Buffy Anne Summers, aka

Why, hello again. I’m back. Why not let me try to entertain you? Or edify you? Or, y’know, why not just sit back and relax a moment while I chat some more about Buffy and stuff?

Last time around, I proposed that the explanation for the relative lack of significant familial (and nearly all hierarchical) character relationships in the world of Buffy Summers that I found the most compelling was that the creators of BtVS simply wished to dispense with all known hierarchies that otherwise might have gotten in the way of creating the personal and emotional relationships between the characters they required (or at least desired).

If it is not immediately obvious to some what I meant in the last post by the emotional and personal nearly always trumping the hierarchical (or if you are looking for the evidence I implied I would cite at the end of the previous post) here begins the explication:

Given that Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins as Buffy enters the tenth grade, and given the characteristics common to many teens and some young adults (and even a few of us oldsters), it is almost a given that Buffy and the other "Scoobies" will frequently ridicule officious authority (sometimes to its face), such as in the case of Principal Snyder (Armin Shimerman). And similarly, it is almost a given that Buffy will frequently ignore, or make an "end run" around, her mother, who is usually oblivious to her daughter’s experience.

But perhaps somewhat less typical is the way Buffy frequently ignores and challenges and teases Giles even though he is portrayed as — and unanimously acknowledged by Buffy and all the other Scoobies and then some — as the wiser about her calling and the ways of the world of Demonic forces. Appointed to be her Watcher by the hierarchy of the Watcher’s Council, he is in fact (or at least supposedly) "the boss of" her. But his claim to that status is never more than shaky at best, which seems odder still if various plot points are to be taken literally, as it is life and death — her own and those of her friends — and even the end of the world, that are most often at stake.

As for Giles, after making some initial efforts to give the hierarchies around him their due, it is not so long before he begins, to one degree or another, to display disdain for the supposed authority of Principal Snyder, and not so long after that, to ignore the authority of the Watcher’s Council. Further, by season three, he and everyone else (except inconsequentially, Cordelia) proceed to all but ignore Wesley’s (Alexis Denisof) official position as the new Watcher.

Even Wesley, "Mr. States-The-Obvious," ultimately abandons his claim to any special status and joins the chorus without any apparent care for the Council’s will or authority (i.e., "I’m not here for the Council. Just tell me how I can help.", Graduation Day: Part 2, Season Three).

Additionally, throughout the entirety of the series, the other Scoobies frequently ignore or challenge even Buffy, even in times when their own collective survival is at stake and their reliance on her battle stealth and savvy is at its zenith. One particularly cogent example of this occurs in The Yoko Factor, Season Four. It is hard to imagine Spike’s ruse would’ve worked so well if the gang were more inclined to respect some of the hierarchies I’ll soon make explicit, i.e., Giles at least would not feel so alienated nor be so vulnerable to manipulation, nor likely would Xander and Willow, if the relationships were less personal and emotional, or to put it another way, if the hierarchies inherent in the group dynamics were more consistently acknowledged and the characters’ interactions were more persuaded by the deferential regard their respective roles conventionally imply.

(If I still haven’t been completely clear what I’m talking about with the term "hierarchies," watch for a denotative list of some of them in the next post.)

Well . . . it seems there are going to be a few more than the six or seven posts I semi-predicted before I’m done with this (I’m now semi-predicting a total of eight posts, maybe), but that’s it for now. Yet more chat about Buffy and character relationships and stuff, and my conclusions about what it all may mean, are yet to come. I intend to pick it up in medias res next time around, so . . . go watch Buffy, and until next time, don’t "touch that dial."

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