#faith is like 'i love you buffy but im too broken for you'

[julieverne]

Penance

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | 7.18

[flints-silver]

for the show ask meme: 9, 17, 19 (but you can't say s3 faith hehe), 23! 💕

9. season ranking?

okay this changes every day! seriously. but for right now i think:

1. season 3. season 3 will always be my favorite. not just cause of faith and fuffy (but like, hello) but also because i think it has the PERFECT balance of main arc and one off episodes. like, the faith and the mayor arc is my favorite main arc, and then we have amazing one offs like the prom, band candy, the zeppo, the wish, doppelgangland (vamp willow!!), homecoming, anne, earshot, etc. i mean this season is so amazing, there’s almost no bad episodes, it just has the perfect balance. i love it. the only slight negatives for me are xander/willow, the whole cheating thing, not enough faith in the beginning of the season, but this is the perfect season for me. seriously, faith BREAKS my heart. and bad girls happened. 

2. season 2. ugh i love this season, and again it’s always going to be my second favorite. these two don’t change. the whole angel turning to angelus twist got me SHOOK on the first watch, and is the moment i really fell in love with the show. spike/drusilla/angelus is delicious. and we have adorable woz and xander/cordelia. to me the later scoobies could never replace the early ones, im sorry. willow starts to do magic! to me this season is the show at it’s most “itself” if that makes sense. still a lot of corny monster of the week episodes left over from season one, but still an amazing season.

3. season 4. i used to not be big on season 4. it was just such a jarring change coming off of my favorite era (the high school years) and my favorite season. i miss angel and cordy and my heart breaks when oz leaves. the setting was so different and weirdly...big and bright, and i was not ready. but now, while it’s definitely not a perfect season, i love seeing everyone...happy? this is one of the most lighthearted seasons of the whole show, and it’s just nice to see. happy buffy warms my heart. the main arc is pretty lame, riley is uninspiring, but there are a ton of fun one offs and it’s cool to see the show trying to find it’s footing again and figure out what it’d going to be next. it’s also the ONLY college season, which is weird. usually in shows that transition, they go to high school, and then stay in college for the next couple seasons. not this show, and the novelty of this being the only college season again makes it really unique in the verse and fun.

4. season 5. season 5 is crafted nearly perfectly. the glory arc is the most well thought out in the whole show imo. it twines together dawn (and yay, they bring in dawn! i love her) and glory and buffy in such an interesting way. there’s so much foreshadowing into buffy’s realization that she has to sacrifice herself to save the world, and the writing just feels elevated this season. that being said, i think this season was a little too main arc heavy, and really could have used more fun one offs to help keep the season from blending together. basically, this season and season 4 have the opposite problems. this is also where shit starts to get depressing, and while i do find it cathartic, it also isn’t as fun to watch. but i do love seeing more of who buffy is. as much as i want her to be happy, the depth she has and the pain she feels is part of why she means so much to me, so

5. season 6. listen...this season is very polarizing, and i feel like i’m of two minds about it. on one hand it’s depressing as hell, and can be uncomfortable to watch. willow’s addiction arc was misunderstood by the writers, spuffy went way darker then i wanted it to, and everything was just :/. on the other hand, one of the biggest reasons i love this show so freaking much is because of how much it took risks, how much it was unafraid to tell the stories it wanted to tell, how much it would experiment and “go there”. i just respect it. this show feels like art to me because it’s imperfect and it’s passionate and it puts it’s ideas out there. as much as i do prefer the high school era, what would this show be without the later years? not as thought provoking or meaningful i think. this season is a lot to get through and definitely changes the tone and characters a lot, but i feel like it has a lot to say and it’s beautiful and a super emotional journey for me

6. season 1. i keep debating putting season 1 higher because i really do love it. the little baby scoobies are so cute and happy!! HAPPINESS OKAY. i love seeing them meet and become friends. their chemistry and dialogue is so good. but ultimately it’s too short and doesn’t have that much to say. a lot of the eps are cheesy. still love it though.

7. season 7 is a fever dream. what the hell’s happening half the time? the writing was all over the place. the whole thing was dragged down by spuffy, even worse than in season 6. i love the idea of the potentials but them actually being there wasn’t super interesting. the scoobies never recovered and spent time together after season 6 like they should have. the scoobie separation in season 6, and even season 4, felt purposeful but in season 7 it felt lazy. the writing was... :/. it’s like they didn’t understand their own characters. empty places happened. i don’t like robin wood. i could go on. but i do like willow’s arc this season, i like kennedy a lot, faith comes back!!, chosen was a great and meaningful ending. i love seeing buffy grow into an adult and leader. a strong, beautiful, broken one. but ultimately wtf was this season?

17. most inspired storyline?

hmm, this is hard. a lot of them are. i love willow’s struggle with power, i love buffy’s whole arc, willow turning into dark willow. i think i’ll have to go with angel turning into angelus though. it’s such a great idea and twist and metaphor. it rocks. 

19. favorite villain? 

again hard! i love so many of the big bads (angelus/spike/drusilla, the mayor, glory and dark willow mainly). idk if this is just for btvs but i also lovee lilah morgan. a smaller one but i love sunday from the freshman. i really really love vamp willow she’s uhh sexy. i might have to go with her if i can’t say faith :)

23. best performance in an episode?

these questions are killing me!! sarah is amazing always. i love comedic episodes like living conditions and intense ones like innocence and i only have eyes for you, etc. spike is great a lot of the time. trying to pick specific episodes, alyson’s performance is amazing in wrecked when she crashes the car. i love eliza’s in enemies she’s just so fwjlfjw. giles when he kills ben. they’re all always amazing i can’t pick jdwlkmmdlwmlkmds

anyway lyd thanks so much for asking and im sorry this was so long!!

[multimetaverse]

Andi Mack 3x12 Review

Ex-Factor was a good ep that dealt with a very important topic though some of the subplots dragged. Let’s dig in!

Positives: 

When Andi Mack is good there’s really no other show like it. Jonah revealing that his family had to declare bankruptcy and lost their house was the kind of moment that the show does so well. It was addressed in an empathetic, understanding way but it wasn’t sugarcoated

The brief moment of Jonah wolfing down the free breakfast Amber gave him really packed a punch in all that it implied. Who knows how many times he’s shown up to school hungry these past couple months; it’’s horrifying but it’s all too real with the single largest group of people living in poverty being children. It’s such a shame that the ratings are so low and that so few people are seeing story lines like this

And I liked the duality we see with Jonah. Yes he’s close to the GHC but he’s not as close to them as they are too each other because he doesn’t have the history they have with him and as they later learned he lives a lot of his life away from them

Amber really shined this ep; she knew exactly what Jonah is going through in a way that no one else can

Buffy would make quite the detective; she had Jonah and Amber dead to rights though she was missing some context

I liked that Bowie said that the Red Rooster was too small of a business to hire Jonah; it’s true to real life where there are no quick and easy solutions to such problems

The amusement park was great; though Disney probably regrets it now that $19.4 million budget was really put to good use

Loved when Celia called her Melinda but wasn’t a fan of anything else related to Miranda and Morgan

I’ll give the show props for the Jamber kiss being a big twist

Peyton’s dad was funny; not a fan of those shorts though

I liked this cold open quite a bit. It was a nice little slice of life of the GHC and that it was filmed in a real middle school art room makes it so much better. And a nice little set up for Andi further exploring her art which we know happens later in 3c

Nice to see the GHC in Andi Shack again, I feel like it’s been so long since they were all there

Bex just deciding to not mail the invites as if not having the wedding won’t drastically change things is very in character; she’s always run from conflict

Negatives:

The Miranda scenes really dragged. Letting Morgan get attached to Bowie when they had only been dating for a little bit was bad parenting but her letting Morgan play her disappearing game like that really crosses a line. At the end it kind of looked like this was part of her plan to get Bowie back which is insane

I found it odd that Bowie never checked behind the stage curtains in the back room and the cut from Bowie looking for Morgan to the other scenes than back to Bowie looking for Morgan made it seem like hours had passed which was sloppy editing

Not a good look to include clips of Jibby in the previously on. They’ve almost certainly already broken up off screen before this ep but the audience really needs to hear that in 3x13 otherwise Jonah looks like a cheating scoundrel 

And for that matter confirmation that Wuffy is officially sunk would be good before Muffy launches again. For a show about 14 year olds there sure are a lot of messy, messy relationships: Jonah liking Andi while dating Amber who was cheating on him, Buffy basically homewrecking Machel to end up with Marty, Jonah breaking up with Libby only to immediately get back with Amber

I do think the wish reveal would have had more impact if the audience had any reminder of it since 3x02. I’m reminded of what that anon told me after 3x09 that the major love interests never go more than 3 eps in a row without appearing; obviously long term story lines can be spread out but going 10 eps without a single mention is just too long especially for a kids show

The Jamber kiss was a good twist but one that I don’t think the audience will like. I have faith in that the show is intending to explore what made their relationship toxic and why it’s not a good idea for them to get back together but it’s understandable at this point that much of what’s left of the audience doesn’t trust the show

Looking Ahead:

I’m not sure that the Beck family endgame is. There’s only 9 eps left and realistically their problems are going to take years to solve. The best place they could end up is them getting an apartment of their own and slowly getting back on their feet. Mrs. Beck at least is still slated to appear and it will be interesting to see what brings the Becks on screen

For that matter I wonder if there’s anything they can do to make Amber’s situation better; she’s in 7 of the remaining 9 eps so there’s time to do something with her

Lot of freaking out in the tag over next ep. Presumably Cyrus wants to say yes to TJ’s idea (I wonder if it is Salt & Pepper or something else) but then tells him he can’t but then Andi tells him he can do it with TJ but it’s too late because TJ decided to do a costume with Kira instead as the dribble shirts look last minute. I’m sure we’ll see the Mount Rushmore costume but maybe the GHC won’t be as happy with their accomplishment as they thought they would be

We know Cyrus and TJ and Kira filmed some scenes earlier that week so that’s probably at the park where we see Cyrus and TJ. Maybe TJ has befriended Kira off screen. Thankfully Raquel always posted when she arrived in and left SLC so we know that after her two days of filming for ep 13 she only filmed one day for ep 15 and then one day for ep 21. So she’s not getting very much screen time or development. 

Is Cyrus going to be sad or jealous when TJ ends up doing the costume with Kira? Maybe but how much attention Disney will allow on Tyrus at this point is an open question. Certainly a part of her role is to be a female chaperone for the Tyrus scenes since Buffy has more important things to do but even in that role there just won’t be much time for her. I’m more interested to see if there will be a look back at some point or some other confirmation of Cyrus’ feelings at least

How the show is going to get from a Jamber kiss in ep 12 to Jonah singing You Girl to Andi in 3x20 I don’t know. It does look like they’ll start on that road next ep; if Amber has to vie for Jonah’s attention it must be with Andi

Nice to see Marty again; I’d imagine we’ll get a Rachel mention. Wild that they’re sinking Machel just 4 eps later

I hope to god that the Bexie drama doesn’t lead to the ep ending on an ‘Um’

It’s very funny to see in part why Josh was so quick to shut down a Tyrus bench kiss in 3x21 because I can only imagine how high people’s hopes would have gotten after this ep. That the show was able to have a Jamber kiss for an end of ep cliff hanger suggests to me that they would have been able to get more kisses approved; if they were only allowed one I really don’t think they would have used it for Jamber. We’ll see if we get a Muffy kiss or another Jandi kiss