#Amends

[buffyangelscreens]

[bangelgifs]

❄️ Bangel + Miracle Snow ❄️

"Angel, you have the power to do real good, to make amends."

[larsisfrommars]

I’m continuing to lose my mind about Xander in Amends and Zeppo and Consequences

I’ve seen some what I believe to be, maybe not bad faith, but uncharitable interpretations of his change of heart in that episode is just him avoiding being around his parents.

Firstly, can’t blame him if true, secondly, I think it’s more than that.

At that point in his character arc he has fucked up every single one of his friendships (Buffy, Willow, Corey, Oz). He is capital A alone on Christmas and he’d rather camp outside than put up with his parents.

That kid is at Rock Fucking Bottom and clearly has a lot of guilt he’s deflecting about it for a while.

I don’t think it’s wild for him to finally FINALLY go “hey I’ve been shitty and I wanna make it right.”

I mean he kinda half apologized to Buffy at the end of Revelations. He just finally followed through the rest of the way and I can’t discount that.

I don’t expect him to stop hating vampires but like, he’s trying to repair bridges with his found family since his blood family is horrific garbage.

I also think this long awaited moment self-reflection and the events of Zeppo is part of why he reaches out to Faith in Consequences, not just because they unceremoniously slept together. Xander and Faith deflect on their misdeeds in similar ways, it makes sense to me that he might recognize that in her.

[thehouseofevangelista]

Ok, so a lot of us have contemplated how Carmy will repair relationships post freezer, and rewatching him and Richie, it occurred to me that Richie is very much arguing with Carm the same way one would argue with an addict. For Richie there is so much love there and he can see Carmy self destructing, and it’s not that Carm’s words don’t hurt, but that Richie knows that Carmy is scrapping the bottom of the barrel and trying to cut deep as possible. And I’m not saying that Carm doesn’t need to make amends, what I’m trying to get at is that I don’t think Richie will put up a fight when carmy does. Richie wants to see Carmy succeed, and his anger revolves purely around the frustration of seeing someone you love, someone you know has so much potential, self destruct. Exactly like how he had to watch Mikey self destruct.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I rewatched Amends for Christmas, as you do, and in doing so this year, I feel like I can really see how they were originally planning to have Buffy be the character to put Angel on the right path again in "You're Welcome."

I mean, it would have tied into how she was the one to set him on his path to begin with, so of course he'd need her to steer him right when he was veering off of it.

And I think the "Strong is fighting. It's hard and it's painful and it's every day" thing would have come back, of course. Because one can argue that in trying to change Wolfram & Hart from the inside, Angel was taking the easy way out. It was well-intentioned, but sadly it was never going to work... and really, Angel knew that and it just became more and more apparent. And the more he stayed there, he was the one changing, not them. So, yeah: he needed to get back to truly fighting Wolfram & Hart, even if it was "hard and painful" and he might never really win.

This definitely would have been interesting to see.

[elejahfanfic]

Angel: The world wants me gone.

Buffy Summers: What about me? I love you so much... And I tried to make you go away... I killed you, and it didn't help... And I hate it! I hate that it's so hard... and that you can hurt me so much... I *know* everything that you did because you did it to me. Oh, God. I wish that I wished you dead... I don't...

[whispers]

Buffy Summers: I can't.

Angel: Buffy, please... Just this once... let me be strong.

Buffy Summers: Strong is fighting. It's hard and it's painful and it's every day. It's what we have to do. And we can do it together. But if you're too much of a coward for that, then burn. If I can't convince you that you belong in this world then I don't know what can. But do not expect me to watch. And don't expect me to mourn for you, because...

[it starts snowing, the clouds blocking the sunrise]

[destiel-loses-to-everything]

[fieriframes]

[I'M ASHAMED OF HALF THE THINGS I SAY, I'M ASHAMED TO HAVE TURNED OUT THIS WAY AND I DESIRE TO MAKE AMENDS. I APPRECIATE YOU LETTING ME TRAIN UNDER YOUR TUTELAGE. OH, HONEY, IF I TRAINED YOU, WHOA!]

[buffyangelscreens]

[hamiltonsunnydale]

Expanding beyond Hamilton

[larsisfrommars]

It’s gonna be REALLY hard for this show to make me hate Xander Harris after Amends and Zeppo.

I know for a fact that he will do more stupid shit.

But he tried to make things right with Buffy over Angel of all things and of all people. He had to sleep outside in the snow because his parents won’t stop fighting. And he’s struggling to find his place in an extremely powerful group of people and saved the world and didn’t even brag.

Whatever else he does won’t fully erase that for me.

[topoet]

Sorry - Not

pull up a chair On a recent walk with a friend in recovery we talked about the amends steps (8, 9, 10) & how say ‘sorry’ is not sufficient. We live in a culture in which the apology is a means to avoid consequences, a way to turn consequences into victim blaming. ‘Why do I have to go to jail, don’t you forgive me? What’s your problem.’ ‘Sorry’ is one of those meaningless phrases like ‘have a…

[bocadelinfierno]

[herinsectreflection]

A New Kind of Bad, Just In Time For Christmas (Amends)

Holiday episodes are a dying art form in the televisual world of 2023. With the domination of on-demand streaming services, the exact airdate of an episode has come to matter less and less. Modern shows might still centre episodes around certain holidays, but rarely can they be considered true Holiday Episodes. By virtue of being easily available outside of one specific date and time of airing, they cannot have the same inherent link to a specific temporal point that the Holiday episodes of years past did.

Things were different in 1999. Episodes were tied to specific points in real time, which affected the fiction. Buffy is no exception. The show progresses at a linear rate of one in-universe year to one real-world year, and all on-screen events occur within the nine-to-ten months we would recognise as an academic year. Buffy herself notes the hellmouth’s tendency to become extra-apocalyptic each May in Get It Done. The show moors itself in the chronology of our world, a choice which benefits television’s personable nature. 

As far as traditional holidays go, Buffy is slightly more indifferent. The closest thing to an annual holiday the show has is Buffy’s yearly birthday disaster. Outside of that, we have three Halloween specials, one Valentine's Day episode, one wildly misguided Thanksgiving story, and this - Buffy’s first and only Christmas episode. This episode has no shame in wearing its Christmassiness on its red-and-white sleeve. Everything from the advertising, to the carol singers that open the episode, to the saccharine snowfall of the climax, to the Santa hat placed on the Mutant Enemy demon during the credits, all screams Christmas. ‘Tis the season, screams the Buffyverse, and of course that means that this is a time of warmth, community, and coming together with the people you love - for other people. For the inhabitants of the Buffyverse, it is a time for demons, loneliness, and seasonal depression.

The Scooby Gang discuss their plans for the holidays, and each of them seems progressively more bleak. Buffy has probably the best time of it - a low-key Christmas with just her and her mother. Willow is alone, still flagellating herself over the Xander incident, and trying to make things up to Oz. Xander is planning an escape from his abusive family’s violent arguments. Cordelia claims she is going skiing in Aspen, but given that we are now in the mystery zone where Cordelia’s father may or may not have been arrested yet, there’s a good chance she’s lying and is spending the Christmas penniless and friendless. She would have this in common with Faith, who is stuck hanging a sad single string of lights in a dingy motel room, inventing fictional parties that she can claim to be invited to so as to not lose face in front of Buffy. And then there is Angel, who, in addition to being a vampire stuck in a Christian holiday, and having recently been dumped, is also being tortured by the incorporeal manifestation of pure evil.

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[cashcoffeecup]

[twosomeofcuteness]

Actually, I have one big thought. When Buffy shows up in the office to ask Giles for help with Angel.... For help with the vampire who tortured Giles and murdered Jenny just last season??? The background of the shot makes me absolutely insane. Why? Because this:

Who decided this room, with that window, was the best place for Buffy and Giles to have a conversation about Angel? Buffys head in front of that window is Giles' view. And yes, while they don't know that's the same window (albeit a much smaller version) Jenny died in front of, it still makes me insane. Like:

(That's a very bad picture of the event but I don't feel like scrolling through my entire gallery rn) And this comes less than ten minutes after the scene of Giles threatening Angel with a damn crossbow reminding us all of that time Jenny shot HIM with the crossbow. (see Celia's post about the crossbow scenes for more information)