Two different mythologies. Two different methods. Same goal: the eradication of vampires.
And yet… and yet… Blade seems to do a much better job of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d (still, despite this season’s goings-on) love to watch Buffy and the Scoobites kick butt all day long, more than I’d like to watch Blade do so. But in light of the cool approach that Blade and Blade II took towards vampire-bashing, Buffy’s approach looks positively medieval.
I understand that some of the limitations are necessary in order to maintain the series. No guns, I assume, is to keep it from becoming too graphically violent, and thus ending up in a later time slot.
But… it seems to me that the Slayer, in insisting on hand-to-hand combat only, possibly augmented by crossbows, is neglecting her duties. There are so many resources that she and the Scoobies could be drawing on, that they persistently ignore. And now that her own personal life has fallen into a shambles, I’d love to see her simply get serious about going out and wasting vast numbers of undead.
Suggestions:
[ul]
[li]Have the Scoobs learn martial arts.[/li][li]Get some serious weponry; shotguns firing stakes, holy water pistols, multishot pencil guns…[/li][li]Hire help. There are mercenaries that would pay for the opportunity to inflict mayhem without consequences.[/li][li]Artificial sunlight[/li][/ul]
And she should get on the horn to the Watchers’ Council and tell them that if they want an effective Slayer, they’d better damned well cough up some cash. How much sense does it make to have your one-and-only Slayer in the whole wide world spending eight valuable vampire-killing hours a day in the Double Meat Palace?
And if that doesn’t work, surely there are some rich demons out there.
Seriously, these conventions were easy to deal with as long as Buffy had real obligations elsewhere in her life; her family, getting through school, some goal other than being the Slayer. But now that all that has been cast aside, the plot conventions are getting to be grating. She’s been freed up to do her job, and she’s not even doing it well.
Seeing Blade II this weekend, with him as a finely-honed fighting machine, in charge of a vampire-hunting operation, made me realize just what Buffy could turn herself into, given time.
So, would it ruin the show to do so?