Skip to main content

Why isn't Buffy a star athlete?


In Buffy the Vampire Slayer's third season finale, we get this dialogue from our heroine:



Buffy: I wish I could be a lot of things for you. A great student, a star athlete ... remotely normal.




I'm sure we can all sympathise with Buffy's wish to please her mother, but it makes me wonder...why can't she be a star athlete?


As the Slayer, Buffy is "naturally buff", with strength, agility and reflexes naturally greater than average with little need for her to work out. These attributes would surely be of enormous use to an athlete.


So why didn't she get involved in school athletics?


We saw several times that Principal Snyder gave extensive privileges and excuses to his star athletes. See the swim team getting away with sexual assault in Go Fish, and Snyder coercing Willow into doing Percy's work for him.


We also had several incidents showing the high social status of athletes at Sunnydale High.


Obviously, out of universe Buffy was supposed to be a social outcast struggling to balance school and slaying, but is there a good in-universe reason that she wasn't involved in school athletics?


I don't buy that it would have interfered with her Slaying too much. In fact, it would probably have improved her slaying, with 'practice sessions' providing an excellent cover for slaying duties, and extra support from the faculty reducing her studying stress.


Imagine, for example, if she had taken up martial arts - suddenly not only is she permitted to take time to train in combat, her tendency to respond to situations with violence becomes more understandable and excusable.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

game of thrones - Is Syrio Forel dead?

In the episode 'The Pointy End' (Season 1 Episode 8) when Arya runs from the Lannister guards you hear the sound of a sword being dropped (around 4:56): [embedded content] After that neither Syrio or Ser Meryn Trant is never mentioned or seen in the show again, except when Arya mentions to the Hound that Ser Meryn Trant killed Syrio. Is there any mention in the books that Syrio actually dies?
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Difference between elves and dwarves blacksmithing in the Lord of the Rings

Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How do Pokemon trainers collect their winnings?

According to Bulbapedia , Prize money is the money that a Trainer pays out at the end of a battle. So we know that the money comes directly from the trainer that just lost, and not some third-party committee or sponsor. But how is this done? It can be easy seeing the random trainers who challenge you along the way wanting to wager and then, after admitting defeat, sticking to their word and handing over their hard-earned pokebucks. Then there are the likes of Team Rocket and Giovanni, who also give money once they lose. This doesn't seem like something people in a criminal organization would willingly do. From this it appears that trainers have no say in whether or not they cough up the dough after losing, but I can't find anything on how exactly the funds are transferred from loser to winner. So how do Pokemon trainers receive their winnings?
Post a Comment
Read more