Is Being A Slayer Really Buffy’s Destiny?

Jules

Jules

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Is Being A Slayer Really Buffy's Destiny?

This all depends on how you view the term "˜destiny' If a destiny is preordained for you and you have no choice but to do as it wishes, then in my point of view being a slayer was never Buffy's destiny.

A Slayer is what Buffy is, she has the power to fight evil. But it is her choice to fight evil. That to me says free-will not destiny. She's had the opportunity to walk away from her duties, but she chose to fight.

Kendra: You talk about slaying like it's a job. It's not. It's who you are.
Buffy: Did you get that from your handbook?
Kendra: From you

I know there are also points for why Buffy's destiny is to be the slayer. There is her moving to Sunnydale, the mouth of hell. This could be just a coincidence, but probably not. There are also the prophecies wrote about her, but Buffy herself has proven that prophecies can be changed or wrong all together.

Buffy uses the excuse of being a slayer as one of her reasons not to move away to college. Faith is a prime example that slaying is a choice. Faith chose when to fight and who to fight for. Faith has also travelled a lot. In the end when Faith over came her guilt she again chose to fight with Buffy.

I think it all depends on what your take on destiny is though, but to me Buffy is a Slayer, its who she is and in the end its up to her to decide what she does in life.
 
Totally agree with you.
I see destiny as a path that you take yourself, and the consequences that you come across are your choices, because of taking that path.
Buffy was handed her 'powers' she didnt choose them, therefore, Slaying is not her destiny in my opinion...
 
Like Tom Cruise said in the Last Samurai. "Man cannot know his destiny. He can just do what he can, untill his destiny is revealed."

Basically I figure, it's not something we can know. Maybe just by choosing to do so it became her destiny.
 
What Allycat said. I think it's destiny by choice. She's still the Slayer one way or another, but she chose her destiny when she chose to go on with her duties.
 
Destiny by choice..She could have run away and slay only monsters she met on her way...But she stayed and did what she was supposed to...
 
Buffy always had the choice to either carry out Slayer duties or not. The problem is . . . she was called at the age of 15 and was too young to realize that she had a choice. She believed that she had no choice, thanks to Merrick and Giles lecturing her about being a Slayer. This is also why she didn't bother to leave Sunnydale to attend Northwestern University.
 
Originally posted by Jules
This all depends on how you view the term "˜destiny' If a destiny is preordained for you and you have no choice but to do as it wishes, then in my point of view being a slayer was never Buffy's destiny.
Click to expand...

Even if this is someone's definition of destiny, I would say it still was her destiny. She didn't have a choice on becoming the slayer. Of course, she could chose not to act on actually doing what a slayer is thought to do, but she would still be the slayer. It would still be inside of her. Even if she did not act upon it. So I would say IMO, in any way, it was her destiny.

Although I do believe you have a say in your destiny, and your destiny can be changed by what you yourself decide. So it was her destiny both by choice and not by choice IMO.
 
Even if this is someone's definition of destiny, I would say it still was her destiny. She didn't have a choice on becoming the slayer. Of course, she could chose not to act on actually doing what a slayer is thought to do, but she would still be the slayer. It would still be inside of her. Even if she did not act upon it. So I would say IMO, in any way, it was her destiny.

If you really think about this, it wasn't really destiny but the Shadowmen's magic.
 
i think being a slayer is a destiny thing. the potential slayers are chosen long before they show any signs of being a good slayer. If it weren't destiny than girls like Dawn, Willow, Cordy, and any of those self apinted slayers from Gunn's old group would have made great slayers from the experience and knowledge they had. So i think Buffy was always destined to be a slayer, tho she got to chose what she did with the power.
 
I agree with BillieHunter and DarkNova. Being the Slayer WAS her destiny. She was chosen...but SHE could decide what to do with the power...but it doesn't change the fact that either way...unless she dies...she's the slayer.
 
Even if this is someone's definition of destiny, I would say it still was her destiny. She didn't have a choice on becoming the slayer. Of course, she could chose not to act on actually doing what a slayer is thought to do, but she would still be the slayer. It would still be inside of her. Even if she did not act upon it. So I would say IMO, in any way, it was her destiny.

Originally posted by LadyLavinia
If you really think about this, it wasn't really destiny but the Shadowmen's magic.
Click to expand...

But it was still out of her control, and therefore IMO still a part of her destiny. She could not control what the shadowmen did long before her time as slayer.
 
The way I see it is that being the slayer is like being born female and having blue eyes or something. Not all females are going to be born with blue eyes just like in the Buffyverse not all girls are born as potential slayers.

Being a slayer is what Buffy is, you don't get to choose the type of person you are. But you do get to choose how you use your abilities. Buffy could have used her abilities to become a firefighter or something that she could use her superhuman strength in.

If the watchers hadn't found her and told her she was the slayer, her life would have been totally different. We learn that the Watchers are descendants from the Shadowmen. I agree with LadyLavinia, that it was more manipulation than destiny.
 
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