Payback or Poetic Justice

U

ubi4soft

Zamolxis
Joined
Jul 9, 2009
Messages
468
Some call it payback, some poetic justice, almost every action in the verse has consequences.

I was thinking about the resurrection spell did by Willow, she requested an immense amount of life energy to bring back Buffy. Until the end of the season Tara was killed, so was it a life for a life bargain, payback or poetic justice?

What other actions have the same impact?
 
I guess Willow feels it was a life for a life thing, she'd cheated by sacrificing an animal over a human. In S8, Willow tells Kennedy, "When Buffy died… I couldn’t admit it, but Tara and I were happy. Not in general, I mean we mourned, but together… and Buffy was happy too. But I had to bring her back. Long before Sunnydale went south – goddess, from the day she died – I never considered any other option. We could have moved on. Raised Dawnie, moved somewhere nice… but I chose. I chose to put Tara in a bullet’s path. I chose Buffy over her."

Changed a little 'cause she was talking to both Buffy and Tara in different places.
 
So, the title Bargaining was relevant in the most painful way. I've been asking myself why I don't like magic: I see it as the easy way out, some of it it's pretty dark (anything involving killing, there are books titled "Darkest Magic") but the apocalypse which banished the demons also ended the magic. It is possible that the price for magic to be the existence of demons. Or the other way around. So maybe that's why.

Also a tragic trade could be considered Joyce/Dawn in S5, but I don't understand what price Fred had to pay to be replaced by Illyria.
 
ubi4soft said:
Also a tragic trade could be considered Joyce/Dawn in S5, but I don't understand what price Fred had to pay to be replaced by Illyria.
Click to expand...

This is literally just a thought that popped into my head and not exactly a definite answer but if we're talking exchange or 'paying the price' what about that Professor Seidel guy?

I know Fred didn't kill him herself, but didn't she open the portal? I'm just thinking opening the portal would take some magical energy?

Like I said, just a thought, I may be very wrong. 🙂
 
For the record, I find this all fascinating.

As for the Fred/Illyria thing, I always thought that spoke for itself. The price for Illyria was Fred. Magically, one had to die so that another could live.
 
Flannen said:
This is literally just a thought that popped into my head and not exactly a definite answer but if we're talking exchange or 'paying the price' what about that Professor Seidel guy?

I know Fred didn't kill him herself, but didn't she open the portal? I'm just thinking opening the portal would take some magical energy?

Like I said, just a thought, I may be very wrong. 🙂
Click to expand...

I agree. She was morally responsible for his death, no matter what other characters tried to do to make that not be true.

She could fool herself, Gunn, and Wesley, but she couldn't fool fate.
 
I look at it this way. Willow resurrected Buffy to end her own pain. She got that pain back first with revelation of where Buffy was at time of resurrection. Then unbearable pain with Tara's death. Then the pain of the whole world. Or you might say instead, to have the balance, the bringing back of the incredible good of Buffy must be balanced by an incredible bad. That incredible bad becomes Willow. And since we know that you need a catalyst, that's Tara's death, the thing that pushes Willow over into incredibly bad mode.
 
These are great theories. A good thread! 🙂

The threefold law of magicks is that whatever action you commit, the consequences or reaction from nature will be magnified times three. It would be why all the things that the characters do seem to have multiple punishments and connect to so many disastrous events.
 
Flannen said:
This is literally just a thought that popped into my head and not exactly a definite answer but if we're talking exchange or 'paying the price' what about that Professor Seidel guy?

I know Fred didn't kill him herself, but didn't she open the portal? I'm just thinking opening the portal would take some magical energy?

Like I said, just a thought, I may be very wrong. 🙂
Click to expand...

See, that whole thing confused me. Wasn't Pylea now 'liberated'? I thought a human would have been much better off in Pylea then rather than when Fred was there. It was more dramatic the way it played out but I was confused.

Also, with all of the portals that the professor opened I'd think what happened in Supersymmetry is what balanced things in the sense we're talking about? Maybe I'm talking outta my rear. 😛
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom