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![]() Buffy s4e19 (New Moon Rising) So Oz is back, and he's been through some changes. He's still a werewolf, but all the old rules have been thrown out the window. Thanks to some mediation, some herbs and some charms, he no longer gets all lupine during the full moon and the nights on either side of said moon. Now he rips off Bruce Banner, and turns into a wolf instead of the Hulk when angered. To date (in one episode) he's been transformed by jealousy about Willow (but not casual jealousy, a very intense version), by physical pain (electrical shocks and apprently an off-screening pummeling), but has been able to reverse the process once started while in the presence of Willow. Actually, its more complex than that, because he seems more integrated with his wolfishness than before. He easily comments about being able to smell Willow's scent on someone, and he says it very casually, showing it has become no big deal for him anymore. Unfortunately, for all that work, Oz still hasn't conquered the part that would bother me the most. He is still unable to exert any control over the beast once released. Once provoked into transforming, he is as dangerous as ever. Here is the cruz of the moral dilema: which was the better state? Is it better to transform three nights a month and have absolutely no control over the event, or is it preferable to have the responsibility in your hands but be dangerous all the time? In a message to Masquerade I compared it being a ticking timebomb with a set fuse or being a canister of nitroglycerine, volatile and capable of being set off by any jostle or bump. With the timebomb, you have the advantage of knowing when the thing will go off, but you are still left with the fact that it will invariably explode. On the other hand, the nitro is merely probable to explode. There is the chance that it may never. There are two sides to this question that I can see, coming from different parts of the mind. Logically, it is better to be as Oz was. At least then he was only danger from sunset to sunrise three nights a month. He could take very specific precautions on those nights to ensure that he caused no harm. The danger posed in his last episode earlier in the season (the name of which escapes me right now) was only due to the almost criminally lax way the Scooby Gang had come to regard his problem. Last season he was carefully monitored in the library cage, guarded all night by someone armed with the tranqualizer rifle. This was a safer system, especially when you throw in periodical changings of the guards and visits by the Slayer. This season, however, Oz simply went to an unsecured, open to the public, crypt (what is with all the roomy crypts and abondoned mansions in Sunnydale anyway...oh yeah, Hellmouth probably kills luxury property values and sends those of burial plots through the roof) and locked himself in a cage. There were no guards. He could have been freed and/or captured by people wandering by. The wolf could have accessed enough of Oz's memories to open the combination lock (or even got it through random chance) and the wolf did succeed in battering open the cage and there was no one around to stop it. Had the Scoobies been responsible, they would have had a sentry there to tranq Oz-Wolf when he got too frisky. Also, when you come right down to it, he could have been kept tranqed all night. The point of this long diatribe is to say that as a three-night a month werewolf (sorta sounds like the demon National Guard :)...sorry) Oz posed very little danger when properly handled. On a practical level, Oz now poses much more danger. "Negative stimuli" is able to transform him. Well, we have to wonder, what will do it. Significant but not life-threatening pain will do it. Intense jealousy will do it. The only thing those have in common, I believe, is that they are events which trigger the fight/flight reaction. So, anything which triggers a strong fight/flight reaction will probably transform Oz. If the Banner/Hulk model holds, this includes danger to himself or his friends. A fight with anyone is also a likely candidate to cause a change. It is impractical to guard Oz 24-7, so he is loose. (And, by the by, the fact that Buffy and Giles just let this guy waltz off out of any sort of supervision/control/proctection is a real bad lapse in judgement; if he couldn't be around Willow they should have sent him to Angel so he would be around someone who has the knowledge and power to help him as needed.) The wolf aspect is apparently identical in both cases, acting out of near demonic primal urges. It is still completely uncontrolled and a danger to all around it. It seems more simian than lupine in appearance (this is a function of FX budgeting, I assume, not a real desire for him to look that way), but it has a wolf's senses and an enhanced desire to hunt/kill, backed by major strength. Apparently, werewolves are pack animals too, extending somewhat to the human forms as well (as evidenced by Veruca). So those are the logical facts of the case, and they clearly point to the fact that Oz was less dangerous as he was. Emotionally though, he has gained a lot through his transformation. Though the wolf itself is still uncontrolled, Oz not the moon now holds the key to the transformations. It is ultimately in his hands now more than before, and that probably means a lot to a guy like Oz. Judging from his usual taciturn appearance and his philosophical thoughts in Earshot, I'd say he's very into self-control. This is sort of unfocussed reasoning, but I think that conclusion is backed up by how much being a werewolf bothered him before and how much less it does now. He must have known that he was still in danger of transforming, he wasted no time gaping or denying it when it first started during the day, but he presented himself to Willow as being "better" (but not cured). To Oz, I theorize, the fact that he was out of control of his transformation was far worse than the transformation itself. Now that he has some of that control, he is better able to deal with the situation (such as his apparent acceptance of his wolfly senses). Whether this change is going to turn out overall to be for better or for worse, only time will tell.
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