Buffy....bitch?

[cryptwarmer]

We talked about the nuances of Spike, so let's focus on Buffy. She's an extremely complex character as well. Maybe a female version of Spike, except with her default being good while his is evil. She straddles both sides

Comments

The B-ster

[gaia_voidmother]

Welp. This lady is a real kettle of angst. The minute she's called as Slayer she pretty much begins needing a full-time therapist who is well versed in the supernatural side of her life. This chicky has done it all. Lost friends, a Watcher, almost every boyfriend ended up abandoning her (and she even turned one evil by giving him nookie, who'd have thought Angel had so much gremlin in him? Was it because it was after midnight? No nookie for Angel) She's died twice, one of those by choice to save her sister, staked classmates, one of her friends turned evil for a bit there, the other one tried to rape her, her 'enemy with benefits' tried to rape her after she taught him that no means yes and he's too disgusting to love. Everyone has abandoned her at some point, and the group of old men she worked for betrayed her on her birthday for an archaic and barbarous coming-of-age test. Oh, and just to put the cherry on the crap sundae, her mom died

RE: The B-ster

[cryptwarmer]

All that is why the idea of her being in a psych ward is pretty easy to swallow.

Either she cooked the whole thing up (or schizophrenia) or some of those things happened and she went insane and her mind cooked up the rest. Dark escapist fantasy but then we don't always get to pick and choose.

Given all that comes with the Slayer gig...it's a mercy they have a short shelf life, or as Spike points out, they get to the point where they just want it all to end, and who can blame them?

Clearly Buffy sees her duty as going way beyond slaying vampires.

She feels there is no one she can trust or turn to. In S7 when she goes through the portal and the old men tell her that she needs the dark in her she refuses to believe them, then realizes the gift they offered could have helped her. But by then why should she trust ANYONE? She's been hurt and betrayed by them all.

RE: The B-ster

[gaia_voidmother]

This, to be honest. Although, strictly speaking, those guys technically raped Sineya by removing all her choices. This 'gift' was forced on her. None of them ask for it. So I can see why again, that she'd refuse anything to do with them. 'Beware of witch-doctors offering gifts' and all that...

[ladypeyton]

She starts out a typical shallow, selfish slightly narcissistic teen Valley Girl and then suffers a huge number of traumatic experiences causing her to harden, go numb and narrow her worldview to a simple black and white while she tries to learn to cope and then she dies.

She's then dealt the most extreme form of trauma that I could possibly imagine, but is given help and support from someone who loves her more than himself to the point where, while she finally was able to pull herself up by her daisy straps, he slowly and in a series of steps destroys himself.

Of all the things she did over the course of the series the one thing I can't forgive her for is that smile at the edge of the crater.

TL/DR version: She's complicated

[cryptwarmer]

Buffy behaved very differently with different people. Which I think is a healthy thing

[baphrosia]

Anybody who can go through as much trauma as she has, make the hard choices she has to make, be betrayed as many times as she has, and still forgive and give second chances to all who want them? Is a Hero. I'd like to see anybody else go through what Buffy has, even without the supernatural aspects of it, and make it out the other side still trying and still caring.

The fact that she is also human and therefore going to make mistakes along the way doesn't make her anything less than a hero, and certainly not the horrible bitch so much fic makes her out to be.

[cryptwarmer]

This is what Spike sees in her after everyone else betrayed her. Beautiful. Wish I had someone in my life who would see past some of the day to day and find something worthwhile in me. Lucky Bufffy

[pfeifferpack]

I love Buffy with all her quirks included. She does have a loving heart and brave soul The only time I became upset with the character in canon was that after she came out of her depression of S6 she NEVER acknowledged how wrong her treatment of Spike had been. Particularly the beat down in the alley and her no means yes behavior until she really meant no and never making sure her sister (especially) understood there was far more to it than an attempted rape

[cryptwarmer]

I resonate with much of what you say here