Black Magic/Drug Abuse Metaphor

G

Guiltypleasure

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Hi,

The process of Willow becoming addicted to black magics was pretty obvious a methaphor for drug abuse, but i was wondering if there are more allusions on that topic?

I remeber that there is a episode where Giles referes to an incident of a friend loosing control while summoning some kind of deamon.
He metiond that they were tampering whith black magics to gain some sort of euphoria, sombody know which episod that is? I would like to watch it again.


I'm sure there are more hints on that metaphor maybe we could start a list about them?

Here the ones i know:

  • Willow beeing afraid that she might relapse when using magics again, after she got "clean"
  • Giles story about them using black magic. propably some element of peer pressure as they were doing it as a group

  • Willow having withdrawal symtomps after stopping the "consultation" with that warlock guy. they portraid that basically like the process of quitting cold turkey after prolonged opiat use.


The whole warlock thing inherents multiple drug references, like the guy in the waiting room freaking out after willow and the other witch cutting in line. He acts like the typical tv crackhead ^^
Also the way how Willow is depicted after the magic "infusion" remides me of the state during a opiat intoxication in real life. Laying around, eyes closed and doing nothing for a couple of hours. You don't hover around of course, but it pretty much feels like it.

Even the facial expression is a great copy of the real thing. The capture for the mood "chilled" in the profile settings is from that scene am I right?:rolleyes2:


Feel free to add to the list or correct me if you think that I misinterpret something.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
M
Ms.Trick
The episode with Giles was the Dark Age in season 2 :D
In 'The Dark Age', I'm fairly certain it was the demon possession that gave them a sense of euphoria rather than the use of magic itself. Magic!crack wasn't thought of until season 6.
 
just watched the Dark Age episode, and i have to agree. the magic was merely a tool to summon the deamon.

to impliy that there is a connection between magics and drugs is propably a bit far-fetched.

but the ramifications are some kind of simmilar. one of a group of magic abusers looses control and ends up as a walking dead with no own will.
in a drugs=magics scenario this would mirror the groupe messing around with, for example heroin, one of them gets addicted and also looses his own free will, because he now needs to feed his habbit and becomes a "fulltime" junkie. And he even resembles some kind of a methaphorical walking dead too, he always bears the risk of ODing when hes "chasing the dragon".



msfantastico87 said:
A fellow BB member wrote a meta on the topic that might be of help. you can find it here https://buffy-boards.com/showthread.php?t=52387 although i'm not sure if this is what you were looking for. Almost every metaphor and what not is listed here
Click to expand...

yes i read this thread before, but the only concentrate on the "willo gets addicted" part of the show, and that is, as we propably all agree, a very obvious one.

and i also agree that the s6 magics=drugs storyline is a very "cheap" plotelement, and the in-your-face kinda style, doesnt fit to the more subtile approaches on other "RL problems" methaphors in the show. like the "fight your inner deamons" in form of an embodymented flesh and bones deamon.


thats the reason i started this thread, to check if there are more, maybe not so obvious magics=drugs references besides the butchered s6 plotelement. i still hope there are🙄
 
Magic did not make Willow an addict. Willow made herself an addict, due to her own insecurities. She merely used magic, her romances with Oz and Tara and her role as a Scooby (aka demon/vampire hunter) as tools to hide from herself . . . and she became addicted to this process.
 
VisionGirl
VisionGirl
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