#Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling

[lauransoverthinking]

“Anakin, please tell me you did not touch an unknown force object.”

Of course Obi-wan was scolding Anakin as soon as the door opened, before they were even in the room.

Ahsoka stepped into the room and stood by a wall as Anakin responded. “It wasn’t my fault!”

“Can you explain exactly how it is not your fault?”

Anakin’s mouth moved without words before responding, “Ok fine, so it was my fault, but I didn’t know what would happen!”

What happened was Ahsoka heard songs, and somehow, so did Rex.

For Rexsoka Monthly July Prompt: I Told You Not to Touch That!

Here is the thing that has taken over every free moment for two weeks. The idea for this fic invaded my mind and I had to get it out as quickly as I possibly could.

I hope you enjoy what happens when I am looking for a reason to write a fic for a song and the monthly prompt delivers.

[paperpuzzles]

[frenchublog]

🫀...!

[stronglikeayellowcrayon]

Behind the scenes of Once More With Feeling, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode (x)

[jq37]

One of the funniest jokes in the Buffy episode "Once More With Feeling" is that when the Scooby Gang busts in and sees Buffy singing under compulsion from the spell and fighting demons, Giles goes, "She needs backup! Anya! Tara!" And instead of helping her fight or anything like that they stand behind her and start backup singing and dancing for her. And I crack up every time I see that but I also think it's fun if, diegetically, Giles was like "Oh no, Buffy is having her big, explosive, 11 o' clock number. If she has to bear the brunt of this musical number alone it *will* kill her before we can resolve this," (since dying of combustion if you sing too much for too long is the threat of the episode). And having Anya and Tara provide backup vocals was actually a magically effective way to shift some of the burden off of Buffy.

[kink-tomato]

This is the best line reading in cinematic history. The complete about face. The instant change of tone. It gets me every time.

[werehorsebite]

Buffy & Spike

5x07 Fool for Love / 6x07 Once More With Feeling

inspired by this post by @aphony-cree

[x66r9u]

Under your spell

[pinesorneedles]

once more with feeling is such a devastatingly good episode preceded by such perfect setup, and just the perfect emotional release.

as a musical theatre composer i kinda hate the refrain of "when you can't speak, sing" because i think it's extremely oversimplifying, but i do think the art of the musical allows for glimpses into the confessional and the internal that a lot of performance art just doesn't. and while btvs is usually really good at doing that through the metaphorical, season 6 as a whole focuses on the internal world of the group so strongly, while also having the "big bads" of the season be human. it's a really massive tonal shift, obviously, but it also pushes each of the characters further inside themselves.

so at that point in season 6 where everyone is in a weird repressed emotional state, where communication is at an all-time low and conflict is at an all-time high, completely unaffected by some mystical big-bad, it feels like something needs to come out. and like, literal genius to have it come out during a musical.

also, just structurally it works so well. starting off with going through the motions, about buffy's isolation and depression, leading straight into i've got a theory where the group asserts that there's "nothing we can't do if we're together" immediately introduces a sort of dissonance to the assertion that everyone's together, and the fractures continue throughout the episode. like, the stuff introduced at the top gets properly addressed at the end of the episode (when buffy confesses to having been in heaven, and no one in the group knows what to do with it, followed by buffy getting with spike, taking some control over what she's going through). and similarly, under your spell at the top, and then tara's realization of what willow's done to her. i can't go through every single thing, but it's just such a tight episode that's so strong on it's own while also perfectly tying into stuff that's been set up. (it's also like,,,,, the only proper externalization of xander/anya's relationship worries until hell's bells)

it's also just completely delightful, like it's fun as hell!!! it's funny in all the ways that buffy is, it's heartbreaking in all the ways the show is. it's fun as hell all the way through while also confronting the splintering of that's marked the season. the songs are fun and varied, it's just perfect.

it's a perfect episode of television to me <3 i love it. that's all folks.

[agathasc0ven]

buffy's musical episode "once more, with feeling", premiered 22 years ago today. considered one of the best of the series, this episode is the reason why other shows have had musical episodes. iconic.

buffy the vampire slayer | 6x07 | once more, with feeling

[conscious-overflow]

I think it's really sweet in Once More with Feelings how Spike tries his best to get Buffy to leave before he breaks into song. He's been so careful with her since she came back to life, even before knowing she had been in heaven. Never pushing to hard or demanding anything. Just trying to give her the support and space her friends were denying her.

He wanted to protect her from his feelings breaking out, just like he'd been trying to protect her since she came back. He knew she wasn't ready for them and he didn't want to add that pressure on top of everything else she's dealing with. So he tried to get her to leave, but then the song took over and it was too late. Honestly he's just so incredibly sweet so far this season, he knows how lucky he is even to have her back and he just wants to be part of her life and doesn't want to risk being excluded again.

[in-art-be-liv]

[paperpuzzles]

[bluebooks1]

Please help settle this with @captainfairygodmother (started on @mildlyinterestedcreature 's post)

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

”let me take my love and bury it in a hole 6 foot deep” is such an unreasonably raw lyric that sounds like it’s from an Alice In Chains or MCR song but no it’s from the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

[melinoephilia]

Analyzing Anya & Xander's Duet

Aside from the general sadness of the episode, one of the sad things about "Once More With Feeling" is Anya and Xander's "I'll Never Tell" song. First, let's start with the most obvious. When Xander sings about Anya in this song, almost all his lines about her positives have to do with her body/looks and being in her "tight embrace" (we all know what he was really talking about). In fact, if you go through the lyrics of the song, the only time he compliments her personality is when he calls her a charmer and says she's sweller. But if we look at all the things he sang previously, is it charmer for her personality or because of what she does for him? (satisfy his sexual urges). On the opposite end of this, he has many criticisms of her personality within the song, "She clings. She's needy. She's also really greedy." Furthermore, if you want to take his insecurity lines into account, you can see that while, yes, he's insecure, which is fair, anyone can be insecure, they're also implying that he believes she's only with him for monetary purposes, and views him as disposable DESPITE her clear dedication to him (and willingness to live in his parents' basement). Don't even get me started on the "Am I marrying a demon" line. While I can understand that fear, on account she was a demon for a thousand or so years, it completely ignores all the human growth she had and character arc she went through.

Now let's start on Anya's verses. While yes, she does criticize him a bit, almost all her lines have to do with one of two things. A) the way he treats her. OR. B) insecurities centered solely on her. She doesn't compliment him much in this song, but she doesn't disparage who he is as person much either, and when she does it's either things all couples complain about like, "he snores" and most fair of all "his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe," or things that critique his behavior in their relationship, "I talk. He breezes." and "Say housework and he freezes." Now I will acknowledge one line she said "His eyes are really beady." Yes this is a diss against his appearance, but this also comes with her interrupting a long verse of him just disparaging her personality and she was like just trying to stop that train by changing the track. It should also be noted that this verse against her personality came directly after she called out his habit of hiding behind buffy when things get rough, so he is clearly lashing out having not liked the feeling of feeling emasculated. Another note is that all but one of her complimentary lines toward him have to do with his personality. "He's swell," and "My knight in shining armor."

From her lines in the song we can see how insecure he makes her, because ultimately we have to remember this is a song about their relationship. "Will I look good when I've gotten old," "when I get so worn and wrinkly. That I look like David Brinkley," "I've read this tale. There's wedding. Then betrayal," and most importantly "Like it's all just temporary."

Lastly, just a quick assessment on their perception of their relationship that comes in near the end of the song. Xander sings, "Am I crazy?" whereas Anya sings, "Am I dreaming?" She views this as a dream, something not possible but somehow is, whereas he views it as something crazy, a word with negative connotations, that what he's doing could be done by someone not in their right mind.

My summation? While this song is upbeat and peppy, it actually was telling us exactly how their love story would end, as well as who would be the one to run. Xander, as much as he's central to the scoobies, was and always will be a sexist coward. He never loved Anya, he only love what she could do for him, and she was also the only one interested in him.

Anya wasn't perfect, but she 100x deserved better.