Help Lookin’ to talk Buffy Theories 🤓

[Skanky Vamp]

The Slayer spell was indeed powerful, but to alter memories - years worth of memories - that is pretty complex and powerful.

I have long been a proponent that Dawn gave Joyce the tumor. And one thing that often gets overlooked when talking about creating the memories is much more than that. They had to create hospital records, birth certificates, social security numbers, doctor's information showing she was vaccinated as a child, school transcripts and literally everything on paper or bytes to indicate she was real. She would not be able to be enrolled in school otherwise. The spell just didn't create memories; it created an entire person from scratch.

 

[hoponlilmama]

I have long been a proponent that Dawn gave Joyce the tumor. And one thing that often gets overlooked when talking about creating the memories is much more than that. They had to create hospital records, birth certificates, social security numbers, doctor's information showing she was vaccinated as a child, school transcripts and literally everything on paper or bytes to indicate she was real. She would not be able to be enrolled in school otherwise. The spell just didn't create memories; it created an entire person from scratch.

Very true!
The more it's discussed (like in this thread) and fleshed out, it really makes more and more sense.

This could've been an interesting storyline in the series.

 

[Kate Fitzgerald]

Lets dicuss the fuffy theory

 

[thrasherpix]

Gods, I'd love to know how some people got into the bureaucracy, from Anya to Dawn. (Imagine Dana Scully and Fox Mulder doing a background check on either.) Not to mention the logistics for Anya.

(I could go off on a similar tangent about Faith and, when Buffy was in LA working a legal job and renting a room without legal ID, and not that far from Sunnydale, but that's beside the point. I almost did a fanfic to head canon how Buffy managed to get the job and motel room in a way that would NOT point the Watchers and cops directly at her.)

As for that "true sight" Buffy used...if I lived in that world, I think I'd be using that spell like every month or so just to be on the safe side!


Though I realize now that I've put way more thought into the series than the writers, my head canon is that the Key was put into human form with a soul (as proven that she can invite vampires into the Summers home, at least strongly implied given that we don't know what souls are other than even amateur teen witches recovering from head trauma can summon them from the Ether, like WTF, that should be terrifying to contemplate) because the soul would "mask" it. Glory would have a much easier time to find it if not cloaked in a soul.

Also, range. Either monks didn't have time to send her further away (to the other side of the world, perhaps as a daughter who stayed with Buffy's dad, and with Joyce dead, he wants her back, though the production cost of that would be intimidating, not to mention how to alter the story even if they did eventually come back to Sunnydale for some reason--perhaps using a vengeance demon to bend the plot that way), or the magic could only work on a Hellmouth, and fizzle away (or fail completely) if tried elsewhere.

Wouldn't it have been funny if it turned out Hank had no idea who Dawn was because the monks never reached him? Instead, they'd have to mind bar Joyce to not bring up Dawn with some BS memories (but then this gives head canon material to why Hank turned into an uncaring jerk). Or worse, they erased Hank's memories or altered his mind enough, which is sad to think about.

 

[NotASlayer]

Gods, I'd love to know how some people got into the bureaucracy, from Anya to Dawn. (Imagine Dana Scully and Fox Mulder doing a background check on either.) Not to mention the logistics for Anya.

With Anya, her fake identity was set up by Anyanka. Maybe vengeance demons, as well as granting wishes, have an entire process for setting up fake IDs? Anya, as a fake identity, was created with, by the sounds of it, backstory, money and a home.

It was only after Anyanka's power centre was destroyed that Anya became a real person, not a persona. And, in "No Place Like Home", she was running out of money. Which took two years, so just how much did she start with?

Now I have an image of demon bureaucrats/hackers setting up fake identities...

 

[thrasherpix]

With Anya, her fake identity was set up by Anyanka. Maybe vengeance demons, as well as granting wishes, have an entire process for setting up fake IDs? Anya, as a fake identity, was created with, by the sounds of it, backstory, money and a home.

It was only after Anyanka's power centre was destroyed that Anya became a real person, not a persona. And, in "No Place Like Home", she was running out of money. Which took two years, so just how much did she start with?

Now I have an image of demon bureaucrats/hackers setting up fake identities...

Magic is shown to fade a lot. I assume she stayed in her demon dimension when not working Cordelia. But after that she's stuck in the mortal world. Any actual home or such would no longer be hers if such even existed in the first place.

Who were her (presumed) parents? What were her past grades, her immunizations, and all that? Who was the school to call and send out notices to (that is the legal guardian)? Even Flutie showed he cared about these things despite his words to the contrary, and I'm sure Snyder would more, especially when he realized that "new student is hanging with Buffy's friends I'm supposed to watch for the Mayor."

How did she keep herself and clothes clean? How did she feed herself?

I'm actually fine with a demon like her working it out through mostly mundane means (and staying at the Hellmouth because it's easiest to undo the damage there along with going to school because she has a teen crush on Xander making her stupid like that) as it's not impossible, but then season 4 Anya shows up as a fish out of water in society which messes that image up in my head.

In the end I have to head canon Halfrek helped her (though possibly to prolong her suffering and listen to Anya complain so she could go back and laugh at Anya with the other vengeance demons--that is a fake friend/frenemy, though probably the closest to friendship demons get, just as it is with too many humans), which is unsatisfying.

 

[NotASlayer]

There was a story for "Anya"'s supposed parents, back when she was Anyanka, which was brought up when Harmony introduced her to Cordelia, and there is at least a suggestion of some kind of deep cover, for want of a better description, in that case. Plus, Anya didn't really hang with Buffy's friends; Anyanka was briefly around Cordelia, then Anyanka-Anya showed up around them, sort of, in "Doppelgangland", but the only time Anya was around them was in "The Prom" and "Graduation Day: Part 1".

After that, how she was getting on was pretty much glossed over. "No Place Like Home" showed she had money, which had now nearly run out, and she had an apartment, but that was only seen a couple of times in season five. So, my assumption was Anyanka set up money and an apartment for her cover identity when she arrived, and Anya took those over when Anyanka was effectively killed.