Anyone remember Glory on Buffy, season 4? She and Ben share the same body, but she is a huge, vain narcissist monster served by sycophantic handmaiden monks who tell her how beautiful and glorious she is. She is crazy and makes everyone around her crazy by driving her fingers into their brains and eating out essentially their logic and reason. They become babbling crazy things and worship her. Then there is the key; somehow this man/woman needs this young teen girl and is obsessed to find/meet her. So the 'key' to the trans portal is a young pubescent teen girl (all things uwu), and the key opens this virtual door to the 'demon dimension' where vainglorious Glory rules over all those who worship 'her' --a god--although she is also Ben (we have no idea why).
Interestingly, Glory sticks her fingers in lesbian, Tara's, head and makes her not herself/crazy. At the end, Tara is forced to follow Glory and leave her gf so that she can go worship glory in her rickety, janky tower. She also is aided by that super gay/queer figure of Joel Grey, the famous MC in Broadway's Cabaret. The only way to lock Glory in her "shrimpless" other dimension (eg, dickless, but I am joking about this one) is for the strong, independent woman to sacrifice her life to keep the evil she-beast out of the world. Buffy (metaphor for powerful women) has to sacrifice her life to keep the world from ending.
The way her minions can't say a harsh word and have to always be fawning over this preening monster really reminded me of trans logic. When her minions simply report the truth to her she does violence to them. (you could say the knights that vow to destroy the key are republicans who hate Glory/trans but still use it as an excuse to destroy girls and women).
Just some late night musings.
Edit: In "Weight of the World", Glory says to Dawn:
As, you know ... a human. (picks up Dawn's hand by the wrist and shakes it around) This body ... it's just a rental, Dawnie. Being human? It's like a costume for girls like you and me. Being something else, that's what we are.
This one, where she insists their bodies aren't theirs, a 'costume' and that the goal is to 'be something else"...deeply resonates.
I watched Buffy when it originally aired.
Last year, I rewatched it with my young adult daughter and she loved AND hated it and I found myself disliking it a LOT because of what we now know about Whedon and Xander creeps me out a LOT now.
Because of her own dislike of Xander, my daughter lost interest before we could get to The Body. But, we did have a moment of sheer terror and creep with Hush.
Also, when I was in surgery prep to give birth to said daughter, it was when Dawn appeared and my husband and I were discussing it while I was having my epidural placed. It was the episode where she goes on a date with a vamp and I remember I was saying, “She was KISSING HIM AND HE’S DEAD/UNDEAD. Isn’t he COLD? Wouldn’t that be a tip off?” And one of the doctors in the OR asked, “Are you talking about that vampire show?”
Thanks for the memory nudge.
(Also, my husband and I have discussed whether Whedon will ever make a comeback. I think his rise and fandom was really tied to his image of being a feminist and female fans feeling as if he was on the side of women and that the revelations about his sets and his personal life are something he won’t be able to separate himself from in the eyes of the female fandom.)
Man for me it was Angel who really put me off, Xander was annoying for sure but Angel was such an annoying little turd. Holy shit you hate yourself, how about stop chasing this literal 16 yr old thinking she's going to fix your man pain angst. Loser.
And I hated how unlike herself Buffy became around him, the dysfunctional abused girlfriend vibes were strong and it was weird. I especially remember this one episode where it's snowing and he grabs and shakes her while she cries on the ground, like wtf.
I always felt Buffy was a good show, stopped from being great because of how much the men wanted to insert themselves into a narrative meant for women. With creepy scenes, storylines, shots and dialogue that had you flummoxed as to why it happened at all. I have to ignore some things to enjoy the story because there is a lot of heart here.
Yeah, it helps to remember that Angel wasn't a good guy as a human and be-souled Angel is pretty much just that same guy except now under the crushing weight of a lot of well-earned guilt. And because it was a relationship that would always be just out of reach, it never got past the yearning stage and into the point where the fantasy wears off and the reality is kind of mundane and disappointing and she realizes she and her much older dead boyfriend don't have much in common and he's in a perpetual state of arrested development and he never wants to or can't do the things she wants to do and the whole tortured soul thing stops being 'mysterious brooding' and is really just boring moping.
In other words, she never got to learn for herself that Angel's lame, his hair goes straight up and he's bloody stupid.
He whined so god damn much, like oh woe is me I ruin lives and am a general menace to society. Just kill yourself dude, biggest W you could do for the world at large. And stay away from young girls, he really acted like it was a torture to steer clear of a 14 yr old(when he first saw Buffy and "fell" for her).
He's a dude who literally can't be happy without turning into a particularly evil soulless sadist. Can't think of worse relationship material.
Waves at fellow Xander-hater
When you realize he's Whedon's self-insert and know about all the shit he was doing (plus Nicholas Brendan's a scumbag too), it makes a lot of things click into place, both in real life and in the show's writing.
Xander AND Willow both suck if we're being honest. they're the shittiest friends who turn on Buffy at every opportunity and I have receipts
Won't deny it, just don't have the visceral ick/ugh/fuck off response to Willow that I do to Xander (although her baby talk can get a bit cringe).
And once again real life imitating art, believe they were the two main actors on the show who didn't back up/support the women coming forward about Whedon's behavior (think Hannigan just didn't respond, while Brendan was like 'I didn't see anything, no idea what they're talking about, I liked him'...and was his favorite).
Editing to add: mostly with Willow for me it's the times when Buffy is clearly very traumatized about something and instead of being the friend she needs she makes it about her own hurt feelings about it. It's telling that Spike of all people still pretty consistently ends up being the most emotionally intelligent of any of them when she needs something.
Brendan is a woman beater. I have a friend of a friend sorta story about him and he is just absolutely vile. I'll still watch Buffy - I can't express the shit that show got me through - but I refuse to not be honest when men are trash.
Yeah, heard that (not your story obviously, just in general). Go figure he's the one who 'didn't see' Joss being a POS.
It's because of him that Bones became such a boring Christian ass show at the end. Bones the character was such an interesting woman but when she got with his character she literally converted, had a baby, married, got a house. All the things that were the antithesis of her character, but all the things Brendan pushed for. Especially how she became so sidelined where as, the first two seasons she really shined. Plus I heard he had some unsavoury behaviour with female employees on that set.
Willow got the fuck no from me when she erased Tara's mind and essentially took away her consent for any sort of intimate moments they had together. Exactly the sort of thing that happened on that show because of Whedon. Like I said, a good show stopped from being great because the showrunner is a predatory prick.
Yes, that was the real beyond the pale violation, think in some ways it made sense for the character though as an extension of that previous pattern of just...not really considering or caring about other's trauma and what they need from her as much as how she wanted them to act, what she wanted from them.
yes!!! exactly that. the only person who ever had the right to make Buffy's shit about them is Giles in season 3 when she's runnin around with the man who tortured him and murdered his girlfriend. I mean I get that they ALL lost Jenny but come on. Xander made it about him as well but we all know he's fuckin ridiculous.
it's actually wild to me that most people don't see that the entire series ended up being a love story about Buffy and Spike. pretty sure the implication at the end of the comics (they are canon) is that she's with Angel AND Spike but could just be my overactive imagination lmfaooo. but even Buffy is guilty of that, see season 8 XD. theyve both done horrible fucking things but it's fiction and there are different rules in supernatural universes where literal mystical souls dictate levels of morality and capabilities of conscience. Spike has always been the most emotionally capable of soulless vampires, so of course he could connect with Buffy - especially bc he had such a grasp on slayer mentality. but where he failed in season six was that vampires can love but "not wisely" as Drusilla said. it spiraled into lust fueled obsession.
I could go on for DAYS about this shit but I will spare you hahaha
It's weird because as a character Xander could of been something truly great, a teenage boy who's friends are primarily women and who doesn't mind being the sidekick. If only the weird Whedon quips had never been I settled and he was allowed some introspection beyond being a douche to all the women in his life. Especially because of how shit his home life was.
He neve deserved Cordy or Anya and it was a travesty what dating down did to them.
I mostly basically see him as a Whedon puppet where he wrote him to be the funny, 'nice guy' he thought of himself as and had him date these super beautiful, out of his league female characters as a sort of wish fulfillment (and while never really treating them that well) while treating it as normal that he'd also be possessive towards his female friends...because that's how Whedon treated the women on set when in a position of power over them.
How badly Anya was treated in the story was probably the number one thing I hated about the show. I felt similarly about Fred in Angel.
Ugh I hated Fred! She wrecked that show for me. Some rumors that she slept with JW. She is his type (re: Michelle T. and the hyper thin woman in Firefly). From what he said in VF, he slept with multiple women on set and behind (Marti, say its not so!). he bragged about making a female writer cry twice in one day. JW is a sadist. I don't think he can come back. At best, he'll be a script fixer is my hope.
hahaha this is a fun theory. you got a few lil details wrong but they don't disprove this theory. I think moreso what does is the fact that Glory and Dawn are Buffy's slayer and human side split - it's a pretty sound theory that's been agreed upon by fans for awhile now. most of Buffy's characters are facets of Buffy herself and you don't even have to look closely - just watch Primeval. Xander (blegh) the heart, Willow the Spirit, and Giles the mind. Faith is what would have happened if Buffy hadn't had Giles, and we see this in The Wish with the Wishverse version of Buffy. Kendra is what would have happened had she not been raised with love and friendship surrounding her, with ONLY a watcher. Cordelia is Buffy in high school if she had never become the slayer - and we see this played out as Buffy accepts her fate more, Cordelia gets more and more sucked into the Scoobies and by Graduation Day, she finally slays her first vampire and goes on to be one of the most amazing and good characters of all TIME on Angel, with some of the greatest character development on television - it's literally her and Carl Gallagher from Shameless, there's no one on tv with development like that, not even Spike. At the beginning of season 5 we also have the episode where Buffy was MEANT to be split into her human and slayer side by that demon. the entire season is also about her human side joining with her slayer side, the entire show being about Buffy accepting her destiny, to be the slayer, or to tackle all of life's problems aka become an adult, considering the demons are also metaphorical.
-takes deep breath and blows it out- WOOOOOOOO.
what I do love your theory for though is using it as a metaphor to explain how fucking ridiculous trans ideology is and how similar to a narcissistic god and a selfish ass white man trans "women" are. good shit!! I screenshotted this in case it ever gets taken down or somethin.
Love it. Some of Glory's lines could definitely be uttered by a perverted TIM:
Glory: Oh, this is nice. Just hanging out, just us girls. You like that sort of thing, don't you?
Yes, this is an excellent analysis of my favorite season.
YASSSSS. I also love season 5, and season 2. Angel turning evil after taking her virginity was a little hamfisted but so fucking necessary. the level to which he stalked her actually escaped me even as a teen, the fact that regular men do that shit every day. and then season 5, Buffy's sister being the platonic familial love interest? chef's fucking kiss. I'm an older sister and it's just.... yeah. and Spike's development. Willow's descent into evil. the episode Family, THE BODY, The fucking Gift. Checkpoint!!!! "Glory isn't a demon....she's a god." "Oh." CUT TO BLACK.
gahhhh!!! such a good season. the entire last arc is still some of my favorite hours of television. the Gift's "previously on"?!! kills me every time.
I like it tuff_terfies. It beats all the retconning of the Matrix movies. All the amnesia and loss of sanity Glory spreads around sure feels relevant to the TRA campaign. The internal 'dominant female presence' taking over the helpless male is a common report from AGP men too from what I remember of their reports to therapists.
Of course I remember Buffy... Buffy is my spirit animal.
yessss!!! I go to bat for Buffy, not just the show but the character herself, so freakin hard. I love that character so much that I literally don't think I could meet SMG without having a breakdown lmfao. watching her get back up every single time saved my life. watching SMG portray that role with the absolute love and devotion that she did.... ugh. I can't 😭
I have the Buffy FunkoPop on my desk. That character has gotten me through so much in my life, the way she handled everything that happened and even the betrayal of her own friends at times. I am embarrassed to say this, but I honestly got through some of the hardest years of my life by essentially method acting the character through those times. Was a great assist to help me keep my head together and maintain an in-control demeanor when my whole world was falling apart.
At the end of a rampage, when Glory's powers are spent...comes to as a dude in a dress. That whole post-nut clarity AGPs despise.
Good catch! Also, Glory wants to shuffle off this mortal coil, so we have the suicide theme throughout and the whole post-human (ie demon/god) narrative they all promote. The scene where this little woman stomps her foot in a babyish tantrum and the entire structure collapses (showing her true heft and strength)--that right there= not a delicate girly flower but a lumbering monster in woman-face (so much make-up; but over use of make-up has been linked in studies to depression and self-loathing, thus Faith, too).