Female Character of the Week: Buffy Summers

March 10, 2011 marked the 14th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This seems as good a time as any to honor Buffy Summers as my Female Character of the Week.

Name: Buffy Anne Summers

Why She Rocks: I’ve held off on writing about Buffy for a long time because I have almost too much to say about her.  How can I even begin to describe one of the most memorable – if not the most memorable – female characters in TV history?  Buffy is a cultural icon and I don’t know how to sum up seven years of awesomeness that she gave us.  But I’ll give it a shot and talk about the five reasons why I love Buffy. 

1) Buffy is brave. There’s no question about that.  This is a girl who knowingly marched to her own death at the age of sixteen, sacrificing herself to save the world from plunging into darkness.  This is a girl who risked her life, time and time again, without thinking, without hesitating.  Even when she doesn’t want to be brave, even when she’s at the lowest point in her life, even when she wants to give up, she always finds a way to fight through the hard times and come out on top.  She fights even if she thinks she can’t win, because the fight itself is enough when there’s something to fight for.

“I’m beyond tired. I’m beyond scared. I’m standing on the mouth of hell, and it is gonna swallow me whole…and it’ll choke on me. We’re not ready? They’re not ready. They think we’re gonna wait for the end to come, like we always do. I’m done waiting. They want an apocalypse? Oh, we’ll give ’em one. Anyone else who wants to run, do it now. ‘Cause we just became an army. We just declared war. From now on, we won’t just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them, and cut out their hearts one by one, until The First shows itself for what it really is. And I’ll kill it myself. There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than evil, and that’s us. Any questions?” – Episode 7.10, “Bring on the Night”

2) Buffy is resourceful. Some feminist critics have dismissed Buffy as not being a true, strong role model because all of her strength comes from a supernatural source.  This just plain isn’t true.  Buffy’s a queen of improvisation, excellent at using the resources around her to defeat her enemies.  She would put MacGyver to shame.  She’s killed many a vampire or demon using a stake, a crossbow, fire, and things to cut off heads, but some less conventional weapons have included a mirror, a gas pipe, and wet toilet paper (eww, not like that). She proved her mettle very well in the third season, when she temporarily lost her powers, and still managed to defeat the vampire by tricking him into drinking holy water.  Bruised and almost broken, Buffy’s last words to her enemy before he combusted?

“If I was at full Slayer power, I’d be punning right about now.” – Episode 3.12, “Helpless”

That’s a nice segue into my next point.

3) Buffy is funny. Buffy doesn’t often get credit for her great sense of humor.  The go-to characters for comic relief and excellent quipping are Xander, Cordelia, Anya, and Spike.  But Buffy knows how to toss off a great pun after she defeats an enemy and will even acknowledge if her joke doesn’t work.  She’s also more intellectual than meets the eye.  Look at this exchange with Xander:

“Buffy, this is all about fear.  It’s understandable, but you can’t let it control you. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to anger. – No, wait, hold on. – Fear leads to hate. Hate leads to the dark side. – Hold on, no. Ahm… First you get the women, then you get the money, then you… – OK, can we forget that?” “Thanks for the Dadaist pep talk.  I feel much more abstract now.” – Episode 4.01, “The Freshman”

Brilliant.

4) Buffy forgives. As Giles once said, “To forgive is an act of compassion.  It isn’t done because people deserve it, it’s done because they need it.”  Buffy must have taken that advice to heart, because she has forgiven so much.  She forgave Giles when he poisoned her and made her weaker because she understood the pressure he was under from the Watcher’s Council.  She forgave Willow for trying to destroy the world and almost killing Dawn because she knew Willow was in pain.  She forgave Angel for a lot (too much, in my opinion).  She forgave Anya and Andrew for their crimes and even took them in her house.  She forgave Spike for trying to rape her (which isn’t to say she didn’t also treat him badly in their relationship, but that’s still a big thing to forgive).  The only person she had a hard time forgiving was Faith, for two reasons: 1) Faith violated Buffy’s body in a way that no one else had, and 2) Faith is what Buffy could have been if her life had been different.  Buffy has a hard time forgiving Faith because she has a hard time forgiving herself. But if a person shows any remorse, any potential, to be good and change for the better, Buffy will give hir the benefit of the doubt.

“You faced the monster inside of you and you fought back. You risked everything to be a better man. And you can be. You are. You may not see it, but I do. I believe in you, Spike.” – Episode 7.09, “Never Leave Me”

5) Buffy loves. Buffy isn’t always demonstrative about her affections.  Part of that is because she’s been hurt so many times, so deeply.  She opened her heart to Angel, he crushed it, and she’s never been quite the same.  But even though she has a hard time talking about her depth of love and feeling, she feels it.  Oh boy, does she feel it.  She hurts deeply because she loves deeply.  She loves her family and her friends and she loves the world, which is why she tries so hard to save it.

“I can beat up the demons until the cows come home. And then I can beat up the cows. But I’m not sure I like what it’s doing to me…Strength, resilience, those are all words for hardness. I’m starting to feel like being the Slayer is turning me into stone.  Just think about it. I was never there for Riley. Not like I was for Angel. I was terrible to Dawn. Riley left because I was shut down. He’s gone. And now my mom is gone, and I loved her more than *anything.*   And I don’t know if she knew.  I don’t know. To slay, to kill. It means being hard on the inside. Maybe being the perfect Slayer means being too hard to love at all. I already feel like I can hardly say the words. Giles… I love you. Love, love, love, love. Giles, it feels strange!” – Episode 5.18, “Intervention”

Oh, Buffy.  I hear this and all I want to do is give her a hug.  She doesn’t realize that the very fact that she worries about this so much means she is full of love.

I could go on even longer, talking about why Buffy is such an important character for women, detailing moments of bravery, resourcefulness, humor, forgiveness, and love from all 144 episodes of the show, but that would take more time than I have.  Instead, I’ll just hand the reins over to Spike:

“When I say I love you, it’s not because I want you.  It has nothing to do with me.  I love what you are, what you do, how you try.  I’ve seen your kindness and I’ve seen your strength.  I’ve seen the best and the worst of you and I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are.  You are a hell of a woman.  You’re the one, Buffy.” – Episode 7.20, “Touched”

That’s Buffy in a nutshell.