10 Life Lessons I Learnt from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

by Charl Pearce

(I started to write this post a couple of months ago, before deciding it was far too dorky to ever see the light of day and saving it in drafts “just in case”.  There’s been a flurry of Buffy love on Twitter recently for some reason, so I decided to open it up, make some tweaks and publish)

Hi I’m Charl, & I’m a big Buffy fan.  At 6:45pm on weekdays, I would sit on my sofa and “derrr ner ner ner, der ner ner” to the theme tune and lose myself in this parallel sci fi universe for 45 minutes.   It was the best (and only good thing) to ever hit BBC2.   Season after season, Buffy would pull out the big guns, up the ante with their demons and storylines and it had me hooked until the final season aired.  I’m still a little hooked now.  It’s not unknown for me to be spouting some Joss Whedon diamond quotes over on Twitter or making reference to some Buffy episode or another.  So I wanted to do a bit of a tongue in cheek/sort of serious/very lame post about….

10 Life Lessons I Learnt from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

sunnydale

1. Life is one big Hellmouth.  When you’re in High School you feel like you’re in a living hell (or perhaps I just did because I was ginger and kids are mean), at the time I couldn’t wait to leave just so things would be easier and I’d be a grown up. What I learnt from Buffy was that the pain (or difficult-ness of life) doesn’t stop, it just evolves and is replaced by a different kind of pain.

thescoobygang

2. You don’t have to be the hero all the time. I have always been guilty of this, I internalise EVERYTHING and I think season 4 of Buffy where the gang have to combine their essences to beat Adam, and then in the later series’ (notably Season 7 with Willow and the scythe) Buffy (I) come to realise that it’s not a bad thing to ask for help or to utilise your friends strengths to overcome your weaknesses.

showtimebuffy

3. Demons can and will be beaten. Buffy could slay even the most bad ass of demons, no matter how unbeatable and icky they were, so when you think you can’t beat something that’s getting you down, think of the episode “Showtime” where she takes that Ubervamp to the abandoned building site, beats him down and garrots him, unbeatable? Bitch, please. What demons? (lets take a quote break)

“I don’t know what’s coming next. But I do know it’s gonna be just like this — hard, painful. But in the end, it’s gonna be us. If we all do our parts, believe it, we’ll be the ones left standing. Here endeth the lesson.”

kathybuffy
4. Trust your instincts. Buffy proves this is the way to go. Remember her college room mate? “Kathy” (did you say that in a high pitched voice? I did) clipped toe nails, Cher’s “Believe” on repeat… no matter what anyone says, that bitch is so a demon. Instincts, trust them – we have them for a reason.

5. Opposites attract. When it comes to relationships you don’t necessarily need to have a whole lot in common with your love interest. Lets face it, in Season 1 who’d have thought that at some point we’d see Cordelia and Xander groping in a janitors closet? And furthermore, the whole Buffy/Spike love situation that evolved went completely against nature.

learn about men

Angelus:You got a lot to learn about men, kiddo. Although I guess you proved that last night.
Buffy:What are you saying?
Angelus:Let’s not make an issue out of it, okay? In fact, let’s not talk about it at all. It happened.

6. Men can change.  This is something you have to accept that and decide whether they mean enough to you to hold on or walk away. When Angel loses his soul and turns into Angelus after sleeping with Buffy for the first time, she has to come to the decision that no matter what she felt for Angel at one point in her life, that Angel she loved was gone. As much as it hurts you have to walk away to protect yourself/avoid getting bitten.

willowbuffy

7. Being a geek isn’t a bad thing. Being ginger isn’t a bad thing. Willow is the poster person for this. A whizz with a computer, an integral cog in “the gang”, dating a musician (granted, he was werewolf) and then becoming the most powerful member of the gang as “Dark Willow” – girl got it going on. When I was tinkering around with a laptop ,learning HTML and lusting after guys who played the guitar I kept thinking “WWWD” (what would Willow do?)

oncemorewithfeeling

8. If in doubt, SING. The musical episode along with Hush was one of the most successful and praised episodes of Buffy (funny how they’re more or less the complete opposites of eachother really). I remember on a “making of Once More With Feeling” documentary, Joss said something about feeling as though Buffy could break into song at any moment. I feel like that in everyday in life. Music is my everything and I find there’s nothing more cathartic than singing my little lungs out and there’s nothing better than finding that one song that you can absolutely identify with.

canwerestnow

9. Who you are isn’t who you will become.   Moments in your life do not define you as a person. If that was the case I wouldn’t have fallen in love with Spike by the end of final season. You might try and kill the person you fall in love with on more than one occasion for example. But life is a journey, and along that journey you make mistakes and learn from them (sure you might end up dying as the Hellmouth eats itself whole, but ya know. Shit happens)

buffythevampireslayer

10. A woman can take on the world. When Buffy creator Joss Whedon was asked “why do you write these strong female characters” he simply responded, “Because you’re still asking me that question.” It isn’t often that there’s a female “superhero” to look upto, I think for girls growing up with Buffy, it delivered a sense of empowerment. And it wasn’t just Buffy, Anya – the demon, Willow – the witch, Glory – the god – all strong, powerful and fricking awesome women that Whedon wrote into this show. Can y’all say GIRL POWER?!

 Buffy Fan?  Go on and brain vom all over my comments #buffygeeksunite

13 Comments

    • Charlotte

      I would, but I’m holding out for Angel, still….xo

      Reply
  1. Nick

    Great blog post. Buffy Forever!

    Reply
    • Charlotte

      and ever! AMEN!

      Reply
  2. Danielle

    Love and second everything you wrote. I’m so glad I grew up with B.

    Reply
    • Charlotte

      Thank you x

      Reply
  3. Ash

    Love this! I am still a huge Buffy fan, going to eventually get them on dvd & pretty much never leave my room until I have watched them all ^ ^

    Ash xx

    Reply
    • Charlotte

      SO addictive right?

      Reply
  4. kloe

    I love this post! I was a huge buffy fan when I was younger, my mum never let me watch it though so I used to have to tape it haha. Me and My friends used to act out the last episode we’d all watched at break times at school too like proper Buffy geeks. haha
    This post is actually fantastic, you’ve definitely got yourself a new follower! xx

    Reply
  5. Amber

    Adore this post. I have loved Buffy since I watched my first ever episode, and even after all of these years I find that if I need to escape or need to gain some perspective on life, Whedon helps me out!

    BtVS always.

    Reply
  6. crippledcrafter

    Love this! Have all the Buffy and Angel DVDs and rewatch them regularly. And on a bad day? Nothing can cheer me up more than singing Sunnydale! And while Angel’s gorgeous (do you still watch him in everything?!), I’m kinda in love with Spike & always have been, evil or good – he’s just so funny!!

    Reply
    • Charlotte

      Singing Sunnydale is so accurate, I’m not sure my next door neighbours may begin to get sick of me singing “Rest In Peace” like I’m actually Spike. I watched Angel in Angel, and then Bones, and then in my dreams. Spike is a guilty pleasure though for sure. His humour is bang on!

      Reply

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