Will The Cookies Ever Get Baked?

[white avenger]

Regarding Buffy's rather ridiculous metaphor at the end of Season 7, do you really think that she will ever try to retire from Slaying? It isn't like she's the "only girl in the world" anymore, and she isn't "Mama Slayer" to the several hundred new Slayers located all over the world. As of Season 10, other than fighting the Big Bad of the current arc, there could not possibly be a better time for Buffy to hand up her Scythe and settle down somewhere with whatever snugglepuppy you care to envision, so, aside from Joss' and Dark Horse's determination to make more money, what do you think keeps Buffy in the fight?

 

[laianna]

What would she do if she wasn't the Slayer? I feel like that's all she knows how to do and is what she's best at. I think she'll keep slaying forever.

 

[thetopher]

Sounds to me like you may have missed the point of the speak entirely. 😉

'Cookie dough' was about relationships, not really about Buffy/her place in the world as the slayer. Buffy was saying 'hey, maybe there isn't anything wrong with me when it comes to the whole 'guy' thing. Maybe I'll just wait and see.'

Whether anyone thinks that still applies to her decisions in the comics- that's something else. 🙁

 

[EVIL UU]

What do I think keeps Buffy in the fight?

Nature. She's the slayer, at the end of the day, that's what she was created to do. Killing monsters makes her happy. On the top of that - what else is she supposed to do? Buffy has no dreams, no life goals, no ambitions, no hobbies or anything else even resembling any of those.

More importantly, why not both? Why can't Buffy settle and still hunt? She can even have those 2.5 kids and still hunt, why not?

 

[white avenger]

Sounds to me like you may have missed the point of the speak entirely. 😉

'Cookie dough' was about relationships, not really about Buffy/her place in the world as the slayer. Buffy was saying 'hey, maybe there isn't anything wrong with me when it comes to the whole 'guy' thing. Maybe I'll just wait and see.'

Whether anyone thinks that still applies to her decisions in the comics- that's something else. 🙁

Opinions vary. I always saw the cookie metaphor as meaning that her job was finally done, and she was finally able to walk away from the fight, the way that cookies, when they are finished baking. Leave them in the oven too long, and they aren't cookies anymore, they're ash. That's what I believe that she was referring to.

The Buffyverse as depicted in the Dark Horse series would have the potential of actually being the place where that would finally be possible.

What do I think keeps Buffy in the fight?

More importantly, why not both? Why can't Buffy settle and still hunt? She can even have those 2.5 kids and still hunt, why not?

Again, opinions vary, and none actually have any more validity (or possibility) of ever happening. Buffy isn't going to permanently retire from the fight, and she isn't apt to "settle down" with any lover permanently, simply because, as you say, she's the Slayer, and the mission always comes first.

And the comic books keep pulling in revenue.

 

[brinkster130]

They'll eventually be baked. But not for a while and I don't know that we'll ever get that story....but I'm sure at some point Buffy will slow down and have a shift in priorities. Right now, she's still young and figuring out her place in the world.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

The cookies speech was about maturity, not about quitting the slayer gig. Buffy has not figured out how to juggle all the parts of her life - being a slayer, taking over as her sister's surrogate mother (or at least, provider), earning an income, being a friend to her friends and finally being someone's lover or wife. She believes she could eventually get to that position but she has to focus on certain things first (and when she made this speech, she was about to face the massed army of the Turok-Han which was consuming all her attention at the moment). Unfortunately her understanding of maturity does not seem to get any better in the comics.

 

[bespangeled]

Regarding Buffy's rather ridiculous metaphor at the end of Season 7, do you really think that she will ever try to retire from Slaying? It isn't like she's the "only girl in the world" anymore, and she isn't "Mama Slayer" to the several hundred new Slayers located all over the world. As of Season 10, other than fighting the Big Bad of the current arc, there could not possibly be a better time for Buffy to hand up her Scythe and settle down somewhere with whatever snugglepuppy you care to envision, so, aside from Joss' and Dark Horse's determination to make more money, what do you think keeps Buffy in the fight?

The cookies were a metaphor but she really isn't the apron and mixing bowl type. Slayer is not what she does - slayer is who she is, as Kendra said. Besides - why would settling down mean she can't slay? If Buffy ever believes there will be an easy time to do it all then she will find out she's wrong, but I don't think she believes that. I think that she just needed time away from Angel - because she was choosing Spike as her champion. I also think all 3 knew that they don't make magic amulets from untrustworthy sources to be used by champions fighting evil that let the champion survive, so Spike was going to die (and I believe he wanted to).

And she had finally figured out that 3 serious relationships in seven years was not that bad - there is nothing wrong with her.

But I hope, for her sake, that she never dates either vampire again because those two are seriously high maintenance.