Buffy? Old and busted. The potentials? New hotness!

[EVIL UU]

So, basically on BtVS ( I know, I know, AtS has different rules, this is about BtVS only ) adults are worthless, witless, annoying idiots. It's an ongoing theme present in every season of the show, even in season 7, though a change begins with the portrayal of potentials as useless and unlikable. And OK, Buffy and the gang are still young but for a 14-15 year old potential slayer that has just been activated in 2003 they are adults and Buffy is a ma'am. Then post season 7, the franchise suddenly changes the tune, adults now lead the fight against the forces of darkness and stop apocalypses, the young are, you guessed it, worthless, witless, annoying idiots. Doesn't that bother anybody? Why is Buffy and the rest of the old guard still relevant in a world with thousands of slayers? Why do we still need them? Why do we still need undead creeps with never-ending redemption arcs when there are hundreds of young, passionate women out there with the ability and will to keep the world safe? Where is a spin-off about a young, spunky slayer and her teenage friends keeping their little town safe? When will Buffy show up to stop an apocalypse just to find a bunch of slayers already cheering their victory and getting rid of demon carcasses? You catch my drift?

 

[Wesley Pryce]

Completely agree,i always found the "we rule,they suck" mentality of the scoobies to be pretty annoying. Also think that Joss Whedon made the point of Buffy THE vampire slayer kind of pointless with the activation of all potentials to be actual slayers,i mean whats the point of "the slayer" if there is an army of them,its dumb.

 

[ladydorotea]

Where is a spin-off about a young, spunky slayer and her teenage friends keeping their little town safe? When will Buffy show up to stop an apocalypse just to find a bunch of slayers already cheering their victory and getting rid of demon carcasses? You catch my drift?

LOL. We've actually got something like that in the comics. It was called 'Billy the vampire Slayer'. The Slayer was not a girl, but otherwise fit your bill perfectly. The fandom rioted, asking for more old cranky Buffy and her geriatric Scoobs.

 

[Kean]

The theme here isn't that adults are worthless, it's that anyone who isn't the Scoobys are worthless.

 

[sk]

Hmm, why do we think everyone except the scoobies are worthless?
Feels like I've missed something again.

The potential in season 7 I can somewhat agree on.
But after they was all turned into slayers they have seemed quite capable to me.

Sure, I wouldn't mind to see a new series, about another slayer, that saves the day on daily basis.
Could be fun with another take on it.

Until that happens we will of course see Buffy saving the day.
That doesn't make everyone else worthless though imho. The story is just not about them.

/SK

 

[Robb Stark]

Well, I think that Buffy and her crew would be afforded a pretty prominent place in the new Slayer hierarchy because of their past accomplishments, which is a pretty formidable list.

That said, you can make the same case about every comic out there right now though. I mean, there are thousands of mutants and superheroes out there. Why do we follow Batman? Why Superman, or Captain America?" That just comes down to the way stories are told. If the argument is made that Buffy should no longer be a protagonist because there are others of comparable power level to her, then why should anyone be a protagonist then?

 

[EVIL UU]

[MENTION=11975]Robb Stark[/MENTION]

I'd like BtVS to avoid the trappings of the usual cape crap. And no, Buffy should definitely be the protagonist of her own comic, it's just, the world's changed. The plot should reflect that, don't you think? There are thousands of slayers, as capable as Buffy. Maybe Buffy doesn't have to deal with every big, huge apocalypse anymore, she can fight in smaller, more contained fights, still plenty of demon vermin to hunt down after all, live like a person for a bit too. It made sense that it was always Buffy to save the world when she was one girl in all the world, sitting on top of the hell mouth, but now she's one girl out of thousands and there's no hell mouth anymore. It's unsatisfying.
[MENTION=9316]ladydorotea[/MENTION]

The fandom rioted, asking for more old cranky Buffy and her geriatric Scoobs.

I think that fandom rioted because it was done in a Buffy comic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer should be about Buffy, period. I mean, I get the rioting. I dislike season 6 for the same reason - it's not about Buffy. Also, Billy was just a lame ass wannabe human.

And by the way, thousands of slayers to choose from and they pick some random dude? Bloody hell.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

So, basically on BtVS ( I know, I know, AtS has different rules, this is about BtVS only ) adults are worthless, witless, annoying idiots. It's an ongoing theme present in every season of the show, even in season 7, though a change begins with the portrayal of potentials as useless and unlikable. And OK, Buffy and the gang are still young but for a 14-15 year old potential slayer that has just been activated in 2003 they are adults and Buffy is a ma'am. Then post season 7, the franchise suddenly changes the tune, adults now lead the fight against the forces of darkness and stop apocalypses, the young are, you guessed it, worthless, witless, annoying idiots. Doesn't that bother anybody? Why is Buffy and the rest of the old guard still relevant in a world with thousands of slayers? Why do we still need them? Why do we still need undead creeps with never-ending redemption arcs when there are hundreds of young, passionate women out there with the ability and will to keep the world safe? Where is a spin-off about a young, spunky slayer and her teenage friends keeping their little town safe? When will Buffy show up to stop an apocalypse just to find a bunch of slayers already cheering their victory and getting rid of demon carcasses? You catch my drift?

This parallels the way people grow up. In early adolescence, adults usually come across as witless, annoying idiots (but not worthless - they support the adolescents). When you have children, they can come across as worthless, witless, annoying idiots.

As for Buffy and the old guard, they have the knowledge that the newb slayers are missing - sure, maybe they can fight and are faster and stronger than before and have some vague notion of providing some form of protection, but they are in the same position as Buffy at the beginning - not knowing anything about her calling or much about her own abilities or the enemy demons and vampires. The "old guard" takes the place of the defunct Watchers Council and provides training. By the end of Season 7, the home base of the watchers has been obliterated and the bringers have killed off most of the watchers. So who are the only repositories of Watcher history, knowledge and lore? The Scoobies and Giles and Wesley. (Unless you count Wolfram & Hart, but they are not necessarily interested in slayers and even less likely to train them.)

 

[Blaze]

I think Robb said it perfectly, as long as were fallowing Buffy's story, and as long as Buffy herself wants to fight, then this is was were going to see. It doesn't matter how many slayers there is, I'm sure plenty of them are really busy fighting the big baddies, but down the road I believe Buffy will never quit her "job". Plus, by default she probably is the best slayer out there, I mean, she does have a great track record, and she's been the slayer the longest. She has the most experience. It makes sense that the biggest bad are handed over to her.

As for relegating the story to a new slayer, I'm all for it! I would love to read that story, especially if it goes back to dealing with the smaller demons.

 

[VisionGirl]

They actually did quite a bit of this in season 8. I loved it. Most people hated it. So, I dunno.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

I was thinking back to the movie "12 O'clock High" where a new squadron commander comes in to take over the running of an underperforming B-17 bomber squadron that is suffering heavy losses and missing the target most of the time. He shapes them up into a crack bombing unit that gets the job done and survives much better than before. The combination of discipline and training does the job and the personal interactions are the main driver in the story, but like any story of leadership, the reality is more interesting than the description.

You could do a movie about a watcher in charge of a battle group of slayers who are getting killed or injured frequently and are not that effective at getting rid of demons (like the Scoobies in the first episode of Season 6) and trains them to be the things that monsters fear, a fighting unit that can withstand anything that gets thrown at it. Giles could not be the lead in it - he is not leadership material.

This would be what the story of Season 7 should have been.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Yeah I dont think the theme is adults suck, seeing how Giles is an adult and he's included in the main group.

And the younger people being annoying started in season 4 with Dawn.


But I agree that they haven't used the activated slayer story correctly, it still makes sense that Buffy is the main person as she has years of experience, but Buffy hasn't actually be fighting any apocalypses, the two events that have happened, Twilight and season 9 were directly tied to her.

I dont like that the other slayers are depicted as stupid and worthless, Buffy isn't a special slayer, what made her special was having friends, so a group of Slayers should be just as effective.

I would have much rather seen a new female slayer introduced and become part of the group then Billy, he was a ridiculous story that didn't make sense (he's not a slayer!) and a metaphor that was way to in your face.

 

[VisionGirl]

I dont like that the other slayers are depicted as stupid and worthless, Buffy isn't a special slayer, what made her special was having friends, so a group of Slayers should be just as effective.

I'm not getting where slayers are being depicted as stupid and worthless. I'm not seeing this at all, especially in season 8.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

I'm not getting where slayers are being depicted as stupid and worthless. I'm not seeing this at all, especially in season 8.

well we get Satsu who was obsessed with Buffy.
We get the slayers having to be protected by Buffy, even though they are an army of buffys.
We get Simone who turns evil and with a group of slayers who kicks a bunch of people out of a town.
We get that other psycho slayer who Faith was sent to take care of.
We get all the slayers turning on Buffy after the seed.
We get that girl Nadria (can't remember her name) who's a hot head and keeps getting in trouble.
Even Fray is positioned into being a bad guy by having to go up against Buffy.

We haven't seen a stable other-slayer really, they chose to develop Billy the slayer when they should have shown another girl, which is a pity.

 

[VisionGirl]

well we get Satsu who was obsessed with Buffy.
We get the slayers having to be protected by Buffy, even though they are an army of buffys.
We get Simone who turns evil and with a group of slayers who kicks a bunch of people out of a town.
We get that other psycho slayer who Faith was sent to take care of.
We get all the slayers turning on Buffy after the seed.
We get that girl Nadria (can't remember her name) who's a hot head and keeps getting in trouble.
Even Fray is positioned into being a bad guy by having to go up against Buffy.

We haven't seen a stable other-slayer really, they chose to develop Billy the slayer when they should have shown another girl, which is a pity.

"Stable other-slayers":
Satsu (even if she's in love with Buffy, she's still a capable Slayer)
Kennedy
Renee
Unnamed Slayer in The Chain
Vi
Rona
Faith

Of course, "stable" is relative- are any Slayers truly stable?

 

[Black Eye Guy]

"Stable other-slayers":
Satsu (even if she's in love with Buffy, she's still a capable Slayer)
Kennedy
Renee
Unnamed Slayer in The Chain
Vi
Rona
Faith

Of course, "stable" is relative- are any Slayers truly stable?

Sorry maybe stable wasn't the right word, I just meant recurring, Renee is the only one that reacurred, but we didn't learn anything about her. Satsu was a plot device, Kennedy was already there, Vi and Rona have barely been in the comics and Faith has her own story. But we've seen no new slayers that got a story like Billys.

 

[EVIL UU]

[MENTION=5973]Black Eye Guy[/MENTION] [MENTION=10354]VisionGirl[/MENTION]

Slayers in the comics either follow Buffy with a zealotic cult-like devotion or turn out to be insane, evil or at least misguided. There's no middle ground. Independent slayer is an evil slayer.

It's so ass-backwards my head hurts.