Give Buffy a break
So, ever since I was hooked on Buffy (curses upon Tsuru, Dash, and Netflix!), I've naturally been checking out the fanfic situation. And I'm seeing one common scenario which just makes me roll my eyes.
In them, someone--typically Giles--Has Enough, and spends paragraphs upon paragraphs telling Buffy, in detail, what a horrible person she is, complete with copious examples. Any token attempt she makes to defend herself is promptly shot down and stomped on, and is typically portrayed as being a further example of her immaturity. When this person has run out of steam, Buffy commences abject, groveling, usually tearful apologies...whereupon the person typically shoots her down for good and stomps off, usually with the rest of the cast in tow. If there's an epilogue, it's usually detailing how Buffy died shortly after, and nobody cared.
Now...I'm not about to pretend Buffy is a perfect being and anyone who doesn't acknowledge that is an idiot, because I think that's just as much of an injustice to the character as the Buffy bashing. The truth is...Buffy *is* often self-centered. She can be immature. She can say and do hurtful things, and sometimes be completely oblivious to the harm she's caused. And I don't mean to excuse that in the slightest. But I think people are forgetting a few things when they tear into her, a few factors which affect those behaviors,
First of all: Buffy is human, and these are things that humans do. Never mind the fact that for the run of the series, Buffy is a young woman, and speaking as someone in her age group--that's fairly typical young adult behavior.
But I think there's one other important thing to keep in mind: Buffy is under a *hell* of a lot of stress. She's the Slayer, called upon to save the world, while maintaining a normal life. In the course of her duties she's expelled from one school, prompting her mother to uproot and move. She loses friends. She's unable to form normal relationships (remember Owen?). She has to protect those around her by slaying demons and vampires, then go home and do her homework and face her mother's wrath for cutting class, has to accept that her mother is worried she's on drugs or part of a gang. They can't really bond because Buffy can't open up to her. She has to accept criticism for being "irresponsible" when the truth is she's being very responsible. She has a thankless job that is probably going to get her killed before she graduates from high school...and she can never tell anyone about it. Buffy has to do her job while knowing she appears like a lunatic to those around her, at one of the most self-conscious periods of her life. Her role as the Slayer doesn't exempt her from real life, and no matter how she tries to combine the two, she never really can.
Buffy has to be constantly on guard, worrying that everyone she loves is going to be caught up in the vortex of her life and harmed, and simaltaneously knowing that this isolates her. Every time she has a nightmare, she has to worry that it's a premonition of the apocolypse. She can't even take refuge in anything as "ordinary" as cheerleading or making fun of the school talent show without dire consequences resulting.
Giles says in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", "We may be the only thing that stands between the earth and its total destruction". It's a no-brainer that Buffy immediately responds with flippant humor. That's an incredible amount of pressure to place on anyone, but particularly a sixteen-year-old girl. Particularly a sixteen-year-old girl who thought that moving would mean an opportunity to get away from this job she never asked for, this job that's torn her life apart (not to mention the lives of her loved ones, and Buffy has to handle the guilt of inadvertently being responsible for that) and is doing nothing for her life expectancy. Even before she knows of the prophecy regarding the Master, she knows she probably isn't going to live very long. She'll be under siege every day until something gets lucky. In the meantime...if anything goes wrong, it's the Slayer's job to clean it up. She didn't want this job, didn't ask for it, but she has it anyway--and she has to rise to the occasion.
I don't mean to sound like I'm criminalizing Giles, by the way--he's actually become one of my favorite characters. And the truth is the position he's in is just as uncomfortable as Buffy's. In Season One, at least, the worst I can say about him is that his position is purely theoretical, purely intellectual. He's out of touch with the practical aspects of Buffy's job, and therefore his role in supporting her. And to his credit, he catches on and starts revising his approach ("Prophecy Girl").
So with all of this in mind--it really comes as no surprise to me that Buffy's self-centered and sometimes oblivious or insensitive. And it's perfectly valid not to like her. It's perfectly valid to criticize her for these things. But for crying out loud, people, before spending three pages having Xander or Giles analyze her faults in depth, remember this: She's got superhuman strength and senses...but she's only human, and she's in a horrible place. She's not perfect. She's never tried to be. If you placed her on a pedestal and her subsequent all-too-human behavior dethroned her, I'd say that's your problem. I'd also say that the Buffybashing fics do nothing to improve your writing skills, because you have to snap pretty far out of character...and also because it's easy to create a two-dimensional villain. It's hard to create a three-dimensional person.
(Buffy aside: I've only seen Armin Shimerman in Deep Space 9 before...so when he first turned up, it was definitely a freaky moment. Quark's voice coming out of a human's mouth. Whoa.)
Anyway, off to lit. I love and miss you all. :)
In them, someone--typically Giles--Has Enough, and spends paragraphs upon paragraphs telling Buffy, in detail, what a horrible person she is, complete with copious examples. Any token attempt she makes to defend herself is promptly shot down and stomped on, and is typically portrayed as being a further example of her immaturity. When this person has run out of steam, Buffy commences abject, groveling, usually tearful apologies...whereupon the person typically shoots her down for good and stomps off, usually with the rest of the cast in tow. If there's an epilogue, it's usually detailing how Buffy died shortly after, and nobody cared.
Now...I'm not about to pretend Buffy is a perfect being and anyone who doesn't acknowledge that is an idiot, because I think that's just as much of an injustice to the character as the Buffy bashing. The truth is...Buffy *is* often self-centered. She can be immature. She can say and do hurtful things, and sometimes be completely oblivious to the harm she's caused. And I don't mean to excuse that in the slightest. But I think people are forgetting a few things when they tear into her, a few factors which affect those behaviors,
First of all: Buffy is human, and these are things that humans do. Never mind the fact that for the run of the series, Buffy is a young woman, and speaking as someone in her age group--that's fairly typical young adult behavior.
But I think there's one other important thing to keep in mind: Buffy is under a *hell* of a lot of stress. She's the Slayer, called upon to save the world, while maintaining a normal life. In the course of her duties she's expelled from one school, prompting her mother to uproot and move. She loses friends. She's unable to form normal relationships (remember Owen?). She has to protect those around her by slaying demons and vampires, then go home and do her homework and face her mother's wrath for cutting class, has to accept that her mother is worried she's on drugs or part of a gang. They can't really bond because Buffy can't open up to her. She has to accept criticism for being "irresponsible" when the truth is she's being very responsible. She has a thankless job that is probably going to get her killed before she graduates from high school...and she can never tell anyone about it. Buffy has to do her job while knowing she appears like a lunatic to those around her, at one of the most self-conscious periods of her life. Her role as the Slayer doesn't exempt her from real life, and no matter how she tries to combine the two, she never really can.
Buffy has to be constantly on guard, worrying that everyone she loves is going to be caught up in the vortex of her life and harmed, and simaltaneously knowing that this isolates her. Every time she has a nightmare, she has to worry that it's a premonition of the apocolypse. She can't even take refuge in anything as "ordinary" as cheerleading or making fun of the school talent show without dire consequences resulting.
Giles says in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", "We may be the only thing that stands between the earth and its total destruction". It's a no-brainer that Buffy immediately responds with flippant humor. That's an incredible amount of pressure to place on anyone, but particularly a sixteen-year-old girl. Particularly a sixteen-year-old girl who thought that moving would mean an opportunity to get away from this job she never asked for, this job that's torn her life apart (not to mention the lives of her loved ones, and Buffy has to handle the guilt of inadvertently being responsible for that) and is doing nothing for her life expectancy. Even before she knows of the prophecy regarding the Master, she knows she probably isn't going to live very long. She'll be under siege every day until something gets lucky. In the meantime...if anything goes wrong, it's the Slayer's job to clean it up. She didn't want this job, didn't ask for it, but she has it anyway--and she has to rise to the occasion.
I don't mean to sound like I'm criminalizing Giles, by the way--he's actually become one of my favorite characters. And the truth is the position he's in is just as uncomfortable as Buffy's. In Season One, at least, the worst I can say about him is that his position is purely theoretical, purely intellectual. He's out of touch with the practical aspects of Buffy's job, and therefore his role in supporting her. And to his credit, he catches on and starts revising his approach ("Prophecy Girl").
So with all of this in mind--it really comes as no surprise to me that Buffy's self-centered and sometimes oblivious or insensitive. And it's perfectly valid not to like her. It's perfectly valid to criticize her for these things. But for crying out loud, people, before spending three pages having Xander or Giles analyze her faults in depth, remember this: She's got superhuman strength and senses...but she's only human, and she's in a horrible place. She's not perfect. She's never tried to be. If you placed her on a pedestal and her subsequent all-too-human behavior dethroned her, I'd say that's your problem. I'd also say that the Buffybashing fics do nothing to improve your writing skills, because you have to snap pretty far out of character...and also because it's easy to create a two-dimensional villain. It's hard to create a three-dimensional person.
(Buffy aside: I've only seen Armin Shimerman in Deep Space 9 before...so when he first turned up, it was definitely a freaky moment. Quark's voice coming out of a human's mouth. Whoa.)
Anyway, off to lit. I love and miss you all. :)