Buffy's Death

[TheChosenOne]

Hi

I just watched The Gift again, and I thought how did they bury her?

To bury someone you have to certify them dead to get the certificate, otherwise you cannot bury/cremate them as you are still classified as being alive.

Plus at the beginning of season 6 it seemed that the whole world (or Sunnydale) thinks that Buffy is still alive.

Which brings me to my next question of, how did they get the land/plot to bury her, and is it in a graveyard?

Just some of my weird questions :tongue05:

 

[The Arcane]

I believe that it has been mentioned that they buried Buffy in a clearing in the middle of the woods so as to hide the fact that she had died. I doubt that her death was ever recorded. Otherwise her father would almost certainly have been informed.

The fact that they put up a headstone that clearly identified who she was has to be considered a little questionable but given that most people in Sunnydale that knew her at all well were all aware of the truth i guess that can be looked over.

 

[Xander]

Yeah I think she was buried in the woods, perhaps the same place (or near) to where they apparently buried The Master between Season One and Season Two. Apparently there was a whole ceremony with robes and stuff, don't imagine the local planning permission councils being too happy about that.

The headstone? Lets just say Willow made it using magic. Unless Giles had one made just in case, in a really morbid unsuportive way.

 

[eponinethen]

The headstone? Lets just say Willow made it using magic. Unless Giles had one made just in case, in a really morbid unsuportive way.

Yeah or one of them probably made it.. Like Xander? Xander's good with wooden things, right..? Stone, wood, it's pretty much the same...


(And about the in the woods thing, Buffy's grave really looks like it's in the woods so yeah I always thought it was.. Doesn't look like any graveyard to me.)

 

[doppelgänger2]

I don't remember any other headstones around Buffy's so yeah, must've been the woods. And why they put Buffy's name on the stone I just don't get. It's like "hey we have this robot chick to cover up the fact that Buffy's dead but... what the heck! Let's put her name on the headstone, no one will be able to put to and to together..."

I dunno if Xander's so good with the stoney thing as with the woody. I mean, wood all soft and bendy (if you want that, it can be kinda hard too) and stone all cold and not so bendy... I dunno. Maybe he did make it, but I'm thinking Willow must have offered since it was free of cost (not really but at least didn't cost any money) and it probably was fast. Saved the pain of morbid labour while mourning.

Maybe Willow put some kind of special spell on the headstone? A spell that makes it possible of the scoobies to se the name on it, but to other people it's just a blank headstone.

 

[TheChosenOne]

Which epsiode did they say she was buried in the woods?

 

[Joamna]

I don't remember them ever saying it, but it clearly looked that way to me when they where there; No other headstones only some bushes, can't remember any trees right now, but it might have been trees too.

 

[doppelgänger2]

Which epsiode did they say she was buried in the woods?

I'm not sure since I'm suffering a total meltdown of my brain because of excessive studying... But you see clearly in the end of 'The Gift' that she's burried in the woods (as no other headstones around) and in Bargaining, they go out to the woods to peform the resurrection spell.

(Gee... I just repeated what CookieDough just wrote, didn't I?)

 

[TheChosenOne]

Yes, but just because you don't see any other headstones doesn't mean she isn't in a graveyard, it could be a secluded part of it. Also, some cultures believe that if you are buried on unconsecrated ground you soul won't be able to enter heaven (I know the gang thought she was in a hell demension, but still...).

 

[doppelgänger2]

I've tried to collect some picture "evidence" to prove my point that Buffy was too buried out in the woods. If you just watch carefully in 'the gift' and 'bargaining', you'll soon see that it's very out in the woods-y and not so grave yard-y.

First, lets take a look at the final scenes in 'the gift'
Buffy's headstone
And another look at the headstone, this time seeing more of the suroundings. Could that be water in the background?
That takes us to these to caps of the place where Willow did the offering spell before the resurrection spell. [1][2] Could that be near where they buried Buffy?

And finally, a look at the gang when they're about to do the resurrection spell near Buffy's grave.

Looks pretty much like the woods to me...

 

[Joamna]

(Gee... I just repeated what CookieDough just wrote, didn't I?)

Ahh, that's okey. It's the kind of thing that can be said more than once.. or something 😉

Anyway, I was just looking at pictures from when the group gets seperated by the motorcycle demons after the resurrection, and you can't see any other headstones or any other signs of a graveyard there either.. If it really was a graveyard, I think you would have seen at least one other headstone even if she was buried in a secluded part of it..

 

[eponinethen]

Yup, the woods, totally...

But about the headstone, lol. It's actually not that hard to "write" stuff in stone (ah you know what I mean, my head is out of words)... You learn weird stuff at my school... It takes time but I totally believe Xander did it, mhm.
But yea it seems rather stupid to put Buffy's whole name there, even though the grave was in the woods...

 

[The Arcane]

Don't ask me to remember where i heard this about where Buffy was buried. I've read so many articles online, in magazines and in books, not to mention DVD commentaries, that it all gets blurred. I am certain that one of the writers, if not Joss himself, mentioned that Buffy was buried out in the woods so as to avoid anyone in Sunnydale discovering she had died. I don't believe that it was stated by anyone on the show however.

I know Nerd4Hire is good with finding source material, maybe he can point you in the right direction with a link, assuming it is actually online anyway.

 

[nerd4hire]

On the name being on the headstone; There's a conceit in BTVS that no one other than Buffy's inner core actually knows who Buffy really is. It seems unlikely, but that's what we're required to believe.

Willy the bartender never calls Buffy anything but Slayer. He calls Xander "kid".

There are rumours about Buffy. Warren recognizes Buffy by reputation when she first appears at his door.

There's Amanda's quote in Potential -

AMANDA
Well, I've heard people talking. A lot of 'em think she's some kind of high-functioning schizophrenic. But I also heard that maybe"”like, maybe she could help with this kind of thing. Do you think we should go get her?

The kids at Sunndale high know there's something special about Buffy when they give her the class protector award, but nobody outright calls her "Slayer"

The general population seems to have heard stories also. In Who Are You Faith saves a girl while appearing to be Buffy. The girl grabs Faith as Buffy's hand with profound respect and thanks her. This freaks Faith out. She's not used to that, even though she's saved her share of innocents herself.

The Troika connect Buffy as "The Slayer", because Warren built the Buffybot.

 

[doppelgänger2]

But then again, Dracula knew Buffy as Buffy Summers:

DRACULA: You know who I am. As I would now without question that you are Buffy Summers.

BUFFY: You're heard of me?

DRACULA: Naturally. You're known throughout the world.

BUFFY: Naw. Really?

So if Dracula knew her as Buffy and she's known throughout the world, shouldn't at least some poeple have known the name of the Slayer and thus found out about her death from seeing the headstone?

 

[The Arcane]

I think Dracula is a special case, with his numerous additional powers there were probably many ways he might have found out about Buffy.

As for him telling Buffy she was "known throughout the world", probably just a line. He no doubt used it a thousand times before. Drac finds a girl he likes in a club. Spends a few minutes standing nearby until he hears somebody call her by her name. Walks away and then comes back ...

"Hey, you're Rachel, right?"

"Yeah, how do you know my name?"

"Are you kidding? A girl as gorgeous as you is known throughout the world!"

Works every time! 😀

 

[nerd4hire]

Also Marti Noxon wrote Buffy vs Dracula. Some day I'm going to make a list of all the times Noxon and her boy Greenberg contradict what would otherwise be Buffy canon. It will be a long list.

This issue of the name on the gravestone was discussed once before here -

Buffy's grave, and the point of her tombstone?

I wanna quote myself from that thread -

The truth is the Marti Noxon years (Season 6 and 7) are full of stuff that not only doesn't make any real world sense, often it doesn't even make Buffyverse sense. Drew Z Greenberg is one of her most used writers for cripes sakes. That should tell us all we need to know about Marti Noxon's respect for rational explanations.

In fact, you know what I do when I find Season 6 or 7 stuff that doesn't make sense? I just blame Noxon or Greenberg.

 

[doppelgänger2]

It's weird though, what's on the show should be considered canon or am I wrong?

Anyway, this is rather interesting... In "The Wish" (written by Marti Noxin) they refer to buffy being the slayer several times:

XANDER: Weird thing: girl kept talking about Buffy. 'Gotta get Buffy here.' Isn't that what they called the Slayer?

WILLOW: Hmm. Buffy. Ooo. Scary.

XANDER: Someone has to talk to her people. That name is striking fear in nobody's hearts.

MASTER: She talked of summoning the Slayer here, now, at this time, and you didn't kill her?

and

ANGEL: Buffy. Buffy Summers.

ANGEL: It's you. I mean... you don't remember. How could you?

BUFFY: How did you know my name?

ANGEL: I waited. I waited here for you. But you never... I was supposed to help you.

BUFFY: You were gonna help me.

ANGEL: The Master rose. He let me live... to punish me. I kept hoping maybe you'd come. My destiny.

Okay so this is Wishverse but I still see the possibility of people knowing of Buffy as the slayer. But as this is written by Marti, does this mean we cannot consider this being canon or can we?

And as for Dracula, even though you explain the fact of him knowing N4H, I was still thinking that if Dracula would have over heard someone talking about Buffy as the slayer/the slayer as Buffy, he must have heard any of the scoobies talking about her. And being that much in the right place at the right time just doesn't seem so believable.

 

[Primal Slayer]

seeing as though the happenings in The Wish were referred to after the episode, and it ran along with the other episodes, it is cannon. May not be perfect continuity but its cannon.

And when you have a slayer, her name will find its away getting spread across the world one way or another and seeing as though The Master has a lot of people, word probably got back to him about Buffy.

And as far as Buffy grave goes, I think the scoobies wanted to honor her so they put her name on it, but they put it in a place that many demons dont venture out into so it was pretty safe from being found by a demon(who wouldnt even bother to read it)

 

[nerd4hire]

I'm not sure what happens in an alternate reality, necessarily applies to this one unless there's a line of events directly connecting the 2 realities.

With the Angel thing, that applies in both realities. Angel knew Buffy was the Slayer, because Whistler told him. One can assume the PTB told Whistler. That doesn't imply the general demon world knew.

does this (Marti Noxon contradictions) mean we cannot consider this being canon or can we?

As Doppleganger said the general rule of thumb is if it's in the series it's canon. Here's the problem though. When two canonical principals contradict each other, what do you do?

The majority of BTVS writers appear to believe the Buffy/Slayer connection is only known by an exclusive few.

Marti Noxon says "No, everyone and his dog knows". In the Noxon-written pair of What's My Lines the assasin sets up a watch of Buffy's house from her neighbours.

That's another problem with the Marti Noxon proposal, I think. If all demons know Buffy is the Slayer, wouldn't they attack her there, like Harmony did. Hell, just drench the house in gas some night, and add a match. It creates a problem in logic; something Marti doesn't appear to care about, but the other writers tend to give passing concern.

I think the general canonical concept here though can be seen in Giles instruction to the Scoobs, "Buffy's the Slayer. Don't tell anyone."