There’s
an episode of Spaced where all the
characters are startled in the middle of the night. Each in turn shouts something different – “I’m
sorry!” from Daisy, “I’m hit!” from Mike, and “I’m blind!” from Brian. Tim, however, calls out for someone to save
him: “Buffy!” he cries.
As well
he should. It kills me that Buffy the Vampire Slayer existed (albeit
in its later seasons) while I was in high school and I never watched it. Every teenage girl ought to be exposed to
Buffy and her devoted gang of Scoobies.
I know I could’ve used a hero
like her.
At the
start of the series, sophomore Buffy Summers is the slayer, the solitary chosen
one imbued with extraordinary powers to fight vampires and other demons. She has super strength and incredibly fighting
abilities honed by her watcher Giles, a trainer and mentor. She alone has this power, and when she dies,
another slayer will be called.
However,
she’s also every inch a teenage girl, and a rather girly one at that. She likes clothes, boys, and junk food, and
although she’s bright, her grades aren’t stellar and there’s only so many times
she can say “a demon ate my homework.”
One can never forget that she didn’t chose
to become the slayer; she was chosen,
and there are days when she’d much rather be an ordinary girl. Days when the principal grows suspicious of
the trouble that seems to follow her, when she gets grounded for sneaking out
in the middle of night, when a pesky apocalypse gets in the way of a date with
a cute boy.
Oh, to
count the ways I love Buffy. Obviously,
she can handle herself in a fight, and while she has her unmotivated moments,
she’s fantastically determined when she puts her mind to it. She has bravery in spades – more than once,
she goes into battle with a far more powerful opponent, sometimes knowing her death has been prophesied,
but she goes anyway. In the face of all her
enemies, challenges, and monumental bouts of adversity (that Whedon sure knows
how to put ‘em through the ringer,) she remains bloody but unbowed.
Beyond
that, she’s a charming girl with a sly sense of humor that almost borders on
endearingly dorky sometimes. She’s an
occasionally distracted but genuinely caring friend, and what’s more, she judges
people by their merits. When she first arrives
in Sunnydale, the pretty, perky Buffy is courted by high school royalty like Cordelia,
but she almost immediately aligns herself with nerds and losers like Willow and
Xander. Part of it is her natural
inclination to defend the underdog, and part of it is her ability to see Willow
and Xander’s untapped heroic potential.
And of
course, Buffy is, importantly, not
perfect. Her strong will can make her
stubborn, she can be overly reckless and impulsive, and once she’s formed an opinion
of someone, she tends to see them in black and white rather than shades of
gray. If she didn’t make mistakes or get
herself in trouble sometimes, it wouldn’t be half so satisfying to see her
triumph. It’s remarkable to see her grow
over the course of the series, becoming a true leader while still maintaining
her innate Buffyness.
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