What do the characters represent to you?

[Uncle Rory]

I was thinking about how a lot of Buffy / Angel is metaphor and alegory, foreshadowing etc. etc.

Boil it all down and you see a lot of hidden message. As one very astute member of this site likes to point out, the monsters seem to represent typical teenage problems. How about the characters on Buffy? If you had to state which Human characteristic, emotion or condition each character represents, who would be which?

My take on it all.

Buffy = Strength
Willow = Nature
Angel = Hope
Xander = Loyalty
Anya = Change
Dawn = Family
Spike = Fury
Tara = Innocence
Oz = Patience
Riley - Weakness
Joyce = Life
Cordelia = Ambition
Harmony = Society

Ideas?

Uncle Rory - Official Chairman of the "stick your box set of Charmed DVD's where the sun don't shine" club.

 

[anyatara]

Hmm, I think you pretty much said all what I would have said.
Buffy = Girl Power. It's hokey, but true.
Xander = Friendship.
Dawn = Responsibility.

And those are the only one's I can really think of, my other ideas you mentioned. 🙂

 

[Joyce Summers]

Originally posted by Uncle Rory

My take on it all.

Buffy = Strength
Willow = Nature
Angel = Hope
Xander = Loyalty
Anya = Change
Dawn = Family
Spike = Fury
Tara = Innocence
Oz = Patience
Riley - Weakness
Joyce = Life
Cordelia = Ambition
Harmony = Society

I would never have thought of any of those (except for the obvious one of Buffy and her signifying strength) but now that I read your list my brain sort of went 'Well, duh! How could you not see that before'. That said, I thus have none to add of my own. Haha.

Except for....GILES. You missed Giles, who I would say represents Knowledge.

 

[Vtheslayer]

I don' think you can sum up the characters with just one word each tho that is fun. The show does deal with alot of metaphors, Angel/Angelus with obvious boyfriend that changed theme, the monsters being issues...such as No Assembly Required...the former popular high school student, now 'a zombie' wanting to re-live his high school glory and not being able to progress,move on from that. Halloween with its message of being yourself rather than turning to your costume!

 

[Uncle Rory]

Angel/Angelus with obvious boyfriend that changed theme,

That reminded me of my original thought that (maybe)Angelus represents corruption or deterioration, infection.

Neat.

Uncle Rory

 

[HABEAS CORPSES]

Angel=we both love buffy (he may love the girl and i love the show but hey same differance)
Buffy=we both find dawn annoying at times
spike=we both call dawn "lil bit"

 

[Aly Fan]

Buffy - Strength and Independence
Xander - Friendship and caring
Willow - intellegence and devotion
Spike - Destructive (in early seasons)
Giles - Intelligence and fatherly

 

[LorneyTunes]

Buffy = Choice
Willow = power
Angel = a second chance
Xander = the glue that binds the love of friends
Anya = obscurity
Dawn = Youth
Tara = Seed of the earth, the leaves on the branches
Oz = the essence of cool
Riley - boredom
Joyce = protector
Harmony = Fashion
Giles - Wisdom

 

[wehappyfew]

Uncle Rory you hit the nail on the head.

Nice job.

Faith?

I'll roll with...."Butterfly" aka transformation.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

I love these things.

No one have an unbiased view of themselves, so they pick someone they *want* to be as opposed to who they actually are.

I also love those 'if you and your friends were the scoobies, who would you be' and you get an onslaught of - 'I'm Xander. My friends are always laughing at my comments...yadda'

Brilliant.

 

[Silum]

Buffy = Ultimate power (in fact, a power that most cant accept (including this board))

Giles = Guidance (he leads all, not only Buffy)

Willow = The future (see S8) a force that is powerful beyond measure, true depth

Angel = Redemption (even the greatest evil can be used for good)

Xander = The natural man (hes me, in a world of sci-fi he represents a world where we CAN fight for good)

Anya = Redemption again, thogh in a different form. Demon fromed human... fully human who is left to experience EVERYTHIGN it means to be human.. not just the idea of being human (angel)... Anya represents what love (Xander) can do to a demon... force them to see just how 'good' they can be (see ensoul'ed Spike for reference)

Dawn = Family and TRUE love on Buffys part. The 'real' buffy always put Dawns welfare above her own and that was always beautiful to watch.

Spike = The ability to conquer all. Spike represnts the worst in every human and their ability to rise above it. Unlike ANY (...ANY) demon before him... he FOUGHT for his soul and WON back his soul against his demon self to regain the person he could become. He is the true hero of the buffyverse to fight back even when he had no obligation to do so.

Tara = Love. Taras love was a quality portrayed with Willow.

Oz = Intelligence. Oz showed the side of the scooby squad that was missing. Seeing his thought patterns as Buffy began to read peoples minds was awesome.. it showed us just how deep Oz went.. hes the geek in all of us who undersatnds the group dynamic more than any of us could know.

Riley = Ceratinly not weakness. Stronger than any man could ever achieve and yet still not enough for Buffy. Riley is emotional and deep and strong yet he is unable to meet the requirements for a Buffy companion for a few simple reasons... First Buffy deserves more... second... Riley lacks the ability to truly control a woman like Buffy. Buffy surpassed Riley in character and this results in Riley (quite rightly) feeling inadequate.

Joyce = Family

Cordelia = The school bitch who has serious psychological problems (Angel series aside)

Harmony = A vampire who gets in bitch fights with Xander



As a side note, im quite intoxicated but EVERY single character ive just mentioned; i could write an exhaustive essay on. I think i speak for most Buffy fans when i say "what a character 'represents' to me", cannot be expressed into a simple forum post"

---------- Post added at 02:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:20 AM ----------

Silum disagrees: neh, thats not what this theads about... in fact, this thread has the potential for member to expressed each character individually.

Its like grammar hell. Rioja to blame... inquire within.

 

[fly on the wall]

Buffy - Strength, girl-power, courage, overcoming your demons
Willow - loyalty, power, sensitivity
Xander - dependability, averageness
Angel - protectiveness, redemption
Tara - nature, kindness, love
Spike - tough, humor
Giles - father, guidance, intelligence
Dawn - true family, the person you'd always protect
Anya - growth, change, innocence, learning
Oz - sweetness, stoicness, solidity
Faith - learning to love oneself

 

[sosa lola]

Buffy "“ strength, endurance, forgiveness,
Xander - loyalty, courage, protectiveness
Willow - change, power, sensitivity
Giles "“ father-figure, guidance, tradition
Angel "“ redemption, persistence, leading
Cordelia "“ honesty, growth, independence
Oz - tranquility, intelligence, laid back
Riley - tradition, sweetness, solidity
Anya - frankness, innocence, depending
Tara - nature, kindness, caring
Spike - growth, love, determination
Dawn - innocence, youth, cleverness

 

[Amicelli]

Buffy – girl power, some kind of idol
Xander - a really close friend you can always trust
Willow - clever, looks sweet outside but she can be really powerful
Giles – the person who almost always knows an answer

 

[Kean]

What I think is truly remarkable having read through this thread is that every quality attributed to each character is something that could be said of every character. I think every main character is a walking representations of strenght, friendship, loyalty, courage, redemption, wisdome, guidence, innocence, weakness, gentleness, intelligence and so on. I think of pivitol moments when each character displays these qualities but each one in a different way and at a different stage of their lives.

I really cannot think of any other show I have seen that I could say that about.