Ted Buchanan

↳ Note: This article is about the robot. For other uses, see Ted.

“Beg to differ, lil' lady...”

―Ted^[src]

Ted Buchanan was a robot duplicate of his creator, the original Ted Buchanan.^[1]

Biography[]

Creation[]

The original Ted, a sickly inventor in the 1950s, created the robot after his wife left him. It was intended to be "a better Ted." The robot then kidnapped Ted's wife and held her captive in his bunker until she died. He took a job at the Lorrin Software and continued the cycle of kidnapping wives long after the original Ted's death.^[1]

Joyce Summers[]

Ted mini-pizzas — Ted warms to Buffy's friends with mini-pizzas.

Ted began to date Joyce Summers in early 1998 after redoing her computer system at the gallery she worked at. At that time, he fed her — as well as her daughter's friends — cookies laced with a drug called Dematorin, which made them compliant and mellow, encouraging them to like him. However, Buffy became increasingly unnerved by Ted's actions. It became clear to her that something was wrong when he threatened Buffy after catching her cheating at miniature golf.^[1]

Buffy sneaked into Ted's workplace and discovered that he already had plans of marrying Joyce. That night, knowing that Buffy went through his office, Ted came into Buffy's room while she was on patrol and discovered her weapons and diary. Accusing her of being delusional about her status as the Slayer, Ted threatened to tell Joyce, condemning her to a life of psychiatric rehabilitation if she didn't do as he said. Ted refused to give back her diary and smacked Buffy when she didn't take her hand off of him; with that, Buffy, grateful for an excuse to hit him, overpowered him just as Joyce walked in. Despite her mother's pleadings for her to stop, Buffy continued to kick Ted around until he fell down the stairs and broke down. With no vital signs, Joyce believed he was dead.^[1]

Destruction and legacy[]

“Trust me. He's on the scrap heap... of life.”

―Buffy Summers^[src]

Although Ted was declared dead, he later reactivated at the morgue and returned to the Summers house, acting even more unstable due to his damaged state. He knocked Buffy out in her room and she stabbed him with a nail file, revealing the now ruptured wires in his arm. Covering his sleeve, Ted reunited with Joyce and knocked her unconscious. At this point Ted's instability had been raised to the point where he became completely unreasonable.^[1]

Buffy ultimately destroyed Ted by beating him with a frying pan, thus exposing the metallic underwiring in his face. The body of the robot was then disposed of in a scrap heap while Willow kept some of his parts as study components.^[1]

Years later, upon the news that Buffy had faced another robot, Dawn asked if it was Ted, believing "there could have been more than one of him."^[2]

Personality and traits[]

“I'm not wired that way!”

―Ted^[src]

Unlike Warren's sexbots,^[2]^[3] Ted was an independently adaptive and socially prevalent being. He could maintain himself and even get a job at a telemarketing company, selling software and earning more sales than any other worker.^[1]

However, his programming made him follow a strict code of how to act, obeying rules and strongly holding: "right is right and wrong is wrong." This led Ted to overreact when Buffy attempted to cheat at mini golf, threatening to attack her, not willing to tolerate that "kind of malarkey in [his] house."^[1] Similar to the Buffybot,^[3]^[4] a specific degree of damage could create flaws in his system, causing him to randomly short out and make irrelevant statements.^[1]

Ted also apparently held social norms from the 1950s, as he claimed he didn't take orders from a woman when Joyce made a mere suggestion. ^[1]

Powers and abilities[]

Due to his robotic nature, Ted possessed strength somewhat above that of humans. He was strong enough to overpower a Slayer and resist several of her blows without damage. He was momentarily defeated by the force of falling down a stairway and being punctured by a sharp object, only deactivated after Buffy beat with a fry pan.^[1]