Willow's drug metaphor

Chosen Enemy

Chosen Enemy

Losing my soul
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I always hear around about the hate for the drug metaphor in the show - Willow's addiction to magic as a metaphor for drug addiction. And I was very curious about that hate. I've never got that. I mean, I don't like the magic addiction arc in season 6, but I loved that idea for a metaphor.

If you do hate that metaphor, could you explain how come? And do you think there could be another arc for that metaphor, or even another metaphor?
 
I think it was sloppily done as it seemed to come from nowhere. Not in terms of her misusing magic but more the possibility that she could 'overdose' on magic and get 'high' from it. That wasn't mentioned before and seemed to be too heavy handed.
 
Chosen Enemy said:
But the whole show is a one big maraphor, everything in it is a metaphor, so that doesn't make sense.
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It makes sense to me. I don't like the female empowerment metaphor. I wanna see it literally, without super powers. I wanna see Buffy be a strong woman without her gifts. It's one of the reasons I love Cordelia so much. She was a strong, confident woman before she got her abilities. She didn't need any of that crap to be strong. She was already. But Buffy, I just feel like is ruled by her powers. Being the slayer defines her. It controls her. She doesn't control it.
 
Dagenspear said:
It makes sense to me. I don't like the female empowerment metaphor. I wanna see it literally, without super powers. I wanna see Buffy be a strong woman without her gifts. It's one of the reasons I love Cordelia so much. She was a strong, confident woman before she got her abilities. She didn't need any of that crap to be strong. She was already. But Buffy, I just feel like is ruled by her powers. Being the slayer defines her. It controls her. She doesn't control it.
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But Buffy is a Slayer. And that's the name of the show, Buffy the vampire Slayer, that's what the show is about. The Slayer is a metaphor for the strong woman and is part of the show itself, not just a sidenote. The demons are metaphor for our inner demons. And more. Every episode is a metaphor, so many aspects in the show are metaphors for the real things we have in life. What didn't make sense to me is how one can hate metaphors but like a show that is all about metaphors (I'm not attacking you, I really don't get that part).
 
D
dexeded
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WileyDairyGnome
WileyDairyGnome
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Chosen Enemy said:
But Buffy is a Slayer. And that's the name of the show, Buffy the vampire Slayer, that's what the show is about. The Slayer is a metaphor for the strong woman and is part of the show itself, not just a sidenote. The demons are metaphor for our inner demons. And more. Every episode is a metaphor, so many aspects in the show are metaphors for the real things we have in life. What didn't make sense to me is how one can hate metaphors but like a show that is all about metaphors (I'm not attacking you, I really don't get that part).
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Please allow me to correct myself. I don't hate the metaphors. I hate the literalizations of the metaphors.
 
Chosen Enemy
Chosen Enemy
Now that makes sense
I didn't know that people hated the drug addict metaphor...

I happen to like it. Maybe they went too far though when Willow went to that guy who gave her more power, sort of like a drug dealer, but I think it's nice for people who are in her situation with real drugs. I found it to be understandable how Willow could get "high" from magic. Magic is a very powerful thing, and I'm sure that it makes you feel good every time you use it much like what drugs do.

But just an FYI, I don't do drugs. 😛 I'm just saying for the sake of people who do have an addiction, it's a nice metaphor for them to relate to.
 
Dagenspear said:
People just hate metaphors in general.
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I don't think that was it... I think it was how over-the-top it got. It was shoved in our faces so blatantly, and that's my main issue with it. The scenes where they show her "high" on magic at Rak's and how drunk she acts when she's with Dawn... That is the kind of stuff that sent it over the edge for me.
 
Gum Gnome33
Gum Gnome33
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I think BTVS is full of metaphers. They are part of the show, they want to teach us in every-day things. And I like it. You can make your thoughts what's up with this or that metaphor and you can discuss them. I think that the ones who hates the drug-metaphor don't like the hard way it is handled. This metaphor isn't hide it's very open and very clear. There is no excuse and the judge is hard. Some may think that is overpraise but in my eyes it such an important lesson, it's ok, maybe necessary in our times. BTVS does not stand there like a teacher saying:"Don't drink too much alcohol". Instead there is this episode bad beer in which we can see how too much alcohol can unfit you. I really like "teaching" the part of the show
 
Chosen Enemy
Chosen Enemy
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That was not a metaphor, it was a plain addiction. Don't abuse the word metaphor, please.

I mean, I don't like the magic addiction arc in season 6, but I loved that idea for a metaphor.
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Execution makes or breaks every idea.

If you do hate that metaphor, could you explain how come?
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1. It came out of the blue. In six seasons no one had ever mentioned that magic in general can be addicting. Why would Giles bother risking summon demons to get high when general magic of a far less dangerous kind would have the trick? Suddenly, there are magic crack dens in Sunnydale, shamans in Central America "burning out" because they are addicted, etc. Then when the plot didn't need the addiction any more, all that was swept under the rug.

2. It was all kinds of stupid and over the top. Willow managed to become addicted and reach rock bottom in a space of one episode that took place in a day or two.

3. It sort of turned Giles and Anya into drug dealers.

4. It had none of the elegance of the previous metaphors like hyena possessing spirit as a metaphor for mean teenagers or Angel losing his sou as a metaphor for a bad boyfriend.
 
S
sisterofmercy
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Icarium said:
That was not a metaphor, it was a plain addiction. Don't abuse the word metaphor, please.
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Actually it was, that was the idea, it's been said. I wasn't saying that magic wasn't the addiction, but it was a metaphor for drug addiciton, like many other metaphors on the show. It's not me saying. And I know what the word metaphor means.
 
As Giles once said "I believe the subtext is rapidly becoming, um, text". When the metaphor is this clumsy and obvious, I don't think it deserves the name metaphor.
 
Icarium said:
As Giles once said "I believe the subtext is rapidly becoming, um, text". When the metaphor is this clumsy and obvious, I don't think it deserves the name metaphor.
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Metaphor can be either good or bad. But it's still a metaphor, even if you don't like it. It's not defined by degrees.
 
Dagenspear said:
Seriously though, tell me what you took from it. I'd like to know if it's what I intended to express.
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I thought you hated everything that is a metaphor in the show, which is what the show is all about, so it didn't make sense to me why hate what the show is about and love it at the same time. I mean, why love a show that you hate its one of the most important aspects?
 
Icarium said:
3. It sort of turned Giles and Anya into drug dealers.
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Everything else out of your post, I totally agree with, but I don't agree with likening them to drug dealers. Wal-Mart sells cans of compressed air; does that mean Wal-Mart is a dealing drugs, since all these people now are huffing the air from the cans??

I do sort of see your point, but I don't think it's fair to blame Giles and Anya for Willow's abuse of magic.
 
L
Living Dead Boy
I agree with HisMrs. Just because all the ingredients are there doesn't mean you have to use them.
WileyDairyGnome
WileyDairyGnome
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I don't really blame them, I just find it hilarious (in a so bad, it's good" way) that after the writers coming up with lines like: Buffy: "Well, yeah, you know, to you and me they're just candles, but to ... witches they're ... like bongs.", nobody bothered to mention that Anya made her living selling this kind of stuff, let alone object to the practice.
 
I know a lot, I mean ALOT of people that had distaste over the "drug-are-bad" metaphor. But being as though season 6 is my favorite season, I feel the need to defend it.

Being as though Buffy was all about the metaphors, from hyena possessions, to people who feel invisible literally turning invisible, the high school as hell metaphor certainly rang true. People felt as though, like others have said, that season 6 took it a little bit TOO literally, and it ended up feeling like an after school special on drugs, which I understand. But I kinda think that was the point. Buffy and the Scooby gang were long over their high school years, and staying true to the "Life as the Big Bad" theme of season 6, the metaphors get stripped. As they grew, things became more literal. Buffy LITERALLY had to pay bills. She LITERALLY had to take care of Dawn. The magic of the early seasons get stripped away, until we see life in its ugliest, raw form (season 6). Sometimes life can be a harsh slap to the face with its realism, and I think the magic addiction arc showed that, IMO.
 
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