So, last week I gave a little background history on magic, and started to talk about why it’s pretty awesome. Before I get to that eventual part 2, where I go into even more details about why magic is truly awesome, I’m going to take a few weeks to discuss some very popular series that feature magic very heavily.
This week, I’m going to evaluate Buffy the Vampire Slayer, an incredibly popular series that ran from 1996-2002. I’m going to try to do all of my discussions with minimal spoilers, but you will be warned if a spoiler is unavoidable and coming your way.
Before I get to the discussion of Buffy (and I truly give my apologies for this post…it’s going to be longer than usual, but the rest won’t be this long. I promise), I have one more clerical note to discuss. Since the series I’m talking about are inherently different in several ways, I could go on and on about various things in the series related to their portrayal of magic. But, to make things significantly more structured, and to have a good standard of comparison, I’ve come up with a list of 5 criteria:
1. The role/function of magic in the world
2. Who can use magic?
3. How is magic used—mechanics
4. Relationship between magic users and non-users
5. Types of magic discussed in world
Okay, now that everything else has been set up, on to the main event of the evening. For those of you who don’t know, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a television show centering around the main character, Buffy Summers, who (go figure) is the Slayer. Basically that means she has to battle and fight a whole bunch of vampires, demons, and any other supernatural force that threatens to do a bunch of really bad things. She has a close group of friends, including a Watcher, who help her in various ways. The show ran for 7 seasons, and is completely available on Netflix instant streaming. I highly recommend it.
Now on to the discussion:
1. Role/Function of Magic in this Universe
On the literal level, magic is just another supernatural element that exists in the world. Most often, people in the universe use magic to aid them, that is to say, they perform various spells to give themselves some sort of advantage. Buffy and the Scooby Gang use magic to help them in their fights against various bad guys and whatnot, while various bad guys use magic for their own nefarious purposes. Willow uses magic to help Buffy battle the vampires. Jonathan uses magic so he and the other members of the Trio can more easily commit crime.
However, on the figurative level, magic plays a couple of metaphoric roles that are important to the plot and character development in the series. Magic starts becoming more of a major element in the 4th season, where Willow’s developing interest in magic quickly gets seen to also metaphorically represent her discovery and coming to terms with her sexuality and her burgeoning relationship with Tara, a friend she met in the on-campus Wicca group. Later on, towards the end of season 5 and through season 6, magic evolves from representing lesbianism to representing a drug addiction. spoilers Tara leaves Willow, fed up with her increasing use of and reliance on magic . Willow is shown very similarly to an addict: she can’t go without doing spells, even if she could accomplish something easily without it. And in case the drug metaphor wasn’t clear enough already, Willow and Amy go to this warlock named Rack, who’s place is pretty much a drug den. Seriously. He’s creepy.
The writers of this series get major kudos for incorporating such roles of magic on the figurative level, without detracting from the literal roles of magic throughout the rest of the series.
2. Who Can Use Magic?
Pretty much anyone can use magic in this universe, and a fair amount of the characters perform at least one small spell throughout the series. Giles is shown to perform a few spells. Willow, obviously, and Tara, become heavy magic users. Jonathan uses spells, Amy uses spells, Angel uses spells. Seriously. Everyone who puts the proper amount of concentration and study can become a magic user. Some are more gifted than others, but essentially everyone can do it.
3. Mechanics of Magic
Magic is presented in Buffy as more of a science than anything else. You use the right ingredients, say the right spell, and it should theoretically work. Willow at one point describes magic as very similar to chemistry, further establishing magic as similar to science. Similarly to chemistry, when things go wrong in a spell, they go wrong in a very bad way. There are a couple of episodes that hilariously demonstrate this point (in case you’re interested, look up Something Blue in Season 4, and Tabula Rasa in season 6). But the portrayal of magic as more of a science helps illuminate the fact that pretty much anyone can do it. Kind of the same way that anyone can do chemistry—you can do it, just not necessarily very well.
4. Relationship between Magic Users and Non-Users
People who are aware of the supernatural world in this universe who don’t use magic get along pretty well with those who do use magic. And those who don’t know about the supernatural world aren’t affected one way or the other by magic users. There is one conflict in season 3 where the public turns against 3 characters who are seen as having used magic, and a literal witch hunt ensues, but, they’re being influenced by a demon anyway, so that doesn’t reflect the general attitude. The more interesting and dynamic relationship is the conflict between the “good” characters of the show, and the “bad” characters of the show. Magic in and of itself is not a source of conflict—the purposes for which it is used and the classic good guy/bad guy dichotomy is.
5. Types of Magic discussed
The show doesn’t really get into too many types of magic, the way some other series do, but they do make a clear distinction between regular magic, and dark magic. Giles has books containing exclusively dark spells and powers, and it is implied that the spells Rack does are not exactly the most clean and friendly of spells. While no type of good or light magic is explicitly alluded to, its existence is implied through the existence of dark magic.
Well, that’s it for the first series. Tune in next week for another magic analysis.
Angel out!
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