Newsgroup: it.fan.tv.buffy
Titolo: The Magic Bullet: Fred to the Rescue

spoiler
http://www.scoopme.com/tv/articles/default.asp?article_id=101322
by Josh Buckman
4/17/2003 
GO TO EPISODE SYNOPSIS 
 
"True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm
resolve of virtue and reason."
- Whithead
It’s official. Jasmine is evil.
Her wicked plan involves using the entire human population as happy slaves
that will know her commands before she even speaks them. As if that wasn’t
bad enough, she’ll be snacking on a few unlucky people every now and then
along the way to achieving global domination.
As horrible as that may be, while sitting through Nathan Fillion’s endless
southern-fried soliloquies about sin over on Buffy I actually found myself
longing for Jasmine’s speeches about love and goodness. 
With so much hate, death and uncertainty in the world, who can really blame
Jasmine’s brainless legions for so willingly enlisting in her new utopia?
Sure, they really didn’t have a choice, but from the reaction of those
freed from the mind control spell, you can tell they didn’t mind being
among the happy and contented throng. The despair that comes with the
return of pain, fear and doubt must be quite overwhelming.
Which is what makes Fred’s actions even more heroic.
While our heroes may not always have the answers, we are used to them
always having the confidence and ability to get the job done. Whether it be
Angel, Buffy, Willow or Wesley, we see them as extraordinary people
equipped with the special skills needed to handle the situation. Sure they
have flaws, but they so consistently respond as a hero should respond, we
begin to think that it’s as easy and as natural as breathing. In fact,
somewhere in the back of our minds, we even start thinking that we’d be
just as brave and resolved if we were in similar situations. If it’s that
natural, then why not?
The thing is, it’s not that natural.
Heroes are not always confident. Sure, when Angel is told he needs to go
kill Cordelia to save the world, he picks up a sword and takes off. But
when it’s Fred’s first time on her own, she cannot believe she is the one
that must overcome such a giant evil on her own. She’s been fighting with
the good guys for a while now, but it’s different when you’ve got the help
of a supernatural crew.
Heroes don’t always know what to do. Give Wesley a hint that Angelus might
know how to defeat the Beast and he’s preparing a ritual to steal Angel’s
soul. However, it makes sense that Fred, on the run from the entire
population of Los Angeles, needs time to sit and think.
Heroes are not always seen as such. Angel and Cordelia have been proclaimed
as "champions" so frequently that it has become a joke. But every once in a
while, a champion is proven by his or her actions instead of ambiguous
prophecies or grand posturing. Fred, despite being declared a "monster" by
her closest friends, took the steps necessary to rescue the others from
Jasmine’s goon brigade.
Heroes know their limitations. Angel, Buffy, Faith and others are known for
taking matters into their own hands. More often than not, they’ve got the
power needed to handle the situation. Fred, however, is aware that she’s
only got her own resourcefulness. She knew that in order to defeat Jasmine,
she’d need help. There’s no time for pretense or posturing, only
recruitment.
Fred doesn’t have any super powers, demon lineage or magic spells to help
her out on her mission. She’s just an ordinary person with extraordinary
resolve. It’s something we take for granted on a television show that
involves a small band of do-gooders constantly fighting to save the world.
It isn't easy being a hero. You don't always immediately know what to do.
You don't always think you're capable of what needs to be done. But a real
hero tries no matter how desperate or impossible the situation may seem, or
no matter how much she wishes she didn’t have to.
Unlike a certain extraordinary person who has chosen to use his powers for
evil instead of good.
Yes, the blood cure may not have worked on Connor because of his genetic
link to Jasmine, but his descent into the darkside did not begin with her
appearance. It began when he allowed a young, innocent virgin to be
slaughtered.
Even if he had not, would it be too unbelievable to think that Connor was
willingly following Jasmine? Here’s a boy who grew up in a hell dimension,
lost his adoptive father to a revenge-suicide, hates his real vampiric
father and has never felt like he belonged. Jasmine has taken away all of
that fear and uncertainty in his heart and replaced it with love and
purpose. 
On top of all that, admitting that Jasmine is evil would force Connor to
come to terms with the fact that he helped kill an innocent woman so that a
monstrosity could come into the world. Also, he is still unaware that
Cordelia was being controlled by Jasmine, so he would have to believe that
everything the only person he ever really cared for told him was a lie.
So when it comes to believing his own "child" over his hated father, he
very well could have chosen the child.
So we see that the difference between Fred and Connor does not lie within
their physical abilities or cosmic importance, but within their personal
resolve and critical choices. 
Fred, a normal person like you or me, has chosen to be a hero. Connor, a
boy with all the natural blessings that would suggest a true champion, has
chosen to follow evil.
Where their choices will lead them remains to be seen.
Bat Gang Bites 
The book store owner. The executive demon. These two secondary characters
that expressed great amounts of personality and humor in just a few short
scenes without upstaging any of the regulars. 
The kiss was a fluke. Thank goodness. 
Jasmine wavered a bit and let a little of that malice slip through that
shiny, happy exterior. It was just a hint of evil that has me looking
forward to a full-on revelation of her badness. 
"You’re dead, Fred." You think anyone on the set had as much trouble
keeping from cracking up as I did when the Jasmizombie said that line?
There was just something about it. 
With only a few episodes left this season (I saw season because I refuse to
think it won’t be renewed), the battle between the Fang Gang and the Big
Good is about to get even more intense. Tune in next week when . . .
*
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Jasmine sends an evil monster into the sewers after the exiles. Someone
gets caught and a comatose mother goes missing. Oh where or where could my
Cordelia be? Until then, join on us on the boards for more Angel dishing!
-- 
Jolan Tru
Filippo "Hytok" Simone
*L'oracolo Romulano di Sunnydale* - 
http://www.ussexcalibur.it/
http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/hyterdeflok/
 -
http://www.startrekitaliamagazine.it/

spoiler
http://www.scoopme.com/tv/articles/default.asp?article_id=101164
by Hunter Maxin
4/17/2003 
 
All I really want to talk about is Xander’s eye. 
We all do.
That Xander would suffer such a painful and permanent sacrifice is more
shocking than Tara, Jenny Calendar, and Joyce combined, and they died. It
is more surprising than Angel losing or Spike gaining a soul. Xander is one
of the original three, seriously one of the untouchables.
And in one brief moment, an afterthought to the battle really, Joss
hammered home the absolute deadly seriousness of the situation Buffy is now
in.
This war is for keeps, and, for us at least, it will be the last.
What never occurred to me before last night, is that this may well be the
last war for them as well.
It is clear, we are to believe that the costs were staggering. Two
Slayerettes dead, one severely wounded, and, of course, the shocking injury
to Xander. But, mush like CNN’s (and their kin) underestimation of the
resolve the American public would show in the face of American casualties,
perhaps Joss underestimates ours. It is a shame, to be sure, that young
lives are lost. It is tragic, to be certain, that their sacrifice was
necessary at all. Yet, this is war, and in war there will always be loss.
There will always be death.
Buffy, and her charges, are in no less than a fight for their very right to
exist. They did not ask to be singled out. They were chosen, first by some
ambiguous power, later by it’s enemy. Whether they want to fight or not,
whether they oppose the very nature of violence and war and killing, is
totally and irrevocably irrelevant.
This evil will come for them no matter what alternative they offer.
So Buffy did the only thing she could. She took the fight to her enemy.
There is no point in waiting around to be killed. This is even more true if
you have the power to do something about it. Calling the girls to fight
with her, enlisting them in her ponytail army, was as much an act of
protection as aggression.
But, for all of the things Buffy has done right on the surface – the
training, the protection, the lessons – her Army is more a collection of
missed opportunities than anything else.
In a nutshell, what Buffy fails to understand is that these girls are more
than an Army in name only. They are a fighting force, the only capable of
dealing with the Evil to come. That means Buffy has to be a leader in
practice as well as name.
Buffy has to be more than inspirational and moody, she needs strategy. She
needs a command structure. She needs to give the girls purpose.
None of this has come easily to her, but none are as deficient as her
strategic shortcomings. Simply put, there isn’t a trap devised that Buffy
can’t fall into, both willingly and knowingly. This has always been true.
For all of the good Giles has accomplished with Buffy all these years, he
has never given her the gift of thoughtful planning.
Perhaps he should have taken some time out to teach her chess or give her
“The Art of War” on audiocassette. Buffy is impulsive. She rushes in
whenever she can, and often wins on pure effort and sheer determination
alone. 
Both the Master and Glory were defeated because Buffy could not take no for
an answer, and not even dying could get her to take the hint.
Adam and the Mayor failed because they underestimated her abilities and the
strength of those around her.
Angel and Spike, as villains, were not the best tacticians either, which
evened the playing field.
As for the trio, they were human and still they managed to do at least as
much harm as any other big evil Buffy faced. As silly as Warren was, he was
also smart. The trio constantly out-thought Buffy, rarely letting her fight
them with her strengths. They recognized on a fundamental level that if
they let Buffy play her game, so to speak, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
They forced her to play on their field, and she never really felt
comfortable.
There is a lesson here, one both hard fought and not easily won. When
dealing with a superior force, in strength and resources, one must use
superior tactics. The First Evil can out muscle Buffy whenever she wants.
She has a nearly unlimited supply of evil minions to do her bidding. She
has time on her side. And, as a noncorporeal being there are serious doubts
as to whether she can even be harmed in any realistic way.
As noble as taking the fight to TFE might seem, it is also irredeemably
stupid when taken literally. They know the first cannot be stopped
physically on this plane, so Buffy keeps taking the fight to her captains.
So what? Every time Buffy kills one, another will just take its place. TFE
will just keep trying until one of her minions either is truly superior or
has, as spike put it, a very good day.
The key for the Scoobies is to find out the specifics of TFE’s plan. They
know, from Anya and Giles’ visit to the Spacing Guild all those months ago,
that a very specific ripple in the Slayer pool has created a convergence of
competing realities that would allow the TFE to rid the world of the Slayer
line forever.
This entire war is about opportunity. The bad guys find themselves with a
set of worldly circumstances that they can exploit. That is only reason why
TFE has mustered so much of her forces and energies at this time. Her war
can be one in the here and now.
Buffy’s only real defense – and our collective fates – hinges on
understanding and undoing that flaw in reality that has made the extinction
of the Slayer possible. Without that, TFE has nothing to gain by this war,
and, hopefully, at the very least, the status quo between good and evil can
be restored.
The problem is, Buffy is not capable of realizing that.
Neither, unfortunately, is Faith (whose presence is very welcome, but we’ll
save larger discussion of her until after she actually does something of
significance). 
The hope lies with Giles, but the schism between student and teacher is a
major hindrance to that cause. Both are at fault, but Giles should have
known better. He knows better than anyone else that Buffy’s strength lies
in her loyalty, and his open challenge of that where Spike was concerned
was a catastrophic error. The fact remains that he is almost always right
when he has something to say, clearly illustrated by his vain attempts to
slow Buffy’s impulsive hand in her rush to confront Caleb.
Five weeks left, and Buffy must defeat Caleb (already one of the coolest
and most effective villains in BtVS lore) just to have the honor of
squaring off against TFE again. Caleb, for all of his nasty might, is still
just the captain.
Time is running short. Buffy must understand all of this in a hurry, or,
truly all will be lost.
The Other Side Of Tuesday…isn’t it time that Buffy officially call in all
the reserves. Pride has to be out the window now. This situation is so far
beyond her control that every favor needs to be called in yesterday.
That means calling Riley. It means calling the Initiative, the Army,
Whomever, Whatever exists of what was once Maggie Walsh’s pet project. The
consequences, the sheer scope of this current Armageddon is such that to
not call in every available resource is not only foolish, but also
selfishly suicidal. You know as well as I that, as a leading force in demon
fighting, the American government is fatally flawed. But it is also
well-trained muscle. 
Buffy believes that, should certain things go horribly awry, a gateway is
going to open up beneath her and let loose thousands upon thousands of
super-vampires. Are you going to tell me that a couple hundred Marines with
assault rifles aren’t going to be helpful? What about tanks? Surgical air
strikes?
To be honest, the fact that the Scoobies and the Angel gang didn’t get on
the horn to each other the second they realized the seriousness of their
respective situations borders on the kind of negligent homicide that nets
you the chair in Texas.
Okay, bad example, but the point is still sound.
On BtVS you had the destruction of the Watcher’s Council and a declaration
of war from THE FIRST EVIL. On Angel, a reign of fire, the blacking out of
the sun, and the BEAST, who at first glance seemed invincible and bore a
strange resemblance to ultimate evil from a Catholic perspective.
These were no small incidents, and each bore the mark of the true end of
the world. They owed it to us, as the protected, to a least talk to each
other. Pooling forces may have been impossible once it became clear that
they each had their own problems, but they didn’t know that.
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