Buffy-Death

[madimpossibledreamer]

feeling inspired by the fact that it was tarot day or something recently and also i've been writing a lot of persona again.

Someone mentioned somewhere, I forget where, that they really want a Persona-style Buffyverse game.  I probably bookmarked it and it’s somewhere, but my bookmarks list is ridiculously long, so I may or may not find it before posting.  If not, sorry?  If you know, lemme know.  Found it: https://www.reddit.com/r/buffy/comments/c0z22c/i_have_an_idea_for_a_buffy_video_game_that_i/. No idea if they’d end up actually having Personas, but because I’m in the mood to mess around with Persona stuff again, I’d like to get into that (and no Persona 5 spoilers, as I haven’t played the game yet).

 

First of all, as you might’ve noticed from several of my other Persona AUs, I really like the Arcana system from 1 and 2—that is, everyone gets a few Arcana they’re really good at, a few they’re terrible at, and then others in between, and can swap between.  That being said, I really miss having the Compendium when I’ve been playing 2, so.  They’d probably still have that, particularly if Personas are still a mechanic.  (If not, the card-stuff would be more like equipment you can change for bonuses in specific situations, but you’d have to choose a few your party members can swap between at any time.)

Second, along those lines, no Wild Card main character.  Buffy’s not too much of a Fool, and there’s a bigger symbolic reason for this.

I was thinking about it, and having a Wild Card Ur So Speshal protag is very masculine.  Feminist and lgbtq+ stuff focuses more on teamwork and equality (which yes, they changed at the end of BtVS, but it definitely wasn’t the focus for most of the show), and I generally like ensemble works more anyway, so Buffy’s not going to be a Wild Card.  (It makes sense that the Hashino-run games had the Wild Card, because, uh…his writing isn’t particularly feminist.  Or lgbtq+ friendly, or…)

I considered doing what I’ve done for some other Persona-related stuff and using several different personality quizzes to find Major Arcana, Secondary Arcana, and all of that, but decided it’d be cheating, and this required a little more thought.  To make it easier on myself, though, I’m using the specifically Persona interpretations of the cards.

I thought about this for a bit, and I’ve decided that Buffy’s Major Arcana is Death.  This isn’t just because of the “Death is your art” quote from Spike (and I only just realized checking back on the Sunnydale Herald that oh yeah they chose the Persona series Death Tarot card for their banner…that is also unintentional).

The original card wasn’t named.  It was just a reaper thing with a scythe.  Which is important late-on to the Slayer line (and, like, it’s very telling how afraid of a Slayer actually coming to understand her power that the Watchers probably also knew that it existed but were like ‘let’s not actually equip our Slayers, replacing them often is a better option given they’re still under warranty’ because they’re assholes).

And Buffy is good at killing monsters.  That is a thing that should be acknowledged.  So face-value of the card’s meaning is relevant here.  Also, the fact that she’s died twice (though maybe not before the start of the game, depending on when it’s set).

And spending time in all those cemeteries, fighting vampires and other undead, and being dead/being hurt/getting close to death thematically ties her to death.

There’s also the Slayer Dreams (which…were those only in early seasons??) and prophecies—often foreboding and doom-filled.

But to go further, there’s also the deeper meaning.  If you’ve looked into tarot at all you’ve probably heard the “oh death isn’t actually that ominous of a card it just means change” explanation before.  And it’s here that Buffy really starts to shine.

A lot of it is subtle storytelling, but Buffy changes a lot over the course of the story.  Some of it is learning to accept that she enjoys her job, of course, but it doesn’t stop there.  One of her biggest strengths is her adaptability.  She might like playing up the Valley Girl stereotype, but she’s really good at taking in new information (like how to fight specific demons, or her surroundings) and using it to her advantage without breaking a stride.  I’ve joked about her having Kiryu or Majima’s ability to watch a fighting style and instantly master it, but it’s not far off the mark, from what I remember from some of the early scenes of her training with Giles. 

It’s a good thing she can land on her feet most of the time, too, because the life she lives is nothing but change, from adapting to the latest monster of the week to trying to deal with whatever BS Snyder, or the school in general, or her mom, or the police, or the Watcher’s Council, or tests, new stuff with her friends, romantic interests…and she doesn’t have much of a stable foundation, so she has to roll with life’s punches (or occasional sundaes, because hey, no matter how scary that looming skull on that card is, change isn’t always bad).

If we’re talking really, really literally about this more metaphorical meaning portion, there’s regeneration.  Slayer regeneration.  Duh.  (Which, hang on…is that also mental?  Are Slayers more mentally resilient and able to bounce back from trauma?  Probably not, given the amount of angst in the show, but this is an interesting idea.)

The rebirth of the Slayer is a cycle, too—one dies, and another one is Called.  Which is also a Death thing, and probably means that if you have any other Slayers in game, while they might have other Main Arcana, one of the high affinity Arcana they have has gotta be Death.

Death is also the transition between the “small mysteries” and “great mysteries”, which emphasizes her importance as protag in a very meta way.

Gameplay-wise, this could have a couple important effects, depending on how the game is designed.

If Personas are present, this makes her ridiculously OP early-game, because Death Arcana Personas usually have Mudo, and even low-chance single-target instakill Dark-based skills are useful and rare early-game.  And early-game, most enemies don’t tend to have Hama (light) instakills, which most Personas of that type would be weak to.  Middle game, she should probably be able to learn how to at least remove that weakness or be able to carry around a lot of instakill-blocking items or have instakill-blocking equipment (like her cross necklace, maybe?).

If Personas aren’t present, just equipped Arcana, this could still give her darkness-related instakills, a resistance to darkness attacks (which is why fight the vampires yo, natural resistance!), etc.

And then there’s the save/load mechanic.  Given that Buffy’s got the Death Arcana, there’s the possibility that we could do a not-tragic Life is Strange thing here and have her be able to actually save and reload on her own, even when dead, which in a weird way might make her the only protag who can die and continue the game in an SMT-related game.  (But also kinda not??  I don’t know, I think it’s a cool idea, but also not related to canon in any way especially as you’d probably have to acknowledge that happening in game.)