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Week 17 - Personal Sacrifice
"I Hate This; I Hate Being Here"

Background

These two episodes are separated by five years; "Prophecy Girl" is the final episode from season one, while "Normal Again" is from late in season six, a year after the death of Buffy's mother.

One of the long-running issues in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is how much Buffy hates being the Slayer. It's there in episode one, when Buffy arrives in Sunnydale after being expelled from her old school and after she has seen her first watcher die. It's there in the series finale, 144 episodes later, when Buffy has her final battle with the Hellmouth. Sometimes the issues are subtle and apparent only on reflection or repeated viewing. Other times, including these two episodes, Buffy's reluctance is the core of the story.

Opening

"Who will forgive God for the sin of killing his own child? How cruel and wicked it seems that anyone should demand the blood of an innocent person as the price for anything, or that it should in any way please him that an innocent man should be slain-still less that God should consider the death of his son so agreeable that by it he should be reconciled to the whole world!"

-Pierre Abelard

"Sacrifice" is a term that has become loaded with so many meanings that we must specifically state the context in which we are using it. In the Buffyverse, sacrifice is not used in either a Christian sense, or in any pagan sense of animal sacrifice. The simplest explanation that applies to Buffy is to dedicate one's life to a higher purpose.1 In Buffy's case, that higher purpose is being the Slayer. For each of us, it may be something different.

Sacrifice is a recurring theme in Buffy. Slaying is physically dangerous. Sacrifice is also emotionally dangerous. It isolates us. It wears us down. Sacrifice changes us, so that we can't go back. It risks destruction of our selves. It demands something holy from us, something that no one has the right to demand. It becomes sacrifice when we chose to give.

From beginning to end, one of the long-running stories in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about how much Buffy hates being the Slayer. Sacrifice always requires that we put ourselves at risk, or that we do something that we hate. If it didn't, it wouldn't be sacrifice. Courage asks only that we overcome our fear; sacrifice asks for much, much more.

Episode 1.12: Prophecy Girl

The mythology of the Slayer assumes that each girl will eventually give up her life. As Buffy says at one point, she knows that she has a short expiration date. In "Prophecy Girl", she comes face to face with this for the first time, when a prophecy foretells more than she wants to know.

What to watch for:

  • Rebellion and denial
  • The turning point, when Buffy chooses to risk her life
  • Why her friends put themselves at risk

Transcript is available at http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season1/transcripts/12_tran.shtml

Episode 6.17: Normal Again

Continuity

  • Buffy's father abandoned contact with her three years before
  • Her mother has been dead for a year
  • Buffy died, and Willow pulled her out of paradise to return to Sunnydale. Buffy has been seriously depressed since her return.
  • Buffy has just ended an abusive relationship with Spike

What to watch for:

  • Emotional self-sacrifice, choosing between the easy path and the true path
  • Renewing commitment to Slayer duties

Transcript is available at http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season6/transcripts/117_tran.shtml

Questions

Buffy has a history of resisting her Slayer duties when they threaten to overwhelm her life. How do we balance our obligations with "having a normal life?" Have you ever rebelled against an obligation or a duty?

All of us have to make choices in life. What is the difference between "prioritizing" and sacrifice?

Was there ever something that you didn't think you could give up? Could you give it up now? Why did this change?

After making a sacrifice, are we "better"? What is it that makes us different afterwards? Buffy makes courageous decisions, but what do they cost her?

Does sacrifice have to be voluntary? In both episodes, what really drives Buffy's decisions?

When we make a sacrifice that hurts someone else, how should we deal with it?

What is it that gives sacrifice its meaning? What motivates us, and how do we decide that it was "worth it?"

How do these sacrifices compare with Unitarian Universalist views of sacrifice?

Some of our basic Unitarian values-religious choice, free search for truth, justice, democratic principles-have been paid for in blood many times over past centuries. Are these values still worthy of sacrifice?

How does sacrifice compare with non-violence, or with pacifism?

Follow-up

Some people would recommend sacrifice to atone for the "darkness within." Does this work? Is sacrifice linked in any way to atonement or redemption?

Metaphor Watch

High school is hell. Sunnydale High School is built on the mouth of hell; in "Prophecy Girl", the Hellmouth opens into the library.

Closing

There is an old saying that whenever two Jews meet, if one of them has a problem, the other automatically becomes a rabbi. But sometimes it is not enough for there simply to be another to listen. A man not only needs someone to hear his tale, but someone to care as well.

-Sheldon Kopp

Additional Reading

Anderson, Wendy Love, Prophecy Girl and the Powers That Be: The Philosophy of Religion in the Buffyverse. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Battis, Jes, Blood Relations: Chosen Families in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2005.

Brock, Rita Nakashima, and Rebecca Ann Parker, Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001.

Erickson, Gregory, "Sometimes You Need a Story": American Christianity, Vampires, and Buffy. Wilcox, Rhonda V., and David Lavery, Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

Forster, Greg, Faith and Plato: "You're Nothing! Disgusting, Murderous Bitch!" South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Kopp, Sheldon B., If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! Toronto: Bantam Books, 1972.

McClelland, Bruce, By Whose Authority? The Magical Tradition, Violence, and the Legitimation of the Vampire Slayer. Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies, http://www.slayage.tv/essays/slayage1/bmcclelland.htm.

Riess, Jana, What Would Buffy Do? San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004.

Sakal, Gregory J., No Big Win: Themes of Sacrifice, Salvation, and Redemption. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Stroud, Scott R., A Kantian Analysis of Moral Judgment in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

[1] Sakal, Gregory J., No Big Win: Themes of Sacrifice, Salvation, and Redemption. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.