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Buffy The Vampire Slayer on sex

Riders

Well-Known Member
There were several sexual topics brought up in Buffy including awareness of accepting Gays and Lesbian relationships.

I also loved Buffy because she seemed to be very human and disfunctional with men which I can relate too.

She fell in love with Angel at the age of 16 lost her virginity to him, he was a vampire that had been cursed with his soul inside him. Then he lost his soul after Buffy lost her innocense to him. It was a lesson for young people that if you have sex too early it be a bad experience.

Then we had her following Parker around Parker used her for sex and she bought his lies that he was interested in her he just used her. I think this is very human but I like the fact I related to her so well.

However what I am not sure that I did like was the fact that Spike tried to rape Buffy and she fell in love with him in the 7th season after he tried tor ape her. I think it was good and educational I guess to see that even super girl could be a victim of rape or attempted rape. But not sure i was glad to see her and him together in the 7th season, I was not crazy about the 7th season anyways. I could live without it.
 

SomeRandom

Still learning to be wise
Staff member
Premium Member
There were several sexual topics brought up in Buffy including awareness of accepting Gays and Lesbian relationships.

I also loved Buffy because she seemed to be very human and disfunctional with men which I can relate too.

She fell in love with Angel at the age of 16 lost her virginity to him, he was a vampire that had been cursed with his soul inside him. Then he lost his soul after Buffy lost her innocense to him. It was a lesson for young people that if you have sex too early it be a bad experience.

Then we had her following Parker around Parker used her for sex and she bought his lies that he was interested in her he just used her. I think this is very human but I like the fact I related to her so well.

However what I am not sure that I did like was the fact that Spike tried to rape Buffy and she fell in love with him in the 7th season after he tried tor ape her. I think it was good and educational I guess to see that even super girl could be a victim of rape or attempted rape. But not sure i was glad to see her and him together in the 7th season, I was not crazy about the 7th season anyways. I could live without it.
Okay just to preface, I am absolutely not making any justifications whatsoever for sexual assault or rape. Those are reprehensible actions and should be treated as such. This is simply me discussing such a thing in terms of fiction.

So on the topic of Spike, he’s not human. The show makes it clear he doesn’t have a soul (despite clearly having human emotions, oddly enough.) Spike is a vampire and the show has always used vampires as a stand in for sexual predation. No seriously, if you look at the behind the scenes extras all the writers are very explicit in that being their intent from the start. Even commenting on how the first time Spike stalks her in season I think 2(?) there’s an undercurrent of sexual interplay. And Spike outright relates to sex and violence very positively, even interchangeably because he’s a vampire.
The vampire myth itself, at least in modern terms, is sometimes read as an allegory for sexual predation. A young girl often losing their virginity, under a powerful spell of an older man, unleashing their restraints by entering a new state of being (turned into a vampire.)

Issues with the seventh season notwithstanding I think it’s important to understand that Buffy falling in love with Spike is not an act of endorsement or forgiveness, but it’s one of healing. She sees that he is genuinely sorry for hurting her and he has truly changed, not out of spite but because he recognised that he wasn’t the man he needed to be for her. He was self reflective enough to own his mistake and try to make amends.
It’s also important to remember that Buffy is often hinted to be at least part demonic. At least by proxy of the ritual that gave the original slayer their powers. She shares many of the same characteristics of the very demons she is sworn to hunt. She is very violent, she has very wild mood swings and often uses sex and violence in tandem. She “gets” Spike in a way that no ordinary human can. Because they are very similar. By showing that she’s fallen in love with Spike shows that she has fully accepted herself and acknowledges that they can be happy together.
That’s just my personal interpretation, though. I haven’t seen Buffy for a while, so I might be foggy on the details.
 
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Riders

Well-Known Member
Okay just to preface, I am absolutely not making any justifications whatsoever for sexual assault or rape. Those are reprehensible actions and should be treated as such. This is simply me discussing such a thing in terms of fiction.

So on the topic of Spike, he’s not human. The show makes it clear he doesn’t have a soul (despite clearly having human emotions, oddly enough.) Spike is a vampire and the show has always used vampires as a stand in for sexual predation. No seriously, if you look at the behind the scenes extras all the writers are very explicit in that being their intent from the start. Even commenting on how the first time Spike stalks her in season I think 2(?) there’s an undercurrent of sexual interplay. And Spike outright relates to sex and violence very positively, even interchangeably because he’s a vampire.
The vampire myth itself, at least in modern terms, is sometimes read as an allegory for sexual predation. A young girl often losing their virginity, under a powerful spell of an older man, unleashing their restraints by entering a new state of being (turned into a vampire.)

Issues with the seventh season notwithstanding I think it’s important to understand that Buffy falling in love with Spike is not an act of endorsement or forgiveness, but it’s one of healing. She sees that he is genuinely sorry for hurting her and he has truly changed, not out of spite but because he recognised that he wasn’t the man he needed to be for her. He was self reflective enough to own his mistake and try to make amends.
It’s also important to remember that Buffy is often hinted to be at least part demonic. At least by proxy of the ritual that gave the original slayer their powers. She shares many of the same characteristics of the very demons she is sworn to hunt. She is very violent, she has very wild mood swings and often uses sex and violence in tandem. She “gets” Spike in a way that no ordinary human can. Because they are very similar. By showing that she’s fallen in love with Spike shows that she has fully accepted herself and acknowledges that they can be happy together.
That’s just my personal interpretation, though. I haven’t seen Buffy for a while, so I might be foggy on the details.

Well now Spike was not even introduced as a charactor on the show till season 2 ,see School Hard episode in season 2. Anyways I agree with some of what you said and I did like the idea that she finally admitted she was in love with him. I think it was good to show even she a superpower could be sexually assaulted, I still don't know if I comfortable with their roles in season 7 though. but I get what your saying to a degree I agree.

Spike was a good example of forgiveness and learning to eb born again with a soul, not saying its a Christian message but if you look hard you could get a semi Christian or semi religious message about repentance and being reborn spiritually.

But still i hated seeing Spike try to rape, I know he was a vampire, I he stalked her in season 2. On the School HArd when he was introduced, he just knew who she was, he went to The Bronze and found her, he could smell her of course and knew who she was then sent his vampire pal out to kill someone so he could check her out while she fought. So yea he was the stalker............
 

SomeRandom

Still learning to be wise
Staff member
Premium Member
Well now Spike was not even introduced as a charactor on the show till season 2 ,see School Hard episode in season 2. Anyways I agree with some of what you said and I did like the idea that she finally admitted she was in love with him. I think it was good to show even she a superpower could be sexually assaulted, I still don't know if I comfortable with their roles in season 7 though. but I get what your saying to a degree I agree.

Spike was a good example of forgiveness and learning to eb born again with a soul, not saying its a Christian message but if you look hard you could get a semi Christian or semi religious message about repentance and being reborn spiritually.

But still i hated seeing Spike try to rape, I know he was a vampire, I he stalked her in season 2. On the School HArd when he was introduced, he just knew who she was, he went to The Bronze and found her, he could smell her of course and knew who she was then sent his vampire pal out to kill someone so he could check her out while she fought. So yea he was the stalker............
Yes him stalking her for his introduction was what I was referring to.
He was the predator. The writers have said that Spike thinks of sex like he does violence. He doesn’t quite process them like humans do. When he tries to rape Buffy, he doesn’t fully get what he’s doing at the time. He’s more like a wild animal acting on pure instinct. He seems to relate sex to violence and for the most part I think the show kind of does too. It’s really the aftermath where you see him recall the incident that the audience sees that he’s actually distraught. It’s left ambiguous enough that you think he’s trying to either commit suicide or get revenge or something when he goes on his little “quest.” But I think he’s really just ashamed that the animalistic nature overtook him and he hurt someone he genuinely loved. Perhaps that love confused him on some level.
Buffy I think on some level also acknowledges that he was more like a wild animal instead of the Spike she comes to love later on. When Dawn demands that Spike protect her, Buffy not only selflessly complies for her sister’s sake whilst shouldering her burden like she always has done on the show. But there’s a sense that she seems to think of Spike more like a guard dog in that scenario. That he is more instinct than logic. Not quite human not quite monster, somewhere in between.
Again that’s just how I read it
 
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Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
There were several sexual topics brought up in Buffy including awareness of accepting Gays and Lesbian relationships.

I also loved Buffy because she seemed to be very human and disfunctional with men which I can relate too.

She fell in love with Angel at the age of 16 lost her virginity to him, he was a vampire that had been cursed with his soul inside him. Then he lost his soul after Buffy lost her innocense to him. It was a lesson for young people that if you have sex too early it be a bad experience.

Then we had her following Parker around Parker used her for sex and she bought his lies that he was interested in her he just used her. I think this is very human but I like the fact I related to her so well.

However what I am not sure that I did like was the fact that Spike tried to rape Buffy and she fell in love with him in the 7th season after he tried tor ape her. I think it was good and educational I guess to see that even super girl could be a victim of rape or attempted rape. But not sure i was glad to see her and him together in the 7th season, I was not crazy about the 7th season anyways. I could live without it.


I have always loved the show-- it wasn't afraid to hit the Hard Life Lessons.

Moreover, the show's writers were quite willing to play with the delivery medium: One of the best episodes, is HUSH, S4, E10. It won awards-- they deliberately left off all music too (a break, as the show was a venue for music artists that were far from mainstream, sometimes giving these people a break). It's one of my favorites.

But my all-time favorite? Once More, With Feeling, S6, E7. It ran long, and the producers had a really hard time figuring where to cut-- so the original run? Ran over the hour! It was pretty epic, and pretty "stick your neck out".

Another in a long line of Ask The Hard Questions? Was The Body. S5, E16. This one hit home for *so* many people, as did the follow-on episodes, as Buffy is suddenly thrust into the Role of The Parent to her sister. Getting a job, without experience or college degree also played a role.

(I'm deliberately being obtuse, in case anyone hasn't watched these....)

*sigh* I miss the show, but it did end on a High Note, IMO. I've watched the entire series at least twice, and many of the individual episodes multiple times.

I thought they made a good decision to spin off the Angel character when they did-- after graduation, there wasn't much direction they couple could go, was there? Either move in together (which would have removed the family emphasis the show was famous for) or someone had to leave. The Slayer cannot leave, so... the series Angel was pretty good too, but for different reasons, and it ended quite abruptly, and very unsatisfactorily IMO.

I do like the gradual evolving of Spike, from a walk-on side-monster, to a regular character, gradually moving over to the side of the Good Guys.

One of my favorite scenes, is Spike arguing with Angel, over who's the "better" Vampire With A Soul. Angel replies he was "cursed" by a gypsy to get back his soul. Spike's retort, totally smashed him flat, "Oh yeah? I had to fight to the death to get mine back." Brilliant! But in the end, neither ended up with Buffy after all... (Actually, this was in the spin off Angel, if memory serves...)

The whole show was quite clever, with all the main sequence characters evolving over time, becoming more something-- better than they had been, in all the ways that matter. Each with their flaws, but each with their redeeming qualities too.

yeah, I'm something of a fan of the show. I also liked Firefly, and The Doll House-- both canceled just as they were getting their feet under them.... idiot TV execs-- what do they know anyway?

There's a reason why I quit watching broadcast TV, and cut my cable TV cord too. If it ain't streaming? Forgetaboutit. And if it's not on a multi-channel platform? Double-forgetaboutit-- I still have not seen the newest Trek series, and I'm huge fanboy of Trek.
 
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