Character Arcs

[bespangeled]

I wrote this in another thread, and feel like exploring it separately. It's kind of doing karma arcs - where they started and where they ended (karma is not good luck - it's lessons in the form of choices and consequences.) So I'm gonna write character arcs - am not trashing any characters. No way I can do all of them right now though, and I'd love to read some other ones.

After the hyena spell was broken, Xander looked both Buffy and Willow in the face and lied to them about remembering rather than come clean and be absolved. Xander a lot to protect himself, and he ended up constantly lying to himself, repressing things he needed to act on. It wasn't til he lost the righteous anger about the lies he told himself that he came back.

Willow really wanted dark magic (can we pretend it is?) - she chose to do dangerous spells to achieve what she wanted to achieve - first resouling Angel - then raising Buffy - using magic to make everyone do what she wants -becoming a black magic addict and trying to destroy the world. It was not until Willow lost the need to use magic to gain power that she came back.

 

[sosa lola]

I think karma followed Xander a few times. He wasn't supportive of Buffy's relationship with Angel and sometimes his bickering with Angel got on Buffy's nerves. Years later, he had to suffer through the bickering of his best friend Willow and girlfriend Anya and was always put in the middle of their arguments. He even confessed to Spike that it bothered him that Willow wasn't supportive of his relationship with Anya.

Also, after Angelus killed Jenny, Xander stopped being silent and became vocal about wanting Angelus dead. He didn't try to understand Buffy's feelings and wasn't sympathetic to her pain. Years later, Buffy decided to kill Anyanka after she proved herself dangerous. Now Xander was put in Buffy's place and forced to live her anguish and pain.

I do think he became more tolerant and objective after both experiences.

 

[bespangeled]

This applies to everyone. Karma is not a punishment - it's a series of lessons that get more intense as the same decision are made and nothing is learned.

Xander - like all of us - faced his first challenge and made his choices. With each challenge he made choices and reacted to them. It's not good or bad - there are always lessons so mastering one just gets you a new one. It's the path he took to maturity - there is no one right path. So the lesson I was dealing with was honesty, and the different ways it showed up in Xander's life. How hard it was to learn to be open to greys and not see everything as right or wrong, black or white.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Is that anything like

 

[bespangeled]

Is that anything like
View attachment 6003

That can be a perfect description of karma in action!😀

 

[GwenRaiden]

Is this the Buddhist definition of karma?

 

[bespangeled]

@Mr. Pole: Getting your toe ran over is perfect description of karmageddon too.

No that's just stupidity. 😀
Carmaggedon would be a 20 car pile up when everyone decides someone else can break. That's also darwinism~

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Is this the Buddhist definition of karma?

The beatings? No, I thought it was Whedonism.

 

[bespangeled]

Is this the Buddhist definition of karma?

Yeah - Hinduism says life as all predestined -and we are paying for sins from past lives.
Tibetan Buddhism in particular give humans a lot more power to affect their own reality. Lie is lessons and we grow and learn, or we don't. Free will. It's more of a dynamic force than anything else.

I do this myself when I get really pissed about something that keeps happening. It helps to look at all of it and try to figure out what the hell I should be doing differently (or what the lesson is).

 

[bespangeled]

The beatings? No, I thought it was Whedonism.

Go way and stopping making fun of my newborn thread! 😡😉