buffy summers – Insect Reflection

But You’re Just A Girl (Helpless)

Buffy holds a bottle of holy water as she looks defiantly at Kralik.

The test that Buffy undergoes in this episode – in which she is stripped of her powers, locked inside a house, and forced to fight a mentally unstable vampire – is named in the script as The Cruciamentum. Giles describes it as “an archaic exercise in cruelty”, and it’s difficult to think of a descriptionContinue reading “But You’re Just A Girl (Helpless)”

I Guess Her Generation Isn’t Cool With Witchcraft (Gingerbread)

Buffy tied to a stake, surrounded by books that have been lit on fire.

Please be aware that this essay contains discussion of homophobia, transphobia, racism, antisemitism, general bigotry and hate speech. On the 24th May 1988 the Conservative government of Great Britain, led by Margaret Thatcher, passed a law known officially as the United Kingdom Local Government Act 1988. This Act had many effects, but by far itsContinue reading “I Guess Her Generation Isn’t Cool With Witchcraft (Gingerbread)”

It Wasn’t Our World Anymore (The Wish)

Cordelia sits in a pile of refuse, looking angry.

Part One: The Girl It must really suck to be Cordelia Chase. She was created to represent the alternate life that Buffy Summers could have had, and the shadow desires that still live inside her. Everybody on this show exists in relation to Buffy in some way. She is the nexus of this universe, aroundContinue reading “It Wasn’t Our World Anymore (The Wish)”

Defensiveness and Weird Mixed Signals (Revelations)

Buffy looks sadly downwards, outside Faith's motel room.

The seventh episode in any season is always an important milestone, for while the first third of the season clears up the debris of the previous and sets up the various cogs of plot that will be needed going forward, Episode Sevens are notable for not only being generally very good, but for stretching outContinue reading “Defensiveness and Weird Mixed Signals (Revelations)”

I’m A Teen, I’ve Yet To Mature (Band Candy)

Buffy searches for Ethan with a serious expression. Giles stands out of focus behind her.

There are few demographics more underrepresented in Buffy the Vampire Slayer than Adult Female Characters. As a coming-of-age story, the bulk of Buffy’s cast is understandably made up of Adolescents, who carry on their stories as Young Adults as the show moves on past high school. Beyond these characters though, the show finds time andContinue reading “I’m A Teen, I’ve Yet To Mature (Band Candy)”

We’re Like Sisters, With Really Different Hair (Homecoming)

Since this series started, Cordelia Chase has existed for one specific purpose – to act as Buffy’s Shadow Self. She has represented Buffy’s pre-Slayer self, and her desire to return to that state. That part of Buffy’s life is her childhood – both literally in the sense that she was fifteen years old when sheContinue reading “We’re Like Sisters, With Really Different Hair (Homecoming)”

I May Be Love’s Bitch (Beauty and the Beasts)

Buffy sit on the floor of the mansion, dappled in shadow.

“Love isn’t brains, children, it’s blood. Blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.” Spike, 3×08 Lovers Walk The nature of love is an impossible thing to distill. If it were possible, then the poets would have done so already –Continue reading “I May Be Love’s Bitch (Beauty and the Beasts)”

Her Name Alone Invokes Awe (Faith, Hope, and Trick)

Buffy watches Faith go, holding a stake.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; thenContinue reading “Her Name Alone Invokes Awe (Faith, Hope, and Trick)”

Some Friends You Are (Dead Man’s Party)

Buffy looks sad in the middle of a party in her house, as guests look over at her.

The legacy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has remained so powerful over the near twenty years it has been off the air not because of its lack of faults, but because of its strengths. Its faults were aplenty. It did not trade in intricate, watertight plotting. It had no capability for visual spectacle. Its worldbuildingContinue reading “Some Friends You Are (Dead Man’s Party)”

Who Are You? (Anne)

A shot of Buffy from the shoulders up, holding a weapon and looking triumphant.

Part One: Lily In Season 5, Episode 22 of Angel – the very last episode of the Buffyverse, Not Fade Away – we meet a very important character for one final time. Her name is Anne. Or, it will be. That’s not her name yet. We have met her once before, and back then sheContinue reading “Who Are You? (Anne)”