Spuffy freak
Potential
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- Jul 3, 2017
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Wow, I never got why she called him William in that episode you have an excellent theory there my brain cells are not enough to be able to fully understand so much depth the show had
Symbolism in Spuffy
- Thread starter Curious Pathos
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- spuffy
When talking about the symbolism of stairs, how could I forget the back steps 😳This is absolutely a Buffy and Spike space, where some of their most important interactions take place. It only differs from the usual staircase because it is outside.
Curious Pathos
Especially, since we are The Back Steps. How does it fit into your theory?
TriBel
Scooby
@Curious Pathos "Of course, the symbolism can be there without it, but it would have been a cool backstory and make the two TV shows feel a bit more connected." You're right - it would but I'd be lying if I said it had leapt out at me. LOL! I think it only came to mind because I'd read a Fan-fic set during WWII. In addition, I was thinking about the German TV series Heimat and the death's head ring is quite pivotal to that. The abject I'm quite secure with - though it sounds weird when people aren't familiar with it.
@Stoney Here's some notes I have on hands - apologies for the formal references in the first part.!
Hands are an important signifier in the series. As Wilcox observes, an implication of the enjoining spell done in Primeval is that Buffy’s hand “serves repeatedly as a synecdochic representation of herself” (in Edwards p98). At the beginning of S6, a hand pushing through the grave-bed (usually the sign of an emerging monster) confirms her resurrection. At the end of the season, a similar shot announces her rebirth. For Aristotle the hand is the "instrument for instruments” for Galen, they are “compensation for the relative weakness of humans” (Rowe, 281). According to Rowe, the hand not only “typifies all parts of the human body” but, “in particular, typifies the humanity of that body.”
Hands also connect to power. "Your breed is fragile. How is they came to control this world?” Illyria asks in Angel. “Opposable thumbs. Fire. Television”, Knox replies ("Shells" - I really like his response!). To this I would add, hands also function instinctually and unconsciously. In BY Spike grapping Buffy by the throat was instinctual (he mentions "it's in my instincts in Lessons - it's not clear what "it" is). Buffy unconsciously rubs her wrists in Dead Things (ties in nicely to Vi rubbing her wrists in Potentials). They can also function with total autonomy as the Mummy’s Hand shows. This contrasts with Spike finding he can use willpower to control his hands in Hellbound - this might tie in to a growing self-awareness (it's certainly shows more self-control than nipping off with Harmony when he's fully corporeal). Spike’s self-reflection after having both hands severed by psychotic slayer, Dana, moves him further along the road to (self)-redemption. He takes another step forward when he singlehandedly rescues the baby from the Fell Brethren (literally with the baby in one hand, a sword in the other). For me, these are hand moments that culminate in Chosen (sigh - I must stop posting these!). They mark his growing humanity by mapping out the limits of monster/man. In the Touched shot he has his hand on her pulse - "one of us is living".
Duh! 🙂 I like the last shot of Revello Drive - she's standing on the front steps. There's a big gap to her left (where Spike would have been on the back steps). There's a slow dissolve to the next scene and during the dissolve he fills the gap. He's made it to the Front!😀
@Stoney Here's some notes I have on hands - apologies for the formal references in the first part.!
Hands are an important signifier in the series. As Wilcox observes, an implication of the enjoining spell done in Primeval is that Buffy’s hand “serves repeatedly as a synecdochic representation of herself” (in Edwards p98). At the beginning of S6, a hand pushing through the grave-bed (usually the sign of an emerging monster) confirms her resurrection. At the end of the season, a similar shot announces her rebirth. For Aristotle the hand is the "instrument for instruments” for Galen, they are “compensation for the relative weakness of humans” (Rowe, 281). According to Rowe, the hand not only “typifies all parts of the human body” but, “in particular, typifies the humanity of that body.”
Hands also connect to power. "Your breed is fragile. How is they came to control this world?” Illyria asks in Angel. “Opposable thumbs. Fire. Television”, Knox replies ("Shells" - I really like his response!). To this I would add, hands also function instinctually and unconsciously. In BY Spike grapping Buffy by the throat was instinctual (he mentions "it's in my instincts in Lessons - it's not clear what "it" is). Buffy unconsciously rubs her wrists in Dead Things (ties in nicely to Vi rubbing her wrists in Potentials). They can also function with total autonomy as the Mummy’s Hand shows. This contrasts with Spike finding he can use willpower to control his hands in Hellbound - this might tie in to a growing self-awareness (it's certainly shows more self-control than nipping off with Harmony when he's fully corporeal). Spike’s self-reflection after having both hands severed by psychotic slayer, Dana, moves him further along the road to (self)-redemption. He takes another step forward when he singlehandedly rescues the baby from the Fell Brethren (literally with the baby in one hand, a sword in the other). For me, these are hand moments that culminate in Chosen (sigh - I must stop posting these!). They mark his growing humanity by mapping out the limits of monster/man. In the Touched shot he has his hand on her pulse - "one of us is living".
Duh! 🙂 I like the last shot of Revello Drive - she's standing on the front steps. There's a big gap to her left (where Spike would have been on the back steps). There's a slow dissolve to the next scene and during the dissolve he fills the gap. He's made it to the Front!😀
The truth I would have never noticed the hearts if this fan had not pointed, it was time ago here on Buffy boards but no in the Spuffy section, so I guess now must be on the cemetery 🙁. If i remember correctly is on Death Things an iron heart in Spike's crypt and in As You Were, then S9 when they´re talking about the pregnant and abortion, Buffy´s wearing a shirt with a heart on the chest, and the metaphor on Chosen “He is in my heart”
The bed could also have a symbolism, in others thread has also been discussed the fact that we never see Buffy and Spike having sex on the bed (except Gone but she´s invisible, it´s like she wasn´t there).
I think it´s no coincidence that Death Things begin we the “We missed the bed again”, pointing out that they never do it there, and moments later we have Buffy dreaming that she´s having sex with Spike in her bed.
Bed should be the place where you feel comfortable/safe, where you rest and it represents an intimate place.
It´s only on Touched when we can see them sharing bed, and it´s not about them being naked and having sex.
And unlike S6 on the comics, after sex we can see them on bed
TriBel
Scooby
Here Zoe - Google is your friend! 🙂 It was 2015
Intervention (there was no detail - only an image that had gone).
Out of My Mind - the grave stone that Spike breaks because Buffy is always in his way...
Once More With Feeling - there was an iron heart in Spike's crypt that kept popping up at Spuffy scenes
Dead Things - there is a half-heart between the red shirt and them
Dead Things - A heart appears before the door scene
As You Were - the iron heart
The are more hearts, like in Checkpoint, when Spike "rescues" Buffy from a vampire in the cemetery.
Get it Done - I'm adding this. In the scene where she's berating Spike for being a wimpire, you can see a (over her left shoulder, on the mantelpiece) a candle or lamp with a punched-hole shade. It has three nested hearts. @Priceless - we had a conversation about this and the pictures of doors on the stairs. I said it was "He's in my heart" and then claimed Dawn was the third heart. I'm deeply, deeply traumatised by how little effect my carefully chosen prose has on you. 🙂 You were obviously distracted by the doors. 🙁
I do remember your beautiful prose Tribel, but I don't remember there were hearts in many other episodes surrounding Spuffy. I guess I was concentrating on the doorways 😀
TriBel
Scooby
Doorways was fun. I actually ordered a book on architecture and read a chapter on edges - yes, just edges - on the strength of that conversation. "Looking around the Edge of the World: Contending with the Continuist Principle and the Plenarist Passion".😱 I think I enjoyed it. Sigh - I need to get out more. 🙁
Sometimes the world is a dark dark place, and then you find out there is a book about Edges 😀
TriBel
Scooby
@Priceless "For the most part, edges are obstructive, something that we have to get around to get somewhere else. They hold us back, or at the very least makes us consider what to do next. They are "coefficients of adversity" (in Sartre's term), offering not ease of passage but resistance to motion or sight...The life-world is an edgy place." Obtrusive or not, it motivated me to watch First Date - and at least he's not Bono. 🙂
Curious Pathos
"You're the one, Buffy."
- Joined
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Is hair a legitimate motif for Spuffy?
We have: Spike's hair acting like a mood ring; the Goldilocks comment, followed by a haircut; Spike strokes Buffy's hair a lot during intimate Spuffy scenes [which echoes Buffy's sisterly moments with Dawn, then again, Dawn is a part of Buffy...Does Spike feel that Buffy is a part of him?]; During Something Blue and Superstar, Buffy has wavy hair, which both have interesting Spike/Buffy interactions...I feel like I'm missing something! Does anyone have any ideas about this? Or am I just seeing things?
We have: Spike's hair acting like a mood ring; the Goldilocks comment, followed by a haircut; Spike strokes Buffy's hair a lot during intimate Spuffy scenes [which echoes Buffy's sisterly moments with Dawn, then again, Dawn is a part of Buffy...Does Spike feel that Buffy is a part of him?]; During Something Blue and Superstar, Buffy has wavy hair, which both have interesting Spike/Buffy interactions...I feel like I'm missing something! Does anyone have any ideas about this? Or am I just seeing things?
I've always held that you can use Spike's hair to assess his mood/state of mind, so I'm on board to look at it more widely. 😀
And there is a degree to which it is deliberately styled of course. I mean it should be considered and in keeping as another part of the visual that they are using to convey meaning to us. Most of these things take an active choice and I feel sure hair styling will have at least on some key occasions been specifically directed. When first resurrected, through After Life, Buffy's hair/clothing is very basic. She chooses clothing reasonably straight fitting/dark and her hair is drawn tight back/unadorned. When she resolves to try and be more outwardly 'ok' at the end of the ep she adopts what can only be described as a buffybot look with flowing light clothes and loose waved hair.
I can also add that Spike reaches out to Dawn in Tough Love and then pretends he wasn't. It always looked to me like he might have been going to stroke her hair, although it says in the transcript that he is reaching out to pat her head. I know this is a Dawn thing, but it is another indicator of affection or that Spike equates contact like that with intimacy/connection.
The whole 'you have stupid hair'/Goldilocks stuff springs to mind for sure, but I can't think of anything else that really stands out between the two in their interactions with each other that is 'hair' based right now. I'll dwell and start to look out for it too. 🙂
And there is a degree to which it is deliberately styled of course. I mean it should be considered and in keeping as another part of the visual that they are using to convey meaning to us. Most of these things take an active choice and I feel sure hair styling will have at least on some key occasions been specifically directed. When first resurrected, through After Life, Buffy's hair/clothing is very basic. She chooses clothing reasonably straight fitting/dark and her hair is drawn tight back/unadorned. When she resolves to try and be more outwardly 'ok' at the end of the ep she adopts what can only be described as a buffybot look with flowing light clothes and loose waved hair.
I can also add that Spike reaches out to Dawn in Tough Love and then pretends he wasn't. It always looked to me like he might have been going to stroke her hair, although it says in the transcript that he is reaching out to pat her head. I know this is a Dawn thing, but it is another indicator of affection or that Spike equates contact like that with intimacy/connection.
The whole 'you have stupid hair'/Goldilocks stuff springs to mind for sure, but I can't think of anything else that really stands out between the two in their interactions with each other that is 'hair' based right now. I'll dwell and start to look out for it too. 🙂
TriBel
Scooby
Is hair a legitimate motif for Spuffy?
In Season 6 Spike’s hair loses the slicked back style that characterised earlier seasons. In certain episodes, particularly those that have high emotive content his hair is looser – still peroxide but less contrived. In Once more, with Feeling, at the moment he stops Buffy’s suicidal dance his hair is sculpted - arranged in small kiss curls across the forehead, reminiscent of the Pompeiian marble Eros Farnese, thought to be a copy of the colossal Eros of Thespiae by Praxiteles. (apologies again for the formality - it was something I wrote earlier). See below - the allusion's sustained by Greek/Roman type vases/statues in his crypt. Eros makes sense - not only is Eros the God of love/passion - it's also a positive life force. It only becomes destructive when Thanatos is involved (the death drive or aggressive force). What intrigues me is not Buffy's hair here but in Lessons. She makes a fuss about having "mum" hair and it making her look older than she is - I want to know what folk would call her style. I also want to know what's on the end of the earrings she's wearing in the episode. If some one can have a look and confirm, I'll post the rest of my theory. Also - I'm at work and while this counts as "research" there's other stuff I should be doing!
@TriBel In the pics on this online vote (click on the top one its a great resolution), it looks like they are just crystal drops.
TriBel
Scooby
Thanks Stoney. Damn - I wanted them to be butterflies and her hair to be a Grecian knot. Who has crystals bobbing about as though they're alive!? I've found another still and I'm back to square one - tried to upload it but failed!
