I simply cannot believe that Buffy's identity is not going to be addressed by Joss. The story is telling us that Buffy is confused and questioning herself right from the get-go.
"Everybody calls me 'ma'am' these days."
"There's even three of me."
"More with the 'what the hell am I doing?'" She questions her actions.
"It's not all that different, though." Yet in order to move forward, her coping mechanism is to pretend nothing has really changed => "stuck in the past".
"Their first victims. Gotta get 'em past it." While Buffy is confused about who she is and what she's doing, in this area we finally see certainty. She must lead the slayers she 'chose'. She's "gotta".
"How do we turn into twelve-year-olds all of a sudden? Every time we talk?" Buffy is reverting to an immature state when it comes to her personal relationships. She's in denial. Which incidentally is also a reference to the last time Buffy said this about immaturity amongst siblings:
ANGEL (mumbling) You know, I started it. The whole having a soul. Before it was all the cool new thing.
BUFFY Oh, my God. Are you 12?
"Suck it up, Summers. You're a big girl now." Shut up and deal. It's time to move forward and stay on the course Buffy has already chosen even though it's proving harder than she realized.
I think this shows us very clearly where Buffy is at right now and why she might do the things she's done. It's not the apocalypse that's motivating her to steal (as she's done in the past), but the girls she's chosen and feels a responsibility for. Buffy must provide for her 'children'. She will steal if she has to in order to give them what they need. A corrupt mother trying to save her world, her "race of slayers" at all costs.
And here lies the cognitive dissonance we see in Buffy and why she's even more distanced from others. Buffy is incredibly moral. Buffy needs to provide for the girls lives she's irrevocably changed. She must provide for them because she is responsible for them. Stealing is wrong. But Buffy has bent this rule in the past in order to serve a greater purpose. So she tells herself that it was a victimless crime, but underneath she's beginning to understand that by acting "less-than" she's created a deck of cards rather than a fortress of strength. Twilight attacks her morality because that is where Buffy is most weak.
no subject
"Everybody calls me 'ma'am' these days."
"There's even three of me."
"More with the 'what the hell am I doing?'" She questions her actions.
"It's not all that different, though." Yet in order to move forward, her coping mechanism is to pretend nothing has really changed => "stuck in the past".
"Their first victims. Gotta get 'em past it." While Buffy is confused about who she is and what she's doing, in this area we finally see certainty. She must lead the slayers she 'chose'. She's "gotta".
"How do we turn into twelve-year-olds all of a sudden? Every time we talk?" Buffy is reverting to an immature state when it comes to her personal relationships. She's in denial. Which incidentally is also a reference to the last time Buffy said this about immaturity amongst siblings:
ANGEL
(mumbling) You know, I started it. The whole having a soul. Before it was all the cool new thing.
BUFFY
Oh, my God. Are you 12?
"Suck it up, Summers. You're a big girl now." Shut up and deal. It's time to move forward and stay on the course Buffy has already chosen even though it's proving harder than she realized.
I think this shows us very clearly where Buffy is at right now and why she might do the things she's done. It's not the apocalypse that's motivating her to steal (as she's done in the past), but the girls she's chosen and feels a responsibility for. Buffy must provide for her 'children'. She will steal if she has to in order to give them what they need. A corrupt mother trying to save her world, her "race of slayers" at all costs.
And here lies the cognitive dissonance we see in Buffy and why she's even more distanced from others. Buffy is incredibly moral. Buffy needs to provide for the girls lives she's irrevocably changed. She must provide for them because she is responsible for them. Stealing is wrong. But Buffy has bent this rule in the past in order to serve a greater purpose. So she tells herself that it was a victimless crime, but underneath she's beginning to understand that by acting "less-than" she's created a deck of cards rather than a fortress of strength. Twilight attacks her morality because that is where Buffy is most weak.