13.1.2011

names are just sounds people make to tell us apart

(Buffy: Zettelkasten)

„Who the hell are you” - fragt der Highschoolboy den[1] Slayer.

Buffy nimmt den Faden auf (in einem Kommentar aus dem Off):

But that's not the point.

There's always a name.

Lincoln. Hitler. Ghandi.

The name can inspire, terror, awe...

...sometimes great things.

But there's millions of people go into making a name.

People facing things they couldn't imagine they would.

In the moments that matter, even our own names are just sounds people make to tell us apart.

What we are isn't that.

The real questions run deeper. Can I fight?

Did I help?

Did I do for my sisters? My comrades, children, slimy slug-clan[2]... There is a chain, between each and every of us.

And like the man said, you either feel its tug or you ignore it.

I tried to feel it. I tried to face the darkness like a woman and I don't need any more than that. You don't have to remember me.

You don't even know who I am.

But I do.

(Buffy, Season Eight, „The Chain”)

Das „Big Bad” gibt vor einem größerem Kreis es bewundernder Dämonen zum Thema eine Antwort, nachdem es – sehr bewußt, und offenbar einem umfassenden Plan folgend – eine Gelegenheit ausgeschlagen hatte, Buffy zu töten:

However hapless she may be about her personal life, this girl has always firmly believed she was on the side of right.

And if there's one thing I've learned about the slayer...

(schiebt die Maske beiseite, um sich zu kratzen)

Sorry, itchy neck.

Where was I?

(Buffy, Season Eight, „A Beautiful Sunset”)

Gibt es sonst jemanden, neben Joss Whedon – Shakespeare außen vor –, der ein derart präzises Bild der Dinge zu bieten hat?

  1. [1] Die Verhältnisse in der achten Staffel sind kompliziert – Willows Zauber hat tausende Frauen zu Slayern gemacht.
  2. [2] Schleimige Schnecken-Verwandtschaft

[Nachtrag]: Die Episode war der Ausgangspunkt, mich mit der Frage nach der Genese von Identität (einmal mehr) zu beschäftigen.

(Kommentarfunktion z.Zt. deaktiviert.)