Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Buffybot Is a Terrifying Reality

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By Anna Govert | April 24, 2023 | 11:17am

On this day 22 years ago, the world was introduced to the Buffybot. Outfitted with that signature blonde hair, a backlog of imported memories, and an unsettling blank-behind-the-eyes smile, the Buffybot was a technological marvel in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when it was introduced in Episode 18 of Season 5. Today, two decades and countless technological advancements later, the Buffybot feels less like a harebrained sci-fi plot and more of a prophetic warning—one that is already becoming true.

If you have been on the Internet lately, you have likely seen a deepfake (a term for a video in which a person’s face or body has been digitally altered so they appear to be someone else); whether it be an AI-generated image of Trump being arrested or actress Emma Watson appearing in an ad campaign promoting a deepfake service with less-than-pure intentions, the ability to duplicate someone’s likeness for ulterior purposes has already begun to change our media landscape. In fact, the technology has become so pervasive that Disney+’s The Mandalorian hired a YouTuber who specializes in deepfakes to adjust their computer-generated Luke Skywalker. Despite its seemingly helpful application in shows like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, deepfakes are causing much more harm than good.

The process of creating a deepfake is, unfortunately, rather simple—and it’s getting easier by the day. All one needs is photos or videos of a person, oftentimes a celebrity or a person with numerous hours of footage freely available to the public, and a program trained to map that person’s face, align it with the face in the original video, and match those two maps to create a near-seamless overlay that moves as the person in the original did, just with a brand new face. However, in comparison to the hours of footage previously needed to create a deepfake video, improvements to the technology have allowed for smaller and smaller creators to be targeted; no longer is just Mark Hamill’s likeness available for use, but anyone with a moderate online footprint could stumble upon themselves in a video doing something they have never actually done. That is the case for many Twitch streamers, like “Sweet Anita” and “QTCinderella,” who have each spoken out against the rise in non-consensual deepfake porn videos flooding the Internet, with a few starring none other than themselves. With little to no laws on the books to protect against the onslaught of deepfakes being created each day, it feels like only a matter of time before these videos start to become close to home for everyone, no matter celebrity status or Internet usage.

Remarkably, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a series that always found itself ahead of the curve) predicted this anomaly almost to a tee—with only the limits of 2001 technology as constraints. In the fifth season of Buffy, our titular heroine finds herself feeling lost; she finds out the little sister she has a lifetime of memories with didn’t exist until a few months ago, her mother falls ill and eventually passes away suddenly due to an aneurysm, and there’s a God attempting to destroy the world. With so much on her plate, Spike’s long-brewing, ill-fated obsession with Buffy truly seems like small potatoes. However, upon feeling the sting of Buffy’s rejection in Episode 14 and seeing Warren’s remarkable work with his own girlfriend-robot in Episode 15, Spike’s obsession escalates, and he commissions a robot of his own: the Buffybot. Originally commissioned as a conduit for Spike’s growing “love” of Buffy and his desire for her, the Buffybot is truly nothing more than Spike’s sex toy. Created solely from a box of clothes, a few choice memories and specifications from Spike, and a single picture of Buffy herself, Warren created Spike’s ultimate fantasy, a version of Buffy that couldn’t tell him “no.” (Or, more specifically, a version of Buffy that wouldn’t have to be “unconscious” for him to “have a chance with.”)

Throughout the episode, the Buffybot’s interactions with Spike are stomach-turning, including pre-programmed voice lines like “I try so hard to resist you, and I can’t,” as well as “I want to let you” when Spike brings up biting her—all said with a hollow, breathy voice that is consistently just shy of a moan. In nearly every scene in the beginning of the episode, the Buffybot is engaging in a sex act with Spike, doing everything from straddling him in a foggy graveyard to simulating fake fights as foreplay. The timing of Spike’s sick brand of exploitation of Buffy is especially cruel, considering that just two episodes ago her mother passed suddenly. Spike’s selfish pleasure comes first, with no consideration for Buffy’s actual feelings, let alone her still-lingering grief. Additionally, “Intervention” sees Buffy battling her own internal demons, questioning whether or not she’s capable of love while still being the Slayer. As Buffy seeks guidance from the First Slayer with Giles at her side, her cluelessness to her own sexualization and degradation is a perfect metaphor for how women are exploited constantly and usually against their will, when they aren’t even aware it’s happening. The fact that Buffy spends a majority of the episode unaware of her own exploitation is chilling, and mirrors the dark reality that deepfake porn and other means of digital image alteration pose. When finally face-to-face with Spike’s creation, Buffy herself is disgusted.

Outside of the confines of this single episode, men like Spike and Warren pose the threat of escalation, something both characters do display in their various appearances throughout the rest of the series. Spike’s obsession with Buffy eventually leads to him attempting to rape her in Season 6, a stark jump in his quest to conquer Buffy after having his toy taken away. Warren keeps his promise and does not make another girlfriend robot, but in Season 6, he brainwashes his very human ex-girlfriend, and eventually kills her when she still does not comply. In both instances, the possession of the robot leads to a sense of entitlement, and the non-consensual, fake images and videos on the screen in our real world are a very similar first step. The escalation of both Spike and Warren act as warnings for the future, where the objects of these fabricated deepfake videos will become targets for further exploitation, real-world harassment, and even bodily harm.

Written by Jane Espenson, “Intervention” handles the topic with a grace and humor usually associated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a particular highlight is when the Buffybot calls Willow “recently gay”), but there are a few hiccups in its presentation of this touchy subject. Xander, who finds himself constantly split between being an actually decent guy and what sometimes feels like a Joss Whedon self-insert, is sympathetic for Spike as he laments “God, I feel kinda bad for the guy” after seeing how much Glory brutalized him, “[he] gets all whooped and his best toy gets taken away.” Xander’s bleeding heart for Spike is a reflection of the idea that Spike deserves something from Buffy for his troubles of not being completely evil and believing he’s in love with her, echoing the sentiment held that rejected “nice guy”-type men are deserving of some sort of consolation when women (or a specific woman in particular) aren’t interested. Similarly, Spike is awarded a kiss from Buffy at the end of the episode, a potential misstep that could be misinterpreted as Buffy forgiving Spike for his exploitation—though it’s more likely she simply was just appreciative of his refusal to share Dawn’s secret, it still could potentially reinforce the wrong message of a kind of forgiveness Buffy should not have felt obligated to offer.

More than anything, 22 years later, it’s chilling to watch the eighteenth episode of Season 5 knowing what we do now about the exponential rise and threat of deepfakes, and the still-unknown consequences they will continue to have on women across the globe. While Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s goofy sci-fi and lighthearted humor offers a brief reprieve from the horrors still imminent in the development of deepfake technology, its warnings of escalation and the exceedingly less out-there threats of robotic harm make this an episode worth revisiting, especially as the world continues to rapidly change around us.