How would Buffy have reacted if she'd been The Key?

[Robb Stark]

Always kind of wondered this. We see how Dawn takes it when she discovers her origins (not well), but how would Buffy have handled the situation? Let's say, purely for the sake of argument, that Dawn is never created and it transpires that Buffy is in fact "The Key". Same context, she's a former ball of green energy, she's not genetically Joyce's daughter and on top of that, she's still The Slayer. Let's say the monks created her, thinking she'd live a normal life with Joyce and Hank, but she was somehow called as The Slayer.

 

[EVIL UU]

She shrugs and say oh-kay.

Buffy mostly knows how to deal with being the slayer and the whole key thing is kinda similar. It's just new weird on top of the usual weird and Buffy doesn't mind the weird that much, it doesn't bother her, does it? For better or worse she just follows her heart. She knows that Dawn is not her real sister and she just does not care. I'd expect just about the same reading on a give-a-shit-o-meter in this case.

 

[white avenger]

Not exactly the same thing, but Buffy handled finding out that she was a robot in Season 9 pretty well, so I think that she would've been able to handle being the Key much better than Dawn did. Initial shock, then a shrug, and then get on with her life.

How much more difficult could finding out that she was the Key be than having some strange man walk up to her after school one day and tell her that she was the Chosen One?

 

[ILLYRIAN]

So Buffy gets told she's a slayer when she is another Buffy, then finds out her memories of herself are false that she was a green ball of energy. On the bright side Buffy finds out she doesn't have a sister even though she knew that already. On the down side if that had only just happened Joss could have used that green ball of energy instead of the Teseract for the Avengers. No that's too complicated pretend I didn't say that.

 

[Blaze]

One more vote for the shrug. I think Buffy would just make a sarcastic snark remark on how she can't catch a break and her whole life has been prophecies and duties thrown on her. I think she may have a few episodes of questioning herself and if she's not real than what is, maybe an episode similar in themes to Normal Again where Buffy puts into question who she is. In the end, with the support of her friends and family, I doubt it would affect her long term. I mean...it didn't even affect Dawn long term.

 

[Taake]

One more vote for the shrug. I think Buffy would just make a sarcastic snark remark on how she can't catch a break and her whole life has been prophecies and duties thrown on her. I think she may have a few episodes of questioning herself and if she's not real than what is, maybe an episode similar in themes to Normal Again where Buffy puts into question who she is. In the end, with the support of her friends and family, I doubt it would affect her long term. I mean...it didn't even affect Dawn long term.

Pretty much this.
I do think, for the purpose of storytelling, there would be a few eps as mentioned where she questions herself and struggles with it but in the end I think she would just take it in stride and carry on.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Dawn doesn't take it well because all the people around her except Spike are trying to hide the information from her. It was very easy for her to jump to the conclusion that things are worse than they were, and the reality was bad enough.

Buffy's reaction would depend on how the information was presented. If she found out about it, she would be OK even if she had to sacrifice herself. If other people found out about it and hid it from her, the reaction would be different. We have seen Giles manipulate her in "Helpless" and if there was some similar skullduggery involved, she would be completely within her rights to never speak to him again. (In "Helpless", she should have had him charged with administering a noxious substance under the criminal code and never had anything to do with him again.)

 

[thetopher]

I agree with some of the above. If the truth had been hidden from Buffy for a while before she discovered it, she would've been majorly upset by the betrayal of trust, kind of like Dawn.

But if she'd been told straight up she might've freaked intially, then just gotten over it. It would fit partly with Buffy's 'why me' martyr complex that she (sometimes) exhibits in regards to her role in life.


About the Giles thing...I think every character is entitled to at least one mistake, especially when that mistake was made under duress from pressure exerted by the Watcher's council. (The council being the one constant in Giles life since childhood.)

There is not a major character on either show who hasn't seriously screwed up at least once.

Since S3 and 'Helpless' Giles has pretty much been a rock for Buffy to lean on- there whenever she needed him.

But whatever, haters gonna hate. 🙁