10 Harsh Realities About Buffy’s Character In Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The eponymous character of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers, is one of the most admired fictional heroines in recent pop culture history. However, she’s also a highly flawed character. Played by Sarah Michelle Gellar from 1997 until 2003, Buffy has a lot of positive traits for people of all demographics to look up to, which is why calls for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot are frequent, but she’s far from perfect.

Buffy saved the world several times, sacrificing her life on more than one occasion to do so, and fought the good fight alongside a ragtag group of misfit friends. Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s titular character subverted the trope of the horror movie damsel in distress, but that doesn’t make her immune to criticism. There’s plenty to criticize about the cheerleader-turned-superheroine in one of the best TV shows of all time.

10 Buffy Summers Often Acts Rashly

Against the better judgment of her friends, Buffy often rashly jumps into situations that yield unfortunate consequences. It’s a notion that applies to several aspects of her life, such as her love life and, most notably, her slaying. Take season 7’s “Dirty Girls,” for example. Buffy heard the new player in town, Caleb, had something of hers. Without knowing anything about Caleb, what he had of hers (“It could be a stapler”), or if he was even telling the truth, she rushed to his vineyard, taking her friends and the potential slayers with her. It resulted in several potentials being hurt or killed and Xander losing an eye.

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9 Buffy Puts Her Friends In Harm’s Way

This was touched upon in the previous entry, but the very nature of Buffy’s responsibilities as the slayer means it’s highly irresponsible of her to involve normal humans in her fight. From the moment Xander and Willow discovered her secret life in which she fights evil in season 1, she should have told them they couldn’t be involved in it – and it should have been her permanent stance from that point. Instead, she allowed more humans, including her kid sister, to get involved. Granted, several of them could handle themselves, and others developed evil-fighting powers of their own, but too many got hurt through their involvement.

8 Buffy Is Self-Pitying

Buffy often feels immensely sorry for herself, bemoaning her responsibilities as the slayer and citing how alone she is. For example, in season 7’s “Selfless,” she told Xander and Willow, “You get down on me for cutting myself off, but, in the end, the Slayer is always cut off.” But that isn’t true at all. Buffy has lots of friends and allies around her more often than not. When she does find herself alone, it’s usually by choice – such as when she departed Sunnydale and exiled herself to Los Angeles at the end of season 2 – which renders her complaints about it rather hollow.

7 Buffy Is Self-Righteous

While Buffy is physically superior to everyone around her, she has no right to feel better than them. However, that’s sometimes how she comes across. In the aforementioned “Selfless,” she ended her tirade at Xander and Willow by saying, “I am the law!” That’s a pretty bold claim given that, while she has the power to fight evil, without the guidance of others, she wouldn’t have wielded it half as well. Another example comes in season 3’s “Enemies,” when Faith asks Buffy if she thinks she’s better than she is. Buffy replies, “I am. Always have been.” While it may be true, saying it looks pretty high and mighty.

6 Buffy Often Displays Ingratitude

There have been times when Buffy has shown gratitude for their help in fighting evil. However, all too often, she seems to forget to. Make no mistake, without the help of Giles, Xander, Willow, and company, Buffy would’ve been defeated many times. However, she sometimes thinks her friends should appreciate her, not vice versa. One example of Buffy’s ingratitude comes in season 7’s “Empty Places.” When referring to Spike, she tells Giles, “You sent away the one person that’s been watching my back,” forgetting Xander had just lost an eye when doing precisely that while fighting Caleb, to which Giles bitingly and justifiably responds, “We’re all watching your back.”

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5 Buffy’s Romantic Choices Were Awful In Buffy The Vampire Slayer

As much as former villains and long-time rivals Angel and Spike are beloved characters, they’re terrible romantic choices. Buffy’s life is dangerous. Bringing two of history’s most notorious vampires into it only makes it more so, regardless of whether they’ve changed their ways. In addition to Angel and Spike, her other prominent relationship was with Riley Finn, whom she managed to date without even being told he hunted demons – he obviously had that aura. Even the seemingly “normal” Owen in the season 1 episode “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date” is dangerous due to his excitement at the danger of her lifestyle.

4 Buffy Is Less Interesting Than Most Characters

One of the most blatant truths about Buffy Summers is she isn’t that interesting – at least not compared to her friends and some other supporting characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Willow, for example. Her character development dwarves that of Buffy’s. She went from a meek geek to a badass witch, and rather than just punching things, she uses magic to creatively solve problems. Then there’s Xander, who fights the same fight as Buffy without any powers and does so while being thoroughly entertaining and witty. Meanwhile, characters like Angel, Spike, and Anya have centuries of stories to tell. There are five more intriguing characters to start with.

3 Buffy Summers Is Hard To Relate To

Unlike many of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s characters, Buffy Summers is incredibly hard to relate to. Every other central character in the show has multiple personality traits that make viewers able to connect with them. While Buffy does have some, they are far fewer than her supporting characters. Perhaps it’s because of how she often distances herself from others, making her literally hard to connect with, but there’s undoubtedly something off about her in terms of connectivity. It makes sense, given that there are countless humans, vampires, witches, and demons in the Buffyverse, but only one true slayer (or at least there’s only meant to be one).

2 Buffy’s Power Levels Are Inconsistent

This example comes down to bad writing more than anything else, but the power Buffy Summers demonstrates in Buffy the Vampire Slayer fluctuates wildly. One minute, she’s lifting a troll god’s hammer that Spike can’t even budge and swinging it around jauntily to beat up a hell goddess; the next minute, a newly transformed vampire is getting the better of her in a graveyard. This issue makes it almost impossible to accurately gauge how strong and durable the slayer is. It’s not her fault, but it still fits the bill as an unpleasant truth about the nature of her character.

1 Buffy Isn’t Special, She’s Lucky

Much is made of the fact that Buffy Summers is special, exceptional, and the chosen one. However, the truth is slayers aren’t chosen because they’re special; they’re chosen randomly. It’s sheer luck – if that’s what the burden of being a slayer is – that Buffy has powers and others don’t. That randomness has been proven in the Buffyverse on several occasions. It’s doubtful Faith was given slayer powers for her virtuous nature, for example, and the psychotic Dana from Angel season 5’s “Damage” probably wasn’t chosen for her strength of character. Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Buffy Summers may be powerful, but it’s by chance and nothing more.