Date Posted:14:50:27 02/06/08 Wed Author: Trent Subject: Re: Leadership and authority In reply to:
Sophist
's message, "Leadership and authority" on 10:46:20 02/06/08 Wed
"Now let's go back to EP. If we see the season message as "concentrating power is wrong, sharing power is right", then we can see that both sides are wrong in EP. Buffy says, at one point -- and she's factually correct -- that "For 7 years, I've kept us safe by doing this - exactly this, making the hard decisions." But the whole point of S7 is that this is the wrong approach. Buffy needs to understand this error; the rebellion becomes the catalyst for her inspiration in Chosen.
But the rebels are wrong too. They didn't attack Buffy because she wasn't sharing her power. They attacked her in part because they wanted to share in the decision-making and in part because they disagreed with the specific tactical suggestion she made."
The others had attacked Buffy because they wanted to share in the decision making? You're probably right. The thing is that I see NOTHING WRONG in that. Buffy and the Potentials were not a real army. Not really. And if you look back into past, Buffy had successfully led the Scoobies because she shared in the decision making with them.
In the past, all of the decisions had not been made by her. The Scoobies offered suggestions on how to deal with the past Big Bads . . . and Buffy listened. She did not dismiss them simply because she was the leader. She could have never led them without their consent. The problem with Buffy by S7 was that she came to believe that she did not need their consent . . . especially the Potentials. There was a moment when Kennedy had suggested that closely reconoiter the vineyard where Caleb was staying to see what was going on. Buffy dismissed her idea completely. The only thing she and Faith did was follow a Bringer to the vineyard in order to find out where Caleb was.
