Buffy Summers

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Buffy Anne Summers is the title fictional character in 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 in the film by Kristy Swanson, later in the television program by Sarah Michelle Gellar and in the video games & unproduced animated series by Giselle Loren.

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Biography

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Character history

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Buffy Anne Summers was born to Hank and Joyce Summers on January 19th, 1981, in Los Angeles, California.

(In I Robot, You Jane, computer screens show Buffy's birthdate as October 24th, 1980 and as May 6th, 1979. These must be examples of the epidemic of computer data corruption in that episode; in at least four other episodes of the first season, i.e. spring 1997, Buffy and/or her mother say she is sixteen.)

When she was eight, Buffy was close friends with her cousin Celia, and enjoyed playing superhero with her by pretending to be Power Girl; a prophetic choice of alter ego. She looked on helplessly as Celia was murdered by Kindestod, an invisible demon that kills sick children, and developed a fear of hospitals.

Buffy came to idolize the Olympic ice skater Dorothy Hamill as she learned the sport. She became a popular cheerleader at Hemery High, a junior high school in Los Angeles. She was elected both Prom Princess and Fiesta Queen while there from 1995 to 1997. At fifteen, Buffy started having strange, violent dreams about women from different periods in history slaying monsters. One day, she was approached by a mysterious man named Merrick, her first watcher who revealed her destiny as a vampire slayer. With little training, Buffy defeated her first major vampire leader around those parts, a vampire named Lothos, but not before the death of Merrick (in the original movie, he was killed by Lothos; in the comic, he killed himself to prevent Lothos from turning him and using him against Buffy). In a battle with Lothos' vampiric lackeys, Buffy set fire to the high school gym and was subsequently expelled. After this encounter, 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 in vain. She kept quiet and was released after a couple of weeks. Buffy and her parents never spoke of it again.

Her parents, who had been experiencing marital troubles, eventually divorced. Buffy moved with her mother to Sunnydale, a small town in California. The exact address was 1630 Revello Drive. She enrolled in the local high school and met her future best friends, Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, as well as her new Watcher, Rupert Giles. Buffy was quickly forced to reconcile with her destiny and grew close to her Watcher, finding a father figure in him. She also met Cordelia Chase, an arrogant, condescending cheerleader like the old Buffy. The first season centered on Buffy's battle with a thousand-year-old vampiric leader, The Master, his protégé the Anointed One, and his bloodthirsty army of the Order of Aurelius. On learning that Pergamum Codex prophesied her death at the hands of The Master, Buffy contemplated leaving town, but accepted her fate after Willow discovered bodies of her friends slaughtered inside the school. She was overpowered and left to drown in a pool of water in the Master's dwellings. Buffy's death freed the Master and opened the Hellmouth, but Angel and Xander found her and Xander resuscitated her. A strengthened Buffy shoved the Master off the roof of Sunnydale High, impaling him on the wooden remnants of a broken desk.

In the show's second season, Buffy found forbidden love in Angel, a vampire cursed with a human soul. Eventually, she lost her virginity to him, thus unwittingly completing Angel's curse and turning him back to Angelus. He became obsessed with destroying Buffy's life as he had done to Drusilla a century before. He killed Giles's new love, Jenny Calendar, before she was able to restore his soul. In the season finale, Buffy staked a lackey of Angel's in front of her mother. Unable to come to terms with the revelation, Joyce kicked her out of the house. Meanwhile, Drusilla had killed Buffy's replacement slayer Kendra and helped Angel trick a tortured Giles into telling them how to activate the statue of Acathla, the gate to a hell dimension. Angel's comrade Spike turned out to value their shared "love" interest -- the mad Drusilla -- more than he did the ending of the world, however, and helped Buffy turn the tables on the duo. Willow managed to give Angel back his soul, but the vortex had been opened and Buffy had to send him to hell to close it.

Traumatized, Buffy escaped to Los Angeles and waited tables in a diner there as Anne Steele. After rescuing a runaway she had saved once before, Buffy returned to Sunnydale to face her demons. She reunited with her loved ones, but just as she began to attempt closure over Angel, he returned mysteriously (by intervention of the The Powers That Be, as revealed in Season One of Angel). A new, rebellious Slayer, Faith, also came to town. She had been activated upon Kendra's death. Faith eventually turned to the dark side and the affable yet sinister Mayor Richard Wilkins. In return for founding Sunnydale for demons to feed on, the formerly human Mayor would Ascend on Graduation Day. Buffy stabbed Faith into a coma in an attempt to save Angel, but ended up using her own blood instead. She then led her classmates in a climactic battle against the Mayor's minions and orchestrated the detonation of the Mayor along with the high school building. After the smokes cleared, Angel took what was thought to be a last look at Buffy, leaving her to try and have a somewhat normal life whilst he went to make his own in Los Angeles.

Buffy enrolled in UC Sunnydale along with Willow. Eventually, she found a boyfriend in Riley Finn, who as a soldier in The Initiative was collecting demons and vampires. Unknown to Riley, the covert military organization was creating a third, supreme race, starting with Adam, a human-demon-cybernetics hybrid and a Big Bad of the fourth season. Buffy briefly joined the Initiative, until Professor Walsh sent her into a trap in an attempt to dispose of a loose cannon. Although the Scooby Gang had drifted apart, Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles reconciled and combined their essences through a spell to destroy Adam. The government decided to shut down the Initiative.

At the end of the fifth season opener, a younger sister named Dawn appeared in Buffy's household. It was later revealed that the mysterious girl was "The Key," a cosmic energy transformed by some monks into human form using the slayer's blood. The monks had hoped to use its power for the good of humankind, but were hunted down by forces of evil. The last three survivors combined to transform the Key to human form using a spell that also created false memories in Dawn's new family and friends to keep the secret from the mentally unstable and dangerous hell-god Glory.

Glory wanted to use the Key to open the portal between Earth and her home dimension and seek vengeance on those who had exiled her. Glory would not mind that what separates Earth and all hells would be torn apart as well, and the fabrics of our reality destroyed. Meanwhile, Buffy and Riley's relationship fell apart due to her unwillingness to be emotionally available. Then Buffy's mother Joyce died of complications from a brain tumor. Glory eventually discovered the Key and tied Dawn to a high tower, where a demon bled Dawn while Buffy beat Glory into a bloody pulp. Buffy spared Glory's human form Ben when he reappeared; but Giles, deciding to take no chances, murdered Ben with his bare hands. Buffy sacrificed her life for a second time to save humanity, jumping into the magical vortex to close the portal. She was buried in the outskirts of Sunnydale with the epitaph, "She saved the world. A lot."

Months later, Buffy was raised in a dark ritual led by Willow. Spike told her that she had been gone for 147 days, not counting that day (After Life). Where she was, it had been longer. Where she was, in fact, she felt peace. Having been ripped from Heaven by her friends, Buffy fell into a deep depression and began a perverse physical fling with the vampire Spike, who had been rendered harmless to normal humans when the Initiative planted a chip in his head. After Buffy ended the affair, he tried to rape her. Buffy's main enemy this season was the Trio – Warren Mears, Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson – whose comically nerdy crimes grew darker as the season progressed. An angry Warren shot Buffy after she foiled his plans yet again, and she was only saved when a dark Willow used her powers in the hospital operating room to remove the bullet and mend her. The grief-stricken Willow had lost Tara to a stray bullet in the same confrontation. She became psychotic with dark magicks, turning against everyone. Xander eventually "defeated" Willow with unconditional love. After fighting alongside Dawn against monsters raised by Willow, Buffy promised to change her self-destructive behavior in order to be there for her sister.

In the seventh and final season, Buffy fought The First Evil, which took advantage of the cosmic imbalance caused by Buffy's revival from her second death to raise an army of ancient vampires. Sunnydale soon became a ghost town as people (and lesser demons such as Clem) fled the increasing demonic activity. Buffy learned that the Chosen One had been decreed by some Shadow Men a long time ago when they bound a pure demon's heart to a young girl. Before the climactic battle, Buffy asked Willow to change the rules: now, every potential Slayer in the world will be a Slayer without waiting for someone to die. With the help of Spike, she annihilated the Hellmouth as Sunnydale crumbled into a huge crater.

After the events of the climactic final season, Buffy's presence was felt in the spin-off series Angel. Although she was never seen, she was referred to in season five's Damage. Andrew told Angel sharply that he was ordered by Buffy to take the psychotic slayer Dana. Buffy was The Girl in Question, the third-to-last Angel episode, but was not played by Gellar.

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Powers & Abilities

  • Buffy is a Slayer and as such has all of the powers and abilities thereof. These include super human strength, speed, and agility. She also exhibits a strong ability to lead others in battle campaigns.
  • In season four's Primeval, Buffy was the focus of a complex spell that briefly gave her the abilities of Xander, Willow and Giles. The spell also drew on the pure source of the Slayer's Power. She was able to punch through Adam's armored hide and rip out his radioactive uranium power core without ill effects. Immediately after defeating the almost invincible Adam, the spell faded.
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Slayer Deaths

Buffy's first death was a clinical death, in which the heart stops beating, but there is still brain activity. People who experience clinical death have often been revived. While normal laymen usage of the word "death" does not refer to reversible conditions, it seems clinical death is all that's required for a second Slayer to be called.

This clinical death activated Kendra as the Slayer, and Kendra's death activated Faith. This is why no new Slayer was called by Buffy's second death in The Gift. The line runs through Faith (or did until all potential future Slayers became actual Slayers in the final episode). Joss Whedon has confirmed this at various times, including a British science fiction convention in 2001. The transcript of the question and answer period can be found at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/speculator/zine/0206intr.htm.

Buffy actually dies four times, but the second and third times were in alternate realities.

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Romantic Interests

  • Billy "Ford" Fordham (Lie to Me): Buffy developed a crush on Ford in the fifth grade at Hemery High. But he was a "manly sixth-grader" who had no time for young women. The previously popular student came to Sunnydale and lied to Buffy, saying his father had been transferred and that he would be attending the local high school. In fact, Ford had months to live and was there only to find a vampire leader to arrange a deal: the blood of Buffy and his followers in exchange for eternal life. Buffy is devastated by Ford's betrayal, moved though she is by his cancer. When he rises as a ravening, mindless vampire, she stakes him without reaction; the Ford she knew and loved had already died.
  • Tyler (Becoming, Part One): In a flashback to Buffy's pre-Slayer days, Buffy briefly mentioned the presumably popular student at Hemery High just before she was called. "...Tyler would have to crawl on his hands and knees to get me to go to the dance with him. Which, actually, he's supposed to do after practice, so I'm gonna wait." By the magic of retcon he may be the same as:
  • Jeffrey: Buffy's vain and popular boyfriend in the movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like Buffy, he is a freshman at Hemery High. Buffy and Jeffrey begin to grow distant as she takes on the responsibility as the Slayer and he breaks up with her by leaving a message on her answering machine. He goes to the dance with Buffy's vapid friend, Jennifer.
  • Pike: A sarcastic slacker and Buffy's main romantic interest in the movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Although they initially hated each other as Buffy's superficial valley girl perspective was at odds with Pike's ethics, the two grew closer when they lost friends to Lothos' minions. Pike helped Buffy in killing the vampire king and burning down the school gym full of his minions. The two presumably broke up when Buffy moved to Sunnydale; however, he is never mentioned in the series. He does however make an appearance in the Buffy Comics, in which he shows up to help Buffy and the Scoobies.
  • Angel.
  • Owen Thurman (Never Kill a Boy on the First Date): A sensitive and shy Sunnydale High student, whose date with Buffy became a vampire-hunting adventure that made him feel alive. Fearing that such an attitude would get him killed, Buffy broke up with Owen unable to tell him the real reason why; nor to say that she still cares for him just as much.
  • Tom Warner (Reptile Boy): A rich member of Delta Zeta Kappa fraternity, a cult that sacrifices beautiful young high school girls to their demon lord Machida in exchange for worldly success. Tom lures Buffy to a party, pretending to be nicer and less materialistic than his vain fraternity brothers. The leader of the cult, Tom attempts to offer Buffy and Cordelia as sacrifices.
  • Cameron Walker (Go Fish): A self-absorbed and arrogant swimming athlete at Sunnydale High. Initially, Buffy is interested in the good-looking Cameron, who waxes poetic about the ocean. However, by the end of their first date, he won't take no for an answer and she breaks his nose and gets blamed for leading him on.
  • Scott Hope: In early season 3, it was revealed that Scott Hope, a fellow Sunnydale student, had a crush on Buffy, and it can be assumed from Buffy's reactions to his original advances that she was not completely turned off by him, but her heartbreak from her relationship with Angel was still to overwhelming for her to handle. Eventually, she decides to date Scott and move on from Angel (Faith, Hope, and Trick), but the relationship only lasts for a few weeks before Scott and Buffy break it off, Buffy too preoccupied with her situation with Angel, and Scott too tired of dealing with Buffy's preoccupation.
  • Parker Abrams: An attractive, older student whom Buffy met in college (Living Conditions). Parker was the second person Buffy had sex with (the first being Angel in the second season). Parker was only interested in having "a good time" and not wanting a romantic commitment, he quickly ignored her after they slept together (The Harsh Light of Day). This upset her greatly.
  • Riley Finn.
  • Ben Wilkinson.
  • Spike.
  • Principal Robin Wood.
  • The Immortal: According to the Angel season five episode, The Girl in Question, Buffy recently became drawn to this mysterious being. Their romance is expected to be in an upcoming series of graphic novels about Buffy's post-Sunnydale life.
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Trivia

  • Buffy's unusual name was the subject of Aphrodisia's ridicule in the series opener. It would be the subject of a joke as late as the penultimate episode of the series.
  • Buffy did not play well with rules, as Giles quickly discovered. He thus did not show her the Slayer Handbook, which had been mandated reading for all previous Slayers.
  • In addition to Swanson and Gellar, four other actresses have portrayed Buffy. In flashbacks, a younger Buffy has been played by Mimi Paley, Alexandra Lee and Candice Nicole. In season four, Buffy suffered a magical identity crisis and was portrayed by Eliza Dushku (This Year's Girl and Who Are You?).
  • Charisma Carpenter auditioned before Gellar for the part of Buffy for the TV show. She was later cast as Buffy's rival Cordelia.
  • Despite repeatedly stating that Slayers don't kill people, over the course of the series Buffy directly caused the deaths of at least a dozen human beings. All of them were trying to kill her at the time, which probably counts as extenuating circumstances.
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Appearances in Buffyverse

Buffy has appeared in:

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Buffy referred to in Angel

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See also

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