I kind of doubt the full extent of my opinions on the Willow/Warren issue come out in the video, as I frequently allowed myself to be swayed and led in the direction the music and the clips seemed to want to go. The idea actually came to use this particular song actually came out of me mishearing the lyrics... for the longest time I thought it was "my gun", rather than "murder" and that struck a cord in me after watching "Killer In Me", as did the wailing "last time she's dead before morning". That episode of course brought up the whole mess of Willow/Warren issues that exploded last season, and as I'm getting to be quite fond of this whole vidding thing, it seemed a natural to take a stab at it.

As distinct from whatever I may or may not have managed to convey with the video, I thought I'd take a bit of space here to try to get down a few Willow/Warren thoughts. Not very coherently, I might add, beware!

I think my basic position is that they are really frighteningly similar, though I do think Willow comes off the lesser of two evils in the end, because her intentions are usually good even when they're essentially self-serving whereas Warren's are always just plain self-serving, and because she truly feels remorse after the fact whereas Warren just gets scared when he sees the consequences barrelling his way. Still, as her subconscious' choice to transform her into Warren as a result of the hex in Killer in Me beautifully illustrates, I think Willow is well aware of the similarities between herself and the man she murdered, and that it frightens her deeply. As well it should.

Of course there's the obvious shared acts of murder themselves. Warren, humiliated by Buffy, sets off half-crazed with a gun, seeking revenge for her unforgiveable act of crushing his hopes of being Big Bad. Willow's murder of him, in turn, is revenge not so much for Tara's sake (in fact, Tara surely would *not* have wanted revenge on her own behalf), but for *herself*, for *her* crushed hopes and dreams when Warren "took [Tara's] light away. From me [Willow]". As DarkWillow explains, Tara was the one thing that could make her feel special, worthwhile, no longer the 10th grade loser of yesteryear. Tara allowed Willow to re-invent herself as the "hot mama-yama", just as Warren's toys, most notably his new Orbs of Nehzelwhatever, were going to allow him to take his rightful place among the cool crowd (or so he thought. Wrongly, if his reception at the vamp bar and Rack's den were any indication). I think it was quite telling how, powered up and feeling invicible, Warren headed straight for an old bully who had tormented him in his school days. "That thing with the underwear? God, I thought I'd never stop crying!" he reminds him before demonstrating his newfound power by flattening him. Fast forward to "Villians" and we have DarkWillow's speech about how people used to pick on softer-side-of-sears Willow in school. (Lucky for Cordy she wasn't anywhere around!) Warren and Willow share those common "humble, geek-infested roots", and both sought something to make them more powerful, to turn the tables on their aggressors and bury the old weak doormat selves. We even see Willow's interest in Warren's methods in her study of BuffyBot and of the freeze-ray diagram.

For both, it was a gradual thing. Warren wasn't always evil; back in season 5, he was merely sleazy and clueless with his April-bot and his idiotic treatment of Katrina. And Willow was always about helping people with her new powers. But as Tara said in Tabula Rasa, it changed, became about helping herself. Warren looking for the easy way to riches and power, confident in his ability to get whatever he might want through his skills in mystically enhanced technology, just as Willow has been pushing the limits of her magic for seasons, ignoring concerned/annoyed protests of her nearest and dearest. Both want to be in control, both want all the good stuff life has to offer quickly and without having to work very hard at it. Both want to compensate for a picked-on past.

And of course there's the infamous forgetting spell; not once but twice, Willow wipes Tara's mind to try to patch things up with her when their relationship hits a stumbling point, just as Warren wipes Katrina's personality out so that she can be his willing sex slave when it becomes obvious that a quick talk's not going to do the trick. (forgetting the lesson he learned with Aprilbot; that Katrina was more interesting because she wasn't pliant) Willow's motivations are not as heartless as Warren's; she's clearly convinced herself it's what was best for both of them, whereas Warren just as clearly could care less about what was best for Katrina. But the underlying impulse is the same...

For Willow, Warren is a cautionary example, a dark reflection... something like Faith has been to Buffy ("What are you gonna do, B, kill me? You become me." Buffy didn't go there. Willow did.). Not just because he illustrates what she could become (ie even more like him), but because the way his murder of Tara effected her incontrovertibly demonstrates that that potential for great evil is there within her, that the warnings people have been giving her for years cannot be dismissed as the prattling of jealous know-nothings who want to keep her in her place, her victimized highschool geek/ sidekick place.

I think part of what really pushed Willow over the deep end at Tara's death was a healthy dose of guilt. After all, they'd only just gotten back together after a separation that was all Willow's fault; if she hadn't messed things up with Tara, they would have had had quite a few more happy months together. Who knows, perhaps if they hadn't been in happy kiss-and-make-up stage, Tara wouldn't have been standing by that window. Willow knows she's done wrong by Tara, but then Warren does worse, and before Willow can really feel like she's made it up to Tara, so all her self-hatred gets turned on him, in addition to the richly deserved hatred he accrues by the act itself.

And just like when Warren killed Katrina, learned that he could get away with it, and completely switched over into Evil!Mode, with Warren's murder, Willow truly becomes Darth Rosenburg, just looking for an excuse to exercise her power and show her strength, nothing human in her left to stem the evil gleeful destruction.

Okay, so again, doubtful I've managed to cram all that in to the vid. But that's what's swirling around in my head as I worked on it...

FEEDBACK

devilbunny writes:

Another big wow from me. That trance-like feel to the music was taken full advantage of in this vid, and it goes without saying that the action was tied to the lyrics wonderfully.

And I'm absolutely in love with the way you repeat scenes. Not to mention how you do the panning/rotating/zooming effects and make them seem so natural. Very powerful vid. And an amazing comparison.

That Girl writes:

If "Killer" were an old fashioned tape I would have worn it completely out already from listening/watching it. I'm relatively new to Buffy videos, I've only been checking them out for about two or three months, but already I feel like I've seen it all. That's why this one is so fabulous! It's innovative, smart and insightful! I'm at serious risk of gushing, I tell you. I particularly like this one because the character of Warren is so intriguing, a BB who is totally human with basic mundane human motivations; he is the most striking of all Buffy villains- a big dork as the big bad.

As far as character studies of Willow and Warren are concerned, in my opinion this piece has successfully achieved the author's objectives, making clear the similarities shared by two characters viewers might normally resist linking together. Over all it captures the idea that fuzzy sweet Willow, is in the final analysis, a killer, just as Warren is. Just because she is so likable and easy to identify with doesn't change this fact. Warren in a lot of ways is an identifiable character, (like Willow he was a misfit) though fundamentally unlikable,(and a sociopath) that doesn't mean he and Willow are so very different.

The combination and repetition of clips of three of the most genuinely disturbing things I've ever seen on TV (Tara's death, The Flaying, and Katrina's murder) makes this a strange video for me to be viewing compulsively! And yet I love it. The ending is a kicker. Anyway, it makes my all time top ten, with a bullet. Did I say it was a cool song too? Cool song. Hellacool.

Pipsqueak writes:

Just finished watching "Killer" for about the 20th time in a row (I only found and downloaded it tonight), and words cannot express how much I love this video. Seriously. I mean, I'm trying to come up with coherent, in-depth comments, or a rational analysis of what I liked, and right now all I can produce is a very loud "SQUEEEEEEEEE!" and giggling madly. Okay, I'm gonna try anyway.

Love the entire concept - cute, fuzzy Willow vs. misogynist, power-hungry Warren, and it turns out they're not so different after all.

Love the repeated scenes - it adds an extra "punch" when they appear again.

Love the juxtaposition in the beginning of the vid where Willow repeatedly flays Warren - she just waves her hand in the air, does it so casually, almost as an afterthought - mixed with scenes from Tara's death, where she is in utter shock and denial.

Love the first close-up we get of Warren, on the line "There's a killer on the street\" - it gives me chills every time. And then the cut to Willow is so jarring (but in a good way!), because you realize that she *should* inspire the same fear and loathing.

Love the flickery, jittery, flashy effects - they fit perfectly with the mood of the music.

Love the zoomed-in focus on the bullet piercing the window, blood splattering on Willow's shirt, and the hole in Tara's chest. Because that's what murder IS: it's messy and it's violent and it\'s bloody, and the viewer is forced to acknowledge this; there's nothing else on the screen to look at.

Love the "forget" spells shown side-by-side - that's a really insightful connection to make. Both parties just did it because they wanted the other person to love them. (and yes, I think Warren really did want Katrina's love and devotion, as opposed to just her body)

Love the depiction of Katrina and Tara as Warren's and Willow's lovers-cum-victims, respectively. Of course Willow didn't kill Tara, but I think she feels partly responsible for letting it happen/not being able to bring her back.

Love the comparison of Warren getting his power from the orbs vs. Willow getting her power from the books. What I really enjoyed here were the transitions between shots; you used flashes of white for the Warren segment, and flashes of black (is there such a thing as a flash of black?) for the Willow segment. This works on two levels; not only does the color match what's going on in the actual scene (Warren getting white jolts of electricity from the orbs, Willow's hair turning black), but it also symbolizes the effect that power has on both of them. Warren gets hyped up on power. He relishes it; in scenes where he commits violent acts, you can tell that he is really living in the moment, almost with heightened senses, enjoying himself. Power has an "amplifying" effect on him. The color white is a good fit for this because white represents substance, electricity, abundance. Black, on the other hand, is nothingness. Numbness. Absence. When Willow goes dark at the end of Season 6, it's like she's not feeling anything at all. (Maybe she was supposed to be feeling rage, but I didn't get that from AH's portrayal.) The power almost sucks the life out of her. She's like an empty vessel, an automaton, just carrying out the mission that she's assigned to herself without reacting to it or anything else, and is therefore a perfect match for the color black. I was highly impressed by the use of the dual colors in this part, and now I probably sound like a freak for giving an essay on black and white for Pete's sake.

Love the slo-mo shot of Willow walking through the woods towards Warren in "Villains". Creepy.

Love the ending, the first time in the video where we actually *see* the "Willow becomes Warren" story, and yet the irony is that she had already turned into him (metaphorically speaking) way before that happened. I like that you placed this clip at the very end; it was a shocking moment in the actual episode, but coming at the end of this video, the shock is undercut with a "Well, of COURSE Willow turns into Warren. What else did you expect?" attitude. This is the only logical conclusion to Willow's journey.

Hmm, I guess I had quite a lot to say after all. :) Anyway, to sum up, this is a kick-ass video and I want to marry you and have your babies.

Here's Luck writes:

This vid really amazes me -- as always, you've chosen to do something so wonderfully *unusual.* I love the idea of vidding the Warren/Willow parallel, and you've sustained those parallels so perfectly visually. I like the choice to start with analogous but not identical shots - - Willow walking with the gun, Warren walking through the Bronze -- and then to gradually make the parallels more and more exact: the juxtaposition of the two backyard scenes, and then (more impressive because less obvious) the juxtaposition of Willow working magic on Tara and Warren using his device on Katrina (scary, scary shit), and each of them attacking Xander and fighting

Buffy... all culminating with the mirror shot. Hot damn. As with "Sleep Alone," I love the collage effect of using and reusing certain key images, zooming and spinning to get slightly different effects.

And I like the way everything in this vid *moves* (so appropriate for the driving beat of the music) -- every shot's got either internal or external motion, or you've manufactured a zoom, or, in the case of the shot of Warren's mouth sewn shut, you've given it that jittery effect. The juxtaposition of speeds is great too: things speeded way up or slowed way down. Fantastic.