Friday 7 April 2017

F is for Faith

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm stitching the Buffy The Vampire Slayer alphabet cross stitch pattern (available from my Etsy store).  Each day I will share that letter's stitching, as well as a bit about the relevant character.




F is for Faith

Faith is a Vampire Slayer.  The rules say you can only have one Vampire Slayer at a time – hence why they are called “the” vampire slayer.  When Buffy died at the end of season 1, Kendra, a teenager from Jamaica, was activated, resulting in the (until then) unique situation of having two Vampire Slayers at the same time.  Kendra was killed by the vampire Drusilla at the end of season 2, resulting in the activation of Faith.  Faith was living in Boston at the time, however when her Watcher was killed Faith moved to Sunnydale to find and fight alongside Buffy.

Faith was our example of what happens when a Slayer goes bad.  Already a little unstable and rebellious, Faith accidently killes an innocent human which sends her down a dark path of power and destruction.  Faith joined forces with the Mayor of Sunnydale (the “big bad” of season 3) before a fight with Buffy puts her in a coma.  Coming out of her coma, Faith goes on the run to Los Angeles where events on Angel lead her to realise she needs to face the consequences of her actions.  Faith surrenders herself to the LAPD and winds up in jail.  Faith ultimately returns in Season 7 to help Buffy protect the “potential slayers” and fight the First Evil.  Sunnydale gets destroyed and Faith joins Buffy on the yellow bus riding off into the sunset.

Faith was probably my favourite returning character.  She was the first new character to team up with Scoobies in the show and really mixed everything up.  She was the polar opposite to Buffy in every aspect (including hair colour). Where Buffy always tried to do the right thing, Faith did whatever she wanted.  She went "to the bad", and eventually redeemed herself.  I was really happy when they brought Faith back in season 7.  She'd been allowed to grow and develop as a character.  Although she was no longer Buffy's polar opposite, she was a strong voice and could stand up to Buffy when the others couldn't - Buffy couldn't just say "this is how it is, I'm the Slayer" because Faith could turn around and say "well I'm a Slayer too, so go jump."  Or words to that effect.

All of which leads me to wonder: was another Slayer activated when Buffy died the second time?  It's never addressed.  Any thoughts?


Happy stitching!

13 comments:

  1. I always wondered about another slayer being activated when Buffy died the second time too. Eliza Dushku had an incredible character arc with Faith, and she did an incredible job of bringing such a complex character to life.

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  2. I didn't watch much Buffy... and when I did I seem to remember someone had to keep explaining to me what was going on ....some of the names are familiar though

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  3. Ah, Faith - I so wanted her to be someone I could like and root for, and then she'd do something I could NOT accept, and here we'd go again. But she did finally come around at the end. What a complex character! I never thought about another Slayer when Buffy died at the end of S5 - wow, we could be spawning Slayers all over the place! It totally makes sense that this would have happened, though. If all it took was a couple of minutes of not breathing to trigger Kendra, then Buffy being dead and buried for so long surely should have done that.

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    1. Yes, I really liked her when she came back in season 7 - finally as someone who could really stand up to Buffy and get the others on her side if need be

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  4. Rats, I never thought of that! Maybe the producers had something in mind and decided that having Buffy and Faith was enough. Anyway, we managed without. Faith was a good character, I agree!

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    1. :) Glad to give you something new to think about!

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  5. At one point after she comes back the second time, she asked Giles why she was back, and said something like "someone would've been activated" which I always took to mean that no one had been yet before Willow brought her back.

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    1. Ahhh I'll have to go back and re-watch those episodes and see if I can find that moment. I'm intrigued :)

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  6. It was Dawn. :P Dawn was right all along, she really was a Slayer, but no one took her seriously when she said it. I mean, come on, she was created from Buffy's blood, so she already has Slayer blood, who better to take up the mantle after Buffy's gone? :D

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