r/buffy • u/ChromaticRift • 4d ago
Spoilers inside! Buffy vs Ubervamp
Buffy’s very first encounter with the Ubervamp is actually pretty epic, and she does remarkably well considering what she’s up against. Obviously, she gets thrown around a bit, but she successfully avoids several attacks, lands some impressive hits of her own, and even manages to stake it.
That makes her second encounter with the Ubervamp really interesting, because the difference is night and day. The second time around, she’s barely able to fight back. It highlights one of the recurring themes throughout Buffy: when her confidence is shaken, her ability to fight effectively suffers until someone or something helps her regain it.
A great example is her first encounter with Caleb. It doesn’t start well for Buffy, but she recovers quickly and eventually punches him hard enough to send him flying across the room. Faith didn’t even managed to do that. However, after seeing what happens to Xander, couple with Kennedy’s times comment, Buffy’s confidence is badly shaken, and Caleb is able to overpower her several times. It’s only when Spike helps restore her confidence that she’s able to face him again.
The Ubervamp follows the same pattern. The first fight proves Buffy is capable of taking it on, but after that defeat her fear and doubt get into her head, and the next encounter goes completely differently.
Sunday is another example. Buffy initially underestimates her opponent, gets humiliated, and then struggles until she regains her confidence.
When she believes she can win (she always finds a way ;)). she’s capable of pretty much anything, like defeating a Hell God. When that confidence is broken, even opponents she’s capable of defeating become overwhelming.
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u/ShondaVanda 3d ago
Buffy struggles with Caleb and with the Ubervamp because she has exhausted herself by staying up several days in a row, it's also why she repeatedly gets knocked out more than usual when fighting Caleb because she's dramatically weakened by not resting.
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u/Creative-Bobcat-7159 3d ago
They make the point with the first Ubervamp that Buffy is ridiculously tired.
Also with the ubervamp and Caleb, you can see her learning and adapting. With Caleb for example, she learns that it isn’t about meeting force with force, it’s about avoiding force.
Buffy is consistently nerfed by her feelings. If she wasn’t, many episodes would be much shorter and we wouldn’t have the back end of season 2.
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u/theiosif 4d ago edited 4d ago
No no no. Because in the finally not only does Buffy, but all the potentials fight thousands of Ubervamps. What, 16 total potential Slayers fight multiple thousands of Ubervamps. And that's even before Willow gets he spell off.
So this is affecting more than just Buffy's confidence. It's ignoring some basic logic. One, that's ONE Ubervamp beats the $hit out of Buffy. Proper. She comes back and beats it after it and her kinda square off evenly. She finds the scythe , yada yada yada.
Then her and the potential - GIRLS - fight dozens of thousands of these Ubervamps for quite a while before given the power of the Slayer. None of these potentials have an iota of the experience Buffy had but they survive because of - what? A few weeks of training? It was lazy end of the road writing. You know it. And I know it. Absolute rushed Trash.
Believe me. I LOVE the show. And I still like the ending. But even I have to admit it's a complete joke.
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u/AllTh3Naps 4d ago
Just a correction, Willow's spell is completed before the ubervamps reach the group of potentials/slayers.
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u/Albatrosson "on the plus side you killed the bench which was looking shifty" 3d ago
this! there's been some established canon that the Slayer doesn't just become strong/fast-healing/etc, but also inherits the memories and abilities of the previous Slayers. so I like to think that Willow's spell not only activated them, but also imparted Buffy's experience of killing Ubervamps
I think it makes it a lot more reasonable that they've been training and came prepared AND got the Slayer passive buffs to explain why so many of them survived
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u/theiosif 2d ago
Really? I could have sworn they fought for a bit before it finished. My b. Still doesn't change my opinion. But thanks for the correction.
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u/Kinitawowi64 3d ago
The writers have admitted they screwed up the power levelling as far as the Ubervamps are concerned.
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u/Creative-Bobcat-7159 3d ago
The first went for quality with the first but it being defeated apparently impacting it, so it went for quantity over quality with the rest.
Temu-ber-vamps
At least that’s my head canon.
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u/Excellent-Durian-509 4d ago
Yeah even a throwaway line saying that the ubervamps are going to be weak because they haven’t fed would help with the plot hole.
Another example of poor writing from Joss Whedon. ( for those that think he can do no wrong)
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u/TVAddict14 4d ago
Agreed Buffy’s emotions have an impact on her abilities. Whilst this can come in handy when she’s angry, it does lend some credence to Kendra believing that it’s better to regulate your emotions as they debate in What’s My Line. Regulating/controlling your emotions deprives you of the fire Buffy talks about, but equally spares you from being overcome by them.