Buffy Summers

Buffy Anne Summers is the title character in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the television show of the same name (though it should be noted that, being different interpretations of an original concept, these are actually two seperate entities, as explained below). The character was introduced in the financially unsuccessful movie in which she was played by Kristy Swanson. She gained popularity after being transferred to the small screen where she was played by Sarah Michelle Gellar.

History

Buffy Anne Summers is a popular teenage girl who lives in Los Angeles. She's a cheerleader and more or less the queen of the school. Her idyll is shattered, however, when she begins to have strange dreams about women from different eras fighting monsters. Buffy is approached by a mysterious man named Merrick, who explains that he is a Watcher, one of many who watch over the "Slayer". In every generation, a Slayer is born; one girl in all the world with the physical strength and skill to fight the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. When one Slayer dies, the next is chosen.

Related Topics:
Los Angeles - Cheerleader - Era - Merrick - Watcher - Vampires - Demons

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When the previous slayer, India Cohen, died (she is never mentioned in the television show; her adventures are chronicled in the text The Book of Fours), Buffy was chosen to become the new Slayer. With a little training and strong effort, Buffy was able to defeat her first vampire foe Lothos, who killed Merrick. When vampires attacked her high school, Buffy set fire to the gymnasium to kill them. With that, Buffy is expelled from Hemery High and moves, with her mother, to the small town of Sunnydale, California.

Related Topics:
Gymnasium - Sunnydale - California

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Buffy enrolled in Sunnydale High (filmed on location at Torrance High School), where she met Xander Harris, Willow Rosenberg, and her new Watcher, Rupert Giles, who had been sent by the Council of Watchers to replace Merrick. She also met Cordelia Chase, a popular but arrogant, condescending, and patronizing cheerleader. The first season focused on Buffy's fight against The Master (vampire) and his protégé, the Anointed One. The season ended with Buffy's death at the hands of The Master, her resuscitation by Xander, and her subsequent (apparent) triumph over the Master.

Related Topics:
Xander Harris - Willow Rosenberg - Rupert Giles - Cordelia Chase - The Master - Anointed One

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The second season centered on Buffy's forbidden love for Angel, who is eventually revealed as a vampire with a human soul. It also introduced the new Slayer, Kendra, who was "called" as a result of Buffy's death. Buffy lost her virginity to Angel, which resulted in the vampire losing his soul, and becoming obsessed with killing her. At the end of the season, Buffy dispatched Angel to Hell and ran away from home, working as a waitress in a restaurant called Helen's Kitchen, after the infamous section of New York, Hell's Kitchen. She later returned to Sunnydale.

Related Topics:
Angel - Slayer - Kendra - Hell - New York - Hell's Kitchen

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Season 3 introduced a renegade Slayer, Faith, who was "called" after Buffy's initial replacement, Kendra, was killed by Drusilla, a sometime-paramour of Angel and William the Bloody, also known as Spike. In a terrible struggle, Buffy stabbed Faith, but the rogue Slayer escaped by falling from the roof of her apartment, into a passing flatbed truck.

Related Topics:
Slayer - Faith - Drusilla - Spike

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In Season 4, Buffy and Willow, having graduated from high school, attended UC Sunnydale, while Xander, also having graduated, worked at various odd jobs, finally becoming a carpenter. At the university, Buffy encountered her second lover, Riley Finn, a member of a covert military organization, The Initiative, which was collecting demons and vampires in an effort to create beings ("demonoids") with superpowers. This season also contained the Emmy Awards nominated episode Hush, in which we are first introduced to Tara and the Scoobies spend almost the entire time unable to speak thanks to the Gentlemen. Riley and Buffy's affair did not last, and Buffy next took up with the vampire Spike.

Related Topics:
Riley Finn - The Initiative - Emmy Awards

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In Season 5, Buffy defeated an evil god, Glory, who sought to kill Buffy's long-lost sister Dawn, a cosmic "key" given human form by a group of monks in order that Dawn might both be hidden from Glory and protected by the Slayer. Buffy dies a second time when she sacrifices herself by leaping from a tall tower built by crazy people to save Dawn.

Related Topics:
Glory - Dawn

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According to Joss Whedon, the show's creator, the theme of the sixth season was "Oh, grow up!". Brought back from the grave by a spell cast by Willow, Buffy returned to fight a trio of nerds in Season 6. The finale pitted Buffy against Willow, who temporarily turned to the dark side in the process of seeking revenge against those who killed her girlfriend, Tara.

Related Topics:
Joss Whedon - Revenge - Tara

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The Seventh and final season saw Buffy thwart The First Evil by converting every potential slayer in the world to an actual slayer, at the price of the complete annihilation of the evacuated city of Sunnydale.

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After the events of the final season, Buffy's continued presence was felt in the spin-off series Angel. Even though she is not physically seen, the episode Damage contains a reference to Buffy, when Andrew explains sharply to Angel that his orders to take the psychotic Slayer Dana with him came from Buffy herself. Buffy is the title character of "The Girl In Question", the penultimate Angel episode, but only appears as a brief shot of someone presumed to be her (and not played by Gellar).

Related Topics:
Spin-off - Angel - Damage - Andrew - Psychotic - Dana - The Girl In Question

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Buffy started out as a carefree, superficial, and rebellious teen and ended up as a world-weary but powerful and self-confident young woman who, having survived not only attacks by vampires, demons, and monsters but also the death of her mother, passed her power to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other Slayers.

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