I have to be honest with all of you readers out there. The truth is is that, I am a huge wimp when it comes to all things monster-filled or spooky adjacent. However, that does not stop me from consuming it at every opportunity. Even though I know I will spend the night sat up in bed, not wanting to close my eyes in case those monsters decide to make an appearance at the foot of my bed.
However, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a whole other story. I can stomach the monsters and the spooky adjacent elements due to the fact that the story and its characters are just so compelling. Buffy is one of the greatest fictional characters of all time as very few shows give the bubbly blonde teenager the chance to kick major behind. And Buffy isn’t even the best character on the show! There’s Willow and Xander. There’s Giles and Cordelia. We have Angel and Spike. And then there’s Buffy’s mom. (Just an FYI, that sound you just heard was the result of my heart shattering into thousands of pieces at the mention of Mrs. Summers. Ow, my feelings.)
Luckily, I am not alone in this opinion. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been heralded by numerous critics as being one of the greatest shows of all time, and that title is well deserved. So if you’re like me and can’t get enough of that Buffy-loving vampire stuff, then sit back, grab your stake and cross, and enjoy these 25 behind the scenes secrets from the greatest teen-vampire story of all time.
25 Blonde Babe Bashing Is So Passe
If a movie (specifically horror or action) features a young, beautiful, and brilliantly blonde actress, one can assume that she will either be taken by the enemy, used for fodder for some sort of monster, or will spend every single fight sequence standing off to the side, screaming the hero's name, and looking simultaneously attractive and afraid. And that is the exact sort of thing that drove execution producer Joss Whedon wild. According to IMDb, Joss Whedon grew tired of seeing a never-ending flurry of horror movies which portrayed all of the young blonde characters as helpless little creatures who were almost always the first to perish.
He took that old and overused trope of a helpless and defenseless little girl being chased down a dark alley by a dark monster and decided that the girl would not be the one to perish in that alley. He felt as though younger women needed a strong and positive role model in this genre (i.e. someone that they could look up to that didn’t find themselves in a body bag before the credits rolled). And that is exactly what he delivered. And I for one thank him. Nothing makes me feel more powerful (i.e. like I can kick a full-grown man through a concrete wall) than powering through a 10 hour Buffy marathon.
24 What Is Buffy Without Her Vampires?
What is Buffy without her vampires? I mean, the show is literally called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Without vampires, she would just be a regular teenage girl. Though, I think that Buffy would greatly appreciate not having the spend her entire life protecting the world from the never ending stream of supernatural villains flowing through her hometown. Vampires play the heroes, the romantic interests, and the main villains throughout the series and without them, there would be no show.
However, there are seven episodes throughout the show's seven seasons in which no vampires appear at all.
Not a single one. Nada. Zip. These episodes are Witch (1997), The Pack (1997), I Robot… You, Jane (1997), The Puppet (1997), Inca Mummy Girl (1997), Living Conditions (1999), and Fear Itself (1999). Though there are several other episodes in which another supernatural element takes the stage as the big bad for the time being, either Angel or Spike will appear at some point during the episode. It is important to note that five out of the seven vampire free episodes occur in the show's first season. This is due to the fact that the first season followed the “monster of the week” plot structure while later seasons focused on lengthy and overarching plots and storylines.
23 Perishing Ain't Cheap
Technology has come a long way since the 20th century and because of that, digital effects have become both a lot easier to come by as well as a lot cheaper to create and use. However, things weren’t always as easy as popping into an illegally downloaded version of Photoshop and mucking about with the tools until the desired result is achieved. Back before the dawn of civilization (a.k.a. 1997) creating computerized digital effects was a painful, lengthy, and expensive process. Each and every single episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer contains roughly eighteen to fifty unique shots which require specialized visual effects. These effects add up to around 10% of the footage in the final cut of the episode.
Let me give you a little taste of just how expensive these effects were. You know how vampires burst into a cloud of dust every time that Buffy ends their “lives?” Well, that special effect cost nearly five thousand dollars to create. In order to achieve these effects, the SFX team working on Buffy used a combination of two programs, Maya V.4.5. and Stroika, which allowed them to match the lighting in order to create more realistic graphics.
22 No Room For Love
Okay, it is time to clear up some misconceptions. Welcome to another special episode of “That’s Not What That Means.” I’m your host, Zooey Rose Norman, and I am here to clear up common misconceptions and falsehoods surrounding some of your favorite shows. On today’s episode, I will be exploring the falsehood (and commonly held belief) that states that “Angel cannot share certain [close] moments with another without losing his soul.” While it is true that he did lose his soul after spending time with Buffy, it was not the physical act that robbed him of his soul.
The thing that ripped his soul from his body was the happiness that the event caused him.
The curse placed on him explains that only “a moment of perfect happiness” would rob him of his soul (and nothing else). This explains why he is able to share physically intimate moments with other characters throughout both Buffy and Angel without risking his soul. The only time his soul is in danger is when he is experiencing the purest and true form of happiness. Luckily that curse is fictional and has not been placed on me. Considering the fact that I am consistently inhumanly happy; my soul would be in danger at all hours of the day.
21 Things That Were Never Meant To Be Seen
Though it is no secret that television sets have continually gotten bigger over the years, it might surprise readers to know just how much that larger screen affects the quality of the media that they consume through it. As the size of television sets increases, the aspect ratio of the shows we watch must adjust to match. And sometimes, doing so reveals things to the audience which we were never meant to see. For example, when an HD remastered version of Buffy was aired on the Pivot network, fans protested with every fiber of their beings. The aspect ratio had been converted from a 4:3 to a 16:9 and doing so caused several things, which had originally been cut from the show, to become visible to audience (such as equipment, stand-ins, and the crew themselves).
Other issues with these remastered episodes included the fact that several scenes ended up occurring in the wrong order and many special effects (including certain visual effects and even specified color filters that blended scenes together) were either sloppily altered or cut from the show entirely. These remastered versions were so sloppy and unwatchable that fans literally protested them and begged for the original versions to be aired instead.
20 The Power Of Fan Forums
One of the coolest things about being part of online fan communities is being able to sort through thousands of unique accounts that detail and break down aspects of a given media that the average person might have never even considered.
Sorting through all of those differing perspectives is so fascinating, but sometimes fans go a little too far with it.
Headcanons, fanon, and fanfics can be insanely entertaining and a great way to consume content when the source material runs dry; however, sometimes the fan communities can become incredibly toxic and filled with people that do not care about anything except their version of events. Some fans can become so consumed with their own version of events that they deny the reality of the show in order to make their fanon canon. In an interview with “Fresh Air”, Joss Whedon revealed that during his time spent lurking on these fan forums, he found a board dedicated to the romantic tension between Buffy and Faith.
Joss felt annoyed by the board at first and claimed that the members were just forcing their fantasies onto these characters. However, after continued interaction with the board, Whedon was swayed and apologized for his original apprehension. He stated that his opinion had been changed and that there was, indeed, romantic subtext between the two (even if it was unintentional).
19 Once More, With Feeling
I am a sucker for both eerie shows about teen solving ghoul-filled mysteries (even though they give me an endless flurry of nightmares) and musical numbers. And you might be surprised to know how many times these themes have crossed over. If one ignores films and focuses solely on television, then there are at least three teen orientated monster of the week/mystery shows that have tackled this tricky yet entertaining combination. These shows include Riverdale, Todd & The Book of Pure Evil, and, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. From the moment that Joss Whedon created the show, he knew that there was going to, eventually, be an entire episode dedicated to the musical tradition. However, that was a decision that he and the show's original network did not agree upon. The network shot down Whedon every time he suggested featuring such an episode. But, luckily for Whedon, the show switched Networks in the show's fifth season and this new company was much more supportive of Whedon’s musical ambitions.
And thus “Once More, With Feeling” was born. You know, if I had access to a magical genie who could grant any whim or desire of mine, my first wish would be to somehow be able to travel back in time (in a butterfly effect free sort of way; you have to remember to be specific when it comes to supernatural wish granters) in order to be a part of this classic musical episode.
18 An Army Of Clones
What is the best way to stir up some drama in a soap opera environment? Why, it is to introduce an unknown evil twin into the plot, of course! And though that sort of plot device would not work in the Buffyverse, Whedon did find a way to introduce this sort of device into this incredibly dramatic series. And he did this via “clones.”
Note: these aren’t the sort of clones that one would expect to see in a sci-fi series.
Instead, they are essentially just a “double” of the original character (though each double comes about in a unique way). Though unknown blood ties would not have made sense in the Buffyverse, Whedon used “clones” whose existence was firmly grounded in the established lore to force the characters into the difficult position of having to duel with someone who looks (but does not act) like someone that they truly care about. Buffy met her match several times as the “Buffy-bot” briefly became a recurring theme, whereas the other two members of the trio only have to face off with their replicas once or twice, max.
Willow had to battle her vamped-up self in the episode entitled Doppelgangland (1999) and Xander was split into two in The Replacement (2000). In order to achieve these effects, optical effects, doubles/stand-ins, and Nicholas Brendon’s identical twin brother, were used.
17 Nothing Happens By Accident
The best shows are the ones that have planned out every single twist and turn from the very beginning so that when you rewatch them, you can see hints of future plots and catch all of the foreshadowings that you missed the first time around. And though the stakes seemed as though they were continually getting higher throughout the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, make no mistake, these storylines were not the result of hastily constructed plots (which other teen dramas use as they run out of steam) as the foundations for these later revelations had been laid years before.
Every single aspect of the Buffy series was planned out years in advance. For example, some people claim that the addition of the character of Dawn felt sudden and “out of the blue.” However, hints which predict her appearance can be found as early as the show's third season. An example of these hints includes a dream sequence that occurs in the episode entitled “Graduation Day Part Two” which appeared in the show's third season. The dream features an exchange between Faith and Buffy in which the numbers “7,3,0” are mentioned (which is the number of days until The Gift) as well as a reference to “Little Miss Muffet” (this also hints towards Dawn’s appearance as she is referred to as “curds and whey” by a stranger in “Real Me.”)
16 The Devil's Playpen
The town of Sunnydale sounds like a place in which I would never want to visit. I don’t know, it’s just something about being located directly upon the Hellmouth which causes it to be constantly flooded with a never-ending stream of supernatural beings who lust after human blood makes me a little uneasy to cancel all my plans and hop on a plane over to the famed town.
However, there is one weird side effect of living on a Hellmouth that I had never considered.
While I was conducting my research for this article, I found out that there are over forty different churches within the small town of Sunnydale due to it being located directly upon the Hellmouth. Since holy objects can prove to be fatal to those supernatural creatures, this abundance of places of worship can provide numerous safe havens for hunted humans and slayers alike if needed. You know, I grew up in a religion-free household, but if I found out that several thirsty vampires were hot on my tail, I would buy as many silver crucifixes as I could afford and literally cover myself with them, head to toe, in order to stay safe. I do not mess around when it comes to supernatural beings.
15 The Language Of The Deceased
Though Latin seems to be the go-to language for all things involving magic, supernatural, and the occult, Buffy doesn’t seem to really care about trends, tropes, or anything of the sort. No, in the Buffyverse, the majority of the magical language is written in the ancient Sumerian language. For those of you who don’t know, Sumerian writing is actually the oldest known example of writing on the Earth (not considering hieroglyph of course as they were primarily image-based). And, surprisingly enough, records of the language are actually impressively well preserved. There are well-preserved copies letters, receipts, laws, hymns, prayers, and even stories, all written in the Sumerian language which still exist today. Using the Sumerian language for their spells, curses, and books, grounds the lore of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in one of the earliest time periods known to man.
These spells have been passed down throughout the centuries, which just adds to the power and mystic of the series. And Latin is so overdone. Think about it, every single fantasy series uses latin at some point for their spells, lore, or locations (though it is important to note that Buffy does use Latin in its lore as well). So switching things up with a bit of Sumerian every now and then creates an intriguing and unique spin on classic occult tropes.
14 The Things We Do For Fashion
Though I do appreciate certain aspects of this current 90s throwback trend, I have to say that I am incredibly glad that knee-grazing leather jackets have yet to make a comeback. And though it’s everyone's right to wear whatever they feel most comfortable in, I just cannot stand the squeaky sound that those coats made whenever they came into contact with... well… anything. Which is why I’ve always felt that it was an incredibly weird choice for a vampire due to the fact that they are supposed to be sneaky and quiet.
You can’t be quiet when your coat squeaks every time that you move.
And I know that that coat fits in with Spike’s bad boy aesthetic but it is just incredibly impractical for several reasons. The first reason being that the coat which the wardrobe department bought for Spike cost over two thousand dollars. And if that wasn’t enough, after purchasing the coat the crew immediately placed it in the road and ran over it with a truck repeatedly in order to give it that “distressed” look. Luckily Spike’s mother has been gone for a couple of centuries because she would absolutely whip his bottom if she found out that he spent that much on a coat only to destroy it moments later.
13 A Glimmer Of Humanity
What makes a villain? In children's literature, anyone who hurts other people or puts them in danger is considered a villain. But in more grown-up media, those lines aren’t so clear. Take Buffy for instance. Think about how many lives that she has ended (both immortal and human; though the latter is a much smaller number than the first). By those black and white rules, Buffy would be just as big of a villain as the creatures she seeks to destroy. Even relatively innocent and kind-hearted characters like Willow and Giles have ended the lives of several people collectively. By these black and white terms, the only “good” character out of the core four would be Xander as he is the only one out of the group to have never have taken a human life.
However, I think that the show presents an alternative view of what constitutes a good person and a bad one. I believe that the show presents an idea of morality based around intent rather than actions. For example, even though Buffy spends the majority of her time breaking laws, ending lives, and threatening all that cross her path, she is still heralded as humanity's savior as everything she does is to protect our ungrateful behinds.
12 Expiration Date
As mentioned earlier in this article, Joss Whedon loves to leave little hints and bits of foreshadowing throughout all seasons of his projects. And though some major events within the series seem completely unexpected and totally out of the blue, most of the twists and turns the series takes were mapped out years previous to the episodes release. When rewatching the series, several hints become strikingly obvious to the viewer and one can even feel a bit dimwitted having never noticed them before.
Although, it is important to say that some of these clues are so subtle that no one would have noticed them if they had not been pointed out. For example, Buffy’s demise (which occurred in the episode The Gift which originally aired in May 2001) was a shocking and upsetting event for viewers around the world. However, a minor detail featured in the episode Who Are You (which aired only a year previous to Buffy’s demise) foreshadowed this tragic event. You see, when Joyce’s credit card is briefly shown, the cards expiration date (of May 2001) is revealed.
This date marks the expiration of both her credit card and her daughter.
Wow, that’s a little grim. But hey, it’s not like her demise is a permanent state of being, right? Buffy’s back (against her will) and at it again in no time.
11 I Like Characters That Remind Me Of Me
It is exceptionally rare for every single character to sourced solely from the imagination of the creator of a project. Inspiration comes from everywhere: dreams, the imagination, and real life. In fact, most characters you’ll stumble across in fiction have been based on someone the creator has known, wished they were, or hated during their lifetime. And the characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer are no exception to that rule. Joss Whedon has stated that he had based the unsavory character of Cordelia Chase on a girl that his wife knew from her high school days. And I have to say that I am pretty sure everyone has met a Cordelia at one point or another in their lives. If you haven’t, count your lucky stars.
Joss Whedon has also explained that he had based the character of Xander Harris on himself. Some people have theorized that this is why Xander gets all of the best lines, witty comebacks, and snarky jabs throughout the series. I mean, if you’re going to insert yourself into a story, you might as well make that character one of the most entertaining members of the cast- but be sure to give them a healthy amount of failure every now and then or else people might get suspicious.
10 Good Mortals Go Bad
Not everyone can stay innocent forever. At some point, even the kindest creatures can turn if pushed enough (or exposed to an incredibly intense amount of curses, dark magic, and other occulty things). Though Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show filled with both morally upright and downright evil characters, only two characters have ever crossed over from the former to the latter. Those two characters being Buffy’s former lover and sudden enemy Angel and the heartbroken and misguided Willow. Angel crossed over to the dark side after losing his soul following a moment of pure bliss in the show's second season. This prompted Buffy to have to shut him out of her life and home, in order to preserve both her and her mother's safety.
All while struggling through a soul-crushing heartbreak, I might add.
And Willow, the girl who began as the most innocent and sweet character that has ever lived, found herself falling into the role of the villain in the sixth season of the show when her all-consuming heartbreak drove her to a state of revenge-seeking madness. It seems like heartbreak is a major factor in these moral shifts throughout the series. I wonder what I should make of this information.
9 Sisters Know Best
Even though the appearance of Dawn had been foretold several seasons in advance, Joss Whedon did everything he could to keep that plot twist a secret for as long as possible. However, one cast member was allowed to know before anyone else could. Sarah Michelle Gellar was the only member of the cast who knew about the looming addition to the show before Whedon officially announced it to the rest of the cast and crew. In fact, it was Sarah who recommended Michelle Trachtenberg to Whedon for the role as Sarah had seen her previous body of work and was impressed by her acting ability.
The character of Dawn also went through a lot of changes before reaching the big screen as she was supposed to have both telekinetic powers and the ability to commune with those who have passed, though both were both dropped rather early on. It is also important to note that Michelle is one of the only actors on the show (playing a character under the age of thirty) who was close to their character in age as most actors were either a few years older or a couple centuries younger than their respective characters.
8 Buffy Will Go Down With This Ship
In any given piece of media, there will always be the option to ship characters with one another (though I will note that I am strictly against the idea of shipping real life people but shipping fictional characters is all in good fun- so long as people don’t take it too far). Fanbases occupy themselves with the duty of telling anyone who will listen to them about who they think is destined to be together and who they think should have never even laid eyes on each other. And sometimes, the authors/creators/cast members involved with that piece of media get involved in those petty ship wars as well. Sarah Michelle Gellar, for example, firmly believes that Angel and Buffy are meant to be together and would even get emotional at times when they had to film their final scenes together for Buffy.
And I gotta say, I agree with her.
Though Angel did take a sharp turn for the dark side and did a few things that should not be tolerated in a healthy relationship, he will always have a special place in my heart. Although, there is a certain appeal to Spike. I like the idea of a villain who took a turn towards the good side. There’s just something fascinating about that.
7 The Dawn Of Technology
One of the coolest things about shows that began filming during the late nineties and ended their runs after the dawn of the twenty-first century was the fact that there was a perceptible difference in available technology between the first and last episodes. These shows literally tracked the progression of technology from home phones and pagers to laptops and cellphones, and there is just something so cool about watching the world adapt to these technological advances.
An example of this early adaption is the fact that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of the first shows to use the term “Google” as a verb. Willow instructs Buffy on how to “Google” someone that they need to gather information on. The idea that a phrase which has become such a common part of the modern vernacular was (at one point) completely foreign to people is just so fascinating.
It’s also exceedingly cool to consider the fact that the early episodes of the show featured Willow attempting to solve the occult mysteries around them on clunky white Windows 95 sporting desktop computers while later episodes feature her whizzing about on her MacBook. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to consider how much technology has advanced in our own lifetimes.
6 Comic Book Crossover
When the network wanted to renew Buffy the Vampire for an eighth season, both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Joss Whedon refused. The show's seventh season wrapped up the story nicely and everything that was not resolved was allowed to continue through two channels. The first being the spin-off series entitled Angel and the second being a forty-issue series of comic books, published by Dark Horse Comics, that followed the lives of the characters after the show had concluded.
The comics were produced and written by Whedon (as well as many other writers who had worked with Whedon on the original show). The comic books debuted in 2007 and featured the main storyline of a quasi-military worldwide network of potential/new slayers (some of which had appeared as prospective slayers at the end of the original show). The network has bases all over the world which include one in Scotland which is run by Xander, one in England which is run by Giles, one in Italy which is being run by Andrew Wells, and a location in Ohio which is being run by Robin Wood. Plot lines also feature each member of the original trio all respectively dating a slayer themselves at one point or another during its forty-issue run.