Buzz Lightyear is the deuteragonist of the Disney•Pixar's Toy Story series. He is a spaceman action figure originally belonging to Andy Davis. Buzz was created during a time where astronauts were especially popular amongst children. His arrival in the original Toy Story created conflict with Andy's favorite toy, Sheriff Woody, though this rivalry would eventually blossom into a lifelong friendship.
Background[]
Buzz is a toy from a sci-fi franchise of the same name. In his fictional backstory, Buzz is a universal space ranger from the Intergalactic Alliance and the captain of the Alliance's team. Buzz is trained in several forms of martial arts and is a highly skilled warrior in hand to hand combat. Being in peak physical condition, Buzz makes a perfect space ranger and is an example to many.
Personality[]
Buzz, like many characters in Toy Story, is a complicated one, who feels genuine emotions such as pride, anger, depression, and sadness, much like a regular human. These are traits which he shares with his best friend, Woody, however, one would say that Buzz is better at keeping his emotions in check than the cowboy. Buzz is known for his bravery and courage with a by the book mindset, believing the way people should live their life by the following rules; though there are rare moments when he will bend the rules or tell a cover story if needed to when he knows it is the right thing to do. Though possessing great leadership qualities, one of Buzz's biggest character flaws at times is that he can rather unemotional.
Like Woody, Buzz also goes through an evolution throughout the series. In Toy Story, he was incredibly deluded and actually believed that he himself was the real Buzz Lightyear and not a toy modeled off from the character. Because of this, Buzz believed he could do everything that a real space ranger was able to do such as fly and that his "laser" was a deadly weapon when it was actually just a light bulb. Since seeing the truth of his delusion, Buzz has a shown a degree of embarrassment of it. In Toy Story 2, while being attacked by another Buzz Lightyear action figure who also thought he was real, Buzz remarked in a self-conscious and annoyed tone: "tell me I wasn't this deluded."
Buzz can come off as being charismatic and charming, most of Andy's toys completely adored him just after he was unwrapped. Even, Andy, whose favorite toy was Sheriff Woody and was completely obsessed with cowboys since kindergarten, went head over heels for Buzz who instantly became his other favorite toy. Buzz also possessed something of a vengeful side, such as attacking Woody when he tried to "terminate" him which was justified by saying "revenge is not something we enforce on my planet. But we're not on my planet, are we?" He is a little bit irrational at times such as attempting to save another toy from being blown up by the neighborhood juvenile delinquent Sid, despite not realizing that he would be destroyed as well but it also shows that he is quite brave as he was willing to rescue a defenseless person even if the odds were stacked against him.
However, his personality changed completely, especially after discovering the truth about himself. At first, he went into a state of manic depression, thinking that he himself was nothing more than "a stupid, plain, insignificant toy", and also developed a bit of a suicidal side. Such moments were when Sid's "cannibal" toys were amassing around him he didn't even look fazed by this. Even when being strapped to an explosive rocket, he didn't seem to remotely care that he might die as he was that depressed. But after being given a motivational speech by a captive Woody, he begins to understand his role as a toy; to bring happiness and joy to their owner. After this, Buzz learns a lot more about honor, friendship, bravery, and selflessness. He is usually seen without his helmet as of Toy Story 2 because he knows he's not a real space ranger and toys don't need space helmets.
By Toy Story 2, Buzz has completely accepted himself as a toy. Woody is one of his closest friends and understands him better than anyone other than the latter's girlfriend, Bo Peep.
Buzz is also slightly clueless to human cultures, such as the case while he was trying to comfort Woody about cowboy camp and accidentally pronounces s'mores as "schmoes" which is corrected by the latter. This was also shown during the first one while looking at Sid, he mistook his pet dog, Scud, for him.
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