College For Buffy

LadyLavinia...you are one of the most confusing people I have ever come across.

LadyLavinia said:
I don't respect her. I don't respect Buffy for allowing Merrick and Giles to force her to follow the dictates of the Shadowmen, who started the Slayer line, and the Watchers' Council, who forced teenaged girls and young women to fight their battles against demons for them.
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I think BillieHunter covered this one really well. Also..just want to state that she went against what the Shadowmen wanted in S7. She's nobody's puppet.

LadyLavinia said:
Buffy had a choice. There was no law that stated that just because she had inherited Slayer powers, she automatically had to assume Slayer duties. In my mind, that is B***s***.
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Um...I don't think anybody on this thread said that. I know that I have stated more than once that she CHOSE to follow her calling as the Slayer.
 
Jenny said:
LadyLavinia...you are one of the most confusing people I have ever come across.



I think BillieHunter covered this one really well. Also..just want to state that she went against what the Shadowmen wanted in S7. She's nobody's puppet.



Um...I don't think anybody on this thread said that. I know that I have stated more than once that she CHOSE to follow her calling as the Slayer.
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One, I wasn't referring to her decision in "Get It Done". I was referring to her allowing Merrick and Giles to talk her into assuming the duties of the Slayer, when she didn't want to. I'm talking about her decision to remain in Sunnydale, when she could have attended college at Northwestern University. After the Mayor's defeat, she still could have moved on. It was her decision to make. If she wanted to continue fighting vampires, she could have done so in Illinois.

And she didn't CHOOSE to follow her calling as the Slayer. She was COERCED into doing it by Merrick and Giles. If Buffy had really made a choice without any coercion from anyone, she would have never assumed Slayer duties.
 
One thought though....she made a choice every single day. By continuing on. Buffy was not some simpleton who couldn't think for herself. Each and every day she made the decision to keep fighting.
 
Exactly, Jenny. No matter how much she was "coerced" by the Watchers, it was ultimately her decision.

To answer the original question: Buffy stayed in Sunnydale because that's where the show was set. Hope that clears things up for you!
 
LadyLavinia said:
And she didn't CHOOSE to follow her calling as the Slayer. She was COERCED into doing it by Merrick and Giles. If Buffy had really made a choice without any coercion from anyone, she would have never assumed Slayer duties.
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I think if Buffy didn't assume responsibility as the slayer, the Watcher's council might have had her killed therefore ending her life even earlier than if she had been called. As we saw, especially in BTVS S4, the Watcher's Council can be very ruthless. I mean what else would they do with someone with all that power who refuses to use it...Or maybe I'm just talking :crazy:
 
Cordelia said:
I think if Buffy didn't assume responsibility as the slayer, the Watcher's council might have had her killed therefore ending her life even earlier than if she had been called. As we saw, especially in BTVS S4, the Watcher's Council can be very ruthless. I mean what else would they do with someone with all that power who refuses to use it...Or maybe I'm just talking :crazy:
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When you think about it, that could be considered another form of coercion.
 
That's true. Did they ever say what they were going to do with Faith in S4??? Just wondering if my theory was anywhere close to the truth 😀

Were they going to try to reform her, or if unsuccessful would they resort to murder to continue the slayer line?
 
I don't know if they said either way. Buffy's death wouldn't have enabled them to continue the slayer line past Prophecy Girl in S1 (since that's when her re-generating powers for a new Slayer were used). So even more reason why Buffy acted of her own choice to remain the Slayer...her death had called a new one (Kendra) and Kendra's death in turn called Faith. So I don't think there would have been any reprucussions by Buffy turning her back on being the Slayer.

I'm not sure what the Watcher's Council would have done with Faith..they captured her in her rogue slayer days and told her she'd be spending a long time in jail, I'm not sure if the penalty of death was ever mentioned.
 
But what would they do if Buffy died and Faith remained in Prison?? Also Faith was not Faith but rather Buffy when they caught her...Is it the body that continues the slayer line or the soul inside....
 
My question has always been: Why did Buffy go to college at all? If she knew she would not live past her early 30s and that she would have to concentrate her time and energy being a slayer instead of working on her grades, why did she spend the time and money to go to college? Buffy never had a chance to dream. She knew that she would die young and probably never have a normal life because she was a slayer. Buffy did a lot of good and by S7 would not have given up her powers, yet in the end she had little choice in the matter of fighting evil. She couldn't let people die; she couldn't be selfish. Buffy was compelled to fight; as a slayer she craved the fight. Its sad, but untill the end she had no chance at a normal life and let still tried to be an ordinary girl most of the time. I think that's tragic and kind of beautiful.
 
I agree...I think that if I was given a limited life span, I'd spend the time that I had doing good for the most people (since I have no super powers, I'd spend time with my family, travel, get anything done that I could check off my lifetime "to do" list.)

But then again, Buffy always had hope that there would be some way that she could lead that normal life. She had that glimmer of hope in S3 when Faith first came along and she thought Faith could hold down the fort for her when she went to school.
 
Buffy wasn't forced to do anything, people expected things of her, and some tried forcing her, but she always made the choice herself. I think she stayed cos she knew she was needed, but also cos she wanted to. As much as she hates being a slayer sometimes, deep down she loves it. She loves helping people, and, as most people, she probably likes feeling sorry for herself (not meant as criticism, I like feeling sorry for myself to!). And let's not forget the fact that her friends were in Sunnydale.
And most importantly, it wouldn't be much fun to watch s4 and upwards if Buffy had moved away, and we had no more Willow, Xander or Giles...They could have moved with her of course, but then no more Bronze, and no more Sunnydale...Wouldn't be the same!
 
JustAnnie said:
Buffy wasn't forced to do anything, people expected things of her, and some tried forcing her, but she always made the choice herself. I think she stayed cos she knew she was needed, but also cos she wanted to. As much as she hates being a slayer sometimes, deep down she loves it. She loves helping people, and, as most people, she probably likes feeling sorry for herself (not meant as criticism, I like feeling sorry for myself to!). And let's not forget the fact that her friends were in Sunnydale.
And most importantly, it wouldn't be much fun to watch s4 and upwards if Buffy had moved away, and we had no more Willow, Xander or Giles...They could have moved with her of course, but then no more Bronze, and no more Sunnydale...Wouldn't be the same!
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She wasn't forced. I think she was coerced. I believe that Merrick, and later Giles, laid a guilt trip on her about adhering to the duties of the Slayer. And being young, she gave in to the guilt. I wonder if they had tried the same thing on an adult woman, would she have caved in and agree to hunt vampires.

I never had the opinion that Buffy "loved" helping people. I think she mainly did it as an extension of her "duty" as the Slayer. Besides, she didn't have to live in Sunnydale to fight vampires and demons. She became a Slayer in Los Angeles. Other Slayers have lived outside of Sunnydale. Why was it necessary for her to remain in Sunnydale, instead of attend college at Northwestern University? She could have fought vampires and demons there. She wouldn't have been that far from Cleveland - site of another Hellmouth.
 
LadyLavinia said:
She wasn't forced. I think she was coerced. I believe that Merrick, and later Giles, laid a guilt trip on her about adhering to the duties of the Slayer. And being young, she gave in to the guilt. I wonder if they had tried the same thing on an adult woman, would she have caved in and agree to hunt vampires.

I never had the opinion that Buffy "loved" helping people. I think she mainly did it as an extension of her "duty" as the Slayer. Besides, she didn't have to live in Sunnydale to fight vampires and demons. She became a Slayer in Los Angeles. Other Slayers have lived outside of Sunnydale. Why was it necessary for her to remain in Sunnydale, instead of attend college at Northwestern University? She could have fought vampires and demons there. She wouldn't have been that far from Cleveland - site of another Hellmouth.
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Ok I JUST re-watched Welcome to the Hellmouth..and there are tons of references (mostly by Giles) in that eppy about why Buffy was in Sunnydale. I've pretty much stated them in my earlier posts...that there was an increase in demonic activity in Sunnydale...that she wasn't there by accident.
 
Exactly. Sunnydale was on a Hellmouth, meaning a great tourist place for demons and vampires. of course there were alot of them other places, but the Hellmouth was the worst place.
How many times during the seven years haven't they commented "that's what it's like living on the Hellmouth!"
Buffy knows that's where the demon activity is bigger. And i don't think she did it out of guilt for anyone. She did it cos she knew she was needed there the most. In "The Wish" we all saw what Sunnydale would be like without Buffy.
 
Other Slayers have lived outside of Sunnydale.
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Good point, but before Giles moved to Sunnydale, the Watcher's Council didn't even know that there was a Hellmouth there.

There were also other reasons besides the Hellmouth. Maybe she wanted to be closer to her friends and family. Really, I don't know why you find this so hard to swallow.
 
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