fandomhigh_ooc | Spotlight on Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

What's it all about, then?

Once upon a time, this guy named Joss Whedon had an idea: what if you took a typical horror movie concept - dark alley, scary monster, little blonde teenager - waited for the audience to start facepalming and muttering noooooo don't go there you idiot, and then turned everything upside down by making the girl kick the monster's ass?

That girl's name was Buffy Summers, and she first made it to the screen in a 1992 movie co-starring Luke Perry that Whedon doesn't like to talk about, because from his POV they replaced his story about empowered women with a broad, wacky comedy. The series is based on the basic premise of the movie, though, which is:

Mostly-typical high school girl starts having weird dreams about killing vampires in the past, strange dude shows up to tell her she's the latest in a line of girls destined to fight monsters and he's her Watcher, destined to train her. Girl says "C'haaa, yeah right, take off, skanky creepy dude, I have gymnastics practice." Vampires attack, she finds out he's right. By the end of the movie, she's killed a lot of vampires, watched her Watcher die, enacted beaucoup property damage on her school, and ridden off into the night with the aforementioned Luke Perry.
Cut to 1997, and Whedon gets to present the story he says he wanted to all along, in weekly tv format. Buffy, having been kicked out of her previous school for all the property damage ~~and miraculously transformed from a senior into a sophomore~~, moves to the town of Sunnydale with her newly-divorced mom for a fresh start, vowing that she's done with this whole Chosen One gig. If your first question on being told that is "So it's crawling with vampires, right?" you get a cookie. It's also built over a portal to Hell; Buffy and her friends spend seven seasons fighting the 31 flavors of evil that it draws like a magnet.

So who's in it?

Luckily, Buffy's not alone in her fight (once it becomes clear to her that she doesn't have a lot of choice about continuing it) - she has friends, family and allies in the form of:

Rupert Giles - Her new Watcher. An initially-stuffy Englishman who comes from a family of Watchers, we eventually find out he's a lot less repressed than he seems, and had quite the wild youth before settling down into his current job.

Willow Rosenberg - A very smart, shy computer whiz who eventually becomes an accomplished -- possibly too accomplished -- witch.

Xander Harris - Willow's BFF, whose sekrit power is that he doesn't have any sekrit powers, aside from +2 sarcasm and a particularly stubborn loyalty to his friends.

Angel - He's a vampire! Cursed with a soul! She's a Vampire Slayer! Who falls in love with him! ~~They fight crime!~~ That's gonna go well! At least until he leaves to start his own series!

Cordelia Chase - On the surface a bitchy, popular rich girl, when she's drawn into Buffy's circle via the supernatural stuff that won't seem to leave them alone, she reveals a lot more depth of character and ability to kick ass in her own right.

Jenny Calendar - Sunnydale High's computer science teacher, who has a not so secret mutual attraction to Giles, and a slightly less well-advertised mission from her gypsy family: keep an eye on Angel. That's gonna go well x2!

Daniel "Oz" Osbourne - A laid-back, quiet guy who becomes Willow's boyfriend in the second season, and gets bitten while babysitting the young cousin whose parents -- oops! -- forgot to tell Oz he was a werewolf.

Spike - A bleached-blond British vampire who is more or less Angel's grandson in who-bit-who terms. He's initially The Enemy, but in later seasons after a military organization has installed a chip in his head that prevents him from causing pain to humans, he becomes a reluctant paid informant, then ally. He takes his shirt off a lot, falls in love with Buffy, causes many fannish flamewars, and eventually gets a soul.

Faith - Buffy dies for a few minutes at the end of Season 1; in that time, another Slayer is called. That Slayer, Kendra (who appeared only as a guest star), is later murdered, and Faith is called. Faith is everything Buffy isn't (or doesn't want to admit she could be): wild, uninhibited, into Slaying for the feeling of power it gives her. Say it with us - that's gonna go well! She accidentally kills a human, flips out and joins the bad guys, but comes to regret this, finds a kindred spirit in Angel, and eventually becomes an ally again.

Anya - Formerly a Vengeance Demon known as the patron of scorned women, Anya lost her demon powers thanks to Giles and was stuck as an ordinary high school student. She went to the Senior Prom with Xander, and later ended up dating and becoming engaged to him. Anya can match Xander and Cordelia for sarcasm, though her particular brand comes from the POV of someone initially unfamiliar with modern human culture.

Riley Finn - Buffy and Willow's TA in their freshman Psych class at UC Sunnydale, he was secretly working for the military organization who implanted the chip in Spike. After he began dating Buffy and discovered some of its less savory activities, he helped to bring it down.

Tara Maclay - A terminally-shy witch who meets Willow (who's become less so) during her freshman year of college and instantly clicks with her while working magic. After a while it becomes clear that they're clicking in other areas as well, and by the end of Season 4, they're openly dating.

Dawn Summers - Buffy has a sister? Yeah, that's what we said. Well, she does as of the 5th season. Dawn is a mystical key transformed into a human, to protect it from an insane god. So of course what better place to put this now-human key but in the family of the Slayer, with a false history inserted into the memories of everyone who would have ever met her? ....Oh Joss, the crack is strong in you.

Joyce Summers - Buffy and Dawn's mother, who was kept in the dark about Buffy's identity as a Slayer until the end of the 2nd Season. Her relationship with Buffy could be strained at times ("Have you tried not being a Slayer?") and Dawn's insertion into their dynamic made Buffy feel even more alienated from her mother in the beginning of Season 5, but she did the best she could to be a supportive presence.

Plus a host of enemies-turned-temporary-allies, including a formerly-evil geek, the son of a previous Slayer, and an army of potential new ones (including our own

cutestripeyhat, Vi).

Why should I watch?

For all his dislike of the way comedy is used in the original film, Whedon included plenty of funny in his series. The dialogue is sharp and the one-liners ("What is your childhood trauma?" ~~ "New vampire sect in town, bringing in much needed tourist dollars.") keep coming. If you're in it for the drama, there's plenty of that too, with the bonus that the characters are usually self-aware enough to notice and comment when their lives seem to be turning into soap-opera clichès.

It's also a wealth of pop-culture and literature references (which sometimes makes it a challenge in Fandom, given that even the nickname of Buffy's circle of friends, the Scooby Gang, is a reference to another show) and if you're a fan of the horror and fantasy genre, playing 'spot what we're mocking' is half the fun of watching BtVS episodes.

Plus the people are pretty, there's a lot of shirtlessness, and while there is no boykissy, there is girl/girl-kissy, boy/girl-kissy, and a whole lot of slashy vibes between pick-two-characters-of-the-same-gender-of-your-choice. Whedon himself has referred to the show as BYO-subtext.

Where can I get it?

The whole series is available on DVD, either as separate seasons or as one Collector's Edition. You can also get the film if you're a completist, or might, like

needsaparrot, actually like it. Individual episodes of BtVS season 1 and 2 are also available as legal downloads from Amazon Unbox.

BtVS spawned a spin-off series for Angel, a future-based comics mini-series starring Melaka Fray, and a new Whedon-managed Season 8 also in comics form and currently on its fourth issue. All of Angel: the Series is also available on DVD, Fray is available as a trade-paperback, and Buffy: Season 8 is coming out monthly from Dark Horse Comics.

Where can I find out more?

BtVS at Wikipedia including a great summary of the seven seasons. (If you haven't picked up the comics yet and don't want to be spoiled, don't scroll down to the bit after that, though, as it's accurate but woooooo spoilery.)

Buffyworld.com has episode transcripts of all seven seasons of BtVS (and all five seasons of Angel: the series).

The Buffyverse Dialogue Database has those one-liners, and then some, categorized and linked by character, plotline, subject.... Oh, Geeks Like Us, How We Love Thee.

Who from this show is around in FH?

(Updated as of 5/6/2009, for the halibut)

Buffy:

iruinenglish (alumni)
Giles:

exwatcher (expatriate)
Willow:

willbedone (alumni)
Xander:

needsaparrot (alumni)
Angel:

notstakedyet (alumni)
Dawn:

lilpunkinbelly (alumni)
Melaka Fray:

cantjossme (alumni; she's from the self-titled spin-off but also appears in the Buffy comics)
Lindsey McDonald:

wannabelawyer (alumni; from somebody else's self-titled spin-off and hasn't appeared in BtVS proper, but he's from the same fictional universe)

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Questions, comments, additions, corrections, stakes, stones?