Buffy's character regression

[sosa lola]

It is notable how Buffy is slipping away from her humanity and her moral self that we've seen on the show. I do see it as a logical continuation of S7, especially that we're missing and year and a half before S8, but what explanations do you have for these actions of regression:

- She keeps delaying Dawn's problem, even though it's a huge one.
- She robbed a bank to fund her slayers.
- She cut her relationship with Giles completely (I'm not so sure about this one, since she called him in #10)
- She slept with Satsu who had feelings for her even though Buffy didn't have feelings her and didn't really swing that way.
- She let some innocent bystanders be killed for the "big picture"

Here are some answers from another forum:

- She keeps delaying Dawn's problem, even though it's a huge one.

I never read it that way. Dawn seems more at fault than Buffy. Dawn refused to talk about what happened to her to anybody but Willow for awhile, then she lied to Willow once Willow showed up, then she finally told Xander the (maybe) truth. Ultimately it seems they've come to the conclusion that whatever the Thricewise did is irreversible and she's just going to have to ride out the remaining transformations.

- She robbed a bank to fund her slayers.

Yeah, still not seeing a problem with this. She and the Scoobies have a long history of stealing things they need or blowing up sh*t in their way. The law has always been subservient to the Slayer, and i don't see why it's a problem now, when actual money is involved rather than a bazooka or a Winnebago. People have argued that it's too indulgent, that they don't need everything they've bought, but, in the end, if they had been without a helicopter they could not have retrieved Dracula, who was a deciding factor in Wolves at the Gate. If they had no private jet they would not have been able to get anyone, let alone the whole Scotland squad, to Japan in time to prevent the deslayerizing spell. they seem to be just as equipped as they need to be to deal with threats on a global scale.

- She cut her relationship with Giles completely (I'm not so sure about this one, since she called him in #10)

Again, it seems to me that Giles was doing the cutting. He deliberately kept her in the dark about his operation and then point blank refused to talk to her about it when confronted. Buffy gave him the help he needed despite that, and then we see Giles riding off into the sunset with Faith. That's all we've seen, and it doesn't put Buffy in a bad light in my opinion.

- She slept with Satsu who had feelings for her even though Buffy didn't have feelings her and didn't really swing that way.

Buffy was always forth coming with Satsu about where she stood in the relationship. It wasn't a case of Buffy leading a younger woman by the hand, stringing her on, then telling her it can't evolve into anything after she's had a romp in the sack. Buffy cares about Satsu, she genuinely does, we see it in episodes like 'A Beautiful Sunset' where she takes time out to talk to Satsu to clear the air. She could have continued ignoring it but she didn't for Satsu's sake.

And Satsu's a smart girl, far smarter than some people give her credit for. She knew what this was going into the relationship and no one forced her to sleep with Buffy, she knew the circumstances but chose to anyway. After the sex she says "But you're not gay..." and she knows this to be the fact because Buffy tells her this before sleeping with her. It was always emotionally up front and honest between the two of them.

And Buffy cared about Satsu's feelings, she not the kind of person who tries to kick Satsu out after the sex, in fact she makes it explicitly clear that's not what she's saying at all.


- She let some innocent bystanders be killed for the "big picture"

This is meant to give us pause, and show how much Buffy has changed, I'll admit, but I think people have taken a much too black and white view on the subject.

Fray jumps into the fight without thinking, much like Faith, against five or six vampires. She's a good Slayer and takes them out, but while she's busy four out of five of the victims are still spirited away to be turned into vampires. She saves one person, which I'm not belittling, but the van still made it away, there are still a fleet of them cruising around the city picking up meals and canon fodder, and she ends up being manipulated by Dark Willow.

Buffy, meanwhile, manages to discover in one day the headquarters of Harth and the army that he's creating, which Fray has been searching for for a long time. If she was using the 'big picture' as an excuse to do nothing or to hold onto power it would be a different thing, but she thought about the big picture, found the big picture, and immediately sets out to destroy the big picture.

Fray thought about the Fight, Buffy about the Battle. Both are legitimate positions to take in my opinion.

 

[nerd4hire]

There's another one, I think. It's Buffy's "scourge the earth kill em all, burn the informer" policy in Season 8. It seems reasonable, because slayers are supposed to slay, but at the same time it does make her seem harder than the "get what we came for, and get out alive" Buffy of previous seasons.

But yeah, I think the character of Buffy is growing (reshaping?) as she adapts to the pressures, and temptations of her new power, and responsibility.

 

[Kean]

I think in the same way that the Buffy of the 'Wishverse' was who Buffy would have become without the nuturing influence of Giles the slayer that we have now is the result of losing that nuturing father figure and the rock that she had in her mother. I think Buffy is tougher and more hardened now because she has to be, she had to adapt to her enviornment.

 

[UnKle]

Sosa, me and a friend (who's registered here, but hasn't posted yet!) have talked about Buffy's regression at length. We're both continually slapping our foreheads at the things Buffy's been doing. While we don't believe she's changed, per se, or that she's turning into a guiltless monster of sorts, we both see that Buffy has been progressing down this road for years, even before Season 8.

One of the most striking moments, for me, is when Buffy goes to kill Anya in S7 - because Buffy believes herself to be "the law". It's an interesting juxtaposition in S8 to now have Faith with Giles, working together, and Faith on a solid path to reformation since S7 -- while apparently Buffy's need for control and power, and a "cut your losses and move on" attitude, grows. Buffy seems to have lost her identity as Buffy Summers and been consumed by the identity of the Slayer. This was a huge part of what Faith's downfall was, in addition to her need for a father figure.

Faith said in S3: "We are the law." Buffy didn't really see it that way, then. But by the time S7 rolls around, Buffy has been and done and seen, and she's a different person. She's far more jaded, and farther from her identity as Buffy Summers, and far more immersed in the job title than ever. She now does see it that way: the Slayer's law is the law.

So is this a failure by Giles to not control and restrict Buffy in such a way that she doesn't eventually declare herself as the ultimate law, and begin to act on that? He was always very lax with her over the years, in her training, and he rebelled against the Council very early. She never had the benefit of traditional Slayer training from early youth, nor did she have the Slayer Handbook, or the full backing and guidance of the Council. She was never a robot. Giles and Buffy worked great together, because they were both, at heart, used to bucking authority and making their own way.

But he also believes perhaps he took too careful care of her, and fixed too many things for her and inhibited her ability to mature and be responsible. But his coming and going, and his attempts in S7 to exert his influence and reign in Buffy were flat. Buffy shut him out. She didn't have any use for him because by then, she had one goal and he was in her way.

In a way, I think Buffy's drowning. She's outlived her expiration date. She's alienated her confidante. She's lost her belief in simple ideas like love and hope. She's losing sight of the greater purpose, and has let the power she has guide too many of her actions. My thought is that Joss is carefully orchestrating a climactic event in which Buffy will have to pay the piper to stay on the road she's on, or let some things go -- and by let go I mean change her thinking, or change "the law", or even make the ultimate sacrifice. In the end, I have faith that Buffy will come around. She always does, even if it takes a while for her to realize that she needs to.