I love me some Buffy, she's my fave character out of either show and she's truly an amazing woman. I'm loving the morally dubious area they're taking her this season.
PS.. I actually have that first pic as a very hot sexy poster on my bedroom wall. ;D
Thanks for the questions Emmie
;
1.) What do you think was Buffy's most heroic moment?It's a tie between sacrificing herself in
'Prophecy Girl' or sacrificing Angel to save the world in
'Becoming.' The first, because, wow, what an amazing decision to be made by a sixteen year old girl. We get that heartbreaking scene of Buffy screaming, "I'm sixteen years old. I don't want to die," and it ends with Buffy going down to meet the Master, expecting to die but hoping she can "take him with her" if it means protecting her friends. Truly heroic.
The latter, because I believe it'd be easier for someone like Buffy to sacrifice herself than it would to sacrifice someone whom she deeply loves, take throwing herself off the cliff instead of Dawn for example. She loved Angel, "more than she will ever love anyone in this life" but she "put a sword through his heart because she had to." Buffy sums it up perfectly in
'Selfless.' It was a truly heroic, heartbreaking moment, that demonstrates how selfless and amazing Buffy can be.
What do you think is Buffy's greatest character strength (i.e. what is it that you love about her, that makes her a great hero, great friend, etc.)? Her strength. The fact that she'll keep coming back everytime something beats her down. That's what I love about her.
3.) Was there ever a moment when you stopped liking her as a character? Unfortunately, yes. Just one moment, but what I hate for how it made me view her character. In
'Empty Places' when she tells Giles Spike is, and I quote, "the one person who's been watching her back." I felt like kicking my foot through the television, what a slap in the face to her friends who'd been there through everything from day one. What had Xander, Willow or Dawn done to deserve such a rude comment such as this? Xander was sitting in hospital, one eye less because he watched her bloody back. Really wasn't impressed with Buffy in that scene *at all* but other than that, nope, didn't hate her character.
4.) What are some of your favorite Buffy quotes?BUFFY: Giles, I'm sixteen years old I don't want to die.
(Heartbreaking, one of the best lines in the Buffyverse).....................................................................................
BUFFY: In the three seconds it'll take you to turn to dust, you'll find the mistake was touching my stuff
(Sassy fistey Buffy, made even better by the fact she was getting beat down all episode only to get back up and kick ass)....................................................................................
FAITH: I've had this dream, and in this dream this self righteous blonde chick stabs me, and you wanna know why?
BUFFY: You had it coming.
(So much anger from Buffy, it's a side only Faith can bring out of her.).......................................................................................
CORDY: I'm dating a swimmer from the Sunnydale High swim team!
BUFFY: You can die happy
(sarcastic, fun, quippy Buffy, I love it)......................................................................................
and my favourite speech about her;
XANDER: Whenever I'm alone and it's dark and I'm scared, I always think. What would Buffy do? You're my hero.
(Way better than any speech Angel, Spike or Riley ever gave her in my opinion and never gets the credit it deserves.)I thought I'd also post this. I get that this is an appreciation thread, and believe me, I appreciate her one hell of a lot. But Buffy's character has went through a whole lot of changes over the eight seasons so far, and I haven't enjoyed all of them. I love her dearly but I think she's hit a bad place the last couple of years and from what I've gathered from other fans and my own opinions, I've come up with my own kinda assessment when it all went wrong and what I hope for her character in the future.
I wrote this out on Buffyforums but I'm planning on trying to get a bit more cozy over here on
'SlayAlive' as well so I'm basically going thread to thread giving my thoughts on a number of characters/ships/seasons ect, and I really can't be bothered to write this out again so it's a lazy slap and paste job that pretty much sums up a lot of my views about Buffy's character. Feel free to skip it, as it goes on for a while. If your a member on Buffyforums and frequent the Buffy Appreication Thread there you've either already read it, or already skipped it, so nothing new here folks, just my endless ranting as per usual
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Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about Buffy’s journey within the eight seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and how she’s developed as a character. There’s an unmistakable shift in characterisation from, what I’ve best pin pointed as
‘Buffy Vs Dracula’ the opening episode of season five, in which Buffy’s steadily slumped into a regression of, in my opinion, a healthy resistance against preconceived notions of ‘slayer hood.’ Given the unmistakable change I’ve theorized as to what caused this sudden back flip, why I view it as a negative and why I still believe there’s hope for Buffy Summers.
I thought this would be the best place to share my thoughts as this thread is all about Buffy and appreciating her journey.
Possibly Buffy’s most defiant resistance to the predetermined notions of the slayer’s life occurs in the fourth season’s finale
‘Restless;’BUFFY: I am not alone. I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones. Now give me back my friends. (Restless, Buffy Season Four)This scene between Buffy and Senya (the First Slayer) is Buffy’s most resolute stance against the opposed ideas of what it means to be a slayer within eight seasons of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and is a cumulation of all her struggles come to a poignant head. For three years Buffy resisted against the idea she couldn’t live a normal life and still be the slayer. Instead of succumbing to a duty chosen for her she remained resilient against all those who attempted to control her or hold her to a life she didn’t choose. Wether it be attending a date in season one’s
‘Never Kill A Boy on The First Date’ “This is the 90's. The 1990's, in point of fact, and I can do both. Clark Kent has a job. I just wanna go on a date” or wanting to move forward within her education in
‘Choices’ “you can’t just defy me by my slayer-ness, that’s somethingism” Buffy remained adamant that she could successfully maintain the life of a girl whilst still juggling her responsibilities as a slayer. By the end of season three Buffy cut all ties with the Council of Watcher’s, referring to it as her “graduation” in the episode, non-coincidentally titled
‘Graduation Day.’In those first four seasons it’s fairly evident Buffy is a happier person. Unlike the last three seasons of the show, and in many respects continuing into the eighth season, Buffy’s feeling of isolation and loneliness has strayed her from her friends and family and the normalcy in her life, something which she held onto so tightly in the past. When she was adamant to balance both her duties as the slayer and “the girl” she was more in tune with her friends, shared more with them and didn’t express feelings of segregation caused by the slayer duty, it never prevented her from entering into a normal relationship with Riley or hanging out with her friends at the Bronze. This is a happier, healthier Buffy. A girl far more comfortable with herself, far more emotionally accessible and far more in tune with Joss’ initial vision for her character.
Buffy Summers was created to subvert and undercut predetermined ideas about what people should expect from her. She wasn’t the blonde girl who went into the alley and was killed by the monster, she was the girl who fought back. That was Joss Whedon’s original vision for the character and her character has always more been more self assured when she continues to subvert and undercut what other characters and organisations expect from her. Buffy over tossed the Council’s oppression and more importantly defied the First Slayer as to what her role should be, “you’re not the source of me.” In Buffy’s dream during
‘Restless’ we are introduced to the nameless man who became Adam. In Buffy’s dream Buffy asks him his name and he replies, “Before Adam? Not a man among us can remember.” He’s the embodiment of what being the slayer could mean for Buffy and has meant for many girls before her. He’s no longer an individual, he no longer has his own identity, we only know him as “Adam” the killing machine, the warrior and the tool to win the war. It’s strikingly similar to what the First Slayer describes herself as being, and what she believes Buffy should be. “I have no speech. No name. I live in the action of death, the blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destruction. Absolute ... Alone.” Buffy can’t end up this way, as a character who we care about as an audience her most poignant and important struggle within ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is to undermine that destiny for herself and become something better, she needs to *create* something better.
Unfortunately the enjoining spell in
‘Primeval’ throws Buffy off course.
‘Restless’ is the last time we truly see a strong resolute Buffy who defies the notions of slayer hood and what it should mean for her, and instead creates something new entirely. But after this episode Buffy’s visibly shaken by all the effects of the enjoining spell, the awakening of the slayer essence and the first real embodiment of the primordial. The season four finale
‘Restless’ is perhaps the first real episode that deals with the concepts of the primitive and what’s the true essence of the slayer is. In Buffy’s dream she’s confronted by Riley, a character who was part of the Initiative, season four’s representation of ‘science’ who confronts Buffy about one of her deepest fears, Buffy almost suspiciously declares, “Where not demons” before either Riley or “Adam” make a declaration they believe this to be the case. It’s Buffy vocalising her own insecurities. And from this moment on she becomes fixated to learn more. Which really brings us to
‘Buffy Vs Dracula’ the turning point for her character and the steady decline of a happy vibrant Buffy Summers. Buffy vocalises her fears to Giles at the end of the episode, she tells him that she’s scared of what it means that she is the slayer. Dracula’s simultaneous arrival in that episode, as well as his claims that Buffy’s power is “rooted in darkness” sends her off balance when she was already struggling with the aftermath of the First Slayer’s claims in
‘Restless.’ And in this moment her attention strays from trying to maintain a normal life by embracing that life, to trying to maintain a normal life by learning more about her slayer-ness. “I need to know more about the other slayers, maybe if I could learn to control this thing I could be stronger I could be better.” In that one moment Buffy’s fixation turns to something else in a hope to find inner peace and begins her spiral downwards into the emotional mess we find her to be later on in the series.
The more Buffy concentrates on “the slayer” the more she feels disillusioned with “the girl.” Her fixation of learning more about her roots and the slayer mythology causes in an attempt to naively find some balance, her to feel segregated from the people around her. After all, the more she concentrates on the problems unique to her, the more she looses focus of all the similarities she shares with her friends. She’s the only one who is the slayer, the only one with a unanswered past, she’s the only one who has the burden of the world forced upon her shoulders. It’s easy for Buffy to focus on all the things that make her different, rather than all the things that make her the normal girl. No longer does she recite, “I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze” now she focuses on “absolute, alone.” Even in ‘Intervention’ we see Buffy, consumed by the “need to know more” turning to a slayer explanation as to why she feels hardened and numb after her mother’s passing. Giles reassures her it’s completely understandable and *normal* she feels this way, but adamant any feelings of disillusionment must be an effect of being the slayer, Buffy believes being the slayer “is turning her to stone.” Rather than approaching her problems through an entirely realistic and normal perception, something an earlier Buffy would have done, she’s far too quick to immediately turn to the idea it’s because she’s the slayer. This paranoia that being the slayer makes her so different is why she feels more disenchanted with the world and the life of “the girl” as she goes on.
Coincidentally, circumstances in her life coincidence with her obsession to find out more about the slayer. After coming back from the dead her involvement with a soulless vampire, who’s admittedly “obsessed” with the concept of slayers only further plays up her insecurities about slayerhood. With Spike telling Buffy “she belongs in the dark.” Given at this point in her life Buffy’s emotionally crippled she’s far less resistant to such ideas, only leading her further into isolation and feeling alone. Her experience in
‘Get It Done’ only further plays on these thoughts with the revelation the first slayer was created by using the essence of a demonic spirit. Now in the eighth season Buffy’s dreams give us more insight into how she views herself and what ultimately she fears with Buffy screaming “I’m afraid of the dark!” in which Xander replies “Buffy you are the dark!”
Buffy’s become suffocated as she more and more turns to the easy cop out of “being alone.” She’s no longer the woman who rebels against what people expect her to be, but instead a woman who far to easily falls prey to what people tell her she is. Wether it be Dracula, Spike or the First Slayer Buffy’s lost the strength to confront the claims she is different or that she’s inherently dark. As the series progresses in my opinion it becomes even more scary that many fans seem to share in these thoughts about Buffy rather than hope she fights back and becomes something else. Idea’s such as, “she needs some monster in her man” or she isn’t “just a girl” only further contradict what Buffy was capable of being earlier on in her journey, when regardless of being the slayer she could find emotional fulfilment by having a relationship with Riley Finn and a friendship with her friends. There was a time where people were strongly with Angel in saying “you deserve someone who can take into a light” now there’s great support that she’s a creature of the dark and can’t be fulfilled by the light. I only hope Buffy can come return to the former mind set rather than the latter, if she doesn’t she’ll never feel anything but horribly disconnected. Regardless of wether she’s the slayer or not, she was first and foremost “the girl.” She still can be that girl.
I do believe this Buffy can come back and I believe her friends are the key to brining her back. Throughout
‘Restless’ Buffy has one main goal is to find her friends, her most resolute moment in the entire episode is when she firmly orders “now give me back my friends.” That desire to find them, her ties and connection the world, is what brought her out of the dark and is what gave her the strength to deny the first slayer and save her life. When she was fixated on her friends and living in their world she was happier and healthier, she wasn’t alone and separated. They’re the key to getting the healthy Buffy back. Spike states in
‘Fool For Love’ that they are her “ties to the world” and “the reason she’s made it as long as she has” and he’s right. From the very first episode he appeared in, in
‘Schoolhard’ he makes reference to “a slayer with family and friends” and as to why he failed to kill her. Joyce tells Buffy in
‘Fear Itself’ that she isn’t alone because she has “Mr Giles and her friends” and Angel tells her that “the people around her” will help her get through the hard times in
‘Forever.’ If Buffy can make that effort again, which I believe she can, I believe she’ll be the better for it. She has to let go of the obsession to uncover the essence of the slayer and believe in herself like she did in
‘Restless’ when she declares she won’t be like all the other slayers and it’ll set her back on the right track.
So that's my analysis of Buffy's character and where it all went wrong with her. In my opinion if she begins fixating on the common ground she has with people and not what makes her different she'll be that strong girl again. I believe there’s a chance of this in season eight, where despite some of morally dubious decisions, she’s progressing in being more involved and emotionally open with her friends, her ties to the world. The season is tackling the isolation Buffy’s felt head on and I only hope it can give Buffy some inner peace.