Episode 11- Nightmares

3 thoughts on “Episode 11- Nightmares”

1. I have no idea if you’re actually reading these, but I appreciate you letting me word vomit all over your comments section. 🙂

   I definitely agree that one of Xander’s big fears has to do with impostor syndrome/feeling like he’s not really ‘enough,’ and everyone knows. Which is interesting, because I feel like Willow has similar fears (I’m thinking of her costume in restless, so this is later on). But both of Xander’s (naked in class; the clown symbolizing what people might think of him behind his back) and Willow’s (performing on stage) nightmares explicitly have to do with other people observing them, and I’m not sure anyone else really has that. (Cordelia’s kind of does, but the emphasis there is just as much about her own appearance itself as it is about other people’s reactions to it). It’s interesting to me to think of Xander and Willow being so similar in this way, but it also makes sense – they both latched onto each other from a young age and bonded over time, growing up. It makes sense that they’d have these common fears. I also love thinking about how each of them deal with these fears throughout the series, as they both grow as people and 1) become involved in steady relationships and 2) explore their potential in other areas (Xander professionally, Willow in her witchcraft), because their development doesn’t get rid of their fears at all, and they each allow their impostor syndrome-based fears to overtake them at times, with negative consequences.

   Re: Hank. I can’t think of Hank without thinking of how parents are portrayed (particularly fathers) in either Buffy or Angel. I’m not saying Hank was ever a good father; I just think there also wasn’t a lot of effort put into his character, which makes sense, because Giles is already there and how would they realistically work Hank in, especially once Joyce dies? Aside from Fred’s parents, in Angel, I don’t know that there were too many parents who were actually represented as good, stable parents. I mean, there’s Joyce, but she was killed off, and is a mother rather than a father. I think the difficulty with parents is that BtVS and AtS are found family shows, and even Dawn, a blood relative, is more found family than not, because of how she entered the picture. Still, I feel like the fathers are dealt with in a less sympathetic way (I mean there’s Hank, Wesley’s father, Angel’s father, and Xander’s father that I can think of off the top of my head). Spike’s mother was terrible, but only post-vamping, if I’m remembering correctly, and Xander’s mother wasn’t great, but his father really took more of the focus as being horrible. Aside from Fred’s dad, biological fathers just do not get to be good guys, I feel like.

   A take on Cordelia’s fear: I do think that it was written without very much thought beyond ‘Cordelia is shallow and wouldn’t it be funny if,’ but if I put myself in her shoes, especially in high school; a sudden, dramatic change to my appearance that was completely out of my control would have been seriously upsetting to me, and I think to anyone at any point in their life. I think it’s easy to see things as shallow (and I think the writers did) if they’re connected to teen girls, honestly, because in society we look down on them (and speaking as a former teen girl now grown woman, a lot of us obviously internalized the hell out of all that), but I ultimately think Cordy’s fear has the potential to feel very true and horrifying.

   I am with you on Giles’ fear about not being able to read (at least there are audio books).

   Thank you for the quick callout to Joss for making SMG do that buried alive scene.

   I agree with Laine that Jenny’s fear might have been about Angel, so I agree with why they didn’t go that way, but it would’ve been great to have Jenny showcase another fear because I think it would have made audience members who weren’t big fans be more sympathetic to her.

   I love the notes about this being done in dream space/a more liminal space, and the hedge-crossing, which I hadn’t even noticed.

   I also love the note on Buffy doing well in Psych classes, which makes me even more pissed about her work as a counselor in season 7 (not because she was one, obviously, but because of how that fell apart/became kind of a joke later in the season).

   I can’t believe it took me this long to realize how much Fyarl sounds like ‘feral.’

   It is interesting how dreams are used in narratives, overall, Because in reality, I tend to think of dreams as just things that we absorb but that don’t generally need to have a deeper meaning. But in most shows, they are meant to demonstrate something about the character (which makes sense, because otherwise why would they show them?). They can be a really interesting way of seeing different aspects of characters’ personalities (esp. in Restless in BtVS), but it’s also one of those things where some mixture of Freudian/Jungian psychology is given prominence. (I’m not a psychology expert by any means, but just know that I’m barely holding myself back from a rant about Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Jordan Peterson.)

   Once again, thank you for creating and putting out another great episode!

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   1. We LOVE these, Jess! Keep ’em coming! We’ll actually be sharing a few of your points on our end-of-season wrap-up, so thank you for all your posts!

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      1. Awesome! I just started listening to the latest ep now (I’ve been a bit behind b/c of job stuff lately, but now I have more time).

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