[takes a shot of non-alcoholic whiskey] this is gonna be fun, so kinda informal.
Darla/Giles – So obviously they’re the oldest of the clan right? In effect, the’re also the most aloof, the most distant from the “core” relations, having secondary loyalties elsewhere with the Order of Aurelius and Watcher’s Council, respectively. Both also likely to go “pshhh, drama queens” at their pubescent charges. Like Giles, Darla went absentee on the group for a period of time but whereas Giles left to pursue his own interests and self-reflection in that affluent gentleman of leisure kind of way, Darla regressed from finding any sense of self when she left, going back to the Order (imagine if Giles re-joined the Watcher’s Council in season 6)
Buffy/Angelus – Both are the “core” around which all other relationships in the group kinda revolve? They’re the ones associated with great prophecy, the strategic planners, the generals, the true matriarch/patriarch of their respective families. Deliberate parallels between their origin story are set up in Becoming: both getting approached by older people on the street like alley cats. And to quote the First Slayer, “Death” is Buffy’s art; Angelus likewise insists that a “true kill takes artistry; without that, we’re just animals”. Both work towards transcending that label of “just a killer”, as Buffy laments in The Gift. However, whereas Angelus is full of shit, and is really just a killer and monster with better branding, Buffy understands that to invert this structure you have to turn your art into a gift for others. Angelus’ kills are a gift to no one but himself.
Willow/Drusilla – Vamp!Willow affects very similar, but contemporary aesthetics to Drusilla. She likes “puppies” and lace and bodices, but she’s bound in leather to connote a more put together version of Drusilla. At the same time, human!Drusilla gave off a very timid and sheltered vibe. At their core, they’re curious, intuitive types and the most connected of their groups to the ephemeral world; Willow with her magic, Dru with her Sight. This would make them the most powerful of their groups, if they weren’t so personally fragile; Drusilla’s emotional whims mirror Willow’s fallback on magic. It’s interesting that Angelus singled Willow and her pets out in s2, just like he singled Drusilla and her family; Willow and Dru speak very similar things to him. However, Willow has a support network to get her out of that hole, while Drusilla did not. In effect, Willow eventually rises about to be a wicca, goddess-power, while Drusilla has to eternally bear the scars of misogynistic assault upon her body and mind.
Xander/Spike – Of these pairings, I would say Xander and Spike have the MOST in common, and their directions diverge THE LEAST of these 4, which is why this is so LONG….Warning: we’re gonna go into some gross, negative territory here…On a neutral note, the close, co-dependent Xander/Willow thing is mirrored a bit in Dru and Spike (who are in themselves mirrors of season 2 Angel and Buffy, but that’s another meta…) to the extent that Vamp!Willow and Vamp!Xander are basically Dru and Spike with their shit together (FUCK XANDER IS EVEN WEARING SPIKE’S JACKET AND S6 DOUCHE BOYFRIEND NECKLACE). Also, as the fine snowdropsandtigers said, William is the Victorian Xander. I mean, the scene where he gets shot down by Cecily is cinematically paralleled in the scene where Xander asks Buffy out in Prophecy Girl. Throughout the series, both Xander and Spike are vulnerable to really entitled Nice Guy ™ behaviors, especially towards Buffy. While most do not blame Xander for his sexual assault on Buffy during his possession (wow, have your protagonist sexual assaulted by TWO of her close male friends, such feminism, such grace Joss!), he pretends to not remember and thereby denies Buffy the chance to organize her own emotions; Spike gets a soul insisting “it’s what you [Buffy] wanted right?” and then spends a season claiming to have been “used” by Buffy, essentially doing the same. There’s a bunch of other misogynistic micro-aggression that can’t all be listed; Xander pretty much calling Cordy unintelligent or a trashy dresser even when they are dating (dude, Cordy is an A-student and look at your clothes) and Spike tossing “bints” and “bitches” around like it’s Black Friday. However, there’s kind of a point to this male aggression; this is an externalized reaction to these guys feeling like “the spare” of their group, the “disposable” one, the “clown”. While Xander is not necessarily jealous of Buffy and Willow romantically( as Spike is with Angelus and Dru) they’re nonetheless both alienated from a core dynamic and that bites in a particularly male ego place.
Hitchcock said that if you ever meet your double, you should kill them. And I would get why, seeing as the Fang Gang is kind of the world’s most depressing Choose Your Own Adventure book about the Scooby Gang.
This is amazing.
You mentioned the Fang Gang and the Scooby Gang being inversions of each other. Can you explain how?
Published
Cheloneuniverse 