#buffy guide

[girl4music]

“No one is birthed into the world complete and we don’t cross a line somewhere in our 20’s to find that we’ve arrived at adult. We shape ourselves into the people we are by making choices or circumstances will do the shaping for us. Which brings us to Willow…

This episode is a significant one for the Rosenberg and I realized watching it that I’ve suffered something of a Mandela Effect when it comes to her. Specifically I’ve been misremembering the very first episode where Willow’s eyes turn black upon casting a spell. In ‘Becoming Part I’ after Giles tells Willow that casting a soul restoration spell might open a door she’d be unable to close. She insisted. But his warning implies that casting magic potentially leaves an indelible mark on the caster and while being watched by Cordy and Oz something channelled through her and I was sure that she looked up, looked forward and had black eyes during the remainder of the spell - but no. Still, the door was open, and in Willow’s case what that has meant so far is magic becoming her number one coping mechanism. Magic has been a metaphor for a few things, but one of it’s analogues set up early on by Giles’ abuse of it to get high in ‘The Dark Age’, was drugs. A metaphorical connection between magic and alcohol was made in ‘Something Blue’ when Willow first tried to deal with her grief over Oz by way of a sick bud-light dance party. She has resorted to magic to cope with her lust, to cope with her anger, to cope with her grief,… and in ‘Tough Love’, her rage.

Historically there has usually been a scene afterwards where she suffers guilt for the spell’s misfire and bakes a round of apology cookies, but the episode always stops just short of her learning the actual lesson. Her regret is never specifically for the use of magic to solve her problem, but for the fact that she wasn’t capable enough to pull the spell off the way she wanted to and everyone tends to let it slide. On to the next episode. Heck, Buffy said more to Jonathan in ‘Superstar’ than she has ever said to Willow… because Willow is just… in pain, angry, lonely, lost. That’s all. It’s a familiar pattern with abuse-based coping mechanisms given there always tends to be a lot going on for that person. Big things that their friends and family members see as what actually drove their loved ones to this and that big thing feels more important right now than confronting their loved one about their little problem. Now is not the time, now is never the time and then time slips past.

But Willow has continued to become more powerful with every passing season and in ‘Tough Love’ her breaking into the Magic Box and channelling actual black magic I think represents a turning point. This is the first time her eyes actually turn black and if every spell leaves an indelible mark upon the caster, there is something in her now that she will always have to carry. But in keeping with Willow learning the wrong lesson or none whatsoever, the final scene in the episode follows the pattern we’ve seen to this point. Scoobies feeling bad for what Willow must be going through, conversations about consequences not being had and Willow feeling defeated and depressed. If the pattern fits not just because of Tara’s state, but because Willow wasn’t strong enough to wield the necessary power to properly take her revenge. Wasn’t strong enough,.. yet.”

Once again, nice job, Ian. Hit some points that I’ve never really thought about myself as you often do.

About your comment on the final scene of the episode being confusing because of the location they’re in.

Tara has not officially moved in with Willow. Yes, she stays in Willow’s room more often than not (hence the double bed replacing the two singles since ‘The Replacement’) and because of the traumatic events of ‘Family’ where her abusive dad just let himself in when it was unlocked, making it unsafe for Tara to be there alone, but they don’t officially live together. Willow still has her dorm room and Tara still has hers. So the room you see them in at the end of the episode is Tara’s dorm room, not Willow’s or Buffy’s.

[thehalloweenhub]

10 TV Episodes for Halloween (part one)

[jane-not-rizzoli]

Sometimes I think the only authentic and positive representations of autism are written by accident. In this essay I will…

[theajaheira]

i cannot stop laughing. go king give us nothing

[vamptvgirl]

[fictiongods]

I have a song on my Fuffy playlist and I really just added it cause I liked it and that was the playlist I was listening to at the time so I kept meaning to take it off because I didn’t really know if it even related to them or not and I just looked up the meaning…..don’t talk to me. It’s safe to say that song is STAYING THERE. Goodbye.

[90s-2000s-barbie]

TV Guides 📺

Back before we had the TV Guide channel, we had to by the guides every week. Our area didn’t have a TV Guide channel till I was in high school. We bought these for decades.

[werewolf-swag-competition]

The moon is rising...

The werewolves that have gathered are:

Alice "Daisy" Tonner (The Magnus Archives)

Alphonse (Sir William and the Wolf)

Angua von Überwald (Discworld)

Anton (What we do in the Shadows)

Big and will be Bad Wolf (Lobotomy Corporation)

Bisclavret (Bisclaveret)

Catalina Schnitz (Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure)

Clawd Wolf (Monster High)

Daniel "Oz" Osbourne (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Father Gascoigne (Bloodborne)

Farkas (Skyrim)

Jack Howl (Twisted Wonderland)

Jack Russel (Marvel Comics)

Jawbone O'Shaughnessey (Dimension 20)

Julie (Moonstruck)

Laurence the First Vicar (Bloodborne)

Link (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)

Lycaon son of Pelagus (Greek Mythology)

Maddy Smith (Wolfblood)

Malaya Walters (How to be a Werewolf)

Mason Greyback (Wizards of Waverly Place)

Mebh Óg MacTíre (Wolfwalkers)

Paul Schue-Horyn (Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye)

Quentin Collins (Dark Shadows)

Rendog (Hermitcraft)

Ruby/Little Red Riding Hood (One Upon a Time)

Scott McCall (Teen Wolf)

Sonic the Werehog (Sonic Unleashed)

Wayne (Hotel Transylvania)

Werewolf Cookie (Cookie Run)

Will Blake (Goosebumps)

Yaretzi (Hello from the Hallowoods)

"But wait a moment!!" you may say. "Where's David? Where's Chetney? Where's Scott? WHERE'S CLAWDEEN???" and for that, I direct you to @werewolfbattle ! I decided to give other characters a chance and eliminate characters who made it far in that contest. I think that's fair. The semi finals are still happening, so go ahead and vote there!

[whattraintracks]

A BUFFY STAN?? BRO THATS SO REAL !!

(im pumpkinpie59 btw fjdkdkd)

Heck yeah, I'm a Buffy stan!! I loved "Poor Little Rich Turtle" because I loved her. Absolute crime we didn't get more of her. I am constantly haunted by the fact that I must create the content with her that I want to see. So thank you for your adorable art!!

[anotherpapercut]

CORRECT THANK YOU FOR SHARING

[girl4music]

Hmmm Ian. I think for the first time I actually disagree with you. I DO think the Oz or Tara conflict of the episode pays off. I DO see it as an informed choice. I think it’s perfectly possible for Oz to still be around Willow even after this episode revealing that Oz can just basically wolf out now whenever he gets angry. I feel like that’s something she could deal with and it’s Oz that can’t accept it. But she accepts it along with him because she’s actually chosen to be with Tara and probably finds it easier if he just disappears as to not come between them.

What doesn’t work for me about this episode is that Oz wolfs out because of the information that Willow and Tara are involved. That to me seems like violent masculinity and therefore doesn’t exactly put Oz in the best light since he now just seems like an aggressive and jealous asshole and therefore Riley is actually in the right about him being dangerous. But nevertheless, Willow has handled danger like that before and she will again. So Oz’s inability to control ‘the beast’ is not the issue here, although it very much should be. The issue is that she’s with someone else. With Tara. So I believe she does very much make an informed choice because Oz driving back into her life asking for her back is something she still has to consider regardless. It would make it easier to just go back to the man she still has feelings for, right? There’d be less stress and fear.

Maybe the right word for it isn’t “choice”. I think “affirmation” works better. And I think to truly understand this as an “affirmation”, you need to have personally been in the predicament Willow is in in the episode which is probably why you don’t have much to say about the confession scene. It’s not something you can relate to or resonate with on the level of a closeted lesbian or WLW. Willow has an affirmation to continue her relationship with Tara - a woman - even though her previous lover - a man - has come back into her life specifically to ask for her back as a lover. It’s a validating affirmation.

Willow had already chosen from the start. What she’s grappling with is whether it’s the right choice to make now that her ex wants her back. Something she’s wanted most of all has unexpectedly happened. There’s not a single point in the episode where Willow specifically states whether she should stay with Tara or go back to Oz. The only thing she tells Buffy - and us - is that it’s complicated. It’s hard for her but her choice remains what it always was. Tara. It’s an affirmation what Willow goes through in this episode. Whether her love for Tara will prevail or whether what she still feels for Oz will change her mind. It didn’t. In this moment her relationship with Tara mattered more than that of what she desperately wanted with Oz. It’s a statement of choosing what makes her the happiest.

[a-heart-of-kyber]

The way in which people seem to blindly act as if season 6 of Buffy exists in a vacuum is actually bananas.

[forestkodama]

Going through a box of my stuff from the Teenage Era. This 2004 TV has (physically) held up well.

Who wants to see 2004 opinions on the 25 Top Cult Shows Ever!?

[maggottgrrrl]

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cable Guide UK 2000 Jan

[ssaalexblake]

I dislike takes that say Giles hated or was a poor parental figure to xander out of dislike because Giles was actually just a shitty parental figure to all of the scoobies full stop tbh