Buffy the Vampire Slayer

BECAUSE TVTROPES WAS FOUNDED ON BUFFY AND WE SHOULD HAVE A THREAD FOR IT

I've recently started watching Buffy for the first time. I'm almost done with the third season. I'm loving it. My favorite episode so far is a toss up between "The Wish" (the one where Cordy wishes herself into a reality where Buffy never came to Sunnydale) and "The Zeppo" (the one where Xander is unappreciated and has sex with Faith).

What do you all think of Buffy? Favorite episodes? Characters? Who did you want dead the most? Discuss!

edited 5th Jan '11 9:21:24 PM by Metalhead467

I watched until season 5. Couldn't enjoy season 6 nor 7. Wow, how cliche is that.

I loved almost everyone except Drusilla (She was boring me by the end of the season) and Kendra (That. Accent. Does. NOT. EXIST)

I like the Pack episode in season 1. But Fool for Love in season 5 is cool too.

I've watched seasons 1, 3, and 5 (those are the only ones my uni library carry).

Glory is bloody nuts but so interesting.

I recently watched all seven seasons for a class I'm taking (that's right, there's a class on Buffy in my university).

I can see why people didn't like seasons six and seven a whole lot, but I thought six was good if only because it was a nice example of learning to deal with life in general and I sort of enjoyed the bleakness of it. If it actually wasn't for the whole Spike getting going through trials and getting his soul back I think that it would have made a decent series finale. With the aforementioned spoiler though it pretty much made a seventh season necessary.

I love Glory. She's my favourite big bad. I really liked the First in Season Three (DEAD BY SUNRISE!), and until about Sleeper in Season Seven. But then something happened and it got boring. Maybe they should have introduced Caleb earlier.

Favourite episode? The Pack? Doublemeat Palace? Nah. Restless. Buffy got dream sequences so right. No other show I've seen ever has.

Favourite Fight? The Glory Tower battle. Or maybe the fight with Caleb in Untouchable. Where she beats him without laying a hand on him.

I want your university Grahf.

edited 5th Jan '11 11:44:18 PM by Nicknacks

I also would have loved to seen Caleb earlier, if only because Nathan Fillion was surprisingly effective as an antagonist. The thing is I believe that they really would have had to scale back his strength if they'd have done that, or find some way to keep him from walking into Slayer central and just breaking everyone.

As for The First, well, mind games can only go so far I guess.

I just saw the entire series over the past few months for the first time and I find it fascinating, and found it amazing how much had changed from the beginning.

I was sort of bothered of how after all that Xander didn't get as much of a chance to shine as I'd like but apparently that's a Whedon-ish thing to do? I also liked Oz and was saddened he did not last.

On Oz, it was Seth Green who left, sadly. That's why his exit felt so contriving. It says soomething about Whedon's respect for the character that he didn't kill him to make Willow suffer or something.

As for fights: I'm gonna have to give it to Glory's Tower battle. It was the most epic thing on the show ever. Even more epic than the battle at the Hellmouth.

The Xander non-development is saddening. My gut instinct tells me that it's due to some combination of his not having powers and being a fairly moral guy. They never really pushed him much.

Well, although I agree for the most part, I would say that Xander had a chance to shine in season 6 what with talking Willow down from annihilating the world. I mean sure Giles dosed her with magic to get that opening, but no one else could have gotten through to her like he did. Also the Christ comparisons were kind of blatant in those scenes, what with him being a carpenter that helps redeem people.

Also, I just have to ask, what's the spoiler policy in this thread?

I've seen all seven seasons recently too along with angel and I just think it's in my top 3 of tv series, I just don't know in what position :).

I found all seasons enjoyable but season 6 was the weakest, but I tought season 7 was a big improvement despite not being as awesome as some seasons.

My favorite episode: I really don't know, probably The Wish or Once More With Feeling, those were really fun and I was always looking at the run time on the dvd because I didn't want them to end.

Characters?Faith first, before she went evil and after she redeemed herself, I loved her good bad girl attitude. After her, probably buffy, a lot of people hate her but I think she was so badass and awesome on earlier seasons, she only started getting annoying when she turned all angsty and started sleeping with spike, Giles was another character that I loved too, mainly because I like his character archetype.

Who did I want to die most?Probably Spike, I never liked him that much in the beginning, he was a funny evil guy but that was it for me. And then when he started loving buffy and he was always around taking screen time when other characters would benefit from extra development. It seemed like the whole of season 6 and 7 was about buffy and spike, she'd always need his help when she wouldn't before(or would need Xander,Giles or Willow instead) and that made him very annoying to me. He only became a better character again when he appeared in the last season of Angel, he was always funny instead of annoying and he was more of a butt monkey and part of Team Angel instead of BEING Team Angel, the Ho Yay with Angel and Spike was over the top in that season so that was kind of cool to me too

Seen all seasons of both shows several times over and read the comics and, I am not ashamed to admit it, Spike is my favorite character ever.

Why would you be ashamed of that? The guy is pretty funny, awesome and likable. And his development was believable and well-written. What I didn't like was how Buffy was derailed to become attracted to Spike.

Buffy's attraction to Spike didn't really feel that much like a derail to me. Like many things in the show (such as Willow's addiction to magic POWER which had been developing since as early as season two), it builds slowly, but can be so jarring when it finally becomes noticeable that it's easy to miss the build-up.

I watched the whole series in order in the past year. I like Xander, Giles, and Buffy and Willow sometimes.

I don't like Seasons 6 or 7 or Spike in anything past season 4.

I liked spike but his whining was starting to become too much for me by mid season 7 and I just wanted to throttle the guy.

But that didn't mean I hated him and I felt really bad watching him die at the end.

I liked Giles as well though I get this feeling his combat competence was heavily played down especially in later seasons to ensure Buffy and the ladies were shining becuase through quite a few fight scenes I kept thinking: "Didn't you used to be more competent than that? Care to remind us why you used to be called "Ripper"? Remember when you took out those guys that nearly beheaded you? Why aren't you pulling off those moves now, eh?"

In short, I liked Joss's ever so bold move of making a competent and capable female action lead that was just a character, but that didn't mean the dudes deserved to get shafted.

In fact, as I watched the series and saw how Willow (totally adorable, btw) was getting magic powers and I was waiting for Xander to get something cool too like permanent soldier boy relapse or a cool magic weapon, anything. Very disappointing.

Xander definitely got shafted, but to be fair to Giles, while he did get the occasional moment of awesome here and there, it was a running gag in the early seasons for him to be smashed in the head and knocked out. They even lampshaded it on a few occasions.

Cordelia: I swear, someday you're gonna wake up in a coma.
Giles: Wake up in a... oh never mind.

It's been a long long long time since I've watched most of Buffy, and I want to rewatch the series, but Hulu only has one season up at a time, and I don't feel like torrenting it. I have season 4-7 on discs that a friend gave me, though.

I do rather like the show. And Spike is super awesome.

I have to say, though, I prefer Angel. It's Darker and Edgier done so very, very right.

In fact, as I watched the series and saw how Willow (totally adorable, btw) was getting magic powers and I was waiting for Xander to get something cool too like permanent soldier boy relapse or a cool magic weapon, anything. Very disappointing.

Maybe they could have done that in the first two-and-a-half seaons, but after "The Zeppo" giving Xander special powers would have resulted in a Broken Aesop.

Xander did have the not so special power of being fearless. Buffy noted in season five that his big thing is how much field time he's clocked, and in the Captain Planet spell, he was the heart. There's a reason for this; it isn't a BS non-answer. Going through, episode by episode, it is truly astounding how often Xander is right there in the thick of it despite having no special powers or training whatsoever, and not always getting his ass kicked. He had a standoff with Angelus and forced the 250-year-old vampire to back down.

Xander has a courage that is unrivaled by any other character because he has no powers and refuses to let that stop him.

edited 7th Jan '11 7:02:07 AM by TobiasDrake

I need to watch this series one day. Never ever saw a Whedon show before.

Indeed you do. Although I discovered Whedon through Serenity

Hell, the first time I heard about the show, I thought Buffy was a boy's name.

The first time I ever heard about the show, I thought it sounded like the stupidest thing ever. Like an American version of Sailor Moon, with teenage girls hopping around fighting monsters with magic superpowers, for preteen girls to watch and squee.

Then I actually saw an episode. I don't remember what episode, it was season five and there was nothing else on, but I was completely hooked.

edited 7th Jan '11 9:42:03 AM by TobiasDrake