From: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Television
Who said it?: Buffy Summers
The story behind the quote: Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes from the mind of Joss Whedon (the same guy that thought of Firefly). The idea behind it was it was the direct opposite of what we see in horror movies; instead of the girl being the damsel in distress, it’s actually the damsel that actually does the rescuing. While this was creative in its own right, the series did other creative stuff, such as the episode where no one talked and the one where everyone breaks into musical numbers. Speaking of the musical episode, it’s entitled “Once More with Feeling” and it’s where the quote comes from.
While bursting out into song and dance numbers may not be a problem, it does become an issue since there is a tendency for victims to dance so fast that they burst into flames! Another side effect of inexplicably singing about your feelings is that you tend to tell the truth about stuff you want to keep hidden.
By the way, MASSIVE SPOILERS coming!
Anyway, Buffy goes and confronts the demon while under the influence of the singing and dancing spell. While singing, she reveals that her friends, the Scoobies, don’t understand why she’s been so unhappy since she was brought back from the dead, making them wonder if the spell that did it went wrong. It turns out the spell worked perfectly. It’s just that her soul was brought to heaven and she was happy. Their resurrection of her ripped her soul from heaven and now, even if she is with her friends, it feels like hell.
Realizing that she exposed her true feelings, she starts to smolder and burn up from dancing when Spike (a vampire who can’t kill… long story) stops her and consoles her that there is a lot of pain in life and it will eventually heal in time.
Geek wisdom: Life can be painful and sometimes we cannot find a reason to “sing about” life. However, as Spike said, the pain is just temporary. It will eventually get better as long as we keep on going. It can be a struggle, especially when it feels overwhelming. In fact, it is the hard times in life that makes us appreciate the good things in life.
We have to take the good and the bad. That’s what comprises life and you can’t take it any other way.
My Geek Wisdom 