Batman has Joker, Superman has Lex, Jedi have the Sith, and Angel has Wolfram and Hart. Who would you consider to be Buffy's archnemesis? Each season does have a different Big Bad, after all. Use whatever criteria you wish, whether it be power or importance or whatever else besides.
Buffy's Archnemesis?
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Herself.
I don't think Buffy has an arch nemesis exactly, but the closest thing that comes to it is her inferiority/superiority complex. For those of us still reading the comics, I think this has never been clearer than now. Her pursuit of "normal" as being what she should have, when she is naturally an extraordinary woman who, even beyond being a Slayer, has a larger than life spirit that cannot be housed in suburbia, nor tamed by a 9 to 5. By pursuing this she is foils her own self.
More so than that, what really trips Buffy up is not having something to fight against. She needs that. Right now, all she has to fight is herself and it feels so like S6 on a brutal bender and it is excruciating to read.
So, for me, Buffy's arch nemesis is the absence of an arch nemesis to ground her and bring focus to her world.
I don't think Buffy has an arch nemesis exactly, but the closest thing that comes to it is her inferiority/superiority complex. For those of us still reading the comics, I think this has never been clearer than now. Her pursuit of "normal" as being what she should have, when she is naturally an extraordinary woman who, even beyond being a Slayer, has a larger than life spirit that cannot be housed in suburbia, nor tamed by a 9 to 5. By pursuing this she is foils her own self.
More so than that, what really trips Buffy up is not having something to fight against. She needs that. Right now, all she has to fight is herself and it feels so like S6 on a brutal bender and it is excruciating to read.
So, for me, Buffy's arch nemesis is the absence of an arch nemesis to ground her and bring focus to her world.
Jodast
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K
kittenpoker
oooh I like this!!
R
randiann
Why do you gotta go making yourself sound all smart and educated and stuff?
EVIL UU
Nonsense
Abbeycat
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Tueuse de Vampires
Love will tear us apart..
The Hellmouth! Whatever's coming at her, it's got to do with the Hellmouth's evil energy...it's the one evil constant!
What about beeing the chosen one? I kind of agree with [MENTION=7585]Kean[/MENTION] but I see a little differnece from his opinion to the mine. I think she hated beeing a Slayer so often in her life. She firstly accepted this in later seasons. You heard her very often complain about her destiny. So as Kean said she was her own nemesis but not because she had no specific enemy, just because she couldn't accept that she had a different life than the others. When she saw and accepted that her life is peerless, she won a new strenght for herself.
Washburne
Kean's a she. But who cares about gender. ;)
Valjavertjinn
I am, I am, I am.
Like @Tueuse de Vampires said, I think that the Hellmouth is the one consistent danger that shadows her every move for seven years. It's the one evil that is always there.
white avenger
white avenger
I once read a very well thought out paper that suggested that all of the yearly Big Bads that Buffy faced were basically minions, albeit most likely unknowing ones, of her final and greatest opponent, the First Evil. If we accept that theory, then it would be safe to say that it was her true arch nemisis.
If we ignore that suggestion, then I would have to say that she was her own greatest foe in the sense that the Slayer (the calling itself, not the individual girl herself) was the ultimate source of all of her problems and heartbreaks, and would, ultimately, be the cause of her (final) death, whatever the immediate instrument serving as the actual source lof that death might be. Being the Slayer has cost her her family, her friends, every lover she has ever had so far, and any real chance for a family and happy life that she has had up to this time, and no relief seems to be in sight.
If we ignore that suggestion, then I would have to say that she was her own greatest foe in the sense that the Slayer (the calling itself, not the individual girl herself) was the ultimate source of all of her problems and heartbreaks, and would, ultimately, be the cause of her (final) death, whatever the immediate instrument serving as the actual source lof that death might be. Being the Slayer has cost her her family, her friends, every lover she has ever had so far, and any real chance for a family and happy life that she has had up to this time, and no relief seems to be in sight.
funsmiley
Potential
I would say the hellmouth but i think The shadow men are most likely buffys archnemisis, i mean they invented the slayer, i know they did it for good to kill all the evil vampires and demons but they take away one girls choice which we know is one of buffys hates about being the slayer.
I wouldn't totally agree with the premise that Wolfram & Hart is Angel's arch-nemesis, sure they're in every season but they're never out to kill Angel.
Like Buffy, I think his Arch-nemesis is himself, the whole show isn't really about him vs. the Wolf, Ram & Hart, but about him searching for atonement.
That's part of the reason why Buf & Angel were so perfect for each other, they're both their own worst enemies but in very different ways.
Well that's my take on it anyway, I could be wrong.
Like Buffy, I think his Arch-nemesis is himself, the whole show isn't really about him vs. the Wolf, Ram & Hart, but about him searching for atonement.
That's part of the reason why Buf & Angel were so perfect for each other, they're both their own worst enemies but in very different ways.
Well that's my take on it anyway, I could be wrong.
Ehm, isn't it obvious? The greatest threat she's ever faced... no? Really?
It's Harmony of course.
Didn't you see her shaking with fear as they faced off in season 5?
😉
Or maybe I'm jesting. Really I think I would have to agree with what Kean said, I wasn't sure who I would have said was Buffy's archenemy but to be there seems to be a lot of truth to the idea that it is actually herself.
It's Harmony of course.
Didn't you see her shaking with fear as they faced off in season 5?
😉
Or maybe I'm jesting. Really I think I would have to agree with what Kean said, I wasn't sure who I would have said was Buffy's archenemy but to be there seems to be a lot of truth to the idea that it is actually herself.
You don't have to be a superhero to have an archnemesis. Like I said, Angel has W&H, and the Jedi have the Sith, and they're not superheroes. Nowhere does it say that archnemesis applies specifically to superheroes.
Hi there, long time reader and first time poster here!
In Buffy since the big bads change it is hard to pinpoint. I suppose you can say the first since it is a "˜bigger' and more continuous threat. I would say Snyder. 😉
Angel's greatest enemy is Angelus. Angel's struggle for redemption and need to make a distinction between the two is shown throughout the series. It is also someone he can never fully escape as long as he is a vampire. Yes, he fights W&H but the reason he fights stems from his need to do the right thing and prove he is not Angelus.
In Buffy since the big bads change it is hard to pinpoint. I suppose you can say the first since it is a "˜bigger' and more continuous threat. I would say Snyder. 😉
Angel's greatest enemy is Angelus. Angel's struggle for redemption and need to make a distinction between the two is shown throughout the series. It is also someone he can never fully escape as long as he is a vampire. Yes, he fights W&H but the reason he fights stems from his need to do the right thing and prove he is not Angelus.
Enemies
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kittenpoker
Raising penguins in Guam
Robb Stark
King in the North
I know I'm not digging as deep as a lot of other people on this one, but Buffy's archnemesis (archnemesis's?) were the yearly big bads. The difference between her and comic book heroes (and despite what others have said, Buffy is totally a superhero) is that Buffy's "big bads" tend to get killed.
I mean, when you think about it, The Master was the complete focus of Buffy's Slaying attention in S1, but he died in the end. Angelus was absolutely the arch-enemy of Buffy in S2, but he gets transformed back into Angel at the end of becoming. Same story for The Mayor. Faith is probably the closest Buffy gets to a true, classic "arch-nemesis", mostly because they're rivals for so long, but in the end they reunite. Adam is a weak villain, but like many of the others he gets seriously dead. Glory is a huge arch-enemy and probably would have remained so had Giles not killed Ben. The First in S7 fills that role as well.
I think at various times, all of those were arch-enemies of Buffy. In comics, which unlike T.V. are ongoing, they can't just kill off the top and most interesting villains every year because they'd run out. It's different with television. Sure, Angel had Wolfram & Hart, but they were a heavy metaphor and more of an institution (as opposed to being singular villains like The Joker or Lex Luthor are). Angel always had bad guys, even big ones (thinking of guys like The Beast), but Wolfram & Hart was always looming over everything.
I don't think slaying was Buffy's arch-nemesis. I really don't, no more than Angel's soul was his. Slaying was a responsibility that was thrust upon her, sure, but she chose to continue doing it, just as Angel chose to fight the good fight. That was an incredibly heroic decision, and at the end of the day, that's just what it was: a decision. She and Angel chose to keep fighting. Any day they could have stopped, but they never did (I think that was best exemplified in "I will remember you"), because that's what heroes do. I don't think that's her "nemesis" at all. It brings out one of her biggest strengths (God, when I get going about Buffy...I just love her so much...🙂)
I mean, when you think about it, The Master was the complete focus of Buffy's Slaying attention in S1, but he died in the end. Angelus was absolutely the arch-enemy of Buffy in S2, but he gets transformed back into Angel at the end of becoming. Same story for The Mayor. Faith is probably the closest Buffy gets to a true, classic "arch-nemesis", mostly because they're rivals for so long, but in the end they reunite. Adam is a weak villain, but like many of the others he gets seriously dead. Glory is a huge arch-enemy and probably would have remained so had Giles not killed Ben. The First in S7 fills that role as well.
I think at various times, all of those were arch-enemies of Buffy. In comics, which unlike T.V. are ongoing, they can't just kill off the top and most interesting villains every year because they'd run out. It's different with television. Sure, Angel had Wolfram & Hart, but they were a heavy metaphor and more of an institution (as opposed to being singular villains like The Joker or Lex Luthor are). Angel always had bad guys, even big ones (thinking of guys like The Beast), but Wolfram & Hart was always looming over everything.
I don't think slaying was Buffy's arch-nemesis. I really don't, no more than Angel's soul was his. Slaying was a responsibility that was thrust upon her, sure, but she chose to continue doing it, just as Angel chose to fight the good fight. That was an incredibly heroic decision, and at the end of the day, that's just what it was: a decision. She and Angel chose to keep fighting. Any day they could have stopped, but they never did (I think that was best exemplified in "I will remember you"), because that's what heroes do. I don't think that's her "nemesis" at all. It brings out one of her biggest strengths (God, when I get going about Buffy...I just love her so much...🙂)
