Would Buffy quit?
I don't know.
Buffy had been fighting for seven long years. In that time she had seen
friends die, she had been betrayed, she had been viciously beaten, drained of
blood, stabbed in the back, both physically and metaphorically, and she has
become a mother. As much as I hated the last two seasons of the show the fact
of the matter is that she awoke an army of Slayers. She is no longer the
Chosen One, she is now one of many. The fate of the world no longer rests upon
her thin shoulders; she no longer has to go out night after night to fight for
the lives of her friends and family.
Would Buffy quit? Or retire? Or just throw up her hands and say "I've had
enough?"
It is possible. After seven years of constantly being at war, of constantly
being alone in the fight, of constantly wondering if this was the day that she
died, it would stand to reason that she would be tired. That she would want to
walk away from the pain, the danger, the uncertainly of never being able to
trust that tomorrow would come. I also think the weight of motherhood would be
a factor in any choice she made. Whether we like or not, Buffy is now Dawn's
mother, and she is responsible for her. Before Buffy had to weigh the familiar
bond with the fact that if she didn't do her duty the world could end. Now she
doesn't have that burden ? she has an army of new Slayers to take over for
her.
So again, I think it's possible that she would quit.
The real question in my mind is 'could' she quit? Would the forces
of evil let her retire to a nice villa in Rome? She is the Prime Slayer. She
is a symbol to all the other Slayers, to all the dark forces against the
world, would they just leave her alone because she retired?
I'd like to hear people's opinions? On or off list which ever is
legal.