Jayeless

30 Days of Buffy: Day 15
Character You Relate the Most To: Buffy Summers

I don’t really mean this in the sense that I can do the cool spinny thing, or that I slay vampires, or even that I have super-strength and I can fight off any man who tries to take me. None of these things are true. However, we all know that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is in large part about the personal relationships of its characters, and Buffy’s miserable luck in love matches my own, so on that level, I can relate.

For instance, there is Angel, with whom Buffy falls desperately in love but he’s kind of an asshole even with a soul and ends up going, “okay, I’ve decided you like me too much so that’s the end of our relationship, goodbye, it’s been nice, PS I’m skipping town also so don’t think we can get back together.” Basically he doesn’t deserve her affection and he’s really a dick about it when he has it. (He’s also much older and more experienced, so as if theirs could be a relationship of equals!) Then there is Parker, who just kinda uses her for a one-night stand then discards her again. Then Riley, and even when things are going “well” with him it still seems that they’re very shallow — she doesn’t love him, she just appreciates the stability (and perhaps the sex!) that he provides. Oh, and then there’s Spike, and when she’s actually sleeping with him in season six that’s just borne out of despair and resentment and… well… all of these situations are pretty familiar to me.

I guess that’s a really shallow analysis because it takes literally one aspect of Buffy’s life and ignores all the others! Academically I’d be more like Willow, and while my job isn’t exactly spectacular it’s a few cuts above flipping burgers. Nonetheless… this show is far more about romance than it is about school or work, and it’s definitely Buffy’s love life that (tragically) reminds me most of my own. (Also sometimes it gets really annoying, like the five billion episodes in which she moped about Parker. STILL NOT OVER IT.)