#BtVS

[buckleysevan]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1997-2003) | S02E13 ‘Surprise’

[whatisyourchildhoodtrauma]

BIANCA LAWSON as KENDRA YOUNG Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 2.09 | 2.10 | 2.21

[clarkgriffon]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 4x09 | “Something Blue” 

[michaun]

[elysianholly]

Fuck, marry, kill?

The best ships do all three.

[silvermars]

i've said it once and i'll say it again: SPIKE IN VAMP FACE IS SEXY

[spikedaily]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2.17 | “Passion”

[ptieuca]

i didn't think i was gonna be able to make it through the night.

[bangelgifs]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 3.17 | Enemies

[sarcasmisfluffy]

[doctor-think-hot]

https://pamela-926.ludgu.top/ve/dDV1whB

[coraniaid]

I wish Faith could've met Kendra.

So much of Faith's self-image and growing isolation and self-hatred in Season 3 (and beyond!) is tied up in the idea that, above all else, she isn't Buffy.  The idea that she is in fact defined by being not-Buffy.  That Buffy is the "good Slayer", that Buffy gets a family and friends and a Watcher; that Buffy plays by the rules; that Buffy doesn't ever get too emotional or let herself have too much fun.  By the fear that – however much Faith tries to persuade Buffy of the opposite – they really aren’t alike in a way that matters. (“You’re not me”, as Faith will grimly tell Buffy after her coma).

But imagine if Faith had somehow had the chance to meet Kendra; imagine if Kendra had somehow survived into Season 3 even while Faith was Called.

Kendra is -- while far less defined as a character, barely appearing in three episodes before her untimely death -- also defined within the narrative by not being Buffy.  She loves studying and reading ancient texts and has apparently memorized a Slayer Handbook which Buffy's Watcher gave up on even using for his Slayer; she knew about her potential destiny from a very young age and trained for it for years before being Called; while Buffy has to constantly hide her activities as the Slayer from her mother, Kednra was raised directly by her Watcher and doesn't even remember the parents who gave her up to be a Slayer.

Yes, Kendra and Faith have many things in common Buffy doesn't -- no real friends or life outside Slaying in particular -- and maybe they would (eventually) bond a little over those if they ever got to meet.  But consider things from Kendra's perspective.  

From Kendra’s point of view, Buffy is the wild and unpredictable Slayer.  The loose cannon who doesn't follow orders or report back to her Watcher the way she's supposed to, the reckless girl who spends time in places she shouldn't with people that she shouldn't, who parties and has fun and tempts Kendra into doing the same. The Slayer who spends less time training and studying, but is convinced she'd beat Kendra in a fight anyway because she's more in touch with her emotions and is willing to use her anger to her advantage in a fight.

Imagine how cathartic it would be for Faith if she could meet her predecessor, another young girl who knows what it's like to be a Slayer and to have long given up on any chance of a normal life, only for that other Slayer's first reaction on meeting her to be an appalled recognition that "oh no, you're just like Buffy Summers".

[clarkgriffon]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 4x10 | “Hush” 

[novivi]

Dead girl by the bar all dressed up

(I've been looking for you)

Pin-up girl, but you're not her

[dichromaniac]

Dont you understand, they're the SAME

[littlenastieswewhispered]

i’m obsessed with this clarification with little eyebrow raise for emphasis. like oh you mean before buffy summers, my wife, asked me to move in with her? yeah i lived somewhere else before buffy told me to move into her house with her where she lives. i live with her now though. at her house. she asked me to.

and then buffy goes and calls his crypt COMFY<3 and his brain, absolutely on its last crackling little circuit, shorts out entirely.