BtVS Musings

[shakatany]

Brain and brain! What is brain? ("Spock's Brain" Star Trek TOS)

I want to rephrase that: Soul and soul! What is soul? Everyone makes so much of souls in the Jossverse yet ME contradicts itself. We're told that demons don't have them yet in "I Robot, You Jane" ep 1.8 BtVS, Giles says re Moloch, "In the dark ages the souls of demons were sometimes trapped in certain volumes." There are of course demons who act as if they're soulless but what of Clem? and Lorne? I must assume that the COW lumped them all together to alleviate any guilt a Slayer might have over killing demons so indiscriminately.
Then there's Giles speech in "The Harvest" ep 1.2 BtVS: "The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul." Again the Watcher says demons have souls. I've wondered if the vampiric demon/soul that emerges into this world via the dead body is sort of a tabula rasa, knowing of this world only what the body's memories and the sire (if it sticks around) tell it. What if the pattern was set not by the last demon but because the first vampire was made from a paleolithic Hannibal Lecter? And if that last demon fed off a paleolithic Gandhi might the pattern set be entirely different? And what's the difference between a pure demon as in the Old Ones and what Mayor Wilkins became and all those other funny looking beings walking around?
There's also that whole souling of Angelus which punished a soul for something it had not control over while the demon was in ascendance it. If the souling was meant to cage Angelus and make him suffer while imprisoned within Angel why add that stupid happiness clause which again freed Angelus?
Lastly can souls be destroyed? I think the AtS gang may have taken the word of that doctor too easily and that somewhere Fred and Wesley are together.



Now for something more amusing--go to Birthday Calculator and find out all about your natal day.

Comments

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, there's just no logic to the whole discussion about souls that we see in the Joss-verse. I prefer to make up my own mythology as I go since the mythology of the Jossverse is confusing and contradictory. The easiest explanation is that like in the real world, no one actually knows what's going on soul-wise

[shakatany.livejournal.com]

In filming there's a script supervisor concerned with continuity but only within that particular episode or movie and usually about details regarding clothes and hair and things like that. In a TV series I always think they should have a person who's job it is to oversee continuity for all the episodes, keeping all the details straight. This applies even to mundane shows as it helps keep things straight like if a parent is dead (MASH) and things like that. A show like BtVS which is creating its own world truly needed someone like that. Oh well I guess the creators either figured no one would notice or they themselves forgot.

Shakatany

[belleimani.livejournal.com]

What a great post. But ME contradicts itself a lot, which is why we have fanfic!
::smooch::

[shakatany.livejournal.com]

There's an old Trekkie battlecry: "Why can't anything be perfect?" and I think I've carried it over to BtVS.

Shakatany

[belleimani.livejournal.com]

Word. I just try to make sense of it in my own little world.