10 Ridiculous TV Premises Everybody Fell For
6. Buffy Summers Is A True Hero
The titular character of a television show is more than just the hero-protagonist: they carry the show on their backs, because they’re everything the show is supposed to be about.
Joss Whedon’s ideal for Buffy The Vampire Slayer was to create a hero from a horror trope that would ordinarily represent a victim - the little blonde who steps into the alleyway at night to be confronted by the monster in the dark. It was a feminist celebration: "The very first mission statement of the show was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it.”
That was the plan: so it’s a shame that’s not what was broadcast in the seven seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer that aired. Buffy Summers is a hero-protagonist who doesn’t want to be the hero-protagonist. Despite her supernatural calling and powers, her constant refrain is a valley-girl whine that her life isn’t the way she wanted it to be.
However, Buffy is surrounded by an ensemble cast of friends and allies who are there precisely because of her: people who’ve chosen this life because they want to support her and help save the world.
Those people suffer through their voluntary association with Buffy and rarely (if ever) complain about their lot in life. Her closest friends Giles, Willow and Xander all see their partners murdered during the course of the show. Xander loses an eye, Willow becomes addicted to black magic, Spike is killed: the list goes on and on. They’re the real heroes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
At last, in the series finale (after a whole heap of death and mayhem), with every potential Slayer called at once, the Hellmouth is closed and the entire town of Sunnydale collapses to cover it. The final shot of the show? As her friends start to make plans for the next step in their fight against evil, Buffy slowly smiles, realising that with dozens of Slayers in the world she doesn’t need to be one anymore.