technically, missing

the tragedy of buffy to me in early seasons is that she’s convinced she’s not a normal girl dealing with normal girl things even though everything that happens to her is an extremely cogent metaphor for normal girl things, such as when you’re filled with thoughts of violence, or when your boyfriend starts acting like a different person after you have sex with him, or your mom grounds you for being irresponsible even though you ARE responsible it’s just that nobody understands what you’re going through, or when the entire world conspires to convince you that your sexual desires are inherently evil and you will be punished for having them. many of these things are normal girl experiences under the patriarchy but buffy doesn’t know that bc she’s in the literalization torture labyrinth

buffy the vampire slayer's commitment to acab is kind of beautiful actually. in seven seasons and 144 episodes, not once was a cop in any way useful or good at their job. at best cops are a nuisance and at worst they're actively trying to kill buffy and friends. you've really got to admire the thematic consistency.

the reason buffy summers is a much better protagonist than a lot of the main characters in other teen supernatural shows is that those characters tend to be good people in a passive, boring way. they're generally nice and care about doing good, but they're rarely placed in situations where they have to make difficult decisions with no good outcomes, or pushed to extremes that force them to contend with the ugliest parts of themselves. btvs meanwhile is absolutely obsessed with the idea that passivity is inherently unethical. as such, in order for buffy to be a good person, she constantly has to make active choices. she never gets to be indecisive in the face of a moral dilemma. she always has to choose, to make tough calls, and that makes her genuine heroism and goodness far more compelling than a character who's just kind of passively nice.

there’s something very beautiful about being able to try again tomorrow

I have been trying tomorrow for the past 3 years

and you still have tomorrow to try again