Manifesting Monsters Metaphor and Genre in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Megan Burr Samford University (2015)
It’s not the addition of vampires and hell beasts that distinguishes Buffy the Vampire Slayer from other high school TV shows like Glee and Gossip Girl—it’s the use of metaphor. Though many teen shows claim that “high school is hell,” Joss Whedon’s Buffy is the one program that took the saying literally, and by doing so, was able to bring a new level of humanity to the genre television show.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer started out by mainly tackling issues the average high school student would expect, albeit in unexpected ways, as “the problems and emotions of our young characters are physicalized every week as demons and such” (Espenson quoted in Adams viiviii). In one of the first episodes, “The Pack,” hyena spirits possess Buffy’s friend Xander and several other students. Post-possession, Xander and the others act erratically through tormenting weaker students, exhibiting more aggressive behavior toward others, and even eating both the school mascot and principal. When Buffy and Willow approach Giles about Xander’s behavior, Giles explains away Xander’s actions by saying that he has “turned into a sixteen-year-old boy. Of course, you’ll have to kill him.” Though Giles is kidding at the time, one can definitely view “The Pack” as an examination of puberty’s effect on a close friend’s personality. Granted, most pubescent males do not engage in cannibalism, but several of Xander’s behavioral shifts do correspond to characteristics of male puberty. Just as many authors use the werewolf to symbolize puberty, Whedon uses the supernatural to make sense of the natural.
“See, Whedon says, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just another ‘Big Bad’ to defeat.” As Buffy and the Scoobies continued to age, the series had to deal with the subject of graduation like all teen-centered shows. However, unlike most showrunners, Whedon was able to exploit genre television conventions in conjunction with the conventions of teen television. Why have a graduation when you can have an apocalypse? Both are common in season finales, after all. Instead of episodes filled with Buffy and the gang wracked with anxiety about taking SATs, going to college, and trying to sort out their impending futures, the third season finds the Scoobies prepping for the end of the world—again. Their defeat of the “Big Bad” of the season (the Mayor) seems a comfort to real-world high school graduates who believe the end is near. See, Whedon says, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just another “Big Bad” to defeat. Buffy continued to darken as its characters and fan base aged. The show’s shift to The CW guaranteed additional freedom to play with darker and more adult thematic elements. One such element was Willow’s growing addiction to magic. Rather than dedicating a mere episode to this clear metaphor for drug addiction, Whedon stretched out this character arc for the majority of the sixth season. Willow develops a serious dependence on her “drug” of choice, she lashes out, she injures those she loves (especially Tara), and she eventually becomes the Watercooler Journal
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true “Big Bad” of the season. It is only through Xander staging a sort of intervention that Willow is able to come back to herself. Willow’s struggle becomes more real through its magical nature because the audience sees just how her addiction destroys the world around her—the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world—just as drug addiction can tear apart the world of the addict.
It is strange to wonder how revered genre shows such as Game of Thrones were once looked down upon as being lesser than more traditional dramas. I am inclined to believe that the genre show’s success in today’s world owes a great deal to shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Whedon’s use of metaphor to translate common teenage (and later adult) problems into larger-than-life demons allows for a realness one would not think possible. As a viewer, to see the fear of being invisible embodied in a character cursed with the same affliction was almost empowering. To give fears a body for them to inhabit is to give them a body that can be defeated. In later shows, Whedon continues this style of television, branching into themes considered more mature (Angel) and more intellectual (Dollhouse). Even now, in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Whedon and Co. persist in revamping the expectations of an audience watching a genre show, and they show no signs of stopping anytime soon. Watercooler Journal
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works cited Adams, Michael. Slayer Slang: A Buffy The Vampire Slayer Lexicon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print. “The Pack.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season One. Writ. Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer. Dir. Bruce Seth Green. 20th Century Fox, 2002. DVD.
image credits, in order: ©Warner Bros. ©Warner Bros. Watercooler Journal
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