Commenter Lookup *Caution* Unless you see an ADMIN tag, the comments below may not all belong to the same person! "Consequences" | View Comments2 | Ryan ONeilMay 19, 2013 *in reply to James (#30) Probably public property"Anne" | View Comments3 | Ryan ONeilMay 3, 2013 *in reply to tgor365 (#34) Judging by the time they meet in Angel S2, no they didn't :)"Once More, with Feeling" | View Comments4 | Ryan ONeilApr 29, 2013 *in reply to Waverley (#106) The popular theory is that he was lying so that Dawn wouldn't get hurt."Season 5 Review" | View Comments5 | Ryan ONeilApr 7, 2013 *in reply to alfridito017 (#102) Albiet as one of the bad examples, what with her brothers banishing her because they were afraid of her?"Potential" | View Comments6 | Ryan ONeilMar 26, 2013 *in reply to Arachnea (#52) "The training in the graveyard was great until she locks the Potentials in a crypt. We thought that leaving Buffy powerless against a vampire was cruel (in Helpless), yet she does the same to those girls. Granted, she was outside with Spike, but the vampire could have killed one of them in a second."I would love to say that that was a deliberate method of showing how much Buffy is doing things wrong, by letting herself be convinced that she is supposed to be disconnected from her "soldiers," and how it's turning her into the people that tried to kill her in "Helpless" ... but that wasn't brought up at all (for this incident at least), so I can't. Maybe the "strength in numbers, legitimate backup is right there" is what makes the difference? Or is supposed to at least? "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" | View Comments7 | Ryan ONeilMar 9, 2013 *in reply to Great Whazoo (#37) Really? I thought Artemis/Diana was a virgin."All the Way" | View Comments8 | Ryan ONeilMar 7, 2013 *in reply to Arachnea (#27) Well, to be fair to the writers, they've been really good about holding themselves to the massive changes they make to the characters' worlds.If any other (lesser) supernatural show were to suddenly introduce a new character and have them turn out to be the McGuffin for the season arc, you would expect them to get rid of the character once the McGuffin was useless, "Status Quo Is God" and all of that. Mutant Enemy is so much better than that :) "Go Fish" | View Comments9 | Ryan ONeilMar 4, 2013 *in reply to Gon (#33) Maybe: in "Go Fish," Buffy had already spent the entire episode (successfully) dealing with attempts of that kind of assault from humans, was used to fighting demons, and was fairly certain she could fight off the monster-swimmers once she knew where they were? I don't think she was very worried that anything would really happen in the first place.As opposed to "Seeing Red," where she had already been injured in a fight and knew she would be defending herself at sub-par, making it a more pressing threat (and she had trusted Spike personally before that)? "Go Fish" | View Comments10 | Ryan ONeilMar 4, 2013 *in reply to Gon (#31) If it helps, she's saying that "her reputation," not anything reality-based, would be that she "did it with the entire swim team,"... and her primary psychological defense mechanism for stressful-to-life-threatening situations seems to be sarcasm. "The I in Team" | View Comments11 | Ryan ONeilMar 3, 2013 *in reply to Arachnea (#30) Wow, nice point about the gender-contrast between the Initiative and the Watchers. That was so opposite to the way some people pretend the world works!"Tabula Rasa" | View Comments12 | Ryan ONeilFeb 14, 2013 *in reply to Maria (#70) Well, in Dawn's defense (a strange sentence if ever there was one), it seemed like Willow and Tara were the ones who raised her the most after Buffy and Joyce died, so maybe Dawn doesn't know that Willow was getting abusive, maybe all she knows is that one of her adopted mommies is leaving her after she's lost so much of her "biological" family."Graduation Day Pt. 1" | View Comments13 | Ryan ONeilFeb 9, 2013 *in reply to nitramneek (#30) Ah, yes, the "kiss of death" that they have nothing else to say to each other :)"Older and Far Away" | View Comments14 | Ryan ONeilFeb 9, 2013 *in reply to JEL (#55) If this also helps, somebody else pointed out that the original audience was intended to grow with the characters, so even though Xander's teenage immaturity was tolerated, understood, and/or accepted when the original audience were teenagers, Dawn's exact same teenage (im)maturity seems worse in comparison after the audience has grown more.Also, she was originally written for a 12-year-old, not a 15-year-old, and when a teenager was cast instead of a pre-teen, the writers didn't adjust as much as they probably thought they did. Also Also, she was sent to Buffy to BE protected, so the monks didn't want to risk giving her a personality that would encourage people to trust her on her own, rather they thought that making her super-dependant was safer for making sure the Slayer didn't go very far away for very long. "The Harsh Light of Day" | View Comments15 | Ryan ONeilJan 31, 2013 *in reply to Alexei (#34) Not just the two episodes, but the whole summer between the different seasons.That she apparently spent struggling with a porn addiction :) "Doomed" | View Comments16 | Ryan ONeilJan 31, 2013 *in reply to Gon (#33) It would certainly have maintained the Xandemon pattern :)"School Hard" | View Comments17 | Ryan ONeilJan 30, 2013 "Spike snapping the neck of a man instead of feeding on him. This is brutal and new." More Angelus foreshadowing? "Touched" | View Comments19 | Ryan ONeilJan 29, 2013 *in reply to MikeJer (#74) I think that Gon was just trying to come up with a fanwank for why Willow tolerated somebody like Kennedy instead of looking for somebody better."First Date" | View Comments20 | Ryan ONeilJan 21, 2013 *in reply to Alex (#45) Maybe he figured out that Spike was a vampire from the mirror thing, but until the basement fight he didn't know that Buffy knew? I forget his specific reaction."Showtime" | View Comments21 | Ryan ONeilJan 17, 2013 *in reply to Great Whazoo (#45) And the First Evil probably had an easier time playing an already evil person"Helpless" | View Comments22 | Ryan ONeilJan 13, 2013 *in reply to JEL (#51) Personally, I think it makes a lot of sense that the Council does things that don't make sense :) It's not bad writing on the part of the writers, it's good writing of bad people.Plus, remember when Buffy was complaining about an upcoming test for school and asked why she couldn't just join a tribe that inflicts bodily injury as a coming of age ritual? I really want to say that Anya had a role in this, becuase Buffy finds out that she actually is in a "tribe" like that :) That line was before this episode, right? It was the let-me-back-into-high-school tests, not the SAT's? "The Killer in Me" | View Comments23 | Ryan ONeilJan 12, 2013 *in reply to Jimmykins (#57) As a guy, I take offense to your analysis of our analysis of Kennedy. I mean, sure, I would, but that doesn't mean I respect her as a person that Willow deserves to be with, and a lot of the other guys I know also recognize that she isn't a very good person.If it helps, I try to tell myself that Willow is in a similar place with Kennedy after Tara to where Buffy was with Riley after Angel: she lost the love of her life, tries to keep living past that, and tells herself that she is looking for romance again but is actually just looking for somebody "convinient," the difference being that Kennedy deserved to be treated as just convinient, but Riley didn't. Which raises some interesting points about Buffy's (lack of) human awareness: After being "burned" by Angel as Xander put it, Buffy first looked into Parker, whom she initially thought was amazing but was only good for one thing. Then Buffy found Riley, who was the kind of guy who could be a romantic success (if his alpha-male insecurities about powerful women were pointed out to him effectively, he struck me as the kind of guy who would try to make himself better), except she only treats him as the re-bound guy for not willing to risk the pain of Angel and Parker again. Buffy's (without realizing it) only looking to Riley for what she would've gotten from Parker, when with Parker she was looking for what she would've gotten from Riley. Now Willow's also with somebody whose only worth a Parker, not a Riley. Which further raises the possibility that, since Willow's at the point where Buffy was with Riley (unknowingly looking for a Parker) and currently has a Parker, by the time she finds a Riley she'll be at the place Buffy was with Parker (looking for a Riley). "Beneath You" | View Comments24 | Ryan ONeilJan 7, 2013 *in reply to Summer (#64) I thought Tillow were Dawn's parents :)"Checkpoint" | View Comments25 | Ryan ONeilJan 4, 2013 *in reply to sarah (#50) Huh, I forgot that part."Checkpoint" | View Comments26 | Ryan ONeilJan 3, 2013 *in reply to sarah (#48) Maybe they thought it was Harmony? :)Or Darla? Or Kate? Or Nina? OK Joss, now this is starting to look like a pattern... "Shadow" | View Comments27 | Ryan ONeilDec 29, 2012 *in reply to ambiepooch (#41) Wow, I can honestly say that I had never considered that Riley could be a more passive version of Pete, but now I can't get that out of my head. Nice!"Never Leave Me" | View Comments28 | Ryan ONeilDec 26, 2012 *in reply to Rob W (#42) That would explain why it was so much stronger than all of the hundreds of Ubervamps (starving to death) in the Hellmouth combined from the finale :)"Phases" | View Comments29 | Ryan ONeilDec 20, 2012 I love how they made it look like Angel/Oz would get into a cliche vampire/werewolf fight, but nope :) "The Gift" | View Comments30 | Ryan ONeilDec 20, 2012 *in reply to John Roberts (#90) Worse than meaningless: dying in the service of the evil that she thought she was fighting."I Only Have Eyes for You" | View Comments31 | Ryan ONeilDec 19, 2012 *in reply to Summer (#42) Ah, but would Cordelia have been intelligent enough to use the exact words instead of just whatever popped into her head?"Surprise" | View Comments32 | Ryan ONeilDec 18, 2012 *in reply to Dave (#31) Actually, if his own series is anything to go by: no he cannot :)"Crush" | View Comments33 | Ryan ONeilDec 17, 2012 And a second I just realized: Angel wasn't very good at this point either! So he's getting worse at the same time Spike's getting "better" (well, a more controllable evil at least). "Crush" | View Comments34 | Ryan ONeilDec 17, 2012 I just noticed a parallel in this episode to Angel trying to be as evil as he was as Angelus so that he can still be with Darla, but he's gotten too good to be with someone as evil as her. Spike might not be "good" so to speak at this point, but I still think it shows how the two are more alike than they like to think. "Season 7 Review" | View Comments35 | Ryan ONeilDec 16, 2012 *in reply to JEL (#116) I love that site too: while it doesn't have any reviews or discussions for determining how GOOD an episode was, seeing how popular it is instead is also nice from time to time."What's My Line? Pt. 2" | View Comments36 | Ryan ONeilDec 16, 2012 *in reply to Summer (#28) No, that was Sarah. And Charisma was supposed to be Buffy :)Although if you've read something that I haven't and BOTH Slayers were originally supposed to be Cordy, than that just became even more supremely awesome! "Intervention" | View Comments37 | Ryan ONeilDec 16, 2012 *in reply to JEL (#60) Although, when Buffy and Spike started sleeping together, she TRIED to block it out by treating him the way she did before this, but you're right, she couldn't keep it up for very long."Homecoming" | View Comments38 | Ryan ONeilDec 14, 2012 *in reply to Shask. (#35) They were probably thinking that 1) they were making up for cheating on her and 2) Buffy wouldn't be running against her to cause any problems.By the time it turned into them "cheating" on Buffy with Cordy, instead of on Cordy/Oz with each other, they didn't know how to get out of it. Like when Xander didn't know how to tell Anya that he was afraid of hurting her, and he did (hurt her). "Family" | View Comments39 | Ryan ONeilDec 14, 2012 *in reply to Peter (#52) If it helps, she makes it incredibly clear how much she did not expect the spell to hide all demons from them, how much she hated herself for putting them in danger, and how quickly she ended it when she realized what was really happening.And the Scoobies are just finding out how scary her so-called "family" is. "Bargaining Pt. 1" | View Comments40 | Ryan ONeilDec 7, 2012 *in reply to Gemma (#41) Wow. Yes, I had noticed, but no I had not realized that it meant anything."Gingerbread" | View Comments41 | Ryan ONeilNov 30, 2012 *in reply to Latecomer (#50) Personally, I liked the ambiguity for reminding us that we don't always need demons to be evil for us."Chosen" | View Comments42 | Ryan ONeilNov 20, 2012 Wow. I've just been saying that they were starving to death (whereas The First Evil had to feed it's first one before sending it after Buffy and the Potentials), but I think I like yours better. Maybe the "activation" ritual feeds off of the demonic energy around the Potential activated, and that's why they had to be in the Hellmouth before powering up instead of the other way around (which would otherwise be better tactics to prevent being attacked early): so that they could be close enough to feed off the ubervamps the way vamps feed on humans? Thank you Erick, I think that would be brilliant, I'm going to stop insisting they were starving now. "Season 6 Review" | View Comments43 | Ryan ONeilNov 19, 2012 Dawn/Willow connections Dawn curls up with the BuffyBot, Willow inflates some clothing Tara left behind Willow steals Buffy's sacrifice, Dawn starts stealing almost anything (and they both get poisoned in S7) "Season 7 Review" | View Comments44 | Ryan ONeilNov 19, 2012 I just realized that since The First Evil appeared to people as whoever would mess them up (and those around them) most, (Wood saw his mother play him against Spike, Kennedy and the army saw Chloe play them against each other, Spike saw himself/Buffy/Dru play him against himself [and being the least stable, he saw the most variety], Andrew saw Jonathan/Warren play him against everybody [including Jonathan], Faith saw Wilkins play her against Buffy...) and Buffy primarily saw it as herself, that means that she was mostly dominated by her isolation and self-hatred that had been growing all series (despite having to break up with a guy halfway into season 1, she was still very stable and close to the Scoobies until she died, and kept isolating herself more and more as more shit happened until she reached her lowest in season six after dying again (and after reaching her most Serenity by sacrificing herself in Dawn's place and having it stolen from her*), then getting somewhat better in seasons 6 and 7 until she was suddenly flooded with too many people to connect with AND that she had to put in harm's way**) until she was able to tell The First Evil to "get out of [her] face" because she had made herself un-special enough that she didn't need to cut herself off from her friends (and hate herself for it) anymore. *So THAT'S why Spike didn't want to tell her that his had been stolen too! He remembered being the first person she told! ... Or something. Maybe? **Wow, seriously, I JUST got the S5 Angel joke "When She Was Bad" | View Comments45 | Ryan ONeilNov 16, 2012 Factoid: When Buffy is having a nightmare about the Master dressing up as Giles and strangling her, that's David, not Mark. Angelus foreshadowing? "Flooded" | View Comments46 | Ryan ONeilNov 15, 2012 Plus, Buffy wouldn't risk giving the Council anything resembling a position of dominance that they could exploit later, eve if they did "offer" "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" | View Comments47 | Ryan ONeilNov 7, 2012 *in reply to Rob W (#32) Dru was HILARIOUS!!Two more things I just realized: 1) Xander and Cordelia both realize that being popular isn't necessarily what they want (another supernatural high school metaphor with Xander getting the supernatural part). 2) Xander forgot BOTH lessons he learned in this episode: don't mess around with magic (if he was telling the truth in the musical instead of just covering for Dawn), and how hideously it sucks to be broken up with on Valentine's Day (or right before a wedding: right decision, certainly, WRONG time) "Villains" | View Comments48 | Ryan ONeilNov 3, 2012 *in reply to Latecomer (#62) If I may:1) The magic wasn't what killed Warren, it was the pain and blood loss, otherwise anybody in the town killed by demons could be resurrected with the proper resources. 2) Even if somebody dies supernaturally, I think I read that resurrection only brings somebody back in the condition they were in before the supernatural death, so even if the fire was what killed Warren instead of blood loss, and the fire was mystical instead of mystically-sparked, it would still have brought Warren back flayed and he would bleed out anyway. Hence, Willow couldn't just burn Tara and bring her back with magicks, because there would still be a bullet-hole. 3) Willow probably wasn't thinking that rationally, 4) and magic had already been Willow's answer to everything even when she was. 5) If that made you sound like a sociopath, then there's something wrong with half the people here :) "Angel" | View Comments49 | Ryan ONeilNov 3, 2012 *in reply to TheShanshuProphecy (#45) Oh, that wasn't supposed to say "sexually?" :)"Angel" | View Comments50 | Ryan ONeilNov 2, 2012 *in reply to Alex (#41) Thanks everyone, but now that I've read your in-universe one, I think I like better than "curse almost kicking in""Angel" | View Comments51 | Ryan ONeilOct 31, 2012 *in reply to Iguana-on-a-stick (#37) Also, he could be feeling less-than-perfect, "acceptable" happiness for the first time in decades. Foreshadowing?"Lies My Parents Told Me" | View Comments52 | Ryan ONeilOct 30, 2012 And how much of the conflict between Spike (originally very artistic, became more of a brawler to hide from the memories of his mom) and Angelus (originally a brawler, experimented with more artistry once he had more time on his hands) was due to Spike being reminded by Angelus of what he used to be, whereas Spike was the kind of vampire who primarily ran from his past and didn't want to be reminded of his "nancy-boy" creativity? "Lies My Parents Told Me" | View Comments53 | Ryan ONeilOct 29, 2012 Could Quentin Travers be considered a father figure that lied to Giles about the nature of good and evil in the real world? "Hush" | View Comments54 | Ryan ONeilOct 23, 2012 *in reply to Iguana-on-a-stick (#38) Ok, I like that one better. Nice"Hush" | View Comments55 | Ryan ONeilOct 23, 2012 *in reply to TheShanshuProphecy (#36) Foreshadowing Glory?More seriously, I don't know why, but I really felt like they made the Gentlemen even creepier somehow. Maybe a connection between ripping out hearts and messing up brains? Maybe mainstream society doesn't like to pay attention to people whose brains are sick instead of the rest of their bodies (except to insult them)? Maybe a comparison to Angelus wanting to keep some victims alive and suffering psychologically for a long time (Scoobies), even brainwashing them (Drusilla), in addition to any outright murders? "Helpless" | View Comments56 | Ryan ONeilOct 19, 2012 I'm wondering how much of the emotion of this episode is a flashback to the Angelus arc: had early-Season 2 Buffy been put through the test, she would've probably been so trusting of the people around her that her fury at Giles for betraying her would've been overshadowed by her disbelief that something like that could even happen in the first place, and she would've probably tried to convince herself that the poison was a kind of wax-on-wax-off thing like the council thought it was. However, starting precisely a year before the test, she had spent months learning that the people you love and trust can turn into brutal murderers, and she would be remembering it even more strongly on the precise anniversary of the nightmare beginning. Thus, instead of being too blindsided by Giles's betrayal to process it completely, she processed very quickly and immediately went into violent fury. Also, in reply to CK (#47), I'm thinking that just the poison was what had been traditional for centuries and that syringes were just a new way of delivering it more reliably than having her drink something. "Villains" | View Comments57 | Ryan ONeilOct 18, 2012 Oh, oops. No, you were clear, I just wasn't paying attention. Sorry. "Villains" | View Comments58 | Ryan ONeilOct 18, 2012 I was thinking that it was easier for Willow to contact Osiris in 6x20 (when she was just summoned him without any preparation) than it was for her in 6x1 (when she had to go through an elaborate blood sacrifice with an ancient relic) because her own power was sufficient to contact him so that she could beg for Tara's life (despite the fact that he could and did refuse), but she was not powerful enough to force him to bring someone back to life even if it was possible, so she had to use the blood ritual in Buffy's case (instead of / in addition to her own personal magic) to exert enough power over Osiris to force him not to refuse. I'm pretty sure that if Willow had had the same power when Buffy was killed closing the portal, she could've still contacted Osiris to bring Buffy back (as her death had been unnatural). However, she would just be asking him, not binding him through more powerful magics, and he would still have had the option of refusing her despite the unnaturalness. Willow didn't want to take that chance, so she used the ritual's power to be absolutely sure he would obey her. In that case, it's a good thing that she didn't go through any preparation in this one, because despite the extra power over Osiris it would still have been a waste of time comparable to Angel 2x9. Does that help? "Villains" | View Comments59 | Ryan ONeilOct 18, 2012 *in reply to TheShanshuProphecy (#56) Maybe it's because seeking an audience with Osiris (or a messenger thereof) - begging him to do something but not having any power over him - is easier than directly forcing him to do something?"Season 2 Review" | View Comments60 | Ryan ONeilOct 17, 2012 *in reply to Waverley (#38) Pig w/ hint of otter, right? No human?"Season 7 Review" | View Comments61 | Ryan ONeilOct 4, 2012 *in reply to Waverley (#111) If the difference between the Uber-vamp strength is as much of an issue for you as it was for me, it might help that I found a theory on TV Tropes: they were starving. Remember how the First's first one had to be fed before it could pose the threat that it did?Also, about the Potentials, the fans seem to feel that they were in a magic sweet spot where they could've been developed either more to be characters themselves OR less to save screen time for the Scoobies, but that the writer's were sitting on the fence too much, taking time away from the Scoobies without getting much from the Potentials. Basically, the writers should've focused more on one or the other than they did, just not necessarily one specifically instead of the other. Or, alternately, had there been more Potentials, they could've worked better as a collective character, and had there been fewer (or just a few being more focused on than the others), then they could've worked better as individual characters, but again, magically sweet spot of bad. Although your point about Kennedy as an antagonist is going to help me a lot if (when) I watch the season again, as my hatred will probably change to the "love-to" version, so thanks. "The Pack" | View Comments62 | Ryan ONeilSep 25, 2012 *in reply to Anne (#43) Personally, I didn't see any evidence in the show that Xander's behavior was coming from him - instead of from a hyena with his memories to work from - except for a few evil teenagers jokes from an unaware Giles that stopped when he did find out about the hyenas.Now that I'm thinking about the episode again, I'm pretty sure it was just the essence of a regular hyena that possessed Xander and influenced him instinctively - rather than a full-fledged demon that looked like a hyena and controlled him sentiently - but either way, it seems like adding the essence of a predator to yourself will do more than just reduce the inhibitions on your existing impulses, it will create new predatory impulses which will probably be based on memories and emotions that were absolutely not predatory when it was just you. All said, I am impressed that you managed to get me into a spirited and intellectual debate about Season 1 :) Wow, I'm using big words tonight. I blame Sherlock :) "The Pack" | View Comments63 | Ryan ONeilSep 23, 2012 Maybe because Giles had seen enough demonic possession to automatically distinguish between the demon that hurts people and the host that has to live with the memories, but he (Giles) didn't know if Buffy and Willow were mature enough to not blame Xander for what he (Xander) just watched something else do and he (Giles) wanted to limit the conversation thereof. Ironically enough, not only does Giles not know that Willow and Buffy are mature enough to remember that it wasn't really Xander, but Xander is the one not mature enough to tell the difference between when Angel is and isn't evil. (If anybody cares, I also believe that this episode was designed specifically to acclimate the audience to the idea that Angel could've killed thousands of people over a hundred years before being forced to feel remorse for Every. Single. One. And the whole high-school-is-Hell clique thing.) Plus, in my personal experience, people tend to be less afraid of things that they know for a fact they can protect themselves from. "The Prom" | View Comments64 | Ryan ONeilAug 27, 2012 Because Willow had had a crush on Xander her whole life, Xander probably realized that he loved her more than he thought he did when she was in a coma, he spent the summer fighting alongside her and realizing that he didn't love Cordelia as much as he thought he did ("I can't believe I can't wait to see Cordelia"), even though when they finally did get together they both realized it wasn't as much as they thought it would be (remember Corley at the end of the season?) and that they were risking hurting the other people they cared about? Or were you going somewhere completely different? "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" | View Comments65 | Ryan ONeilAug 27, 2012 Which is exactly why the ritual didn't work: the writers didn't not do their research, Amy did not, and invoking the goddess of the hunt instead of the goddess of love turned everybody violent, as they viewed him more as prey (interesting inversion of the hyena-possession) than as a purely romantic interest is what I'm telling myself "What's My Line? Pt. 2" | View Comments66 | Ryan ONeilJun 27, 2012 If I may copy/paste directly from a discussion board: "I also thought she[Kendra] was too flat at first, but it occurred to me that she really was that flat on purpose. She wasn't raised as a human being, she was raised as a thing to be pointed at something to kill it, and it didn't matter whether she was killed because there would be someone else allegedly exactly like her. Her mechanical way of speaking was because nobody talked to her, they talked at her, so she couldn't practice talking to them. Her (lack of) character development was based on how thoroughly the Council had broken her. Even the tiny moment of her naming her stake Mr Pointy just accentuated that by showing that however hard you try to cut somebody off from the world, to treat them as a nothing, make them think they are nothing, they will still want to be human and will still be human (even if they don't consciously realize it), and however close you come to breaking them it will never be complete (although, on the flip side, it can also be irreparably close)." "Family" | View Comments67 | Ryan ONeilJun 23, 2012 Sarah, if it helps, it just occurred to me that the show had already made it very clear (and hilariously) that bad experiences with people of the other gender don't do anything to change your hormones' opinion: "Men are evil. Will you go out with me?" "Homecoming" | View Comments68 | Ryan ONeilJun 16, 2012 I think it's interesting that Cordelia had to impersonate a Slayer, and that we're simultaneously reminded that Buffy used to be the alpha-bitch at her school, in that: Charisma originally auditioned for Buffy and Sarah auditioned for Cordelia before they were told to switch. "A New Man" | View Comments69 | Ryan ONeilJun 14, 2012 Helen, that was awesome, I had completely missed that. "Bad Eggs" | View Comments70 | Ryan ONeilJun 12, 2012 Emily, if I'm understanding the timeline of my favorite Christmas movie correctly, "Yippee Kay-Yay" actually comes from an old Western that John McClane quoted (then followed up with an ad-libbed expletive) in response to Gruber calling him a cowboy as an insult. Since John had a bomb at the time, what he was essentially telling Gruber was: "Yeah, I'm a cowboy, tough shit for you." Imagine if someone attacked your friend, you defend him, the other guy insults you as a wannabe-superhero, and you respond with "Hulk smash, Jackass" before wiping the floor with him. I'm pretty sure that's what McClane was gong for with the cowboy thing. So essentially, McClane isn't just one of the baddest MFs in movie history, he's the baddest GEEK in movie history! "Bring on the Night" | View Comments71 | Ryan ONeilJun 10, 2012 Was it diluted holy water? Just enough that it didn't leave burn marks, but still concentrated enough to itch like Hell (ironic), just to make Spike think they didn't know what they were doing, drowning someone who didn't need to breathe, until finding out that it actually hurt? "The Initiative" | View Comments72 | Ryan ONeilJun 10, 2012 GAAA now I will never be able to unhear that! Even though they will never say it! My brain is broken! (That's sleep-deprived giddy for "Dude that was awesome! So Spike didn't come up with Big Bad, Oz and Willow did, nice! Thank you") In other news, CHEESE!! There will be cheese! Holy crap. Joss Whedon has made it very clear that the Cheese Man means nothing. Buffy and Riley first bonded over cheese. Their relationship means nothing and shall be nothing. iktyfi56rirftfyk Sorry guys, Ryan's face just hit the keyboard. Maybe he had a funny aneurysm? "Triangle" | View Comments73 | Ryan ONeilJun 10, 2012 How about this for Buffy's crying at the beginning: Buffy knew that everybody else thought she loved Riley the way she thought she did until Xander called her out, and she and Xander hadn't told anybody about the exchange, so she was putting on a show to keep them off her back (like the beginning of Season 6, but not as much so), but it wasn't working very well because her acting skills are unreliable at best (kudos to SMG for all of the times she has successfully played a bad actress who failed to play a cover role*). Fortunately, "Intervention" implies that her friends aren't as good as they think they are (or should be) at telling when her behavior isn't what it should be for a situation, so her over-acting went unnoticed (except to us) *except for when the good actress SMG is playing the bad actress Buffy playing a bad actress (like the BuffyBot at the end of "Intervention") "The Yoko Factor" | View Comments74 | Ryan ONeilJun 4, 2012 Take 3, LA is spelled "es," I just googled it This is going on the "Signs you watch too much discussion" "Becoming Pt. 1" | View Comments75 | Ryan ONeilMay 30, 2012 If I may change my previous comment slightly, Iguana-on-a-Stick made some points in the "Souls" discussion (http://www.criticallytouched.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1167) that have helped me get used to the idea that vampires are different versions of the same person, rather than demonic possession, so in that case, instead of Angelus thinking about Buffy killing/damning Angel, maybe Angelus thinks that he deserves to be damned/killed if they make him "weak" again and wants to open Hell before that? And that if he is, in his mind, "castrated" before Buffy would have to kill him, and he gets to live as Angel, he would always have a chance to be made strong again by losing the soul he thinks of as a shock-collar when he doesn't have it*, maybe? Even though when he doesn't have a soul, he knows that when he does have a soul he thinks he wants to have it. And he knows that while he has a soul he would try to keep it because he thinks he wants it, even though he really doesn't. Except that when he does have a soul, he really does want it, and when he doesn't he only thinks that he only thinks that he wants it when he already has it. Did that get out of hand? "Villains" | View Comments76 | Ryan ONeilMay 28, 2012 I think the plot line would've been less clunky if they had emphasized that magic was addictive, rather than an addiction (think sex, internet and gambling rather than drugs, cigarettes and alcohol), although I thought that the gang accidentally oversimplifying the problem instead of addressing Willow's main (self-esteem and control) issues worked effectively in that we got to see what happened when they addressed the wrong problem first. Although it did feel like the writers hadn't thought it out that far and also fell for the "addiction rather than addicting" idea, and accidentally made it work. Like when they realized that Spike had not thought through the timing details of dividing the group for Adam, and they had to make it his mistake rather than theirs. Also, my interpretation of the problem Jenna noticed: when Buffy and Xander found out about Tara, they had already spent a lot of effort on trying to get Willow to calm down and stop hurting people, so however powerful that sentence would've been if they didn't also have something else to focus on, they have learned to compartmentalize immediate threats. Also, they might already have so much "get someone to calm down" emotion chemicals going through their brains that they accidentally used it on themselves. Like when you're mad at somebody, and you start talking to someone else, you don't instantly get rid of all of the anger chemicals simply because the new person isn't the one you started because of. You can't just turn emotion on/off like a switch, so even if they would've emphasized grief and mourning to themselves had they found out under "better" circumstances than Willow going off the wagon, hijacking a bus and strangling what they all thought was a human being, they already had really strong emotions going for some time ("Willow needs to stop!"), so a few words that Tara died was still just a few words, and a few that Buffy and Xander probably didn't completely believe, rather tried to think that Willow had to be mistaken until they saw the body and had more time to process. "Doppelgangland" | View Comments77 | Ryan ONeilMay 27, 2012 Something I put in the discussion forums without even thinking: "Good thing they tried crosses on the real Willow before crossbow bolts, right? Actually, after writing that down, that doesn't seem so funny, that was just horrifying. And Joss Whedon probably would've. AAAAAAAAA" "Becoming Pt. 1" | View Comments78 | Ryan ONeilMay 24, 2012 Also, since I am so addicted to TV Tropes that I accidentally use "Xanatos Gambit" in casual conversation, this discussion got me thinking of all of the possibilities that might have been going through Angelus's head: 1) Send humanity to Hell, torture everybody (especially Buffy) alongside the other demons 2) Try to send humanity to Hell, but make Buffy have to kill you (who look exactly like the man she loves) to save the world, knowing she'll never get him back if you're dead too 3) Try to send humanity to Hell, but you get Angel's soul back before you can do anything. Buffy and Angel live happily ever after (except for the fact that they have to either make each other miserable for their entire lives or risk bringing you back, in which case you can just rinse and repeat until you get #1, 2, or 4) (Plus, after Angelus pulled the sword out and opened the portal, he would've immediately been able to eliminate this possibility in favor of the other three and been really happy) 4) Try to send humanity to Hell, get Angel's soul back after the portal has been opened, and Buffy has to either kill Angel or send him through the portal to Hell (knowing that the portal would suck him in anyway) to save everybody else, and you get to watch Angel suffer forever from inside his own head while simultaneously knowing that Buffy had to murder him, not you. And that when Angel starts remembering your new memories of the last few months, he will be blaming himself for everything "Becoming Pt. 1" | View Comments79 | Ryan ONeilMay 23, 2012 I'm with Plain SImple (#4) that Angelus thought that he would be one of the demons torturing humanity in Hell. The fact that The Judge thought Spike was more human than Angelus supports that, and remember: Angelus always seemed to enjoy the evil more than the feeding, so maybe, after 120 years of torturing thousands of people to death or worse, he was fascinated by the idea of millions of years to torture millions of people each farther than he had ever tortured anyone, without them dying on him and making it end, and that he would still be able to eat at will (with billions of humans available, he wouldn't even need to kill any of them and ruin the fun for everybody else). Plus, even if he didn't personally get to torture anybody in Hell personally, he could still enjoy the fact that he was the reason all of humanity had been damned. Psychopaths need manipulation, domination, and control the way we need food, water, and oxygen: they don't care whether anybody lives or dies, including themselves, as long as they feel that it was their idea either way. So, on that note, maybe Spike really was defending the "happy-meals-with-legs" culture and society, rather than just the idea of himself not starving, so maybe even without a chip or soul he really is just violent and hungry rather than truly evil. And/or, since the Judge felt that he could burn Spike and Dru for loving each other, maybe Spike thought the demons in the Hell dimension would be torturing him and Dru for millions of years instead of letting them torture humans? "Him" | View Comments80 | Ryan ONeilMay 21, 2012 I just realized: the monks set it up so that Dawn was about 11-12 during Bewitched (2x16). Was she also part of the Xander-mob? Or was it only post-pubescents? "Chosen" | View Comments82 | Ryan ONeilMay 21, 2012 Those Uber-vamps were probably starving; the First's first one had to be fed before it posed the threat that it did Mooker: YES THAT IS ABSOLUTELY WHAT SHOULD'VE HAPPENED I REJECT THAT THAT IS NOT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, THANK YOU SO MUCH, I WILL MAKE SOMEBODY WRITE A FAN-FIC WHERE THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS!!! This is not anger yelling, FYI, this is the purest of purely geeky squee :) :) :) :) :) :) Joss Whedon, what were you thinking when you didn't do that??? (Oh right: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Jossed) "End of Days" | View Comments83 | Ryan ONeilMay 21, 2012 John(33): Those Uber-vamps were probably starving; the First's first one had to be fed before it posed the threat that it did Dimitri(35): What's wrong with "Buffy"??? lolol "Touched" | View Comments84 | Ryan ONeilMay 21, 2012 How about this: Spike was a misogynist like Warren and Caleb, but William wasn't. The fact that William has to remember Spike's unlife through shared eyes doesn't make them the same person. They just keep calling William "Spike" because that's what they had gotten used to calling him over 5 years, but as Buffy told Wood, Spike "doesn't exist anymore." Essentially, Spike killed himself in Africa because he thought that Buffy would love William more than him. "The Killer in Me" | View Comments85 | Ryan ONeilMay 20, 2012 Especially since: wasn't Giles the one who told everyone that the First was "in remission?" So wouldn't the First lying to them about that have induced a mass "oh crap?" Also, yes, it would've made more sense if Willow had accidentally turned herself into Warren the way she accidentally turned herself invisible (and might have accidentally summoned the Gnarl), which would've actually made the "fairy-tale kiss" at the end make sense because Willow did it to herself, so she undid it herself. Also Also, yes, I hated how little Willow responded to Kennedy calling the magic "crap." I keep telling myself that Willow isn't looking for a relationship as deep as with Oz or Tara (for fear of getting herself/others hurt again?) (and, as a bisexual, I insist that Willow simply didn't know she was gay when she had crushes on Oz, Giles and Xander, and/or that she can aesthetically appreciate looking at someone without wanting to do anything about it, as I have met and dated guys like the that but backwards), and that Kennedy is just, as Buffy first described Spike, "convenient." (ie, when Kennedy asked when Willow first started wanting sex with women, and Willow corrected her "a woman," that always reminds me of Buffy retorting to Spike; "A vampire got me hot") "Potential" | View Comments86 | Ryan ONeilMay 20, 2012 I really liked finding out after the fact that this episode was supposed to be a metaphor for pregnancy scares (finding out that you have so much more responsibility that you will never be free of, but then finding out "not really" and you feel worthless after consigning yourself to the new life), especially since Dawn had accidentally mentioned the tension of taking pregnancy tests in another episode (does anybody remember which it was? Still waiting for the DVDs, haven't watched in a while but I have never forgotten that line) "Conversations with Dead People" | View Comments87 | Ryan ONeilMay 20, 2012 x-factor: it means that Buffy feels that she is superficially superior to everybody else, but that she doesn't fundamentally deserve to be. If I may settle the "Where's Xander?" once and for all: Whedon WANTED Xander to be haunted by what he thought was Jessie from Welcome to the Hellmouth, but he realized that that would've made the episode run too long, and he didn't think he could get away with that a second time (OMWF's success aside). "Selfless" | View Comments88 | Ryan ONeilMay 20, 2012 I was going to say that D'Hoffryn simply gave Anya a different conduit for her new power that wouldn't be destroyed and backfire as easily as in "The Wish (3.09)," but now I think I like TK (#47), Paula (#30), and Fray-adjacent 's (#58) explanations better. "Same Time, Same Place" | View Comments89 | Ryan ONeilMay 20, 2012 Sacindum: Dude, awesome, I completely missed that too! Also, a TV tropes quote that might interest some people: "since Willow accidentally set up the whole "she and the Scoobies can't see each other" just by convincing herself that she couldn't face them after what she did, did she accidentally create the whole Gnarl situation by convincing herself that she deserved to be punished for flaying Warren?" "Lessons" | View Comments90 | Ryan ONeilMay 19, 2012 Is anybody interested in an analogy I can draw from the Dresden Files, or should I take that somewhere else? "Lessons" | View Comments91 | Ryan ONeilMay 19, 2012 Paula, love your theory about the cultists, thank you that had been bothering me! Tom L, I think Same Place secretly addressed how Willow felt about torturing Warren to death. HarFang, I'm noticing your sarcastic voice sounds a lot like your regular voice. Debisib, I don't see why Sunnydale High couldn't be destroyed as regularly as the Magic Box: after Buffy's school was destroyed in S 3, they rebuilt for Dawn to go in S 5-6, then that one was destroyed again offscreen (and maybe a third principal was also eaten) If the "addiction" discussion has not been done to death: I agree that Willow's use of magic was addicting, but not fundamentally an addiction (more like sex or gambling than alcohol or tobacco), and the problem in S 6 was treating it as a straight-up addiction instead of the power/responsibility vs low self-esteem, and Giles/ the Coven are trying to teach Willow to use natural magic the way Tara did, as a thing in of itself, rather than the dark combat magic she had learned as a means to an end. "The Yoko Factor" | View Comments92 | Ryan ONeilMay 19, 2012 Something else a friend told me yesterday: in most animal "cultures," and primates are not very different, the females are supposed to submit to the more violent alpha males, so that the offspring are either alpha males or submissive to, so that the tribe has the best fighters to protect from other tribes. It just so happens that our alpha males are supposed to be less violent in civilized society, but apparently our hormones are still getting the message. I think I like that explanation better: chemical stupidity rather than psychological. "Villains" | View Comments93 | Ryan ONeilMay 19, 2012 I thought it was really creepy that Willow had NEVER HEARD Wish-verse-Vampire Willow use "Bored now" "Normal Again" | View Comments94 | Ryan ONeilMay 19, 2012 Tranquillity (#31): When Buffy told her mother that she was the Slayer in Becoming, Joyce had just seen her kill someone and then have the body completely disappear, so she couldn't respond the same way she did when she (or in the new universe, Dawn) read Buffy's diary. Also, If anybody has questions about where they thought Dawn was in the first episodes, I found this fan-fic a couple of weeks ago: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4208156/1/Pictures_At_An_Exhibition "Smashed" | View Comments95 | Ryan ONeilMay 18, 2012 Yippers: It's not that Buffy is trying to appease him so he won't hurt her, it's that she's convinced that if he can hurt her, then she's not completely human and doesn't deserve to be with someone better than him. "Tabula Rasa" | View Comments96 | Ryan ONeilMay 18, 2012 Was I the only one who thought of THE STEPFORD WIVES in episodes 6-8, with Willow as one of the evil husbands trying to create the "perfect" (read: compliant) wives*? Or that Willow didn't consider that Tara already had experience being brainwashed by her biological family? On a more positive note, someone on TV Tropes reminded me that Willow could reasonably have reminded Tara of the time she/Tara used magic to hide something (which turned out to be fake anyway, but that's not the point) from the Scoobies, and they almost died because they couldn't see the demons attacking them, but that either: that was the line Willow wasn't willing to cross and risk hurting Tara that way, or Willow had so thoroughly forgiven Tara that she/Willow didn't even remember it happening. Either way, Willow still loves Tara completely, even though she's getting worse at showing it. *which I just realized, by typing this sentence, connects her with Warren!!! "Once More, with Feeling" | View Comments97 | Ryan ONeilMay 18, 2012 Was I the only one who thought of THE STEPFORD WIVES in episodes 6-8, with Willow as one of the evil husbands trying to create the "perfect" (read: compliant) wives*? Or that Willow didn't consider that Tara already had experience being brainwashed by her biological family? On a more positive note, someone on TV Tropes reminded me that Willow could reasonably have reminded Tara of the time she/Tara used magic to hide something (which turned out to be fake anyway, but that's not the point) from the Scoobies, and they almost died because they couldn't see the demons attacking them, but that either: that was the line Willow wasn't willing to cross and risk hurting Tara that way, or Willow had so thoroughly forgiven Tara that she/Willow didn't even remember it happening. Either way, Willow still loves Tara completely, even though she's getting worse at showing it. *which I just realized, by typing this sentence, connects her with Warren!!! "All the Way" | View Comments98 | Ryan ONeilMay 18, 2012 Was I the only one who thought of THE STEPFORD WIVES in episodes 6-8, with Willow as one of the evil husbands trying to create the "perfect" (read: compliant) wives*? Or that Willow didn't consider that Tara already had experience being brainwashed by her biological family? On a more positive note, someone on TV Tropes reminded me that Willow could reasonably have reminded Tara of the time she/Tara used magic to hide something (which turned out to be fake anyway, but that's not the point) from the Scoobies, and they almost died because they couldn't see the demons attacking them, but that either: that was the line Willow wasn't willing to cross and risk hurting Tara that way, or Willow had so thoroughly forgiven Tara that she/Willow didn't even remember it happening. Either way, Willow still loves Tara completely, even though she's getting worse at showing it. *which I just realized, by typing this sentence, connects her with Warren!!! "After Life" | View Comments99 | Ryan ONeilMay 18, 2012 First of all, I'd like to reiterate Paula'a response to HarFang: Yes, they didn't think Buffy was in Hell because she was somehow a bad person, they thought it was more like Acathla, that that's just where the portal went regardless of the person trapped in it. Secondly: Rosie, I think there should be a distinction between Willow's "Dark Magic" and Tara's more natural, "Earth Magic" (Nice pun Whedon: Terra). Tara had grown up with magic, even though her father tried to brainwash her into thinking it was fundamentally evil, and viewed it as a thing in of itself. Willow had started learning combat magic as a means to an end after spending years as a wallflower, so it affected her differently. Thirdly: I couldn't help be be reminded of when Oz caught Willow and Xander making out behind his back and told her he needed some space before they could be together again. When Willow ran into him in the hall, she tried some small talk before Oz shut her down that he already told her what he needed, that he couldn't help but think that Willow was just trying to make herself feel better, and that that wasn't his problem. I wish someone could've reminded Willow of that. "The Body" | View Comments100 | Ryan ONeilMay 17, 2012 I think I have a way to make Anya's speech even more depressing: She's been killing people for 1100 years, and apparently forgot what that meant, that all of her victims had families and loved ones like Joyce did, even if the people themselves were assholes. And now she remembers. Remember when Liam woke up in 1898 and started remembering that Angelus had been killing people (starting with Liam's own family) for 120 years in his body? Anya had been killing for almost 10 times as long before this, and she didn't have the "I was possessed" excuse, that really was her inflicting thousands of times as much damage as she was seeing now for basically the first time. Joss Whedon, you Bastard "The Replacement" | View Comments101 | Ryan ONeilMay 15, 2012 Buffy probably would've been split into the First Slayer and the California Girl who made "Spordelia look like a classical philosopher". "Primeval" | View Comments102 | Ryan ONeilMay 15, 2012 Emily: "Mike, when I was watching the episode, I thought of something that I was sure you would mention in your review. Adam is made up of different parts, and I think it's very interesting that only a Buffy made up of different parts could destroy him. Very fitting." That's brilliant. Nice. |
Latest News  Delays... MikeJer - Feb 24, 2013 Hey all!I just wanted to let you all know that I'm looking forward to getting going on my Season 2 review updates. I recently started a new job, so life has been extra bu... View Full Post Latest Comments Ryan ONeil [Gingerbread] *in reply to Vishal (#60) The popular theory on the forums is that:Before Buffy showed up, ... View CommentMay 21, 2013 Ryan ONeil [Consequences] *in reply to James (#30) Probably public property View CommentMay 19, 2013 Waverley [Family] This episode makes me cry like a big girly man every time. That bit where Buffy says 'Take h... View CommentMay 18, 2013 Latest Forum Posts buffyholic [Supernatural Rewatch] I agree that Mark Pellegrino is amazing as Lucifer. But season five isnīt all that perfect... View PostMay 22, 2013 buffyholic [Dexter] The trailer for season 8 has been released. What do you think will happen? And how do you f... View PostMay 22, 2013 Ryan ONeil [Xander Harris] The problem with DMP isn't the argument. It's A] the party being over the top and out of cha... View PostMay 20, 2013 |
Before Buffy showed up, the police were responsible for covering up the existence of the monsters, and the people who saw through the masquerade were too afraid and untrained to do anything about it. Granted, the Magic Shops like the one Giles buys still had enough customers to stay in business, so clearly some people were trying to defend themselves, but not very many.
But once Buffy showed up, the death rates started plummeting, so people felt more comfortable talking about the things that had been scaring them (but that they had previously tried to ignore out of helplessness), which culminated in the Class Protector Award.
There is also a more specific theory that the Mayor cast a memory spell on the town so that people would pay less attention to the demons feeding off of them, and that the Class Protector Award came about because the Mayor was turning the spell off. After all, he couldn't very well rule as a giant snake monster if people are brainwashed to forget about him too, so when it came close to the eclipse, he undid the spell for when the ritual was completed, and people started making connections that they hadn't been able to before.
This would also work with the Magic Shops I mentioned above: we see a lot more customers at any given time in season 5-6 than we did in 2-3, even given how little we initially saw the shop in general.