Watched The Gift last night (Cause...Christmas!). It inspired random meta-ish thinky-thoughts.

I adore how spot on the thematic arc is at the end of S5 and beginning of S6. S5 is all about Buffy's surrender to her calling. Death is her gift. The Slayer's purpose is to die. To sacrifice herself so that the rest of the world can go on going on.

- As a bit of a sidebar, for the first time I picked up all sorts of nifty parallels between Ben/Glory and Buffy in Weight of the World where they're all overwhelmed with human emotion, especially guilt. The important contrasting point, though, is that Ben/Glory shrug it off to help themselves whereas Buffy wallows in it momentarily until Willow snaps her out of it. Then Buffy uses her emotions to launch her rescue of Dawn. I will continue to boggle at the idea that Buffy is closed off or doesn't feel or is self-centered. -

So, back to the main point, the Slayers are set up for a crap purpose, but S5 has Buffy embracing it wholeheartedly by the end because her life's been stripped away and she's at the breaking point. How wonderful a commentary on the Slayer system is this? In order to "get" her calling, Buffy has to go through a season of hell. Then her final acceptance of that calling is a mixture of heroic self-sacrifice and suicidal release.

But S6 subverts the idea of the Slayer calling as heroic even moreso. Because if the Slayer forges strength through love, through her connections, and that's what drives her to sacrifice herself, then that means all those people she's connected to will hurt after her death. That is one of the tragedies of the Slayer set-up. Buffy's confused when she is resurrected because hey, she fulfilled her calling. That's a good, right? But no, because her calling sucks and is completely ineffective in the long-term (as evidenced by the biker gang moving into town). S6 and S7 are so very, very necessary for the series. S5 sets up the Slayer destiny as complete shit. S6 and S7 are needed so that Buffy can both come to terms with that idea and then put into action a new system (whether for better or worse is a debate I'd rather not have here).

I love this show, guys.