Homecoming
Buffy depression is so sad. It's bad when your favorite teacher doesn't recognize you. #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 21, 2012
Are you seriously cheating on Cordy and Oz? Why are you doing this awfulness? #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 21, 2012
You'd think at some point they'd install UV lights in that library or something. #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 21, 2012
Cordelia bluffing as Slayer is concentrated awesome. #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 21, 2012
Band Candy
Dude, she's a senior and not allowed to drive? Because Joyce thinks she could leave if she could drive? #Buffy #abusive
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 22, 2012
Nice to see that my point about Joyce hyper-monitoring Buffy's behavior continues to be relevant. #Buffy #BandCandy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 22, 2012
Candy-happy Principal Synder is too adorable. YOU'VE GOT GREAT HAIR. #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 22, 2012
Revelations
We're going to reveal to you that we know about Angel by ganging up on you five against one. #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 23, 2012
Seriously, Giles? The ONLY reason to hide Angel was from guilt? Not because you guys are emotionally abusive jerks? #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 23, 2012
And Xander just threw Ms. Calender in her face. Because survivor guilt is so helpful. #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 23, 2012
Hey Giles, you know who else is a harbored murderer around here? YOU. #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 23, 2012
Wow, Xander and Faith have really embraced the whole "murder" thing. #Buffy
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 23, 2012
After this episode there is no reason why Buffy would ever talk to Xander again. #Buffy #Revelations
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 23, 2012
And Xander survived. #Buffy #Sads
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 23, 2012
#Buffy asks Xander, "Are we cool?" Seriously? Are we cool with you trying to murder someone I care about and turning my friends against me?
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 23, 2012
Lovers Walk
"Xander, stay away from me." Thank you, Cordelia. (You poor dear.) #Buffy #LoversWalk
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 24, 2012
The Wish
Oh my god, Xander is blaming Cordelia for him cheating on her? And stalking her? Hello, scary Nice Guy. #Buffy #TheWish
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 24, 2012
It's funny how dystopic alternate realities always heavily feature leather. #Charmed did that, too, as I recall. #Buffy #TheWish
— Ana Mardoll (@anamardoll) October 24, 2012
18 comments:
I never really like Xander all that much (especially in the later episodes) but, after reading these decosntructions, I like him even less!
I always found the Willow and Xander sudden lust plot incredibly stupid. Even if you don't like Zander it was still mind bogglingly out of character for both him and Willow. It further cemented my opinion that Whedon hates relationships in which people behave reasonably.
"Oh my god, you're in a tux, I must have you now."
"Me too, you."
"Now that I can have you because we've been discovered, I instead want the other person I've carelessly tossed aside."
"Ditto."
I always felt that some of the reasons that Willow was with Oz included the fact that "I don't want to be the only girl in school without a boyfriend" "my boyfriend's in a band" "I haven't been a nerd in a long time. Hello! Dating a guitarist!" I do think she cared about Oz but part of it was status symbol, losing the invisible nerd girl label she thought she had for years, constructing a cool girl persona (something she'll try to do for the rest of the series), doing the things that she thinks girls are supposed to do, *the way that she told Buffy to be a meek little girly girl like the rest of them in self-defense training in Phases* and the fact that Oz practically worshipped her. She will not tolerate him questioning her magick use even if it is out of concern for her well being. The same will happen when she is with Tara. She will love her as long as Tara stays thinking Willow is special and Tara "sits back and keeps her mouth shut."
I thought it made sense that Willow would cheat on Oz with Xander. Xander wasn't out of her system. She thought she was in love and lust with him for many years. She tried to have her first kiss with Oz be out of spite that Xander was kissing Cordelia. She CALLED OZ AND CRIED FOR HOURS ABOUT XANDER during the love spell in BBB even though that is basically her calling her boyfriend needing sympathy that another guy turned her down. And poor Oz didn't even get that. He punched Xander just knowing that Willow was hurt and Xander was the cause. Not realizing that she was hurt that she couldn't be with Xander. When she refuses to talk to Xander for a while afterwards it is like Buffy said, "Willow loved you without the spell." She will show several more serious signs of not respecting what she has with Oz and not being over Xander as S3 progresses. (I'm trying not to be spoilery) She finally had Xander looking at her with lust and longing and she couldn't pass it up.
Dude. You didn't read my last comment about not posting spoilers, and you're bouncing through the Buffy threads posting stuff about characters I haven't encountered yet with the frenetic activity of a squirrel on sweet tarts.
I am banning you until we can have a talk about the DON'T POST BUFFY SPOILERS rule here, since you've ignored my last post on the subject. Email me at anamardoll @ gmail.com and we'll talk about lifting the ban and how to talk here without, you know, spoiling the person whose unspoiled reactions you seem to be enjoying reading.
To be honest, the only time I remember liking Xander was when he was making the argument that they redeem their friends rather than kill them.
And in context it's not nearly as impressive a thing as when pulled out of context because in context the person he's trying to save is his girlfriend. Which sort of fits into the, "Me want sex, world owes it to me," arc of his larger character.
Is The Wish the one I'm thinking of, where Cordelia makes a wish on an artifact that spawns a new universe where the events of the past seasons haven't happened, and instead, inexplicably, Very Bad Things run Sunnydale mostly overtly? Because there are some...issues there about the alternate universe construction, there.
Yup, the Arya episode. I'M SURE WE'LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN, HAHA.
In which The Master was successfully freed, Willow and Xander are vampires (because, why?) and are his top lieutenants (because, WHY?), Buffy has a tasteful scar on her lip (because, why?), everyone wears a lot of leather, and despite being overrun by vampires in town Giles and Oz do their night-work in a public school library instead of a house (because WHY.).
Because you don't all follow me on Twitter
I don't follow you per se, but I do pay attention to the "Tweet Thoughts" widget.
And you can reply to the tweets with more than 140 characters.
Which is why I don't have a Twitter account. I have enough trouble with the part of Tumblr that has a 250-character limit.
It's funny how dystopic alternate realities always heavily feature leather. #Charmed did that, too, as I recall.
I don't know if this counts. It's more plastic, really, but I think it's the same idea.
Yep. For mostly those reasons mentioned (Xander should be a corpse, not a leftennant, especially), but I do like Oz in a white hat. It's a good look for him.
Also, if you're worried about being staked, wouldn't you want to wear Kevlar instead of leather? Better stopping power against people with crossbows. I now also wonder whether depleted-uranium rounds would have enough residual radioactivity to attack a vampire's weakness to the ultraviolet.
To be honest, the only time I remember liking Xander was when he was making the argument that they redeem their friends rather than kill them.
Well, Angel wasn't his friend, so technically he's not the biggest hypocrite ever to hypocrite...
Everyone, please welcome Niala back -- we had a very nice email discussion about ROT13 and now we're back to spoiler-free happy-land again. :)
It was really sad that Buffy's favorite teacher didn't even remember who she was. Is that better or worse than if the teacher thought she was a psychotic troublemaker? (you know some of her teachers must've thought that since she was Resident Freak Girl to her peers)
I thought that Cordelia really crossed a line by brining up the fact that Hank divorced Buffy not long after divorcing Joyce.
Buffy: How can you think it's okay to talk to people like this? Do you have parents?
Cordelia: Yeah, two of them. Unlike some people.
I know they are were having an arguement but that is going too far. It's not the rudest or most hurtful thing she has said but it was still really bad.
I now also wonder whether depleted-uranium rounds would have enough residual radioactivity to attack a vampire's weakness to the ultraviolet
Is it the ultraviolet in the Buffyverse that kills them? I always assumed it was a mystical weakness.
Hmm, the release of the Master should mean that giant demons rule the Earth -- someone who failed to plan for an earthquake in California will not have a plan to stop the ancient horrors he summons from taking over. So I figured Anya just lacked the power to make the wish come true in a literal sense, and instead threw together an approximation that she liked.
This brings me to a Doylist question: does Anya seem like an anti-feminist symbol in this episode? She at least does nothing to stop Cordelia from blaming Buffy for Xander's actions. The ensuing wish utterly failed to address the precipitating cause, and would have killed Cordelia if it hadn't fallen apart. Now ISTR that Anya started out trying to point her towards hurting Xander. But she explicitly approves of the D.A.R. that we get instead. And I've argued that she had some control over how to interpret the wish, though this does stem from a deeper lack of power.
I don't consider her "anti" feminist, but neither do I think there's anything feminist about revenge after being cheated on. I don't personally like cheating and I reserve the right to think that the better thing to do would have been for Willow and Xander to either control themselves or break up with their bf/gf and be upfront about why -- basically, to shit or get off the pot one way or the other -- but I don't think vengeance is an inherently feminist response.
I saw Anya as a fae-like character having fun causing damage and wreaking havoc. A one-off monster of the week who we will never, ever see again. Ever. Not even once. Because that would just be silly.
I agree that there is nothing feminist or empowering about vengeance demons. Anya was preying on the fragility of her wishers (scorned women) and twisting everything they feel and say for her own benefit. Nobody can know right after being cheated on, dumped, lied to, let down, or in some way emotionally hurt whether or not the way they feel about the person that wronged them is going to be how they always feel about them.
Anya is a predator and an enabler. She encourages their negative emotions, deepens their hurt, fuels their rage, and prevents them from being able to place what happened to them in a larger context. They dwell on what happened to them in a very unhealthy way. It is good not to bury hurt and to know that you are entitled to your anger or whatever else you feel but I'm guessing that vengeance demons are really more about getting their wishers to "worship at the altar of self-pity."
Anya came in when the wounds were still fresh, the pain was at its peak, and the anger felt like a central part of the wisher instead of something they would survive and deal with and maybe let it make them wiser and stronger. She is a roadblock to real recovery.
Anya didn't give them a chance to heal. She adds guilt and horror to already horrible situations. By manipulating the wishers she is victimizing them too and tricking them into becoming much worse than the person that had originally hurt them. Even putting aside the huge difference between vengeance (what Anya specializes in) and justice, the punishments are not even close to fitting the crime.
Imagine all of the people in the world that get into fights with their family or best friends or significant others and say something aweful. "Go to Hell" "I wish you were never born" "You don't have a heart" Imagine if someone came along and made it a reality and you never got to take it back. Not only are you now left with extreme guilt but you are denied all of the happy moments you might have had with that person---had the vengeance demon not shown up---if and when things blew over. And even if you weren't ever planning on allowing that person back in your life maybe you needed to forgive them even more than they needed to be forgiven. Many people feel like a weight has been lifted when they can truly forgive someone and move on.
I never understood why so many fans thought Buffy betrayed her friends by harboring Angel. Everyone knew that Willow was doing the spell to resoul him in Becoming. What did they think was going to happen if she was successful? Angelus would revert to Angel and then Angel would be in their lives again.
And yet when that happens (after he has an extended stay in Hell) none of her friends can believe that Angel is back and that Buffy is actually taking care of him. They acted as if she were harboring Angelus. She was not putting their lives in more danger and if they all thought that Angel was such a danger with his loophole intact then why didn't anyone bring it up months ago when the restoration spell was first found?
What happened to the Giles in Becoming that was saying "it was Jenny's last wish"? Yes he got tortured but I doubt he thinks that was worse than Jenny being murdered. Why was he willing to accept Angel coming back all those months ago but not after he has had time to heal and has seen Buffy nearly completely lose herself in grief and guilt?
I was annoyed with Willow when she told Buffy that she thinks Buffy can't think straight when it comes to Angel. Uhm, Buffy plunged a sword through Angel and sent him on what she thought was a one way trip to literal Hell. It's not like she faked that, left town with him, and had been secretly living with Angelus all those months. She did her job as the Slayer even though it hurt her so much. She had no idea that Angel would come back to her some day.
I know that Cordelia didn't like to think about the fact that Xander was still in love/lust with Buffy but I don't think she should've gotten mad at Buffy for calling Xander out on hating Angel because he was jealous. Xander DID hate Angel because he was jealous. Cordy knew that. She should've been upset with Xander for being jealous instead of Buffy for pointing out his extreme jealousy.
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