Touching The Fire

"Once More With Feeling" photo still, Season 6, Buffy

I touch the fire and it freezes me.
I look into it, and it’s black.
Why can’t I feel?
My skin should crack and peel.
I want the fire back.
~ Buffy, “Walk Through The Fire”

Because I’ve been rewatching, for perhaps the sixth or seventh time, the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (and, this time, simultaneously with the corresponding Angel episodes in the mix), and because after a lazy summer of vegging and regathering my sense of who I am and what’s important I can relate to Buffy’s perspective in this song (well, sorta)…I’ve decided to post a music video. Forgive the deployment of commas in the previous sentence; I get a little comma-happy sometimes, and you know how much I love those long sentences.

If you’re new to my blog, you may not realize the extent of my nerdom. If you’re a frequent flier roundabouts these parts, you’re well aware that my nerdom knows no bounds, especially not when it comes to any Joss Whedon productions. Firefly, Angel, Buffy, Dollhouse—I adore them all. I own the complete series of each on DVD. I’m constantly revisiting my favorite episodes. So yeah. I’m a nerd. Continuing on.

“Once More With Feeling,” which occurs in Season 6, is the musical episode. Yes, I’ve memorized every word off the soundtrack. I must have watched this particular episode twenty times, as it has always been my favorite for the way it showcases the diverse talents of the cast as well as the sense of fun it retained despite the heavy, dark material of the series (the sixth season is notoriously one of the darkest, although I consider the seventh to be the most epic). Anyway, this is not my favorite song off the soundtrack, but it’s the one that I’ve been humming in my head the most as of late. And now, I’ll let the song speak for itself: