10 years later and not much has changed. We had Buffy the ultimate hero, the female warrior, the savior, but today what do we have? Half-assed female characters who will choose love over power any day. It's important to remember that Buffy changed it all, but what exactly did she change? The radical notion that there could be a female hero, one who was independent, one who saved the world (a lot). I wonder, do people every stop and realize that Buffy was no the most powerful character, did they stop and think that Willow was actually the hero, in the end at least. Willow, the nerdy Jewish bisexual, who had everything to lose and did lose everything. Does it matter who the hero was? Do we care? Of course we care, because the show was called Buffy not Willow and that means a lot.
Where does the criticism end? Shouldn't we be happy with the fact that this show had a rang of pure entertainment, emotion, fantasy, and true humanity. Or will we forever be stuck with it's lack of diversity, lack of redemption, lack of closure(?) What does it mean to have a character that changes the world? It means that there must be someone whose eyes water every time they think of that character, it means that there must be people who aspire/thrive/want/need/crave that character crave every second of screen time they have. It means that Buffy changed lives, this character changed the world.
Where are we now? Frankly it doesn't matter, what matters is that someday we will stop using the phrase strong female character and say simply strong character because Buffy paved the way. Buffy made female heroes matter.
