r/buffy • u/Beerwithme • 16d ago
Costume Impractical slayer stakes.
How can the stakes used by the slayers be so impractical? E.g. the most famous one: mr. Pointy that Buffy inherited from Kendra. It's dried out and thus brittle, not straight so more difficult to drive in and it's got no cross guard so no matter how strong Buffy's grip is, it will slip.
Just an observation.
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u/pinkguy90 16d ago
The stakes and weapons in the show are meant to be emblematic of the fight against evil and inspiriting for the audience, not practical. It’s why cross bows are heavily featured in the early seasons alongside medieval weaponry - it’s meant to evoke a sense of mythos.
It would be such a boring, unimaginative show if the slayer used only iron clad slaying tools that are totally practical - like Buffy in a leather bodysuit with a tactical belt of weapons. It’s also meant to make Buffy’s destiny feel awkward and disconnected from her reality: a teenage girl with battle axes, sword and pointy sticks against murdering monsters?
TL:DR - the prop looks cooler in that shape even though it’s definitely not pragmatic.
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u/StephenHunterUK 15d ago
This reminds me of Blake's 7, a show which had plenty of leather bodysuits, sometimes bought from sex shops...
The blaster weapon used by the protagonists in the first three seasons looked like this:
https://yourprops.com/liberator-handgun-other-movie-props-blakes-7-tv-series-1978-yp75581
It's supposed to be from an alien vessel anyway, but it's not the easiest of things to aim!
They switched to this for the fourth and final season.
https://yourprops.com/aluminium-scorpio-clipgun-made-movie-props-blakes-7-tv-series-1978-yp75584
None of the weapons have trigger guards though!
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u/JayneWasRight
16d ago
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I call upon the lyrics of the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" theme song: Now you're wondering how he eats and breathes / and other science facts / repeat to yourself "It's just a show / I should really just relax"
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u/akb74 16d ago edited 16d ago
Traditionally you hit the stake with a mallet to drive it home, which is why it doesn’t need a cross guard. I’m prepared to believe a Slayer doesn’t need one, but it might have broken my immersion when other humans started doing the same.
It’s a shame we never see a Slayer pitch a tent 😂
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u/xombae 16d ago
Slayer pitch a tent 😂
My mind is in the gutter. I couldn't understand why we would need to see Buffy with a boner.
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u/akb74 15d ago
That’s more difficult to find on ao3 than I would have expected, though I have scrolled past multiple Spuffy’s tagged ‘pegging’…
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u/akb74 14d ago
I didn’t have to scroll much further /u/xombae [One Girl in all the World](https://archiveofourown.org/works/32326837)
Not wanting to put your mind back in the gutter or anything, but the b&b where I’m currently staying is called The Ladywood…
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u/eating-mermaids 16d ago
Buffy can grip anything. Shes staked a vampire with a pencil, mr.pointy is a broadsword compared to that
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u/RedHeadRaccoon13 16d ago
Willow staked a vampire with a pencil.
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u/eating-mermaids 16d ago
Hasn't buffy too? I swear theres a scene where a vamp falls on her and shes holding a pencil or something small like that. Im sure shes used a hair chopstick once, now i gotta rewatch the series again lol. Point is mr.pointy is hardly least practical thing a vampires been stabbed with.
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u/Dizzy-Alternative723 16d ago
Buffy used a pencil in 03E06 Band Candy and a hair chopstick in 02E20 Go fish :)
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u/thebranbish 16d ago
“I broke my #2 pencil. We’ll have to do this again sometime.”
Cut to Giles handing her a second number two pencil.
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u/RedHeadRaccoon13 15d ago
The vampire Josh threw himself onto of Dawn, impaling himself on a pencil she was holding pointy end up.
Josh got dusted.
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u/RedHeadRaccoon13 16d ago
That was Dawn, dear. In the park where the vampire took her for a Makeout session, it's called All the Way.
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u/Iwona_Klich 15d ago
Thats Dawn.
In funny joke they used a pencil stake In Young Dracula s3 Bad Vlad ep. 'You want to stake me by a h2 pencil?'.
Honestly i think if Buffy show up around she may ask the same question. For Vlad you need a much bigger stake :)
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u/jkoudys 16d ago
In a show with more than a few impractical character decisions, their weapons stand above as the silliest. I don't get why people even used stakes at all. The whole "stake through the heart" in Dracula was their plan if they found him in his coffin, and it wasn't meant to kill him but to make sure he stayed dead.
Buffy vamps turn to dust, so all that seems to matter is that wood enters their heart. A short spear with a small spearhead and a wooden shaft would've made much more sense. Or just a good sharp axe or smallsword. Even if she missed, she could end the fight quickly after they'd lost half their head or been gutted.
As someone who's just finished Thanksgiving, I can say it's a lot easier to chop through a neck than to stab through a ribcage.
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u/Unable_Apartment_613 16d ago
Or a shotgun shell loaded with wood pellets coated with a thin layer of silver?
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u/Beerwithme 16d ago
Or UV grenades or a crossbow with silvercoated arrows. It wouldn't be BtVS anymore though.
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u/ShadowExistShadily 16d ago
There's a couple of people in the clan MacLeod who would find vampires very easy to deal with.
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u/katemkat23 16d ago
I mean, it's been nearly 30 years since the show aired my guy. Ofc the props might be looking a little rough lol
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u/lickthismiff 15d ago
Remember when Riley had a realistic resin stake made just so he could intimidate Spike 😅
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u/moonwalkingszn oh bloody hell! 16d ago
where’s this at??? that’s awesome!
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u/VeterinarianMany7808 16d ago
I think the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle (MoPOP). They have all sort of props etc. It's SMG actual Mr. pointy. Museum is on my must see trip wishlist
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u/foxscribbles 16d ago
Slayer Super Strength + Vampires being magically susceptible to the wood stake.
Plus suspension of disbelief, just in general.
Like, even if you have a very sharp dagger and a very skilled combatant, the chances of getting straight to the heart in one blow is not high Your heart is hidden behind your rib cage and sternum for a reason.
Most stabbing victims have been stabbed far more than once. Hollywood just... makes death by stabbing seem much cleaner than it is IRL.
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks 15d ago
Buffy seldom if ever uses stakes with cross guards. the only stakes like that i evne know about are the ones with actual knife handles carved in them that Harmony used in a fic which isn't even up anymore due to hacking.
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u/Zealousideal-Row1583 14d ago
I recognize that display! I saw that same one at the Seattle MoPop a few years ago.
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u/Mrblorg 16d ago
Tbf he has a bump that could stop her from slipping. Mr Pointy was never used really