From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V3 #198 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Monday, December 17 2001 Volume 03 : Number 198 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: b/another chip thought [Dawn Friedman ] b/Prophecy Girl ["Berni Phillips" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 13:25:59 -0500 From: Dawn Friedman Subject: Re: b/another chip thought At 10:18 AM 12/13/01 -0500, Hilary wrote: >So I was watching the FX reruns this morning and it occured to me that if >Spike's chip was programmed only to hurt him if there was actual intent to >cause pain, then perhaps it isn't Buffy who has changed, perhaps it's >Spike...subconsciously he no longer wants to hurt Buffy, and that may be >why the chip is no longer effective where Buffy is concerned. The chip's definition of intent to cause pain seems to work on the tactical, rather than the strategic, scale. Spike's intent to hurt in that episode was simply a means to demonstrate a point to Buffy, but the chip still went off. Likewise when he struck Tara in "Family" -- he had no malice toward her, and in fact he expected to be thanked. And the harm has to be physical, or Spike would never have gotten away with half his dialogue in the last two seasons. >And another tidbit from the reruns...when Buffy is telling Riley she >doesn't need him to be a superhero, she makes a comment that if she wanted >someone with superpowers, she'd be dating Spike. If she remembers that, it will be part of what's creeping her out so thoroughly about her own behavior. Spike's 'superpowers' never tempted her until he could use them against her again -- until she didn't have to hold back. (Though it might be argued that she's been taking advantage of that all along; she could play Kick the Spike without inflicting any real damage.) Some time I'd like to explore the emotional implications of killing things you can talk to. People do manage to kill other people. But most of us never have to. There's no conflict for the soulless, and in fact Spike is just having fun, no rancor required. But becoming someone who kills without conflict is what Buffy feared last season. She escaped that fate for the reasons given by the Guide. But her gift was returned, and I don't think she feels that she's filled with love any more... Dawn ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 14:17:29 -0800 From: "Berni Phillips" Subject: b/Prophecy Girl David and I just watched "Prophecy Girl," the first season finale. I have not watched it since Buffy's (second) resurrection. (I think I have seen it twice before.) I had forgotten that after Xander's CPR brings her back and he and Angel tell her to take it easy, that she's still weak, she says, "No, I feel strong." She had been glamored by the Master, bitten (but not drained) until she lost consciousness, then drowned. When she faces off against the Master again, on the roof of the high school, his glamor no longer worked on her. She came back changed the first time, too! Berni ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V3 #198 *****************************