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arXiv · 2607.07826

Buffy versus Bella: An archetypometric analysis and comparison

Calla Glavin Beauregard·Julia Witte Zimmerman·Ashley M. A. Fehr·Savannah Hinson Rivas·Tabia Tanzin Prama·Tessa Lawler·Timothy R. Tangherlini·Christopher M. Danforth·Peter Sheridan Dodds
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Abstract

Fictional stories and characters embody and encode social norms, and their study is a powerful tool through which to understand culture and society. Vampire stories and folklore, in particular, have long both reflected and refracted people's preoccupation with disease, sexuality, death, and immortality. Here, we explore female main characters from two popular vampire franchises of the 21st century: Buffy Summers from the eponymous Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bella Swan from the Twilight series. We employ the archetypometrics framework, built from 2,000 characters assesed across 464 semantic differential traits, to understand Buffy's and Bella's archetypes compared to one another and characters in their own stories, as well as within a larger societal context. While Buffy and Bella are female protagonists who share focus on love and romance, they differ broadly on their underlying traits and overall archetypes. Buffy -- presented as a prototypical high school cheerleader -- largely bucks traditional gender norms as an strong Adventurer-Hero. Bella -- stylized as ``not like the other girls'' -- largely conforms to traditional gender norms as a weak Outcast archetype. In each instance, our use of archetypometrics offers a detailed, character-based lens for assessing female protagonists in contemporary vampire narratives, with clear potential for broader application across other storytelling forms.

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Calla Glavin Beauregard, Julia Witte Zimmerman, Ashley M. A. Fehr, Savannah Hinson Rivas, Tabia Tanzin Prama, Tessa Lawler, Timothy R. Tangherlini, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds. 2026-07-08. Buffy versus Bella: An archetypometric analysis and comparison. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.07826

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