The absolute beauty of this ep is that we'll never know for sure. It's all a fiction, but is a fictional fiction any more fictional than the other kind? I will always write as if the Sunnydale Buffy is the "real" one, but...
I like the thought that in the end this is all just in unstable real world!Buffy's head (which would explain the last season) but its just an intriguing AU.
The episode is in many ways metafiction; it could be the "truth" for a given value of "truth", but there are no further references to that world in the show, so I voted that Slayer!Buffy is real. Depends what you mean by "real", perhaps...
Well, if this ep had come at the end of the series, it would have made me have doubts. And if it weren't for Ats, I could see that as being feasible. However, if she's just some chick in a clinic with strong, mental delusions, then that would negate Angel's world and everyone in it, and it would in fact have no reason to exist on its own beyond the realms of Buffy's mind, and that would both sadden me and piss me off, and make no sense.
So yes--she's the slayer, who got a nasty trick played on her by her (not so much) archenemeses (or however you spell it).
Just want to note that slaymesoftly wrote a beautiful fic about the girl in the clinic called Normal Is Just A Word. It was a very interesting take on the episode's premise even if it begins shortly after "The Gift," and I can't recommend it enough.
As for the question? Buffy the slayer's real, but it's a credit to the series itself that it could ask the question about the show's entire premise just being a delusion.
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So yes--she's the slayer, who got a nasty trick played on her by her (not so much) archenemeses (or however you spell it).
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As for the question? Buffy the slayer's real, but it's a credit to the series itself that it could ask the question about the show's entire premise just being a delusion.
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