Meta: Buffy/Satsu: How do we read Power and Sexuality in BtVS Season 8?

[seraphcelene]

Let me preface the following ramblings by saying that I don't read the BtVS Season 8 comics. The shift in media fractured my attachment to the show so that I no longer consider it canon despite Joss Whedon's close involvement. The comics are divorced in a very real way, in my mind, from the show and although they are a continuation it's as negligible to me as reading AU fic. Although, if I read the comics (probably at some future date I will) I'll undoubtedly incorporate some of the elements into whatever fic or as part of my ruminations on the franchise as a whole. The comics being declared canon by the show's creator tells me that effective and affective changes are happening in the comics that would not otherwise occur in a tie-in novel where nothing essential to the universe changes.

This is not a formal argument or anything, just my ramblings and questions. I have no answers. I'm welcoming all thinky thoughts on the subject.

Spoilers for BtVS S8: Wolves at the Gate ahead.

So ...

I was at the bookstore yesterday hunting down a copy of Coraline (which ended in failure, by the way, and resulted in me using my $5.00 off coupon on a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard instead) and made a pit stop to peruse the comics and omnibus' available in the Marvel Universe. I was prompted by a steadily growing re-interest in the X-Men comics. As I scanned the titles I happened to look up from where I crouched on the floor and saw, two shelves above, the Buffy comics. I pulled out Wolves at the Gate very randomly and equally as random flipped through the pages and landed on Buffy in bed with a girl. I kinda sort of scanned the pages but mostly left it with a question mark in my head to check it out on the interwebz due to my growling belly, increasing need for the ladies room and the hot pursuit of Coraline that I was then engaged in. Getting home I hopped on Wikipedia as an easy method for finding what I wanted quick, fast, and in a hurry. The Buffy/Satsu relationship came as a bit of a surprise as did the later claim that Whedon had decided that this was "the logical step for the character in light of the series" (I am quoting Wikipedia and not Whedon directly, although Wikipedia may be quoting him). I can't say that I exactly follow the logic of the pairing, but again, I don't read the comics. From what I gathered this was a surprise for everyone all the way around, Buffy included.

Spring boarding from his alleged statement, my question for Mr. Weldon is this: Are we assuming that the dominance of homosocial relationships naturally and necessarily evolve into homosexual relationships? Or do we assume that female power ultimately necessitates an estrangement or rejection of the masculine by the feminine so that, again, the natural and necessary recourse is homosexual relationships? If we assume that none of the above is true and it's merely a case of a kind of natural selection, not unlike Buffy's attraction to men who are difficult to kill (or nearly equal in power to her, i.e. Spike and Angel) then her next location for selecting a companion or mate would be among the other slayers. However, that still rings false as a logical step because, despite Buffy's example, slayers are notoriously short lived and an increase in the quantity of slayers does not necessarily dictate an increase in their longevity.

Our previous models for relationships are all over the map. Willow, a very powerful witch, is now canonically lesbian (Tara, Kennedy and the Naga(?), and not bisexual where I think we could have considered her post S4/S5. Of course there's still Fred, Amy, Cordelia, Anya, and Lilah to consider who are all canonically straigh (Although we could probably make a thin case for Cordelia/Harmony). However, none of them are placed in positions of power that equal Buffy or Willow for any serious length of time (again Cordelia being possibly the only monkey wrench). I'm not including Faith in the list because she is sub-textually if not canonically bisexual. Obviously, we've all re-read her obsession with Buffy to include desire in terms of possession and consumption of sexuality and identity.

At the end of Wolves at the Gate Satsu decides to remain in Japan. Buffy insists that a relationship between them will not work. Her excuse is that the people who love her are destined for tragic futures. It's made clear that Satsu loves Buffy, but it is never made clear if Buffy reciprocates. Can we/are we intended to read the relationship as one-sided? Buffy's physical longing for closeness versus Satsu's emotional attachment? Are we talking a Katy Perry-esque exploration of the "other side of the fence" provoked purely by curiosity and access? What exactly are we to make of Buffy and Satsu? Or more importantly, at least for me (considering my complete non-history with Satsu), what are we to make of Buffy? With Willow we at least got that foreshadowing from Doppelgangland. I can't recall any substantive hints about Buffy having a more fluid understanding of her sexuality. Not that she can't develop one, but it all seems very out of left field and, really, in the end, for naught.

What do you guys think? Help me figure it out.

Comments

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

I was going to post almost exactly the same thing, but you beat me to it. :-) I'll add this though:


The difference from Spike in S6 is that Buffy doesn't hate herself in S8. She's lonely, and feeling isolated and cut off and in need of connection, so there's definitely a similarity there, but there's no abusive element in the relationship. In several of the preceding issues of the comic it's clear that Buffy and Satsu have become good friends, spending time with each other discussing hair styles as well as fighting side by side.

Thematically, I've become convinced that we're meant to see Buffy's relationship with Satsu as a sign that she'd becoming too focussed on her Slayer army at the expense of the rest of humanity that they are, in theory, supposed to be fighting to protect. (That's a major element of the season arc.) The only person that Buffy is able to feel emotionally close to now is a fellow-Slayer. It's because this fits so neatly into the overall theme of Season 8 that I reject the arguments that Joss was only "doing it as a ratings stunt" or "pandering to fanboys" (why not pandering to fangirls who like f/f, by the way? It's not as if such people don't already make up a huge percentage, relatively speaking, of 'Buffy' fandom...).

As for saying that Buffy has never shown the slightest sexual interest in her own gender before... there are lots of Faith/Buffy fans out there who might quibble with that argument. ;-)

[seraphcelene]

I really appreciate the backgrounding. It does make more sense in that light as a developing friendship, although I'm still out on the physical/romantic aspect. Connection, however, seems to be the key and, again, access.

Faith/Buffy have always been problematic for me and, in some ways, very one-sided. Whereas Buffy wants to be like Faith, Faith wants to be Buffy. She craves Buffy *more*, I think. The translation into a sexual obsession appears greater coming from Faith than it ever did from Buffy. It may be a result of Buffy's relationship with Angel at the time and that Faith was unanchored, perpetually seeking a place.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't argue that Faith and Buffy is one-sided... I suspect that something in Buffy was aware of Faith's attraction for her and part of her found it exciting, but it was all very subconscious and hedged around with denial. Plus, as you say, Buffy was still in obsessing-about-Angel mode then... and as we saw from her reaction to Willow in 'New Moon Rising', I think the whole idea of same-sex relationships was something she was aware of in the abstract but never really thought was applicable to anything or anyone in her own life.