Buffy nitpicks
POSTED BY: Spideyslinger
UPDATED: Saturday, October 15, 2005 05:46
VIEWED: 6193
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I have just started watching the show and am on the Season 3 DVD's now. Great, great show! Every once in a while though these nitpicks pop into my head.The bad guys could hide and pick Buffy off with a scope rifle anytime they wanted to. I try not to think of it but many episodes have villians carrying rifles. Bad guys could wait outside and grab her Mom too. Basically all the things that would happen if Batman or any other superhero's identity was discovered could happen. Any thoughts on this?
P.S. Don't get me wrong, I love the show, just was wondering if this has ever been addressed.
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It hasn't been particularly addressed. Buffy can't use a gun against vamps so she doesn't have one. Buffy rarely has a human enemy (those snipers in the episode you're referring to may be the only ones). Vampires don't need them against a normal human and they like the "personal touch", anyway.
Wouldn't it be smart for a vamp to use a gun to elimate a Slayer? Sure would. I think most of us are willing to suspend disbelief on that point because guns aren't usually a part of vampire lore so we're not expecting to see them.
Joyce is pretty safe, actually. It not common knowledge among vamps who the Slayer's mother is. Even if they did they can't get to her during the day and they can't go in uninvited when she's home. The only vamp who knows and can walk in is Spike and he rather likes Joyce as it turns out (Spike is a bit of a walking contradiction).
Throughout the series Buffy occasionally will come across a gun and toss it away and she always has something disparaging to say about them.
It's not really a nitpick, it's a logical question. But if we're going to enjoy the show we just have to suspend our disbelief when it comes that point.
I find it pretty easy to do with BUFFY.
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Possibly the idea is that just capping the slayer is useless because 1. another pops right up and 2. you get no vamp "cool points" for just plicking her from 400 yds. It seems to me that while some vamps take her on for the street cred it would be a better idea to either turn her so's you've got an super-vamp or cripple her so she's useless but no new girl gets the slayer whammy. Not that I believe there is anything in the Buffyverse that supports this, but I hate the idea of plot-holes as much as anyone, and its what I could come up with.
Cynicism is the smoke that rises from the ashes of burned out dreams.
"I am planning on growing a big black moustache. I'm a traditionalist."
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well Darla brings a gun to the fight in season one,
but I think the deal is that most vampires really really want to drink the blood of someone who is still alive...
so shooting someone from a distance is just not really their thing.
Vampires come equipped with the sharp teeth and I think that that is supposed to be their weapon of choice.
(other demons have other weapons, but guns are a little modern and 'human' for most of them I think)
At heart it comes down to the fact that Joss (Firefly not withstanding) doesn't like guns and didn't want them central on the show...and when Warren picks one up in S6 it is a big shocker because it is such a rarity on Buffy.
Just as gun-slinging Wesley was such a surprise in the later seasons of Angel....
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In addition to the already mentioned exceptions and Whedon's anti-gun stance, there is another factor, I think. In one of the commentaries or special features, they mention that they liked the contrast of the hip teenagers using medieval weapons. They don't want it all to be modern, they want to show the Scoobies live both in the contemporary world and the quasi-medieval demon world. So neither demons nor Scoobies use guns that much, but the Scoobies are dressed much better. It's aesthetics.
EDITED TO ADD: And from a story-telling point of view, guns make things too easy and diminish from the metaphor. Anybody can use a gun, but only the Slayer and her enemies have superstrength and other supernatural powers. That's why they need a Chosen One and not a Special Forces team (case in point, the Initiative was barely competent at best). Guns make everything too impersonal; that's why in many action films the final battle between the hero and the villain is a physical or mental struggle, rather than a shoot-out.
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As a matter of fact there was an episode where Spike during his "I love Buffy, but I can't admit it to my self." grabbed a shotgun and was going after the Slayer that way.
It was so out of character, that even Harmony said something about it.
He found Buffy sitting on her porch crying and couldn't go through with it.
...cause Justice is the one thing you should always find.
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I always wanted to see a story about a turned Slayer. In fact sometimes I ponder what would have happened if seasons 6 and 7 were BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE. I'm sure there's fan-fic about that.
But crippling a Slayer...that's just diabolical. I suppose she might just kill herself.
You may get no cred if you cap a Slayer, but if she's an immediate threat, it's not an impractical solution. And the next will pop but she will be far away from you. Like Jamaica...and then come to Sunnydale, or Boston...and then come to Sunnydale.
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I always wondered why, after it was determined that a new slayer was called when Buffy drowned but was revived, why the evil Watchers Council didn't just take a slayer and hole her up in some lab and kill/revive her over and over to create a slayer army.
Of course there could be a lineage thing where you only create one after you and it's the next slayer that needs to die to create the next in line... but still...
A kind word turneth away wrath, but not as well as superior firepower
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Buffy 'knows' when a vamp is near; she'd 'know' if one had a gun pointed at her.
The simple answers Chrisisall
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Is it possible that a Slayer can't be turned into a vampire? Something in her blood turns her entire body into a vampire fighting machine, maybe it would fight the vampire infection also.
Also was Buffy always strong or did she only become strong after starting the slaying?
P.S I'm only through Season 3 if these questions are later answered.
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