Buffy Summers

Template:Infobox Buffyverse Character Buffy Anne Summers is a fictional character from the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the television program of the same name and its numerous spin-offs, such as novels, comic books, and video games. The character was portrayed by Kristy Swanson in the film, by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the television series, and by Giselle Loren in the video games and unproduced animated series. In 2005, Bravo TV named her as the 13th greatest television character of all time, ahead of Hawkeye Pierce and J.R. Ewing.

Buffy is a vampire slayer, "a Chosen One... born with the strength and skill to fight the vampires". She must balance her destiny to hold back the forces of darkness with the responsibilities of high school and her desire to live the life of a normal teenage girl.

Fictional Biography

Note: This article refers to the Buffy Summers as depicted in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series and other canonical material. The character featured in the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer is considered an alternate universe version, as the television series and other canonical material rewrite a great deal of the events featured in the film.

Character history

Buffy was born to Hank and Joyce Summers in late January of 1981, and spends her childhood in Los Angeles, California. As a child, Buffy was close friends with her cousin Celia, and enjoyed playing superhero with her; Buffy pretended to be Power Girl, a prophetic choice of alter ego. She looked on helplessly as Celia was murdered by a demon that preyed on sick children and was visible only to those who were ill, an experience which instilled a fear of hospitals in Buffy. She also took figure skating lessons, idolized Olympic ice skater Dorothy Hamill and attended ice shows with her father. Before moving to Sunnydale, she was a popular student at Hemery High School in Los Angeles where she was a cheerleader and was elected Prom Princess and Fiesta Queen.

The details of how Buffy learned she was the Slayer were first presented in the 1992 movie. However, as this movie is not considered canon in the Buffyverse, Christopher Golden adapted Joss Whedon's original script into a canonical comic book entitled The Origin. In the comic, a fifteen-year-old Buffy is having violent dreams about women from different periods of history slaying monsters. One day, she is approached by Merrick Jamison-Smythe, a mysterious man who reveals her destiny as the Chosen One and becomes her first Watcher (this scene can also be seen in the Season Two episode "Becoming, Part One"). With little training, and help from her friend Oliver Pike, Buffy defeats her first major enemy, a vampire leader named Lothos, but not before the death of Merrick. In a battle with Lothos' vampiric lackeys, Buffy sets fire to the high school gym and is subsequently expelled.

In the Season Six episode "Normal Again", it is revealed that, shortly after her expulsion, Buffy confided in her parents about what really had happened and her destiny as the Slayer. Worried that she was losing her mind, Buffy's parents sent her to a mental institution. While there, Buffy realized that attempts to persuade others of the existence of demonic forces would be futile. She kept quiet and was released after a couple of weeks. Buffy and her parents never spoke of it again. Soon afterward Joyce and Hank, who had been experiencing marital troubles for years, divorced, and Buffy moved with her mother to Sunnydale, a small town in California.

Sunnydale High

In Season One of the series, Buffy begins to accept the responsibilities and dangers of her calling as Slayer. Hoping to be a regular student, Buffy enrolls in the local high school ("Welcome to the Hellmouth") and meets her future best friends, Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, as well as her new Watcher, Rupert Giles, together forming the "core four" of the Scooby Gang. She also meets Cordelia Chase, a snobbish cheerleader, and Angel, a vampire with a soul. Buffy is quickly forced back into the role of Slayer as she and her new friends battle vampires, monsters, and demons. She grows closer to Giles, who eventually becomes her father figure. The first season centers on Buffy's battle with a thousand-year-old vampire leader known as The Master and his followers from the Order of Aurelius. On learning that the infallible Pergamum Codex prophesies her death at the hands of The Master, Buffy contemplates leaving town, but accepts her fate after Willow discovers bodies of her friends slaughtered inside the school. She is overpowered by The Master, who feeds from her and leaves her to drown in a pool of water. Xander is able to resuscitate her and she then defeats The Master ("Prophecy Girl"). Her death, though brief, activates a new Slayer, Kendra. After Kendra's death at the hands of Drusilla at the end of Season Two, the Slayer powers pass to Faith Lehane.

In the show's second season, Buffy continues to come to terms with her destiny as the Slayer with the help of her friends. Buffy finds forbidden love with Angel and clashes with Spike and Drusilla, the new vampires in town ("School Hard"). In the episode "Surprise", Buffy loses her virginity to Angel, unknowingly lifting the curse – his human soul – placed on him a century earlier by a Kalderash clan. Without his soul, Angel reverts to his evil persona, Angelus. He becomes obsessed with destroying Buffy's life, his pathological abuse taking heavy toll on Buffy and her friends ("Passion"). As Angelus plans to destroy the world, Buffy is forced to reveal her identity as the Slayer to her mother, who demands that Buffy stay home and discuss matters with her, telling her not to come back if she leaves now. As Buffy fights with Angelus, trying to prevent him from opening a vortex to a hell dimension, Willow works a spell to re-ensoul him. The spell is successful, but it is too late, and Buffy reluctantly stabs Angel with a sword, sending him to a hell dimension in order to close the vortex. Traumatized by these events, Buffy leaves Sunnydale. ("Becoming, Part Two".)

In Season Three, Buffy must reconnect to her calling, her friends, and her family after her abrupt departure at the end of Season Two. Returning to Sunnydale after several months in Los Angeles, she begins to repair relationships with those closest to her as she tries to come to terms with Angel's death and her role in it. However, Angel returns mysteriously and Buffy is still drawn to him. Meanwhile, she must also try to help rebellious new Slayer Faith, who becomes increasingly destructive and disloyal as she indulges her dark side ("Bad Girls"). The writers stated that they created Faith as a way of exploring Buffy's dark side without ruining her character; Faith shows what Buffy could have been without friends or family. Alienated from "the Scoobies", Faith finds a friend in the avuncular yet sinister Mayor of Sunnydale, who is preparing to become a pure-blood demon on Sunnydale High's Graduation Day. When Buffy learns that Angel, who is on the verge of death after being poisoned by Faith, must drink the blood of a Slayer in order to survive, Buffy attempts to sacrifice Faith to save him. Their battle leaves Faith in a coma, and Buffy ultimately saves Angel with her own blood. Thanks to Slayers' rapid healing, Buffy recovers from the loss of blood in time to lead her classmates in a climactic battle against the transformed Mayor and his minions, culminating in an explosion that destroys the Mayor as well as Sunnydale High. As the smoke clears, Angel leaves for Los Angeles so that Buffy can try to have a more normal life without him. ("Graduation Day, Part Two".)

College

In Season Four, Buffy must balance her Slayer duties with her new life as a college student at UC Sunnydale. Her adjustment to college life is complicated by mystical threats (including, among other things, a demonic roommate, campus werewolves, and enchanted beer), the return of Spike (now unable to harm humans), and a disastrous one-night stand with Parker Abrams, a campus player. Buffy also experiences some disconnection from her friends, who all seem to be moving in different directions. She attracts the sincere attention of Riley Finn, who is (as she soon discovers) a member of the Initiative, a U.S. government task force created to research mystical and demonic creatures, led by Buffy's psychology professor, Maggie Walsh. Buffy briefly joins forces with Riley's team. However, Riley and Buffy become disillusioned with the Initiative after Professor Walsh betrays Buffy, and they discover that she is the creator of the cyber-demonoid Adam, the prototype of a race of super-warriors, from the fruits of the Initiative's demon research. Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles literally unite to defeat Adam in the penultimate episode of season four ("Primeval") by invoking the power of the First Slayer.

In Season Five, Buffy faces her greatest dangers yet, while finally fully embracing her destiny. A younger sister, Dawn, mysteriously appears in Buffy's household, her existence having been seamlessly integrated into the memories of Buffy, her mother and her friends. Buffy discovers that Dawn is not her sister and soon learns that a group of monks "created" a human body in order to hide "The Key," cosmic energy that can open inter-dimensional portals, from a mentally unstable and dangerous hell-god known as Glory. Meanwhile Spike slowly becomes aware that he has fallen in love with Buffy, and he becomes a more regular and reliable presence in her Slayer life, assisting in the fight against demons. Buffy suffers much emotional turmoil throughout this season, such as the deterioration of her relationship with Riley and her mother's unexpected death from a brain aneurysm ("The Body"). While on a vision quest, the spirit of the original Slayer tells her that "death is her gift," a message she has difficulty understanding. In the season finale "The Gift", Buffy finally understands the meaning of the message and sacrifices her own life for Dawn's. She dives into an inter-dimensional portal, closing it and saving the world. She is buried in the wooded outskirts of Sunnydale with the epitaph, "She saved the world. A lot." Finally able to rest, Buffy ascends to heaven and finds peace.

"Dawn, listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles... tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I'm okay. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world... is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me." - Buffy ("The Gift").

Resurrection

In Season Six, Buffy must deal with depression and loss. She is resurrected by Willow, Xander, Tara and Anya who believe that she may have been in hell due to the mystical circumstances of her death. Buffy's transition back to her life is difficult; she experiences the pain of having been ripped from heaven, as well as the newly added adult responsibilities of raising Dawn and paying bills. Buffy is also forced to deal with the villainous Trio (composed of recent Sunnydale High graduates Andrew Wells, Jonathan Levinson, and Warren Mears), whose comically nerdy crimes grow darker as the season progresses. Taking a mundane and degrading job slinging burgers at the Doublemeat Palace, she falls into a deep depression and begins a violent sexual relationship with Spike which leaves neither of them satisfied. Buffy later admits to Spike that she is just using him, and breaks things off. Spike later corners her in her bathroom and tries to rape her; Buffy fights him off, and Spike, horrified by his actions, leaves Sunnydale in search of his soul ("Seeing Red"). When Warren Mears kills Willow's girlfriend Tara Maclay, Willow becomes psychotic with dark magics, exacting revenge against Warren and planning to destroy the world. After Xander comes through for Willow in the end, Buffy promises to change her self-destructive behavior in order to be there for her sister ("Grave").

In the seventh season, Buffy develops a new perspective on her destiny, power, and womanhood when she is confronted with the threat of the First Evil. The Bringers, agents of the First, are tracking down and killing potential Slayers all over the world in an attempt to wipe out the Slayer line. Buffy's home quickly becomes filled with teenage Potentials, who come to Sunnydale for protection. Buffy is the natural leader for the girls, who initially look up to her with respect. She works to train the Potentials into an army to stand against the First; however, her methods, tactics, and decisions soon begin to alienate the terrified girls. The Potentials continue to lose faith in Buffy's leadership as the dangers around them increase, leading to a mutiny; the Scooby Gang all choose a reformed Faith as their new leader, and Dawn asks Buffy to leave the house ("Empty Places"). Only Spike remains loyal to Buffy, and Buffy spends two nights of emotional closeness with him before the final battle against the armies of the First. Buffy eventually wins back the Scoobies' trust and informs them of her plan to share her power with every Potential in the world. In the show's final episode "Chosen", a huge battle is waged between an army of Slayers and the Turok-Han vampires; Spike sacrifices himself to close the Hellmouth, and the Scoobies escape as Sunnydale crumbles into a huge crater.

Scotland

Aside from mentions in Angel, Buffy did not make her next canonical appearance until 2004 in the comic Antique. Her next canonical appearance came in 2007 when the series was resurrected as a comic. In Season Eight, the Scooby Gang have scattered around the world to train activated Potentials. Having recruited mystics and amassed a wide technological armory, the Scoobies are now operating on a global scale to combat demonic threats. For Buffy's protection, decoy Slayers are established to distract enemies. Buffy and her organization are positioned against an American Initiative-like cell run by General Voll, as well as returning characters Amy Madison and Warren Mears, who were the main villains in the the first arc. During Amy's first attack, she summons an army of the undead and places Buffy under a spell which prevents her from waking until she has the kiss of true love – which it is implied she receives from Satsu. Amy and Warren later suck Willow through a portal into a military base to torture her; reactivating the portal, Buffy and Satsu follow and rescue her.

Buffy appears in the second arc, "No Future For You", talking to Xander in the 'danger room' about his love interest, Renee, and a mysterious symbol discovered in the first arc. She is later teleported to the stately home of rogue Slayer Genevieve, where she engages her in battle. Faith attempts to save Buffy from a spell cast by Roden, but Buffy assumes Faith is working with Genevieve and the two fight. Faith gains the upper hand and prepares to kill Buffy, but finds herself unable to. Buffy is teleported back to Scotland by Willow and requests that they contact Giles immediately. Buffy is disappointed and hurt to find that Giles recruited Faith for this mission, and chose to keep her out of the loop. According to Giles at the end of the issue, he and Buffy are not on speaking terms at the moment. In "Anywhere But Here", she and Willow enter a reality field and are presented with glimpses of the past and future. It is revealed that the Slayer's funds had not come from "mysterious benefactors" but from Buffy robbing a Swiss Bank, something Buffy viewed as a victimless crime as the bank was insured - however this act was seen by their enemies as reason to fear Slayers acting above the law, and is what initially prodded them to action against Buffy and her organization. Buffy sees a future event in which she has apparently been beaten due to a betrayal of someone close to her. She also witnesses an event that occurred a few months past revealing Willow telling Kennedy that she blamed herself for Tara's death.

In "A Beautiful Sunset", Buffy comes face to face with Twilight and is easily defeated by him. She also reveals to Satsu that she knows Satsu truly loves Buffy. In "Wolves at the Gate", Buffy and Satsu are shown to have sex on two occasions, although Buffy explains to Satsu that she is not gay.

Powers and abilities

As a Slayer, Buffy has the powers inherent in the Slayer line, including superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, durability, accelerated healing and some ability to sense the presence of demons. She also experiences 'Slayer dreams', a form of precognition that may warn her of impending danger or suggest solutions to problems. For example, her dreams warned her of both her death by the hands of The Master and of Angel's death; soon after, Angel lost his soul and reverted to Angelus, holding true to her vision. On another occasion, Buffy speaks to a comatose Faith through a dream, learning how to defeat the Mayor.

Buffy exhibits strong leadership skills in battle.

In Season Eight, Buffy's connection to Willow has strengthened to the point that, even when unconscious, Willow can channel some amount of her power through Buffy in a similar way to "Primeval". It is also mentioned that all Slayers have, within their "dreamspace", an array of inherited slayer memories and prophecies.

Characterization

Origins

Joss Whedon initially created the character of Buffy Summers as a way of subverting the cliché of the typical horror movie girl who gets killed by the monster. Whedon stated that his own mother's strength was the inspiration for "Rhonda the Immortal Waitress" (the first incarnation of Buffy in his head) - a seemingly insignificant female who, in fact, turns out to be extraordinary. Whedon has also admitted that Buffy's personality was largely based on that of Kitty Pryde, a character from the X-Men comics, whose leader, Scott Summers, shares Buffy's surname.

Although Whedon's vision of female empowerment was not as apparent as he would have liked in the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he was given a second chance to shape the character when Gail Berman approached him with the idea turning the film into a television series. He took advantage of this chance by creating a stronger and more complex character.

For additional information on the origins of the character and her incarnation in the film and in the series, see Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series).

Personality

Buffy's personality initially was considered to be that of the stereotypical blonde Valley Girl, and to this day she may be so described, but she has shown a great deal of complexity to her character. While in the beginning she had several soundclip moments such as "When the apocalypse comes, beep me", Buffy has shown a great understanding of people; in college she even expresses interest in psychology.

At Hemery High, Buffy was a very popular cheerleader, but in Sunnydale she struggles much more with being a social outcast, having to behave in a guarded and mysterious way to protect the people around her. With this isolation she develops a more sensitive side, distinguishing her from other Slayers in the past who were encouraged to put aside personal feelings.

Though she's normally quite aware socially, Buffy has proven to have a few lapses in judgment that cost her and others as well. Her destructive relationship with Spike, for example, was attributed to her own feelings of vulnerability and unworthiness after the death of her mother as well as her abrupt descent from heaven.

When her intelligence or abilities have been put into question, as when she was under investigation by the Watchers Council ("Checkpoint"), Buffy responds poorly to authority and is mostly unable to complete any of the tasks given. She would almost appear as the "dumb blonde" stereotype but in her confrontation with the Council, when things are on her terms, Buffy appears to have a relatively advanced sense of awareness that isn't accessed through many traditional methods. The strength in her personality sometimes makes it hard for her to relinquish control.

Although Buffy often speaks as if she has trouble when it comes to academics, when she took the S.A.T.s during her senior year, she scored surprisingly high, allowing her the opportunity to attend almost any college she chose, though she ended up remaining in Sunnydale for Slayer reasons.

Appearance

File:Buffyinshortskirt.jpg

During the series' first season, Buffy's wardrobe predominantly revealed her legs in short skirts.

Early in the television series, make-up supervisor Todd McIntosh was instructed to make Buffy "a soft and sort of earthy character." He gave Gellar a soft, muted green make-up and kept her look very natural. However, it was later decided that this was inappropriate for the character, and that Buffy needed to look more like a valley girl. McIntosh switched her make-up around, giving her frosted eyeshadow and lip colors, bright turquoise and aqua marines, bubblegum colored nails, and bleach-blonde hair, causing the character to "blossom." In attempts to preserve the seriousness of her character, Buffy's clothing became increasingly less frilly and started to give off the appearance of a tougher, feminine, mature character. Since the very beginning of the series she shows a fondness for leather coats, an aspect of her character played up in the episode "Prophecy Girl" where she wears a prom dress with a leather coat while wielding a crossbow, this idea of femininity mixed with militaristic undertones is frequently used in later seasons. By season 3 Buffy is rarely seen wearing short skirts (partially at Sarah Michelle Gellar's request) and is instead seen wearing either longer skirts or pants while still maintaining a youthful sexiness that usually comes out in her choice of tops and the fit of her jeans. Buffy also was shown to have abandoned the bleach blonde look sometime during seasons 5 and 6 where she was shown to have darker highlights mixed in with a honey blonde color. In season 6 she even cuts her hair relatively short in a fit of anxiety and is shown to have almost a reddish tint to her hair color. Though in both seasons she eventually is seen as having gone blonde again, possibly just to reinforce her recognizable and iconic blonde image.

Buffy's distinguishing features include a bite-mark scar on the right side of her neck. She originally received this scar from the Master, but has been bitten by other vampires: Angel ("Graduation Day, Part Two") and Dracula ("Buffy vs. Dracula"). In "The Dark Age", Buffy received a tattoo of the Mark of Eyghon from Ethan Rayne, but later spent her allowance to have it removed.

Romantic interests

Buffy's romantic relationships are the focus of many stories over the course of the series. As opposed to her counterpart Faith, Buffy seeks committed relationships over casual dates, but is often drawn to dangerous lovers. While discussing a painful reunion with Angel, Buffy claims, "Isn't that where the fire comes from? Can a nice, safe relationship be that intense? I know it's nuts, but part of me believes that real love and passion have to go hand in hand with pain and fighting. [A vampire suddenly jumps out of the bushes. Buffy barely reacts, casually stakes the vampire, and continues on her way] I wonder where I get that from." Sympathising with her friend's inability to have a normal relationship, Willow states, "Poor Buffy. Your life resists all things average." Buffy's attitude to romance is dealt with in the Season Five episode "I Was Made to Love You", by the end of which she decides not to be dependent on men.

Buffy's main romantic interest in the original Buffy movie is sarcastic slacker Oliver Pike, meeting him shortly before discovering she was the current Slayer. Although they initially hate one another, as Buffy's superficial valley girl perspective is at odds with Pike's ethic, the two grow closer after losing friends to Lothos and his minions, and Pike eventually aids Buffy in her defeat of the vampire king. Buffy's relationship with Pike pre-Sunnydale is considered canon, as he appears as a main character in the "The Origin". Although never mentioned in the television series, he reappears in several non-canon comic books, in which he breaks up with Buffy because he believes that their relationship puts both of them in danger.

Throughout the first three seasons of the television series, Buffy makes several attempts at having "normal" relationships with high school boys such Owen Thurman and Scott Hope, with little success. Instead, she finds herself increasingly drawn to the mysterious Angel, and remains attracted to him following the revelation that he is in fact a vampire. The unlikely pairing of a vampire and a Slayer is often commented on in the series, with Giles once referring to their relationship as "rather poetic... in a maudlin sort of way." Buffy's eventual loss of her virginity to Angel which turns him into a heartless monster is a metaphor for the real-life situation of a boyfriend who doesn't call his girlfriend the next day. In the third season, Buffy and Angel are forced to come to terms with the reality of their limitations as a couple. The writers explain that there was only so far they could go with the couple's story, and that being unable to consummate a relationship with someone you love is a situation that is very real for most teenagers. Angel realises he is preventing Buffy from leading a normal life, and leaves town, but returns on a number of occasions when he feels she might need him.

Following Angel's departure, Buffy tries to move on by having an impulsive one-night stand with college student Parker Abrams. She is devastated when Parker later ignores her, having only wanted to have "a good time." After recovering from that, she is then pursued by Riley Finn, a soldier in the Initiative. Although Riley sacrifices his career and friends to be with Buffy, he is continually disappointed by her unwillingness to be truly open and vulnerable with him, admitting to a surprised Xander, "Buffy's like no-one else in the world...But she doesn't love me." Riley also feels that he isn't strong or aggressive enough to satisfy Buffy the way that dangerous vampires did, a fact that Spike picks up on, claiming, "The girl needs some monster in her man, and that's not in your nature." Despite his efforts to understand Buffy's dark desires, Riley slowly drifts away and leaves Sunnydale to rejoin the military. Writer Jane Espenson admits that Buffy's relationship with Riley never really had the fire that her one with Angel did, but states that "it wasn't really meant to." Marc Blucas describes his character's one-sided relationship with Buffy as being something most people could identify with.

In season six, Buffy deals with her traumatic resurrection by embarking on a highly destructive sexual relationship with Spike. Exploiting Spike's genuine feelings of love toward in return for physical solace, she admits "I'm using you. I can't love you. I'm just being weak, and selfish... and it's killing me." Their relationship ends on a violent note when Spike attempts to rape a weakened Buffy, but she gradually begins to trust him again in season seven, after he regains his soul to make himself worthy of her. By the end of the show, she reaches an emotional closeness with Spike, although Joss Whedon deliberately leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not they resume their sexual relationship. As Spike prepares to sacrifice himself to save the world, Buffy finally tells him she loves him, to which he replies "No, you don't. But thanks for saying it."

In "Chosen", Joss Whedon gives fans hope that Buffy and Angel may still end up together. While she admits to having feelings for Spike, Buffy claims that she is still growing as a person, and has not yet decided what she wants from a relationship. Joss Whedon explains that this was his way of satisfying fans of both the Buffy/Angel and the Buffy/Spike relationships, without making her seem like "the Slut Queen of Slutdonia." Similarly, in the Angel episode "The Girl in Question", in which Angel and a resurrected Spike travel to Rome to find Buffy, Andrew explains to the two vampires that, "Buffy loves both of you, but she's gotta live her life." In this episode, Buffy is supposedly dating the Immortal, who Angel describes as "a centuries-old guy with a dark past who may or may not be evil." In truth, Buffy has not been involved with anyone since Spike's "death" at the Hellmouth, but still enjoys sexual fantasies about both Spike and Angel, as seen in her dreamscape.. In "Selfless", Buffy said of Angel "I loved him more than I will ever love anything in this life."

When Buffy creates her "army" of Slayers, a young one called Satsu becomes her closest ally, mostly due to her combat skills. Satsu falls in love with Buffy. When Amy puts Buffy in the influence of a sleep spell, which can only be broken by the kiss of someone who's in love with her, it is Satsu that kisses Buffy. In "A Beautiful Sunset", Buffy tells Satsu that she doesn't share her feelings. However, the two do end up sleeping together in "Wolves at the Gate, Part 1," and later comments that she finds Satsu addressing her "M'am" sexy. While Satsu remains in love with Buffy, Buffy explains she cannot return those feelings. The two have sex one last time in "Wolves at the Gate, Part 4," and part ways indefinitely.

The writers have often toyed with the concept of Buffy and her best male friend Xander being a romantic couple. Xander had a crush of Buffy in the early seasons, but it was unrequited, with Buffy actually rejecting him when he finally admitted his feelings. When Buffy found herself greatly attracted to Xander while under the influence of a love spell, she was grateful to him for not taking advantage of the situation. More recently, Buffy experiences a strange dream in which she propositions Xander and kisses him on the lips, causing his head to pop off. Jane Espenson claims in the DVD commentary for "I Was Made To Love You" that "it certainly was set up that the two of them should end up together". Sarah Michelle Gellar has gone on record as saying, "I honestly believe [Joss'] original intention was to put Xander and Buffy together. I really do believe that."

Deaths

Throughout the course of the series, Buffy has died on two different occasions, not including her death in season three's episode "The Wish", which took place in an alternate timeline.

Main Timeline

• In "Prophecy Girl" the Master hypnotized Buffy, drank her blood to weaken her, then pushed her into a shallow pond, drowning her; she was revived by Xander using CPR.

• In "The Gift" she jumps off a tower into a mystical portal to save the universe and all dimensions from falling into a hellish chaos. After months of preparation Willow succeeded in magically resurrecting Buffy, with the help of Tara, Xander and Anya.

Alternate Timeline

• In "The Wish" in an alternate version of Sunnydale, Buffy is killed by the Master. This episode makes the assumption that Buffy never came to Sunnydale to begin with, thanks to a wish that Cordelia made. At the end of the episode, the wish is undone, and everything returns to the status quo. This death is not counted in the main Buffyverse continuity.

Appearances

TV appearances

Buffy has been in 161 canonical Buffyverse appearances.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy was a series regular for all seven seasons (1997-2003). Buffy and Willow were the only two characters that appeared in each of the 144 series' episodes.

Angel

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy made two guest appearances in Angel, both in Season 1 (1999-2000), in the episodes "I Will Remember You" and "Sanctuary." The character would also make 'stock footage' appearances in "City Of," "The Bachelor Party" and "Soul Purpose." A character in "The Girl in Question" in Angel Season 5 (2004-2005) is intended to resemble Buffy from behind, but the later Buffy Season Eight #1 would reveal this was in fact another character posing as Buffy.

Other media

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

In Season Eight, Buffy has appeared in 13 issues: "The Long Way Home," Parts 1-4 (2007), "No Future For You," Parts 1, 3 and 4 (2007) and "Wolves at the Gate, Parts 1-4" . She has also appeared in the second/third standalone issue written by Joss Whedon: "Anywhere but Here", and "A Beautiful Sunset". The series serves as a canonical continuation of the television series

Other stories featuring Buffy which are considered canonical include The Origin, the comic book series which retells the story of the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie in closer continuity with the television series, borrowing both Sarah Michelle Gellar's likeness and that of Richard Riehle who portrayed Buffy's first Watcher Merrick, in contrast to the casting of Kirsty Swanson and Donald Sutherland as in the non-canonical film. Also canonical is the 2004 story "Antique," included as part of the Tales of the Vampires comic book anthology written by Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Ben Edlund, and Drew Goddard, which features Buffy, Xander and newly-activated Slayers encountering Dracula for a second time.

She has also appeared in various non-canon Buffy novels and comic books, and is playable in all of the video games.

Sarah Michelle Gellar reprises her role of Buffy Summers in the Robot Chicken episode "Plastic Buffet." She is seen fighting the soulless Lettuce Head Kids in the skit she's in.

See also

• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture

External links

• Buffy Summers at the Buffyverse Wikia
• Template:Imdb character