Faith is introduced, as the new replacement for Kendra is season 3. She has the typical slayer sex appeal; she is an attractive young lady, always wears bright red lipstick, and is extremely turned on by slaying vampires and demons. Almost a polar opposite of Buffy (not just in hair color) she lacks the humanity displayed by Buffy when she accidently kills Deputy Mayor Allan Finch. While Buffy is having nightmares and is outwardly distraught in her social reactions, Faith justifies her accidental murder by her role as slayer. She tells Buffy that because she saves so many lives by killing vampires, one innocent death is not a big deal. Giles reiterates a similar reasoning by saying slayers are always in the battlefront of war and unforeseen tragedies do happen. But acceptance of the death does not end the drama. Specifically, Faith tries to spin the murder and blame it on Buffy but the Scooby Gang sees through her lies. This results in Xander attempting an intervention and leads to a violent sexual scene between him and Faith.
During their interaction, Faith twists the emotional outreach of Xander and becomes flirtatious. Thinking that Xander wants another go around, she slams him into the bed saying, “ I see. I want. I take. I can make you scream. I can make you die.” She pulls his shirt up and aggressively dry humps him. Xander does little to fight back and seems to somewhat enjoy the attention. However, Faith’s kinky actions turn violent and she begins to choke Xander. Her face flushes with satisfaction as he squirms to breath. At this point in time, violence and sex are integrated into one. She even mentions screwing vampires when talking with Buffy. Phallic symbols are abundant when analyzing vampires. Moreover, vampires inherently go for the neck when sucking blood, which correlate strongly with the same action of giving hickies. Bodily fluids are exchanged, penetration occurs, heart rate increases and it all happens during the most promiscuous time of the day. The way this series disguises sex reminds me of a soap opera for kids.
Faith is an important character because she serves as the foil to Buffy's character. She is what Buffy would have become if she didn't have her support network of friends and family. Faith takes pleasure in slaying, dismissing an accidentally slain human as negligible collateral damage, whereas Buffy can tell human from vampire even in the heat of the moment, and doesn't abandon herself to the exciting violence of her calling as Slayer. As for what she does with Xander, it is evident that Xander has zero control over Faith's freedom. Their interactions show how one-sided the seduction is, and the extent of Faith's quest for attention.
ReplyDeleteFaith and Buffy have about the same amount of power. Their differences are in how they handle that power. Buffy sees her gift as a duty. She separates herself from the power. Faith makes no separation. She chooses instead to believe that the gift of power was given to her because she was special initially. That rationalization is behind her carefree and troublesome ways.
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