Villain By Buffy And Giles example essay topic

Standard storyteller formula dictates that in order for there to be a hero, or heroine, a villain must exist. In fact, "if villainy hadn't existed it would have been necessary for the creators of the world's literature to invent it. In most stories villains provide the plot and make virtue interesting" (Mortimer vii). Why? Because, while we like to see the hero succeed at defeating all odds and saving the day, we absolutely love to hate the villain because he is what makes the hero and his victory so powerful.

"The word 'villain' has many meanings, from the condemnation of the most serious offender to a term of endearment... The police call anyone with a criminal record a villain, so the word can be applied to the steadiest and most skilled of safe-blowers, the sort of man who votes Conservative, organizes seaside trips for deprived children, and wouldn't hurt a fly" (ix). It can also be applied, and in this case, will be applied, to the supernatural creatures that would suck away the blood of your children in the dead of the night. From Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula (1897) to the popular television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1995), these villains, these vampires, even though they are (hopefully) fictional, epitomize the innate evilness that an audience loves to hate in a villain. Now this would be perfectly fine and dandy if only the anemic fiends that we hate so much in Buffy were not portrayed as being undeniably British and broadcasted into our homes on a weekly basis, only to be murdered at the end of a climactic episode by a beautiful American woman known as the slayer (Goldman 1). Excuses could be made for this, of course.

Dracula, one of the first great vampire novels and arguably the most popular, used London as a backdrop for its story. Dracula, in fact, lures an Englishman out of London and keeps him prisoner for months on end in order for him to help relocate Dracula to the captivating city in England (Stoker 9). Therefore, it could be said that the Buffy writers are only relating their story back to the history of the vampire, and that history involves London. Sure... that makes sense.

However, Dracula was not portrayed as an Englishman. He was, in fact, the foreign Translyvanian Count invading the quaint city of London with his nightly seduction of young women. He never had an English accent of any sort, so where did all of the Buffy bad guys get theirs? Indeed, not all of the vampires on Buffy are British. In fact, most of the vampires on the show do not even speak; they show up to be slayed in a fancy manner and are turned to dust before our enchanted eyes. Therefore, it is not possible to know if these villains are British or not.

But the main villains that actually survive more than five minutes and become recurring characters are more often than not British. Running for five years now, the show usually has one or two of these main villains per season to act as the heroine's (Buffy) dastardly opponent, who must be defeated by the season's end. Keeping in mind that there has been only five seasons, one of which is not yet over, four of the main villains have been British, and from London, and two more of the main characters, though not quite villains (not vampires), have villainous or pansy sides that other "good" characters do not have. Those characters are also from London. Furthermore, the great Count Dracula himself actually showed up at one point in the series, all the way from London (or so the storyline of Buffy indicates).

Hence, there have been seven different characters associated with London (most likely because it is the most cosmopolitan area in the UK), in a show that rarely has even minority group representation to show for diversity. "Of course there are plenty of American bad guys in American films [and television], but to achieve special malevolence they need the Queen's English, a certain fastidiousness, and a face that does not welcome intimacy" and the aforementioned four main villains that have, at some point in time, inhabited the fictional town of Sunnydale, California have all of the qualifications. They are known as Spike AKA William the Bloody, Drusilla, the Watcher's Council and Ethan Rayne. Spike is the epitome of cool; bleach blonde hair, beautiful cheekbones, piercing dark eyes and a plenitude of leather threads, black nail polish and attitude. He is the very picture of the British mod that popular 1980's British designer, Vivian Westwood, was famous for. His cocky and arrogant speech is unmistakably British, although he was raised in a New York Borough, and when he merely utters an oath, he seduces the audience with extreme ease.

However, Spike, for all of his sexiness, is only this way because he became a villain. In fact, Spike only received the nickname of 'William the Bloody' because he was known as a pansy that was bloody awful at writing poetry when he lived in London in 1880. He was rejected by women constantly, and it was only when he was sired by Drusilla and made into a vampire that he became the ultra sexy villain that now appears on the show. As a villain, he gets a girlfriend (Drusilla), he gets admiration, and he gets to come to America. Drusilla is the only female Brit amongst the group. Long dark hair, large dark eyes that have a tendency to stare up into the stars and a crazed grin.

That's right, crazed. Drusilla is a whack o. Her dolls speak to her, the stars sing to her, she has a strange habit of sniffing people like a dog and speaks, not only with a British accent, but also in riddles that never seem to make sense to anyone but her. Drusilla's insanity could be attributed to the fact that the same day that she took her Holy Orders to become a nun, she was sired as an evil vampire because of her gift of sight. Or she could have just been born crazy. It is impossible to tell with the character of Drusilla.

However, she is a very efficient villain for she grabs your attention and a beautiful boyfriend (Spike), with such great style, that she is fun to watch. After all, we love to hate them, "but there also has to be something about the heavy that we admire: the performance if not the morality, the style if not the substance (Porter 3). Now, up to this point, the villains that have been discussed have been of the bloodsucking variety. However, the representations of London villainy in Buffy also include living, breathing human beings who have no supernatural reason for their inhumane deeds.

It has already been established that "what makes a first-class... villain usually depends on the actor's ability to make us hate him (or her), to convince the audience of their character's malevolence and ill will", but it is much easier for characters like the vampires, who we, the audience, naturally assume are evil, to pull it off than it is for the actors portraying human villains like the Watcher's Council (Porter 3). The actors who portray the Watcher's Council do a pretty good job of it. They are snotty, arrogant, violent, unemotional, and cruel. They are also stationed in London, where they stay until once in a while the sweep down on Sunnydale like a pack of vultures to put poor Buffy through some kind of trail or test in which she ends up bloody and almost dead. The Watcher's Council duty is to make sure that Buffy is safe and to help her with the monetary issues of slaying. They are also supposed to train her to take care of herself.

None of this has actually taken place. Instead they kidnap her mother, lock her up in dark rooms and unleash crazed vampires on her after they have taken away her weapons. Once this is done, they smirk and get on their planes back to London, all the while chastising Giles (Buffy's watcher who stays to look after her while the rest of the council is in London) for acting too protective, paternal or downright nice to the slayer. Though not murderers, these villains sure have the part about where we love to hate them perfected. In relation to the Watcher's Council, the next villain has more than one thing in common with them, but most importantly, he is human. However, if "the 'baddies' are... the treacherous, cowardly, evil, sadistic Brits", then Ethan Rayne is one of the best (Roberts 1).

His character is reminiscent of a sly rat that will boldly chew holes into your wall only to scurry away from sight when the lights come on. A fifty-something year old warlock with a penchant for experimenting his spells to the detriment of others' lives, Ethan would sell his soul if he thought he could get something for it. His connection to the show is Rupert Giles, Buffy's Watcher, also known as Giles. He too, is from London, but he has long since been in America so his accent is slightly less noticeable.

Giles is friendly, smart, paternal, caring, and often saves Buffy's life. But, when Ethan Rayne is in town, Giles seems to lose all reason. He gains an alter ego known as Ripper, or should I say, he reverts back to his evil London ways and goes back to acting as he did when he ran in a gang with Ethan Rayne so long ago. Ripper (Giles when he was in London and Giles whenever Ethan Rayne is in town), is mean, he smokes when poor Rupert Giles never so much as looked at a fag and he practically molests Buffy's mother. His accent also gets very thick and he runs around starting fights, vandalizing stores, assaulting policemen, and drinking.

Apparently, his English past, when not carefully restrained, brings out the villain in him. Not just behavioral-wise either. Giles has twice been literally turned into a demon by Ethan Rayne. Strange coincidence?

I think not, especially when the character of Wesley Wyndham Pryce is introduced. Wesley Wyndham Pryce has a properly British name and a properly British accent and a properly British tweed suit just like Giles'. Wesley's character appeared in season three when Giles was fired from the Watcher's Council for being Buffy's friend and for caring so much. They decided to send a more aloof and 'proper' Englishman from London to control Buffy.

Unfortunately, Wesley is depicted as a bumbling buffoon and coward that will run at the mere sign on danger. He is ridiculed by Buffy and seen as a villain by Buffy and Giles and anyone else who is a main character on the show because they see him as a usurper of Giles' position. He supposedly portrays a 'real' Englishman, but is a stuttering idiot really how a Britons wants to be seen? There may be some relationship between the character of Count Dracula, London and the vampires and non-vampires on Buffy, but there could also be some type of racism involved.

For example, out of the three Black characters who were lucky enough to appear on the show in the five years it has been broadcast, every single one of them had been depicted as a villain at some point. All three were also killed off. Buffy is an American show, and the same Americans who, as of only about 40 years ago, outlawed segregation and finally took it upon themselves to make an effort to see Blacks as equals, make it. It is clear in this scenario that there is still some results of that sort of history lingering in the television industry and it is a controversial issue there.

Comparatively, it seems, the British are being put into the same fold as the villain or comic relief that the Black character on Buffy or other American television shows is put into, though the accent acts as a marking difference instead of skin color. "British actors love it; they know that the bad guys often have the best parts but is there something more important and sinister going on here than just boosting job opportunities of such British career "baddies" as Tim Curry, Brian Cox, Richard E. Grant and Jonathan Pryce?" (Roberts 1) Of course there is. Not only are Americans, and other countries around the world that Buffy is broadcast to, watching, but so are the British. "As educational standards decline, British schoolchildren learn a greater and greater proportion of history from movies [and television]" (3). As a result, these British children, and people all over the world, are unconsciously learning from programs like Buffy that the British are evil.

Fifty years ago, George Orwell wrote: "England is the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality". In a few years' time, if these films [and television programs] continue to be made, it will not just be intellectuals but ordinary Britons who will have been conned into feeling entirely unwarranted shame about their country's past (3). Unfortunately, the British viewers of Buffy may, in all actuality, like the characters of the British villain more than any other place, including America. It is in London that posters of Spike are continuously sold out in every Virgin Megastore and chocolate bars of his likeness for sale in corner liquor stores, proving that these villainous and cowardly representations of London are not being recognized as negative at all. "The English are very convenient villains because, while they are plainly other than American, their stereotypical playing of "baddies" does not offend the sensibilities of any U.S. minority group" (Porter 1). Therefore, the Americans will most likely never realize, or admit to, this overt racism towards the British unless the fans of the show in the UK realize it themselves instead of buying a 'Spike' chocolate bar.

Winston Churchill said of the English, "We do not covet anything from any other nation except their respect", at a time when they imagined that they were pretty much respected all over the globe. Things are a little different now, and quite suddenly it seems Englishman- and I mean men- are being portrayed in the cinema as the world's [not quite natural] born killers (Porter 1). The British actors are definitely getting more work, or at least those who can pull off a good British accent like James Marsters, who plays Spike, are. But at what price does the increase in employment come?

There is a deep affection and rejection of these Britons taking place simultaneously in the American television industry. The audience, in this case, Americans, love to hate the British and it's because of what is on the television. As a result, and as previously stated, the British themselves will start to believe the lies that these representations tell. "When an actor [has] achieved stardom playing villains, he [has] usually switched over to hero" (Porter 5).

This is equivalent to a person witnessing a hate crime and because it is not happening to them, continue along as if it is not happening. "In [Britain] and in America, incitement to racial hatred is illegal, but that does not seem to apply to [programs] biased against the British" (Goldman 2). Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a single prime time show, has seven different characters on it that depict the British in a bad light. The British are evil, immoral, insane, cowardly, unemotional, tweed and leather wearing freaks in the town of Sunnydale, California and possibly in the minds of the bigwigs of Hollywood, where the "Brits are always welcome, for five minutes, because they talk funny, are a little weird, make great butlers and proper villains. But the fact is that hardly anyone in the States takes Britain seriously.

They barely know where it is" (Greer 2).

Bibliography

Arar, Yard ena. "Entertaining thoughts in a world of heroes, Appealing villains win". 16 June 1991.
Goldman, Steve. "Best of British Villainy". The Times (London). c. 1991, see C 1-3 Greer, Bonnie.
You sink or swim". Guardian Unlimited. 9 Sept. 2000, see Comment.
Mortimer, John. The Oxford Book of Villains. London: BCA & Oxford University Press, 1992.
Porter, Henry. "British charm attracts the good bad-guy roles". London Observer. 28 June 1995.
Roberts, Andrew. "Hollywood's racist lies about Britain and the British". Daily Express. 14 June 2000, see Features.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Ireland: Brandon, 1897.