By: Allison Ambuehl
Buffy the Vampire slayer is a classic seven season television show that ran from 1997 – 2003. Although you might have watched it on a bulky, 20-inch analog television as a kid, it’s still wildly successful and amassed 100 million dollars in streaming revenue as recent as 2020.
Even though there are tons of new audience members who help bring those numbers up, a lot of the watchers are millennials who followed along with the show when they were in school. The cultural impact of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to kids who were in middle and high school during its air is something only comparable to the Twilight Saga from the 2010s.
Due to its incredible success, there is a wide variety of different opinions, perspectives, and connections brought to life curtesy of the fanbase.
But how about bringing you one more angle to think about when re-watching?
How did Buffy’s inability to make her own choices due to being chosen as the slayer impact her psyche throughout the series?
Buffy is the fearless and carefree main character of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show follows her from her sophomore year at Sunnydale High, to her career as a counselor at that same high school. You watch her grow up, mature, make mistakes, and fight for her life every episode.
She’s a role model for woman and young girls everywhere, she is proof you can be strong and resilient, but you don’t have to do it all alone and relying on people makes her stronger as a person and slayer.
For the duration of the show, you see into her mind and empathize with her choices, even if they don’t have the desired outcomes.
Buffy is a strong and independent young woman, who has many responsibilities that come with being a slayer, and she carries that weight flawlessly, proving everyone wrong.
Underneath all that, she is still a teenage girl for a majority of the show and deals with the struggles of high school, love, figuring out her future and self, along with mental health.
The struggles of being a teenage slayer and how they affect Buffy specifically become prevalent as soon as the first couple episodes, when Buffy must miss out on things that are important to her. Like the school dance, dating, and even doing something as simple as hanging out at The Bronze with her friends Xander and Willow.
Although Buffy takes it gracefully, it doesn’t make it any less crushing to her spirit. Buffy’s way of coping is emotionally numbing herself and suffocating her desires with thoughts of her failing as a slayer.
She is also forced into social isolation, outside of the people who know about her abilities, because they can’t risk the secret getting out.
This pattern continues throughout the show and it gets increasingly harder to ignore when it comes to Buffy’s decisions about her future, especially when she considers colleges in season three.
In addition, grief is a horrible demon itself and because of Buffy being a slayer, the vampires tend to target the people closest to her.
Buffy herself also died multiple times throughout the series, and as you can imagine it is incredibly traumatic and further reinforces the impending doom of death looming over her, impacting every choice she makes regarding her future.
These instances and the traumatic experiences she has suffered due to her being a slayer have proven to affect her mental health and cognitive functioning.
While I’ve only watched until season four, it is clear these instances have already affected her mentally and will later lead to even more destructive behaviors. I am looking forward to finishing this entrancing, roller coaster of a show, and further analyzing Buffy as a character.
Image curtesy of Alpha Coders
