#buffyverse thoughts

[laufire]

Buffy Summers for the character asks

How I feel about this character: I adore her. I cry when she cries. I think she's one of the best protagonists ever created.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Angel is at the very top and basically anything else is tamer and situational lol. Faith would be a strong, if not equal second. Distant thirds would be whenever I've enjoyed the likes of Buffy/Willow, Buffy/Tara, Buffy/Kendra... but in a low-key way. I also appreciate the idea of Buffy/Drusilla, but that's all in my head.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: DAWN. DAWNDAWNDAWN. Their relationship wrecks meeee.

My unpopular opinion about this character: idek what could be unpopular, my circles and I tend to agree and I tend to ignore the rest añdslfkajsdf. Hmm. I guess I've seen people say she UTTERLY FAILED Faith in season 3, and I think it was more complicated than that? But I also don't think that's a widely extended opinion, probably.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: if I'd rewatched more recently I'm sure I'd have sooooo much to say lol. Hmm... recently I saw someone (I can't remember where) saying that maybe after death she got her memories from The Day In The Sun with Angel and that that's part of what they discussed in their off-screen reunion... generally I prefer that we didn't see them meet and that we can project whatever onto it, but I would've loved to see something about that.

[ptieuca]

you almost went away today. we both did.

[bloomfish]

I think one of the worst moments in buffy history is them framing xander's speech about riley in into the woods as like... correct in any way. it makes you really dislike Xander (even more). Buffy's boyfriend literally cheats on her with vampire prostitutes lol and then tells her that if she doesn't forgive him on the spot he's leaving forever. and then we're supposed to buy that Xander is correct in saying that it's all Buffy's fault and that she should run after Riley to beg him to stay?

It's sooo infuriating how Riley is framed as 'the one who got away' when really he's 'the one who was so cripplingly insecure that he couldn't handle his girlfriend being stronger than him and having her own problems because he's made his entire identity about his girlfriend instead of getting the fuck over himself'

the real reason why xander doesn't want buffy to dump riley's ass as she should is so clearly because he projects onto riley. subconsciously he thinks that if someone 'normal' like riley can be with buffy then he also has a shot. newsflash it wasn't riley being 'normal' it was riley being an insecure condescending freak just like u

[liam-summers]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 03.19 | Choices

[thepunkmuppet]

was no one gonna tell me the pink opaque was based on buffy the vampire slayer. because I - a trans guy who watched buffy at eleven years old and have been irreversibly obsessed and connected with it ever since to the point where it’s an integral part of my life and personality - watched I saw the tv glow today. and I’m. fine I’m doing fine trust me I swear I’m fine

[mycatismyfriend]

Spike in Angel the Series 5x11

↳ What happened? Oh, I just thought I'd see what it was like to bounce off the pavement. Pretty much what I expected.

[amongaesthetics]

So, spooky season means spooky show rewatching, and thoughts about said spooky shows.

I need someone to agree with me that The Vampire Diaries took their archetypes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like, nobody can convince me that Stefan is not supposed to be Angel (when normal he’s the height of morality, but secretly has a darker side that gets out of control and dangerous). And that Damon is not supposed to be Spike (wild, does what he wants when he wants, but falls in love deep and hard because behind the murder and mayhem, he’s a romantic at his core).

I also love that someone looked at Angel and Spike and said “ah, torture and falling in love with the same girl, that’s sibling behavior” which I am HERE for.

Other thoughts on TVD:

- all the past doppelgängers of Elena and Stefan are doomed to fall in love and then die miserably, so really we should be thanking Damon for being a meddling girlfriend stealer since without him everybody else would literally die in season 2/3 (he was the problem in season 1)

- Stefan loved Elena, but I think he was more happy that Damon would fight him for her than he was upset about it. The whole series Stefan loved Damon, and for a good while he wanted to find humanity in Damon and ground him in that. Damon loving Elena proved that humanity to Stefan, which is why Stefan only really got upset when he lost Elena.

- Spike is still better than Damon, but I find Stefan a more fully fleshed out character than Angel (at least in the Buffy series) since in Buffy Angel was literally “I’m tortured and love you and have your back but I’m a vampire and I hate that and I used to be suu-ccchh a bad person but don’t look at other guys” and it felt like he was almost too tall dark and mysterious most of the time. Stefan at least we follow and hear the monologue and thoughts and hopes of.

[loseremzo]

am i the only person who gets sad when they think about the fact that Buffy’s class protector award from prom was destroyed in 04x01. Cause like when she got the award i was sobbing crying cause she got her recognition from her peers that she helps, however that is. But then when it gets destroyed i got so sad because she was already going through it that episode and now on top of it the recognition and appreciation she got from her high school classmates is gone. I get there might be a metaphor for it, like she has to earn the respect of her college peers now, but she also doesn’t do that. She doesn’t stay in college and we as an audience don’t connect with the college scene like we did the high school one. It just makes me sad to think about it. If I were her I would be crying 24/7, just constantly breaking down from the constant shit that happens on a daily basis.

[yarboyandy]

He shoulda been at the club

[theoverlookedoneedits1997]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Teacher's Pet

My favourite thing about this episode is how it portrays student-teacher relationships. Through Buffy and Doctor Gregory, we see a healthy and supportive relationship between a teacher and a student. That is the way it should be. He is stern but he's also encouraging. He communicates to Buffy that she has value based on her own merit and not on what others think of her. Throughout their conversation Doctor Gregory builds a report with Buffy while also maintaining boundaries. He's still the teacher and she's still the student.

Then we see the entirely inappropriate relationships that Ms. French is making with her students, the ones who are inexperienced and desperate for affection (Xander and Blane). The fact that they literally made her a predator is so perfect and really cements the idea that any romantic or sexual relationship between a student and a teacher is inherently predatory.

I especially love that they demonstrate this harmful relationship with a female teacher. It's easier to spot inappropriate relationships between adult men and teenage girls, but we have a harder time identifying toxic and dangerous relationships between adult women and teenage boys. Teen boys also need to be protected from predators, male or female.

[awinterrosesstuff]

Cordelia is a character I've always liked. She's so abruptly honest and even if sometimes she lacks tact, it's something I really admire in her. Remember this time Buffy got the ability to read minds ? She was saying exactly what she was thinking.

She fits the "superficial girl" trope at first. But little by little, we get to know her and see her other traits. It's very interesting the way she's written and we are allowed to discover her. She's afraid to be alone and cares about what her "friends" think of her. She's pretty smart and serious in her studies. She seems to have her own opinion about things.

She even learns some things. When she puts Harmony in her place is very pivotal to her development. I find her fun to watch. She can be quite sarcastic and I enjoy it.

[laufire]

I’ve not quite reached season 7 of my buffywatch but I’m curious to know your thoughts on Kennedy (yes I’m not there yet but I was spoiled on some of the beats of the season). It seems like what I can gather the consensus is that she’s a bitch but like she’s hardly alone in that. Is there something more meaningful that wouldve turned people off and what do you think of her?

I don't think I had in-depth thoughts about it, then or now, but I don't fall with the rest of the fandom on this. Out of all the potentials, I definitely liked Kennedy best, for one. She had the more distinctive, conflict-arising personality out of the lot, which is probably part of the reason she rubbed the fandom the wrong way. But as the meme goes, joke's on you, I'm into that shit.

Though the biggest reason she stuck out was surely her relationship with Willow, which... I get, in part (season 6's ending is very recent), but I also side-eye in some cases (some comments I saw back in the day had that good ol' homophobic stench lol. That's the problem with disliking any kind of less-than-completely-normative ship, there will always be bigots that agree with you lmao).

I also diverge from fandom in this. Kennedy/Willow is hardly my OTP, and if I had been the one put in charge of Willow's romance that season I might've chosen instead to go with an already established, uneasy dynamic (Faith, or Amy. Maybe Anya lmao), which is catnip to me.

But, although it's been a while since I watched it and the execution probably wasn't as perfect as it could've been, I think they made it work, especially as it was a ~last minute pairing. The show wasn't trying to sell it as the grandest of grand romances, or dismissing what Tara and Willow had and what Tara meant to her. It was about offering Willow... the future, if that makes sense? It was about showing things didn't have to end after such a tragedy. There could be light and joy and fun moving forward.

Also like. You gotta give Kennedy props. Her life is in shambles but she spies a Troubled Lesbian around and immediately shoots her shot? Respect.

[cordelia-slay]

I can't believe James Marsters had such amazing hair after bleaching it weekly for 7 years and I'm balding just by existing

[all-seeing-ifer]

I did have a bunch of other thoughts on my thesis statement that wolf 359 is basically the only other piece of media that managed to successfully pull off buffy's writing style but I ended up getting way off track just harping on that one point and I had to cut most of it out from the recs list, but basically I think it comes down to the wolf 359 writers not just imitating whedon's writing style without thought like a lot of writers at the time (and unfortunately, still today) did, but actually understood the main principles that made buffy's writing work. which I would say are

1) The characters talk Like That because of who they are as people. Buffy makes quips and pop culture references because it’s her way of dealing with the shit she goes through. We don’t see her making those jokes when the situation is hopeless and she doesn’t feel like she can deal with it anymore. Similarly, Doug Eiffel makes quips and pop culture references because he misses Earth and its pop culture, he doesn’t take his role on the Hephaestus seriously, and he wants everyone to know these things. And as we come to learn, there are very clear reasons why he feels this way.

and

2) The writers know when to shut the fuck up and be serious. Despite its often ironic and irreverent tone, a lot of the most memorable and best episodes of Wolf are ones that are more serious and have genuine emotional weight behind them: Am I Alone Now, Memoria, the Desperate Times/Desperate Measures two-parter, the Variations on a Theme minisode. Not to imply that the more comedic episodes aren’t also often stellar, but it’s clear that the writers still take their own story and characters seriously.

[rey-han]

girlhood is a spectrum

[annairaleigh]

Did the monks making Dawn into Buffy's sister and implanting the memories into Joyce's head cause Joyce's brain tumor, or did the monks know Joyce was going to die and without Dawn, Buffy wouldn't have survived the loss?

Questions my heart cannot handle this early