The Slayerettes: A Buffy Retrospective Podcast

In “Intervention”, the episode that introduces the Buffy Bot, we have this exchange between Spike and his new toy:

Buffybot lunges at Spike with the stake. He ducks it, comes up under her, ends up holding her close from behind, his mouth at her ear. They’re both breathing fast.

SPIKE: Was that your best, Slayer?            

BUFFYBOT: No.

SPIKE: Why not?            

BUFFYBOT: I want to hurt you, but I can’t resist the sinister attraction of your cold and muscular body.

So, Spike’s not exactly looking for higher-brain function in Buffy Bot. Not well-thought-out logic that, perhaps in certain circumstances, renders a vampire morally acceptable (as a friend, as a romantic interest) to the Slayer. This is purely dark, animalistic attraction, a base desire.

This dance continues:

SPIKE: You know you should be afraid of me. I’m bad.        

BUFFYBOT: You are. You’re very very bad.            

Again, this is pure fantasy. At this point, Spike’s not sold on the idea of Buffy accepting a changed, reformed Spike. His fantasy involves a Buffy wanting him as the Big Bad, a dangerous killing vampire, against her better judgment, against her training as Slayer.

She RIPS his shirt open and presses the stake against his bare chest. Spike GROWLS and arches up against the stake. She hesitates.

SPIKE: You can’t do it.

BUFFYBOT: I could never do it. I’m helpless against you, you fiend.

She throws the stake away. Spike rolls them over… they FALL OFF THE BIER to the floor of the crypt. Spike on top now. He kisses her and moves on top of her.

SPIKE: Buffy.

Helpless, irresistible, sinister attraction between natural enemies that should fight to the death. This is not love. This is the stuff second-rate (at best) vampire romance novels are made of. ;) The Spike in this scene is a long way from the Spike of Season 7, the “I’ve seen the best and the worst of you” Spike, or even the “I know that I’m a monster, but you treat me like a man” Spike (”The Gift”) later in the season.

Clearly BuffyBot was created in Buffy’s image in looks only. She’s not a Buffy replacement. She’s a fantasy. A toy. Which explains why once Spike develops real devotion to Buffy, he outgrows the Bot, and comes to view his past actions with disgust. To the point that, mourning the death of the real Buffy, he can no longer stand to look at the Bot (“Bargaining, Part I”):

BUFFYBOT: I think Spike stopped liking me.

WILLOW: That’s not true. He thinks you’re swell.

BUFFYBOT: Then how come he never looks at me anymore? Even when he’s talking to me?

So since the Buffybot is supposedly built by Warren exactly to Spike’s specs, the differences between Buffybot and April are telling.

Most notably, April shows absolutely no interest in anyone else but Warren. Her world does not appear to include knowledge or awareness of anyone else; she knows Warren and Warren alone. She displays absolute singlemindedness while searching for him at the party, moving on immediately to the next person when one person proves unable to help her locate Warren.

Contrast this with the Buffybot, for whom Spike has built (and interestingly enough, duplicated) a support network of friends and family. From Spike’s shock of running into the Scoobies with Buffybot, one can assume Spike never anticipated interactions between the Bot and Buffy’s real-world friends and family. Which means that the world-building Spike took the time and effort to bother getting right was meant for Buffybot and Spike alone. Was one of Spike’s use cases for the both a conversation companion? Was he planning on talking to the Bot about the Scoobies? Did he care for the robot (programmed to not realize she’s a robot) to feel loved?

I don’t know what having friends and family does to a robot’s psyche, but judging from how well the Buffybot’s integrated into Dawn’s family life and the Scooby gang in “Bargaining, Part 1/2″, compared with the utter despair and devastation of April at Warren’s abandonment, it’s almost like having friends in real life. They offer support and encouragement, care and purpose (Willow’s repairs, attending school function for Dawn). The programming is quite thoughtful for a sexbot, isn’t it?

But then again, Spike has always seen Buffy’s friends and family, her “ties to the world” as a unique and unusual strength among Slayers. So perhaps it’s not surprising that he sought to duplicate that advantage in the Buffybot. It would’ve been only too easy to apply a bit of manipulation here, fabricate or twist Buffy’s personal history in the programming, and present her friends as foes, to isolate her, to force her to turn to Spike. Instead, Spike created a Slayer with loving family and friends, who in turn loved them back.

(It’s also interesting that among all the details Spike got right–how Anya loves money and Willow is gay–Spike neglected to program in the correct pronunciation for “Giles”, possibly intentionally. The Watcher is a stand-in for authority, the one responsible for brainwashing a Slayer with Council indoctrination for control and compliance–not exactly vampire-friendly.)

I didn’t intend to write so much about the Buffybot, but I wanted to make sure I get the following out before I forget:

I don’t know if you can program an approximation for “personality” in a robot, but the Buffybot is a breath of fresh air in the tension-filled, desperate, and increasingly dark end of Season 5. She’s polite and pleasant (with great manners!), upbeat and sociable, funny and brave. She knows her duty and fully embraces it, enjoys it:

Spike, exhausted, has fallen asleep on his bier. WE PAN across to find Buffybot as she finishes getting dressed. She picks up a stake.

BUFFYBOT: Time to Slay.            

SPIKE: Yeah, mmmppphm.            

BUFFYBOT: Okay! Vampires beware!            

Buffybot heads for the door.

Followed by (italics mine):

BUFFYBOT: Dressed now as before, walks jauntily through the cemetery, humming and twirling her stake in her fingers. She sees Xander and Anya. She trots over to join them, her little flouncy skirt flouncing.

BUFFYBOT: Hey there!

Hi, welcome to the Buffy comics! The best but most underrated way to ease your post-tv series withdrawal! (and I love that you said “for the first time,” rewatches are great too) I’m giving you a huge answer, as an attempt to be as complete as possible, so brace yourself.