Buffy and the importance of sacrifice

It can be argued that the ultimate act that a hero can perform is that of sacrifice. Sacrificing oneself for the greater good or for something of higher value. It was inevitable then that during the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer that at some stage Buffy would be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice. It was the season five finale that Buffy gives her life to safe her ‘adopted’ sister and close the rift opening between a hell dimension that threatens to engulf the Earth.

She sacrifices herself for family and friends and she is satisfied in doing so, her mind is made up as she calmly, almost gracefully swan dives into the opening dimensional tear and proves that Dawn is as much her sister as if she had not been mystically created and thrust upon them (if you haven’t seen the series this will make very little sense, all I can say then is go out and watch it!!!).

This was possibly going to be the final season for the series and thus very well could have been the literal end for Buffy. But a move to a new network saw the return of Buffy from death.

So what does this say about her sacrifice?

Does the fact that she returns from death, as admittedly she has done before lessen the impact or the significance of her sacrifice?

It possibly would have had it not been for the very carefully handled story around her return from the afterlife. There is of course the ‘why don’t we save everyone’ clause that speaks of Buffy’s death at the hands of mystical power but this is an important loophole that needs to be mentioned so the fans don’t just roll their eyes and demand characters be returned from the dead.

Buffy doesn’t come back right.

She is resurrected in her casket and has to claw her way out and then dig through the grave the same way her prey, the vampires have to. Buffy is distant and out of touch with the world around her and most importantly her friends.

It is her friends in thinking that they were doing the right thing who have forced the greatest sacrifice onto our hero. They have torn her out of her final peaceful resting place, they have dragged her out of heaven.

Greek mythology is full of heroes fighting their way out of Hades to return to the land of the living but I can’t think of an example of a hero being plucked from heaven. Perhaps the resurrection of Jesus? Though I think the argument might be that he wasn’t forced, then again maybe he was.

Jump forward to the end of season seven and we now know how important it was for Buffy to return and by this time she has resolved to remain living in this world. It is interesting that leaping to her death to save Dawn and close the dimensional rift may have been the easier of the two sacrifices. The act of going on regardless despite the unfairness of circumstance. This is mirrored in the lives of other heroes such as Ripley from the Alien series and Sarah Connor from the Terminator franchise. Heroines who haven’t chosen to be so, but at the same time have had to make a choice to persevere rather than give up.

There are real life heroines who face this idea of a forced sacrifice each and every day. Women who may be challenged by circumstance but go on despite it and don’t even realise that they themselves are heroes.

Was Buffy’s sacrifice diminished by the return of her character?

Maybe but the sacrifice that she had forced onto her in order to come back certainly makes up for it!

Lee is a a huge popular culture freak, loves comic books, science fiction, soundtracks and writes for Quit Your Day Job.