(Buffy) Concerning Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

[Edena_of_Neith]

Buffy, as a series, has now reached my definition of a 6 (mildly good.)
Initially, it was a 4, but it's been improving steadily, and it still is.

Now, remember, that's my opinion, not the actual truth of the matter - how good or bad the series is has nothing to do with what I think!

The reason I am liking Buffy for the first time is because the actress is growing up, and the series is growing up with her - in this case, there is an actual parallel between Real Life and Fantasy.
As the actress grows up, her character grows up.

As this happens, more and more mature themes crop up in the series, and these are more appealing to me than the themes appropriate to an adolescent girl.

- - -

Anyways, now that I've offended everyone who likes Buffy and the series ...

There is ONE thing I REALLY like about Buffy.

In a world where females are always running from danger, Buffy isn't.
Yeah, yeah, I know that you see females not running - in sci-fi shows and films, and in other special cases - but Buffy is just an ordinary GIRL, not a superheroine, or an army specialist, or someone from another planet, or ... etc, etc.

Nor is Buffy a girl who walks into danger, and then the obligatory male shows up to save her when the going gets rough.

I liked Buffy's latest quote:

I will hunt them.
I will find out who they are.
Then, I will kill them.

But this is no psychopathic girl, no test result from an army experiment or genetic lab, or the result of a freak sequence of events.
This is just a GIRL.
A girl, who actually behaves like a girl (when she is allowed to!), and who wants to be ... just a girl!

She doesn't like killing.
She doesn't like combat.
She doesn't like danger.
She doesn't like any of this kind of stuff, any more than any average, normal person would like it.

But she WILL kill.
She will fight.
She will walk into danger.

She goes alone, most of the time, and does not thus drag her friends into danger.
She stands toe to toe against her enemies, takes her licks, and she wins.

So maybe all that adolescent stuff, is actually a really good thing after all, and what I said above is not appropriate - for all that adolescent stuff helps make Buffy a girl, a human being, not some superperson.

Gods, it gets tiring to see shows depicting girls running from danger, running to men for help, screaming for help - I mean, that may be realistic (I'm a male, and ... I ... try to run from dangerous situations!) but ... it gets old after 70 years of such fare.

Buffy not only does not run, she deliberately goes right in there to give battle to the foe.
Her job, that - to carry war to the enemy.
She is the Slayer.
The Slayer - the one who kills Vampires and contests with other Netherworld forces.

And if Buffy is solemn, and oftentimes bitter, sad, and morbid, I can understand that.
If she resents the normal life she cannot have because she is stuck being the Slayer, I can understand that.
And if she is tired of killing and battle, of constant danger and constant stress, I can understand that!

I do believe Buffy the Vampire Slayer may become one of my more favored shows before too long.
If it keeps going in the direction it's going - after all, the actress is getting older - I think it might became a favorite show of mine.

Edelaith

 

[Agamon]

Well stated. Though I disagree that she's "just a girl". She is very much like a super-hero, the thing is, she tries not to be. She does try to just be a regular ordinary person. There have been many episodes that do show that no matter how ordinary she tries to act, she'll never really be just a girl with normal problems.

I do agree with the premise of your post, though. The more mature Buffy is easier for me to relate to than the adolecent one, as well. I did appreciate the humor of the early episodes, however. The dark nature of the past season was bit high on the angst meter for me.

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

I will hunt them.
I will find out who they are.
Then, I will kill them.

Latest quote? Isn't that from the Dawn/Glory season, during the episode where we find out that Dawn is the 'key'?

-F

 

[Crothian]

Well, the whole idea is that in horrow movies the blonde dies. So, Buffy was created so that stereotype could be challenged. There si a lot on this topic if you watch the special sections of the DVDs.

 

[Tsyr]

Buffy is just an ordinary GIRL, not a superheroine,

Errr, wrong. Buffy is the Slayer. Capital S. She's not just some girl pulled off the streets and had a stake handed to her. The Powers that Be Chose (Again with a capital C) her to be the Slayer. Have you missed the episodes where she demonstrated she can jump 10+ feet strait up without a running start, punch through steel, etc?

Likewise, she cannot NOT be WHAT she is anymore than she can simply cease to be WHO she is. It's not like there are a plethora of slayers running around... Ok, there is a precedent for more than one slayer and all, but remember the episode where Cordy made "I wish buffy had never came here" wish? Yeah. Buffy has to do what she does. It's not a choice for her. Not unless she considers damning the world to darkness a "choice".

 

[Tsyr]

I'd also like to say that in a way, I miss the light-hearted nature of the first three seasons. Well... really, I think it went downhill ever since the Council fired Giles midway through S3. There were some good episodes, but the average Goodness factor has slid, I think. I was glad at first to see a change from the quirky corney comedy of the earlier eps (Season 1 was esp. bad for that at times), but now I kinda miss it... just too... angsty, as someone said. And the whole Dawn thing is/was just a little... bleh for me.

 

[Requiem]

Hi Edelaith,

From the content of your post and to use the correct buffyspeak you have experienced a "blinding flash of the obvious".

You are entirely mistaken in regards to the one thing you really like about Buffy. Buffy is a super heroine through and through. She had displayed numerous beyond human abilities throughout the series and Im stunned you havent noticed.

Buffy herself is based on a very simple concept "with great power comes great responsibility". The concept is hardly new.

Personally the quality of Buffy episodes have decreased somewhat over the past few seasons..Season 4 nearly killed my interest in Buffy entirely..her constant whining...bah!!

 

[Lizard]

But this is no psychopathic girl, no test result from an army experiment or genetic lab, or the result of a freak sequence of events.
This is just a GIRL.
A girl, who actually behaves like a girl (when she is allowed to!), and who wants to be ... just a girl!

Uhm, not really. She's a Slayer. A Chosen One, capital C, capital 1. She has super-strength, super-agility, and so on. She worries about her friends joining her because she knows they DON'T have slayer powers.

In one episode, "Helpless", she temporarily lost those abilities (I won't say how or why), and she reacted like a normal human would when confronted with a vampire. She ran like hell.

What I like about Buffy is that the show allows a woman to have super-powers without somehow crippling her or making her ineffective in practice. I also like the fact that the support/mentor role is played by a man -- Giles -- who is intellectual without being ineffective or cowardly. If I were 16, I'd definitely have Giles as a role model.

And, as a general rule, Buffy tends to be the one rescuing her boyfriends from Certain Doom, not vice-versa.

 

[Severion]

Well, the whole idea is that in horrow movies the blonde dies. So, Buffy was created so that stereotype could be challenged. There si a lot on this topic if you watch the special sections of the DVDs.

Well she does on occasion. Was that 3 times or only twice. But seriously, with the coming of Dawn, the chipping of Spike and the death of Joice :'( i still can't help loving this show, inspite of the angst/goofiness.

 

[Staffan]

I think it's three times so far. When she fought the Master, he left her face-down in a puddle of water where she flatlined but was revived by Xander. Then she died "for real" in order to close the dimensional rift that had been opened by Chiung, sorry, that odd demon doctor - but she got better. I also *think* she flatlined on the operating table after Warren shot her, but was healed by Darth Willow.