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Buffy vs. Twilight – the Slayer, a Swan and a Vampire

Whether you are Team Edward or Team Jacob, Team Angel or Team Spike there is one thing that all of these fans have in common and that is passion, passion for the characters and stories that make up the two most popular contributions to the pop culture of vampires in the last 20 years. With that passion, as is often the case, comes debate and controversy.

In 2008, the film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s book Twilight was released catapulting the series of books written by Stephanie Meyer off the charts. The Twilight craze had begun and fans all over the country devoured as much of the books, films, soundtracks and merchandise as possible.  The series itself is four books, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

There was another group of fans, a slightly older fan-base, that reacted with annoyance at the fans of the new craze claiming that this was nothing new, the storylines now famous bore a striking resemblance to the vampire culture that they had known and loved for 10-plus years, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the TV series written by Joss Whedon, ran for seven seasons from 1997 through 2003. Gradually, the Buffy community began to grow ever more irritated at the attention being received by the Twilight series and the Twilight fans became equally as irritated claiming that the Twilight series was both different and superior to the Buffy series.

Twilight

While the Twilight craze was initiated by the release of the films, there was a large fan-base that was already in place; the books themselves had already generated a large following of devoted fans. I should warn the reader that I don’t consider someone a Twilight fan if they haven’t read the books, while the films are great; I am always biased towards the book in nearly every case. Whenever a book is adapted for film there is always so much material that is left out. The books chronicle the story of Bella Swan and her arrival in the town of Forks. She meets a young man named Edward who has a secret. The two of them fall in love and have to deal with the consequences related to friends, family, society and Edward’s secret.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Buffy The Vampire Slayer series chronicles the story of Buffy Summers, a girl with a secret, and her arrival in the town of Sunnydale. She meets a young man named Angel who has a secret. The two of them fall in love and have to deal with the consequences related to friends, destiny, fate and their respective secrets.

Stephanie Meyer maintains that she had never seen Buffy The Vampire Slayer prior to writing her series. The creation of the Twilight world began when she had a dream about the two main characters and a dialogue that they have, which sparked the novels, the world and pop culture. While there is no reason to disbelieve Stephanie Meyer, there are some significant similarities between the two series.

** Warning: The remainder of this article will cover content from both series that would be considered a spoiler if you have not read all of the Twilight Series or seen the entire Buffy The Vampire Slayer series.**

Buffy Summers and Bella Swan, both independent strong young women. Each of them are deposited into a new town and left to climb the mountain of integrating into a new school, making new friends and adjusting to life with a single parent.

• Buffy falls in love with a vampire named Angel, Bella falls in love with a

Vampire named Edward.

• The Buffy series had a werewolf named Oz who was part of the main cast of characters. Jacob is the werewolf in the Twilight Series.
• Both of the female leads have a best friend (female) with supernatural powers.
• Both series have a supernatural governing body, which sets rules for the worlds that they live in and disapproves of the relationship between vampire and human.
• In each series there is a male vampire and his female companion who come to town to stir up trouble.
• The topic of forbidden love, betrayal, and heartbreak are prevalent in both.
• The best-guy friend of the female lead is a victim of unrequited love.

The list of similarities goes on for quite a while longer, however, the point has been made.

In spite of all of the similarities, there are many ways in which the two storylines deviate.

• Buffy has supernatural powers from the introduction of her character and struggles with a dual identity through the entire series. Her life is a constant struggle between fate, destiny and free will. Bella does not come into full realization of her supernatural abilities until near the end of the series. While her story does not deal with such ominous ideas like fate and destiny, hers is more of a story of love, romance and family.
• Buffy is never able to make her relationship with Angel work and while he will always be the love of her life, their relationship will never be fully realized. Bella and Edward at the end of the series find them selves in love, happy, with a daughter and an eternity laid out before them.
• Buffy on a nearly weekly basis finds herself in the midst of a battle in which the fate of the world rests in the balance. Bella may feel often times that the world is ending but in reality the scope of her actions does not extend too far outside of Forks.
• Buffy is a hero, with that comes struggle, resolve, failure and redemption. Bella is a teenager, relatable, fallible, and her character is developed intensely throughout the series.

In my mind, the verdict is simple, Twilight is not a remake, nor did Buffy The Vampire Slayer largely inspire it. While there may be some similarities in the details of the characters and plot elements that can easily be explained by the genre in which the stories where based. When you write stories about vampires in modern day times, when your lead is a teenage female, it should be expected that some of the same plot devices will be present in both. When analyzing the rites of passage and the inner workings of love in youth it is no wonder that the stories unfold in similar ways after all Buffy and Bella are both human.

The overarching storyline of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is that of a young woman who was destined by fate to be a hero. She struggles with the dual identity of being a normal girl who wants to fall in love and the Slayer who carries the responsibility of protecting the world from unimaginable evil. The Twilight series is a character study of a young teenager caught up in a star-crossed love affair. However, discounting either story because of its similarity to previous works sets a scary precedent for countless great works of fiction. Over and over again we see stories with storylines that closely mirror and are inspired by other works. Some of them have come to be milestones of popular culture. The Harry Potter series, the Inheritance series and even the Star Wars series are all rooted in literature that predates when it was written. It doesn’t negate the value or the entertainment inherent in those works. We are all inspired daily by things that we see, read, and hear. Our lives are the sum of our experiences and as writers take experiences and use them to inspire their work it is still valuable, still entertaining and still honest.

Why must there be a choice? Why must you be on Team Buffy or Team Twilight? I for one am a huge fan of both series. I think they are fantastic stories full of elaborate characters, and deal with issues that are far reaching beyond the superficial layer of entertainment, that should be what you take away from either series. That is what has generated fans on both sides that share one thing in common, passion.

The expanded universe, from time to time there is a series that is so beloved by the fans that it cannot be contained or confined to the screen. The series expands to include novels, web series, comic books, and all manner of other media. For me the most notable example is the Star Wars series which in addition to the six films has branched out to multiple TV series, both animated and the live action series set to come out in 2011. There is a large library of expanded universe novels which cover a wide timeline both preceding the films and taking place after the events of Return of The Jedi.

The Buffy expanded universe is made up of a few different elements. There is Buffy Season 8 which is a continuation of the series in comic book form and there is the novels that have been written that explore elements of the series timeline that occured while the series was airing on television. I must admit that I am not very familiar with the novels written in the Buffy universe. The bookstore that I frequent doesn’t typically have them on the shelves, so I can’t really speak to how good or bad those books are. I have read the comics, although I am not caught up through the current issues, and the comics are excellent.

I read an article on io9 the other day discussing expanded universes and which ones where unnecessary. There is a poll at the end of the article in which readers can vote on which expanded universe is for lack of a better term, most unnecessary. The options include: Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien vs. Predator, Battlestar Galacitca, Buffy, Stargate, Jericho, Lost, and Other. As of today when I checked the site again, Buffy is still leading this poll with 27% of the vote.

That led me to thinking, is the Buffy expanded universe unnecessary? I know what I think, but I am more interested in what you think. Here is the feedback I am looking for, either leave a comment on this post or email me at hellmouthpodcast@gmail.com

• Have you read the comics or novels?
• Are they good/bad/neutral?
• Do you think the Buffy Expanded Universe is unnecessary?
• Do you think the story should have ended with the events of the series finale or are you glad the story is being continued in comic form?

I would really love to hear your thoughts.

Being that this is Buffy’s premiere anniversary month, my last post was about my introduction to the show. So I decided to ask a few of my more Buffy dedicated/obsessed friends how they were first introduced to the Buffyverse. Scoobies, meet my friend Sarah:

“So my relationship with Buffy started a little something like this, as you may may recall. For years I mocked my friends for watching a stupid show about a vampire slayer. I love judging things without knowing anything about them and refuse to stop! Then I started dating this girl. She was super awesome, but I couldn’t call her on Tuesday nights. (That was the night that the show was originally broadcast) We moved in together, and she worked a hundred hours a week. Since she happened to own Buffy on DVD, I started to watch.

It was the best show ever. Now I spend my life trying to convince people that Buffy is totally awesome and that Joss is a genius.I also enjoy long walks on the beach,”

Sarah

I can personally testify to the gentle mocking Sarah gave to Buffy fans fellow Scoobies, as I was on the receiving end more than once. All in good fun of course.

Till next time fellow Scoobies! Cheers, Peg

Thirteen years ago this week I was siting down to watch the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was familiar with it’s strange title because I had rented it a few times. Not because of it’s cinematic brilliance, but because of Paul Rubens hysterically long death scene. Please, make your day better, and check it out on Youtube.
Now before the days of Youtube, I would gather friends around the television and pretty much force them to watch Paul’s death scene (Not the rest of the film though, friendship can only accomplish so much).
Now there was a television show! What might that be like? Right before the show started I asked my roommate if she wanted to watch. She gave me a look that questioned my sanity and ability to operate heavy machinery so I settled in to watch alone.
I loved it. Funny, well acted, and the writing was brilliant. By the end of the episode even those who had mocked had come around. My roommate who had been in the kitchen the entire time to avoid the show had been listening. I found this out near the end of the show when Xander’s character says,”The dead rose,there should at least have been an assembly!”, and I heard her break up laughing in the kitchen. Another convert made.

Happy Anniversary everyone!

I just had to pass a long this priceless gem that I found on www.whedonage.com. For those of you who don’t know, thirteen years ago this week, Buffy The Vampire Slayer premiered on television as a mid-season replacement show. Thus began the cult phenomenon that we are fans of today. The clip below is the premiere trailer that aired promoting the upcoming show. Watch it and reminisce… I think the trailer is actually really good, understanding I am extremely biased. Enjoy!!!

If you are in the Texas area, or you are a Nicholas Brendon fan willing to fly anywhere to catch a glimpse of his studly goodness, then you will be interested to know that he is going to be making an appearance at the Houston Comicpalooza happening March 26th – 28th.

http://www.comicpalooza.com/comicpalooza-guests.html#Current

If you are planning to be there to see Nicholas or for any other reason, send me an email and I can put you in touch with the organizer for the Buffy-fan meetup group in the Houston area, that way you will have a group to walk the ‘palooza floor with.

James Marsters has been making the rounds doing interviews to promote his current run on the new Sci-Fi TV series Caprica. In these interviews, the topic of Joss Whedon and his role as Spike which catapulted him to stardom is a frequently discussed.

Marsters has stated that he loves the role of Spike and would definitely be up for reprising the role however Joss Whedon sees fit but the clock is ticking. When the Buffy TV series was drawing to a close and there were rumors about spin-offs, movies, animated series and a multitude of other potential projects; Joss approached Marsters and asked him if he would be up for those projects. Marsters comment to Joss was “I’ll follow you to hell or heaven.” That still stands as far as Marsters is concerned but he is beginning to have concerns over reprising the role of Spike. His concern stems from the ability to stay true to the character. Spike is a vampire, an immortal being who doesn’t age and Marsters believes that while currently it may be possible with lighting and makeup to give the illusion that his character has not aged after having been off-screen for closing on a decade, that window may be closing. Marsters is getting older and his features are maturing, if the writing staff has to come up with bizarre scenarios in the plot to explain why Spike appears to have aged then maybe the return of his character isn’t such a good idea.

Marsters has always been both a cast member and a fan of the world that Joss created with Buffy The Vampire Slayer and I think he probably would love nothing more than to revisit that world. I have to give him a lot of credit for wanting to do it the right way and stay true and honest to that role and that world or just not do it at all.

You can catch James Marsters currently on Caprica which is a new series. I have only caught part of the pilot episode but what I have seen is very good. First impression is that while the effects are great and the sci-fi world it revolves around is elaborate, the show itself is about the characters and their development.

If any of you podcast listeners have seen or are fans of Caprica and would like to write a short review to be posted on the website, please let me know at hellmouthpodcast@gmail.com.

Coming Soon… Netflix will have Buffy The Vampire Slayer Seasons 1-6 available for streaming online through Netflix.

For all of you who do not own the series on DVD and don’t want to watch the series on MTV or LOGO and have to deal with commercials and/or want to blast through the series at your own pace.

If you are not already a Netflix member, I highly recommend it. I am a netflix subscriber and I really enjoy the multiple options Netflix provides. I get the normal DVD mail service, can watch movies and TV streaming on my Mac and since I have an Xbox 360, I can access Netflix Movies and TV through Netflix on Xbox Live. All of that for about $8 a month.

Just for full disclosure, this is not a paid endorsement by Netflix, I just really enjoy the Netflix services and think it is great that Buffy will now be available for online streaming.

From Bryan:

“Hello everyone, I am very excited to introduce one of the new crew members of the Hellmouth Podcast, Oaktree. Oaktree has been a frequent email contributor to the show and has answered the call to help keep the HMPC Blog updated with news, articles, etc. If any of you are interested in being a blog contributor please email me at hellmouthpodcast@gmail.com. All total I would like to have 2-3 additional blog contributors so that we can keep a constant stream of new articles and ideas everyday. Enough about the podcast, everyone say ‘hello’ to Oaktree and without further ado here is Oaktree’s first blog update…”

Why I Love Buffy the Vampire Slayer

1.The name itself. I’ve had to defend it’s honor against charges of stupidity with a defense so long, detailed and some might say mind numbing, that most walk away rubbing their foreheads mumbling under their breath. Read the rest of this entry »

Michelle Trachtenberg is making a little noise in internet news today. In a recent interview Trachtenberg was asked about whether or not she would sign on for a new Buffy movie. Trachtenberg said,”there was a Buffy movie, that’s what started it all. We had an amazing seven-year run, and at the end Buffy, the universe ended. There’s not really anywhere to go.”

While many fans are clamoring for some form of on-screen revival of the Buffy series and cast, there are a lot of obstacles and questions that would have to be answered before a project like that would have any viability.

Here are a few things to think about…

Would you want a Buffy movie if the TV cast was not involved?

Should the movie be a continuation of the series or independent?

Would you see a Buffy movie if Joss Whedon was not involved in the project?

Let me know what you think hellmouthpodcast@gmail.com