Keeping Buffy's death a secret...how?

[caitaintdead]

I never quite understood how Buffy being gone would leave such a huge opening for the demon community to go crazy either. After all, before Buffy came to Sunnydale it seemed to be getting along pretty okay. I mean sure, there was a high death count and countless weirdness happening, but it was never a complete catastrophy - the town still seemed to function okay.

Why would Buffy's death suddenly mean things would go crazier then they were before she got to Sunnydale? Especially with Spike and the scoobs to keep an eye on things.

I can see that the possibility of Buffybot looking after Dawn until she was 18 and then leaving town is viable, but I just can't see Giles doing that to Dawn without sticking around to provide a father figure for her. Although I suppose Giles does say later in season 6 and in season 5 that he doesn't think it's his job. Seems a bit unfair to me. If I was Giles I wouldn't just abandon my slayers sister, but I suppose maybe it bought back to many bad memories about getting his slayer killed.

 

[fly on the wall]

I meant, mystically as far as the coven or whatever being able to tell she was dead.

Maybe Buffy's death would have been overlooked by the police, but there was still keeping the peace/Dawn/etc etc to think about. They still had reason to cover up the death. Who knows? Maybe Giles, Spike, Dawn etc were skeptical about the Buffybot's longterm existence...but since Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya knew they were gonna bring Buffy back, they were adamant about keeping up with the facade..they KNEW it would most likely be short term, if the spell worked correctly.

Why would Buffy's death suddenly mean things would go crazier then they were before she got to Sunnydale? Especially with Spike and the scoobs to keep an eye on things.

Sunnydale WASN'T as good as it was before Buffy came. She kept a lot of the demons at bay. Her graduating class had the most survivors, remember? Besides, Buffy's presence there made a lot of demons scared. As we found out, had her death been revealed they would have torn the place apart just out of celebration and rebellion more than anything else.

 

[AgentX7k]

I think she arrived around the same time the town started to escalate in demonic activity. It's like destiny-related or something.

 

[IdiotJed]

It's completely viable, as well, to think that magic prevented outsiders to see her grave and only her loved ones were able to see it. I mean, this was before Willow went off the deep end and tried to destroy the world so it's not too unbelieveable that she and Tara concocted a spell to make this happen. When the demons on the motorcycles came the ressurection spell was already underway and the 'camo' spell had been broken.

I know. I'm reaching! lol

 

[Mesektet Ra]

There is no way they could've covered up Buffy's death, at least realistically. This is why:

The BuffyBot is a robot. She doesn't bleed. She has no blood, she's a freakin' machine. Vampires can smell blood, hear heartbeat, hear breathing.

Even if Willow and Tara had somehow managed to concoct a spell to simulate these human effects on the Bot, there was bound to be some shenanigans going on in regards to something figuring out Buffy wasn't Buffy. Assuming both Willow and Tara cast all these spells is just reaching.

 

[caitaintdead]

Although we do find out that the robots even have the essence of the person they're imitating. With the Warrenbot that Willow tracks down? And we know that Tara and Willow are much stronger wiccas then Warren.

 

[InsaneMystic]

Although we do find out that the robots even have the essence of the person they're imitating. With the Warrenbot that Willow tracks down? And we know that Tara and Willow are much stronger wiccas then Warren.

IIRC, that was due to Rack (who certainly had more mojo at his filthy little hands than either Tara or - Non-Dark - Willow) providing a "diversion" for Warren's escape. It didn't seem to me to be a "built-in-feature" of the Meers type android. 🙂

As for heartbeat and breathing, that can be made by a machine. There are real world sex toy robot prototypes around who do exactly that. (Everybody now: eeeewwwww.)

 

[white avenger]

There is no way they could've covered up Buffy's death, at least realistically. This is why:

The BuffyBot is a robot. She doesn't bleed. She has no blood, she's a freakin' machine. Vampires can smell blood, hear heartbeat, hear breathing.

Even if Willow and Tara had somehow managed to concoct a spell to simulate these human effects on the Bot, there was bound to be some shenanigans going on in regards to something figuring out Buffy wasn't Buffy. Assuming both Willow and Tara cast all these spells is just reaching.

There wouldn't be any really great difficulty in passing the bot off as the real Buffy as long as it just didn't interact very much with outsiders, and since Buffy was never up to that time shown as associating with people outside of her immediate group of friends, namely Giles, the Scoobies, and Spike, all of whom were in on the deception. Remember, her "greatest challenge" was accompanying Dawn to Parents' Day at the beginning of that school year. Everybody would think, if they bothered at all, that Buffy was just a normal, if somewhat reclusive, girl still recovering from the unexpected death of her mother and the newfound responsibilities associated with it.

 

[Mesektet Ra]

As for heartbeat and breathing, that can be made by a machine. There are real world sex toy robot prototypes around who do exactly that. (Everybody now: eeeewwwww.)

Alright, so say they gave the Bot the ability to mimic breath. That's all fine and good, but I still dunno about the heartbeat thing. To me, it seems that a vampire would be able to tell the difference between a mechanized heartbeat and a real one.

@WA: I'm not necessarily talking about the BuffyBot interacting with people - I'm talking about her interacting with demons. Part of the reason for keeping the Bot around was to show the underworld that the Slayer wasn't dead, right? So the Bot has no way around Slaying. I understand that the Scoobs helped her out, but it just seems to me that once a vampire got close enough, he'd be able to smell and hear that something about her wasn't right. I just don't think they'd've lasted a whole summer trying to cover it up with the demonfolk, is all.

 

[white avenger]

@WA: I'm not necessarily talking about the BuffyBot interacting with people - I'm talking about her interacting with demons. Part of the reason for keeping the Bot around was to show the underworld that the Slayer wasn't dead, right? So the Bot has no way around Slaying. I understand that the Scoobs helped her out, but it just seems to me that once a vampire got close enough, he'd be able to smell and hear that something about her wasn't right. I just don't think they'd've lasted a whole summer trying to cover it up with the demonfolk, is all.

Okay, sorry, I misunderstood. But about the only demons that the bot interacted with wound up dead anyhow, so if the truth ever dawned on them, it was only in the last few moments of their existence. The gang just had to make sure that no one ever got away. Of course, at the end, one vampire DID escape unharmed, and that was when the trouble started.

 

[InsaneMystic]

Alright, so say they gave the Bot the ability to mimic breath. That's all fine and good, but I still dunno about the heartbeat thing. To me, it seems that a vampire would be able to tell the difference between a mechanized heartbeat and a real one.

Hey, I'm not arguing. You already made the point of smell. The mechanical heartbeat might get simulated so well that it could fool a vampire (I'd rate that one tough job, but just barely feasible... e.g., with a slightly randomized program that makes the beats irregular in the hundreths-of-a-second range, and accelerates it in situations the CPU rates as "stressful for a human"), but masking the scent of rubber, hydraulic fluic and electricity (<< I've heard people contest that current has a smell... but I, for once, do associate a certain smell with it!) to smell like blood and sweat, with individual and situational ("the smell of fear") nuances? Convincingly enough to fool the vampires' super-noses?

Three words: No way, Wayne. :cool07:

 

[Primal Slayer]

There is no way they could've covered up Buffy's death, at least realistically. This is why:

The BuffyBot is a robot. She doesn't bleed. She has no blood, she's a freakin' machine. Vampires can smell blood, hear heartbeat, hear breathing.

The problem with your argument is that Buffybot killed the vampires she came in contact with. Thus the secret never got out until their one mishap in Bargaining. Though I think the Scoobies should never had let Buffybot patrol by herself. There shouldve always been atleast one or two people patrolling with her.

 

[PurplePoof]

How did people not realize Buffy wasn't alive? This was a town that was still, for the most part, in denial that they were a cesspool for demons and the undead. Sunnydale just didn't seem like it was home to a lot of braintrusts. :lol: