#it’s Giles showing up and saying actually Buffy being an adult means asking for help

[magpie-trove]

The worldview on this show is exactly like if the world was this house and it’s got all the furniture and mirrors and floors etc covered in this dirty drop cloth everywhere you look convincing everyone in it it’s a haunted dead place but then someone will ignore the drop cloth and sit on a piece of furniture anyways without quite thinking and it is actually there and good and works normal and actually it’s a fundamental backbone of a beautiful warm loving living home but no one realizes cause they won’t spend enough time looking at it

[coraniaid]

The actual reason Season 3 has Buffy decide that Angel (who killed a large number of people over a long period of time, on purpose, and vocally enjoyed doing it, and only stopped because of magical nonsense that cannot apply to Faith) rather than Giles (who killed one person, sort-of but not entirely by accident, and obviously regrets it though he mostly prefers not to talk about it at all) was the best person to talk to Faith (who has just killed one person, sort-of but not entirely by accident, and obviously regrets it thougb she's currently loudly refusing to talk about it) is, presumably, one or more of the following:

The writers know where Faith's arc is going this season and are trying to set up more parallels between her and Angel

In a few episodes time Angel will be leaving for his own spin-off show, and people are more likely to watch that if Angel gets more screentime this season

Giles has more speaking time than Angel this season anyway, so they may as well give Boreanaz something to do here

The writers don't trust the readers to remember what happened in Season 2

The writers themselves don't remember what happened in Season 2

[Surely not, but ... maybe?] the writers really do think that killing one person, by mistake, when you've been told repeatedly that your destiny and entire purpose for being is to spend most of your short life killing monsters that look just like people, and you have been killing such monsters all night, and you know there are lots more out there, and something that might be a monster wanders up to you in the dark and ... oh, no ... is, somehow, closer to being a centuries old serial killer who loves to murder for fun than it is to accidently getting your friend killed while recreationally summoning an evil orgy demon [I mean, the writers of Ted seem to think a teenage girl defending herself from an abusive adult man means she deserves to go to prison unless she can prove he was a robot, so we can't rule this one out, however absurd it appears]

But in-universe, what is exactly is going on in Buffy's head that makes her think Angel is the right person to help Faith? Buffy found out about Giles past as 'Ripper' only last year, and it was brought up again earlier this season in Band Candy (though, notably, the writers already seem to have forgotten that Giles' 'Ripper' phase didn't happen while he was a teenager). Buffy herself thought that she'd killed a man last season, and Giles's own unwitting role in a man's death was brought up then as well: in fact, the police detective who interviewed Buffy and Faith after Finch's death also investigated Buffy for murder last season (twice!).

Why isn't Buffy talking to Faith about Ted? Why hasn't she asked Giles to talk to her about Randall? What makes her think Angel could possibly help? Is it because Faith brings up Angel first ("I can't pretend to investigate [Finch's death]", "Oh, but you can pretend that Angel's dead when you need to protect him?")? Yes, Faith tells her she doesn't want to bring Giles into it, but she says she doesn't want anybody else involved.

(It can't just be that Angel has the strength to restrain Faith, since the way the episode is structured means Buffy must have asked Angel for help before either of them knew he needed to chain her up.)

And yet, when Buffy finally admits the truth to Giles, there's no point where she acknowledges Giles himself might be in a good spot to help Faith. Buffy suggests she could talk to Faith again, or that "one of the guys" could, and ultimately settles on Angel (she must have asked him before he turns up at the motel and finds Faith attacking Xander: I doubt he was dropping in for a social visit) but there is literally no suggestion that Giles might have some relevant personal experience to bring to bear here. Why does Buffy not even consider asking Giles to talk to Faith? Does she just assume Giles's values "not talking about his past" more highly than "helping a Slayer he's supposed to be taking care of"?

(I've complained before about Giles himself not volunteering for the job, and to be clear I do think as the adult in the room Giles is more responsible here for Faith's wellbeing than Buffy. He has a duty of care to her than Buffy, still only a teenager herself, simply cannot be expected to match. Why does the man who -- less than six months ago! -- made a deal with the Council to "look after" Faith until she got a Watcher of her own, and who (as per Doppelgangland later) still considers himself qualified to make decisions about what missions she does and doesn't go on, tell Buffy he had to pretend to believe Faith's story because he "needed to make her think I was on her side". I mean, isn't he meant to be on her side? Why does he tell Buffy he "needs more time" to decide what to with Faith? He'd already ruled out getting Wesley or the Council involved, the only other adults who might be able to help -- he's already decided that this is something he should have some involvement in, despite having been fired as a Watcher; he's still acting as somebody who has the authority to make those calls -- so what exactly is he waiting for?)

Still, what's odd here is why Buffy just ... doesn't even seem to consider it. She's been trying to talk to Faith for most of the episode and not getting anywhere, so ... fine. It makes sense to ask somebody else for help, and it even makes sense that (when she does) she more or less completely defers to their judgment about what to do next. She's been trying her best and it doesn't seem to have been helping. Why not let somebody else take charge? But why Angel of all people?

I don't think this was what the writers were going for, but Buffy's entire thought process here seems to be "oh no, my 'good friend' Faith, the girl with whom I share a connection even my best friend could never understand, has killed somebody! This means she's in the same position I thought I was last year going through the same thing my Watcher did when he was just a bit older than her just like my boyfriend."

[jvstheworld]

The Buffy Re-watch: S2E3 (part 3)

School Hard

So, this part publishes on my birthday. I will be 27. Yay? Anyway, back to the episode.

The vampires attack and Willow gets a good hit in with a bust of some guy.

To show how brutal Spike is, he kills a guy just for the fun of it.

Snyder goes straight to P.C.P (not the Manic Street Preachers song because there is actually song called that as I was listening to it while typing this, the drug kind). I ask again, does he know about Sunnydale's demon problem?

Buffy is a boss. This we know. She is 16 and in a room full of scared adults, and while Snyder thinks he is helping, he will only make the situation worse. All the while, Buffy is staying calm and taking charge and coming up with a plan on the fly.

Giles will look after Joyce for Buffy, he cares about Joyce because she is Buffy's family, and Buffy is important to him.

The 'Use your head' bit from Spike as he smashes a guys head into glass to get a axe has the same energy as the scene from Toy Story 2 when they use Rex's head to get in to Al's apartment.

Spike might be rash at times, but he is smart, at least in this season.

Why does Buffy not question Sheila's sudden appearance? She hasn't seen her all night, but she shows up just as vampires are attacking. Come on, that's a little sus. And what happened to Sheila after this?

During the reunion between Angel and Spike, Spike calls Angel his sire, but we later find out this isn't technically true. Drusilla was the one who turned him, Angelus was the one to make him into the vicious monster that he is now. We find this out in 'Fool for Love' (S5 of Buffy) and Destiny (S5 of Angel).

'Do we really need weapons for this?' Yes! Of course you do! You just gave him the advantage by dropping your weapon. This does become a point Spike makes in 'Fool for Love' and it's a good point to make.

The last slayer Spike killed was Nikki Wood. In the flashback in 'Fool for Love' we don't see her beg for her life as he says she did in this episode. Is that because the scene we see in 'Fool for Love' is altered to fit Spike's retelling of it to teach Buffy about what it means to be a slayer? So Nikki could have begged for her life, we just don't get to hear it because Spike's monologue is more important to the plot of the episode?

'No, Spike. It's going to hurt a lot.' Yep, her death hurts Spike a lot.

And we see the back of the head for Spike's stunt double. They couldn't have tried to get their hair a bit more similar so it wasn't so obvious that it's a stunt double?

Joyce coming in with an axe to the back of the head. Badass mum there. Spike will remember this.

Snyder, covering his ass so he doesn't get blamed for a dead parent. Asshole.

Angel did not care if Xander got bit by Spike. Do you think he is still jealous?

'The usual story?' 'What do you have in mind? The truth?' I swear Snyder fucking knows about the demons in Sunnydale, so do the police. It's all a part of one big cover up, probably by the Mayor.

Proud mum moment. Joyce knows her daughter is brave and helps others and that trumps whatever Snyder said to her earlier.

They forget about Cordy and Willow. How long were they in there for?

'So, let's see what's on TV.' He says after killing a vampire child. In such a cute way too. God damn you, James Marsters.

Does anyone else think that the Anointed One was a bit of a pointless character? He didn't do anything and couldn't because he was a child. They built him up in S1E5 but all he really did was lead Buffy to The Master. Like there wasn't much of a point to him, except that one thing, but even then was he really necessary? So his death isn't a big loss.

That's it for this episode. Next up, the second of Xander's attraction to supernatural beings. I only wrote 4 pages of notes for that, so it will only be in 2 parts.

[numberonepapermaker32]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus Vol. 1 Review

SPOILER ALERT!!!

01. All’s Fair

The opening story of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus Vol. 1. It was nice to hear/see Spike and Dru's dialogs, but there wasn't that much more to the story except it was another one of their adventures. I was kinda misled to believe it would be set during the Boxer Rebellion, but instead, the time of it was the Chicago World's Fair in the 1930s. It was short and not that fun, the theme of the crazy scientist with a wondrous machine was even a bit silly. I didn't much enjoy the artwork, either. Spike and Dru don't look like themselves from the show. All in all, a quick and somewhat fun read. 

02. The Origin

I loved this volume!! I have yet to watch the Buffy movie, somehow I can't make myself. So keep in mind I read this without knowing the plot and the facts from it. Buffyverse Wikia says how this comic is ''considered the canon story that replaces the events of this movie,'' so it's fair to say it gives us the whole backstory of Buffy's life prior to coming to Sunnydale. It shows Buffy already fighting vampires and eventually finding out about her Slayer destiny. We get the complete info because, on the show, they glossed over that part: how Buffy was quick in adjusting to this new life, figuring out how in order to beat more vampires at once, she should seek a priest to bless water for her to use, etc. Just as with Melaka Fray, here we see how Potentials transform into Slayers, being quick on their minds and feet. Another important part was how she tried to talk to the school's guidance counselor about vampires and the dreams she'd been having, and he didn't even listen to her but instead talked about himself. This is indicative and shows some good foreshadowing for the show. It tells us at this very beginning how no one will believe Buffy to be a sane person when she mentions these ''shadow activities'' of hers. The word crazy gets tossed around a lot, which I strongly dislike. I hate the stereotypical gender roles that Buffyverse keeps on projecting. The girls are pretty and dumbsih, the boys want sex with the pretty girls. Other than that, I really enjoyed this issue. Very much so!!

03. Viva Las Buffy

Wow, this issue was excellent!! Really fast-paced and I read it in a single breath! It's a prequel with more of Buffy's backstory, but also Angel's and Giles's, which I loved! Randomly picked thoughts: 01. The only thing I HATED about this issue is Pike. I mean, he's utterly horrible! Again, Buffyverse displays some stereotypical gender roles, and those are painfully obvious in this story. Pike is constantly whining and worrying about how Buffy will not like him and how he's a nuisance when we know as well as he does, Buffy doesn't need that kind of crap in her newfound life as a Slayer! I mean, the dude tries to kill himself in front of Buffy and actually thinks it's a good idea and a valid way to help her because he's so self-involved!!! Thank the heavens he leaves at the end, urgggh. 02. Dawn is in this comic, which I'm not sure how I feel about, and it also contradicts the show and movie (as Wikia suggests). I don't like her as a character on the show, except for when she is there for Buffy emotionally. 03. There are many scenes in this issue, as well as the next one, where we get info about the marriage between Joyce and Hank. It's difficult to read, really, knowing what we know after we've seen the show. The strain is huge, and Hank is strict, cold, and distant. 04. I loved to see how Giles became Buffy's Watcher. The use of Dark Magics is also indicative and comes full circle in the episode about his Ripper days, The Dark Age. Oh, and Wesley and Gwendolyn Post are also here! :) 05. Angel's story is quirky, so to speak. He follows Buffy to Las Vegas to watch over her (as we learned on the show from his talk from Whistler). He calls himself Angelus for some reason... Like, doesn't that only happen when he's soulless? Whatever. Then he gets into this messy situation with the casino manager regarding his vampire factory and ends up going through a temporal portal that leads him back to the manager's backstory. It was so fun when he said ''...So would someone like to tell me why I'm the only thing here in color?'' LoL, way to be meta, Angel. This is a great comic and I would recommend it to all Buffy fans!!

04. Dawn and Hoopy the Bear

Oh my everloving lord, was this bad!!! Like, why would someone write and publish this in an otherwise great series!?? I'm only giving it 3 instead of 2 stars because the artwork is amazing. But seriously! Some guy who we don't even get to meet chants and calls upon a demon* to curse a teddy bear into killing the Slayer. A teddy bear. A. TEDDY. BEAR. Without knowing who or where the Slayer is. Dawn is just as irritating as on the show, yelling ''What about ME?'' All right already... The nice thing is that the bear protects Dawn because Buffy ran away to Las Vegas, so it's a lovely touch. The parents are getting more distant, so Dawn is kinda alone. Oh, but then?? The ending? The freaking ending?! ''...He came to life and became a real bear. But he turned out to be a naughty bear...'' ''Oh, Dawny, what an imagination you have!'' AND THEN: THE END!! And we see the bear sitting in a dark alley with a beer in his hand. Sorry, paw. WHAAAAAAT??! I mean, was this supposed to be funny?? It's horribly sad and wrong and why am I even thinking about this bear and why does this idiotic story bother me so much?? Omg... * The demon at the beginning looks a lot like the Asphyx demon that gave Spike a soul at the end of s06 of the show. I asked the folks over on reddit about it, but so far haven't gotten an answer. IF ANYBODY KNOWS ANYTHING, LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS :)

05. Slayer, Interrupted

Yeah, this is the best installment in the Omnibus vol.1 collection, mainly because it completes everyone's backstory prior to the show's s01, after they all arrive in Sunnydale. This volume is set around Buffy's time in the mental institution which we learned about in s06 of the show, this gives us details. Basically, Dawn being Dawn, the insufferable idiot she is, goes on and reads Buffy's diary which makes their parents decide to send Buffy to a mental hospital. She can't possibly be sane if she's writing about vampires, right?? Urghh, Dawn. Anyway, the doctors set a diagnosis of a ''severe neuroses paranoia'' and ''a Messiah complex.'' Then they go on to decide she should get medication prior to electro-shock treatment. OMG... Like, did they actually do that stuff in the 90es still?? Eventually, we find out that, of course, the asylum is laden with the supernatural. The head doctor turns out to be the Rakagore demon who sires teenage brides. Yuck, again with this gender stereotype crap. BUT! This episode does raise some interesting foreshadowing. Buffy's problem with authority and the almost complete lack of faith from adults in general. There's this scene where she describes her childhood with her father. He reads her Alice in Wonderland (of course, what else, geez) and she then felt safe. The symbolism is clear even for Buffy and she raises an excellent point of how the word 'crazy' is just awful and plain wrong. Random thoughts: 01. Giles's story of passing this super-difficult test by facing his inner demons, or rather his younger self was kinda weak. However, I was happy to see how he and Buffy have other things in common, here namely father figure issues. 02. We get this short glimpse of Sunnydale Hight with Cordelia and Willow and that makes me super happy!! I wish there was more! 03. There's a couple of scenes with Angel and Whistler that are completely unnecessary because they give us no exposition whatsoever. 04. There's this great foreshadowing at the end when Buffy visits Alice in the hospital and offers her a Doublemeat burger.

[ifeveristoday]

we have always sent children into war

Something I’ve appreciated about Jordie’s writing for the Boom!verse is how consistent she’s been with building on characters and themes - when I think she’s dropped a plot point, it asserts itself in the next issue. While there have definitely been threads that are a little too exposition happy, or heavy-handed attempts at Whedonesque dialogue, on the whole - she understands and sees the earnest heartbeat of the show and infuses her own spin on Sunnydale and its inhabitants. Buffy was a show about human fears and anxieties given form as monsters and curses and a hero’s journey paralleled with a coming of age story.

But it was also a story about a war - the Slayer versus the darkness. Over seven years, Buffy and her friends and family fought and tested their own boundaries and capabilities for darkness and the pursuit of power.

In the Boom!verse, the idea of legacy has been stated from issue one - Buffy has her obvious calling, and Giles has his life long training to be a Watcher, and then Buffy’s watcher. Neither of them is automatically good at it and they’re still figuring what their legacies will ultimately be.

In issue 11, legacy comes back in the form of a conversation between Rose, Kendra and Robin.

Rose is a military brat from a military family - her father and her grandfather both chose it as a career. She shrugs off Kendra’s admiration for her family history by saying that it’s all become second nature and there’s really nothing special about it.

Then she asks Kendra about her father - and Kendra dismisses him as a deadbeat that she doesn’t care about because he didn’t care about her. That she’s discovered there are more important things that concern her - namely her calling as a Slayer.

Robin’s sudden interjection that if there are more important things, why are Rose and Kendra chatting away like besties on a date than - getting to the bottom of the fuckery that’s beset Sunnydale?

Rude, Robin. Also sometimes people just want to live and not dwell on the horrors of life, okay?

It’s also clearly projection: Robin has a loving dad who cares deeply about him - but he also has an apparently long-festering resentment over 1) his mom dying because of her Calling and leaving him, 2) despite ‘Slayer blood running through his veins,’ none of his training matters because the Council didn’t choose him to be a Slayer (is that even possible? #releasethelorejordie) and instead he’s...settled into being a Watcher. His legacy isn’t to follow his mother’s path, and his second nature doesn’t make him ‘special’ enough to do so. So to listen to Rose and Kendra being so casual about their own legacies --- well, it triggers his insecurities, which I’m sure is not helped by the evil toxic masculinity Rage Sweats that have been infecting all the men lately.

Is it a super heavy-handed metaphor for how performative/peer pressured ideals of masculinity is damaging to everyone? and to have the Hellmouth emit evil pheromones causing this a gloss over for real societal problems? 

Probably.

But also TVBuffy fought a literal penis headed monster and Xander ate part of his school mascot while under the influence of a wild hyena spirit and also split into two selves trying to figure out which one was the real him and whatever the fuck the episode Billy was, so I’m going to give Jordie a pass here.

When Kendra calls him out on his overreaction, yet still calling him Mr. Wood (acknowledging her more traditional character and respect for the Council), he loses it completely when she tells him to not go off on his own - it’s dark and also it’s Sunnydale where people die in inexplicable evil-adjacent ways.

He retorts that he doesn’t need a mother and that he doesn’t need you -

hello, Parental issues. It wouldn’t be a Whedonverse adjacent property without someone’s parental issues. Robin is wrong of course - he does need Kendra because he’s her Watcher, and he’s (understandably) mad about his mother.

Rose and Kendra puzzle over Robin’s sudden hulk rage, but go back to figuring out what’s rotten in Sunnydale and how much Buffy’s absence is felt - even though they’re auxiliary Scoobies at this point, Buffy is what brought them together. Kendra brings up the general loneliness of a Slayer - she has to keep her identity secret, she doesn’t generally ask for help re: Life things, and the regimented nature of Slayerhood really makes me think about the similarities to a soldier’s life.

And Rose being a soldier’s child would be the perfect person to empathize with. I don’t have personal experience, but I do have friends who have served in different branches - and when I was living overseas, the country I lived in had mandatory army service for the men. 

I’m not going to get in too deep about the whole troubling military complex that America has and how the business of war built this country or how it preys disproportionately on POC and lower-income people, or how when veterans come back, the services in place for them are lacking and how in general soldiers are good people who believed in the ideals of peace and protection while the realities don’t often match up with the propaganda...but you know. 

Slayers are child soldiers who are sworn to protect a world at large that doesn’t know they exist or what they really do. But it also goes along with the real-world tradition of sending children into war - in the US [currently], you can legally join at 18 without a parent’s permission or 17 with a parent’s permission.

Think about back in history, before 18 was considered a legal adult.

So we have always sent children into war - but Jordie really emphasizes that the Scoobies are children fighting something they don’t really understand, and there are no adults around (hello, Show also did this but also because Adults are not actually people in the 90s) to guide them, which adds to the anxiety.

Giles is all Rage Sweated out, Jenny is probably taking well deserved time for grading papers and chilling with her cat (h/t @jenny-calendar) and it’s up to Xander and Willow, as the OG Scoobies to figure out what to do, now that Buffy’s disappeared.

And oh, her disappearance has taken an emotional and physical toll - Xander’s been patrolling every night, with some assistance from Willow - it doesn’t seem like she’s been doing it nightly though. He’s tired and upset, and Willow’s upset she didn’t get to say goodbye to Buffy and they’re both hurting in their own ways and also not talking about what’s really bothering them, which is only tangentially connected to Buffy’s disappearance.

Willow and Xander’s bond has always been a key element to their characterizations and relationships with others - they’ve been ride or die from childhood, and now that they’re sharing a soul has made this closeness even more significant.

Which means when they fight, it’s to the bone. Xander’s previous issues of feeling lonely and ignored by others - and not being listened to manifests itself against Willow’s need to share and vent, but not actually listen - it gets ugly really fast.

Xander accuses Willow of being selfish and the reason she broke up with Rose is that she couldn’t handle the mundane realities of working hard at a relationship when she had the more exciting side-gig of fighting at Buffy’s side - which Willow angrily denies. Xander then rips into Willow’s need to be praised and liked, and suddenly brings up the possibility that she’s doing this to impress Buffy, which is stupid because she’s not here and also, she won’t ever make the gay love with you -

and Willow calls him out on his need for love and validation, that he falls for any girl who’ll give him ‘the least amount of attention.’

And Xander vamps out - if this is what Willow really thinks, that she’s always seen him something pathetic

which snaps both of them out of their fight.

Xander admits he only goes vampface when he’s really angry and he can’t always control it, but when he is - he feels better. Which is really concerning.

Xander goes on to say when he’s human, the anger has been harder to ignore, that there’s something dark calling to him and it makes him want to hurt Willow - and she confesses that she’s been feeling weird all the time as well.

Is their soul tie working against them? 

And the fact that Xander in vampface feels more comfortable than when he’s being human and more prone to Rage Sweats -- that’s gotta be significant.

Kendra interrupts their heart to heart and tackles Xander to the ground, which leads to a few bits of hilarious misunderstandings, but also the bombshell that Buffy is dead.

According to Robin, a new Slayer is only called when the previous one dies - which means Buffy must have died.

There goes my whole ‘they are a slayer theory’ but I was expecting it to go that way. In an earlier post - or possibly just a conversation with @jenny-calendar, I was thinking out loud that because Buffy has passed into the Hellmouth, she is no longer of the living plane, so she’s considered ‘dead’ aboveground. Obviously, she is not dead no matter what the misleading summaries future comics say, but she is not among the living.

Semantics aside, everyone is fucked up from hearing this - Willow and Xander turn on Robin, insisting he’s wrong and that it’s a sick joke, which causes Robin’s final form: teary-eyed Rage Hulk Hellmouth McGuffin. He says he didn’t ask for any of this, that he’s already lost so much - his mother, Buffy (which seems rather strange considering he was blanking her the whole time after he infiltrated her friend group and there didn’t seem to be any more flirting/sparkage in the lead up to Hellmouth) and more importantly - his chance to be a Slayer.

He’s railing against the fact he’s stuck with a Slayer that doesn’t know what a real vampire is, that there’s nothing special about her - and it’s obvious that even though his words are coming from a dark ugly place, there’s the feeling that Robin feels entitled to his rage and disappointment.

Kendra’s aware something’s gravely wrong with Robin and tells him calmly that she doesn’t want to hurt him but like every villain at the peak of missed-redemption moment, he says he feels perfect. And the last bits of rationality exit his body and he calls on the Evil Bro Squad to surround the Scoobies.

And triggers Xander’s kill switch - apparently the darkness that Xander’s human side was feeling? That’s because his demon soul is tied to the soul that infected all the men of Sunnydale and turned them into misogynistic meat puppets.

Dunn dun dun -- it’s the Hellmother.

Xander pushes back, but he’s disturbed by how strong it feels and what’s keeping him from going completely evil Frat boy?

Kendra tells them they have to fight and they’ll figure out the details later - and they’re doing their last stand in some stunning colored horror-inspired panels and it doesn’t look good for our heroes when....

WHACK.

Anya brains Robin with a croquet mallet like some white-suited queen of hearts and snarks, “Great. Now I have to fight teenagers to save the world again.”

A surprise boss appears - is Anya going to be the final Adult and help the Scoobies out of the mess they’re in?

Did she even really leave? Was that rabbit that was skulking in the grass from earlier issues really her?

Once more, Jordie leaves us on a cliffhanger.

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 6x01 Bargaining Part 1

aka friends who resurrect their other friend together, stay together

Welcome to this dailyish (weekly? bi-weekly?) text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And today’s episode starts us off on what’s decidedly the most controversial season of the entire show. I’m so excited!!!

Now that I think about it, I’m not sure I ever watched Bargaining Part 1 on its own. The show has plenty of two-parters during its run (some named, some not), but Bargaining has the distinction of also being aired on the same night. As a result, many of its digital copies you can find will also have Part 1 and Part 2 together as one single episode.

So for me, talking about the first half of this season premiere only, feels even more stranger than usual, but that’s mostly because of that viewing history. This episode really isn’t worse at being the set up for its next chapter than a What’s My Line Part 1 for instance; in fact, it has its work cut out for it as far as set ups go given the time jump. As a result, even if the story is incomplete, there’s a lot to chew over still.

Let’s see some of the things we got here.

First, I want to address a costuming choice that I absolutely adore and that I tried to draw attention to in my chosen screencap as well. Willow and Xander are both wearing numbered shirts with sequential odd numbers on them. Meaning that there’s a missing number between them.

See, this is exactly the kind of on-the-nose visual storytelling that I love in this show. Buffy is layered with meaning and themes, and sometimes that just means adding tiny details for your audience to interpret with the text.

I’m not sure if the numbers themselves have that much meaning - but no one can stop me from assigning meaning to them if I want either, so... 11 and 13 are both prime numbers, and as such can only be divided by themselves and 1. Possibly a foreshadowing to one of the season’s theme: this year the Scoobies are their own worst enemies.

And if 12 is Buffy, then we can take that as a reference to the fact that she’ll be resurrected at midnight. Or, we can also dig even deeper into the number 12, because oh boy. While 11 and 13 are prime numbers, 12 is a superior highly composite one with no less then 6(!) divisors. That means that unlike its neighbors, 12 can be divided and expressed through a number of combinations of its prime factors.

(Also, apparently 12 is also a “sublime number”, which of course it is.)

In other words, you can take 12 apart and put it back together in multiple ways.

Which brings us back to the show from our weird segment of me trying to math interpret costuming decisions. What the gang does here will have lasting consequences on Buffy’s mental health, and she’ll internalize that by believing that she ‘came back wrong’ for quite a while.

So it brings up the question. Why do it?

We don’t really see how and when the gang decided to bring back Buffy of course. Which as far as a storytelling device goes, is the right choice, but I still kind of wish that we knew more. Resurrection was broached as a subject in Forever back in season 5, and Tara then was like “No, no and also, NOPE” while Willow seemed to have been already considering the logistics of it all.

In the present, Xander appears to be the most uncomfortable about the idea, backtracking as the actual reality of what they’re about to do starts to hit him. Anya seems hesitant too, but she doesn’t argue. Tara still maintains that it’s wrong, but she also says that it’s what they agreed on, and so she stands by it now.

Unsurprisingly, it’s Willow that pushes the idea the most, as the resident elected team leader. (Xander apparently made a plaque and everything? It’s kind of adorable.) Alyson Hannigan really adds on to the emotional impact of Willow’s speech, so me copying in that quote won’t have quite the same effect, but I wanted to have it here regardless:

XANDER:  We saw her body, Will. We buried it. WILLOW:  Her body, yeah. But her soul, her essence... I mean, that could be somewhere else. She could be trapped, in some sort of hell dimension like Angel was. Suffering eternal torment, just because she saved us, and I’m not gonna let... I’m not gonna leave her there. It’s Buffy.

Now, we, who have already seen the show, know of course that that’s not the case. That wherever Buffy ended up, she’s at peace. And one could ask the question, why the Scoobies wouldn’t consider that option and the consequences of their actions if that’d be true?

And the answer is rather simple - because they don’t want to. They miss Buffy and they refuse to move on with their lives without her. They need her, so it’s easier to believe for them that she must need them too.

Back in season 3 I applauded Willow for having self-awareness when it came to her own motivations and biases. But power does strange things to people, and Willow’s been getting worse and worse about justifying and lying to herself about her own intent.

At her core, Willow wants to do good. That’s why she stayed in Sunnydale even though she had the opportunity to go to college anywhere in the world. But she also wants to be special. To be loved. To matter.

Bringing back Buffy is about the Scoobies needing their friend, but for Willow, this is also an exercise of the limit of her powers. Her defying the laws of nature and accomplishing something that’s barely even possible. That’s why she also pushes for secrecy, and why she keeps hidden from the rest of the gang, what she did to get the last ingredient for their spell.

Deep down, she knows that it’s wrong, and she doesn’t want anyone else to challenge her own justifications.

(Also, the CGI snake is really rough on the HD version. Yikes. I really do need to do another rewatch after this with the standard DVD edition.)

On a happier note, season 6 aired on a different network with looser restrictions, and they were allowed to have Willow and Tara kiss every once in a while. The kiss that they share here is actually the SECOND ever we see between them on screen in the twoish seasons they dated so far, so that’s some TV history. It still won’t happen all that frequently, but it’s a step forward.

I also mentioned before that I adore Tara and Dawn’s relationship, and this episode showcases that. Tara made funny-shaped pancakes for her! (Well, she aimed for round ones, but Dawn didn’t mind.)

I love them.

Also, I just noticed that in the above screencap Dawn too has a numbered shirt, and 7 is another prime number? In fact it’s the prime number preceding 11. So I guess the main theme is that they’re all a team, wearing numbered shirts akin to a sport team garb, and yet are all alone? It’s probably not that deep but that never stopped me from overanalyzing.

I do question the flimsy plan of pretending that Buffy’s still alive through BuffyBot, but I guess they were counting on bringing Buffy back from the start. In the meantime, Dawn has two witch moms, a robot sister and a vampire babysitter to look out for her. That’s not so bad.

Plus Tara is wonderful, and was probably able to help Dawn with her grief through her own experience. No wonder that they’re so close now.

Dawn of course still misses her mom and her sister, and I’ve had a lot of feelings seeing her with BuffyBot. When BuffyBot hugged her and you can see all the emotions passing through in Dawn’s eyes... What is Michelle Trachtenberg up to these days?

Plus we’ve got the scene with Dawn cuddling up to the charging BuffyBot when she’s unable to sleep. Gets me every time.

There’s also Xander refusing to announce their engagement with Anya, which... I’ll probably talk about later, and Anya directing her frustrations and anxiety with everything towards Giles, and his inability to make up his mind about leaving.

Now, I used to be frustrated with Giles for leaving, both here and later on; but I think I get it better now. When I think about Giles, I see him as the adult in this group, so it feels like he’s leaving all the kids to fend for themselves. In reality though, the Scoobies are all adults at this point. One can even make the argument that Giles is no more adult than them.

Well, okay, let’s not go that far, they’re like 20-21 at most, but they’re making their own life decisions at this point. Meanwhile Giles is in the middle of a midlife crisis and doesn’t feel like he has a life, independent from these young adults, on his own.

But we’ll get back to this subject later on.

Overall, I like this episode. A lot. There’s plenty of excellent dialogue and interaction between the gang, and we’re setting up things nicely for the season.

I’m ready for Part 2!

[lilyginnyblackv2]

Buffy Season 12 - Issue #1 - Thought Post/Review

SPOILERS AND LONG, IMAGE HEAVY POST UNDER THE READ MORE!

- Awful artwork. [EDIT: Sorry, I’m going to be harsh about Georges Jeanty’s artwork throughout this whole post. I just can’t help it. I don’t like his art style at all and some of this art is just really, truly bad. The paneling was fine though.]

- Character development? What character development? Xander literally sounds like he is back in high school, UGH!

- I like that Xander and Spike are still friends. I like that Xander seems to have specifically invited Spike. I also like that Spike showed up with wine. Wine always seems to come off as being more “refined” than beer, which comes off as more “lower class” and such in media. In Season 6, for Buffy’s birthday, Spike showed up with a six pack of beer, now he is showing up with a bottle of wine. It’s a small thing, but I like what this subtlety says about Spike’s character and growth over the years.

- Suddenly Spike is eating human food again? 

I was actually fine with the way that got approached in Seasons 10 and 11, but okay, whatever. Consistent vampire mythos was never a true forte of this series anyway.

- I do like that the breakup was at least mutual and that both Buffy and Spike hug.

- The “Out. For. A. Walk. Bitch.” call back was weird, unnecessary, and just awkward (though, it was probably meant to be awkward - the characters both look a bit awkward with the situation). Honestly, it was painful to read... I do wonder how recent the breakup was though.

- Giles...doesn’t have glasses (is he wearing contacts?) and just doesn’t even look like Giles at all (I honestly thought he was Ethan for like a half second there). 

- Also, I actually liked young!Giles. I didn’t like how his story was handled in the Season 11 mini, but I liked how his character was handled in Season 10 of the comics. Also, once again getting back to that Character Development? What Character Development? thing...Giles was shown to be less useful, powerful, and happy as an adult in Season 10′s Freaky Giles Day. So I feel like aging Giles up just totally ignored that and was done for fanservice... This is another one of those things that we needed to see happen on screen. : /  I mean, the only spell that Willow found to age him up in Season 10 was a one time deal thing and was supposed to negatively impact his potential life span overall so...this “we just found a spell, lol” thing just reeks of lazy and bad writing.

- This version of Xander needs to just not talk. 

I know he is talking more about guys in general...but, just the way he is wording his stuff, it feels like Xander’s character has reverted in age...What happened to Doctor Mike?

- I like that Willow started up a blog though. That’s cool.

- I like how Riley has Willow’s back.

- Buffy and Spike breaking up makes zero sense. Buffy went from saying this:

- To saying this:

- Ok. But I don’t buy it. Buffy said that it would take more than just a few weeks apart to break them up. Apparently a quiet year was what did them in. But that doesn’t work for me. Especially because we didn’t actually see it. What exactly was the issue, why did they not work right as a couple when nothing was going wrong? Did they not have enough common interests? Or was it something more/else? This vague answer doesn’t work for me when a ton of seasons and a ton of years went into building up this relationship. I need more than this. - The conversation that Buffy has with Willow here: 

Is the same one that she had with Dawn at the start of Season 11:

Buffy’s answer to both were different but ultimately the same. It isn’t the relationship (it isn’t Spike) - it’s me. But, I mean...

- At the end of Season 11, from Buffy accepting her powers again: 

To Buffy’s “I love you too,” kiss, and cuddle with Spike:

Was all meant to show that Buffy was done being cookie dough and was now cookies. So once again I find myself asking Character Devleopment? What Character Development? ...Like has Whedon even actually read Seasons 10 and 11? Because from the way some of the characters are acting (specifically Xander and Buffy, who had some of the biggest amounts of character growth in the past two seasons) I would say not.

- I do like that Buffy is 30 though. I called that ages ago on Reddit and am glad that I was getting her age right throughout the comic run. That also means that Dawn is currently around 25 (since they are five years apart - according to Buffy in S8 when she was talking to Fray’s sister). Good to know.

- Ugh. I honestly thought we left this whole “being a normal person” stuff like ages ago. Buffy got over this already, ffs! 

Whedon needs to learn how to write about new and different stuff. Rehashing the same issues over and over again gets boring and honestly comes off as meaningless after a while.

- “It’s a gray area, and gray is not my color.” ...It was your color all throughout Season 11. For example:

Really, this is getting ridiculous. Whedon clearly hasn’t read the recent seasons... (And you may be wondering why I keep placing all the writing blame on Whedon instead of Gage, but the answer to that is 1. all of Whedon’s usual writing ticks are present. 2. I haven’t had much issues with Gage’s writing in the past, but whenever Whedon is involved with the comic writing, I see the quality drop. And 3. Whedon is still the one that has to OK everything.)  - Buffy talks about her relationship stuff complicating things, but earlier she said that the issue wasn’t her and Spike, and we also saw zero relationship issues in Season 11 (in the sense of them getting in the way of her and her self discovery). They had internal issues that they worked through in Season 10 and external issues in Season 11 that they worked through together. They were really great and communicative in Season 11 (and even through most of Season 10). They had rough spots, but they worked through them. But suddenly her relationship stuff is complicating things. Ok. I’d believe that if I actually saw that. But we got none of that, so I don’t buy it at all. :/ Instead we saw Buffy and Spike work through an almost breakup, which now almost seems like a completely pointless scene. As does the moment they have when they decide to continue their relationship in Season 10. Why didn’t the writers just end it there? It would have made more sense at least. All of this just comes off as lazy drama and it feels like Joss doesn’t know how to write happy characters and drama together. It’s a thing. You can have characters be happy and/or be in happy, healthy relationships and still have drama. Sense8 is a fabulous example of this. (Seriously though, I really recommend this series to everyone reading this - it’s wonderful! <3) 

- I do like the running joke in this issue about the sign on the door though. It reminded me of the joke about how Giles always left his door unlocked.

- Buffy and Spike are clearly not fine with their breakup. -ugh- 

They keep saying they are, which means they aren’t. Plus, the body language and eye contact all imply that they aren’t. In pure, unadulterated fangirl mode, I would be happy if Buffy and Spike got back together. But from a writing perspective and from a critical standpoint I would just find it to be a weak and watered down revival of their relationship. Seasons 10 and 11 were powerful and strong, you really felt the emotions. If Buffy were to end up with any of the characters this season, it would just end up feeling rushed and shallow.

- UGH. Whatever, Angel.

(Yes, I’m going to be salty here. Yes, my bias is showing. But I don’t particularly care. At least he only whispered it to Illyria, though, kudos for that.)

- LMAO! XD This was good though. 

That definitely made me actually, legit laugh out loud. 

-The rest of this whole dialogue though is coming off so choppy and clunky. They are trying to fit way too much information into one issue. I feel the same about the earlier scenes too. The pacing just feels rushed and if this were a show or live action or something it would just feel like everyone was just running lines to get through them as quickly as possible. There is no time to let the characters or plot really breathe. I feel like this could have been avoided if the character development from Seasons 10 and 11 were actually left in place and some of the characters (especially Buffy) didn’t suddenly hit a reset button.

- This artwork is killing me! 

I miss Rebekah Isaacs so much! T-T

- I didn’t like Xander asking/telling Dawn to stay at home with the baby. He says it isn’t for sexist reasons...but then he lists a couple reasons that are sexist when being used in this particular way: Only she can feed the baby!? Hello, baby formula exists. It won’t kill a baby to drink formula every once in a while, especially in an emergency, and mother’s pump milk too so... Only she ‘can sing the Sleepy Song the way [Joyce] likes’!? You can sing too Xander! Baby Joyce may not 100% love the way you sing it, but you can still do those two things that you mentioned. I would have preferred it if Dawn had specifically stated that she would stay with the baby. At least Dawn looks annoyed by this, so hopefully this will be a plot point that will get discussed or resolved at some point in the next three issues. (EDIT: Read my notes towards the end).

- A lot of fighting that I personally don’t care about. Fight scenes bore me. I also don’t care about Angel, Illyria, Harth, or Fray. I’m honestly just here to see how things wrap up for Buffy and her friends. Faith showed up, which is cool, I guess. I don’t care much for Faith, but I liked her well enough in her brief appearances in Seasons 10 and 11.

- Unpopular Opinion Time: I hate season 3 of Buffy and I hate The Mayor. He is one of my least favorite Big Bads. I thought he was written terribly and so, of course, he has to show up in this issue. 

Ugh. Just my luck, lol.

- At least how he still exists makes sense (far more so than The Master’s reappearance in Season 8). I personally don’t care much about Faith or her story, but it’s good for her character development. And it seems like they are going to drag this plot point out a bit, which I’m okay with. I’d prefer that over a rushed character moment.

- Seriously! What is up with these creepy, white dead looking eyes!?

- “I’m texting as fast as I can! I have fat fingers!” - Lol, I feel you on this one, Xander.

- A part of me feels like they just aged up Giles for this bit: 

Also, where is Giles even looking? Is he talking directly to us, the readers?

 Because he isn’t looking in Buffy’s direction at all.

- I do always like and appreciate when Dawn uses her Key powers! <3

- Though, back on the artwork...I really miss the cute outfits that Rebekah Isaacs and Megan Levens used to give the characters. 

I feel like, especially with Dawn, they just went “She is a mother now, so she has to wear boring clothes.” : / 

- “Xander, this time you stay with the baby. I pumped, there’s milk in the fridge.” - Yes, thank you, Dawn. I’m sensing that this might be an ongoing issue throughout the next three issues though, which I’m actually pretty all right with. It would be good to see more of Xander and Dawn’s relationship, since we didn’t get much of it in Season 11.

- The last panel is actually pretty nice looking. I don’t have much feelings or thoughts on this bit yet. That’ll likely be more of a discussion/talking point for me in the next issue. I do like the fact that Coke still exists in the Fray future though (there is a sign for コカ・コーラ behind Fray, it’s written in blue text and the sign is yellow - it’s Japanese).  - I really didn’t like this issue much at all. So much forgotten/reset character development. Xander felt particularly dated with a lot of his lines and the issues with Buffy are things that she had supposedly already worked through in previous seasons - her personal issues aren’t all that interesting to me because it is just rehashing and feels like her character did the whole “one step forward, two steps back” thing. The artwork was not good. And there was a bunch of other smaller things that bugged me, which I talked about above. 

That being said, there were some little things here and there that I did like and I’ll read the next issue. This wasn’t nearly as bad as the Giles Mini was, but it wasn’t that good either. Regardless of all that though, I still want to see how things end for Buffy and the Scoobies. I do know that I likely will not be buying the physical copies of this season though. Image Credits to: Georges Jeanty (Season 12 Images) and Rebekah Isaacs (Season 11 Images).

[stargazer1682]

Buffy Season 6 was terrible

Season 6 is a dumpster fire and far from anything I'd describe as "well planned," let alone immaculately written.

The plot is heavily contrived, starting pretty much with the Scoobies plans to bring Buffy back. Why are they bringing her back? Because.

Don't get me wrong, the argument that Buffy's soul MIGHT be in a hell dimension isn't wholly without merit, given that they saw all number of hell dimensions open up before their eyes and Buffy had to sacrifice herself to close a rift between these dimensions in much the same way Angel did, for essentially the same purpose. Knowing the lives they lead, everything they’ve experienced and how cruel they know their universe to be, there would be a very distinct probability that Buffy was in hell. In fact the only reason she wasn't was arguably because being in heaven and pulled out by her friends is the only worse possible fate.

But, Buffy's body was barely cold when they started hatching plans to bring her back; they didn't really even try to move on without her. And as it turns out, bringing someone back isn't actually all that difficult.  I maintain that they should have done a time jump; like 5 years, which would have at least established that they TRIED to move on without her before bring her back. And the effort could have been said to have taken more time than a summer vacation.  Plus it would have better aligned the majority of characters with their real world ages, while create an added facet for why Buffy might feel disconnected from her friends if they’ve literally moved on with their lives. Even Dawn, who be closer to Buffy’s age, would be a practical stranger to her at that point; adding to the isolation.

But this is a minor criticism in the grand scheme of the season though, because the show always cut to the chase; and for the most part I can appreciate that. So let's do the same and really get down to the less excusable contrivances.

Practically everyone’s livin’ in casa de Summers, yet is anyone apparently contributing anything to the expenses?  Not by any indication.  Buffy’s back barely a minute, doesn’t even take time to readjust before going patrolling, and soon after that they say, “welcome back, you’re drowning in debt. Get a job, deadbeat.”

And this leads to a couple of ridiculous plots.  The first of which is Giles’ sudden and inexplicable inability to tell Buffy “no” and establish clear boundaries between them; you know, one of the key essential traits of his character five years running.  And yes, I know, Tony Head wanted to move back to England and that’s fair, but the excuse they gave his character for his absence was, simple put, stupid.  Lots of parental figures have to deal with the transition of a so-called child that they’ve looked after and been responsible for and help usher them into independent adulthood; and they’ve done that, remarkably enough, without moving clear across the flippin’ planet.  This is to say nothing of the conventional dynamics of a Slayer and her support system; which we don’t know enough about, in terms of how previous Slayers that lived into their early 20s managed to get by financially.  There’s been a lot of speculation and the consensus typically leans towards an informal understand that their Watcher supports them.  This arrangement may not be fair and Giles may want Buffy to lead a less restrictive life than the average Slayer had before her, but there are certain practical realities that Giles of all people should understand in this regard.  The first and foremost of which is that, as Slayer, Buffy must put those responsibilities ahead of all others and it’s simply not feasible to expect her to burn the candle at both ends, working a full time job during the day and be a full time Slayer at night.  On top of that is this inane idea he develops that Buffy was somehow shirking her responsibilities, when, again, she doesn’t miss a beat after coming back from the dead before going on patrol.  The thing she struggles with, apart from how she’s going to support herself financially without it interfering with her Slaying duties, is being and adult in her VERY early 20s with a mortgage and single mother to a nearly fully grown teenager; all while dealing with the trauma of coming back to from the dead. This goes beyond the pale of the normal responsibilities of someone going through Buffy’s stage of life in season 6; and any adult going through anything even remotely comparable should not be expected to do that single handedly on their own.  Giles even admits later that being an adult means knowing when to ask for help, which just goes to show that his reason for leaving in the first place is complete and utter BS.

Giles demonstrated greater understanding for what Buffy was going through in season 3 when she merely had to send the man she loved to hell, after being thrown out of her house by her mother; yet here he seems to be utterly clueless.  There are countless ways that Giles could have helped Buffy find her footing, without her being dependant on him, while still explaining Tony’s departure.  But they wanted to set up a story that perpetuated Buffy’s hardship and isolation – hence the reason the writers felt the need to undermine the most obvious and practical solution for her need for a job, working at the magic store.

Then there’s a crux of the season’s conflicts.  And yeah, I guess “life” as a big bad is… something… but decidedly not as effectively well done as the earlier seasons did with the allegorical struggles about adolescence and coming of age during the high school seasons.  

Buffy is isolated from her friends, depressed, emotionally abused by a man taking advantage of her state of mind, drowning in debt (and not taking any of the realistic steps to address it, like dumping the house she can’t afford in favor of a small apartment for her and Dawn.)  Eventually it ceases to be a story arc and just crap on Buffy day.  There’s no joy here; and that’s one of the quixotic things about life and depression, it’s ability to make you think for a second that if you’re able to laugh in this moment, maybe things aren’t all that bad, right before they go back to being terrible.

After Tabula Rasa, once Giles leaves, the quality of the episodes takes a sharp downturn; and subsequently improves upon his return.  There isn’t necessarily a correlation, especially since I’d say opposite is true with Giles’ presence with season 7.  But right off the bat we’ve got Smashed and Wrecked, two incredibly stupid episodes, with equally terrible plot points that redefine the direction of the season.

Buffy starts screwing Spike, and… Amy’s suddenly a creep who could give her mom a run for her money? Oh, and now apparently Willow’s problem with magic is that she’s actually addicted to it, like a drug, and not the abuse of power and lack of moral forethought that they’ve been making it out to be ALL THIS TIME.  No, now she’s suddenly doing ambiguous “magics” in back alleys that have no other apparent purpose than to make her trip.

Now, don’t worry, I didn’t forget about Xander… like the writers seemed to do after season 4…  He’s still there and he’s going to marry Anya; which is going to be is sole defining arc the rest of this season and probably the next; even when the wedding doesn’t happen.  The wedding episode was ALMOST interesting, but the fact is, while I’ve come to not like Xander overall, in the course of multiple re-watches of the series; he was put through a seriously traumatic ordeal in Hells Bells that they just gloss right over by the end of it; and expect him to still get married.  And when he’s not in the right frame of mind to do that, they decide that he’s the AH for it…..  Worse still, he accepts that title, deserved though it may be for a variety of other reasons from over the years; this instance is not one of them.  But Joss has to Joss, which means everyone and everything sucks.

And then there’s the “Trio”…. (sigh)

I mean, they even went to the trouble of acknowledging how pathetic a “challenge” they were in contrast to previous big bads, with a doctor commenting on it during Normal Again. (Augh… Normal Again….)

Warren bordered on a comparatively compelling antagonist, by virtue of him being a complete bastard, but they had to blunt his arc with the nerd shtick; and I’m not sure why I hate it so much, because with the likes of Dick Wilkens’ “gee golly, I just want to be a big snake” attitude or Glory’s valley girl god demeanor, this shouldn’t have felt at odds for a big bad, yet it just doesn’t work.

The bigger problem I think I have with it all is that, ultimately, Warren’s not even the big bad; Willow is – which would be fine too, if her arc leading up to that break wasn’t so terrible.  And here’s the thing, they had all of the pieces to make it work; it was all there. Willow’s story of where she was at in her life and the things she was doing and why she was doing them, closely parallel Warren’s story.  Both characters had the smarts, the power and ambition to do whatever they set their minds to; and neither of them were stopping to ask themselves, “just because I can, should I?” and as a result were seriously abusing the power they had. Both of them undermined the free will of the women they loved, without consideration of the ramifications.  Willow KINDA got it and tried to change, whereas Warren didn’t.  But by trying shoehorn a drug analogy into Willow’s story, while just making Warren an AH, they undermined that parallel and the collision of wills they were ultimately on.

Don’t even get me started on killing off Tara.  That was the wrong decision, full stop.

It should have been Xander. It would arguably have set off Willow at least as much as Tara’s death, and Xander’s spirit could have still appeared to Willow on the cliff to talk her down.  

Then bring Nicky Brendon back for season 7 as the primary embodiment of the First.

[jennycalendar]

Your fluffy garbage is wonderful and fits perfectly

be vulnerable he kind of can’t help it? And he cares so much about these crazy kids; he’s lowkey proud of Willow’s smarts and work ethic and thinks she should have more faith in herself. Willow is a soft girl and I think probably the first one he’s willingly soft with in return? ‘Cause Ripper’s used to people who are dangerous and she’s just. Not. She’s soft and sweet and shy and she keeps asking if he’s okay or if she can help. And he’s known a lot of kids like Xander these past few years 2/7

and while he gets snarky with him he does genuinely think he’s funny and really will have Xander move in with him, for serious, he’s ready to throw down. And he’d still feel so much for poor Buffy?? ‘Cause yeah, he gets it. Someone else has made your choice for you and wants to take away everything that makes you whole and happy for the sake of this ‘destiny’ you think is bullshit anyway. Fuck, he knows. Dangerous prophesised event happening tonight, but you’ve got a date? 3/7

Go get ‘em Buff, Ripper’s got the event. Don’t like your Mum’s new boyfriend? Don’t blame you girl, I bet he’s a perv! Cruciamentum? NOT A CHANCE. And Jenny. Oh, Jenny. Smart and witty and sassy with the sweetest goddamn smile. And sometimes she’s nice to him, too, and it’s happening more and more but. Ethan. He’ll never take Ethan back, they’re done, over, but it hurts. He doesn’t miss him, not really, not with the clarity of hindsight 4/7

(maybe sometimes, when it’s quiet in the morning and he can’t hear that awful singing as he burns breakfast downstairs). But he did love him. Still does, a little, even after they killed Randall. And it’s proved to him that he can’t trust himself, that he consistently makes bad choices, and that love doesn’t always pull through and he’s just not ready to try again with someone else. Not never, but not yet. But the more Jenny smiles and laughs with him, the more things they go off and do by 5/7

themselves as ‘the only adults’, the more comfortable and safe he feels (safer than he’s felt since he was a child and he’s living on the freaking Hellmouth) the more he thinks ‘Maybe. Maybe soon.’ Besides, Jenny’s learning a lot about Ripper! He thinks monster trucks are pointless, American Football is boring and full of wusses, he needs glasses but doesn’t wear them when he should ‘cause they make him look dorky though she disagrees (“More like a sexy nerd.”) and the thought of an evening 6/7

a good book and a cup of Darjeeling tea is like some kind of secret heaven for him. She only knows that last one ‘cause he fell asleep in his chair, sure, but she only teased him a little bit and promised not to tell. Then discreetly bought him Darjeeling for Christmas since he refuses to share his birthday. Sometimes she comes over with her own book and they read together on the couch. And if she dozes off and drools on his shoulder, well, he knows how to take pictures on his phone. 7/7

oh my god what is occurring to me as these headcanons progress is how fiercely protective jenny would be of ripper in this au, to an extent that i think she wasn’t in canon. see, giles in canon is significantly more guarded than he was in his twenties, and because of this, giles in canon isn’t as easily hurt as ripper has the potential to be. sure, ripper will pretend to brush things off, but he has a tendency to sulk and withdraw to hide the fact that he’s been genuinely hurt. if anything, when he’s hurt, he might actually isolate himself More.

so what i’m getting at is the fact that when anyone asks invasive questions, or when the council shows up & ripper spirals, jenny IMMEDIATELY picks up on this. and because ripper won’t let her close enough for her to comfort him, she settles for fighting off anything that even Looks at ripper in a way she doesn’t like, because how dare it??? run the risk of hurting him???? he may be an abrasive mess but he is HER abrasive mess, even if she doesn’t actually consciously admit it.

willow’s protective of ripper too, actually, though she isn’t exactly as aggressive about it as jenny can be (”no, i don’t know how your dad’s important papers caught on fire,” says jenny calmly, dropping a lighter very obviously into the trash can, “why on earth would you ask me?”). mostly she just makes him a cup of tea and keeps on asking if she can help until ripper gives in and lets her watch tv with him. the age difference is less significant here so it’s kinda like he’s got a bunch of little siblings, which is nice in a different way.

xander and ripper probably actually have an Incredibly different dynamic, now that i’m thinking about it? because ripper doesn’t hold xander in contempt in the same way that giles did. sure, he gets annoyed with xander sometimes, but xander’s just a stupid kid. he’s learning. they go on patrol together & xander thinks ripper’s really cool, which feeds ripper’s ego but he also kinda worries that xander’s going to become a Disaster Like Him. jenny has to talk ripper down a lot tbh.

buffy n ripper just. love each other. it’s one of those watcher-slayer things because in every au they have a really strong connection, even though in this au ripper isn’t technically as much of buffy’s watcher. they play video games together and buffy makes ripper lots of aggressively cheerful pop-music playlists that he listens to all the way through. ripper sometimes makes buffy cookies and then pretends jenny made them, which is very clearly a lie (ripper never lets jenny near the kitchen after she put laundry detergent in the dishwasher because “it’s all soap, isn’t it?”).

anyway. um. this is beautiful as always and gave me a lot of Feelings as always. 

[marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer]

MTVS Epic Rewatch #177

VOTE ON THE SEASON POLLS!

BTVS 6x22 Grave

Stray thoughts

1) Okay, where had we left off?

Oh, right, right, Ripper is back!

2) “Daddy’s home! I’m in wicked trouble now!” I’ve always thought the way Dark!Willow delivered this line hinted at a different meaning of “Daddy,” if you know what I’m saying…

3) 

WILLOW: But, hey, if you'd like to watch... I mean, that's what you Watchers are good at, right? Watching? Butting in on things that don't concern you? GILES: You concern me, Willow. Stay on this path and you'll wind up dead.

Okay, let me preface this by saying that, like probably everyone else in the fandom, I legit cheered when Giles showed up and took Dark!Willow down. And let me follow that by saying that if you’ve been reading my recaps/meta, I’m about to get just a tad bit repetitive. As awesome as Giles’s arrival was, I can’t help but feel it was too little, too late.  If there was one person who could’ve predicted – and who I fear actually knew – the path down which Willow was headed, it was without doubt Giles. Let’s not forget that Giles had been a rebellious teen himself who had found power in magic. He, too, had thought he was almighty and that he was in control of magic, not the other way around. We all remember where that got him (2x08 The Dark Age.) And I know what you’ll say: he wasn’t Willow’s father nor her watcher. Pardon my French, but that’s a bunch of bullshit. The fact that he wasn’t Willow’s father nor his watcher does not excuse the fact that he stood idly by as a responsible and experienced adult witnessing how a teenager was in over her head with magic. The fact is, Giles acted irresponsibly and carelessly. He knew. And yet, from season 2/3 till season 5, all he did was either sternly frown or mildly warn Willow of how dangerous the magic she was dealing with was. Come season 6, and yes, I cheered when he scolded her in Flooded. Yet, I can’t help but feel this was, again, too little, too late. A good old scolding is hardly a deterrent for a witch intoxicated with the power of magic. If anything, it’s the opposite. Moreover, Giles found himself speechless at Willow’s not-so-subtle threats. I can admit that, in spite of how similar his own experience was to Willow’s, he might have been ill-prepared to tutor her or guide her in the right path (but then again, he does end up doing exactly that in season 7, so there really wasn’t any reason for him not to do it before she went dark…) If that was the case, then Flooded was probably the moment he should’ve gone to the Council or the Coven or whoever was better prepared to help her. That is, he should’ve done it when he first saw signs of Willow’s darkness. Not when she had already gone over the edge. So, as much as I’ll always see his return in Two to Go as a moment of awesome, I can’t help but feel he failed Willow. Rant over. (but will be resumed, you’ve been warned...)

4) And this is also a moment of awesome…

5) Of course, it doesn’t last long…

6)  This moment is so sweet… 

BUFFY: What did you do? GILES: Contained her and her powers within a binding field. It puts her in a kind of... stasis for the time... You cut your hair.

Damn, I will end up giffing this entire episode, won’t I?

7)

GILES: Buffy, what's happened here? BUFFY: God. I don't even know where to start. GILES: Well, Willow's clearly been abusing the magicks.

But you already knew this, dude!!!! The day you left she had erased everyone’s memories, for fuck’s sake! It was as much of a problem then as it was now!

8) Back me up, shouldn’t this be written on the season 6 DVD back cover?

BUFFY: [Willow] was [abusing magic]... and I barely even noticed. (...) Xander left Anya at the altar, and Anya's a vengeance demon again... Dawn's a total klepto... money's been so tight that I've been slinging burgers at the Doublemeat Palace ... And I've been sleeping with Spike.

All written on this screenshot, of course.

Yes, it’s a super dark season, and everyone screws up and suffers and it’s all #pain, but when you condense it all like this, it’s so outrageously funny, isn’t it?

9) 

WILLOW: I need you, Anya. I need you to do something for me.

ANYA: I know what you're trying to do. And I hate to burst your bubble, but that mind control mojo doesn't work on vengeance demons, so why don't you just- WILLOW: Stop talking and listen. ANYA: Okay.

10) 

GILES Can you forgive me? BUFFY: For what? GILES: I should never have left. BUFFY: No. You were right to leave. We're just... stupid. GILES: I know you're all stupid. I should never have abandoned you.

 No, no, you really shouldn’t have, Rupert.

11) 

GILES: Sometimes the most adult thing you can do is... ask for help when you need it.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING, GILES?!!! WHAT WAS ALL OF THIS, THEN, IF NOT BUFFY ASKING YOU TO HELP HER?!!!!

6x04 Flooded

BUFFY: I'm glad you're back. GILES: Well, I'm glad you are too.

6x05 Life Serial

BUFFY: This is, this is great. This is more than great. I don't... really know how to say this... but it's a little like having Mom back.

6x07 Once More With Feeling

BUFFY: Oh. I thought you took care of that. GILES: Right. BUFFY:  What would I do without you?

6x08 Tabula Rasa

GILES: You have to be strong. I'm, I'm trying to- BUFFY: Trying to, to what?  Desert me? Abandon me? Leave me all alone when I really need somebody? GILES: I don't want to leave- BUFFY: So don't. Please don't. I can't do this without you. (...) So I won't! No giving up. You can be here, and I can still be strong.

Like, I get that it all sounds so wise and beautiful in the dawn of their reunion, but it seems as though the writers totally forgot the way Giles acted prior to his leaving. Buffy did ask for help in absolutely unequivocal terms. And Giles deliberately refused it. So it’s all fine and dandy with him being back and them laughing it all off. But the crux of the matter is Buffy needed him and he wasn’t there. What’s worse, he comes back and tells her: “you should’ve asked me to stay and help you.” Are you for real, dude?

12) 

BUFFY:  Part of me. I just... I don't understand... why I'm back. GILES: You have a calling. BUFFY: But it was my time, Giles. Someone would have taken my place. So why?

Someone had already taken her place, but for whatever reason (the reason being she’s the title character...) Buffy continued to be the “official” slayer. I get that they were most likely setting up the arc for season 7, with the question of why she was back (a question that she quite conveniently hadn’t asked herself until the season finale...) but can we please remember that the Slayer line runs through Faith now? 

13) Oh, look, Puppet Anya! 

Also, is this where Taylor Swift got her inspiration for Look What You Made Me Do?

[this]

14) Why are they still walking?

Like, I get that it wouldn’t make a difference, either way, considering Willow can teleport at will, but idk, I feel I’d still want to put as much distance as humanly possible between the person who wants to murder me and my precious self.

15) Oh, Xander, your pettiness is showing…

DAWN: Where are we going?

XANDER: I have no idea. DAWN: What? XANDER: I don't know, okay? I can't even run away well. And that's something I'm usually good at. DAWN: Maybe we should we go back and help. XANDER: Yeah, 'cause I've been such a big help already. Standing around like a monkey while Buffy gets shot. Tara's dead... and Willow... losing... DAWN: Well, feeling sorry for yourself isn't helping either, Xander, okay? You know, if Spike were here, he'd go back and fight.

XANDER: Sure, if he wasn't too busy trying to rape your sister.

DAWN: What?!

XANDER: Forget it.

DAWN: I don't believe you. XANDER: Fine. DAWN:  He wouldn't do that.

XANDER: Is this blind spot like a genetic trait with the Summers women? The only useful thing Spike ever did was finally leave town.

There are a number of reasons why I find Xander’s behavior problematic here. First and foremost, this was Buffy’s traumatic experience to tell, especially where her little sister is concerned. Buffy’s. No one else’s. Okay? Second of all, it’s easy to tell he’s only saying this to A) make himself look good compared to a would-be-rapist, which is setting the bar very, very low, Xan-Xan. B) destroying Dawn’s idealization of Spike (which I think was definitely needed, just not in this way.) Thirdly, he drops this hell of a bomb to a 15-year-old, btw, just because he’s being petty and then he’s all like “forget it.” And it’s easy to tell he’s talking to Dawn as if she were an equal to him and Buffy, which she is not. She is a 15-year-old! Why did he think he had any right to be discussing - with Dawn of all people! - what had happened to Buffy without her consent and, more importantly, in those terms?

16) Meanwhile… 

I’ve never found creepy-crawlers this sexy, tbh.

But as regards the plot, the writers were definitely trying to throw us off. Like, it has always puzzled me how there are people who still believe Spike was there to get his chip out and then the soul thing just happened to him. Granted, the lines seem to be hinting at that, and James’s delivery every time Spike refers to Buffy is full of spite and resentment. And it was definitely all written in a way that would lead us to believe he wanted the demons to get his chip out. But, like, that’s what a plot twist is? Literally? You think the plot is going one way, and then, boom, it goes in another way. And if you reread all of his lines knowing that he was actually there to get his soul back, it makes even more sense. Still, the fact that people still believe Spike was there to get rid of his chip is completely perplexing to me. But more on that later. 

17) 

WILLOW: Boy, you just don't get it, do you? Nothing can hurt me now. This? ...is nothing. It's all... nothing.

GILES: I see. If you lose someone you love... the other people in your life who care about you... become meaningless. I wonder what Tara would say about that.

OOOOH BURN!!!

18) How sad is it that Buffy left to save Dawn knowing that she was most likely leaving Giles to die?

19) Giles kind of hit Willow with his horrible breath, didn’t he?

20) Ok, so this… 

…was his plan all along. But like, he was banking on a lot of things going his way to make this work, right? Like, how did he know that when given the chance, Willow wouldn’t kill him before even considering taking his powers? And even if she did take his powers, how could he be sure she would react to those feelings with compassion? (which she didn’t…)

21) This moment, though. Alyson just kills it.

WILLOW: Wow. Whoa. Who's your supplier? This is... wow. It's incredible. I mean, I am so juiced... Giles, it's like... no... mortal person has... ever had... this much power. Ever. It's like I, I'm connected to everything... I can feel... it feels like... I... I can feel...

WILLOW: ...everyone. Oh. Oh my God. All the emotion. All the pain. No, it, it's too much. It's just too much.

22) Oh, Jonathan, what happened to “we will do our time”? 

I get it, they had served their purpose from a plot point of view. They were merely a device to pit the main characters against each other.

23) 

GILES: I know where Willow is. She's going to finish it. ANYA: Finish what? GILES: The world.

24) I love how subtle Dawn is about bringing up the whole Spike thing…

DAWN: This looks a little like Spike's place. You know, under his crypt. What are you doing?

BUFFY: If we can pull these out, we can use the coffins for height. Maybe get out of here!

DAWN: Maybe one of the tunnels Spike uses is around here. Uh, we could use it to get to his place.

25) Dawn, you’re damn right. 

BUFFY: That's the last place on Earth we need to be. DAWN:  Oh, but it was good enough for you to take me there after what he did to you.

BUFFY: What he... DAWN: Tried to do. Whatever. BUFFY: Xander. DAWN: So it's true? BUFFY: Dawn, you may not have noticed, we're in really big trouble here. This isn't- DAWN: Why did you not tell me? BUFFY: Because you didn't need to know. DAWN: Yes, I do. I need to know! I'm not a kid anymore. BUFFY: Dawn, I'm trying to protect you. DAWN: Well, you can't! Look around, Buffy. We're trapped in here! Willow's killing and people I love keep dying! And you cannot protect me from that.

26) How was it day already?

TV show daytime savings, I guess.

27) 

BUFFY: There's... no temple on Kingman's Bluff.

Well, there is now…

28) 

ANYA Something else Giles said. No magic or supernatural force can stop her. BUFFY: What does that mean? ANYA: Don't know. He, he said, "the Slayer can't stop her," and then he said a bunch of other stuff.

Get it? This is the other reason why Buffy couldn’t have been the one to stop Willow just by talking to her. It just had to be someone else, someone human. But not just anyone...

29) I don’t know why I get so emotional with this moment. Seriously. Tears in my eyes, you guys.

BUFFY: They just keep coming. I can't take them all.  Dawn. Will you help me?

DAWN: I got your back.

30) Anya always telling it like it is…

ANYA: Giles? Giles! Don't die. Not yet, there-there are things I wanna tell you. Thanks a lot for coming. It was good of you to teleport all this way. Though in retrospect, it probably would have been better if you hadn't come and given Willow all that magic that made her like ten times more powerful. That would have been a plus.

31) And then, the final confrontation… (I’m crying already…)

You see, she attacks Xander just once, and she instantly flinches with regret and pain. But more on this later…

32) Yet another moment of awesome…

DAWN: What? You think I never watched you?

33) So, let me share some of the highlights of Xander’s and Willow’s confrontation and then – after I’m done crying my heart out – I’ll offer some of my thoughts…

WILLOW: You can't stop this. XANDER: Yeah, I get that. It's just, where else am I gonna go? You've been my best friend my whole life. World gonna end... where else would I want to be? WILLOW: Is this the master plan? You're going to stop me by telling me you love me? XANDER: Well, I was going to walk you off a cliff and hand you an anvil, but... it seemed kinda cartoony. WILLOW: Still making jokes. XANDER: I'm not joking. I know you're in pain. I can't imagine the pain you're in. And I know you're about to do something apocalyptically evil and stupid, and hey. I still want to hang. You're Willow. WILLOW: Don't call me that. XANDER: First day of kindergarten. You cried because you broke the yellow crayon, and you were too afraid to tell anyone. You've come pretty far, ending the world, not a terrific notion. But the thing is? Yeah. I love you. I loved crayon-breaky Willow and I love ... scary veiny Willow. So if I'm going out, it's here. If you wanna kill the world? Well, then start with me. I've earned that. WILLOW: You think I won't? XANDER: It doesn't matter. I'll still love you. WILLOW: Shut up.

XANDER: I love you.  I... love y-

WILLOW: Shut up!!

XANDER: I love you, Willow. WILLOW: Stop!

XANDER: I love you. WILLOW: Stop.

XANDER: I love you.

You see, this moment felt earned. This was a moment six seasons in the making. It just had to be Xander. There was no way around it. He was the only one who could get to her and break her defenses. He was probably the only one who could console her in the dawn of Tara’s death. The first interaction both of them had in the show was with each other. Long before Buffy, before vampires and hellmouths and werewolves and gay love and vengeance demons and magic and apocalypses, there were Willow and Xander, Xander and Willow. It is incredibly fitting, then, that come the end of either of them, the other should be right there by their side. I’m not diminishing Buffy and Willow’s friendship in any way. But Xander was the one who truly knew Willow best, and vice-versa. They knew each other since they were kids, and they were each other’s friends when probably no one else wanted to be. So the reason this moment feels so earned and overwhelmingly moving is because of the history. It’s the history we’ve witnessed since season 1, and the one prior to that, which we’ve been told and also pieced together. This moment has such a huge impact only because of the history between these two characters. Her love for her first and closest friend was the last spark of humanity left in her, you see?   Friendship love is the best kind of love. I’m so emotional right now.

34) Can you blame Dawn for asking this question, though?

DAWN: Wait, is... is that happy crying? BUFFY: Yes, dummy. You think I wanted the world to end? DAWN: I don't know. Didn't you?

35) 

BUFFY: Things have really sucked lately, but it's all gonna change. And I wanna be there when it does. I want to see my friends happy again. And I want to see you grow up. The woman you're gonna become. Because she's gonna be beautiful. And she's going to be powerful. I got it so wrong. I don't want to protect you from the world. I want to show it to you.

 And it also feels fitting that Buffy is finally overcoming her depression with the person who was the very reason she decided not to jump off the tower again at the beginning of the season.

36) But it’s not over yet… (and this is why I think it should be perfectly clear that Spike was in fact after his soul...)

DEMON VOICE: You have endured the required trials. SPIKE: Bloody right I have. So you'll give me what I want. Make me what I was. So Buffy can get what she deserves.

DEMON: Very well. We will return...your soul.

DUN-DUN-DUNNNNNNN!

37) All in all, a great season finale unlike any of the others. And a pretty hopeful end to a rather dark season. 

[yetanotherbuffyblog]

Yet another haunted house!

I finished Castlevania on Netflix! It’s...it’s okay. The first and last episodes are great, the middle two are mostly kind of boring. I’d be okay with slower pace if it weren’t for there only being four episodes.

Oh right we’re here to talk about Buffy. So let’s do that.

The frat house is haunted? Figures.

Buffy and Riley kill vampires and demons together, because that’s how monster-hunters do dates, I guess. And afterwards they go have sex. And it turns out that they’re pretty much always doing that these days, as they can’t really hang out with anyone without deciding that they’ve got to go back to Riley’s room to have sex. The Scoobies are a bit bothered, but they’re at least happy that the two of them seem to have resolved their relationship issues.

Things get horrible though, when they’re at a party at the frat house where Riley and his Initiative bros live, and not only do Riley and Buffy go and lock themselves in Riley’s room for sex, but things are getting...weird. Like, there’s one wall that when partygoers touch it, they seem to orgasm instantly. There’s a girl who feels like she went too far with kissing Xander in Spin the Bottle so she locks herself in a closet and decides to cut off all her hair. And also Willow sees a dead drowned person in the bath tub.

Then the house starts shaking.

Going to Giles (minus Buffy, who is still having sex with Riley), they do some research and find that the house was once a home for delinquents, and that the woman who ran the house would punish any of them harshly for showing any interest whatsoever in sex. Like, cutting off their hair for vanity, or “baptizing” them in the bathtub. And so they deduce that the spirits of the children who died in the house or something are haunting it? And they’re using Riley and Buffy’s sex as a sort of spirit battery? And when they run the battery down, the two of them die?

Or something.

So Giles, Tara and Willow run a spell to calm the angry spirits, Xander and Anya go in to rescue Buff and Riley, and...then that’s kind of the end of the episode?

It wasn’t really a highlight for me, to tell the truth.

Notes!

-So the beginning has a vampire and a demon working together, which Buffy thinks is odd and Giles calls really weird, because demons and vampires apparently hate each other? Giles says that most demons think of vampires as unclean and tainted by humanity. But I’ve never gotten that impression? They seem to work together a lot, considering. Spike mentions earlier this season that he used to work with Fyarl demons, enough that he knows their language. I’d believe there was a sort of prejudice between different types of demon, but not a full on ‘they refuse to work together.’

-The Scoobies conclude that Adam is making these monsters all work together, which just makes me wonder all the more what does he waaaaaaaaaant

-Xander says something like, “Are all the frat houses here haunted? Why do people keep coming to the parties? It’s not for the snacks.” And that’s good. Xander you’re great.

-Also he’s working in an ice cream truck at the beginning of the episode? It’s for a gag where he and Anya talk about their sex life only to see that there are children and parents right outside waiting to get ice cream, but is Xander constantly getting new jobs going to be his thing? Where is he even going in life? I’d kind of like if he had more of an arc next season.

-One thing I did like about Xander is that when that one girl he starts flirting with, Julie, goes off into a closet and starts crying, he immediately goes and tries to find her, and when he can’t seem to comfort her he goes back to the Spin the Bottle game and asks if any friends of hers are there to help out. It was surprisingly kind of Xander to go through all that effort. Not that he’s a terrible person, but he’s not usually that nice.

-Also he and Anya have a fight. It was amusing, but I again wonder what she’s doing this season.

-Spike shows up, bonds with Anya over missing their demon powers, and he gets dragged to the party. When things start getting really weird, he volunteers to help save Buffy, only to point out to himself that she’s tried to kill him and that he doesn’t care so he’ll leave. He’s entertaining, and great, I like Spike and all, but again I’m wondering if he has a role in the plot right now?

Still a good line though.

Spike: I know I'm not the first choice for heroics ... and Buffy's tried to kill me more than once. And, I don't fancy a single one of you at all. But... [pauses] Actually, all that sounds pretty convincing. [shakes his head and walks off] I wonder if Asian House is open.

-Alright why wasn’t this woman arrested for child abuse? I know that sometimes these things go undetected, but this old woman who ran this home is perfectly willing to discuss what went on in the house to random people who come asking. It wouldn’t be hard for the authorities to discover the truth.

-When the house is shaking and people start running out, Forrest asks one of his friends (Graham) to help him escort people to safety. And then when he seems to be possessed or something, he just drags him into the secret Initiative elevator. When there are still people trying to escape the house. Rescuing civilians is just sort of thrown out the window.

-Oh and Giles sings.

That’s what he was doing when they went to go get him. Xander keeps talking about it like it’s horrifying, and while it’s certainly weird, he’s actually a really good singer (which the female Scoobies agree with). It makes me think there should have been a musical episode of Merlin.

-How did the Initiative not realize their house was haunted? I get that they’re not as on-top-of-things as they like to think, and I get the impression that they’re hopelessly lost about some aspects of the supernatural world. But they don’t have anything like a Supernatural-style ghost detector thing? C’mon guys.

-This is, as you can probably tell, a non-Buffy-centric episode. I mean she plays a key role, but for most of it she’s off-screen having sex with Riley.

-Were the spirits haunting the place from dead people? Because if tons of children/young adults died in that house, you’d think the police would have locked up that lady. And people would have heard about it. But if they were just people who were alive, and moved out then...I don’t know what’s up with them.

-So many jokes in this episode could be summarized as

[buffster]

Gingerbread (BTVS 3.11)

This is part of my ongoing Buffy Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the show. You can find the full list here. Gifs are not mine.

I have a suggested improvement for Gingerbread: drop the fairy tale elements. The storyline was fine without suddenly introducing the grand idea of fairy tales being real. It just felt like a distraction and the mystery was cool enough without it. Anyways.

One of the more interesting bits of this episode was the focus on the Sunnydale parents. I only wish we’d gotten a scene with Xander’s or a line where he wishes they cared enough to burn him at the stake. We delve into Joyce’s control issues and some of her underlying feelings throughout the episode, much of which aren’t pretty. To Willow’s surprise even her mom gets involved. It was all fine when teenagers and adults were being murdered left and right, but everyone draws the line at children.

Joyce’s role in Sunnydale’s new movement made me wonder how much resentment she’s been sitting on over Buffy being the slayer. Joyce is the face of the parental take over and a quick leader. And yet we see her passively sitting by as Buffy lives her life on her own terms. 

Joyce: This is not a good town. How many of us have lost someone who just...disappeared, or got skinned, or suffered "neck rupture"? And how many of us have been too afraid to speak out? I was supposed to lead us in a moment of silence. But silence is this town's disease. For too long, it's been plagued by unnatural evils. It's not our town anymore. It belongs to the monsters, to the witches and Slayers. I say - it's time for the grown ups to take Sunnydale back.

Oh, Joyce. Willful ignorance is your disease. She doesn’t make an effort to learn the realities of Buffy’s life because she doesn’t like them. So instead she pretends they don’t exist and proceeds to show up on patrol, parade her daughter’s identity about the town, and take away important books from Giles. She thinks by ignoring the truth she can gain back control of a situation where she has none. It’s understandable that she feels frustrated but I will always condemn people who handle their problems that way. Ignoring reality will not change it. It usually just makes the situation worse (can I preach?).

Joyce: It's not your fault. You don't have a plan. You just... react to things. It's bound to be kind of fruitless.

Honestly, I interpreted this not as a put down of Buffy but as Joyce’s desperate attempt to regain control of the situation. Surely there is away to get on top of Buffy’s destiny. Surely there is a way to escape it. It’s all just more denial. Buffy and Joyce have some serious communication issues. Joyce doesn’t really want to see the truth and Buffy always gets snappy when her mother asks questions. Mostly they seem to avoid the subject.

Buffy runs into Angel and talks to him about what her mother said. She hates her destiny enough as it is and seeing it as pointless is pretty heartbreaking. Angel helps her by explaining that they don’t fight to win, they fight because there are things worth fighting for. This might seem strange given that he later has a What’s the Point crisis on his own show, but this is actually a perfect set up. He doesn’t have a crisis because he isn’t winning, he has one because he stops believing there are things worth fighting for. 

Shiela: Identification with mythical icons is perfectly typical of your age group. It’s a classic adolescent response to the pressure of incipient adulthood.

Sheila Rosenberg is a brilliant woman who views people a bit too scientifically (it isn’t clear what her profession is, but she seems to know a lot about child development). She is unable to treat Willow as a complex human being and instead sees her as something to analyze and compartmentalize. Her life with Willow is clearly very detached. Willow mentions that she once had a conversation with her about the patriarchal bias of the Mr. Rogers show, a subject clearly too complex for a girl of age to watch it. At one point Willow desperately tries to provoke her mother out of analytical certainty but it does no good.

Willow, Amy, and a random boy work together to do a protection spell for Buffy’s birthday. The idea of Willow hiding parts of herself is there: her companions are dressed in black and clearly have an attraction to darkness, but she dresses in bright colors and hides that aspect of herself. 

The climax of the episode is MOO attempting to burn Willow, Buffy, and Amy at the stake. Amy turns herself into a rat and is unable to turn back. Giles and Cordelia come to the rescue and defeat the demon pretending to be two children with Buffy’s help. Oz and Xander work together on a rescue mission. They arrive too late, but perhaps some of the ice between them is gone now. Sunnydale’s brief period of awareness is over. 

Willow fails to turn Amy back into a human. Honestly everyone’s less-than-active search for a fix is kind of concerning. Surely Giles could have contacted some resources for this poor teenage girl?

Character Notes:

Shiela Rosenberg: She doesn’t notice that Willow cut her hair months ago and keeps calling Buffy Bunny Summers.

Xander Harris: Xander still feels awkward around Willow and like everyone is waiting for him to mess up again. He seems the most bothered by the way things stand, perhaps because he’s the one who was left lonely by the whole scenario.

Rupert Giles: Willow says that she borrowed a spell book from Giles, which means he’s letting her dabble in this stuff with no help or direction. I think this speaks to an issue Giles has throughout the series: he sees his role as the slayer’s Watcher, full stop. Giles picks a lock and Cordelia comments the he really was a youthful offender.

Joyce Summers: Her chosen group name is Mother’s Opposed to the Occult, MOO for short. I think this is a nod to her naive nature. She doesn’t think how ridiculous this sounds.

Daniel Osbourne: When Giles explains things too complexly Oz “translates” for the group.

[kevoreally]

#BuffyAt20 - S03E03 “Faith, Hope, and Trick”

This here’s a major one, folks! Season 3, Episode 3, “Faith, Hope, and Trick” - which does not technically have that Oxford comma in it but I can’t really help myself.

> To start, this is definitely a very special episode to me. I'm not sure why. I think this was the first episode of Buffy I ever watched both live AND completely caught up.

> Plus, Buffy getting back into school, Faith being introduced, the ostensible villain and love interest are introduced, it's a lot!

> The opening scene in particular is one that always makes me smile. "Oh I like you giddy." Squee.

> I don't think we were allowed to go off campus for lunch, even as seniors. We did have our own cafeteria though.

> "Prepare to uncouple. ... Uncouple."

> "I don't believe she slays either." "Oh I hear she can but she doesn't like to."

> "You're supposed to stop me when I do that." "I like when you do that." Oz was dream boyfriend.

> “He didn't try to slit our throats or anything. That's progress.” CORDELIA, WHY DO YOU TALK.

> Thanks for making me think calling my female friends "slut" was permissible, Xander.

> "Yes, date, and shop, and hang out and got to school, and save the world from unspeakable demons. You know, I wanna do girlie stuff." Hero ✌️

> Also there's something to that last line mirroring her encounter with the First Slayer at the end of Season 4.

> Happy Burger? Where's The Doublemeat Palace??

> I really loved Mr. Trick, he should've survived to wreak more havoc in the future.

> Drive-Thru Guy is cute.

> I was super fascinated back in the day with the concept of Kakistos, like The Master, devolving into a more animalian form.

> Jeez, twenty years later and this theme still gets me pumped. Can't wait to see what it's like in 2048.

> OMIGOD, THIS DREAM SEQUENCE. We were OBSESSED with interpreting these dreams. Now, as an adult writer, I get that it was probably mostly nonsense.

> "GO TO HELL! ... I did." Dat face. And like, yea, what was that even supposed to mean?

> I've literally worn a Claddagh for 20 years because of this show. It's only incidental that I'm Irish. No lie.

> Buffy, why are you playing with the letter opener in front of Snyder? Why would you goad him? Sigh.

> "I think what my daughter is trying to say is: nyah nyanya nyah nyah" Joyce for days.

> There's a real and palpable shift in tone from the last time Buffy stood in this library.

> Demon Pizza is a great band name

> When asked about the Acathala ritual, knowing it’s a lie, Giles gives a great performance as someone who is used to the teens telling him his stuff is boring so he doesn't bother filling in the details.

> They really go full throttle on Willow being a "Wicca" from Episode 2 and just don't stop, huh?

> HAHA, you can see Faith sexydancing in the first shot of the Bronze scene. Not too obvious though.

> Scott is uncomfortably earnest.

> "Plus bonus points for use of the word 'mosey.'" Yes, Oz.

> THERE'S THE WORD "SLUT" AGAIN - thanks, Cordy!

> Disco Vampire is pretty cute. Also, I love the way Eliza moves in this scene.

> "I don't think that guy thrives on sunshine." Yes, sometimes this is just me tweeting Buffy quotes I love.

> OH, SCOTT, WHYYY.

> Weekly shout-out to Christophe Beck for his amazing work. Love you, bro.

> "It's okay, I got it. You're, uh, Buffy, right? I'm Faith." HOLY CRAP, I ACTUALLY LOVE HER FROM LINE ONE.

> Buffy always did a great job of crafting scenes that could later be used perfectly in the Previously's.

> Ugh, and Faith calls her B right away. I love it. I'll say right up front, I don't personally ship it, but I see it.

> "Wow, they should film that story and show it every Christmas" is something I said a lot for ten years.

> Like, I get the need to explain how this situation with Faith being called happened to the audience, but why is Cordy the mouthpiece here?

> "Xander, find a new theme." For real tho.

> Buffy bringing up The Three here is FASCINATING, because now they seem more like a footnote in the grand scheme of things. And as someone who had spent the summer catching up on Seasons 1 and 2, I *LOVED* it when it came up.

> "It's a long story." "I got bit." "Apparently not that long." They will definitely reuse this joke.

> FIVE BY FIVE!!!!!

> Omigod I love Giles's wistful waxing on about the Watchers' retreat.

> Like. But if they don't like Giles, why is he in charge of the active Slayer? Are they just hoping she'll die soon and they can just have the next one better-trained? ... I withdraw my question.

> "Raise your hand if ew." Also something I said a lot. I love Willow's smirk, though. Sexuality is a spectrum, baby.

> I need a coffee mug that says "Sunnydale: Home of the Big Brewin' Evil"

> Buffy is way over this second Slayer WAY fast. Girl, Kendra died. Think about that.

> "Acathala. Angel. Me. Sword."

> "Next time I kill Angel, I'll video it." Today that would be "Livestream it."

> As a continuity buff, I really love the stroll through Sunnydale High that they give Faith.

> I also say "aboat" a lot because of the way Faith says it here.

> It's just TOO RANDOM that Faith ALSO bumps into Scott Hope and hits it off with him. TOO RANDOM.

> What hair color does Cordelia think Faith’s hair is, if not brunette?

> It's, like, not even homecoming, it's not weird that Buffy hasn't made a move on Scott yet, everyone needs to chill on her ass.  

> "I don't care if there are 100 Slayers." Snerk.

> Mr. Trick needs to stop eating all of the food service industry workers in this town. That's two in one episode!

> I don't know how we're supposed to feel about Joyce doting on Faith but I love it. Especially because it's not at the expense of Buffy.

> JOYCE *IS* THE BEST MOM EVER, BUFFY, DON'T FRONT.

> "It's probably good you were an only child." SNERK AGAIN.

> Legit, though, stuff like that's wild. When this aired, that had a whole different context than it does watching the completed show.

> "Two of you fighting is safer than one, right?" "I guess." ...How is the answer to that not just yes? It’s math.

> Oof, "Slayer Pride Parade." I thought that was cuter at 12 than I do now.

> Buffy really does start way too agitated every time with Faith in this episode. It's not a good color on her.

> "What is it, the Angel thing?" Oh Faith, I was rooting for you.

> "Why are you lips still moving, F?" That's still a great mic-drop moment.

> "My dead mother hits harder than that." But not as hard as that anvil.

> "She has almost no deck. She has a three."

> "I used to love a good kayak."

> Fun fact: my dad came home with our Honda CRV during this scene. It was my first car. RIP, Serenity </3

> "Maybe he lived for taquitos - What?"

> Leprechauns still aren't real in the Buffyverse, right? I hope so.

> Scott seems really sweet but he's way too pushy. Then again, soft virgins often are. I would have wasted a LOT of time being in love with Scott Hope in high school. Only for the bastard to come out in college, rrrgh.

> 20 years later, I've still never seen a single Buster Keeton film.

> Getting her a ring is SO PRESUMPTIVE that it makes me root against him. If they wanted the imagery, they should've been, like, a Claddagh keychain or something. Not literally the same prop.

> I was definitely surprised to learn Faith's Watcher was dead, legit.

> Faith's landlord looks like Greg Brady, and I have literally always thought this.

> "Broads like you"? What?

> "Like you took care of your Watcher?" On the one hand, harsh. On the other, retaliation for the Angel stuff. But mostly the first one.

> It's weird that Faith just returns to this same hotel room to live in after this. You don't even take a different room? Another hotel? If this was Power Rangers, she would go and live with Buffy, just saying.

> “First rule of Slaying: don't die.”

> I love when Buffy kicks things at bad guys, haha.  

> I also love this ENORMOUS STAKE. Truly fantastic.

> "You hungry?" "Starved." Okay we get it.

> They ultimately never assigned a new Watcher to Faith. Wesley was sent because Giles was fired. Huh.

> I listened to the audio clip of this "Angel was cured" scene, like, a BILLION times. (Thanks, Psyche Sound Archive!)

> "So I told him that I loved him, and I kissed him, and I killed him." 💔

> I love that it's Willow and Giles here for this.

> "There is no spell." Classic Giles.

> Considering Buffy was, like, expelled and wanted by the police, Scott should ABSOLUTELY be reasonable about how weird she is if he is at all genuinely interested.

> I'm sad we didn't get more of this "Buffy has a normal boyfriend" arc. We don't even get many episodes of it with Riley, and anyway surprise he also hunts demons. Buffy never had a Harvey Kinkle.

> Oh hey, Mansion, we're gonna be seeing a lot more of you this year.

> As "Close Your Eyes" was one of the themes that made me fall in love with television score, obviously this scene laying the ring to rest meant a GREAT DEAL to me: https://youtu.be/6rom5MQhaMY

> And then there's dat ass! Welcome back, David.

As Dark Willow would say, two to go!

[ifeveristoday]

god what is your childhood trauma

I knew trusting Jordie was a good idea. While I still have timeline/minor pacing issues (Issue #9 has Joyce believing Buffy’s on an out of state field trip for a week - which means the issues are covering 1-2 days at a time?) It’s all very Jeremy Bearimy.

Issue 10 introduces Kendra, more background parents, more details about Rose (!!!!), Robin’s mission, and Giles continues to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad attitude. Is this Toxic Masculinity or just the Hellmouth amplifying bullshit?

I will post my thoughts about the last issue of Angel eventually, because wow, the gay - but I will say it’s interesting how each line is dealing with the absence of its titular character. With Angel’s absence, the Fang Gang is concerned, but they’re handling it. Buffy’s absence in Sunnydale is having major repercussions however and while it was touched on in issue 9, issue 10 really emphasizes how she’s a necessary part of the Scoobies and how they’re floundering without her.

I could say it’s because Angel hasn’t built up a bond with his gang to the extent Buffy has, but also I think it’s just where the characters are in their lives - the Scoobies are sixteen, and it’s implied that Fred and Gunn are older young adults, with more independence and less family/school to concern themselves with. 

The pressure to fit in, to be normal, to belong - it matches up neatly with Sunnydale coping with the aftermath of the Hellmouth opening. Robin, much like Willow in issue #9, is frustrated with keeping with the status quo and it's his POV this issue opens up with. He knows there’s bad shit going on, and that they should be focusing on surviving/fighting, not worrying about grades and chores like raking the leaves.

Except he doesn’t know exactly what he should be doing - and it doesn’t help that Kendra is counting on him to be her Watcher. She asks him when they’re going to be talking about hellfire and her training, and Robin tells her that they don’t do any of that, Buffy does. Except of course - she’s not there and Robin has to admit again that he doesn’t know.

For an informant to the Watcher’s Council, Robin knows less than was hinted at in previous issues, and it’s amusing that Kendra knows more about his background than he does hers. Which is a nice little inverse from the usual Watcher - Slayer relationship, isn’t it? 

Kendra is apparently older than Robin, but it’s not stated by how much - she does have TV canon’s sense of tradition, but with less ‘the Watcher is always right and I am the Council’s tool,’ and more ‘we’re partners and I’m already fifty steps ahead of you, so catch up, you fool’ which is just refreshing from the start.  “You’re the only resource I have in this town...it’s time you make yourself useful.”

BAMF energy. 

Speaking of which, let’s talk about Cordelia, and her Jurassic park quoting excellence. I’m telling you, every character gets an issue or two (or three) to shine, and in this issue, the girls we haven’t seen as much of, really get their day.

The sequence of Cordelia walking to school is nifty for the sense of humor - Cordy has been the omniscient ‘Gossip Girl’ for the series and would naturally be the best at social media in 2019. Just as she’s documenting ‘life finds a way’ about the bird making a nest in the ruins of a tree, the audience spots what she doesn’t, the snake crawling up the other side of the tree, poised to strike.

And just as Cordy says, “Gives me hope!”

She gets lured into a trap.

The incel/sad lonely white boy in the basement stock character is not one I enjoy reading about because too many times his real-life counterparts murder a lot of people (often out of hatred of women) and I have no sympathy/interest for that.

He’s a pathetic figure but that makes it no less scary to see him throw Cordelia down a flight of stairs into his basement.

I think this being potentially excused away (thanks not vague enough official preview summaries!) as part of the Hellmouth is bringing out the worst in the dudes is weak because again, real-life losers like these characters do this without an evil mystical force being the reason all the time.

But something is clearly wrong with Giles, as he almost attacks Robin in the library, and Robin nearly attacks him back. The copious amount of sweating, the murder eyes - the verbal knives out. Giles was scary in issue 9, and he’s even more menacing in this confrontation. He’s abusing his authority as an adult and being incredibly dismissive of Robin, which is bad enough on a personal level, but as an educator - really bad.

Willow and Xander luckily come in to defuse the situation, but now Robin has a problem with them and how come he’s suddenly responsible for Sandy Noxon’s disappearance (oh yes they did and yes I saw what they were doing there).

It’s accusation town as Robin rips into Willow and Xander, but not before he tells Giles that he’s lost Buffy, they all have, and that he [Giles] is a failure. This conversation is another one of those where two characters are talking around each other - Giles is thinking Robin is being disrespectful, while Robin is pointedly calling out Giles for his failure as Buffy’s Watcher, and as an authority figure in general. Giles tells Robin he’ll do nothing, but Robin scoffs ‘Watch me.’

Old versus new, tradition battling discovery - it’s a pretty obvious parallel setting Giles up as the Old Guard and Robin forging his way with ‘his’ Slayer and their new mission.

Back to Robin tearing into Willow and Xander: their conversation in the hallway reminds me a lot of the fights that the Scoobies had in the show - while not as ugly as the DMP confrontation or that bullshit season 7 episode *cough*, it does some excellent character work in the dialogue: it reinforces the idea of Willow and Cordelia being friendly/nice to each other, Xander’s unwavering loyalty to Buffy - and getting annoyed with Robin on her behalf, and then Robin calling out Willow for ghosting Buffy (aha, so he did notice her even when he was ignoring her) in the previous issues. Robin goes a little Mr. Hyde then - accusing Willow and Xander of shifting the blame on others when Buffy isn’t around, which...kind of a stretch because how would he know?  The Evil Flop Sweat is back, and he projects his frustration with Giles not helping him on them - yelling, ‘Instead of going to other people for help, why don’t you figure out things yourself, for once?’

and then ends on, “Buffy isn’t here, and we don’t know when she’s coming back...you should try to get real comfortable with that.”

The panel that follows after Robin’s outburst? A M A Z I N G.

David Lopez’s expressions for Willow and Xander is just...guys. 

Xander continues to be the most emotionally well adjusted of the Scoobies (!!! The growth! We love to see it.) as Willow tells him she and Rose are broken up and for him to just leave it.

Which brings me to the unicorn I’ve been chasing since she debuted in the comic, SOME ACTUAL PERSONAL DETAILS ABOUT ROSE. I was frustrated with their breakup for a number of reasons - a) we know so little about Rose beyond the being Willow’s girlfriend, b) so much of their relationship was off-page, c) Willow was lying to her for a lot of the time, d) when they broke up, it lacked real emotional depth and I wasn’t that invested in the first place.

BUT NOW.

Rose has a tattoo! That says I TRUST YOU in FRENCH. A semi-absent father figure but one who is loving and supportive! What’s that? Two dads and a possible stepdad and Giles when he’s not being Evil Flop Sweat Man? That’s four canonical Father figures that aren’t evil or negligent. Points to House Bellaire!

And Rose being a kid that moves around a lot because her dad relocates for work, and Sunnydale being a ‘real’ home and staying for good because her mom made it happen. Then wanting Willow to meet her dad when he was in town - but now, of course, that’s not happening and guys. Character details have been provided.

I have a better idea of Rose now, and I like it. And I like that she’s kind and looks after her classmates.....

even bad news bear Luke. LUKE. 

The sense of dread (and the colors! I love the work the Boom! colorists are doing for Buffy and Hellmouth) is excellent as she goes downstairs and discovers a bound and gagged Cordelia in the basement.

When Rose and Cordelia team up against Luke - it’s one of the best sequences in the issue. It shows that Cordy is unbelievably assured in every situation, no matter how dire it initially looks, and that Rose is really brave and resourceful (and deserves to be part of the Scooby Gang. Draw her on one of the covers, you cowards!)

It’s telling that Cordelia and Rose assume that it’s Buffy who saves them at the last minute - Cordelia because she associates Buffy with weird feats of strength and also just showing up at these moments, and Rose with hearsay - Buffy’s weird, but she gets results.

Kendra about to introduce herself and then Robin stealing her thunder and her reaction shot to said thievery?

I’m so glad she’s here. And that we’re going to get a girl gang in the next issue.

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 5x03 The Replacement

aka how to handle your evil twin

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And today’s episode once again has me rambling about how season 5 brings us adult Scoobies (most specifically Xander in this case of course), and maybe also talk a bit about the Riley dilemma. Let’s see how far we’ll get with this.

If there’s one nitpicky thing I have about The Replacement, it’s all the red-herrings they pull to try and sell the audience on suave Xander as a body-switched demon. It might work on a first watch, but once you know the twist, you’re starting to wonder what Xander meant when he told Anya that he can relate to her sudden human fragility, and shit like that.

I also have questions about the real estate agent lady coming onto Xander. I guess suave Xander has all the asshole qualities since he isn’t shutting it down… but neither would the other Xander based on his lines??? Hoo boy.

Then again, I’m also wondering now about what power real estate agent lady has regarding Xander getting this apartment (maybe she’s actually landlord lady???), and now that’s a whole different yikes. On yet another hand though, the so-called suave Xander used a line mentioning Klingons on her, so this also seems like a very specific nerd fantasy.

But I digress.

Overall, this episode is about Xander coming to terms about his own adult life. And I know I keep going back to this word, and using it to describe the season, so I want to make a few clarifications.

When I say that the Scoobies are all adults in season 5, I don’t mean that they abandoned all childlike qualities or have fully matured. (Mostly because that never actually happens to any of us…) Buffy still fights with her sister like they’re both 5-year-olds. When it comes to Anya, Willow is petty af.

But so is Giles sometimes. Being an adult is much more about the ability to think ahead and knowing yourself, including your potential and limits. This is what Xander is faced with here - his supposedly best and worst qualities.

I do think that definig the two Xanders we see here as his strength and weaknesses is a gross oversimplification though - and one that the episode doesn’t really rectify either. It’s fun seeing confident Xander, and having this affirmation that he’s really taking charge of his life at this point… but I do wish that we’ve also had a bit of an appreciation for our other Xander. It would’ve helped driving this whole theme of how his character can’t be whole without both of these parts.

Another meh element was the gun. Buffy, the show, rarely uses guns, and when it does in a context like this - where a character is just waving it around to make themselves feel more in control -, it pretty much always leads to tragedy.

And yet… not here. The tension of the gun gets resolved without consequences. We also learn that the gun belongs to Anya, but we’ll never bring it back again. Which is just as well if you ask me. (Chekhov can go and sit in a corner for all I care.)

So I guess I actually have more than one nitpicky stuff about this episode, but overall, I still enjoyed it like most of this season. Seeing how I’ve been non-stop gushing about s5 for the last three episodes, I think it comes as no surprise that this always has been one of my favorite seasons of the show. And that opinion appears to hold up for this rewatch so far.

One of the other things I wanted to point to before moving onto the Riley section of this post, is Xander and Willow’s mention of Anya when they’re talking about Xander’s double taking over his life.

Xander:  He can take anything, but he can’t have her. I need her. Willow:  Really? Xander:  He could be with her right now! [...] I gotta find her. Willow:  Xander... You already knew he was taking over your life, and you didn’t think about Anya till just now?

The most important detail of this exchange is the tone of Willow’s voice when she says “Really?”. It’s easy to take Willow on her word when just doing a reading of the lines, accepting her perspective on Xander and Anya’s relationship… But Willow is an extremely biased narrator in this case.

And it’s all evident in the way she says that one single line. She almost seems disgusted and clearly annoyed with Xander’s sudden outburst of desperation for Anya. Willow just really doesn’t like Anya - thankfully we’ll have a whole episode this season dedicated to this where we can dissect the layers of those emotions.

On the other hand, it also doesn’t mean that Willow isn’t not right? Xander has a huge problem of not appreciating what he has in the moment, and trying to chase something new to move his life forward. But that’s why this episode is so important to him.

That last scene with Riley’s speech is just as much about Xander as it is about Riley. Xander clearly sees himself in Riley in a sort of what-could-have-been scenario. It’s debatable if he’s every got over his crush and entitlement to Buffy’s affections, but here’s this guy, who adores Buffy just as much as he used to. And he’s the luckiest guy! He’s actually got the dream girl or whatever…

…And yet he’s also just a saddest thot, ‘cause the girl of his dreams doesn’t seem to reciprocate those same affections. Because of that, i read that last close-up on Xander’s face as him realizing just how goddamn lucky he is to love someone who loves him back. And perhaps finally giving up on his last shred of daydreams about that one girl who turned him down back in high school.

On the other hand, it really is also just about him watching one of his best friends and wanting to see her happy. And realizing that that’s not the direction her relationship with Riley is headed.

Now, the problem we run into here too is that we’re accepting Riley’s perspective on Buffy’s feelings about him, and you know what? I’m not so sure about that.

Buffy definitely feels like she can’t share all of her life - especially the Slayer parts - with Riley at this point. I pointed to some signs indicating this in earlier episodes, but she actually makes it explicit here.

Buffy thinks that Riley would rather just have Buffy without the Slayer parts and so she asks him. But Riley reassures her that that’s not the case. That he loves everything about her because it’s what makes her who she is.

It’s a nice sentiment, but one can also see moments that seem to support Buffy’s instincts that Riley might be uncomfortable with the whole package deal. There’s also an argument to be made that Buffy distancing herself makes Riley blame her Slayer qualities for her detachment on some level, which in turn informs Buffy that she can’t let Riley fully in, and so on. A neverending feedback loop that’s slowly but surely expanding the rift between them.

And yet it’s not even about Riley really - Buffy this season, more than ever, struggles with understanding her Slayer powers. In that sense, her asking Riley about whether or not he wished to have been able to separate the Slayer from Buffy, is more a question to herself. Buffy doesn’t yearn for that “normal life” quite the same anymore, but she doesn’t know how the Slayer fits in with Buffy either.

Going back to theme of adulthood being about knowing ourselves, Buffy knows Buffy. She’s yet to fully understand the Slayer.

In a way, it really isn’t about Riley at all, even though he appears to think so. Riley feels like Buffy can’t love him, specifically - but in reality, her detachment goes much deeper than that.

Buffy will have trouble opening up for the remainder of the series, and Riley eventually leaving won’t help, but it’ll also just exacerbate an existing problem. Probably more on that later.

You know what I love though? College Buffy being too engulfed in her history studies to enjoy the movie. And once she does look up, she spends the whole movie criticizing the fighting strategy of the protagonist. What a nerd.

I also laughed at Riley’s line about wanting to lock the Xanders up in separate rooms and study them. You can take the boy out of the Initiative, but… wait, the show already made that joke last episode, whatever.

Meanwhile Joyce is having a headache, and Buffy and Dawn joke about which one of them gave her that. I’m sure it’s fine.

Unfortunately, Tara skipped out on this ep. She’s probably getting prepared for a visit from her evil cousin from hell, Amy Adams.

I, myself, am not sure I’m prepared for that tbh.

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 3x07 Revelations

aka subtext and secrets

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and rant about it in 10-3k words. What you can expect: long run-on sentences and disjointed observations, often focused on one tiny detail about the episode. What you shouldn’t be expecting: actual reviews that make sense.

And today marks the third 7th episode milestone of this rewatch, so the deal should be obvious by now: big reveals and set ups for the season are in order.

As far as big season themes go, Revelations combines explicit Buffy/Faith subtext, the will-they-won’t-they dance of a post-season 2 Buffy/Angel, and Faith being turned to the dark side by an authority figure showing specific interest in her. So yup. There’s definitely a lot of set up here to delve into.

But before that, I once again have to talk a bit about Willow and Xander, and how they’re handling the reveal of Angel being alive in light of their own little secret transgressions.

On a surface level, Willow seemed the most understanding and supportive towards Buffy. Which I was glad of, because I once again felt like there was a disproportionate blame leveled against her, and that gives me all these bad feelings in my tummy.

On the other hand... Willow’s mentality stems from a ‘who am I to judge when I’ve been secretly cheating on my bf’ mindset, and that’s not always the healthiest way to deal. It’s certainly not a bad thing - it’s a chance for self-awareness and empathy -, but for one thing, it leaves the door open for not holding other people responsible for their actions due to your own guilt. (Which doesn’t necessarily apply here, but will be relevant a few seasons from now.)

There’s also the issue that if you’re too wrapped up in that guilt and your own head, you might not actually be able to empathize with and support others properly through their own issues. (Once again though, I’m pointing this out mostly for future reference.)

In any case, I did like that Willow tried to use the opportunity to come clean to Buffy about her own secrets at that point, even if she chickened out post-demon slayage. Her reactions during that fight were adorable though.

And then we got Xander on the complete opposite side of that spectrum.

That’s not to say that Xander isn’t overcompensating for his own guilt here though. In fact, the reason why he ends up finding out about Angel is because he volunteered to go the cemetery... alone. Just to bring Buffy and Faith up do speed on their findings.

I actually was with Xander more than I expected during this ep. It was logical and understandable for him to follow Angel, and then tell Giles about what he saw. As usual, he did go over the line during Buffy’s intervention, but I also liked how Cordelia debunked Buffy’s jealousy comment and that, as an audience member, we were aware of the circumstances of him ‘spying’ on them.

At this point, it does certainly feel like Xander’s dislike of Angel has nothing to do with jealousy... but then again, as I pointed out many times, Xander is a rather emotional character. So if his gut is telling him that Angel is the worst, there’s no way of discerning how much of that is leftover sulkiness back from season 1.

In any case, he certainly believes himself to be justified in his rage, which is why he has little care as to how his ramblings will come off to Faith. Who then decides with a lack of context that Angel slayage is in order, and Xander even volunteers to accompany her in that.

See, this is why I’m having trouble blaming Buffy for keeping Angel’s reappearance a secret from the gang. Sure, keeping it a secret made the reveal definitely worse, but come on! Look at their reactions! And then Giles said that she must have known that it was wrong or otherwise she wouldn’t have kept it from them, and... Here’s a hot take.

Just because you feel guilty about doing something, doesn’t mean that it’s actually wrong. It wasn’t wrong of Buffy to care for Angel after he was brought back, and it was damn reasonable that she didn’t think that the rest of the gang would understand. (Which again goes back to the “Kick his ass” moment.)

So while I understand where the gang is coming from, and can sympathize with their distrust of Angel, and them feeling betrayed by Buffy... I’m with my girl on this one.

#Buffy’sDoneNothingWrong

But then we get to the main attraction of this episode. Faith.

Again, I love that the episode starts with some pretty explicit subtext hint at Buffy and Faith’s relationship. The gang is theorizing about whether or not Buffy’s dating someone new. Buffy appears and says that she wouldn’t use the word ‘dating’, but she’s definitely going out with someone tonight. And that someone is Faith.

It’s all very subtle.

And then Gwendolyn Post appears, and announces herself as Faith’s new Watcher. She also makes some great effort at making Giles feel inadequate in the process, but that’s beside the point.

Faith immediately says that she doesn’t get along with authority figures... mostly ‘cause they tend to die around her. Besides, she’s already got Giles, and they’re fine with the gang.

But then Gwendolyn manages to get under her skin, when she comments on the secret meeting the rest of the Scoobies had. Now, from an outsider perspective, it might seem understandable why Faith wasn’t invited to the Buffy intervention meeting. For her however, this just served as a wake-up call about her place in the group.

Giles isn’t her Watcher. He’s Buffy’s. All of the gang... they’re Buffy’s friends. And apparently, Faith hasn’t even earned her stripes to be in Buffy’s inner circle yet.

So when Gwendolyn offers to train her and asks for her trust in return... Faith accepts, despite herself. Sure, she isn’t as cozy as Giles, and doesn’t approve of having a social group, but at least she’d be her Watcher. And it’s not like Faith has a lot of friends, or trusts anyone to let in to begin with.

And yet, Faith going after Angel... That wasn’t Gwendolyn’s influence. That was Faith thinking that she was helping Buffy, that she was perhaps even saving her from herself.

You can also add the subtext here to Faith’s motivation, even if it’s only on a subconscious level. And the fact that Faith and Xander are planning to do this together - after the latter was accused of still having some jealousy goggles on, no less -, could actually support that claim.

Once Gwendolyn betrays her though, Faith’s at a low point. Despite her bravado, it’s obvious how much Faith craves a support system; but now not only did she learn her lesson about trusting people once again, she also came to the conclusion that she’s not really part of Buffy’s family either.

Buffy:  I'm on your side. Faith:  I'm on my side, and that's enough. Buffy:  Not always.

That scene at the end between them, as short as it is, is still probably my favorite of the episode. Buffy comes offering an olive branch after everything, reassuring Faith that they were all fooled by Gwendolyn, and that despite their fight earlier, despite keeping secrets from her and everyone else, she’s still in her corner.

But Faith is lost in her own head. She doesn’t feel like she can trust Buffy anymore. She knows that she isn’t the most important person in Buffy’s life and fears that she’d choose her friends or Angel over her in a heartbeat. (Which kind of reminds me of how maybe Faith and Willow are more similar than they’d care to admit...)

And yet, at the end of the scene, Faith still calls out to Buffy. She considers one last time to open up, to let her in...

...And then retreats back into herself. In her cheap motel room that someone should really get her out of. But the fact that not one adult cares to do so, is emblematic of the validity of Faith’s issues.

People will let you down. So why not let them down first?