hiskitsune

[spikedru]

concept art for ted and final design applied to john ritter

[btvsdemonssmashorpasstournament]

BTVS Smash or Pass Tournament Round 2 (Season 2)

[femslashspuffy]

Ted is absolutely the worst episode of Buffy to watch. It has been said many times before but they really found an absolutely insufferable situation. Even though she's the slayer she cannot get out of this because it's about a social conflict and she can't just beat the shit out of her mom's boyfriend and she learns quickly that she can't just kill her mom's boyfriend and you see him act so shitty to her and you're just begging for him to be a monster so she can finally beat the shit out of him

[bangelgifs]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2.11 | 2.17

[sulphur-and-honey]

actors gotta stop sounding absolutely nothing like their characters man I can’t keep going through this

[inconsistentlywrittensoul]

I want to talk about Buffy and Angel's relationship in Ted (and, I guess, Bad Eggs as well, a little). And I think it's a good time to look at them together - for one thing, at this point, post-What's My Line, I think they are definitely in a relationship, rather than the weird murky situation they were in for most of the early season. And in two episodes time, Angel's going to lose his soul - this is basically the peak of their Season 2 relationship, and also of what I see as Angel's pre-'Surprise' arc, of him gradually becoming less of a complete fucking disaster.

So now in Ted, we see them together as boyfriend and girlfriend, and... well, the scene starts with her talking his ear off complaining about Ted and him clearly bored. It's not as bad as it sounds - he's pretty good in this scene, and gives Buffy some sensible advice. (Ignoring the fact that Ted turns out to be abusive and also a robot, which isn't a factor yet.) This might be the first time in the series that Angel actually seems more emotionally mature than Buffy, and he uses that maturity to be a good, supportive boyfriend helping her through her issues...

But...

This is also a scene where Buffy is very much a teenager and Angel very much isn't. (This is also in an episode partly about Buffy's parental issues, which seems relevant to their relationship but I'd like to ignore for ick reasons.) His maturity is an advantage here, but there's also a clear disconnect between them, and that becomes more apparent as Angel gradually works his way towards being a functional person.

Bad Eggs is similar. Again, we see the positive side of their relationship, in the form of fun makeouts, but we also see the shadow of deeper problems in their relationship from a long-term perspective - the fact Angel can't have kids, Buffy's immaturity and inability to think about the future (for both normal teenager and doomed slayer reasons).

I am glad we get this period of them being mostly happy together, of their relationship mostly working - it's not just all-angsty- melodrama-all-the-time, a common failure state for their relationship and for Buffy as a whole. But even at the best of times, the issues in their relationship are always present - not the grand, dramatic problems that are the focus of Season 2, but the mundane issues that are the reason they ultimately break up in Season 3.

[coraniaid]

I think that Ted is a good episode -- I almost described it as an underrated episode, but actually everyone I know seems to rate it pretty highly – and one that clearly anticipates significant future episodes like Consequences and Dead Things.  The character of Ted himself seems like a decent first attempt at the Mayor (my favorite villain in the show); his actual origin foreshadows April and the Buffybot; and Buffy’s fear of what might happen if her mother reads her diary feels like an early taste of Normal Again. And it's honestly unsettling in a way that most Buffy episodes aren't; there's a very visceral clash between Buffy's (and the audience's) genre expectations and all the creepy domestic stuff with Ted, right from the start of the episode.

So there's a lot to like here. But.  It's pretty odd that the first of several "Hey, what if a vampire slayer killed a human being?  Obviously that would be terrible" episodes aired immediately after What's My Line?, a two-parter in which Buffy Summers rips open a man's throat with the blades of her ice skates, gently kisses her boyfriend while the man bleeds out on the ice and never ever feels the slightest bit bad about it. His death isn't even mentioned again (and, despite the premise of the episode, it doesn’t seem like anybody else is sent to replace him).

Okay, yes, we don't know for certain that the assassin Buffy killed at the ice skating rink was a human, but we do know he definitely wasn't a vampire (we see him walking around in the sunlight and he doesn't turn to ash when he dies), he looked far more human-like than any of the demons we've seen on the show before (and takes the bus to get to Sunnydale, which certainly suggests a lack of any alternate demonic options), and the episode's writers seem to make a deliberate point, after his death, of having Giles tell Buffy that the order of assassins he belonged to definitely does include humans among their ranks.  If they wanted us to be sure he wasn’t human, that’s a weird way of doing it.

(Perhaps the clearest argument against the ice rink assassin being a human is the way he seems equally matched in a physical confrontation with Angel, but the show is very inconsistent about whether ordinary humans can fight vampires or how strong vampires actually are.  Indeed the second part of What’s My Line? will see Giles himself overpower a vampire, “holding him steady” so that Willow can stake him.  He'll also grapple with a vampire later in this episode while patrolling in Buffy's place. Are we to assume Giles isn’t human?)

Even if the dead assassin wasn't "really" a human, Buffy doesn't have any obvious reason not to at least wonder that he might be.  The fact she doesn’t,  or doesn’t particularly care if he was, is because … well, because What’s My Line? isn't about that.

And yes, Buffy was very clearly acting in self-defense in What's My Line? and I don't particularly think she did anything wrong.  A strange guy was trying his best to hurt her, he surprised her in a place she thought she was safe, and if she hadn't had her Slayer strength things would have worked out very poorly for her.  But isn't all of that true for Ted as well?  

Actually, I think that’s the more serious problem with the episode.  Beyond any possible inconsistency with previous parts of canon (obviously you can assume the dead assassin was a demon if you want) there’s a tension between the moral quandary the show wants to raise this episode -- "what if Buffy used her Slayer powers to kill an innocent man?" -- and the fact the writers seem to really not want to show Buffy doing anything wrong, so much so that they kind of forget to make Ted seem anything like an innocent man, even before the big twist.

That is: the show wants to tell us that Buffy has crossed an important moral line and that – if Ted really had been an ordinary human – she’d probably deserve to go to jail for it.  That’s why her friends are so concerned with proving that Ted was not an ordinary human, at least that he was “some kind of crook”. It's why they decide she's "cleared" only when they find evidence of the drugs he was feeding them.

Whatever Ted was doing in her bedroom late at night, the show seems to argue that Buffy is the Slayer and as such “had no right” to hit him. ("He started it only works in six year old court," Buffy rebukes Willow later.) Cordelia tries comes to Buffy’s defense by suggesting there should be “special rules for her”, an idea the show (through Willow) shoots down as “fascist”. And all this plays out almost as though Buffy really had just started attacking Ted unprovoked because he was dating her mother and she didn’t like him.

But that isn’t at all what happened.  It’s very on brand for Buffy to act as though it is, and to blame herself for something that really isn't her fault, but it’s a little much to expect the audience to agree when we've actually seen the whole thing play out in front of our own eyes.  The cops are suspicious of Buffy’s claims of self-defense because she doesn’t have any visible bruises (and because ... they're cops), but we already know she isn’t lying.  Her friends should believe she isn’t lying.  They shouldn't need evidence of "a history of domestic violence". We already saw him hit her. That's not something you get a free pass for. It doesn't matter if he's not been convicted of doing it before.

And so I’m not convinced at all there’s any need to appeal to “special rules” for Buffy.  We see exactly what she did on screen, and I simply don’t think that she did anything wrong.  (Well, except confess to the cops.) Even if Ted had just been a normal human, he's a near stranger who surprises Buffy in her own bedroom, proceeds to blackmail her and to announce he’ll have her institutionalized if she doesn’t follow his orders, and who then hits her repeatedly – hard enough to knock her to the ground on at least one occasion.  How does that scene play out if Buffy isn’t a Slayer?  If she really is just a delusional sixteen year old girl and the diary Ted's gotten hold of describes some sort of fantasy?  Not very well for her, I can guess that much.

Of course, Cordelia’s wrong to suggest that “different rules” should apply to Buffy simply because she’s the Slayer, but equally the show is wrong to imply that the ordinary moral rules that apply to everyone somehow mean a teenage girl has no right to protect herself from being physically attacked in her own home. (Or to suggest, as Buffy herself does, that that right to self-defense somehow ends the minute she turns out to be stronger than the guy hitting her was expecting, even if that doesn't mean he stops hitting her.).  

What if all teenage girls were allowed to kill any strange men who broke into their bedrooms at night, threatened to ruin their lives unless they did “what I say, when I say” and then punched them hard enough to knock them to the floor?  Well, I think that would be pretty good actually.  I'm not really sure what the downside is supposed to be.

[ghostrabbit87]

Beloved actor and human Anthony Head is turning 70. For a surprise gift, his fans are raising money for one of his favourite charities, Welsh Pony Rescue and Rehoming Charitable Trust.

If you’re a Buffy or Ted Lasso fan, please consider donating any amount. You can even leave a message for him. Thank you! ❤️🐴

[missunderstoodxoxo]

My dumb fucking ass just realized these are the same actor (probably because I just recently started BtVS) and my mind is fucking blown:

Ffs, they’re both even Rupert-

[krimreader]

Ted as an episode hits so much harder with the context that Buffy got institutionalized after her parents read her diary

[dewdropdinosaur]

Requests Masterlist!

I will be writing short stories for anyone interested!

Please DO NOT STEAL OR PLAGIARIZE ANY OF MY WORK! I work really hard on each post so do not steal or any of the sort. Reblog's are okay because it will still tag me but DO NOT CLAIM MY WORK AS YOUR OWN. All work is my own and should not be plagarised, stolen, or otherwised used in any capacity without my permission. Thank you for being respectful in advance.

Rules below!

Fandoms include:

Hazbin Hotel

Good Omens

Ted Lasso

LOTR/Hobbit

Arcane: League of Legends

Rules:

Please only one request at a time and be understanding if I chose not to take it. I will try to take everyone's but I just started back school and also have other commitments.

Please be specific with any things you have other wise I will write with a GN reader

Always specify which character you want from a fandom and please understand if I choose not to write them.

Things I will NOT write

Rape/Non-con/Dubious consent

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Thank you and have a wonderful day my lovelies!

[bluebellofbakerstreet]

Bluebell's Blorborama round Six

[gothhobbithoe]

love how Joyce was like "if you leave this house don't come back" to Buffy and when Buffy leaves is like

"hmmm this is Giles fault"

like madam you told your vulnerable teenager to not come back home what did you think would happen

Buffy Season 3 Ep 1 and 2

[chambergambit]

imagine watching buffy the vampire slayer and alternating between episodes of that and ted lasso

the emotions would be. confusing.

[chungledown-bimothy]

top 5 old men that ensure your status as Mutual 4

you know what yeah that's fair lmao

but the thing is, there are a couple ways this could be interpreted. top 5 old men i want to fuck, or top 5 old men i post about wanting to fuck. but in posting the first, it becomes the second. so we'll do it that way.

1- kingston brown. perhaps an unexpected first choice, but he uses command a lot. and lou constantly delivers on lines/speeches that are just so damn hot. we need to talk about pete, his conversation with robert moses, etc.

2- lapin cadbury. priest kink. the scene with the sugar plum fairy in episode 1 is hot i don't make the rules. priest kink. (edit: i assumed where's your bulb now and the bulb cares for no one didn't need to be mentioned, but i changed my mind they should be talked about constantly. they make me short circuit jesus christ he's so hot)

3- qrow branwen. the juxtaposition of his depressed bisexual alcoholic energy with how he absolutely wrecks shop in a fight is extremely attractive. absolute wet kitten of a man who could fuckin obliterate me? smash. (honestly he's not higher on the list only because 40 is debatable for old man or not)

4- trent crimm. sarcastic judgemental faggot who lives for gossip with a great wardrobe and perfect hair.

5- rupert giles. any buffy fan gets it, i don't need to explain.

(hmm i think i have more of a thing for voices than i previously thought. also we're ignoring that 2 of these are fathers and one is, first and foremost, a father figure for the protagonist.)

[inconsistentlywrittensoul]

Not to be painfully insightful, Xander, but perhaps it is you who is having parental issues, and I that should be doing a little dance as I tell you that.

I just think him immediately latching onto Ted as a seemingly functional father figure isn't just about the tasty, tasty drugs.