Buffy Anne Summers, aka

Hey, Obama is doing a little better this week (by my reckoning), so that leaves me free to, er, "Buffyologize" . . . but be forewarned: a few spoilers for some readers may lurk in the remainder of this post.

So last time out, my conclusion, if we can call it that, was that one of the most obvious and overarching themes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the struggle between passions that informs the human experience and psyche.

This notion, that human existence is in some sense a battle between good and evil, could be largely said of course about storytelling itself, from its origins in ancient religion and mythology to the present day. So why did I make such a point of it?

Well, my purpose was to emphasize it, as I believe it is emphasized as an underlying "reality" in the Buffyverse, and that that emphasis, after further examination, may prove to be significant. But lest you think I am overstating the degree to which it is emphasized in BtVS, I also recognize that this "reality" is frequently belied and defied by the characters that inhabit it, e.g., characters in (remembering my definitions from last time) the world of Buffy are frequently dark and sometimes demonic, and some demons who exist primarily in the world of Demonic forces (such as Clem in the later seasons), do not seem very evil at all.

I’d like to suggest this state of affairs is not only reflective of the oft-mentioned moral ambiguity of BtVS, but may actually explain a little bit of the show’s appeal, another point I may come back to in my conclusion (probably in BS & BG&E post 6 or so).

So keeping that in mind, I now will proceed to discuss a few observations regarding character relationships in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, such as, as mentioned in a previous post, some omissions of the essential components that usually impinge on real relationships, and some thoughts regarding how character relationships in BtVS are structured.

Addressing the omissions first, if you are anything like me when you sit down to enjoy a Buffy episode, you hardly give any of this any thought, but where, for example, are the parents?

Further, where are the brothers and sisters? And while we’re on the subject, where is "the family" in any traditional sense?

Okay, I admit it, they are all there.

As for parents, there’s Joyce Summers, and there’s the nearly always absent father, and there’s Willow’s inattentive mother, who actually shows up in the Gingerbread episode, and there’s Xander’s parents, always fighting of course, in the Hell’s Bells wedding episode — oh yes, and Tara’s father in the Family episode.

As for siblings, there’s Dawn, and there’s Tara’s big brother (again in Family), and as for other aspects of family, there’s Oz’s werewolf cousin, Jordy, and there’s Tara’s cousin, Beth.

And finally, Rupert Giles, as a sort of surrogate father figure for, well, seemingly for whoever gets needy for a father.

So the references to familial relationships are definitely there, but beyond Joyce Summers, and Dawn in the later seasons, they are quite scant.

I’ll certainly understand if someone’s instinct is to argue the point, or wishes to suggest it’s a relatively insignificant observation, but I’ve convinced myself that it’s merely a small part of a much larger agenda (or conspiracy?) on the part of the creators of BtVS, which I intend to talk about a little more next time — or at least that’s the setup for my next post . . . Stay tuned.

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