Why Buffy Kicked Ass.Virginia Postrel's piece on Buffy the Vampire vampire, in folklore, animated corpse that sucks the blood of humans. Belief in vampires has existed from the earliest times and has given rise to an amalgam of legends and superstitions. Slayer ("Why Buffy Kicked Ass," August/September) is a welcome meditation on the libertarian lib·er·tar·i·an n. 1. One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state. 2. One who believes in free will. [From liberty. aspects of that series, although Buffy is not always consciously or consistently an advocate of free markets or individual liberty. (Creator Joss Whedon Joss Hill Whedon (born Joseph Hill Whedon[1] on June 23, 1964 in New York) is an Academy Award-nominated American writer, director, executive producer, and creator/Head Writer of the well-known television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel actually explored those themes more with his short-lived TV space opera Firefly firefly or lightning bug, small, luminescent, carnivorous beetle of the family Lampyridae. Fireflies are well represented in temperate regions, although the majority of species are tropical and subtropical. .) One of the ongoing subplots of the series is Buffy's struggle to take back control of her life from the amoral a·mor·al adj. 1. Not admitting of moral distinctions or judgments; neither moral nor immoral. 2. Lacking moral sensibility; not caring about right and wrong. Watchers Council, which for centuries has not only trained but dominated each generation's Slayer. Gradually, Buffy realizes that she does not need the council and that its directors have tried to control her in no small part because they fear her. (A chief mystery of the series is why there is only one Slayer when there are so many vampires; it turns out that those who created the first Slayer The First Slayer is a fictional character in the cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and was portrayed by Sharon Ferguson. Credited in the series as Primitive, also referred to as The Primeval One made only one precisely because they Feared having more.) At the end of the series's third season, the following exchange occurs between Buffy and Wesle55 the new and incompetent watcher the council has just assigned to her: Wesley: The council's orders are to concentrate on ... Buffy: Orders? I don't think I'm going to be taking any more orders. Not from you. Not from them. Wesley: You can't turn your back on the council. Buffy: They're in England. I don't think they can tell which way my back is facing. Whatever Buffy lacks here in strict logic, she more than makes up for in autonomous spunk, showing us the true spirit of a hero. By the way, although the series was in production and ready to air in 1996, it did not begin broadcast that year, as Postrel suggests, but had to wait until the spring of 1997. It was actually on the air for six and a half years rather than the commonly cited seven. Miles Fowler Charlottsville, VA |
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