My Love Letter To Buffy
I love Buffy. I’m a horror loving gay so I have to; but even if I wasn’t, I’m pretty sure I’d still love her. Watching the show is like going home. I’m the exact same age as Buffy. I was in the same grade she was in high school and I was going through the same hellish torments that she and the Scooby Gang were forced to endure as adolescents. That’s why I was always so blown away by the metaphor of ‘high school being like hell’ that the first few seasons operated on. I just thought it was so clever; I still do!
I mean the storylines and arcs: a girl feels invisible so she becomes invisible, a group of jerk off teenagers become a pack of hyenas, or how about when you have sex with a boy and he immediately becomes an asshole after its over! Sheer brilliance! It was gripping television featuring a cast of extremely lovable and vulnerable characters. They just don’t make tv like that anymore. I tried to pick up The Slayers’ story in the comics but it just wasn’t the same. I have them, I just cant get into them. I have been keeping the hope alive for a reboot which seemed inevitable at one point, but now, who knows?!
Buffy Summers is an icon. A petite blonde girl that scared the things that went bump in the night. She was an idealist and duty-bound despite the massive personal cost of it. She loved her family and friends as hard as she fought monsters, and looked amazing while doing it. I still envy her decisiveness and bravery in the face of danger and overwhelming obstacles. She was the archetypical hero repackaged for a new generation. There is only one. She continues to inspire me to this day. Sarah Michelle Gellar breathed life into this amazing character and I’ve been a lifelong fan of hers because of it.
Her journey from the reluctant acceptance of her power, to the full ownership and understanding of its depth, and ultimately her willingness to share it is one for the ages. Death was her gift to the world by way of dispatching demons and by using her own life force to thwart the apocalypse. I loved how they did not tiptoe around the fact that a hero is often isolated even when surrounded by friends and family. Responsibility can be alienating and her role as the Slayer always had to take precedence over everything else. She had to sacrifice the love of her life to save the world and then carry-on life without him even after he returned from hell. She did it because that is what was required of her and what was safest for the world (lest Angel lose his soul again and go on a rampage). She wasn’t given the cookie cutter romantic happy ending fans clamored for, but instead found deep connection through the bonds shared with the Scooby Gang. The show made it a point to highlight that Buffy would never had been as successful in her endeavors as she was had it not been for the help and guidance of Giles, Willow, Xander, Joyce and even Dawn.
Besides being the consummate hero, she was also a fully realized person. While ultimately making the best decisions for the sake of humanity, she didn’t always have such sound judgement in her personal life. The men in her life clouded her judgement (I mean talk about relatable content, right?!). Trying to kill Faith to save Angel probably wasn’t the move, but we know why she did it. Hanging onto Riley despite knowing she’d only ever love Angel was questionable, but also understandable. Using Spike as a way to process her feelings about death and being brought back to life against her wishes was also not great but then Spike really fucked up by crossing the line with her anyway so screw him….but I digress. I’m saying she was a human that made the same mistakes we all do and it made her so much more relatable and enabled us all to fall in love with her.
In short, Buffy Lives! She lives on in the comics, but more importantly in the hearts and minds of the fandom.