Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, traces the inspiration for this series to the cliché of the blonde female victim in horror movies. Whedon explicitly changes her role from object to subject. In granting the prior victim full personhood, Whedon also implicitly regrounds the spectator’s experience in emotional identification rather than in erotic gratification. Supporting characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer with morally dubious (or even morally repugnant) pasts like Anya the vengeance demon and Spike the mass-murdering vampire reflect the horror film spectator who takes pleasure in the eroticized spectacle of human suffering. As Anya and Spike are re-educated to consider others as subjects, not objects--a reeducation highlighted in Season Seven in episodes including "Beneath You," "Selfless," and "End of Days"-- so too is the spectator.

The issue of empathy and identification (or lack thereof) is often coupled with a foregrounding of spectatorship in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The vampire Angel’s turn to evil in Season Two is confirmed, not only by his murderous actions, but also (and especially) through his pleasure in watching the Scoobies weep over the death of their beloved teacher ("Passions"). On the other hand, one of the first suggestions of Spike’s moral renovation arrives at a crucial moment of spectatorship in the Season Five episode "Fool for Love." Spike lurks in the shadows at the edge of the frame, watching Buffy without her knowledge, holding a (phallic) shotgun and planning to kill her. When he witnesses Buffy crying, Spike is moved and, instead of attacking her, closes the gap between them by entering the center of the frame and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Empathy, rather than erotic possession or violent destruction, has become a method of bridging that gap for Spike and for the spectator as well who is meant, along with Anya and Spike, to learn what it means to be human(e).

This paper takes up concerns related to those addressed by Mary Alice Moony in "The Undemonization of Supporting Characters in Buffy" and Justine Larbalestier in "Buffy’s Mary Sue is Jonathan: Buffy Acknowledges the Fans," both published in Fighting the Forces, What’s at Stake In Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002).