#xander riley and angel all belong on this list as well

[raisedbythetv89]

Me when the manipulative character manipulates irl viewers into ignoring all the bad and only seeing the good and then treating me like I’m the crazy one because I see through the manipulation and see the characters for who they really are instead of how they want to be perceived

[alwaysakin]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fanfic Rec

Guys I have so much useless fanfic knowledge -- one of my friends asked me for a list of Buffy fics and this happened.

Non-Buffy Centric, One-Shot Fics

Potential Friend by srmcd1 - a cute little ficlet that looks at what might have happened if Jesse lived.

Age Difference by Amina - for all the Oz fans out there! A time-travelling Oz gives Buffy a new perspective on life and relationships. Slightly Angel-bashing.

All that I wanted was just to be haunted by you by chasingfictions - After the events of "The Body," Jenny's ghost bullies Giles into moving in with the Summers girls. This one made me BAWL.

Appropriate conduct by The_Eclectic_Bookworm - an increasingly angry series of memos between Principal Synder & Jenny, Giles, and the other teachers of Sunnydale High. Absolutely hilarious.

i belong to time, you belong to me by chasingfictions - Dru knows when she meets Spike, that he will fall in love with a slayer. She forgets, until she doesn't. Beautiful, poetic, and very Dru.

One Girl in All the World by zedpm - a trans!Buffy AU, where she was born in a boy's body and is still the slayer. A beautifully done AU, with Oz and (surprisingly! Riley) as particular standouts. Minor Spike/Buffy.

The Holy Grail of Buffy Fics: Long, With a Focus on an Ensemble Cast. Absolute Masterpieces.

hit rewind by untiljanuary - Hands down, the best Buffy fic I've ever read. Buffy (from some time in season 6, but unclear when), is sent back in time to season 3. What makes it so interesting is that it's from everyone else's perspective! The author writes Cordelia, Willow, Faith, Angel and Spike in particular so well. Lots of interesting character work, though the plot hasn't deviated too much from canon so far.

Ships: Buffy/Spike, Angel/Cordelia, Willow/Tara, Anya/Xander. The Buffy/Angel ends on mutual terms.

two roads diverged (and that has made all the difference) by RoseyPoseyPie - a Buffy season 5/Angel season 2 crossover. Hoping to escape Glory, the Scoobies end up in Pylea with the Fang Gang. This fic is absolutely hilarious (the scene where everyone gets high and drunk together is a notable standout). The author writes Anya, Lorne and Cordelia in particular super well. Dawn and Angel's dynamic is also amazing.

Ships: Buffy/Spike, Angel/Cordelia, Anya/Xander, Willow/Tara.

don't know how to stick around, but I wanna by chasingfictions - a series in an alternate universe where Faith, instead of going to prison, joins Angel Investigations. Very Fang Gang centric, but really builds up their family bond. Darla, Faith, and Wesley were stand outs to me in this.

Ships: eventual Faith/Buffy, and minor canon pairings. Faith briefly pursues other girls, including Darla.

Best Spuffy Centric Fic

wouldn't it be nice? by SummerFrost - an alternative universe, where the will-be-done spell in season 4 goes a little differently, and Spike and Buffy start a slow crawl towards friendship that becomes... something. So soft and sweet. Has two sequels, and the season 6 one in particular is WONDERFUL.

Every Letter That You Write Me by othellia - the obligatory fandom soulmate AU. Young Buffy is absolutely adorable in this one, and Spike and Buffy's relationship is bittersweet, raw, and believable.

Choices by lafillesauvage - An AU. After Season 5 of Angel, Spike becomes human. Angel does not. Buffy still chooses Angel, and these are the consequences. Slightly excessive Angel bashing, but the characterization of Buffy and Spike, and little notes like Buffy's relationship with Giles being slowly fixed and Willow getting a non-Kennedy girlfriend are great! Buffy/Angel with a happy Spike/Buffy ending.

The Darkling by OffYourBird - the iconic time travel Spuffy fic. Buffy goes back in time and meets Spike... in the 1970s. His slow path to redemption starts differently, with tons of interesting changes in the timeline. Be warned, this one is LONG and smutty. Shout out for making me believe Giles/Anya could work as a couple!

Inside Man by HollyDB - An Angel season 5 fic. Spike calls Buffy. This shows all the things that change when Buffy has a spy on the inside of the Fang Gang. Follows canon up until the last episode, but provides fun context.

Short, Cute Cangel Fics

give them all that they can drink by eagle_eyes. The one where Cordelia is ace. Amazingly written, and the Cangel relationship is so soft and believable.

Another Chance by NikitaDreams - After the events of Angel: the Series, Cordelia travels back in time. Focus on Cangel and Connor. Lots of cute family dynamics.

Halloween Happily Ever After by GeckoGirl89 - cute, mutual pining between Angel and Cordelia in season 3. Angst with a happy ending. Really highlights how oblivious Cangel were to each other's feelings.

[fallingtowers]

couple more thoughts on this topic before i put it to rest

first off, i forgot about another instance of tier 3 behavior: in "the replacement," xander pulls a gun on his own double. this is textbook in that xander is at his limit here, desperate to regain control, but it's interesting in a couple ways. for one, xander is threatening to shoot himself, and even though he doesn't know this in the text, it is arguably a subtextual suicide attempt. also, the gun xander uses is explicitly called out in dialogue as belonging to anya. while it doesn't fully invert the show's gendered-violence paradigm, it's still an interesting detail.

secondly, the more i think about it, the more it seems clear to me that guns in btvs really are a symbol of control, pure and simple. control is the thing that unifies every single instance of a gun being used in the show, whether it's a tier 1 mook failing to assert it, a tier 2 villain exerting it over others for their own gain, or a tier 3 character struggling to regain it. it's a symbol of violence, too; not only is a gun a lethal weapon, but even beyond simple physical injury, controlling someone without their consent is a form of violence, too. this is where the violence men enact upon women as a form of patriarchal control comes in -- as well as the violence governments enacts upon their citizens.

out of everyone in the btvs main cast, riley is most strongly associated with guns -- and, of course, it's no coincidence that he's also the person with the most ties to the government and the military. i've listed a couple of his Gun Moments in this post already, but i've yet to mention the most telling, from "restless":

this is not actually riley speaking, of course, only buffy's dream-image of him, but come on. this is about as overt as it gets. the camera moves deliberately in to get this shot for this line specifically, in response to buffy's doubtful question about whether world domination(!!!) is really a good thing. (note that this is not an example of tier 3 behavior, but rather the category below -- symbolizing the amoral application of force for the purposes of imposing control.) this moment is an expression of buffy's anxieties first and foremost, yes, but its weight as a general statement is imo undeniable.

so, in summary: firearms in btvs are symbols of violent control, used in attempts to enforce their wielders' worldviews. this violence may be interpersonal, or institutional, or both; in rare cases it may be directed at the self, but even in these cases the aim is still to exercise control over one's surroundings (note that, even though jonathan's goal in "earshot" is to commit suicide, buffy believes it is to hurt others, and crucially jonathan chooses to kill himself in a public place where his suicide is likely to affect others; in "the replacement," xander is in danger of killing himself, but he believes he is threatening an other). the show takes the stance that the use of guns is immoral -- threatening someone with a gun is bad enough, but hurting someone with one is unforgivable. most of the characters who shoot someone end up dead themselves; almost all who survive are injured, humiliated, or defeated in some other way.

arguably this ties into btvs's greater themes of existentialism and absurdism. see angel's line about "if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do" -- if life is inherently meaningless and it is up to us to give it meaning, you could argue that to impose one's own worldview on others against their will is among the worst things one can do.

the way buffy the vampire slayer uses guns is really interesting. it's very consistent, and might be divided into three different "tiers" depending on the wielder's role in the story, each of which signifies certain traits:

unnamed background characters, usually police officers, who carry guns as a matter of course. in and of itself i don't think this means much -- it's not much deeper than "cops have guns in the show because cops have guns in real life" -- but because of the way btvs depicts the police, we might call this part and parcel of a symbolic set which marks a character as a "civilian," unaware of the supernatural world and not equipped to deal with it. guns can't kill vampires, so the gun here ironically becomes a symbol of powerlessness.

antagonists. here, the gun signifies callousness, cynicism, and a disregard for life. we see this for example in cain ("phases"), the german commandos ("homecoming"), and patrice ("what's my line"). an interesting case is coach marin ("go fish"), who as far as i can remember never fires his gun but who possesses the traits associated with this tier regardless. note also that characters in this tier are almost universally driven by a desire for money, so that the gun here is also associated with selfishness and greed.

(mostly) major, (mostly) sympathetic characters. here, the gun signifies desperation and psychological anguish on the part of the wielder. the wielder is cracking under some great pressure, and the gun symbolizes a desperate and misguided attempt to reassert control. the standout example here is riley, who does this twice -- once in "goodbye, iowa" and again in "the yoko factor" -- but we might also mention james in "i only have eyes for you" and spike in "fool for love." note also that warren falls into this category, rather than tier 2 (hence why i specified "mostly sympathetic") -- his shooting buffy is a crime of passion, not a dispassionate, cynical act, and crucially he only resorts to using the gun after buffy has bested him at every turn for almost a full season: a last-ditch attempt to regain control. the gun again comes to symbolize helplessness, but here has an added layer in that its use will actively make one's situation worse. james and warren both pulled the trigger, and see where that got them. riley and spike didn't, so they were spared by the narrative.

again and again, we see the show go out of its way to avoid its characters using guns except in these very specific cases. buffy's projectile weapon of choice is a crossbow; the initiative rank-and-file almost exclusively use taser guns. even faith, after her heel turn, doesn't use guns, because her motives don't align with those of tier 2; instead, she uses a bow.

as an aside, it would be inaccurate to say that buffy never uses a gun -- in "i only have eyes for you," when james possesses her, she confronts angel at gunpoint. similarly, willow gets her hands on a gun in "the killer in me." these two cases share an interesting similarity -- in both examples, the character is being compelled to act uncharacteristically by forces outside her control, thus reinforcing the gun as a symbol of powerlessness.

(it's also worth noting that there's a pattern where the gun is associated with specifically gendered violence. the characters in tier 3 are almost universally male, and they almost universally shoot or threaten to shoot women. buffy and willow break the mold, but both of their cases are echoes of earlier events where a man shot a woman. something something phallic imagery.)

this all speaks to a very measured and clear-sighted moral stance. in the world of btvs, guns are bad. at best, if you use one, you are a clueless idiot way out of your depth; at worst, you're going to die badly. or, in buffy's own words (from "flooded"):

[buffster]

The Yoko Factor (BTVS 4.20)

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

All I remembered about the Scooby fight was that it happened. I had forgotten how, and I actually do think it makes more sense now. It wasn’t about their friendship, it was about attacking each of their insecurities and making them feel that everyone else in the group had noticed them too. This was possible because the friendship has been so fractured that no one feels supported or even seen. They have no reason not to think they’re being judged. 

Unfortunately, the resolution to all this never really comes around. There is a ton of good stuff here--Buffy’s increased reliance on herself, Willow’s moving away from her computer skills and into witchcraft as a solution to everything, Xander not feeling respected and seeing Anya as an extension of that, Giles losing his sense of leadership and importance--but we never really get an acknowledgement of any of that until much later. And the real problem that Spike landed on--that the Scoobies aren’t paying a bit of attention to one another--gets a quick patch over but continues to be a problem. Yes, Buffy isn’t judging Willow, but is that a good thing or just a symptom of her ignoring her entirely?  

Spike is the one who comes up with this plan to incite drama, which I do feel makes sense for his character. He’s insightful and incredibly good at stuff like this. It’s also fun to see his perspective on Buffy and how fascinated/afraid of her he is. He keeps insisting to Adam that he needs to consider her a bigger threat. You can sense the admiration beneath the irritation. 

Adam: You feel smothered. Trapped like an animal, pure in its ferocity, unable to actualize the urges within… Clinging to one truth like a flame struggling to burn within an enclosed glass… That a beast this powerful cannot be contained. Inevitably it will break free and savage the land again… I will make you whole again. Make you savage.

This is the episode in which Forrest is killed. He claims his problem with Buffy is that Riley is willing to commit treason over her and turn against their “family”. I would have loved to see some more backstory on Forrest: either have him be an orphan who found his family through Riley and now he feels abandoned or have him have a romantic interest in him. Then you could even have had him join Adam willingly as a way to get his family back. 

Angel’s return also doesn’t fit into the story well. I covered over in Sanctuary why his coming here made no sense, and his drama with Riley was nothing but fan-baiting. It also felt like a bit of a step back for Angel’s character; he always seems less mature over on Buffy. On Angel he seems sad but resigned to the fact that he can’t have Buffy and she comes off as wanting more than he can give. But here he seems like a petty, jealous ex. I don’t see a scenario where he would like Riley, but beating him up, refusing to explain he’s not evil, and insinuating he might have slept with Buffy is ridiculous. The end scene where he says “I don’t like him” in a tone of resigned sadness makes more sense than everything before it.  

Buffy: Look, I… you weren't entirely wrong, what you said in L.A. We don't live in each other's worlds anymore. I can't just barge in on yours and make judgments.

Angel: I'm still sorry.

Buffy: Thank you.

Xander is the one who gives Riley the information on what turned Angel evil. Why does he have this habit of venting inappropriately when it comes to Buffy’s boyfriends (here, and when he tells Dawn Spike tried to rape Buffy)? In the script Xander decides to tell Riley even though it’s clear Buffy doesn’t want him to know, but in the episode it plays like Xander accidentally spilled the beans. 

As far as Buffy’s decision on this, I get it. It’s a bit easier for Willow, for example, to be totally honest with Tara about her past with Oz. She loved him, the wolf thing became a problem, he left. Angel will always hold power over Buffy and she will always have feelings for him, and basically the only reason they’re not together is because they can’t be. How do you tell a boyfriend that if your ex suddenly became human you’d be tempted to run right back into his arms? It’s unresolved and messy. 

Riley: I went a little nuts, you know? I mean, on the one hand, I should believe in us. But, on the other, sometimes things just happen between ex's and then I saw he was bad

Buffy: He wasn't bad.

Riley: Seriously? That's a "good" day? Well there you go. Even when he's good he's all Mr. Billowy Coat King of Pain and girls really-

After their talk they say I love you to each other and then Buffy has to tell him about Forrest. He abruptly leaves, and the cliff-hanger is that he goes to Adam.

Let’s get in to the Scooby drama. It’s clear Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles haven’t been paying much attention to each other lately, but you know who has been paying attention? Spike. 

Spike: Think you're neglecting the past tense there, Rupert. Besides, she barely listened when you were in charge. I've seen the way she treats you.

We’ve seen a few hints that Giles is insecure about losing his job as librarian and, more importantly, Watcher. He was fired way back in season three, but when Buffy belonged to the Council she continued to look to him for guidance and ignored the replacements. When she decided to drop the Council and stop taking orders she also stopped looking to him. She’s the leader now. 

Xander: This is so like them lately. It's all about them and the college life. You know what college is? It's high school without the actual going to class. Well, high school was sort of like that too but the point is, I'm the one working hard to earn a living and it's a huge joke to them.

Anya: They look down on you.

Xander: And they hate you…

Anya: But they don't look down on me.

Xander is struggling to find his footing post-high school, which we actually have seen hints of throughout. The ironic part is Buffy and Willow will be in the same place after college, but by then Xander is finding a place in construction and doing a bit better. Spike suggests they mentioned him going to the military, which was a strange choice. It would be fairly easy for them to shut down having ever said that if it came up. Spike only gets away with it because the fight is so chaotic. 

Willow: I am a whiz!

Tara: She is a whiz.

Willow’s insecurity is about her new relationship with Tara and her friend’s feelings about it. Spike slips up here; he says Xander said she was being trendy but Xander doesn’t even know about the relationship at this point. Spike points out something interesting here--Willow isn’t as focused on her computer skills lately. But that’s not something she or anyone else will be concerned about for awhile. 

Spike doesn’t say anything to Buffy, which makes sense because she’s sort of the center of this whole universe. Buffy has a lot of concerns, but her friends not liking or needing her isn’t one of them. The interesting thing about all this drama is that none of the friends care a bit about what the others are going through; they’re too focused on their own drama. Buffy and Willow don’t think about Xander’s employment issues, Buffy and Xander don’t think about Willow’s sexual preferences or her obsession with wicca, and Buffy, Xander, and Willow don’t think about Giles’ lack of employment in any real way.

Tensions escalate when they all convene at Giles’ house because everyone is overly sensitive (Buffy is totally lost). 

Giles: You never train with me anymore. Adam's gonna kick your ass.

Buffy: Giles?!

Giles: Sorry! Didn't mean to be so honest. Terribly sorry.

After seeing Forrest die, Buffy isn’t eager for anyone to come along with her. And that just further taps into their feelings of inadequacy. 

Xander: And if I did join the army I'd be great. You know why? Because maybe they'd give me a job that couldn't be done by any well-trained Border Collie.

Willow: Sure, you'd be wonderful in the army -- you think the umbilical cord between you and Anya would stretch that far?

Xander: I knew it. I knew you hated her.

Willow: Hey, I'm not the one being judgmental, here. I'll leave that territory to you and Buffy.

Buffy: Judgmental? If I was any more open minded about the choices you two make my whole brain would fall out.

Xander: Oh. And superior. Don't forget that. Just because you're better than us doesn't mean you can be all superior.

Buffy: Guys, stop this. What happened to you today?

Willow: It's not today. Buffy, everything's been wrong for a while. Don't you see that?

Buffy: Willow, what do you mean things have been wrong? Things don't have to be wrong, do they?

A major problem with the Scooby friendship is that Buffy is the leader--and she is both too distracted and too inclined to ignore emotional issues to lead effectively. Buffy is an avoidance type and so the entire group avoids talking or working through their feelings with each other. This is something Giles noticed in Once More With Feeling but it never gets fixed. The group is missing someone like Faith or Spike...someone who would be more willing to call out issues and bring them out in the open. Buffy hates that, but sometimes it’s necessary. Just look what happened to everyone in season six...

Character Notes:

The Initiative: They want Riley back. They (correctly) realize they can’t harm Buffy if they ever want to bring him back into the fold. When the relationship between them ends they do eventually lure him back, so good call there.

Spike: We learn he can’t even point a useless gun with the chip in his head. It appears to be activated by intent to harm rather than ability, which makes sense. He lists his past fun night outs as deflowering a virgin princess, killing a minister mid-sermon, and seeing the Sex Pistols in ‘76. 

Adam: His favorite Beatles song is ‘Helter Skelter’. 

[buffster]

The I in Team (BTVS 4.13)

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

In Buffy, there are always background issues sprinkled throughout the season before they begin to come to a head. This episode: Xander’s failure to thrive post high-school. He’s selling “healthy” candy bars (unsuccessfully) to try and make a bit of money. He forces a reluctant Giles to purchase some. There’s also a red flag between him and Anya as we note her obsession with money and his lack of big-money-making ambitions. He wants to make her happy, but he’s a simple guy. Their goals and desires don’t really match up in a way that could leave both satisfied. 

We see Buffy throw herself into the commandos operation, leaving her friends behind and wary of what she’s getting herself into. Has anyone else noticed Buffy’s tendency to not involve people in her life? It’s like she sections people off but no one gets access to the full Buffy. As soon as she gets a boyfriend she has this whole side life with him that her friends don’t really know about, but Riley doesn’t know about Spike or her past with Angel...I mean, obviously no friend knows everything that’s going on with you and vice versa, but she keeps some pretty big secrets to herself on a regular basis. Big on the internalizing, our Buffy. 

Willow in particular has always seemed the most bothered by this aspect of Buffy’s personality, which is probably why she’s jumped at the chance to have her own private world with Tara. We see the usual lonely-Willow face as Buffy runs off, but now she can head to Tara’s instead of just feeling pathetic. 

No one can say Buffy didn’t give a good faith effort to trust the Initiative. She doesn’t seem to notice they’re subtly testing her skills and getting a good read on what she can do. Forrest is, predictably, not happy about the situation. 

Graham: He made you team leader, didn’t he?

Forrest: That’s not the point. I’ve always been Riley’s second-in-command. Instead he picks a girl.

Graham: His girl.

Forrest: Whatever. Three guesses what that boy’s thinking with.

It’s funny everyone at the Initiative is a bit obsessed with Riley. If Buffy were made today there would definitely be a Forrest-is-in-love-with-Riley subplot.

Speaking of what Riley’s thinking with, we get a montage of Buffy and Riley fighting demons and having sex for the first time. It makes me wonder how much fighting was foreplay for them, and if that was tied in to Riley’s issues when Buffy doesn’t trust him to come along anymore post super-soldier. If the sex was less exciting he probably became worried about his hold on Buffy. Anyway, Maggie is so creepy for watching them have sex. She’s totally rocking that vibe you get around certain mothers where you wonder just how obsessed with their sons they are (am I the only one who’s met one of those mothers?).

Sadly, Buffy wakes up panicked the morning after with Riley. This is the first time in her life things haven’t immediately gone to hell after sex. It was almost an entire day before it happened this time! Progress. 

Willow’s worry makes it’s way over to Buffy and she begins to question the operation a bit. The culture of the Initiative is don’t ask questions, just follow orders. They’ve got a bunch of soldiers contributing to an operation they know absolutely nothing about. It’s amazing the kind of trust they have in authority figures. But Buffy’s used to leading, not following. 

Giles: Thinking about your affliction -- as well as your newly discovered ability to fight only demons. It occurs to me - and I realize it's against your nature - but have you considered there may be a higher purpose--

Spike: Aagh. Made me lose count. What are you still doing here?

I’ve mentioned over on my Angel commentary that he’s really struggled to find reasoning for his being brought back. He thinks there’s a higher meaning for his continued existence despite all he’s faced (I mean, that’s got to be easier than thinking it’s all pointless, right? Ah, and there’s our set up for his break down...anyway...). Spike has no interest in Giles musing about his new potential now that he’s chipped. Spike just wants to smoke, shag, and maybe get into some trouble as always. 

After an unfortunate meeting with the commandos Spike turns up at Giles’ door despite just telling him he wants nothing to do with him. Xander’s military knowledge (it’s amazing how often that’s come up) helps them realize he’s got a tracker implanted in him. Giles gets some of the money back from the Fyarl fiasco in exchange for helping. Interestingly, Giles immediately calls Willow to perform a spell to buy them some time. No concern about her use of magic right now.

Spike: I'm not going anywhere. Not until those bastards undo whatever they did to me. Put me back the way I was.

Xander: Sure, just explain to the nice scientist guys that you really miss torturing and killing innocent people.

Spike: Think that'll work?

Giles: Spike, Lord knows why I'm telling you this, but it's for your own good. As long as the Initiative's in operation, it's not safe for you here.

After Maggie watched Buffy and Riley and heard her ask about 314 she makes the decision to kill Buffy. Since Maggie died prematurely we can only speculate on how much she was motivated by possession of Riley vs. pure protectiveness over her operation. I think it was obviously a little of both, but ultimately I think her feelings for Riley would have lost out to her love of the Initiative. I think a big reason she cared so much for him was his compliance anyway. Maggie expresses some regret over the loss of a powerful ally in Buffy.

After sending Riley on a mission Maggie contacts Buffy to set her up. We get a quick glimpse of Buffy and Willow’s lack of a relationship right now as neither tells the other why they were out all night. Buffy is sent to the sewers and quickly realizes she’s been set up. And then THE BEST SCENE:

Maggie: Two of our hostiles broke free and escaped into the tunnels. She went after them on her own. She's dead, Riley.

Riley: What?

Maggie: I did everything I could to stop her. Told her to wait for a back-up team. She kept insisting she didn't need any team, she could handle it herself.

Maggie: I'm so, so sorry.

Riley: I-I don't understand. How could this happen?

Maggie: I know how much you cared for her. She was a very, very special girl...I was just beginning to... I didn't understand at first. But she had something. I don't know... maybe I could've stopped her. It's hard not to blame myself--

Buffy: Hello, Professor Walsh...That simple little recon you asked me to do? Wasn't a raccoon. Turns out it was me trapped in a sewer with a faulty weapon and two of your pet demons on my hands. If you think that's enough to kill me you really don't know what a slayer is. Trust me when I say you're gonna find out.

First, I love that Walsh really thought her trap would work. Buffy hasn’t had access to military-grade weapons throughout her run as the slayer (okay, maybe a few times) so she’s had to rely on creativity. Second, I love Riley’s emotional reaction. A little poorly acted, but so cute. And third, badass Buffy is badass. Suck it, Walsh.

Riley walks out to the Maggie ordering him to stop--even resorting to saying Riley instead of Agent Finn. But for once he’s not following orders. Maggie seems to think he’ll come around once Buffy is killed. But Adam wakes up and kills “mommy” before she gets the chance to find out. This is when the villain arc of the season begins to suck. Adam is a huge downgrade from Maggie/the government and their infinite resources.

Character Notes:

Buffy Summers: When she was eight she took a trip to Washington D.C with her parents and got lost in the Smithsonian. Her code number is 91423.

Riley Finn: His code number is 75329.

Tara Maclay: She found a dolls-eye crystal in her attic she believes belonged to her grandmother. She gets it for Willow, but Willow doesn’t feel right taking it.

[buffster]

Wild at Heart (BTVS 4.06)

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

I stand by my earlier statement that the end of Willow/Oz came on too quickly. I feel like the Buffy/Parker relationship was beat into my skull but I missed out on peak Woz. I guess Graduation Day was supposed to be their peak? Either way I can’t help wishing we had some more build up to their problems. If you wanted to take a meta stance I suppose you could say Oz was trying to completely ignore his werewolf side until it caught up with him. 

The episode starts with Buffy cheerfully dusting a vamp while Spike watches. Spike…come, on man. What are you doing? I’m glad we later learn Drusilla sensed his obsession with Buffy and bailed because an explanation was definitely needed for his behavior. No matter how many times he gets beat he keeps crawling back. The commandos drag him off. 

Veruca: I like to eat. I hate chicks who are all - “does that have dressing on it?

Oz: Agreed.

Mini rant here but I hate girls who say things like that. Mostly because they’re always super skinny with an awesome metabolism and it’s like…some of us have to watch what we eat in order to be thin (and why is health a bad thing?). I’m just so over this manic pixie dream girl who eats like a six foot man but weighs ninety pounds. -eye roll- Anyway Veruca and Oz not only have the werewolf thing in common but also love music. Poor Willow feels how left out she is. 

Veruca: Maybe you don’t want to admit what happened to you. Maybe you want to pretend you’re just a regular guy…

Oz: I am. I’m only a wolf three nights a month.

Veruca: Or you’re the wolf all the time, and your human face is just your disguise. Ever think of that?

Veruca’s raising some interesting questions for Oz. I think he’s wondering if he can learn to be aware in his wolf state and have some control over it. Being locked in a cage that could break isn’t ideal. She’s also right about him being in denial about his life changing. 

Hearts break around the world as Oz sleeps with Veruca and Willow catches them. Kinda peeved Oz brought up Xander and Willow. I’m with Willow (isn’t that behind us? I barely even remembered it happened). And also she didn’t actually have sex with Xander or have some freaky animal connection with him. But Oz’s face when he sees how much he hurt Willow is so sad. 

Buffy: Put the blame where it belongs. Don’t hurt yourself.

Buffy fails to anticipate that Willow will really take this to heart. She gathers spell ingredients. Last time she was trying to help herself by ending the feelings between her and Xander. Now she’s trying to inflict pain on others. Willow’s downward spiral is such a slow burn…

Veruca: Can’t say I’m surprised you didn’t go through with your little hex. You don't have the teeth.

Willow: You don’t know what I have. You don't know anything about me.

Moments like this make me consider Willow’s thought process. Does she resent her helplessness here as another girl swoops in? I think it all comes back to Willow's interpretation of events. Buffy internalized her pain after Angel. She didn’t think some failing on her part was the reason things went wrong. She felt badly for his turning evil, but that’s different than not feeling like she was enough for him. The truth is Oz was feeling a connection with another werewolf who understood parts of him Willow can’t. But does Willow just think she pales in comparison to the sexually confident, strong werewolf girl? I think part of her does. 

In the end Oz chooses Willow and kills Veruca. I loved when Buffy immediately ran to Willow. Their friendship reached such a peak in season four. 

Buffy: Ive never seen her like this before, Giles. It’s like it hurts too much to even form words.

Giles: But you’ve felt that way yourself, and you got through it.

Buffy: Well, I ran away and went to hell - and then I got through it. I’m kind of hoping Willow won’t use me as a model.

Well, she won’t be using you as a model, Buffy. Oz decides to leave to figure out his werewolf side. 

Willow: Oz… Don’t you love me…?

Oz: My whole life, I’ve never loved anything else.

*Heart explodes* But also…does Oz have a bad home life or something? Haha.

Character Notes:

Rupert Giles: Giles is watching trivia games when Buffy comes over and he joins the gang at the Bronze. He’s clearly bored and lonely. 

Xander Harris: He’s withholding rent money from his mother because she won’t let him put a lock on his door. He gives Willow a trademark pep talk and tells her she just needs to talk to Oz. 

Riley Finn: He saves Willow from being run over.