h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, excuse me as I may go into a little bit of a rant here. So many times I come across a question in Buffy quizzes, every time I answer the same question, the same way and every time I'm told I'm wrong. Not a problem, except I know I'm right.

So what's the question? Before I start a discussion on this I'll ask it to you guys and see your response.

How many times has Buffy died?

Xander

Is this a trick question? Twice, right?

If you were doing many of the Buffy online quizzes, that answer would be marked as correct. I can only assume that this is because she sings about dieing twice in OMWF, referencing 'Prophecy Girl' and 'The Gift'.

So I ask, what about 'Villains'? Just before Willow removed the bullet from Buffy, you quite clearly hear the heart monitor go flatline and even if it is only for a few seconds, Buffy is dead.

Xander

I've seen some quizzes where they count the following as well:

1) Nightmares, s.1 - she dies (Giles' nightmare) and becomes a vampire (her nightmare).

2) The Wish, s.3 - she is killed by the Master in the alternate reality.

3) Hells Bells, s.6 - in Xander's 'visions' of his future, Buffy has died.

I'm not sure if they count - especially the last two, since they took place only in visions or separate realities, but it seems some quizzes take the view any death shown or implied on-screen counts, which I guess is a valid enough point of view, for the purposes of the quiz only, that is.

I would answer four times to that question. She died in Prophecy Girl, that is undisputed. She also died in The Gift, again no dispute there.

The third event is in The Wish, for although it was an alternative reality it was a reality and not a dream.

The fourth was when she was shot. She was shown to be dead and Willow resurrected her [pretty nifty, huh!]

The other occasions were dreams and not realities so they cannot count.

Even though I would agree with The Wish being a legitemate arguement. I would have to say that it's problomatic at best, yes she did die, but it wasn't our Buffy. One thing that this has proven is that all those quizzes I've done are indeed wrong.

xander

My answer would be 5.

Obviously Prophecy Girl and The Gift are two.

I would, as DrFerris, count The Wish, and Villains.

But I would also count Nightmares - while supernaturally induced and subsequently reversed, she was for a time dead in 'a' reality.

I would, however, not count Hells Bells, for the same reasons as DrFerris.

Okay, so what we got here. Well, a whole lot more than what I expected.

Nightmares can't really be counted as they were stuck inside Billy's nightmare and everything changed back to normal, but then again you could argue that that would be the exact same arguement to discount The Wish, except this time they were stuck in an alternate universe. So do we count either. For the sake of this question (Which I admit I should have worded a little better), I would have to discount both. My reason is that, had Buffy been consider actually dead in Nightmares, then a new Slayer would have been called, we know that Kendra wasn't called until Buffy died at the hands of The Master.

So, my answer remains 3 (As Hells Bells was a dream)!
Prophecy Girl
The Gift
Villains

Xander

But if we start along those lines, you can also argue that she NEVER died. Normal Again suggests that the entire Buffyverse is just a figment of Miss Summers' tragic mental affliction. If that reality is the 'true' one, Buffy didn't die; she would be withering away in the sanitized wards of some institution...

If we follow the Slayer replacement argument then if Buffy died in Villains then a slayer would have been called then. Presumably one of the new potentials. Even in an alternative reality it was still Buffy and we are not asked how many times reality one Buffy died but how many times Buffy died. We can exclude dreams, but in the wish Anyanka created a reality which could only be reversed by destroying her amulet. Therefore during that time reality one did not exist so it was the only Buffy in existence who was killed.

>>If we follow the Slayer replacement argument then if Buffy died in Villains then a slayer would have been called then<<

Okay, lets look at this point! We know that when one Slayer dies another is called, When Buffy died in 'Prophecy Girl', Kendra was called, and when Kendra died, Faith was called, but then when Buffy died in 'The Gift' no other Slayer was called (As far as we are aware). This means that as of her death in 'Prophecy Girl' Buffy stopped being the 'Chosen one', that falls firmly in Faith's lap (As do many other things, lol).

Yes, Anyanka did create an alternative reality, but so did Billy, and if that was the case then the new Slayer would have been called after 'Nightmares'.

Sorry if I'm a bit short tonight, but been a rough day.

Xander

OK... So we come to Villains...Did Buffy die in that episode? The answer would have to be no if we are relying on Willow to resurrect her.
Tara was shot and Willow called on Osiris to resurrect her. Osiris refused because her death was from human causes.. The same argument would have to apply to Buffy. She was shot by human bullets therefore Willow could not have resurrected her. Ergo... she could not have died.