somanyquestions-featuringanxiety

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Beginning of s6 Spike tells Buffy how he got furniture in his crypt and she should see the downstairs, it's quite posh. What is happening here hmm. Why does he invest in interior design when Buffy is dead? You'd think he'd drown his sorrows in more high octane activities, ya know something shady. But he decorates (i know he ate a decorator once), and gets in kitten poker debt which strikes me as like toddler-level vice in the demon underworld. It's like he's trying to be responsible and grown up.

Practically- for Dawn's sake, maybe, or to not get kicked out of the gang completely etc but I feel it's more like a symbolic thing of keeping Buffy alive to himself by trying to be more respectable. Which is really tragic... but because it's Spike it's also a bit funny.. behaving like a dispirited widower weighed down by obligation to go on but still making weird offcentre choices (oh Spike)

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Like here's a thought. Willow's role in the show as Buffy's Spirit is I think often misconstrued by fandom (including myself at one point). It's overly linked to her magic and connection to *spirituality*. It's treated a little hand-wavy, not explored much in analytical writing as opposed to the slightly easier to comprehend roles of Xander as Buffy's Heart, Giles as her Mind or Faith/Spike/Cordy as her Shadow. I think what's more pertinent to Buffy's story than the magic/spirituality aspect of Willow's character is the idea of Spirit as a force of will, something that animates Buffy's actions (or, her inactions). Willow's most constant function in the show is as a collorary to Buffy's drive. You can see this in Prophecy Girl when it's Willow's words that change Buffy's mind and allow her to accept her destiny. You can see it in Weight of the World, when Buffy gives up completely and it's Willow that gives her what she needs to carry on.. You can see it in the little moment in Consequences, when Buffy breaks down in Willow's arms, Willow's immediate reaction is to do what Buffy is doing and blame herself. You can see it in S6, when Willow's emotional instability and reliance on magic is paralleled directly with Buffy's depression and reliance on fucking Spike. Generally speaking, when Buffy's will to do any given thing is a topic of the episode's discussion, Willow is probably going to be used to parallel or contextualise it. It's as simple as that. She symbolises Buffy's Will. Her Will. Yes, I think that's intentional.

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in Lover's Walk Spike said about Dru "She just left. She didn't even care enough to cut off my head or set me on fire. I mean, is that too much to ask? You know? Some little sign that she cared?"

and then his last scene with Buffy was her entwining their fingers in a sunbeam so he was set on fire before she left

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My favorite tag I've ever come across

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i think peiple lean a little too heavily on the "he was just a kid" defense for cameron. like he was! and if you apply that to anyone in dps but not cameron i think you have a problem!! tbh!!! but thats not it. theres more here. yeah hes just a kid but thats not the only reason this happened, and its no where near the best defense. just the quickest.

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I love buffy summers so so much. She’s so perfect and so incredibly complex and flawed.

She loves her sister more than anything in the world. She makes terrible puns. She wasn’t able to kill her soulless ex-boyfriend when she first had the chance. She blames herself for his murder of her father figure’s girlfriend. She wears bedazzled beanies while hunting demons. She always believes children when they tell her about the monsters under their beds.

She’s patrolled in a halterneck many times. She has a multitude of cross necklaces which she switches out depending on her outfit. Sometimes she fears she’s just a glorified killer. She was murdered when she was sixteen and died to save the world when she was twenty. When her mother died she waited until she was alone to do the dishes and let the running water cover the sound of her cries. She’s terrible at undercover.

She wears hoop earrings while fighting for her life. She was reduced to a catatonic state when she believed that she had failed to protect her sister. She’s isolated herself from anyone she believed cared about her more than once. She’s suffered from severe ptsd and depression. She critiques old kung fu movies from a fight choreography standpoint.

She is an expert in denial and suppression. She came back wrong - or at least she thought she did. She desperately tries to keep to a code of honour even when everything she believes about right and wrong is constantly shifting around her. She bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She sleeps with a stuffed pig named Mr Gordo. She’s feared that her duty as the slayer would turn her to stone, that above all else she would lose her ability to love.

She loves more fiercely than anyone in the world.

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love seeing people on here watch btvs for the first time. at first they're like, i'm watching this silly goofy show from the 90's and i'm having so much fun! and then by the time they've entered the torment nexus you've been living in for over a decade, they're too invested to leave. it's like watching people being slowly dragged into hell.

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it's so funny that one of the things that propelled Riley's jerk arc was his friend Graham saying "You used to have a mission, and now you're what? The mission's boyfriend? Mission's true love?"

If someone said that to Spike he'd be like "Well yeah. What better mission is there?"

Also funny that right after that scene we cut to Spike having his first dream about being in love with Buffy

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buffy the vampire slayer's commitment to acab is kind of beautiful actually. in seven seasons and 144 episodes, not once was a cop in any way useful or good at their job. at best cops are a nuisance and at worst they're actively trying to kill buffy and friends. you've really got to admire the thematic consistency.

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This was shared as a "bad" joke but I was so charmed by it I've been thinking about it for days.

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I love it when the monster of the week on Buffy actually has nothing to do with demons, magic, or the Hellmouth. Like, yeah, you can just reanimate your dead brother for a high school science project, why couldn't you? Sometimes, anabolic steroids turn you into a fish monster, that's just how it goes.

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This scene from “The Yoko Factor” is so funny to me. Bc like

First of all, it cements that the antagonists of Buffy have the best gaydar bc they’re gay, because Faith (in the body swap episode) and Spike were literally the ONLY PEOPLE who NATURALLY noticed that Willow and Tara had a thing going without being told about it. It’s so fucking funny that Spike just immediately susses it out. Like yeah, they’re not hiding it, but he doesn’t even consider that it could be casual intimacy or anything, just like “yeah they’re lesbians, makes sense”

Second of all, the fact that he uses witchcraft as a metaphor for lesbianism. It’s just really funny

Third, how when he tells them that their friends are being judgy (a.k.a homophobic) about it, Willow just fucking believes him 😭 Like yes girl, this evil soulless vampire was definitely allowed to participate in a personal conversation between people who hate him about your relationship, makes total sense. She’s so upset about it too, bless her.

And then just Spike throwing in “I think it’s fine btw. If you wanna be a witch, be a witch, you know?” Like it’s just so fucking funny in retrospect. ‘Yeah, I’m an evil dude who cares about none of you, and I’m actively trying to convince you that your friends are homophobic so that it will cause a rift between you, but I just gotta let you know that I support gay people.’ It was probably so they’d trust his word more, but it’s still just so funny that he threw that in there. Just letting them know they have the Spike seal of approval.

Spike supports lesbians. Even when he wants them and their friends dead

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I don't know how to make this make sense, but Spike is Buffy's girlfriend and Faith is her boyfriend.

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I hope the Buffy writer's room had an idea board just for putting Spike in situations. One could be like *hits blunt* "What if he was tied to a chair and there was a grizzly bear in the room" and another would say "That's going on the board!"