Someone I read recently was discussing how Buffy is the one to figure out the Big Bad in early S1.
2maggie2 said in one of her early season episode reviews (or the comments in one) that she was reminded in her rewatch that Buffy is "remarkably sharp"; it may have been for the episode I Robot, You Jane, where Buffy intuits that Moloch is coming from the internet itself. And I know bone_dry1013 also covers this territory in her fic and meta on the episodes; specifically Teacher's Pet and the math teacher who is one of the few people who expresses confidence in Buffy's intelligence (and then dies immediately thereafter). Bonedry also covers in her Origin fic the downward spiral in Buffy's social status that accompanies the gradual erosion of her self-confidence even early on.
I once saw some comments on a forum for TV Tropes in which several people repeated "Buffy's not that creative" to the point I wondered what show they were watching. Creativity, intuition and native intelligence are some of Buffy's most important tools. She's contrasted against the "learned by rote" Kendra (in ways that are unfair to Kendra, I think), which is why Giles doesn't know what to do with her in the early seasons. Lessons from the book are useless when it comes to her.
In some ways her going back to Giles in S4-5 and saying she needed to learn more from him, she needed him as a Watcher, may have been an expression of how much her confidence had faltered, and perhaps did her more harm than good in the long run. I think he needed to be needed by her more than she needed him as a Watcher. What she really needed was a father-figure but was unable to express that outright.
I've seen studies conducted - how "scientific" I have no idea - that say that girls in the US (I don't race or class) tend to lose confidence as become teenagers and become more aware of the standards of beauty they see every day in the media, and aware of boys and sexuality and trying to please and be pleasing to the opposite sex in order to "win" a boyfriend. I'd like to think things are improving but in fact eating disorders are on the rise, which is extremely telling.
So Buffy's loss of confidence is something that fits very well with RL patterns for American teenagers/young women; including the fact that (as I have) she links self-esteem or lack thereof to her failure to finish college, etc.
Re: Pt 2 of long-ass reply
I once saw some comments on a forum for TV Tropes in which several people repeated "Buffy's not that creative" to the point I wondered what show they were watching. Creativity, intuition and native intelligence are some of Buffy's most important tools. She's contrasted against the "learned by rote" Kendra (in ways that are unfair to Kendra, I think), which is why Giles doesn't know what to do with her in the early seasons. Lessons from the book are useless when it comes to her.
In some ways her going back to Giles in S4-5 and saying she needed to learn more from him, she needed him as a Watcher, may have been an expression of how much her confidence had faltered, and perhaps did her more harm than good in the long run. I think he needed to be needed by her more than she needed him as a Watcher. What she really needed was a father-figure but was unable to express that outright.
I've seen studies conducted - how "scientific" I have no idea - that say that girls in the US (I don't race or class) tend to lose confidence as become teenagers and become more aware of the standards of beauty they see every day in the media, and aware of boys and sexuality and trying to please and be pleasing to the opposite sex in order to "win" a boyfriend. I'd like to think things are improving but in fact eating disorders are on the rise, which is extremely telling.
So Buffy's loss of confidence is something that fits very well with RL patterns for American teenagers/young women; including the fact that (as I have) she links self-esteem or lack thereof to her failure to finish college, etc.
But I'm not sure the writers of the show are actually making a point about RL and in fact I suspect the opposite. And the comics only push that to extremes: Buffy is good at NOTHING. have you read
http://superplin.livejournal.com/205253.html
http://superplin.livejournal.com/205478.html
http://superplin.livejournal.com/205714.html