"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."
In 1992
Joss Whedon wrote what turned out to be an amusing film with a central idea he was so attached to that he made a chance to re-visit it on television.
In 1997, with an abbreviated first season,
Buffy The Vampire Slayer was raised from the dead on the fledgling network
The WB.
At core was a subversion of the horror movie trope of the fragile and doomed Southern Californian cheerleader in a dark alley (there's an actual scene like this in the original movie) -- Buffy was snappy and petite and blonde, and possessing of the powers to kill demons.
Joss and his team of merry writers at
Mutant Enemy took many standard teenaged issues ("high school is hell", "why is my boyfriend acting weird now that I've slept with him?") and explored them with a supernatural, self-knowing but emotional, eye.
In 1999, he spun off Buffy's ex, Angel, into his own
series, set in nearby LA.
Crossovers and cross-references between the two shows persisted until Buffy ended in 2003, despite the big-city adult tenor of Angel, in comparison to the "growing up is
hard" notes hit by Buffy over its seven season span.
In 2007, "season eight" began, in a series of comics produced by Joss Whedon and declared as official series
canon.
The influence of this show on later TV, within its genre and elsewhere, is plain to see. As several commentators have observed,
Russell T Davies had at least one eye on this show when he revived
Doctor Who.
This series is one of the single most
Trope Overdosed and
Lampshade Hanging show in existence, with over a thousand references strewn across this wiki.
Archetypes include:
Characters include:
- Abusive Parents (Tara's father, who convinced her that she was a demon.)
- Affably Evil (Mayor Wilkins, Harmony)
- Arthur Dent (Xander)
- As Long As There Is Evil (The First)
- Ax Crazy (Drusilla, Faith, Caleb)
- Aliens And Monsters
- Badass Bookworm (Giles)
- Badass Decay (Spike, to the point that the trope was once called Spikeification)
- Badass Normal (Xander, sometimes)
- Barrier Maiden (Dawn)
- Big Bad (So many that they named the trope)
- Black Cloak
- The Brainless Beauty (Harmony)
- Butt Monkey (They named this one too)
- Card Carrying Villain (Glory)
- Cool Old Guy (Giles)
- Cousin Oliver (Dawn again)
- Cult
- Dark Action Girl (Faith)
- Daydream Surprise (used brutally in "The Gift")
- Deadpan Snarker
- Defrosting Ice Queen (Cordelia)
- Demonic Dummy (Subversion in season one)
- Depraved Bisexual (Vamp Willow and (arguably) Vamp Xander)
- Disappeared Dad (Frequent, but primarily Buffy's father)
- Distressed Damsel (Cordelia in seasons 1 and 2, Willow fairly often, and, in a frequent subversion, Xander. Also, Dawn in seasons five and six and the potentials in season seven. Actually, every character was a Distressed Damsel sooner or later.)
- The Dragon (Often)
- Enemy Within (Vampires, "magic addiction", Anyanka, it goes on and on)
- Enfante Terrible (The Anointed One)
- Evil Counterpart (Faith, countless others)
- Evil Mentor (Maggie Walsh)
- Evil Minions
- Evil Sorcerer
- Evil Twin (Vamp Willow, subverted in "The Replacement")
- The Faceless (Xander's parents, generally, among others)
- Fake Boss (Dracula)
- Fallen Hero (Willow in season six)
- Fallen Princess (Buffy, later Cordelia and Anya)
- Forgotten Childhood Friend (Billy Fordham, "Lie To Me")
- Funny Aneurysm Moment (The Trope Namer)
- Girl Posse (The Cordettes)
- Harmless Villain (Harmony)
- Holier Than Thou (Caleb)
- The Hunter
- Implacable Man (Almost every Big Bad, and they had a Subverted Trope moment in "Innocence")
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain (Harmony)
- Jekyll And Hyde ( Glory and Ben)
- Jerk Jock
- The Juggernaut (Adam)
- Kiss Me I Am Virtual (April, the Buffybot)
- Knight Templar (The Knights of Byzantium)
- The Legions Of Hell
- Lesbian Vampire (Vamp Willow, more accurately a Depraved Bisexual)
- The Libby (Cordelia, initially)
- Magical Native American (Hus in "Pangs")
- Magnificent Bastard (Spike, though Ethan Rayne had a moment or two)
- Mailer Daemon (Moloch the Corruptor)
- The Man Behind The Curtain (Gachnar in "Fear, Itself")
- The Man Behind The Man (Often)
- Mauve Shirt (Jonathan)
- Monster Clown (In "Nightmares")
- Necromantic (In "Some Assembly Required", among others)
- The Niles (Wesley)
- Noble Demon (Spike)
- Non Action Guy (Xander)
- Not So Harmless (Warren and the Trio)
- One Winged Angel (Mayor Wilkins)
- The Ophelia (Drusilla and, to some extent, Tara after Glory wrecks her mind).
- Our Demons Are Different
- Physical God (Glory)
- Playing With Syringes (Adam)
- Proud Warrior Race Guy (Kulak of the Miquot, evil version of this trope)
- Psycho Lesbian (Willow after Tara's death)
- The Punishment (Angel)
- The Quiet One (Oz)
- The Quisling (Faith)
- Raised By Wolves (Anya)
- Redemption Equals Death (Jenny Calendar, whose life expectancy was measured in hours after the Scoobies forgave her for lying to them)
- The Renfield (Xander in "Buffy Vs. Dracula", Glory's minions)
- Rival Turned Evil (Faith)
- Sacrificial Lamb (Jesse)
- Sad Clown (Xander)
- Sadist Teacher (Principal Snyder)
- Scars Are Forever (Xander's eye)
- Sealed Evil In A Can (The Master, Acathla, many others)
- Shrinking Violet (Marcie Ross, Tara)
- Soap Box Sadie (Willow, at times)
- Team Rocket (The Trio)
- Teen Genius (Willow)
- Teens Are Monsters
- Treacherous Advisor (Gwendolyn Post, Doc)
- Troubled But Cute (Faith)
- Unlucky Childhood Friend (Willow)
- Vain Sorceress (Catherine Madison)
- Who You Gonna Call (The Slayer)
- Woman Scorned (Anyanka)
Tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer
- All Bikers Are Hells Angels
- All Love Is Unrequited (initially)
- All Psychology Is Freudian
- Always Chaotic Evil (Vampires and, initially, demons)
- Anvilicious (Willow's storyline in season six)
- Applied Phlebotinum
- Anyone Can Die (Ms. Calendar, Joyce, Tara, etc)
- Bad Guy Bar (Willy's)
- Because Destiny Says So
- Beware The Nice Ones (when Willow snaps in season six, she snaps)
- Buffy Speak
- By The Eyes Of The Blind
- California University
- Cant Catch Up
- Character Overlap
- Character Magnetic Team
- Chop Sockey
- Conflict Killer Spike then Angelus in Season 2, Adam in Season 4, and Willow in Season 6.
- Conspiracy Redemption (The Initiative)
- Cosmic Retcon (Dawn)
- Curse Escape Clause: Angel is cursed with a soul until he has a moment of perfect happiness. Buffy helps break the curse, and then needs to find a way to repair it...
- Dead Star Walking (Amber Benson as Tara)
- Defied Trope
- Disney Death (Buffy's death in "Prophecy Girl")
- Doomed Appointment (Ms. Calendar)
- Easy Amnesia (in the episode "Tabula Rasa")
- The End Of The World As We Know It (Frequent)
- Finding Judas (The musical episode)
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampires
- Future Badass
- Glory Days (a witch switches places with her cheerleader daughter because she misses being a cheerleader)
- Gondor Calls For Aid
- Good Feels Good (Faith, when she was in Buffy's body masquerading as her)
- Hard Work Hardly Works (Amy's motivation for hating uber witch Willow by the seventh season)
- Haunted Technology ("I Robot, You Jane")
- Hidden Depths (Cordelia, Oz)
- I Hate You Vampire Dad
- I Just Want To Be Special (Xander and Dawn)
- Impaled With Extreme Prejudice
- Inverse Dialogue Death Rule
- Jumped At The Call (Faith)
- Just A Kid
- Lampshade Hanging (Whedon appears to have bought up an entire IKEA worth of lampshades, here and in his other work)
- Love The Show Hate The Trope: even people who hated what happened in season 6 kept watching.
- Magic Floppy Disk (Ms. Calendar's spell, Maggie Walsh's data)
- The Minnesota Fats (Subverted in "Superstar")
- Monster Of The Week
- Musical Episode ("Once More, With Feeling")
- My Hovercraft Is Full Of Eels ("The cow should touch me from Thursday.")
- Never Say That Again
- Not So Invincible After All
- Offscreen Afterlife (twice - Buffy in Heaven and Angel in Hell)
- Our Vampires Are Different
- Robocam (Buffybot POV)
- Screaming Woman (Subverted in "Hush")
- Season Finale
- Sorting Algorithm Of Evil
- Story Arc
- There Is Another
- This Is Your Brain On Evil
- Tome Of Eldritch Lore
- Trash The Set (many times)
- Try Not To Die
- Ultimate Evil
- Video Wills (Mayor Wilkins)
- Villain Song ("How You Feel")
- The Virus (Vampirism)
- Trojan Prisoner
- Wall Glower (Spike)
- Wake Up Go To School Save The World
- What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway
- What Now Ending
- Year Inside Hour Outside
- Your Vampires Suck (Aimed at Anne Rice a few times)
