Buffy The Vampire Slayer
About the show
Show Time : Mon-Fri, 5:00 PM
If it wasn’t for Slayers, you’d be dead!!
Folklore tells of unfortunate individuals who become possessed by the spirits of animals, doomed to change uncontrollably into the beast that inhabits them. The idea of re-animating the dead has exed for centuries. Believed to be in league with Satan and practitioners of the black arts, witches were often tortured and killed for their alleged crimes. Demons are said to come in many shapes and sizes.
And as long as there have been demons, there have been Slayers. One girl in all the world, the chosen one, born with the strength and skill to hunt vampires and other deadly creatures, to find them where they gather and to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. When one Slayer dies, the next is called and trained by the Watcher.
And so it was with Buffy Summers.
Sunnydale is the setting, and what could be more apt, than this southern Californian town the Spaniards once called Boca Del Infierno, or Hellmouth?
Armed with Giles’ wisdom, bolstered by Willow, Xander and Oz, her newly acquired sister Dawn and her own vast reserves of courage and strength, Buffy took on everything that the dark forces threw at her, unflinchingly, without thought.
As the new season begins, the series will take a surprising and typically innovative turn with the reopening of the high school (famously obliterated at the end of the third season).
This startling development will foretell new challenges and threats, which promise that the battle against evil is far from over. And so the fight continues…
Characters
Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
Buffy Summers arrived in Sunnydale, California, after being kicked out of a number of schools for unruly behaviour. At her last school she burned down the gymnasium; naturally, no one believed her when she insed that it was full of vampires, and she was expelled. Around this time, Buffy’s parents, Hank and Joyce, divorced, and Buffy blamed herself for the break-up.
Buffy was not your average teenager. She was a Slayer, destined to fight the forces of evil. She arrived in Sunnydale, unaware that the town’s school sits on a porthole of psychic energy, a gateway to another dimension, populated by demons - the Hellmouth. She soon discovered that this attracts vampires and other foes from miles around.
Buffy lived with her divorcee mother, Joyce, who died in the last season of a galloping tumour. She also discovered that she had a sister, Dawn, who is not really her sister.
Guided by her Watcher, Rupert Giles, with Willow Rosenberg, and Xander Harris for support, Buffy usually managed to cope with school life and Sunnydale’s vampire population.
In the climax of the last season, Buffy was killed in an encounter with Glory while trying to protect Dawn.
Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan)
Willow Rosenberg was a shy, but bright and highly intelligent student at Sunnydale High School when she first met Buffy. She has come a long way since. Her most valued skill is her ability to hunt down information on the Internet, but she’s equally at home delving into dusty books in Giles’ library.
Willow has had trouble establishing relationships with men. She has a crush on her best friend, Xander Harris, but is too shy to tell him about it. An all-round nice person, Willow has also demonstrated remarkable courage and fortitude when the occasion demands it.
She has a well-developed sense of humour, but is only able to express it in the company of people she’s comfortable with. Willow dated Oz, the werewolf/ guitar player in the school’s resident band. But he went away as he was unable to control his powers and was afraid of hurting his friends. Willow’s association with the slayer has sparked an interest in Wicca, with some unpredictable results.
The witch slowly became friends with fellow Wiccan Tara, and their spell-casting encounters soon developed into love. When Oz returned to reclaim his lost love, Willow realized the depth of her love for Tara, and remained devoted even after Tara’s brain was temporarily scrambled by Hellgod Glory.
Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendan)
Alexander LaVelle Harris, better known as Xander, is part of the group that Buffy belongs to.
Xander has not had many romantic relationships, and most of them ended badly, whether it was with Cordelia, Willow, or even Natalie French. The real meat of Xander’s character lies in his tumultuous relationship with Buffy and Angel.
Xander has been close friends with Willow for most of their lives. He never realise that she was smitten by him and, in any case, he was then besotted with Buffy. Theirs was a doomed romance, since there was only one man in Buffy’s life: Angel.
After being rejected by Buffy, he does, nevertheless, remain fiercely loyal and protective, even though it often places him in danger. Their adventures together have tested Xander severely.
Xander has matured considerably since meeting Buffy, and has grown in courage. Little of Xander’s home life has been revealed. Like Willow and Buffy, he’s an only child, but one who isn’t close to his parents.
Xander’s luck turned when former vengeance demon Anya entered his life. They fell in love despite differences in age (approximately a thousand years) and family background.
Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head)
Rupert Giles attended college in Oxford, where he fell into dubious company, and began practising the black arts, before following the family tradition and becoming a Watcher.
Before being sent to Sunnydale to supervise Buffy’s training, Giles (as he is usually known) worked in “a British museum”. His job as the school librarian affords plenty of opportunity to immerse himself in ancient tomes of prophecy, unravelling the obscure riddles which might help protect his protégé.
Giles was assigned to Buffy when her previous Watcher was killed, and she was forced to relocate. Although they have a quirky relationship, their loyalty and respect for each other is obvious.
Giles is not a natural fighter, but has demonstrated incredible fortitude under extremely trying circumstances. Giles is often the group’s mediator, and is certainly the voice of authority. A man of hidden talents, (he speaks five languages, and plays the guitar), Giles is best not underestimated.
Regrettably, the Watchers Council canned Giles when he informed Buffy that he had to revoke her powers temporarily so that she could participate in her 18th birthday ritual test. The Council, not amused, sent in Wesley Wyndam-Price to take over active Watcher duty for Buffy. However, Giles remained in Sunnydale well after Wesley’s departure and continued to aid our hero with his vast knowledge.
After quite a long period of unemployment, Giles enjoyed a brief stint singing at the Espresso Pump, then bought the Magic Box.
Anya Emerson (Emma Caulfield)
The vengeance demon Anyanka, Patron Saint of Scorned Women, has seen a lot of life changes in her 1124 years, but none more than recently. Anyanka first entered Sunnydale to grant Cordelia a wish via her magic necklace. Rather than wish disaster on Xander, Cordy wished that Buffy had never moved to Sunnydale, but the Buffyless Sunnydale turned out to be a chaotic, Vamp-ridden alternate reality. Luckily, Giles destroyed the powerful amulet, wiping out the alternate universe and transforming Anya into a human student at Sunnydale High. The evil D’Hoffryn refused to change her back, and the former demon was left not old enough to buy beer and not bright enough to pass math.
During college, Anya reconnected with the Scooby gang, and wound up falling hard for Xander. The ex-demon’s newly acquired humanity brought out a kindness formerly untapped, and her blunt yet honest way of speaking endeared her to Xander and his friends. When Giles departed for England, a delighted Anya took over the Magic Box. Running the store seemed like an excellent venue for Anya to develop her surprising newfound love of accounting. Eventually Xander proposed, and their relationship seemed solid…until their wedding day. A panicked Xander left Anya at the altar, and in her rage, she returned to the Demon fold.
Anya remains an integral member of the Scooby gang, though her bitterness over Xander’s rejection lingers. With her demon powers back in place, there’s no telling what wishes Anyanka may grant in the future
Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg)
Dawn Summers appeared out of nowhere and came pre-packaged with bogus memories. When the youngest Summers arrived in Sunnydale, she was your typical teen, an obnoxious little monster who spent more time getting under Buffy’s skin than actually helping out.
Several months after Dawn’s arrival, Buffy and the Scooby Gang discovered her true identity: she’s really The Key, an epical powerful energy source transformed into human appearance by benevolent monks. As an average bratty teen, Dawn didn’t much like finding out that she was actually a cosmic force. Buffy managed to convince her that they are family, but their happiness was cut short with the unexpected death of their mother.
Shortly thereafter, a nasty Hellgod, Glory, arrived to find the Key and try to use her to open a portal that would release hell on earth. And, Buffy sacrificed herself in Dawn’s place only to be raised from her grave by Willow.
A turning point came when Dawn began to fight alongside her Slayer sister, and Buffy was amazed at the strength and power the girl suddenly displayed. But now, Dawn must face one of the most hazardous experiences the universe has to offer: high school. Lucky for her she’s got the Slayer on her side.