If winning is the only thing that matters, then rape, torture, and other atrocities are all justifiable - when they help you win. 'Victory at any price' is a nice slogan, but I say some prices are too high. It is better to lose honourably than to betray your principles, and become as vile as your enemy.
I hope you agree.
(It would be nice if atrocities never helped you win, but I'm not optimistic enough to believe that. Gandhi's policies worked against the British; they would have failed against the Nazis.)
Victory is important, of course, but it is not always attainable. The heroes, in Buffy and other similar tales, will lose some battles, but there's no shame in that. So long as they stay true to their principles, and fight to the last, they will have done all that could be asked of them. If they lost nonetheless, their heroism is not diminished by that loss.
In the Buffy case, they didn't even lose. Maybe their victory wasn't as complete as they thought, but they still averted apocalypse for another year. I suspect most of the Buffyverse would agree that year was worth the sacrifice.
Sealing the magic away does not seem feasible in the Buffyverse. You'd have to abolish ghosts, which means changing the way souls and the afterlife work, an highly ambitious project. I agree the Balance is unattractive, but the alternative is worse. If evil were not constrained by any rules, the resulting total war would indeed lead to the annihillation of humanity.
A perpetual cold war may be the best the Buffyverse can hope for, and rocking the apple-cart an invitation to disaster. It's a fairly grim viewpoint, but one entirely consistent with series continuity.
I hope you agree.
(It would be nice if atrocities never helped you win, but I'm not optimistic enough to believe that. Gandhi's policies worked against the British; they would have failed against the Nazis.)
Victory is important, of course, but it is not always attainable. The heroes, in Buffy and other similar tales, will lose some battles, but there's no shame in that. So long as they stay true to their principles, and fight to the last, they will have done all that could be asked of them. If they lost nonetheless, their heroism is not diminished by that loss.
In the Buffy case, they didn't even lose. Maybe their victory wasn't as complete as they thought, but they still averted apocalypse for another year. I suspect most of the Buffyverse would agree that year was worth the sacrifice.
Sealing the magic away does not seem feasible in the Buffyverse. You'd have to abolish ghosts, which means changing the way souls and the afterlife work, an highly ambitious project. I agree the Balance is unattractive, but the alternative is worse. If evil were not constrained by any rules, the resulting total war would indeed lead to the annihillation of humanity.
A perpetual cold war may be the best the Buffyverse can hope for, and rocking the apple-cart an invitation to disaster. It's a fairly grim viewpoint, but one entirely consistent with series continuity.