ToMAYto-ToMAHto
I don't know why it's taken me so long to sit down and write this.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season nine, issue fourteen, "Billy the Vampire Slayer Part 1" introduces us to Billy Lane. Who is a boy. And a vampire slayer.
I was worried when I first heard about this plan at Comic-Con. Jane Espenson was talking about the new character, the boy slayer, and I kind of went, "Oh, no."
Breaking the rules of your own universe is rarely a good thing. (Just because I like Connor doesn't mean I wasn't worried about sharks and water skis when he first showed up.)
Eventually, I had to calm myself down and remind myself that there already was a male Slayer once before. Sort of. Remember Edward, anyone? Slayer in the early nineteenth century, featured in the "Tales of the Slayer" series in issue eight, "Presumption", and, hey, also created by Miss Espenson.
Okay, so we weren't entirely clear whether Edward was actually transgendered and identified as a man, or identified as woman and was simply disguised as a man. The narration used female pronouns, but the character doesn't use any and says "Edward. Always Edward," indicating some level of identity with the masculine name. But in any case, that's where I figured we were going.
I mean, there are thousands of slayers out there. I think it's a little strange that we haven't seen one that identifies as male, or agendered even. (I also think it's weird that Satsu claims that she and Kennedy are the only lesbian Slayers, but that's not really relevant right now.)
But, nope, he's a cisgendered male, but fortunately without powers. No rule breaking, just some weird identity stuff. I mean, okay, you want to go fight vampires, that's fine, but Billy's right when he says that Slayers have to be called. What makes Billy more of a Slayer than Xander, or Gunn? A Slayer, capital "S", is called, given dreams (usually. Sorry, Mel.), super strength, super speed, and has the ability to sense demons and vampires.
But anyone has the potential to be a vampire slayer. I mean, pretty much every character in the show is a vampire slayer. Xander, Willow, Cordelia, Dawn, Andrew. I mean, if we're going to go with the idea of a Slayer being somebody who simply slays a lot of vampires, then I'm probably going to go ahead and give that title to Gunn. He's been doing this for a long time, and he's just the everyday human man. Gunn the Vampire Slayer.
But he's not. Gunn's a slayer, but he's not a Slayer. So, should Billy get to be? He's got Cute Devon (I'm going to call him that, because calling him Devon would feel disrespectful to the first Devon, who I still miss.) to act as a Watcher, but Gunn had an actual Watcher.
For that matter, what would allow Cute Devon to become a Watcher? A Watcher can be anyone, but they have special training. Andrew wasn't a Watcher just because he knew a lot about demons. He had to go to England and be trained.
So, no, I'm not so sure how I feel about this. But, since neither Billy nor Cute Devon are being portrayed as actually being a Slayer or a Watcher, I'm still okay with it. Characters are supposed to have opinions and misconceptions. I just hope that the universe doesn't change just for them. I don't think I could get behind that.
But I think I could get to like Billy, despite all my worrying beforehand. The first thing he does is pick the tomatoes out of his sandwich. My wife and I don't like tomatoes either, so it's kind of endearing to see a fictional character do the same thing.
Hey, it's what warmed me back up to Connor after he locked Angel in a cage and threw him into the ocean.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season nine, issue fourteen, "Billy the Vampire Slayer Part 1" introduces us to Billy Lane. Who is a boy. And a vampire slayer.
I was worried when I first heard about this plan at Comic-Con. Jane Espenson was talking about the new character, the boy slayer, and I kind of went, "Oh, no."
Breaking the rules of your own universe is rarely a good thing. (Just because I like Connor doesn't mean I wasn't worried about sharks and water skis when he first showed up.)
Eventually, I had to calm myself down and remind myself that there already was a male Slayer once before. Sort of. Remember Edward, anyone? Slayer in the early nineteenth century, featured in the "Tales of the Slayer" series in issue eight, "Presumption", and, hey, also created by Miss Espenson.
Okay, so we weren't entirely clear whether Edward was actually transgendered and identified as a man, or identified as woman and was simply disguised as a man. The narration used female pronouns, but the character doesn't use any and says "Edward. Always Edward," indicating some level of identity with the masculine name. But in any case, that's where I figured we were going.
I mean, there are thousands of slayers out there. I think it's a little strange that we haven't seen one that identifies as male, or agendered even. (I also think it's weird that Satsu claims that she and Kennedy are the only lesbian Slayers, but that's not really relevant right now.)
But, nope, he's a cisgendered male, but fortunately without powers. No rule breaking, just some weird identity stuff. I mean, okay, you want to go fight vampires, that's fine, but Billy's right when he says that Slayers have to be called. What makes Billy more of a Slayer than Xander, or Gunn? A Slayer, capital "S", is called, given dreams (usually. Sorry, Mel.), super strength, super speed, and has the ability to sense demons and vampires.
But anyone has the potential to be a vampire slayer. I mean, pretty much every character in the show is a vampire slayer. Xander, Willow, Cordelia, Dawn, Andrew. I mean, if we're going to go with the idea of a Slayer being somebody who simply slays a lot of vampires, then I'm probably going to go ahead and give that title to Gunn. He's been doing this for a long time, and he's just the everyday human man. Gunn the Vampire Slayer.
But he's not. Gunn's a slayer, but he's not a Slayer. So, should Billy get to be? He's got Cute Devon (I'm going to call him that, because calling him Devon would feel disrespectful to the first Devon, who I still miss.) to act as a Watcher, but Gunn had an actual Watcher.
For that matter, what would allow Cute Devon to become a Watcher? A Watcher can be anyone, but they have special training. Andrew wasn't a Watcher just because he knew a lot about demons. He had to go to England and be trained.
So, no, I'm not so sure how I feel about this. But, since neither Billy nor Cute Devon are being portrayed as actually being a Slayer or a Watcher, I'm still okay with it. Characters are supposed to have opinions and misconceptions. I just hope that the universe doesn't change just for them. I don't think I could get behind that.
But I think I could get to like Billy, despite all my worrying beforehand. The first thing he does is pick the tomatoes out of his sandwich. My wife and I don't like tomatoes either, so it's kind of endearing to see a fictional character do the same thing.
Hey, it's what warmed me back up to Connor after he locked Angel in a cage and threw him into the ocean.