It’s no coincidence that the rise of fascism in the United States coincides with the rising ubiquity of superhero movies. One doesn’t cause the other, but a singular feeling contributes to both of them: a desperate desire for one strong person to solve all of our problems. It’s easy to understand where that desire comes from. Our problems are myriad, and complicated; wouldn’t it be nice if we could pin all of them on a single unambiguously evil villain, to be vanquished in ninety minutes by a single exceptional hero? It truly would be nice, though, of course, reality isn’t nice, at least not in that way.
But wait, I hear you say, what does that have to do with Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I’m so glad you asked. Buffy Summers is one such exceptional hero. Her exceptional-ness (as she might call it) is laid out explicitly in this oft repeated prophecy: “In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.” It only takes one slayer to defeat every evil thing in the world. Just one slayer, like, not even one slayer per zip code. How comforting!
But wait, I hear you say again, Buffy doesn’t actually do it all on her own. That’s true! Though the council repeatedly admonishes her for not working alone like she’s supposed to, she has a team of friendos affectionately called “The Scooby Gang” to help her out. The Scoobies consist of her Watcher, Giles, her besties Willow and Xander, and whoever each of the four happen to be dating at the time. For most of the show, the Scoobies help, but the majority of the heavy lifting, punching, and kicking falls on Buffy’s broad shoulders, that is, her broad shoulders, as in… you get it. Buffy has help, but she alone is ultimately responsible for defeating evil. The buck stops with her.
This dynamic first begins to shift at the end of season four. To defeat Adam, the part-human-part-demon-part-machine naively created by the haughty psychology professor / military general Maggie Walsh, (damn this show is good), Willow casts a spell to join the core four Scoobies. Only when all of their powers are combined, Willow as the spirit, Giles as the mind, Xander as the heart, and Buffy as the hand, (very Captain Planet), is Buffy able to punch Adam to death. This comes after Spike has spent the season sewing discord between them, so it’s extra satisfying to see them come together in this deeply meaningful and magical way. They are no longer Buffy and the Slayer-ettes, as Willow once called them back in the first season; they are equal partners in the fight against evil. Interestingly, all four of them are again admonished for daring to work together, this time by the Original Slayer. She visits each of them in their dreams, and warns them that they have upset the balance between Good and Evil. Buffy is supposed to be a single exceptional hero, but she and the Scooby gang refuse to play by that rule.
To me, the most heartbreaking part of the show comes in season seven (sorry Joyce, your death is a close second), because the Scoobies’ friendship and camaraderie are so dear to me, and this is when these relationships reach a breaking point. After a series of tactical missteps, the Scoobies and the Potentials (teen girls who might become the slayer), turn against Buffy and kick her out of her own house. I could write a whole article about why this is so heartbreaking and terrible, but the good news is, it all works out. Buffy is able to rescue The Axe of Ultimate Awesomeness (or something like that) from Caleb, the Deputy Big Bad of the season, and Willow is able to imbue that axe with the power of the Original Slayer, granting every Potential Slayer the power of THE Slayer.
This series finale turns superhero-dom completely on its head. This is no longer a story about Buffy the Vampire Slayer; it’s a story about Buffy, One of the Vampire Slayers. It shows that one person with immense power cannot save the world by themselves, but they can share their power with others, and collectively, they can save the world together. Though institutions are traditionally structured with one powerful leader in charge of everyone else, or even a small group of powerful leaders, like the Council of Watchers, it doesn’t have to be that way. Power is a construct, and we can reconstruct it any way we’d like at any time. This is a better lesson than we get from most superheroes, because it’s closer to the truth: power is more powerful when it’s shared. It’s as true in real-life politics as it is in ’90’s fantasy television programs. In conclusion, fuck fascism.
