Agents Of SHIELD Characters And Their Buffy The Vampire Slayer Counterparts – Screen Rant

The controversial Joss Whedon is the creator behind hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Agents of SHIELD, both of which share similar characters.

Joss Whedon's name, for better or worse, will always be associated with his most popular television property: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Scooby Gang of characters that made up the series have become archetypes for genre television. Whedon also had his hand in another piece of genre television in recent years: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

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While Whedon helped develop the concept for the show, he was mostly involved inits first season.Husband-and-wife team Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancheroen were the showrunners responsible for the creative decisions made to tell S.H.I.E.L.D.'s story. The characters they developed over seven seasons do see links to those belovedBuffy the Vampire Slayer character-types.

Coulson is an easy character to place.Whilehe fits the trope of the mentor introducing his young charges to a whole new world, he's also the closest thing most of his team has to a parent in their midst. He becomes more than a boss; Coulson is a father figure to most of his team.

Like Joyce knowing there's more to Buffy's late night adventures than she lets on, Coulson knows most of what's going on with his team without them ever saying anything. He gives Fitz and Simmons a home away from home, just as Joyce does withthe Scooby Gang.Coulson eventeaches the team about the reality of love, loss, and sacrifice, much as the pivotal episode of Buffy, "The Body" did.

Some fans of these two series might have expected May and Coulson's counterparts to be reversed, but this very much fits their characters better. May is absolutely a mentor to the young women she works with the audience just doesn't see quite as much of their training.

It's May who teaches Daisy, Simmons, Piper, and Elena all how to fight. She's the one who learns their strengths and how to utilize them in a fight. It's also May who presents as a stiff, by-the-book older member of an organization before she begins to care about the team.

The audience might have thought of Ward as a safe love interest for Skye at the start of the series. Oh, how wrong they were.

Ward isn't the Angel of the show. Angel is a vampire with a soul who wants to help people; Ward is a bit too self-serving for that. Instead, he's Angelus, the evil being with the angelic face that gets people to trust him when they really shouldn't.

Faith is the rebellious Slayer introduced after Kendra is killed in action. She doesn't hold back and enjoys her gifts instead of seeing them as a burden. Sound familiar?

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When Elena is introduced to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans, she's in the same boat. She doesn't understand everything about her Inhuman powers, but she's embracing them, enjoying them, and using them to help people at a disadvantage. Elena even butts heads with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from time to time because she wants to do things her way.

It has to be stated that Jemma Simmons and Willow Rosenberg are masters of their craft. In Simmons' case, that craft just happens to be science while Willow's is magic. Of course, "magic is just science we don't understand" according to most science fiction and fantasy fans.

These two characters are the smart ones in their friend groups in a genre where, for a long time, the smart one was also cold and pretentious. They are neither of those things. Simmons and Willow are two of the warmest and most feeling individuals in their respective shows, proving that a character can be a genius, emotional, and the female best friend without sacrificing a character arc.

Though Simmons and Fitz have been friends since the Academy and it takes them years to try their hand at romance, they are definitely not the equivalent of Willow and Xander. Instead, Fitz is a lot closer to Tara.

Fitz harbors feelings for Jemma long before he tells her. He also saves her life, or helps her save the life of others, before he does it as well. He even gets a sudden death scene to shock the audience, leaving plenty of fans unhappy (though Tara's certainly had a huge impact on media for the LGBTQ community). At least Fitz and Simmons got to reunite thanks to time travel; Tara didn't get that chance.

When Buffy the Vampire Slayer began, Cordelia seemed like the cookie-cutter mean girl. She was selfish and focused only on what she wanted, not caring how anyone else was affected. Her growth over the course of the series, however, turned her into a hero, andcarried her over intoAngel, where she even ended up with some supernatural gifts of her own.

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Now, Raina never fully embraces hero status. She does, however, go through her own Inhuman transformation after allying with villains to get what she wants. She even ends up with the gift of prophecy, just like Cordelia, and tries to be an aid to the good guys.

Fans who didn't enjoy Deke's introduction in season 5, whichresulted in him becoming a main character, might compare him more to Dawn. He is, after all, a suddenly appearing relative of a main character who tends to get in the way.

Deke, however, is absolutely an Anya. Anya is someone who becomes integral to the group because of her knowledge (and her connection with Xander). She's also unabashedly honest about what she wants and about her perception of people. Sometimes she annoys members of the Scooby gang, but in the end, she sacrifices herself for the people she cares about. Deke might drive Mack and Daisy crazy, but he puts everything on the line for them. He even sacrifices the chance to live out his time-displaced life with his family to remain behind in an alternate timeline.

Robin Wood was introduced late in the game, but his introduction as an authority figure who kept popping up to help in Buffy's life became important. It turned out there was more to him than meets the eye as his mother was a Slayer.

Sousa and Robin aren't exact carbon copies of one another. Like Robin, Sousa has a connection to the past of the central character. In his case, that connection is to his work with the SSR before it became S.H.I.E.L.D..Both characters also both end up going on an epic road trip (or space trip in Sousa's case) with the new women in their lives as the finale closes. For Robin, it's a pair of Slayers; for Sousa, it's a pair of Inhuman sisters.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is firmly an ensemble show, but if there's one character whose journey is spotlighted the most, it's Daisy Johnson. She goes from being an outsider to finding her family and she sacrifices herself to save the world (a lot), and most of the time, the world doesn't even know she does it.

Daisy and Buffy are very much cut from the same cloth. They are young women who find themselves burdened with the responsibility of superpowers that leave them responsible for people who fear them. They might turn their back on their paths once or twice, but in the end, they're heroes who can't walk away from a fight.

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Amanda is a freelance writer in Florida. She holds a Psychology degree and loves superheroes and serial storytelling. Her favorite heroines include Black Widow, Blake Belladonna, and Sailor Jupiter.

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