s). I have identified with many of the characters and situations at some point or another in my life, but there are two characters that I always seem to relate to the most: Buffy and Willow.

The Willow of It:

I guess I was very much Willow in middle school through most high school and part of college (still am like her in some ways I think--i'm still shy and very nerdy). I wore some pretty bad outfits. I could (and sometimes still can!) relate to the whole having trouble talking to guys thing. Plus I was (still am) a nerd. And I was naive too. I'm also the best friend. I'm the one that people seem to trust with secrets. I try to be loyal. I have never gone evil and tried to destroy the world nor have I dated a guitarist. But I do know what it's like to be "old reliable" (see "Dopplegangland," season 3). And I've always liked school.

The Buffy bit:

Like Buffy, I feel like I bear a lot of responsibility. Being the oldest, I often have to (or am told to) "set the good example" and "do the right thing" etc. Also...I have a tendency to attract/fall for the jerk/player/bad guys. I won't go into detail here...but I have a pretty sad track record--something else Buffy and I have in common. Right now I feel sort of like Buffy in season 6--that awkward in-between adult stage of life with very little income and trying to figure things out. Unfortunately, I am NOT being courted by Spike (wishful thinking haha). And I'm not as depressed. And I haven't been dead (a good thing).

I consider it a GREAT strength of the show to create such relatable characters. I can't name any other show where I could so closely identify with a character or characters. As a writer, even though I mainly write poetry that doesn't usually involve characters, that's something I aim for: relatability--whether it's a character or a theme or a situation. I hope that I can do it even a quarter as well as Joss...ok maybe like a teaspoon as well as he does. But you get the idea. So bravo Joss for such rich and interesting characters, and thank you for helping me to know that I'm not alone.