indri | The First Evil's plan---did it have one?

The First Evil's plan---did it have one?

In a desperate attempt to rationalise the FE's behaviour, especially in Season Seven, I present the following outline of its motivation. Critique please!

"What is it? Why is it doing this to me?" (Spike in Sleeper)

So, from time immemorial, there has been the FE, who gets its kicks from corrupting others. The FE doesn't actually have a vast amount of power but didn't mind this: its job was too much fun. There was a sense of precarious balance that the FE relished.

Then, one day, Buffy dies and Kendra is called. Buffy is revived and for the first time ever there are two slayers. The FE thinks through the implications of this and realises that if there can be two, there can be many, which would upset the balance between good and evil and spoil the FE's fun. Fortunately for the FE, no-one else (except Rowan) seems to realise this. The FE decides to keep an eye on the situation, but doesn't worry too much about it. Buffy's just a better-than-average slayer and besides, to empower all of the slayers would take a witch of improbable power and a major magical artefact.

That doesn't mean the FE won't take shortcuts when they're offered. When it thinks it can manipulate Angel into killing Buffy, it tries to. But when Angel refuses, the FE has no problem with Angel killing himself instead, because souled vampires really piss off the FE. It's used to humans that change sides (that's part of the fun) but godammit, vampires are its playing pieces.

Still, no need to worry, and there's plenty of people out there to defile and corrupt. La, la, la...oh look, Buffy's defeated quite a few beasties now, hasn't she? Master vampires and powerful demons (well, that's her job), power-hungry mayors (well, he was human once, after all), a mad scientist and her creation and, er, a god. But Buffy's dead now, we're back to there being only one slayer and all's right in the FE's world.

Until Buffy's too-powerful-for-her-own-good witchy friend resurrects her.

It's clearly time for the FE to intervene and it may have tried to be subtle at first. Perhaps it manipulated the citizens of Sunnydale for a year to the detriment of the Scoobies. Maybe it spoke to Rack and Giles; surely it had long evening chats with Amy and Warren. And at first it worked: Willow became sick, distracted, unstable. Buffy was demoralised and detached. Warren almost killed Buffy; Willow almost killed Buffy. The FE's plans may have come close to succeeding. But Warren was weak and Buffy was strong and Xander was there to save Willow. So the FE came away empty handed and, to top it all off, another bloody vampire got a soul and it was voluntarily this time, and that just had to be the last straw.

The FE's never been this angry, ever. This is not playing the game! Black knights are dipping themselves in white paint as if that's somehow allowed. The nightmare scenario of All Slayers All the Time is a real possibility. No fun and no fair! Screw you guys, I'm ending the world.

So the FE starts a two-pronged plan. It will destroy the world and end the slayer line. These plans dovetail nicely because it'll be much easier to end the world when the slayers are gone.

The FE probably isn't thinking straight by now and it's trying out blunt instruments that it's never tried to use before. It juices up a promising young serial killer and starts organising the Bringers for real. (It almost brainwashes Spike into killing Buffy just because, well, it would be cool and the FE would feel vindicated that its original plan with Angel could have worked.) Potentials die and the Council is reduced to rubble.

But in the end, the furious, fallible, frightened FE brings about the catastrophe it was trying to avoid. Buffy hasn't really thought much about the Potentials before. Sure, she's had an interest in her slayer origins for a while now but got she sidetracked by small things, like gods and death and depression. But she doesn't wake up to the possibilities until she's had Potentials underfoot for months and the FE accidentally leads her to the Scythe.

Still, the FE thinks desperately, there's always the Turok-Han. But then along comes Angel with his deus ex machina and soon Spike's torching the lot of them.

So---failure. Absolute, bloody failure.

But the FE's still around. It might learn from its mistakes...

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Thank you. That's pretty much what I thought.

Why thank you, mysterious stranger.

I can buy your take on the First Evil, in part because as a Buffy viewer since Day 1 I have this almost faith-like trust in Joss and crew that they do think through all their creative decisions. However, I am well aware that there is almost consensus among fans that all the characters, including the FE, got lost in S7. I think this is a fair enough reading.

Your FE sounds devious and a real strategic thinker, traits which I believe are plausible for entities with world-domination agenda. There is evil that is capricious, and their is evil that is calculating. I think your FE reads like it is capable of being both. This is a really scary combination.

Unfortunately, S7's FE for me (or the way it was shown on the telly) was only a notch higher from S4's Adam in the lame-o-meter of big bads. I get why some of us are now engaged in excavating the text. I for one appreciate the efforts of fellow fans to make the last season of Buffy somehow make (better) sense.

Mostly I'm doing this because I'm writing a fic and need to come up with some explanation...any explanation...of the FE's behaviour.

here is almost consensus among fans that all the characters, including the FE, got lost in S7

I think some of them got lost, or rather that insufficient explanation was given for their actions. I can come up with plausible explanations but I'm well aware that I'm rationalising and that we viewers shouldn't have to work this hard to make things make sense. In that way, S7 was disappointing although I've yet to reach a firm opinion of the season as a whole.

Hello again. I don't think I've come across a fan fiction with a First Evil that makes sense or at least one that is a full-bodied character. (full-bodied non-corporeality-- if that makes any sense)

I hope you push on with your plan. I've read some of your works. I love Some Years Later and DeNile, in particular. Like you, Buffy fan fiction is my only true vice (well there's also smoking). I wish I can write them, but being a non-native English speaker my Jossverse voice is totally stilted. I can read them well enough, and I've read lots of them.

Re.S7. I used to hate S6, but almost two years after that season ended I have changed my mind. I suppose there will come a time when many of us will look at S7 with less vacillation. At least, I know I'm bound to.

I love Some Years Later and DeNile, in particular.

Why thank you! I am always pleased to hear from someone who enjoys my writing.

I wish I can write them, but being a non-native English speaker my Jossverse voice is totally stilted.

That's a pity. Are there no fanfic sites in your language? I do not know if fanfic is largely an English-language phenomenon or not and now I feel foolish for not knowing.

I used to hate S6, but almost two years after that season ended I have changed my mind. I suppose there will come a time when many of us will look at S7 with less vacillation. At least, I know I'm bound to.

Yes, I also feel much more positive about S6 having had more time to think about it. Some of it was both courageous and brilliantly-executed and there was more humour there than I first thought. But some of it (well, Willow's arc) was much more poorly handled.

I hope you do not mind, but after you introduced yourself, I had a look at your blog and your links. If you do not object, I will Friend you, as I am very interested in some of the topics you mention, especially your work concerning women in information and communication technology. I would love to know more about this (I am leafing through the WomensHub and APC Women websites now.) I am very concerned with similar issues of access in computing and science but most of what I know comes from an Anglophone or Eurocentric viewpoint. Another perspective would be most welcome, even if you just pointed me in the direction of some relevant websites.

Sorry to ramble but those websites enthused me!

Actually I wanted to also friend you. I'm pretty new in LJ but have been an avid LJ reader since early last year (lurker more like, but that word has such icky connotations). I remember being impressed with your exchange with

klytaimnestra re. How Spike supposedly ruined BtVS.

As for fanfic writings in my language, there's no such thing. At least in my cultural context, fanfic writing is a totally young people's thing. I got introduced to fanfic by my teen-age daughter who's writing and drawing Japanese anime and Harry Potter fanfics. Actually, it's more like I introduced myself to the medium to find out what's been keeping my daughter busy online. (By the way, is it fan fic or fanfic?)

As for Buffy, I've been a fan since day 1. I even saw the movie when it first came out. After season 3 of X-Files, Buffy was the only television show I watched.

APCWomen is a global network. We do have members from the US and Europe although majority of us are from the global South. Most of the people in my friends' list right now are from the same network. I hope you find something useful and relevant in our Site.

I'll stop here. I do tend to babble on. It's just that you are the first person, outside my Internet comfort zone, with whom I've had a long online exchange in quite a while. I've worked with multicultural groups through the Internet since the mid-1990s. My daily virtual conversations now are mostly with workmates who are from different time zones. I use the Internet quite intensively, but lately I've started feeling constricted by the way my online interaction has been constructed. One of the reasons I joined LJ is so I can have enriching social interactions with people who are not necessarily workmates. Sort of what the Internet was all about during its early years. :-)

I remember being impressed with your exchange with klytaimnestra re. How Spike supposedly ruined BtVS.

Thanks. I'm still drafting a fuller response that I hope someday to post.

By the way, is it fan fic or fanfic?

Either or both, I think. It's very colloquial.

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I remember being impressed with your exchange with klytaimnestra re. How Spike supposedly ruined BtVS.

Thanks. I'm still drafting a fuller response that I hope someday to post.

By the way, is it fan fic or fanfic?

Either or both, I think. It's very colloquial.

<iI hope you find something useful and relevant in our Site.

Thank you. I'll try to have a more thorough look some evening.

One of the reasons I joined LJ is so I can have enriching social interactions with people who are not necessarily workmates.

Welcome then! I hope we have many more fruitful exchanges.

I think it’s a great fanwank. If ME had presented this all in one big speech, I’d have appreciated the effort but thought it a fanwank. But it is solid enough that they could have told a bit of back story throughout S7, explaining FE influence in S6. I would have gladly accepted your fanwank as a sound explanation.

The best part is – you can do it for them. I know you can. Please do. Take this explanation and squeeze it into canon and you’ve got yourself a great fic. My only suggestion is to include at least some backstory to make it convincing.

Please run with this. This fan is just begging to be wanked.

Take this explanation and squeeze it into canon and you’ve got yourself a great fic.

The fic I'm currently writing involves the FE but has nothing really to do with any Season Six backstory. I 'm just sitting here going, "But what's the FE's motivation in this scene?" because then I feel happier.

Maybe I should write a S6 fic too. That is, if I can make it short because the current fic is threatening to be the longest I've written, maybe longer than Hotel Lavear. And I've spent weeks' worth of evenings on the research already, all for the sake of what will probably be a couple of lines about the goddam scenery and what people are eating. I still feel bad about the lack of research I did for Foreign Devils and Hotel Lavear and I fear I'm overcompensating.

The best part is – you can do it for them. I know you can.

I am flattered by your faith in me. I shall try to live up to it :)

Mmmm... Hotel Lavear. I think I need to re-read that... what were we talking about again???

Oh, right. FE. I guess I assumed that you would want the reader to be using your fanwank as basis for understanding your FE's motivations. In that way, I think a little explanation/backstory might be required.

If you are just writing that up for yourself, so that you are writing FE consistantly, then you have to accept that your FE and the reader's FE may be different.

If you are just writing that up for yourself, so that you are writing FE consistantly, then you have to accept that your FE and the reader's FE may be different.

I suppose I shall. With any luck, it will make little difference to the finished fic.

Ugh, it's 1am and the SO is asking me why I'm not in bed yet. Until tomorrow...

Also, every time I see your user icon I wonder: does anyone actually fancy Scott Bakula? I mean, anyone at all? I can speak only for myself but I find him deeply unattractive. He's the main reason I've never watched Enterprise. I'd understand if Andrew simply had different tastes in men to my own, but he has also expressed interest in Spike, so...

What am I saying? This is the fellow who fancied Warren (perhaps subliminally, I'll admit). Yes, Warren Mears and Scott Bakula are about as physically attractive as each other in my book.

(Apologies in advance to any existing Mrs Bakula or partner-to-Mr Bakula and indeed to Scott Bakula himself, none of whom are likely to be reading this anyway.)

LOL! I love the icon because I think it's too funny that Andrew thinks dreamily of Scott Bakula. It's so quirky.

I once wrote Andrew drooling over Kevin Sorbo. Another image that makes me laugh my ass off. I think his taste in men is so much a part of his image - totally camp.

Spike is, of course, not included since *everyone* thinks he's hot.

I once wrote Andrew drooling over Kevin Sorbo.

Oooh, where? I'd like to read that!

Here's the link:

http://archive.shriftweb.org/archive/14/naturalborn.html

It's Andrew/Spike and it's pretty dark, but equally funny (hopefully.)

Thanks! I'll go and read it.

*tiny voice* I had much love for Scott Bakula when he was in Quantum Leap.

Not that I thought he was stunningly attractive, per se, just kind of... lovable. It's the big nose, I think. Reminds me of Ernie from Sesame Street. :)

And, of course, he was fabulous as 'Jim' in American Beauty. ;)

I had much love for Scott Bakula when he was in Quantum Leap

Ah! I am glad to hear this, for the sake of the Scott Bakulas of the world. Also, if we all had the same tastes we'd run out of strawberry icecream.

(I haven't seen American Beauty, which may be part of the reason why I do not properly appreciate Mr Bakula.)

Fascinating. I like your depiction of the FE's recklessness, its power but its lack of omnipotence.

I think a lot of people were pissed off at the characterization because we have it in mind that something called the First Evil ought to be somehow unknowable, maybe even infallible. I think they have the same problem as I would with, for example, imagining God as a big guy with a white beard that's Out There somewhere. I mean, if God can be contained like that, he's not really God, you know?

But I don't need an all-or-nothing approach. The FE is huge, malevolent, tricky...and not God. Not even the anti-God.

I like how you've pointed out that whether or not the FE's particular campaigns prevail, it can always find something to enjoy about the process, that it's all about the process. La la la.

But I don't need an all-or-nothing approach. The FE is huge, malevolent, tricky...and not God. Not even the anti-God.

I agree. Also from

indri's outline, the First Evil sounds quite accessible, an entity whose actions and motivations are fathomable by both the protagonists and the readers. There is method behind real evil.

note to

indri: i seem to be flooding your LJ with my comments. sorry. will stop now. goodnight.

the First Evil sounds quite accessible, an entity whose actions and motivations are fathomable by both the protagonists and the readers

From what we saw of it, it was neither omnipotent nor omniscient; it was fallible and sometimes petty. It also seems to have had a single, intelligible intelligence.

I think some people attributed to it powers it didn't have, which means that it was good at propaganda :)

i seem to be flooding your LJ with my comments. so

No need to apologise! I like comments!

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