Buffy the Vampire Slayer was filled to the brim with symbolism and foreshadowing. So, naturally, the show's devoted fans couldn't help but dig in search of new and exciting fan theories every week.
Some of these theories have been immortalized in decades-old forum posts thanks to the show's huge influence on the growing online community at the time.
These days, when a fan theory gains enough traction, it's not uncommon for the actors or showrunners to go on social media and clear the air. Explanations of lines, facial expressions, and even straight out confirmations or denials of rumors are fairly commonplace at this point.
However, in the era of the Slayer, fans had Joss Whedon visiting forum threads, DVD commentaries, and the occasional interview to go off of.
In short, if an old-school Buffy fan wanted to confirm their theory, they more than likely had to track the answer down.
Thankfully, Whedon had a close affiliation with his fans, especially those who were active online. Because of this, many of the fandom's most pressing theories were addressed outright, either in interviews or through the actual series itself, becoming canon.
From the meaning of the Cheese Man to the Joss Whedon's extended universe, here are the 15 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fan Theories (That Were Actually Confirmed).
The Slayer Line Runs Through Faith
In every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl who fights the vampires... until her untimely demise. At which point, a second girl is called - and then another and another. Each time a Slayer bites the dust, a new one rises.
However, Buffy has shuffled off this mortal coil twice.
The first time when she drowned and was revived by Xander, summoning up Kendra the Vampire Slayer. The second happened when she sacrificed herself to close Glory's portal.
Why didn't a new Slayer get called when Buffy lost her life? Faith was called and the Slayer line now runs through her.
Fans have debated this in forums for a long time. Some believed that the line ran through Faith, while other thought that both Faith and Buffy carried the Slayer lineage.
However, it's canon that Faith is essentially now the one, true Slayer.
The Whedonverse Is Real
Everybody loves extended universes these days, but what about secret extended universes? These are movie and TV worlds that are all connected and take place in the same reality, but they've never been advertised as such to viewers.
Essentially, this is exactly what the Whedonverse is.
Fans have been theorizing for years that all of Joss Whedon's works take place in a shared universe, publishing articles and videos filled with evidence.
It turns out that Whedon himself almost made this a reality with a little Easter egg that he planned to include in Astonishing X-Men, in which Scott Summers would refer to Buffy as his cousin, and an actual hidden image referring to Angel's Wolfram and Hart.
This theory is as good as fact at this point.
Vampires Were All In Buffy’s Head
The season 6 episode "Normal Again" left many viewers wondering: was all this real or was it just in Buffy's head?
Taking the TV trope and spinning it on its head, Joss Whedon and company placed the crazy episode in the middle of the season, rather than as a season or series finale.
This lent it no more or less credence than any other episode, making its validity all the more confusing.
Left to interpretation, many assumed that the events were exactly as depicted in the episode: it was all the result of a spell.
However, other fans suspected that maybe Buffy actually was mentally ill.
Based on Whedon's own planned mention of Buffy being in a mental hospital in Astonishing X-Men, it seems clear the series creator considers this theory to be canon.
Halfrek And Cecily Are The Same Person
Poor Spike was a romantic at heart who deeply loved the fair Cecily only to be mocked and embarrassed over his horrible love poems.
This sweet side of him would eventually come out even after he became a vampire... right? Well, not exactly.
That soft spot may have been the result of a vengeance demon: Halfrek, to be exact.
The same actress, Kalli Rocha, played both Halfrek and Cecily. Writer Drew Goddard confirmed that Halfrek was posing as Cecily on a vengeance demon assignment. Her target was the pre-vampire Spike, aka William.
Eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the actress turns up in both roles and started putting pieces together before the confirmation arrived via DVD commentary.
It looks like Spike's mean streak was there from the start. Why else would a vengeance demon try to fool him?
Life Was The Big Bad In Season 6
One aspect of Buffy 's season 6 that has often been debated is the identity of the season's true Big Bad.
Was it the Trio, who caused chaos for Buffy all season long, resulting in the untimely demise of Willow's witchy girlfriend, Tara? Or was it Willow herself, who went dark and apocalyptically vengeance-y after said incident?
A few fans leaned more toward life itself.
Buffy had been resurrected from what felt like Heaven to a cold, cruel world in which she couldn't pay her bills and could potentially lose custody of her sister.
It turns out that, yes, life was the villain all along.
Drusilla Sired Spike
Okay, obviously anyone who has actually watched the show knows this one. It's all right there and very obviously canon.
However, there was a time when some fans felt sure that Drusilla must have been the one to turn Spike into a vamp. It just made sense.
The way they were so drawn to each other and the way Angel was drawn to Darla, indicated a stronger bond than just your standard relationship.
However, Spike had already referred to Angelus as his sire. Joss Whedon essentially retconned Spike's origins, claiming that the term "sire" didn't refer directly to the vampire's creator, but any vampire in their direct ancestry.
It was then revealed in the series that Dru had been Spike's sire all along.
Faith Predicted Buffy’s Sacrifice
So, this one went over a lot of people's heads. However, that's more than fair since it took a keen attention to detail and a lot of math to put the pieces together.
A few very perceptive fans figured out that Faith's references about Little Miss Muffet and 730 were, in fact, references to the exact episode in which Buffy would give her life for her surprise sister, Dawn.
Prolific writer Marti Noxon revealed the truth that, yes, this theory was exactly what fans thought it was.
Joss Whedon had planned the year in advance just so he could drop a little foreshadowing Easter egg in the middle of season 3.
Cordelia Was Written Out Because Of Charisma Carpenter’s Pregnancy
Buffy viewers long wondered if Joss Whedon might have had a mean streak. They suspected perhaps Oz's uncharacteristic treatment of Willow may have been because Whedon was upset that actor Seth Green wanted to make a movie.
They also accused the showrunner of writing Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia out of Angel because the actress had gotten pregnant.
Well, according to Carpenter herself, that last part was completely true.
She admitted during a DragonCon appearance in 2009 that Whedon had, indeed, written her off the show because he was upset that the pregnancy forced a storyline rewrite.
Of course, this doesn't prove the claims that Green was written off for similar reasons, but it doesn't help those rumors, either.
The Master Never Would Have Risen If Buffy Hadn’t Gone To Fight Him
This theory was proven only a few episodes before it was sprung, but it was a biggie.
Some viewers felt that the prophecy that predicted Buffy's first early demise was a clear indication that she should stay as far away from the Master as possible.
No good could from it, and maybe his taking of her life would be the thing that set her free.
Well, it all went down exactly like this. Buffy showed up to fight the good fight, the Master fed on her, as vampires do, and he told the Slayer in no uncertain terms that if she "hadn't come" he "couldn't go."
While it may have been an obvious twist for some, it was a huge one that only helped to cement the writers' immense talent.
Buffy Is A Demon
Why was Buffy so attracted to vampires? Why would a good, world-saving girl be so drawn to the darkness? Was this simply a case of opposites attract?
If you were a Buffy fan, you knew that Joss Whedon and company would have never written something so simple. There were always layers.
Could one of those layers have been a hidden darkness that could be found deep inside the Slayer herself? Could Buffy, like Blade, have been created by the same dark forces that allowed her to fight evil?
Yes, yes she was, and we finally discovered this, after years of hints and cryptic clues, in season 5 when the origins of the First Slayer and the demon essence used to create her were finally revealed.
The Cheese Man Is Meaningless
Cheese is a surprisingly big deal in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Scooby Gang talks about this particular dairy product a lot.
Willow tells Riley that Buffy likes cheese when he expresses an interest in the Slayer. Buffy craves cheese when she is transformed into a rat, naturally. Also, Xander uses cheese to complain about his relationship insecurities often.
Then there was the Cheese Man.
In an episode chock full of symbolism and foreshadowing, what could this dream visitor have been implying?
While many fans wrote up long posts about the Cheese Man filling in for Joss Whedon or Buffy herself, others insisted that he was just random.
We soon found out that's really all he was - weird dream of randomness.
Giles Is A Time Lord
What if Giles wasn't actually in bad health toward the end of season 6? What if he was actually regenerating like a Time Lord>
This theory isn't as crazy as it sounds when you consider the demons and mystical key girls present in both Buffy and Doctor Who, or when you realize that Rose and the Tenth Doctor showed up in a Buffy comic book.
While this theory hasn't been definitively confirmed, the suggestion that Giles and/or Buffy were Time Lords had been around for a while, as had the idea that Rose may have been a Potential Slayer.
Could this have been a nod to the fans or actual proof that the suspected crossover is real?
Doctor Who writers have credited Buffy with influencing the series and Whedon once suggested he would write for the show when the Doctor became a woman.
Now that we know that the Whedonverse is real, that would just confirm everything about this theory quite nicely.
Angelus Did Love Buffy In His Twisted Way
It was a debate for every fan: who was Buffy's soulmate, Spike or Angel? Well, that's been confirmed by both Joss Whedon and Sarah Michelle Gellar, though neither agrees.
However, for debating fans, it always came down to who was more passionately in love with the Slayer.
Spike cared for her so much without a soul that he went through the trouble to get one, which is pretty sweet. Angel cared for her so much that even when he lost his soul, he still felt love for the Slayer.
What, is that last part hard to believe? That the evil Angelus actually felt love in his heart for Buffy? Some fans thought that he did and pointed to episodes like "I Only Have Eyes For You" as proof.
Whedon confirmed that, yes, Angelus did love Buffy.
However, the only way he could express it was through twisted emotions like rage.
Dawn Existed Because The Scoobies Grew Too Powerful To Be Damsels In Distress
This happens many times on TV shows it's basically a trope. The series is losing viewers or is looking to shake things up for some reason, so a brand new family member is brought on.
Maybe the main characters have a baby, we discover the protagonist had an older brother in college all along, or Buffy comes home and discovers her previously unintroduced sister poking around in her room.
Fans immediately suspected that Dawn was a plot device. She was here to get in the way and give Buffy something to protect.
Well, that was exactly right. The rest of Buffy's friends had simply grown too powerful to constantly be in need of the Slayer's protection.
Willow Made Adjustments To The Buffy Bot
From the very beginning of the series, Willow was presented as a hacker. She could get into any police archives or government server, she had weird internet demon boyfriends, and she bonded with evil robot step-dad Ted over random computer parts.
So, when Spike's "girlfriend" Buffybot showed up and Willow admitted to keeping some parts, it seemed obvious that she was about to go back to her computer nerd roots and tinker with the android version of her best friend - and that's exactly what she did.
Willow put in some long hours to tinker with the new and improved Buffybot that was used to cover up the Slayer's early demise.
Viewers' suspicions were correct - Willow may have become a witch, but she would always be a hacker at heart.
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Can you think of any other other fan theories about Buffy the Vampire Slayer that were actually confirmed? Sound off in the comments!