his comes from Willow's being convinced that the rules are silly and don't/shouldn't apply to her, not that she is actually short circuiting any genuinely necessary steps.
Totally. And again, you can see how she got there, and not entirely unreasonably. Willow has spent her entire life hewing to rules that exist just because to avoid getting into trouble. I think it's more of what beer_good_foamy is talking about below with not knowing how to be good. She is a smart, disciplined girl in an American high school, every rule that she lives under is pointless and unnecessary to her. Finding magic, which does excite and challenge her, throws that whole framework out the window. Which would actually have been good for her, if she'd had a mentor.
Then this all is reinforced when being a by-the-book Slayer gets Kendra good and dead. And when Snyder shows just how much of a power-abusing asshole he is. And when Giles betrays Buffy in Helpless for the Council's pointless, homicidal test. And when the guy who runs the town ends up trying to eat it. And when a representative of the government tries to kill Buffy. She has every reason in the world to be suspicious of people who expect her to do something just because. Which is why she needs serious, mature guidance.
Giles in particular actually does pretty badly by the kids at times
He really does, in retrospect. And I'm not entirely without sympathy for him, Buffy is the only one who's his job and she's more than enough, but he's (deliberately?) obtuse as to how important he is to the others. I just hurt for the others (especially Willow) when he starts trying to bail in the later seasons.
I'm looking forward to tracking exactly what the ratio of "Willow, th-this could open a door you can't close" to "Willow, y-your responsibility is to do a very dangerous spell for us right now" is for Giles
Ha, exactly. Like adult permission is what protects people from consequences. She stopped buying that a long time ago.
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Date: 2010-09-18 04:24 am (UTC)Totally. And again, you can see how she got there, and not entirely unreasonably. Willow has spent her entire life hewing to rules that exist just because to avoid getting into trouble. I think it's more of what
Then this all is reinforced when being a by-the-book Slayer gets Kendra good and dead. And when Snyder shows just how much of a power-abusing asshole he is. And when Giles betrays Buffy in Helpless for the Council's pointless, homicidal test. And when the guy who runs the town ends up trying to eat it. And when a representative of the government tries to kill Buffy. She has every reason in the world to be suspicious of people who expect her to do something just because. Which is why she needs serious, mature guidance.
Giles in particular actually does pretty badly by the kids at times
He really does, in retrospect. And I'm not entirely without sympathy for him, Buffy is the only one who's his job and she's more than enough, but he's (deliberately?) obtuse as to how important he is to the others. I just hurt for the others (especially Willow) when he starts trying to bail in the later seasons.
I'm looking forward to tracking exactly what the ratio of "Willow, th-this could open a door you can't close" to "Willow, y-your responsibility is to do a very dangerous spell for us right now" is for Giles
Ha, exactly. Like adult permission is what protects people from consequences. She stopped buying that a long time ago.