#daniel 'oz' osbourne

[air--so--sweet]

Oz in Buffy is often praised for his emotional maturity and calm demeanor. However, his pattern of trying to deal with emotional and difficult situations alone, his inability to express anger except through physical outbursts and violence and his anxiety over Willow moving on causing him to physically transform into a werewolf all suggest that he in fact suppresses and intellectualises his emotions rather than allowing himself to feel them. In this essay I will-

[clockwards]

wanna talk about all the things i love and wish were developed more in the btvs boys

- xander is never a coward even though he repeatedly says he is/looks down on himself and his abilities. he is sometimes even more willing than buffy to go into to danger to protect his friends in the first few seasons, and although it's written as an excuse to 'get the girl' it never ends up that way. i wish instead of them having him remain a "weaker" comedy character and pressing on his insecurities they let him begin to trust himself and have the others trust his abilities in turn. s3e13 'The Zeppo' is such a COOL fucking episode for him but no one else knows what happened and he goes back to being "the same old xander" afterwards. I wish he was written to be allowed to grow into his confidence without directly growing his insecurities towards the girls and their levels of power. in later seasons he does but then his old insecurities pop up just for the writers to cause group friction. anyway i wish we got to see more of just xander, I think that would've been so fun and cool

- i love early s4 Average Joe riley. he's just a dorky guy who loves psychology and doesn't even realise when he has a crush. I love that he's awkward and the potential he and willow had for friendship that kind of petered off. sometimes I really wish that they'd let him actually be an Average Joe and see what that changed for the season. and we never really see that awkward side of him again! he had all the traits to be a malewife and they took that from us because they wanted a strongman instead :[

- giles' morals degrading over the series!!!! him being so proper at the beginning and each apocalypse/major event undoing that just a bit more. realising that if he is Buffy's Certified Adult then she deserves his full and absolute protection wherever he can provide it. and he does fall into the dad role quite well but he is first and foremost a Protector (which he isn't meant to be because he's a Watcher!!!). also I don't think I've seen anyone talk about him putting on the record he and joyce were playing during band candy shenanigans after her death. and him full out killing ben end of s5 :D

- angel!!! angel being a dumbass!! you don't get to see it much in btvs so I guess this is more ats content but listen! he's new at having a soul and sure there's the guilt and the brooding and the torment but there's also joy and humour and comfort and silliness. angelus is a very focused character who does feel things, but only very intensely and basically one at a time. angel feels it all at once! and he gets to have fun, or he should. ats shenanigans are good for the heart, he deserves cordy and wes being annoying and lorne dragging him to parties and playing video games with gus and fred.

- oz has that autistic rizz (I know this because I'm autistic and had a dream we kissed)

- spike [LOUD YELLING, SCREAMING, CRIES OF THE DAMNED AND DOOMED TO HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY] haha yeah nothing much to say here. just a totally normal guy.

[yuleshootureye]

Just gonna sneak on some notes I made during a rewatch many moons ago:

I didn't tag the episode, but at some point in S3 Giles has books he doesn’t think Willow is ready for, and of course she read them anyway (It's justified when it's me)

In retrospect, Willow’s attempts to force Oz to accept her apologies feel like foreshadowing for the emotional manipulation/mind-wiping she puts Tara through

In "Fear Itself", Oz worries that Willow will mess with powers she can’t control. Either way, it’s a nice bit of foreshadowing, both because of Season 6 and because Oz talks about having a power you can’t control - he loses control this same season (God do I hate the Veruca arc) - and so does Willow: Oz leaves and the events of “Something Blue” happen.

‘Something Blue’ is like ‘Tabula Rasa’ on a leash. In both cases Willow never intended to cause harm to her friends but in ‘Something Blue’ the spell was meant to be for herself. In ‘Tabula Rasa’ it’s meant for Buffy and Tara. Both are destructive spells that have dire consequences but one of them genuinely is a mistake in effort to quickly heal her heart, the other is a purposeful attempt to sweep issues under the rug.

However, what both episodes have in common is that both are a way of Willow avoiding addressing and dealing with her emotions. Both are using magic as a means to escape feeling her emotions. Both are a crutch to make up for what she feels she lacks in herself. And in that way - they are directly connected and show that Willow’s arc was always in character despite it not being made clear it’s true foundation. Where the addiction actually stems from and what kind of addiction it actually is. It’s an emotional one.

Every time someone says that Willow’s magic addiction just came out of nowhere and was just a way to create drama between Willow and Tara and the Scoobies, I mention ‘Something Blue’. Because in both cases magic is used as drug to self-medicate and that self-medicating had second-hand smoke effects on everyone else. It was harmful for everyone. Whether it was intended to be or not doesn’t matter. The fact is that Willow’s use of magic leaned more towards destructiveness than beneficialness and she excused it as “helping” or “healing” when it was actually harming and hurting both herself and others.

Quick fixes and bandaids never help or heal anything. What they do is they make problems more difficult to solve or take longer to find solution. Willow needed to be told that her abuse of magic was dangerous for everyone involved - whether purposeful or accidental. And she is all throughout the show but the conversation always avoids the main point. Which is that using it to offset something internal - emotions/insecurities/anxieties - will only lead to both internal and external destruction because it is not addressing and dealing with them honestly, intimately and head on. It is avoiding and escaping them instead - thus making things much worse “inside” and “outside”.

So if ‘Something Blue’ is the start of Willow’s spiral into emotional addiction, then ‘Tabula Rasa’ is the inevitable conclusion of it. Ignore the “magic” part. That’s not as relevant as the necessity to use it’s power to counteract Willow’s insecurities of being powerless or useless or valueless or worthless. She knew it was her best chance because it’s what she’s best at. They could have done the same with her preference for hacking and technology engineering but they never do - instead they give Warren that arc. And it’s not lost on me the similarities between them as far as the need for accumulation of power goes. All they do is make it clear Warren’s intentions are evil - he intends to control, he intends dominate, he intends to rape, he intends to murder. Willow never intends any of this - but it is exactly what she does anyway.

“They’re the bad guys - I’m not the bad guy.”

Translation: “It is justified for me to do it because I do not intend to do evil with it. They do.”

But Willow - you become like them anyway because you avoid the truth behind the actions. And the truth is that you’re the one in pain. You’re the one that’s sad. You’re the one that’s confused. You’re the one that HAS THE PROBLEM. Not Buffy and Tara. And you know this is the truth, you just refuse to face it.

I will keep saying it: the only thing that’s wrong with this character is that this character thinks and believes that there’s something wrong with them. It’s entirely an insecurity issue right from the beginning. And they mislead you into thinking that that is improved or fixed - when it’s only just covered up. This is the meaning of Willow’s nightmare in ‘Restless’. The hiding and disguising. The “costume” she wears. The “character” she plays. The “part” she performs. It’s all Willow. There’s no doubt about that. But at the same time - it’s a perception severely filtered by lies and an identity veiled in ego. It’s not so much that she’s pretending to be someone she’s not because you can’t pretend to be something you’re not aware of being. But it is an act. A performance. An obliviously and obsessively chronic and compulsive behaviour.

That is why Willow is such a profound character.

[charmedslayer]

Then why'd they select you? Well, I sort of test well. You know, which is cool. Except that it leads to jobs.

[likeafantasy]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER      (2x06) ʜᴀʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴇɴ

[clarkgriffon]

Your hair... is brown. Oh yeah, sometimes.

[swamplamp]

HORROR GIF MEME | FAVORITE WEREWOLF Daniel "Oz" Osbourne from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

[buffysummers]

underrated buffyverse dynamics ➵ buffy summers & daniel "oz" osbourne

[liam-summers]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 03.16 | Dopplegangland

[maybebitterxox]

BTVS as textposts part 8

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

[bocadelinfierno]

[thepunkmuppet]

Buffyverse Characters - First and Last Appearances

↳ The Scooby Gang | Angel Investigations

[data-is-my-favorite-android]

Oz and Spike painting their fingernails together

Oz and Spike painting each OTHER'S fingernails

guys, we were robbed. I legit 100% believe Oz and Spike would have vibed so hard if they'd crossed paths in later seasons. They woulda been besties. We coulda had stoic nerd and secret nerd, band kid and poetry geek, werewolf and vampire buddies. The scoobies could have stumbled in on them debating philosophy and literature and also hashing out new lyrics for Dingoes Ate My Baby songs, all while drinking and painting their nails. Then they'd get the stone-faced, casual shrug, 'piss off' treatment when they asked wtf they'd just walked in on, and the scoobies would have no choice but to just accept it because if Oz is involved, it just, like, can't be that evil. Oz is just too chill. He coulda been Spike's platonic gateway into the scoobies' good graces.

WE WERE ROBBED.

[lowliet]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer | 2.21

[truemoondust]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) || Season 3 Intro

[whatisyourchildhoodtrauma]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 2.14 & 3.10