Buffy Character: Amanda | Sarah Hagan

Amanda first appeared in the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was played by Sarah Hagen. Amanda was a Sunnydale High School student who was a potential slayer that fought alongside the Scooby Gang.

Yet she was activated to full slayer status just before the battle at Hellmouth, where she died.

Originally, Amanda was only supposed to appear in one episode, yet due to Sarah Hagen’s connections to the writer Rebecca Kirshner, Amanda became a recurring character for the seventh season.

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Biography

Amanda Receives Counselling

In 2002, Amanda was a normal Sunnydale High School student, who was a member of the swing choir. Buffy Summers was now the guidance counselor at the high school and Amanda went to speak to her twice.

In her first visit, Amanda tells Buffy that another student is bullying her. To which Buffy tells Amanda that she needs to stick up for herself, however that is the reason why Amanda was sent to here in the first place.

Amanda was trying to stick up for herself but ended up jumping her bully and ended up beating up her bully in the car parking lot. She slams his face into the pavement, which then results in Mr Miller suggesting that she see Buffy the guidance counselor.

On her second visit, Amanda discusses her bully again and admits that she thinks that she is weird because she actually likes him. Buffy felt a bit awkward as she could relate to how Amanda was feeling, when she thought back to her violent relationship with Spike.

Alongside this, Amanda also believed that some of her classmates think she is strange as well.

Discovering Her Potential

One night, Amanda decides to stay late at Sunnydale High School. She is trying to fix her Swing Choir sweater. However, while she is staying at school late that night, Amanda comes face to face with a vampire, who then tries to attack her.

Amanda does her best to avoid the vampire’s attack and attempts to hold the vampire in one of the classrooms in the school. Then unsure what to do, Amanda goes to Buffy’s house to try and find someone to help her.

While this is happening, Buffy learns that there is a potential slayer in Sunnydale. As a result, Willow Rosenberg ends up performing a locator spell. This spell releases a small light that is sent to track the potential slayer and find out where they are.

This spell happens at the same time that Amanda is on her way to Buffy’s house. However, Dawn Summers was standing in front of the front door and the light went through her to Amanda who was on the other side of the door.

As a result, everyone thought that Dawn was the potential slayer that was living in Sunnydale.

Dawn wasn’t sure how to feel about this news and so she snuck out of her house, because she needed to go out for a walk to clear her head.

On her walk, Dawn bumps into Amanda who has a large cut on her forehead. When asked how she received the cut, Amanda tells Dawn all about the strange encounter with the vampire.

In the end, Dawn tells Amanda that she could handle the situation as she is a potential slayer. As a result, the two of them go back to the school to deal with the vampire.

When Amanda and Dawn find the vampire that Amada had trapped in a classroom, things quickly go out of hand. As a result, both Amanda and Dawn have to run away and hide in another classroom.

In the classroom, both Amanda and Dawn are attacked by the Harbingers of Death, who are the high priests and foot soldiers of the First Evil. They used to be human but now they have been corrupted by the First Evil.

During this fight, Dawn realized that the Harbingers of Death are trying to kill Amanda and not her. Therefore, this means that Amanda is the potential slayer and not Dawn.

Dawn then tries to rescue Amanda from the Harbingers of Death, before Amanda tries to fight off all their attackers without any kind of weapon. Dawn hands Amanda a broken flag pole, which looks like a huge stake.

Then Dawn quickly tells Amanda about her fate and destiny of being a potential slayer and what that bright light was that she saw when she was at Buffy’s front door.

With this new information, Amanda begins to fight off the Harbingers of Death and with a stake in her hand, her instincts kick in and she kills the vampire too. The Scooby Gang arrive just in time, to help Dawn and Amanda kill the last few Harbingers of Death survivors.

Potential Training

After being discovered as a potential slayer, Amanda then joins other potential slayers who are slowly growing in numbers for training. Alongside that, Amanda becomes an ally and friend of the Scooby Gang.

Amanda helps Willow, Dawn and Kennedy try to discover information about the First Evil. They did this by listening to a conversation via a wiring connection to Andrew Wells and the First Evil.

The First Evil discover what they are doing and take the form of the dead Jonathan Levinson. This results in Amanda screaming in terror as she sees Jonathan’s mangled dead body.

Originally, the First Evil wanted Andrew to shoot all the potentials including Amanda. However, it is revealed that Andrew is working with Buffy and Scooby Gang. He also wants to defeat the First Evil, so they can’t do anymore harm to him or anyone else.

The First Evil enjoyed causing chaos with the potential slayers. Amanda formed a close friendship with another potential slayer named Chloe. She noted how much Chloe loved Winnie the Pooh.

However, she was shocked when she found out that Chloe had committed suicide in her bathroom. This is once again a result of the First Evil.

The First Evil appeared to Chloe and they had a long talk after Chloe had a bad day at potential slayer training, which then resulted in Chloe hanging herself in her bathroom.

As a result Amanda and the rest of the potential slayers moved into Buffy’s home. Buffy buried Chloe’s body in the backyard and told all the potential slayers, that Chloe’s decision made her weak and stupid.

As all the potential slayers moved into the Summer’s house, the rest of the town were evacuated. Therefore, we can’t assume that Amanda’s parents were also evacuated too, but they aren’t ever really mentioned .

Amanda was one of the potential slayers that was involved in the Battle of Vineyard. During this battle, some of the potential slayers that Amanda knew and trained with died.

Some of the potential slayers that died include Molly and Dianne, while Rona was only seriously injured. However, Amanda walked away from this battle completely fine.

After this all the potential slayers decide that Buffy isn’t the best leader for them. Hence, they kick Buffy out and they instead make Faith Lehana their new leader that they will follow. Amanda followed Faith into a trap. However, Amanda once again survived another fight, this time it was the battle with the three Turok-Hans.

Yet, after this battle, Buffy is accepted as leader once again by the potential slayers. Amanda feels bad for kicking Buffy out as leader and declares that she believes that God was punishing them for truthing Faith over Buffy.

All the other potential slayers agree with Amanda, however Buffy does defend Faith, while all the other potential slayers turn their back on her.

Death

Before the Battle of Hellmouth, the remaining potential slayers including Amanda were activated as a Slayer. For this battle, she armed herself with her favorite weapon of choice, a wooden spear.

Amanda was a strong fighter and had a good survival success rate with the other battles she had been involved in. Unfortunately, this time her luck ran out and Amanda was killed by Turok-Han, who snapped her neck. She was only 17 years old when she died. Her death was witnessed by a wounded Buffy.

Personality/Traits

Amanda started off as a very sweet yet shy girl, who worked hard at school. She was quite intelligent and some would say a bit of a nerd. She thought that her classmates thought she was a bit weird, which is why she went to speak to Buffy a second time.

Under this sweet character, there was a violent side to Amanda. This can be seen when she beats up the boy who was bullying her, yet she also confesses that she has a crush on him. She was a strong fighter who survived two out of the three big battles that she was involved in.

Alongside that she also defended herself and Dawn from a vampire and a group of Harbingers of Death by herself, using her instincts. Amanda was one of the first potential slayers to kill a vampire and was one of the first to kill a Turok-Han.

Also, Amanda had respect for those who had a higher status over her. She was fond of Robin Wood who was the principal of Sunnydale High School. She greets him when he comes to see her and the other potential slayers, whilst they are training. Amanda admired Faith, when she took her and the other potential slayers dancing at the Bronze.

Amanda was a competitive person. She was a member of the Sunnydale High School Swing Choir and would express her hatred of the school’s marching band, who she saw as their rivals. Amanda has also mentioned that she took part in the school’s mock United Nations, where she was the representative of Uruguay.

Also, Amanda could effortlessly defeat anyone in Dungeons and Dragons, she even defeated Andrew before their final battle. Amanada was an intelligent girl, who tried to get involved with as much as she could in school. She was competitive which then led to her being outspoken sometimes.

She was a friendly character, who at first comes across as extremely shy and awkward. However, she easily makes friends with her fellow potential slayers and the Scooby Gang.

Overall, Amanda was a sweet girl who worked hard and was a good friend to many potential slayers. She could be trusted and was trusted by many characters. Amanda was brave and fought many battles, her violent side worked in her favor as she was a strong fighter.

Appearance

Amanda has a very pale complexion. She is seen as very tall and skinny, with bright blue eyes. She is most recognized for her long thick brown hair. Her hair is either tucked behind her ears or seen in a half up and half down hairstyle.

Her costumes are very simple and the colors she wears are also very simple. Nothing about this character’s appearance is meant to stand out, she is supposed to blend in. This is why no one knows she is a potential slayer until the locating spell is cast.

The types of clothes that Amanda wore are also very simple, normally it’s a block colored t-shirt and dark colored jeans. She is seen a lot of blues, and yellows. However none of the colors are too striking. They allow her to move easily especially when she is fighting.

Powers/Abilities

Amanda had a few abilities due to her training, but she never received any supernatural powers.

Physical Combat

Like all Slayers, Amanda had great fighting skills. She was really good at fighting using weapons such as a broken flag pole and a wooden spear. However, she was also an expert in fighting unarmed.

Amanda naturally had these combat skills, but once she completed her potential slayer training, these combat skills improved dramatically.

Heightened Awareness

Once she became a Slayer, Amanda gained a heightened sense of awareness of their surroundings. This helped her know where her attacker was and how to avoid them.

Intelligence

Amanda was a smart character, but could admit when she was wrong.

Relationships

Dawn Summers

Dawn was the person who told Amanda that she was a potential slayer. They both fought together to survive the Harbingers of Death and the vampire that Amanda encountered in Sunnydale High School.

Once Amanda started her training, the friendship between Amanda and Dawn grew stronger. It appears that Dawn and Amanda always remained good friends as friendly smiles were always shared between the pair when they saw each other. Also when Faith took all the potential slayers dancing, you could see Amanda and Dawn dancing together.

Buffy Summers

Amanda saw Buffy as her leader, someone she could go to for help. Buffy started off as Amanda’s guidance counselor, and then she ended up being her leader that she followed into battle.

Amanda wasn’t always sure if Buffy was the right person to lead the Slayers, however she regrets this decision once Faith and the other potential slayers are ambushed. Amanda trusted Buffy and willingly followed her into many battles.

Faith Lehane

Amanda saw Faith as another leader that she would follow and do as she said during her potential slayer training. Faith seemed a lot more laid back and even took all the potential slayers out dancing to have some fun. Yet Faith led them all into an ambush, which made all the potential slayers run back to Buffy for their leader.

Amanda felt back for believing in Faith, but she thought it was the right thing to do at the time and then realized that God was punishing them for abandoning Buffy.

Chloe

Chloe was one of the first friends that Amanda made during her potential slayer training. The pair had formed a friendship in the short time that they knew one another. Hence, Amanda was really shocked when she saw that Chloe committed suicide due to the First Evil. Amanda had noted that Chloe loved Winnie the Pooh.

The Scooby Gang

Amanda helped various members of the Scooby Gang like Willow, to try and learn more about the First Evil, by listening into Andrew’s conversation with the First Evil.

However the First Evil realized what they were doing and wanted Andrew to shoot Amanda and all the potential slayers, but he was no longer working for them anymore.

Potential Slayers

Amanda was a friendly character and she made friends with all of the potential slayers that she trained with. They all looked out for each other all the time.

Photos

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Appearances

Amanda was portrayed by Sarah Hagan during the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she unfortunately dies in the final episode. You can see Amanda in the follow episodes:

• Season 7, Episode 4 – Help.
• Season 7, Episode 12 – Potential.
• Season 7, Episode 14 – First Date.
• Season 7, Episode 15 – Get It Done.
• Season 7, Episode 16 – Storyteller.
• Season 7, Episode 18 – Dirty Girls.
• Season 7, Episode 19 – Empty Places.
• Season 7, Episode 20 – Touched.
• Season 7, Episode 21 – End of Days.
• Season 7, Episode 22 – Chosen.

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