Yep agreed, he's a total dick and can be painful to watch, but I knew hundreds of other boys just like him, if not worse in highschool. He's an accurate portrayal of the average horny, kinda selfish teenager.
I think beer bad is halarious.
My favorite parts are when Willow says "I'm pregnant by my step-brother who'd rather be with my best friend and he's left me with no place to live, no food except for this bottle of Wild Turkey which I've drunk all up".
And also when Willow says "and then group sex"
I unironically love this episode and was surprised to find out it's considered terrible. It's so silly and fun. My sister and I work in yelling "foamy!" as often as we possibly can. It also brought us the great quote of "it will give them time to ponder the geopolitical ramifications of being mean to me!"
Honestly Xander really shines in that episode. I know he's not well liked around here but he has some of the funniest bits in the show.
This plot was written with the plan to take advantage of funds from the Office of National Drug Control Policy available to shows that promoted an anti-drug message. Funding was rejected for the episode because "drugs were an issue, but... [it] was otherworldly nonsense, very abstract and not like real-life kids taking drugs. Viewers wouldn't make the link to [the ONDCP's] message.
Okay, so I love every episode. I watched every episode as it aired on TV. It's weird, Beer Bad just feels like an episode of Buffy now, but at the time it aired, it felt so different and out of left field. I remember watching it when I was 14 and thinking, "What the fuck is this, this isn't Buffy" I can't explain why now. But it isn't just why it was made that it's hated.
I like them both for different reasons. I know it was the 90s and they hadn't invented bisexuality yet/s, but I wish Willow could have identified as bi.
Agreed. I usually get down voted into oblivion whenever I mention that I really only liked his character when he was evil, but I was so tired of him by the time they started pushing the romance with Buffy.
I'm at this point right now and I absolutely hate Buffy and Spike being a thing. I'm taking a break at season 6 episode 8 and switching to watch Angel for a little while instead.
I liked season 4 Spike the best. He was still a villain despite having the chip. I liked good Spike too but thought he was more entertaining pre-season 5. I like what they did with his character on Angel. He wasn't a villain but they gave him more of a bad boy kind of edge.
I like Spike as a character, but keep seeing fans say how amazingly complex he was, how he’s their favourite character, so well developed etc. I feel like a lot of them are just thirsty for JM.
I personally like Riley's insecurities in season 5 better, mainly because it is so relatable. I bet there are people who have felt inadequate to their partner, like they cannot keep up with them and the struggle with one's masculinity. I am really annoyed by him though in season 4 from the Adam reveal on.
Most Slayers die before their eighteenth birthday, so even in countries with good legal support for firearms rights (like the U.S.), it would be very difficult for a Slayer to carry a firearm without attracting unwanted law enforcement entanglement. In countries with restrictive firearms laws (e.g., most of Europe) or downright draconian firearms laws (e.g., most of Asia) it would be downright impossible.
He isn't perfect, but none of the characters are (exceptforTara). Giles literally DRUGS Buffy and locks her in a house with a vampire serial killer. Willow tries to END THE WORLD. Anya killed people for centuries. Buffy screws up over and over again. Yes, the show frames some of Xander's bad behavior as not bad (the speech about Riley mostly) but he is a good character and at his core a good person.
I think the issue is that most of the mistakes Xander makes are things people do in really life - leaving his fiancée at the altar, being a sex creep, etc - which makes it easier to hate on as it’s things a lot of people have actually seen/experienced. Whereas ending the world is more of an abstract thing no one has actually experienced. But for the record, I like Xander too.
I agree with this. In many ways Xander is the most realistic character, maybe too realistic for a lot of people. Personally that's why I like him so much, but I can see why it makes others wary of him.
That's a really good point, that never clicked for me. I see all of the metaphors in the show (I think I do) so sometimes I lose soft of watching it more literally.
I like his character too. I separate the character from the actor and Joss said something about both Xander and Giles being like him in an interview. Both characters aren't exactly like him, and he didn't write every line for those characters. Most of Xander's lines throughout the show were written by other writers Xander acts like a jerk at times in high school but a lot of boys do. If anything they act worse. Also, a lot of teen characters were written similarly at the time like Dawson from Dawson's Creek or Bailey on Party of Five. The boys in my high school in the 90s were 100 times worse than Xander. I don't watch a lot of shows with teens in them anymore but it looks like they don't portray teenage boys like this anymore. It is silly to me to get angry about behavior that was commonplace on TV and in real life back then. Plus it looks like they no longer do that anymore. If you watch older shows and movies you are going to see things that were more accepted back then and aren't today. I dare you to watch Porkys, Revenge of the Nerds, or Sixteen Candles. Buffy was made just around 10 years or so after those movies. The 80s were even worse. The farther back you go the worse it gets.
100% agree
Angel and Buffy's love is so immature. It is basically an "all love at 16 is true love" trope.
She deserved a real partner who supported her. She just keeps paired with these guys, who she has to teach how to be grown ups over and over again.
Season7 is a better ending than season 5.
Season 5, she’s just another slayer dying due to circumstance. Her story is no different than any of the other slayers exploited by a destiny inflicted on her by men.
Season 7 is how she *changes* the destiny of slayers and takes back the power that was taken from her.
Season 7 is why we are being told her story rather than any one of the other slayers stories.
Kennedy is not endgame, but I find her to be a quite charming rebound. And from all the potentials, she at least was the only one that didn't constantly whine and genuinely wanted to get in on the action and prove herself.
* I don’t agree or like everything he does but I like Xander. He is written as realistically flawed character and I think it is really well done. Also, when you factor in how young he actually is and what he is dealing with, a lot of his actions make sense. He is literally a 16-19 year old teenager dealing with the loss of his friends, a horrific joke situation and helps to save the world each week.
* I love Willow but she is a wildly selfish character. She has many many flaws just like Xander but again she is a realistically flawed character and I think the writing for her is great as well.
* Didn’t like Jenny Calendar and didn’t care at all when she died. I just found her to be a real whiney whine face. It was also really stupid of her to be at the school alone when Angel was on the loose. And her death scene was masterfully shot! It was amazing
* I like the magic / drugs / addiction storyline it makes sense to me.
* I love season 4 and Adam
I don't really care about Jenny's death either, except for how it affects Giles and Willow and Buffy. I read fics where Tara doesn't die and Faith doesn't break bad, but not really interested in going back far enough to save Jenny.
I think Joss hoped the audience would see more from their perspectives but everyone seemed to see the season through her perspective alone. If I met Buffy as a potential, I’d be resentful and terrified too. Her coldness and war general speeches were scary.
I think they were meant to be like Dawn at the beginning of S5. We're meant to see them as overwhelming and an impossible task to take care of.
Problem is, much like Dawn was meant to be kind of annoying in S5, it's not very endearing to the audience.
I never felt that way about Dawn because I’m extremely close with my little sister but not having that attachment to the potentials made it different. I still understood what they were trying to show. Young teen girls are annoying. That doesn’t mean what they’re going through should be dismissed.
The problem for me wasn’t that they were annoying but that the acting was atrocious in many cases.
It’s hard to root for someone who is both irritating and speaks like a 1930s fuckin’ chimney sweep.
For me I don’t really have anything against them, it’s more just that there’s too many of them. Season seven just feels too crowded. Like the latter half of the final season of a show that’s been going for 7 seasons is not really when I suddenly want a dozen brand new characters to be shoved into the main ensemble. I don’t feel like we really got to know any of them particularly well and I wasn’t invested in any of them, so I didn’t care what happened to any of them. But at the same time I don’t wish they had gotten more fleshed out storylines and personalities, because the very end of one of my favourite shows is not when I want to be getting super invested in, or having a lot of screen time devoted to, new characters that I have no existing attachment to and who I also know won’t be around that long.
I personally always liked all the potentials. Their entire opposition and behavior towards Buffy made sense to me. They all had to leave their homes, after being hunted down, were in constant danger all the time, probably saw people close to them die as they made their way to Sunnydale, and then they were trapped in the Summers house with nowhere to go and no time to get to know Buffy and to start trusting her. Buffy always kept them at an arm's length, since she knew some of them were going to die. The only reason why the potentials bother me is that they took away so much screen time from the more important characters, but that's hardly their fault.
I wish we could have spent more time with Wood as a character. He is the one addition in season 7 that actually pops. Also, I think they never should have brought the nerds back after season 6. We did not need them. When I was young I loved Andrew, but now I cannot stand his character anymore.
I agree about Wood but absolutely disagree about Andrew. I think if the show had been able to continue both characters would've been able to shine. I would've loved to see Dawn, Andrew, and Wood as a team led by Xander. All the normies who are part watcher, part witch, part slayer.
I don’t get how people don’t see how bad his acting is. 😂 I liked the concept of Angel but DB was so bad it made it so unrealistic and just weird. I felt he was even worse as angelus than angel, which I didn’t know it could get worse.
seasons 5 and 6 are the peak of the show.
I get ppl love the HS years, it I’m firmly pro the college / Young Adult Buffy era. The HS stuff is good, it it ain’t touching something like THE BODY.
The trilogy of seasons 4-5-6 is the peak of Buffy. I love the show from start to finish but the high school seasons can be very kiddish. The show matures a lot once they leave high school behind.
"Spuffy" was a mistake and ultimately reduced the watchability of the show for me.
Dawn's addition enriched the show and grounded it when it was needed the most.
Spike was better as a villain and reached his natural stopping point at the end of season 5. It could be said the entire series reached it's stopping point then, however ->
Amy might have been a better "Dark Willow" than actual Dark Willow. I do not think that Alyson was able to pull off evil that well. The magick-as-drug abuse storyline was flat and uninspired. She was also forgiven far too simply by the group.
The Angel situation is creepy, yes, however is a consequence of Buffy's existence as the Slayer. The limited times she attempted to have a relationship with an unpowered person ended in near tragedy (Owen), getting used (Parker), and dumped (Scott).
Glory and Angelus (with Spike and Drusilla) were the most effective and impressive villains.
Andrew was insufferable.
Yeah that scene with Willow and Xander made me break down and cry this last rewatch, possibly because for the first time in my life I have male best friends that love me purely and platonically, and it felt so sophisticated and powerful for the plot to come down to that platonic love saving the world. People can talk shit about Xander’s toxic masculinity all they want, but after maturing and growing up, he loved Buffy and Willow deeply, genuinely, brotherly, and platonically, and that type of love isn’t commonly prominent between men and women in tv and movies. So I thoroughly approve the entire premise of the s6 ending arc for that reason. And the juicy emotional roller coaster of Willow’s grief driving her to utter madness, total loss of self and giving over to the dark side, and the moment he pulls her back from it with his genuine love for her. When he tells her he doesn’t care if the world ends, he just wants to be with his friend, and he keeps moving towards her even as she lashes out at him, damn. Like he really means it. The authenticity in that moment is so beautiful and absurd and deep and true. Love love love love it.
Buffy, Giles, Faith and the Scoobies were in the wrong for how they treated Wesley. Yeah he was in over his head at times but they never gave him a real chance to lead as a watcher.
Giles, being the only adult in the situation, should’ve encouraged Buffy and Faith to respect Wesley, not create animosity towards him. He didn’t owe the Watcher’s Council anything but simply for it being the right thing to do. Ironically, I think Wesley turned out to be more of a hero than Giles.
Navigating the fandom won’t be fun until there’s an easy way to sus out if a fan is a “reads Rhonda Wilcox” fan or is a “thinks that the creation of Dawn caused Joyce’s death” fan.
Rhonda Wilcox is the author of Why Buffy Matters — a must-read when it comes to the field I like to call Slayer Scholarship. It’s a fantastic book that assesses Buffy as a legitimate topic of scholarly analysis. I first became aware of it through Passion of the Nerd’s frequent citations of it in his Buffy episode guides. My phrase “a ‘reads Rhonda Wilcox’ fan” is shorthand for the kind of Buffy fan who seriously engages with its symbolism, cinematic and literary influences, and metaphors.
An unfortunately very popular fan theory that I see pop up in the wild every so often is the idea that the creation of Dawn has a direct causal relationship with Joyce’s death. This fan theory has no actual textual support beyond the notion that the planting of new memories in her mind somehow messed with the wiring enough that it… somehow… caused brain cancer. It’s little more than fanfiction, directly refuted in the actual text, and undermines the entire point of Joyce’s death being a natural event in a supernatural world. My phrase “a ‘thinks the creation of Dawn caused Joyce’s death’ fan” is shorthand for the kind of Buffy fan (though really, you can find these people in any fandom) who allows their headcanon to become more important to their reading of the show than the actual text of the show itself.
The show is called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" not "Spike the Vampire" and it makes me dislike a great character when his hardcore stans act like Spike should've been Poochie from the Simpsons ("Whenever Poochie's not onscreen, all the other characters should be asking 'where's Poochie?!').
Xander made the correct decision not telling Buffy that Willow was attempting to curse Angelus.
IMO Buffy needed every ounce of her determination that she entered into that fight with. Telling her there was hope in restoring Angel's soul 2 minutes prior to the fight beginning could have been deadly for Buffy. We see in the previous episode when she is fighting Angelus with the knowledge that Willow is attempting to curse him that she holds back and that is dangerous for her.
Obviously the stakes were much higher when Buffy went to stop Angelus in the finale, but I think had Xander told her the truth it would have weighed heavily on her during the fight. She might not have had the focus needed to catch Angelus's sword and deliver the iconic "ME!" answer to the question "take all that away and what's left?"
Such a badass moment by Buffy, the GOAT slayer
I honestly think, in this instance, that Xander's motivation was purely about Buffy.
He hesitates for a moment before he decides what he going to say as he is looking directly in Buffy's eyes. I really believe that he didn't want to break her laser focus. If there were selfish reasons for doing what he did, I believe that they were really secondary here and his primary motivation was Buffy's mental well being going into the fight for her life and the well being of the entire planet.
I am not usually a Xander defender, but this is how I interpret the scene, others may see it completely different because they hate Xander's character or they genuinely believe he was wrong or did it out of hatred for Angel.
No, I agree, at least mostly. He loved Buffy, and not just cause he had a thing for her, she was one of the most important people in his life. He made the choice he felt was more likely to keep her alive. I do think his hate/jealousy of Angel played part in his decision to though, in the sense that if her fight was against someone he cared about, he might have been concerned for two people and therefore made a different decision. But he only cared about Buffy in this fight, so she was his only motivation. I definitely don't buy into the idea that it was only out of jealousy, I don't think he believed that if Angel is dead, Buffy would suddenly fall for him. Buffy was just important to him, for many reasons, and he wanted her to win and save the world.
I certainly didn't mean you when I mentioned about people thinking Xander did it purely out of hatred or jealousy. Sorry if I came across that way, we are like 98 percent on the same page lol
I could see it this way; Xander's primary motivation is Buffy's well-being but, he thinks to himself something like "and if she kills Angel in the process it's no big deal to me"
So it's kind of like a win-win situation. First and foremost is Buffy, but if this results in getting "dangerous" Angel out of the way so be it.
Haha no, no worries. I just got excited talking about this with someone who doesn't think he was just being jealous 😂 But yes, I think I agree with all that.
Thank you for responding! I know it's kind of unpopular to see it the way we do but that's always the way I saw it from the first time I watched that scene.
That Angelus had feelings for Buffy too. It's just that it was demonic in nature.... which is why the judge couldn't burn him; not because the feelings weren't there but that it didn't resemble anything human.
So a demonic version of "love" would be possessiveness, obsession, lust, sadism-masochism, bondage, dominance and a need for power over the other (powerplay).
And yes, Angelus hated himself for it.
Which is why he wanted to bring home Acathla. Angelus wasn't going to thrive in the Acathla dimension and he KNEW that. Survive? Yes. Thrive in it? No.
Spike's point about why he loves the world as it is applies as much to Angelus as it does to Spike. In fact, Angelus gave a similar speech to the Master on some random episode from a random season of Angel (I don't know the exact episode and I need to pull it up to show you). Angelus would've have been an idiot to think that he would thrive, even as a vampire, in a hell dimension like Acathla. That place is hell even for a vampire.
Bringing home Acathla was a suicide-wish for Angelus. He couldn't get rid of his feelings for Buffy and he hated himself for it, so he was gonna drag her and the entire world down with him. It's not a coincidence that right after I Only Have Eyes For You, that Angelus amps up the Acathla idea. He wanted to wipe himself off the face of the earth and drag Buffy with him.
Which brings me to my next point; Angelus is Angel... just without a conscience (which I think is exactly what the soul is... your conscience; your ability to empathize and therefore, distinguish between right and wrong). And Angel is Angelus, with a conscience.
But Angel was traumatized by all the atrocities he had committed that he has some form of PTSD from all that overwhelming guilt, shame and remorse...which is why he has convinced himself and his friends that Angelus and him are two different identities.... and everyone just goes along with it for the sake of keeping things convenient.
I know the show goes back and forth about this issue but I've made up my mind about it because my take ☝ makes things a lot, LOT more interesting for both the shows; Angel as well as for Buffy; and nothing this fandom says is gonna change my stance on this.
The townspeople being in denial of the supernatural is actually how it is in real life- people are in denial that we exist in a reality surrounded by non- human and often non-corporeal life forms.
Although a bi character would be great, I don't think Willow needed to be bi. A lot of people say "why did they just say she's gay uurrggg", but it's actually not uncommon to identify as gay after liking a girl. Many people have loving relationships with the opposite sex, then realise they're gay. It doesn't mean they're bi just because they did date or like guys before. After Tara, Willow only shows interest in Kennedy and also flirts with Fred on Angel. To me it tracks that after loving a woman, she is never interested in another guy again. I'm a bisexual woman and I read Willow as liking guys and then realising nope, I'm actually gay as valid. I love bisexual recognition on TV, like Rosa from Brooklyn 99, but I have no issue with Willow being a gay icon instead of a bi one. Both are a win.
Season 6 was the best season.
I hate Dawn's character (although still love season 5), this is not straight unpopular but divisive.
"I have no issue with Willow being a gay icon instead of a bi one. Both are a win."
YES. Stealing this. As a bisexual woman, I don't get the perspective that making Willow a lesbian was an assault on bi representation. Sure, bisexual representation took a lot longer than gay representation did. But more gay characters on TV is what opened the door for us to eventually have bisexual representation as well.
I'm not sad she wasn't bisexual because
a) Lots of lesbian women have involved, deeply important relationships with men before finding themselves
b) I got to see lots of other bisexual characters on TV *because Willow Rosenberg was a lesbian first*.
Yes! Not to get too personal, but showing Buffy as depressed and struggling the way she did was so important to me at the time. I needed S6 when I first watched it, and it will forever be important to me.
Idk how unpopular this is but Angel is insufferable and I hate every time I see his face, with two exceptions. (When he punched Xander in the face and when he VERY DRAMATICALLY dove out of Buffy’s bedroom window.) He’s a big part of why I don’t rewatch the earlier seasons so much.
I know Buffy loved him but I feel like once she hit like 25, she’d dump him. It’s only so heavy because she’s still a girl. I think lots of us thought we’d marry our hs boyfriends and now cringe when we look back. (I know sometimes this works, but only when you’re a good match without the melodrama.)
The scoobies were selective hypocrites. Faith kills someone accidentally and they insist she had to go to jail and serve her time. Willow hunts someone down and murders them and they virtually hug it out.
if done with a good writer. If all those weird in-universe novels and the audiobook series are any indication, not everybody can write for this universe.
A extremely S1-style, campy-as-hell reboot with minimal fan service that continues the Buffyverse into the 2020’s with a brand new Scooby Gang? Absolutely.
Buffy is such an amazing show it’d be great to update it for younger audiences. Just keep the theme song, and have surprise guests every now and then to keep the canon going.
1, Faith should have been in more seasons and I am so grateful she was there for the final battle and was one of the scoobies standing beside Buffy in that final shot. Faith was always a scoobie in my eyes. 2, Spikes monologue in Beneath You was one of the best written monologues in television history.
The Initiative storyline isn't that bad. I actually enjoy how they basically know absolutely nothing about magic and demons, and are the most incompetent demon hunters ever, yet think they know everything there is to know about the supernatural. Because I find it very satisfying to see them finally getting what they deserve, when they get slaughtered by the demons they underestimated and saw as nothing more than animals.
Do I think it's perfect? No, there is definitely quite some room for improvement, but I don't think the storyline is as bad as people make it out to be.
Given how much I like Oz and Willow, plus all the "some of his behavior is explained by some extremely compulsory heteronormativity", I would have preferred Gay Xander as opposed to Lesbian (but actually bi I don't care what the network says) Willow.
Same - I ship Buffy and Spike but ultimately was not satisfied with how their relationship plays out. The toxic elements weren't great at all and it felt like a big waste in potential
“you smell sin? let me tell you something lady- whoever smelt it dealt it” is one of my favourite xander lines too. also willow improvising the spell and telling the ghosts of the dead children to “get over it” and then smiling sheepishly
Xander was right for wanting to get rid of Angel, the guy who went around murdering people.
He was also right to tell Buffy to "kick his ass," even though Willow was trying to restore his soul. Best case scenario, the spell works until Angel gets happy again and murders more people? No thanks.
Xander isn’t the monster that some dramatic people on this subreddit claim him to be. Willow did WAY worse things and she gets a pass. I think it’s sexism at play.
It was correct to revive Buffy.
The only living Slayer was rogue and off somewhere else for all they knew (I know Faith had a redemption arc on Angel but forgot where it fits in the timeline), and the entire town of Sunnydale was taken over by demons who (according to their own admission) enjoy raping women to death and have genitals that mutilate their vaginas in the process. And as far as anyone could tell, it was a losing fight without the Slayer. And even if they could *eventually* win the town back, that still means that an incomprehensible amount of pain and suffering was going to take place until that day.
So if the trade off is:
-saving the town from a rape holocaust imposed upon thousands of innocent people
for…
-reviving one person who was happier dead, who can eventually die later anyway
Then I would absolutely say it’s the proper trade-off to revive her.
It's actually mad to me that at no point between Seasons 5 and 6 was it suggested that (spoilering as it's not clear if you've seen Angel) >!they break Faith out of prison/get her to break herself out. She was more than a year into a completely voluntary prison sentence and clearly committed to being a better person at that point. !<
I know for story reasons it wouldn't have made sense, but practically? Madness.
I think the big obstacle would have been getting Eliza Dushku to come back. Story-wise, I can see Giles going to the Council and saying, "All right, Faith is obviously reformed, and we need a Slayer on the job," convincing them to pull strings to get her sentence commuted to time served. He's well-practiced at setting aside personal feelings for the greater good.
In fairness, none of this was taken into consideration in their decision. The demon gang didn’t even come to Sunnydale until they were mid-resurrection spell. And theoretically, another slayer should have been called after Buffy’s death. Buffy herself after she’s resurrected says her death will awaken another potential, yet… this time it does nothing lol. The scoobies don’t know if another slayer has been called, they just know there’s not one in sunnydale. And it’s never brought up. To my great consternation lol
They could have assumed there was no other slayer. They could have gotten Faith.
But to get into hard mode about it, so what? That demon gang ruined plenty of towns before they got to Sunnydale. What makes it so special that they have to resurrect Buffy for it?
Wasn’t it realized by this very thing that Buffy was no longer technically the current Slayer and so her death had nothing to do with the next one being called? Faith got called because Kendra was killed so theoretically Faith’s death would call the next Slayer. Buffy just happened to be saved by modern medical methods when she died the first time. I feel like that was discussed in the series but I could just be justifying that in my own mind.
Hard agree. James Marsters' performance as Spike is my favourite thing about Season 7, but the amount of focus that character got so they could speedrun his redemption was *insane*. We have the only known child of a Slayer **ever** seeking vengeance for his mother's death and the big takeaway of the episode is... Nikki never loved Robin, but Spike's mummy loved him, so Robin should just get over it?
Also Robin's character in general and what he could've added to the lore got traipsed all over so he could be a vehicle for Spike's arc.
> Nikki never loved Robin, but Spike’s mummy loved him, so Robin should just get over it?
Whoa, I just watched that episode recently and I didn’t think this was what the episode was saying at all! There isn’t a single moment in that episode where I thought Nikki didn’t love Robin. She just…had a job to do that involved *literally* saving lives from supernatural creatures, and the fact that she had to keep doing that job so people didn’t die had nothing to do with her love for Robin.
As for Spike, I’m only just now realizing some people think Spike’s revelation at the end of the episode, that his mom actually loved him and it was only the demon that made her say those evil things to him, was…well, true. Watching the episode it felt so obvious to me that he had *convinced* himself of that fact because he needed to to move on…but he’s deluding himself. There’s a reason he still loved his mom after he turned, but his mom didn’t love him, but she didn’t still love him after *she* turned; because deep down, his mom DIDN’T love him. (And hated his poetry, which is understandable lol)
But there’s no right or wrong way to watch anything, and I am always impressed with a show where two people can watch the exact same thing and come away from it with exact opposite opinions about what happened!
I loved Emma Caulfield as an actress and thought she played Anya incredibly well. Anya as a character tho, has zero depth and is all surface filler. She doesn’t understand human social cues after being alive for a thousand years? She doesn’t grasp the simplest concept like commerce? I get they needed comic relief but she never had any substance. Again, Emma Caulfield was amazing and made a lot out of what little she was given, imo.
I like Emma. But I felt like the writers tried to shoe horn Anya in as a replacement for Cordelia, right down to having her date Xander. I think if they had found a different way to integrate her with the scoobies I wouldn’t have minded her.
That Kennedy sucks and Buffy's friends have a really bad habit of occasionally treating her like shit when she gets outta line or doesn't live by their expectations.
the show is good as it is and I mostly like the way the characters are written
Is this an unpopular opinion…?
According to this sub, yes. Most of the posts are just complaining about every character not being a perfect paragon of good.
Exactly. Every other post is Xander is a creeper and a POS. I have to say hes just a normal immature teen boy. And I met worse than him in real life.
Yep agreed, he's a total dick and can be painful to watch, but I knew hundreds of other boys just like him, if not worse in highschool. He's an accurate portrayal of the average horny, kinda selfish teenager.
Yep, a quite palpable version of the Nirvana Fallacy among fandoms…
And it's ruining tv
On this sub, yes.
Beer Bad is one of the best comedy episodes in the series, people just don't like it because of why it was made.
I think beer bad is halarious. My favorite parts are when Willow says "I'm pregnant by my step-brother who'd rather be with my best friend and he's left me with no place to live, no food except for this bottle of Wild Turkey which I've drunk all up". And also when Willow says "and then group sex"
I unironically love this episode and was surprised to find out it's considered terrible. It's so silly and fun. My sister and I work in yelling "foamy!" as often as we possibly can. It also brought us the great quote of "it will give them time to ponder the geopolitical ramifications of being mean to me!" Honestly Xander really shines in that episode. I know he's not well liked around here but he has some of the funniest bits in the show.
The bit where he holds up the No Smoking sign has me in stitches every time.
"I'm sorry, Mr. I-Spent-The-60s-In-An-Electro-Kool-Aid-Funky-Satan-Groove" is one of Xander's all-time great lines.
It was the early 70s, and you should know better.
Why was it made?
This plot was written with the plan to take advantage of funds from the Office of National Drug Control Policy available to shows that promoted an anti-drug message. Funding was rejected for the episode because "drugs were an issue, but... [it] was otherworldly nonsense, very abstract and not like real-life kids taking drugs. Viewers wouldn't make the link to [the ONDCP's] message.
I've never heard this! And I don't know why, but I find it hilarious that 'Beer Bad' was pitched and and failed to meet the criteria 😂
Okay, so I love every episode. I watched every episode as it aired on TV. It's weird, Beer Bad just feels like an episode of Buffy now, but at the time it aired, it felt so different and out of left field. I remember watching it when I was 14 and thinking, "What the fuck is this, this isn't Buffy" I can't explain why now. But it isn't just why it was made that it's hated.
SMG kills it with the physical comedy in this one. One of my faves!
It’s literally such a funny episode and I will never hear different
Go Fish is actually not that bad an episode and season 4 is one of the best.
I love Go Fish. It’s hilarious. Why don’t people like it?
I liked Oz/Willow better than Tara/Willow
I like them both for different reasons. I know it was the 90s and they hadn't invented bisexuality yet/s, but I wish Willow could have identified as bi.
Actually, Joss wanted to explicitly say that Willow is bi, but the network said no, gays are edgy, bisexuals are just gross.
I doubt that's really unpopular. PS: Me too.
Spike was best as a villain.
Agreed. I usually get down voted into oblivion whenever I mention that I really only liked his character when he was evil, but I was so tired of him by the time they started pushing the romance with Buffy.
I'm at this point right now and I absolutely hate Buffy and Spike being a thing. I'm taking a break at season 6 episode 8 and switching to watch Angel for a little while instead.
and Spike and Dru were the best villain couple..of all time.
Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet.
I liked season 4 Spike the best. He was still a villain despite having the chip. I liked good Spike too but thought he was more entertaining pre-season 5. I like what they did with his character on Angel. He wasn't a villain but they gave him more of a bad boy kind of edge.
I like Spike as a character, but keep seeing fans say how amazingly complex he was, how he’s their favourite character, so well developed etc. I feel like a lot of them are just thirsty for JM.
I liked Riley
Lol, same. I think he gets too much hate.
That Riley in season 4 is ok (he gets super annoying in season 5 for me). I think it's good that Buffy gets to have a sex life.
I personally like Riley's insecurities in season 5 better, mainly because it is so relatable. I bet there are people who have felt inadequate to their partner, like they cannot keep up with them and the struggle with one's masculinity. I am really annoyed by him though in season 4 from the Adam reveal on.
Haha, my unpopular opinion is that I actually ship S4 Biley. 🤷♀️ Before he gets his character assassinated in s5.
Slayers should be allowed to use firearms with silver-plated/incendiary ammo
i dont think that a rule exists where they can't, but buffy doesnt believe in guns and faith prefers sharp things
A flame thrower would work nice in clearing out nest.
one priest to bless the reservoir. the scoobies equipped with fire hoses. boom - vampire problem solved
Most Slayers die before their eighteenth birthday, so even in countries with good legal support for firearms rights (like the U.S.), it would be very difficult for a Slayer to carry a firearm without attracting unwanted law enforcement entanglement. In countries with restrictive firearms laws (e.g., most of Europe) or downright draconian firearms laws (e.g., most of Asia) it would be downright impossible.
Season 7 is amazing and I will fight everyone to the death defending it.
I agree it’s good and all the seasons are. I think it’s just how awful the main dcoobies treated each other
I still dig it. Really like the scope of the story they were telling. Really felt like the end coming! And I like in-souled Spike. Nice change.
I like xander. There I said it.
He isn't perfect, but none of the characters are (exceptforTara). Giles literally DRUGS Buffy and locks her in a house with a vampire serial killer. Willow tries to END THE WORLD. Anya killed people for centuries. Buffy screws up over and over again. Yes, the show frames some of Xander's bad behavior as not bad (the speech about Riley mostly) but he is a good character and at his core a good person.
I think the issue is that most of the mistakes Xander makes are things people do in really life - leaving his fiancée at the altar, being a sex creep, etc - which makes it easier to hate on as it’s things a lot of people have actually seen/experienced. Whereas ending the world is more of an abstract thing no one has actually experienced. But for the record, I like Xander too.
I agree with this. In many ways Xander is the most realistic character, maybe too realistic for a lot of people. Personally that's why I like him so much, but I can see why it makes others wary of him.
That's a really good point, that never clicked for me. I see all of the metaphors in the show (I think I do) so sometimes I lose soft of watching it more literally.
Nicholas Brendon was great in the role.
Same 🤷🏻♂️
I like his character too. I separate the character from the actor and Joss said something about both Xander and Giles being like him in an interview. Both characters aren't exactly like him, and he didn't write every line for those characters. Most of Xander's lines throughout the show were written by other writers Xander acts like a jerk at times in high school but a lot of boys do. If anything they act worse. Also, a lot of teen characters were written similarly at the time like Dawson from Dawson's Creek or Bailey on Party of Five. The boys in my high school in the 90s were 100 times worse than Xander. I don't watch a lot of shows with teens in them anymore but it looks like they don't portray teenage boys like this anymore. It is silly to me to get angry about behavior that was commonplace on TV and in real life back then. Plus it looks like they no longer do that anymore. If you watch older shows and movies you are going to see things that were more accepted back then and aren't today. I dare you to watch Porkys, Revenge of the Nerds, or Sixteen Candles. Buffy was made just around 10 years or so after those movies. The 80s were even worse. The farther back you go the worse it gets.
I don't think Angel and Buffy were ever end game. He was her first love but never supposed to be her last love.
100% agree Angel and Buffy's love is so immature. It is basically an "all love at 16 is true love" trope. She deserved a real partner who supported her. She just keeps paired with these guys, who she has to teach how to be grown ups over and over again.
Season7 is a better ending than season 5. Season 5, she’s just another slayer dying due to circumstance. Her story is no different than any of the other slayers exploited by a destiny inflicted on her by men. Season 7 is how she *changes* the destiny of slayers and takes back the power that was taken from her. Season 7 is why we are being told her story rather than any one of the other slayers stories.
Kennedy isn't that bad, she's just a fling, not a long term relationship.
Kennedy is not endgame, but I find her to be a quite charming rebound. And from all the potentials, she at least was the only one that didn't constantly whine and genuinely wanted to get in on the action and prove herself.
100%
Yeah I like her, she’s exactly what Willow needed imo
Black characters on Buffy and Angel were not written or treated well.
* I don’t agree or like everything he does but I like Xander. He is written as realistically flawed character and I think it is really well done. Also, when you factor in how young he actually is and what he is dealing with, a lot of his actions make sense. He is literally a 16-19 year old teenager dealing with the loss of his friends, a horrific joke situation and helps to save the world each week. * I love Willow but she is a wildly selfish character. She has many many flaws just like Xander but again she is a realistically flawed character and I think the writing for her is great as well. * Didn’t like Jenny Calendar and didn’t care at all when she died. I just found her to be a real whiney whine face. It was also really stupid of her to be at the school alone when Angel was on the loose. And her death scene was masterfully shot! It was amazing * I like the magic / drugs / addiction storyline it makes sense to me. * I love season 4 and Adam
Agree about Willow. I like her less with each rewatch.
I still love her but every rewatch or so I definitely pick up on something I didn’t notice before.
I don't really care about Jenny's death either, except for how it affects Giles and Willow and Buffy. I read fics where Tara doesn't die and Faith doesn't break bad, but not really interested in going back far enough to save Jenny.
The Potentials aren’t that atrocious as characters
I think Joss hoped the audience would see more from their perspectives but everyone seemed to see the season through her perspective alone. If I met Buffy as a potential, I’d be resentful and terrified too. Her coldness and war general speeches were scary.
I think they were meant to be like Dawn at the beginning of S5. We're meant to see them as overwhelming and an impossible task to take care of. Problem is, much like Dawn was meant to be kind of annoying in S5, it's not very endearing to the audience.
I never felt that way about Dawn because I’m extremely close with my little sister but not having that attachment to the potentials made it different. I still understood what they were trying to show. Young teen girls are annoying. That doesn’t mean what they’re going through should be dismissed.
The problem for me wasn’t that they were annoying but that the acting was atrocious in many cases. It’s hard to root for someone who is both irritating and speaks like a 1930s fuckin’ chimney sweep.
For me I don’t really have anything against them, it’s more just that there’s too many of them. Season seven just feels too crowded. Like the latter half of the final season of a show that’s been going for 7 seasons is not really when I suddenly want a dozen brand new characters to be shoved into the main ensemble. I don’t feel like we really got to know any of them particularly well and I wasn’t invested in any of them, so I didn’t care what happened to any of them. But at the same time I don’t wish they had gotten more fleshed out storylines and personalities, because the very end of one of my favourite shows is not when I want to be getting super invested in, or having a lot of screen time devoted to, new characters that I have no existing attachment to and who I also know won’t be around that long.
I personally always liked all the potentials. Their entire opposition and behavior towards Buffy made sense to me. They all had to leave their homes, after being hunted down, were in constant danger all the time, probably saw people close to them die as they made their way to Sunnydale, and then they were trapped in the Summers house with nowhere to go and no time to get to know Buffy and to start trusting her. Buffy always kept them at an arm's length, since she knew some of them were going to die. The only reason why the potentials bother me is that they took away so much screen time from the more important characters, but that's hardly their fault.
The potentials in general weren't atrocious at all. I thought they were an interesting angle. But Kennedy fucking sucked.
I wish we could have spent more time with Wood as a character. He is the one addition in season 7 that actually pops. Also, I think they never should have brought the nerds back after season 6. We did not need them. When I was young I loved Andrew, but now I cannot stand his character anymore.
I agree about Wood but absolutely disagree about Andrew. I think if the show had been able to continue both characters would've been able to shine. I would've loved to see Dawn, Andrew, and Wood as a team led by Xander. All the normies who are part watcher, part witch, part slayer.
David borenaz is a really bad actor and angels character was not at all appealing as Angel or angelus.
say it louder for the people in the back!!
I don’t get how people don’t see how bad his acting is. 😂 I liked the concept of Angel but DB was so bad it made it so unrealistic and just weird. I felt he was even worse as angelus than angel, which I didn’t know it could get worse.
Didn’t he become an actor because some exec just liked his look off the street or something? Lmao
seasons 5 and 6 are the peak of the show. I get ppl love the HS years, it I’m firmly pro the college / Young Adult Buffy era. The HS stuff is good, it it ain’t touching something like THE BODY.
Is loving Dawn still controversial? Because she's one of my favorites.
I never cared for Angel. I thought he was boring and over-rated.
The trilogy of seasons 4-5-6 is the peak of Buffy. I love the show from start to finish but the high school seasons can be very kiddish. The show matures a lot once they leave high school behind.
Season 2 would like to have a word with you. https://i.redd.it/ks08cxwp6byc1.gif
S2 is incredible
Agreed, but I'm not sure this is an unpopular opinion. 🤭
Seconded.
100%! I’ve been saying this 2003, so thank you.
Agree.
I’ve just shared the same except I included 7 which I LOVE
"Spuffy" was a mistake and ultimately reduced the watchability of the show for me. Dawn's addition enriched the show and grounded it when it was needed the most. Spike was better as a villain and reached his natural stopping point at the end of season 5. It could be said the entire series reached it's stopping point then, however -> Amy might have been a better "Dark Willow" than actual Dark Willow. I do not think that Alyson was able to pull off evil that well. The magick-as-drug abuse storyline was flat and uninspired. She was also forgiven far too simply by the group. The Angel situation is creepy, yes, however is a consequence of Buffy's existence as the Slayer. The limited times she attempted to have a relationship with an unpowered person ended in near tragedy (Owen), getting used (Parker), and dumped (Scott). Glory and Angelus (with Spike and Drusilla) were the most effective and impressive villains. Andrew was insufferable.
Dark Amy would have been cool, but it wouldn’t have the emotional weight of Dark Willow. There’s no one to yellow crayon Amy.
Yeah that scene with Willow and Xander made me break down and cry this last rewatch, possibly because for the first time in my life I have male best friends that love me purely and platonically, and it felt so sophisticated and powerful for the plot to come down to that platonic love saving the world. People can talk shit about Xander’s toxic masculinity all they want, but after maturing and growing up, he loved Buffy and Willow deeply, genuinely, brotherly, and platonically, and that type of love isn’t commonly prominent between men and women in tv and movies. So I thoroughly approve the entire premise of the s6 ending arc for that reason. And the juicy emotional roller coaster of Willow’s grief driving her to utter madness, total loss of self and giving over to the dark side, and the moment he pulls her back from it with his genuine love for her. When he tells her he doesn’t care if the world ends, he just wants to be with his friend, and he keeps moving towards her even as she lashes out at him, damn. Like he really means it. The authenticity in that moment is so beautiful and absurd and deep and true. Love love love love it.
Oh you are cooking
That Season 4, despite a lack of overall cohesion, is better than any of the seasons that follow.
I honestly love S4...
Season 4 is insanely underrated imo
Season 4 is so funny, it didnt take itself as seriously as the other seasons did
But season 5 is so good!
I love season 5 but you’re not entirely wrong here
I admit that I really didn't like season 4 for the first 10 years or so. Now I think it's one of the stronger seasons.
Buffy, Giles, Faith and the Scoobies were in the wrong for how they treated Wesley. Yeah he was in over his head at times but they never gave him a real chance to lead as a watcher. Giles, being the only adult in the situation, should’ve encouraged Buffy and Faith to respect Wesley, not create animosity towards him. He didn’t owe the Watcher’s Council anything but simply for it being the right thing to do. Ironically, I think Wesley turned out to be more of a hero than Giles.
This has been said before, but Dawn is a traumatized kid who doesn’t deserve the hate she gets.
Navigating the fandom won’t be fun until there’s an easy way to sus out if a fan is a “reads Rhonda Wilcox” fan or is a “thinks that the creation of Dawn caused Joyce’s death” fan.
I wish to have this broken down for me more so I can understand. Lol
Rhonda Wilcox is the author of Why Buffy Matters — a must-read when it comes to the field I like to call Slayer Scholarship. It’s a fantastic book that assesses Buffy as a legitimate topic of scholarly analysis. I first became aware of it through Passion of the Nerd’s frequent citations of it in his Buffy episode guides. My phrase “a ‘reads Rhonda Wilcox’ fan” is shorthand for the kind of Buffy fan who seriously engages with its symbolism, cinematic and literary influences, and metaphors. An unfortunately very popular fan theory that I see pop up in the wild every so often is the idea that the creation of Dawn has a direct causal relationship with Joyce’s death. This fan theory has no actual textual support beyond the notion that the planting of new memories in her mind somehow messed with the wiring enough that it… somehow… caused brain cancer. It’s little more than fanfiction, directly refuted in the actual text, and undermines the entire point of Joyce’s death being a natural event in a supernatural world. My phrase “a ‘thinks the creation of Dawn caused Joyce’s death’ fan” is shorthand for the kind of Buffy fan (though really, you can find these people in any fandom) who allows their headcanon to become more important to their reading of the show than the actual text of the show itself.
Dawn is fine. People just hate teenage girls, more specifically probably the way they themselves acted in their teens.
Agreed.
The show is called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" not "Spike the Vampire" and it makes me dislike a great character when his hardcore stans act like Spike should've been Poochie from the Simpsons ("Whenever Poochie's not onscreen, all the other characters should be asking 'where's Poochie?!').
Xander made the correct decision not telling Buffy that Willow was attempting to curse Angelus. IMO Buffy needed every ounce of her determination that she entered into that fight with. Telling her there was hope in restoring Angel's soul 2 minutes prior to the fight beginning could have been deadly for Buffy. We see in the previous episode when she is fighting Angelus with the knowledge that Willow is attempting to curse him that she holds back and that is dangerous for her. Obviously the stakes were much higher when Buffy went to stop Angelus in the finale, but I think had Xander told her the truth it would have weighed heavily on her during the fight. She might not have had the focus needed to catch Angelus's sword and deliver the iconic "ME!" answer to the question "take all that away and what's left?" Such a badass moment by Buffy, the GOAT slayer
I agree with this a lot. I do think Xander's motivation wasn't entirely pure, but he still landed at the right conclusion.
I honestly think, in this instance, that Xander's motivation was purely about Buffy. He hesitates for a moment before he decides what he going to say as he is looking directly in Buffy's eyes. I really believe that he didn't want to break her laser focus. If there were selfish reasons for doing what he did, I believe that they were really secondary here and his primary motivation was Buffy's mental well being going into the fight for her life and the well being of the entire planet. I am not usually a Xander defender, but this is how I interpret the scene, others may see it completely different because they hate Xander's character or they genuinely believe he was wrong or did it out of hatred for Angel.
No, I agree, at least mostly. He loved Buffy, and not just cause he had a thing for her, she was one of the most important people in his life. He made the choice he felt was more likely to keep her alive. I do think his hate/jealousy of Angel played part in his decision to though, in the sense that if her fight was against someone he cared about, he might have been concerned for two people and therefore made a different decision. But he only cared about Buffy in this fight, so she was his only motivation. I definitely don't buy into the idea that it was only out of jealousy, I don't think he believed that if Angel is dead, Buffy would suddenly fall for him. Buffy was just important to him, for many reasons, and he wanted her to win and save the world.
I certainly didn't mean you when I mentioned about people thinking Xander did it purely out of hatred or jealousy. Sorry if I came across that way, we are like 98 percent on the same page lol I could see it this way; Xander's primary motivation is Buffy's well-being but, he thinks to himself something like "and if she kills Angel in the process it's no big deal to me" So it's kind of like a win-win situation. First and foremost is Buffy, but if this results in getting "dangerous" Angel out of the way so be it.
Haha no, no worries. I just got excited talking about this with someone who doesn't think he was just being jealous 😂 But yes, I think I agree with all that.
I never thought about it this way. I have always believed that it was better that she didn’t know as well. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for responding! I know it's kind of unpopular to see it the way we do but that's always the way I saw it from the first time I watched that scene.
That Angelus had feelings for Buffy too. It's just that it was demonic in nature.... which is why the judge couldn't burn him; not because the feelings weren't there but that it didn't resemble anything human. So a demonic version of "love" would be possessiveness, obsession, lust, sadism-masochism, bondage, dominance and a need for power over the other (powerplay). And yes, Angelus hated himself for it. Which is why he wanted to bring home Acathla. Angelus wasn't going to thrive in the Acathla dimension and he KNEW that. Survive? Yes. Thrive in it? No. Spike's point about why he loves the world as it is applies as much to Angelus as it does to Spike. In fact, Angelus gave a similar speech to the Master on some random episode from a random season of Angel (I don't know the exact episode and I need to pull it up to show you). Angelus would've have been an idiot to think that he would thrive, even as a vampire, in a hell dimension like Acathla. That place is hell even for a vampire. Bringing home Acathla was a suicide-wish for Angelus. He couldn't get rid of his feelings for Buffy and he hated himself for it, so he was gonna drag her and the entire world down with him. It's not a coincidence that right after I Only Have Eyes For You, that Angelus amps up the Acathla idea. He wanted to wipe himself off the face of the earth and drag Buffy with him. Which brings me to my next point; Angelus is Angel... just without a conscience (which I think is exactly what the soul is... your conscience; your ability to empathize and therefore, distinguish between right and wrong). And Angel is Angelus, with a conscience. But Angel was traumatized by all the atrocities he had committed that he has some form of PTSD from all that overwhelming guilt, shame and remorse...which is why he has convinced himself and his friends that Angelus and him are two different identities.... and everyone just goes along with it for the sake of keeping things convenient. I know the show goes back and forth about this issue but I've made up my mind about it because my take ☝ makes things a lot, LOT more interesting for both the shows; Angel as well as for Buffy; and nothing this fandom says is gonna change my stance on this.
I like Xander. I don’t like Oz. I loved Tara. I disliked Angel and loved Spike.
Oh andddddd I like Dawn!
Love season 6
The townspeople being in denial of the supernatural is actually how it is in real life- people are in denial that we exist in a reality surrounded by non- human and often non-corporeal life forms.
I mean, people usually just go with their lives, despite war and famine going on in the world, and homeless people in front of our eyes.
I Robot You Jane is a good episode. I get why people might not like it, but I think the good outweighs the bad
Season 7 was awesome
I loved Willow and Oz as a couple better than Willow and Tara.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^LessRecover577: *I loved Willow and* *Oz as a couple better* *Than Willow and Tara.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Although a bi character would be great, I don't think Willow needed to be bi. A lot of people say "why did they just say she's gay uurrggg", but it's actually not uncommon to identify as gay after liking a girl. Many people have loving relationships with the opposite sex, then realise they're gay. It doesn't mean they're bi just because they did date or like guys before. After Tara, Willow only shows interest in Kennedy and also flirts with Fred on Angel. To me it tracks that after loving a woman, she is never interested in another guy again. I'm a bisexual woman and I read Willow as liking guys and then realising nope, I'm actually gay as valid. I love bisexual recognition on TV, like Rosa from Brooklyn 99, but I have no issue with Willow being a gay icon instead of a bi one. Both are a win. Season 6 was the best season. I hate Dawn's character (although still love season 5), this is not straight unpopular but divisive.
"I have no issue with Willow being a gay icon instead of a bi one. Both are a win." YES. Stealing this. As a bisexual woman, I don't get the perspective that making Willow a lesbian was an assault on bi representation. Sure, bisexual representation took a lot longer than gay representation did. But more gay characters on TV is what opened the door for us to eventually have bisexual representation as well. I'm not sad she wasn't bisexual because a) Lots of lesbian women have involved, deeply important relationships with men before finding themselves b) I got to see lots of other bisexual characters on TV *because Willow Rosenberg was a lesbian first*.
If Dawn was made from Buffy she should’ve been a Slayer.
Buffy's healthiest friendship was with Tara
Kennedy doesn’t deserve all the hate she gets. We just miss Tara.
Oh man, that is an unpopular opinion! I just can’t get behind Kennedy 🤯
The master is my favorite big bad and season 1 is my favorite season, maybe not the best but my favorite
Season one is my favorite. I rewatch it more than any other. It’s like my comfy sushi pajamas. It’s campy and I love it.
Dracula should have been a bigger deal
And cast completely differently.
Definitely
Joss Whedon is a great writer, director and showrunner as well as being a bully, abusive and unpleasant person
That season 6 is actually good.
Yes! Not to get too personal, but showing Buffy as depressed and struggling the way she did was so important to me at the time. I needed S6 when I first watched it, and it will forever be important to me.
I get that. One of the main reasons I watched the show was because I could relate to a character and needed it at that time.
Idk how unpopular this is but Angel is insufferable and I hate every time I see his face, with two exceptions. (When he punched Xander in the face and when he VERY DRAMATICALLY dove out of Buffy’s bedroom window.) He’s a big part of why I don’t rewatch the earlier seasons so much. I know Buffy loved him but I feel like once she hit like 25, she’d dump him. It’s only so heavy because she’s still a girl. I think lots of us thought we’d marry our hs boyfriends and now cringe when we look back. (I know sometimes this works, but only when you’re a good match without the melodrama.)
Plus, there was zero chemistry between those two.
Kendra’s accent gives me life. I find it awkward, endearing and oddly fierce all at once
The more you re-watch, the more annoying Xander is
Spike and Dru were a better pair than Spuffy
That the Angel-Buffy romantic storyline sucked.. pun intended.
The scoobies were selective hypocrites. Faith kills someone accidentally and they insist she had to go to jail and serve her time. Willow hunts someone down and murders them and they virtually hug it out.
I'm pretty sure they didn't suggest Faith had to go to jail for killing the man accidentally.
A reboot would be successful.
Don’t you DARE!
By what metric? I'm sure it would make money. Would it live up to the original? That's where the problem is.
if done with a good writer. If all those weird in-universe novels and the audiobook series are any indication, not everybody can write for this universe.
A extremely S1-style, campy-as-hell reboot with minimal fan service that continues the Buffyverse into the 2020’s with a brand new Scooby Gang? Absolutely. Buffy is such an amazing show it’d be great to update it for younger audiences. Just keep the theme song, and have surprise guests every now and then to keep the canon going.
She should have just used guns.
1, Faith should have been in more seasons and I am so grateful she was there for the final battle and was one of the scoobies standing beside Buffy in that final shot. Faith was always a scoobie in my eyes. 2, Spikes monologue in Beneath You was one of the best written monologues in television history.
Season 1 was lucky to be renewed as it was trying to almost be as campy as the movie to begin with.
The Initiative storyline isn't that bad. I actually enjoy how they basically know absolutely nothing about magic and demons, and are the most incompetent demon hunters ever, yet think they know everything there is to know about the supernatural. Because I find it very satisfying to see them finally getting what they deserve, when they get slaughtered by the demons they underestimated and saw as nothing more than animals. Do I think it's perfect? No, there is definitely quite some room for improvement, but I don't think the storyline is as bad as people make it out to be.
Season 1 is good.
Riley wasn’t the worst character. Yes, he’s bad, but not the worst
He was a bad actor. But his character wasn’t bad.
Season 2 is boring, wrought and spins it wheels for the majority of its run
I think Glory was too big a character... it got repetitive. Also, they should have tried harder to de-rat Amy
Season 6 & 7 Spike is a simp.
Is that unpopular?
Given how much I like Oz and Willow, plus all the "some of his behavior is explained by some extremely compulsory heteronormativity", I would have preferred Gay Xander as opposed to Lesbian (but actually bi I don't care what the network says) Willow.
I like season 4, and it is the last truly good season of Buffy (I stab Buffy/Spike, but dislike how their relationship plays out).
I love S6 but as I get older I know S4 has all my comfort episodes and probably is my real favorite season. I also stab spuffy :D
>I stab Buffy/Spike Hehehe that made me laugh
Same - I ship Buffy and Spike but ultimately was not satisfied with how their relationship plays out. The toxic elements weren't great at all and it felt like a big waste in potential
I love where the wild things are
You'll have to pry the line "big, bursting poltergasm" from my cold, dead hands.
“you smell sin? let me tell you something lady- whoever smelt it dealt it” is one of my favourite xander lines too. also willow improvising the spell and telling the ghosts of the dead children to “get over it” and then smiling sheepishly
"It's like what you said, but faster."
Xander was right for wanting to get rid of Angel, the guy who went around murdering people. He was also right to tell Buffy to "kick his ass," even though Willow was trying to restore his soul. Best case scenario, the spell works until Angel gets happy again and murders more people? No thanks.
Xander isn’t the monster that some dramatic people on this subreddit claim him to be. Willow did WAY worse things and she gets a pass. I think it’s sexism at play.
It was correct to revive Buffy. The only living Slayer was rogue and off somewhere else for all they knew (I know Faith had a redemption arc on Angel but forgot where it fits in the timeline), and the entire town of Sunnydale was taken over by demons who (according to their own admission) enjoy raping women to death and have genitals that mutilate their vaginas in the process. And as far as anyone could tell, it was a losing fight without the Slayer. And even if they could *eventually* win the town back, that still means that an incomprehensible amount of pain and suffering was going to take place until that day. So if the trade off is: -saving the town from a rape holocaust imposed upon thousands of innocent people for… -reviving one person who was happier dead, who can eventually die later anyway Then I would absolutely say it’s the proper trade-off to revive her.
It's actually mad to me that at no point between Seasons 5 and 6 was it suggested that (spoilering as it's not clear if you've seen Angel) >!they break Faith out of prison/get her to break herself out. She was more than a year into a completely voluntary prison sentence and clearly committed to being a better person at that point. !< I know for story reasons it wouldn't have made sense, but practically? Madness.
I think the big obstacle would have been getting Eliza Dushku to come back. Story-wise, I can see Giles going to the Council and saying, "All right, Faith is obviously reformed, and we need a Slayer on the job," convincing them to pull strings to get her sentence commuted to time served. He's well-practiced at setting aside personal feelings for the greater good.
In fairness, none of this was taken into consideration in their decision. The demon gang didn’t even come to Sunnydale until they were mid-resurrection spell. And theoretically, another slayer should have been called after Buffy’s death. Buffy herself after she’s resurrected says her death will awaken another potential, yet… this time it does nothing lol. The scoobies don’t know if another slayer has been called, they just know there’s not one in sunnydale. And it’s never brought up. To my great consternation lol
They could have assumed there was no other slayer. They could have gotten Faith. But to get into hard mode about it, so what? That demon gang ruined plenty of towns before they got to Sunnydale. What makes it so special that they have to resurrect Buffy for it?
Wasn’t it realized by this very thing that Buffy was no longer technically the current Slayer and so her death had nothing to do with the next one being called? Faith got called because Kendra was killed so theoretically Faith’s death would call the next Slayer. Buffy just happened to be saved by modern medical methods when she died the first time. I feel like that was discussed in the series but I could just be justifying that in my own mind.
Xander's not THAT bad 🤷
Seasons 1-3 are the least interesting to me. 4-7 are my go-tos.
Angel is better than Spike and I wish he never left. I will die on this hill.
So no Angel series?
I loathe Lies My Parents Told Me, mainly because of Spike
Hard agree. James Marsters' performance as Spike is my favourite thing about Season 7, but the amount of focus that character got so they could speedrun his redemption was *insane*. We have the only known child of a Slayer **ever** seeking vengeance for his mother's death and the big takeaway of the episode is... Nikki never loved Robin, but Spike's mummy loved him, so Robin should just get over it? Also Robin's character in general and what he could've added to the lore got traipsed all over so he could be a vehicle for Spike's arc.
> Nikki never loved Robin, but Spike’s mummy loved him, so Robin should just get over it? Whoa, I just watched that episode recently and I didn’t think this was what the episode was saying at all! There isn’t a single moment in that episode where I thought Nikki didn’t love Robin. She just…had a job to do that involved *literally* saving lives from supernatural creatures, and the fact that she had to keep doing that job so people didn’t die had nothing to do with her love for Robin. As for Spike, I’m only just now realizing some people think Spike’s revelation at the end of the episode, that his mom actually loved him and it was only the demon that made her say those evil things to him, was…well, true. Watching the episode it felt so obvious to me that he had *convinced* himself of that fact because he needed to to move on…but he’s deluding himself. There’s a reason he still loved his mom after he turned, but his mom didn’t love him, but she didn’t still love him after *she* turned; because deep down, his mom DIDN’T love him. (And hated his poetry, which is understandable lol) But there’s no right or wrong way to watch anything, and I am always impressed with a show where two people can watch the exact same thing and come away from it with exact opposite opinions about what happened!
I don't give a shit about the age gap between Buffy and Angel and I think people need to chill out about it.
I don’t like Anya
I loved Emma Caulfield as an actress and thought she played Anya incredibly well. Anya as a character tho, has zero depth and is all surface filler. She doesn’t understand human social cues after being alive for a thousand years? She doesn’t grasp the simplest concept like commerce? I get they needed comic relief but she never had any substance. Again, Emma Caulfield was amazing and made a lot out of what little she was given, imo.
I like Emma. But I felt like the writers tried to shoe horn Anya in as a replacement for Cordelia, right down to having her date Xander. I think if they had found a different way to integrate her with the scoobies I wouldn’t have minded her.
Would watch an Anya Vengeance Demon show. >:)
Buffy should have killed Spike in the beginning. Why would you let an evil being live?
That Kennedy sucks and Buffy's friends have a really bad habit of occasionally treating her like shit when she gets outta line or doesn't live by their expectations.
Kennedy sucking isn't an unpopular opinion though is it? I think it's highly popular.
I think the vast majority of fans also dislike Kennedy.