MovieChat Forums > Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) Discussion > Could somebody please explain because th...

Could somebody please explain because this has been driving me crazy!

posted 13 years ago by marcusman48
12 replies | jump to latest

And before I begin, please don't tell me "It's only a movie," because Joss Whedon wrote this and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be dumb enough to overlook this detail.

One thing about BUFFY that doesn't make a lot of sense to me is that the title character turns herself into basically a champion kickboxer after only - judging by the implied time frame of the movie - three months at the most. Prior to that, she, by her own admission, had had no combat experience.

I remember reading somewhere that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a "professional" at anything. Assuming you did literally NOTHING but eating, sleeping, and practicing at the skill you were trying to become a professional at (and I don't think there's been a single human being in history who has done that), if you were a high-school senior like Buffy was when you started, you'd be well into your college years before you reached that point. From what we saw of Buffy throughout the movie, I'd guess that, ideally, she would have had less than 1,000 hours to prepare for her battle with Lothos - and she didn't even make use of all that time, since we see her engaged in her usual activities in addition to her training.

So unless Merrick was able to transport Buffy into some kind of "time loop" like Bill Murray's character was in GROUNDHOG DAY, I have to think there was something obvious going on there that I just didn't pick up on. In any case, I'd love to hear all your theories.

[–] hula-minkee 13 years ago

10,000 hours is a bit of an arbitrary number. If I were already a man of large build, weightlifting at a professional level would be much easier to achieve than if I were 5'2" and 120lbs. This leads into my next thought. It has been a while since I've seen this movie, but wasn't Buffy a "chosen one" or something along those lines? Wasn't that the driving force behind Sutherland's character seeking her out and training her? That could explain her immediate expertise albeit in a slightly supernatural way. She was predisposed to the art of vampire killing by her nature. Only a small amount of training was needed to exploit her natural talents.

Also, monks. Monks of any sort do nothing but eat, sleep, and practice their 'craft'. The Shaolin Monks of China are a specific example to look at, although I'm sure there are others.

[–] manateexx 13 years ago

Vampires are by definition supernatural.

So is The Slayer. Since Buffy is The Slayer, she is destined to learn combat at a much quicker pace than others. Merrick would not be able to train some random female into being that good that quickly. Only The Slayer.

[–] NotFvckingTrevor 13 years ago

I know that people, myself included, do not consider this movie canon with the series. However, if you watch the series you will see that Buffy's training continues throughout. And watching the series you can tell that Buffy gets better. In the first episode she has a hard time against a regular vamp. 5 years later she takes on friggin hell god!!! I think it's clear from the series that Buffy's training continues. I think we can assume the same for the movie.

Gale Weathers-Riley: Clear.
Jill Roberts: Clear?
Sidney Prescott: Clear!

[–] marcusman48 13 years ago

Okay, but there are still two problems.

First, Lothos is NOT "a regular vamp." He was around for hundreds of years, and in all that time dozens of generations of Slayers failed to kill him. Buffy was not as well-disciplined as all those other women, partly because she was so inexperienced...and that leads to the second problem.

Merrick had told Buffy that she'd "missed years of training." Unless there are 10-year-old Slayers running around the Buffyverse, I doubt you'd be allowed to take on ANY vampire - let alone the "King of Vampires" - in your "freshman year." That "time-loop" theory of mine is starting to look plausible again...

[–] marcusman48 13 years ago

My "10,000 hours" theory, by the way, has been encountered by me in various (okay, two) places, but this is where I first came across it: http://www.cracked.com/article_18544_how-the-karate-kid-ruined-modern-world.html. It's a humorous condemnation of the skewed American work ethic that puts all of the blame squarely on every movie that ever featured a training montage set to music - which, by extension, includes BUFFY.

[–] trydeeze 13 years ago

Okay First, They answer your question in the movie. The fact that she is inexperienced is the reason she bested Lothos she didn't play by the same rules the other slayers played by... next she doesn't get to choose which vamp she gets to fight they just attack she defends. its not like Merrick said okay you go fight the vampire king now. and i don't think he was the biggest baddest vamp out there he was just the leader of that group of vamps. and Merrick had to let her fight him because she was the chosen one he tried to fight Lothos himself but that ended badly for him that was how he died

[–] marcusman48 13 years ago

But I'm not just talking about killing Lothos. I also was wondering about all the other stuff she's suddenly able to: judo-flip a young man, kill a fly with a "blowgun," and so forth. Simply "thinking outside the box" wouldn't enable you to do those things.

That's why the time-loop theory is still quite tempting to me. Everything we saw from that day in the locker room to "So when do I get to face this Lothos?" could have taken place on some metaphysical plane over the course of, say, five years. (In GROUNDHOG DAY, Bill Murray was in the time loop for about ten years, which is how he learned to play the piano so well by the end of the movie.) Because time moves at a much, much slower place when you're on a metaphysical plane, Buffy doesn't age and nobody notices she's gone (let's say that five years of the magical training equals five hours in our world). And maybe Buffy saw visions from her everyday life that made her feel as if she'd never left this world, but they weren't real.

It's far-fetched, I know. But Merrick obviously has some magic in him if he's been able to track Lothos across the centuries despite not being a vampire himself, and he and Buffy had to make up for all that lost time SOMEHOW.

[–] xxpestixx 13 years ago

The question was already answered but it seems you missed it. The vampire slayer is a person that is not a normal human. She has the strength of several men, increased speed, stamina, and most importantly quick regeneration. She is not training but more like unlocking what she already knows. She trains to get in touch with already given skills. Also like already answered the reason she can beat more powerful vampires is she is unconventional and doesn't follow the normal rules of the slayer. This storyline is continued on the tv series and is explained better. The time loop stuff is always possible but there is no need to take it to that point. Buffy would be able to do everything without any training if provoked.

[–] iannmichael 13 years ago

Making her a cheerleader was a way to have Buffy training herself without really knowing it.

[–] [email protected] 13 years ago

But I'm not just talking about killing Lothos. I also was wondering about all the other stuff she's suddenly able to: judo-flip a young man, kill a fly with a "blowgun," and so forth. Simply "thinking outside the box" wouldn't enable you to do those things.

So how much training does Superman need to "judo-flip a young man" and so on?

The Slayer has superpowers. Deal with it.

[–] cathy-creswell 10 years ago

^^^THIS^^^^

[–] Strazdamonas 13 years ago

The scene where the mentor throws the knife at her and she instnatly catches it suggests that she has all the fighting abilities already, just dont know how to use it. you dont take years to remember how to ride a bycicle.

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