Canon-related questions for Buffyologists

[red_satin_doll]

There's a couple of items about Buffy Summers that I've seen in several fanfics and wondered if they were "canon" or "fanon" information. I don't trust my memory, especially when I've probably spent more hours at this point reading fanfiction than actually watching the show. (What that says about me I shudder to imagine.)



By "canon", I am of course referring to BtVS, seasons 1-7 only, not the comics (aka Get behind me, Satan!)

1) Is Buffy's given name "Buffy" or "Elizabeth"?  I've read "Elizabeth Anne Summers" used in several fanfics and it feels like it might have been mentioned somewhere in S1-3 on the show, if at all?

Actually, I just wanted an excuse to post this screencap. But while you're here:

2) Does Buffy refer to herself in third person at any other point on the show except for Life Serial: "stupid Buffy" "freak Buffy"?  A lot of stories have her refer to herself in this way, usually when she's berating herself, although generally not while drunk. (For someone who can't hold her liquor she seems to drink quite a lot of it in LS. Slayer metabolism, apparently.) 

Also, she generally does so whilst kicking herself mentally over something regarding Spike, so do early season/Bangel 'ship writers have her referring to herself in this manner as well?

No, no further questions; I just love SMG in this episode so damn much I can hardly stand it. I mean - come on, Giles, how can you resist that face? Buttons and puppies are weeping in envy.  Now do your duty to your Slayer and hand her the check without making her feel like it's an act of charity on your part. 


I love Giles, I do. But damn it, he can be an ass sometimes.

Comments

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely right, I'd forgotten that. I'd forgotten that. And then Spike snarks back with; "Your mother. Yeah, she's a real genius."

He stood up to the Council for his own paycheck and can't give the Slayer herself her rightful cut? GOD.

No, SHE stood up to the Council in Checkpoint and negotiated (demanded) his salary be restored; he coughed "back pay" into his fist and she added that to the demand for him. That's what makes it so galling. (This reminds me of Graduation and how Buffy quit the Council and he backed her up - after she informed Wesley - but the gesture was symbolic because he'd been fired in Helpless. Giles hiding behind his Slayer's back in dealing with the WC isn't OOC for him.)

What Kendra says about her Watcher - having been given to him as a child by her parents - suggests that historically, Watchers were in fact the Slayers' guardians; which would not have been a great burden anyway since the all the previous girls died young, or so we are told, or it's implied.

What I can never quite figure out if Buffy's failure to ask for her own income and Giles' failure to care for her is a deliberate "feminist" statement from the writers: a reflection of the patriarchial imbalance as represented by the WC and the fact that in the real world, "women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, but earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than one percent of the world's property. On average, women earn half of what men earn." (The Global Poverty Project http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/infobank/women ).

Or if it was just a plot point to drive home the "If Buffy thought her life sucked before...." theme? But her failure to ask for her own salary still puzzles me unless he was supporting her, which not ever stated on the show other than the one check he gives her. Even in S7, when he brings all those potentials to her house, it's never even suggested that he's contributing.

The whole issue of finances on BtVS is worth a meta in and of itself because trying to parse it out gives me a headache.

[mcjulie.livejournal.com]

Buffy's failure to ask for her own income and Giles' failure to care for her

I think this is a case of story/theme logic over plot logic. The council as a patriarchy metaphor is obviously why they're not giving her a salary already, but in real life, if I were in Buffy's situation in S6, of course I would be talking to Giles about his watcher's salary and why don't I get a cut, how messed up is that, etc. so forth.

I suspect that in S7, if the council hadn't gotten blown up, there would have come a point where Buffy confronted them about all that -- because that fits the themes in S7. It doesn't fit the themes in S6. Neither Buffy nor Giles ever talks about the council or about the slayer-watcher relationship during that season, and while he's obviously a mentor and parent figure, if that were the only season you saw, I'm not sure you wold get that he's anything other than her beloved martial arts teacher she's been seeing since she was young.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

but in real life, if I were in Buffy's situation in S6, of course I would be talking to Giles about his watcher's salary and why don't I get a cut, how messed up is that, etc. so forth.

And I can just hear Buffy saying that in exactly those words - with arms crossed and that little tilt of the head thing she does. Or Dawn, even: "Why don't they pay you? That is just SOOO messed up!"

You're right about it being story/theme over plot logic. I also think it gets back to that aspect of worldbuilding, which is not Joss' forte. We really don't learn much about how the Watcher/potential relationship has functioned, because Buffy is someone who "slipped through the cracks"; so I was surprised all over again when some of the potentials mentioned in S7 that their Watchers had been killed. And even at that we don't know the exact nature of the relationship (in terms of how the girls were cared for, did they go to their Watchers the way one would go to a self-defense class once a week, etc etc?)

gabrielleabelle did a meta on the subject of Buffy and compensation (and women's unpaid labor) esp in comparison to Angel; but I'd still love to know what the writers were thinking of, because this is one instance I can't parse it out either way; and I usually prefer to go by what I see than by what the writers say later when at all possible. (Believe the tale and not the teller.)
http://gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com/280698.html

I suspect that in S7, if the council hadn't gotten blown up, there would have come a point where Buffy confronted them about all that

I'd like to think so - but then again in my fantasy world, Willow hacked into the WC's assets via her computer after they went ka-blooey (and I can just see her tucking a little on the side into Buffy's bank account, because what are friends for?)