Is she really that strong?

[PrincessBuffy16]

Buffy is a hero. We all know that. She has to be strong, sometimes she has to kill people she loves, she has to leave because that is the right thing to do. Buffy is physically strong. But like every living thing Buffy has this tendency to break down. When Angel lost his soul, at first she was shaken. But she tried to stay calm. For sure it hurted like hell to see him like that. Buffy is not an ordinary girl, but still she is human. She has feelings. So where does she keeps that strenght? How can she be so strong? From inside. When Joyce founds out she slept with Angel, and when she asks her is she is love with him Buffy says "I was". I think she was trying to make herself think that. She loved him all the way. She loved him when he was doing all those things, she just couldn't stop. She was right when she said "Love makes you to do the wacky". And she proves that she never stopped loving him in Becoming Part II. She was wrong. She wasn't ready. She was ready to kill the monster, but not the man. So, is she really that strong?

 

[Spike Angelus]

I say yes, she is strong. I'm pretty sure that if my wife had opened a portal to Hell, and just got her soul back, I couldn't do what Buffy did. I'd be selfish and want to have the love of my life back. And the world as we know it would end.
Making the tough choices, when most people would do the opposite, makes one strong.

 

[Eleftheria]

She dealt with her parents' break up, her own death by the Master, watching the love of her life losing his soul and turning against her and her friends, killing the love of her life...and so much more. I definitely agree with you PB about her loving him even when he was evil. I mean she loved Angel and his face...not the actions of Angelus. In third season...was it Beauty and the Beasts? When the school counsellor told her: but you didn't stop loving him...we all see Buffy's eyes, of course she never stopped loving Angel.

I think Buffy faced much pain because she chose to be a different slayer...she chose to have friends/love and tried to have a normal life...so anything bad happened to them affected her much.

In "when she was bad" it is apparent that she was deeply affected by the fact that she could have died...permanently and not just for a minute. And we know about the effects in her psychological situation when she killed Angel, and when she came back, it wasn't easy to adjust.
In the end of third season I saw a strong Buffy who didn't hesitate to fight Faith to the death to save Angel...she was willing to sacrifice her own blood knowing all the risks. In helpless I saw a Buffy proving to be smart and inventive even without her physical strength. Of course i am gonna watch a very damaged Buffy in season 6 but she definitely has good reasons for her depression.

I think she represents every woman who is not perfect, is a human who struggles with all problems of life and finally succeeds.She may wasn't emotionally as strong as she was physically in the beginning but I think she became very strong in the end. She has her weaknesses, she is not a God...but she is a very strong human who manages to find herself.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

She's incredibly strong. I think only Cordelia could turn Buffy's strength of that season into weakness (I think I remember two times she claims Buffy's actions in two cases was selfish, so it's likely she does that from time to time), but I doubt even she would.

 

[white avenger]

Buffy was strong enough, at age 15, to confront the Master, knowing that she couldn't survive the confrontation. She was strong enough, at age 17, to put a sword into the chest of the first man she had ever loved and send him to hell. She was strong enough, at age 19, to accept the burden of raising a a sister only a few years her junior, and to sacrifice her life in order for that sister to survive. She was strong enough, at age 20, to survive being literally from a heavenly existence into a world where realoty consisted of having to work at a menial job with no future in order to support that same teen aged sister, who apparently had no more responsibilities than going to school and screaming "Get out, get out, GET OUT!" every time something didn't go her way. She was strong enough, at age 21, to protect and support a couple of dozen total strangers and defy the closest thing to a father that she had had in the last six years in order to protect a man who had, only a few months earlier, tried to rape her, simply because she believed that he could be a better man. And she was strong enough, just a few months later, to leave that man, who she had finally realized and acknowledged that she loved, to die a death that could only be described as agonizing, because she had an obligation to a group of people who had just recently thrown her out of her own home. And let's not forget that she managed to practically single handedly save the entire world from destruction or worse on an annual basis. Strong? Nah, she's just a girl.

 

[faeriegrrl27]

Buffy isn't my favorite character (that's Willow...), but she is my hero. I admire her so much and that is because she is so strong. All of the women are, of course, but Buffy in particular stands out. As people have said, she killed Angel, dealt with death and divorce and loving a soulless killer. I think what speaks to her strength the most is that these things do affect her. It wouldn't be strength if she had no feelings for Angel when she killed him. It wouldn't be strength when she managed to still exist is Season 6 if she had been happy to be back. All the things that Buffy went through, that brought her down, caused her anguish... those are the things that make her strong. Emotional strength doesn't exist when there's no emotion. The difficult decisions she makes are admirable because they're difficult. She doesn't always do the right thing, but that's what makes it so much more amazing when she does. Her weaknesses are her strengths. It's like what she tells Kendra in What's My Line Pt2 about having friends and family... "they're a *total* asset!"

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

These are all good points, but I'm talking about emotions. What she did with Dawn, she had to do that. Dawn had no one else, just like Buffy, they head only each other. But I'm talking about emotions, not what happened later, but in season 2. Just like Spike Angelus said, who in this world would be strong enough and not selfish at all and send the love of his/her life to Hell?

 

[Eleftheria]

I don't know if there is someone in this world who would rather send the love of his/her life to Hell, to save the world.I think most of us would keep our love and go to Hell along with the rest of this world!

But Buffy is the Slayer...and she is a different Slayer...she may have amazing emotions for Angel, but she knows what her duty is.Saving the world is basically her job.Being the Chosen one she had the srength to put her feeling aside for a moment...they did return immediately though and resulted to her runaway...

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

I agree with that. But you know sometimes I want to feel what she felt. When she is leaving in Becoming Part II. her face is so familiar to me, but I just can't remember where did I saw it, or when did I have it on. And I'm so close to remembering, but I just can't and that bugs me. I just want to feel that. I would like to understand. And why did she had sex with Spike? To feel something, yeah that is the theory this days, but I want to be in her head, just to understand.

 

[faeriegrrl27]

I think what Buffy was feeling was just lost. Not sad, not angry... lonely and lost and like there was nothing to live for. I think that's why she became Anne. There was no reason to be Buffy anymore. But once big Mr. Demon came along, she had a purpose... there was a reason to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer once more. Once she killed Angel, she felt like she had nothing, that she was nothing.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

I agree. Well he wouldn't feel lost. She was in a tunnel and he was her light. Now that light is gone 🙁

 

[saturn5]

God yes, considering what she puts up with she's amazing