Finally, People Are Going To Be Devoured

Ok, sure, the First is evil, but it’s still one of my favorite ideas of the Buffy series. At this point, Buffy has faced baddies ranging from your garden variety vampire to the Master and Warren, humanoid geek extraordinaire, to Glory the crazy Hell god. But, with her taking on the First, I think the nature of her battles changes (irrevocably, I guess, since this is the final season).

Throughout the show, it’s always been the organized evil that was more threatening than the random demons. The Master was tough to beat because he had his troops of lesser vampires behind him, in the same way that the Initiative was a threat to Buffy because of its cold, structured, and basically masculine military style. Now, the First has adopted this same principal. Rather than start a fight with the Slayer immediately, it begins with reconnaisance work with those closest to her.

One of the First’s most disturbing techniques is that it plays on the Scoobie Gang’s past fighting experience. Willow accepts the unknown visitor as a magical message from Tara, with no proof other than the blonde girls world. Willow still trusts magic too easily, and we see the same mistake from Dawn. When attacked, Dawn reacts as the Slayer’s sister, recognizing a demon and casting it out. (To her credit, the formerly whiny, lie-down-in-front-of-a-train-at-the-drop-of-a-hat Dawn does an impressive job of protecting her home and mother.) She attacks blindly, using a spell like she would against any demon in Sunnydale, and like Willow, she is all too ready to believe her mother’s ghost. This is not necessarily a flaw in these characters, it’s just a result of their experiences with evil beasties over the past few years. A change in tactics is required to beat the First.

Luckily for us, Buffy gives us this. It’s interesting that in Conversations, the vampire she fights is shown as almost tame, reminiscing about high school and chatting about Buffy’s relationship problems. In comparison with the First, the average vampire is all but a welcome ally. Buffy realizes quickly that she can’t defeat the First in her usual, lone warrior way, and so adopts a more militaristic style, as she organizes her troops of teenage girls. Although she may think it’s necessary, I don’t believe that Buffy will be any more successful as a general than she would be as the emotion-laden Slayer. Her power comes from something inherent in her, not cold and learned like she is trying to present to the potentials. Even in the ‘thunderdome’ after a spectacular defeat of the supervamp, Buffy’s speech is more reserved than rousing. These are the times that try slayer’s souls, but still, by stepping away from her familiar motivations and fighting style, Buffy is only creating more problems for herself and the ones she leads.