I suppose there are two reasons why I view Buffy as one of the less interesting characters:
1. She lacks depth. I don't mean here simply the extent to which she changes from season to season; she changes far more than Giles, for example, and Giles is pretty much universally agreed to be hewn from solid essence of awesome. I mean that it's much harder to deconstruct her character than some of the others. Xander, for example, looks rather superficial if you only see one or two episodes, but if you add together his appearances over the course of a season (particularly one of the earlier ones), he proves to be full of hidden contradictions. Is he primarily motivated by love of his friends or by abstract morality? How is one to reconcile his rather casual attitude towards sex with his evident capacity for forming deep and long-lasting personal bonds? Does his evident attraction to powerful women conflict with his protective nature? And so on.
Buffy, by contrast, is hard to analyze in depth. Her central dilemma, the desire to reconcile a normal life with her destiny, repeats itself in episode after episode and season after season.
2. The show repeatedly invites us to consider her as a hero rather than as a character. The point here is not whether her actions are unambiguously good, but whether the authors wanted us to consider her as such - for the answer to the former question is often Maybe whereas the answer to the latter is invariably Yes. A case in point is Giles' implicit suggestion in late season 5 that it might be better to kill Dawn rather than to allow Glory to use her to destroy the world. Buffy's defense of Dawn is presented as morally unambiguous, and the show (as always) gives its hero an easy out by giving her a third option - that of killing herself rather than either killing Dawn or allowing the world to suffer. This sacrifice might itself be seen as selfish - Buffy is leaving the slayer line in the somewhat unreliable hands of Faith, risking the whole of humanity in order to save her sister. But this point is never addressed in the show, which, indeed, repeatedly avoids addressing any of Buffy's morally ambiguous decisions (with one or two exceptions, mostly connected to Angel and Spike).
3. Her superpowers provide an excuse for lazy writing. I may expand on this further at some point, but I think the treatment of superpowers in BtVS deserves its own topic, so here I'll confine myself to pointing out that the season arcs of BtVS regularly follow this pattern:
a. The season Big Bad establishes its credibility by kicking Buffy's butt.
b. Buffy regains her self-confidence and reciprocates by kicking the Big Bad's butt.
Nothing in particular has changed between a and b - no voyage of self-discovery, no logical breakthrough. This can be seen particularly starkly in Prophecy Girl, in which it is never explained how Buffy goes from being effortlessly beaten by the Master to effortlessly defeating him - she simply states that she feels powerful. In contrast, most movies following this pattern provide some breakthrough between a and b; for example, The Matrix makes it clear that it is Neo's ever-increasing confidence in his destiny which enables him to go from being an ordinary guy to one-handedly defeating an Agent. And so Buffy's victories rarely correspond to any personal development, leaving her stunted as a character.
Amazing post, really great points and intriguing views!
But I did want to take a stab at a few of the things you said, not arguing!*comes in peace* just wanted to give my opinion and points on the matter...
Right off the bat I think we saw the contradictions Buffy carried within herself, she states she no longer wants to slay, but gets right to rescuing her friends. The normalcy she seeks through all the seasons is really a metaphor for figuring out who you are, which tends to take a lifetime. This contradiction she has in herself is the main characteristic that triggers her reactions, it makes her who she is.
Season 1 we see a girl desperately seeking to be "normal" in high school, just like many girls seek popularity, fitting in, ect. Season 2 deals with first love and how it can go bad, she loves like a normal girl, but with a vampire, therefor in the slayers world, only setting her up for despair. She does not love as the slayer, instead she opens up and gets hurt in the process. How many love openly, only to be knocked down? Season 3 we find she is more easily allowing the 2 personalities too become one, is this because when she became to "normal" to love she got hurt? She becomes defensive about love, but still is pulled back in with Angel until he makes the adult decision to leave. She was young and naive in the ways of the world, as most at her age are, many can relate to that first love and hurt scenario. Season 4 we see her trying to move on by burying herself in college life, slaying and attempts to make new friends, or metaphorically, attempting to grow up and maintain multiple responsibilities. By doing so the gang fell apart, all turning to different things for new support. The Initiative turning sour was like the backstabbing friend, Riley was the new love and the showdown was the reunion of the characters drifting apart. Season 5 the character attempts to becomes one with the slayer, in essence, truly finding and accepting herself in the real world. That path is disrupted when she receives the line, "Death is your gift" in which she interprets incorrectly. It's yet another metaphorical bump in the road for acceptance of self. Her death, to me anyhow, was the metaphor for total acceptance and love of who you are or were, when you're finally at peace with yourself. So, when she gets ripped out from all that in Season 6, we see the confusion, despair and uncharacteristic decision making. Season 6 ends with an self discovery, when her an Dawn crawl out of the grave, that life is not so bad, and if you go on fighting yourself, there is no point. This sets up for the character we see Buffy ultimately transform into during season 7, the General, the leader who everyone expects to do everything, and when fails, must shoulder the blame and guilt, but this time she can take it, she accepts it, unlike previous seasons, in which she fought with herself on how to deal with things.
So yes, I agree she lacks the depth and character development that Willow, Xander and others may have, but in my opinion, she is still very interesting and able to relate too.
I love your point on the hero dynamic. I do agree she is usually portrayed as the unobtainable hero, not "one of us". However, even with this characteristic, many were still able to connect with her. Her human, and in even that, female reactions, to challenges is very obtainable. They have emotion, she makes the wrong decisions, she reacts to them, she doesn't just come in, save the day and carry on.
I think the superpowers were well written, and with each big bad, we see some sort of self discovery or acceptance between a and b. When she defeats the Master, she comes back. The self discovery was about overcoming weakness and fear, and she had reached the ultimate fear, dying, but still had managed, with the help of her amazing friends of course, to come back.
To sum it up, many were unable to connect with her because her journey of self discovery through all the seasons, metaphorically and all, lacked interest. To others however, it was awesome. I personally love Buffy, she is indeed my favorite, although I still love the rest!
Apologies for the long winded post, tis the writer in me.
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