lembergwatcher

Overall I like all the last pre-Season 3 "Ozless" episodes (from Passion until this one, except maybe for I Only Have Eyes For You). Go Fish was pretty fun to watch for the first time (and all the subsequent times). Sort of break from the dark and dramatic mood of the Angelus crisis. I remember Buffy playing "bodygard" for the swim team jocks totally made my day back when I saw the ep for the first time twenty years ago. And sometimes I wish our small redhead (accidentally) saw Xander changing into those speedos...

Some funny excerpt from Danny Strong's interview - https://tv.avclub.com/buffy-s-danny-strong-remembers-getting-spanked-by-chari-1798258976 Dunno 'bout you, but to me Danny is the last person I imagine playing the role of Xander Harris... Don't know much about Mr. Strong's other achievements, but no matter how hard he tried at Buffy, it didn't make his character any less irrelevant. JMO, of course.

The opening scene where Dru approaches the boy in the playground is one of my favorite. Funny how 16-year-old Buffy was a lot more reasonable and knew right from wrong - Also the vampire-worshipping cult is IMO was a pretty good idea and could be explored further time after time (as an example of human tendency to idolize/romanticize pure evil). What still gets me is that a 240-plus-something-year-old ensouled vamp was the lucky guy to see braless (but with heavy makeup on) Willow in the sacred space of her room. Come on, this is so unfair... I mean, he was fortunate enough to bang a Slayer! What did the Deadboy do to deserve all the goodness?..

This episode is kinda full of "what ifs" for me. For example, what if: Oz's supernatural sense of smell led him and Cordy in totally opposite direction; Instead of Cordy and Oz, there were Angel and Buffy who came to the rescue. Given that the previous episode was Revelations, the whole scene could be pretty fun to watch; The rescue team came one or two hours late.

We don't know much about William the Bloody Poet. And, yeah, soulless William "cared enough to get his soul back" and still felt no remorse for his crimes (his encounter with Robin Wood in the final series proves this). In fact he lamented over loss of jacket he took from murdered Nikki Wood even after getting his soul back, after final battle over Sunnydale Hellmouth and after his own ressurection - in Angel's The Girl in Question. I doubt he really cared about anything/anyone except for his slayer-shaped obsession.

Giles and Ethan were friends in their younger days. But after everything we saw in Halloween, The Dark Age and Band Candy (i. e. after almost getting Rupert and his friends killed) Ethan was the last person to have a nice friendly chat with. If he made friends with Buffy & Co Giles was able to find one or two of his age among Sunnydale residents. And there was no need to explain too much or even tell about the Council.

Anyanka and Anya were the same person (supposed to be at least). Anya neither denied nor regretted about her demonic past. In fact, she was quite proud of her murderous "achievements". Searching for the place in the world wasn't Anya's choice, but a result of losing an ability to hurt people.

Apparently, not that much, since As for season 7, I would also like to know how the heck does the concept of First Evil relate to the concept of Jasmine (or vise versa)? They had (almost) similar agenda, but used (slightly) different methods. Were both of them even aware of each other's existence? And how exactly were they supposed to deal with the problem of power sharing or something?

OK, it was one line, but not the only Oz's line. As for the Dingoes, they were sorta collective effort (Oz, Devon and two other guys, whose names we weren't supposed to know).

Everytime I watched Homecoming, I had a steady impression Seth Green did his best not to laugh out loud while shooting the scene of a yearbook pictures taking. Btw, his character had one truly remarkable line in the episode: IMO, that pretty much sums up Plastic Werewolf's role in the gang (and in the show). Was the introduction of a character who much too soon became literally Willow's shadow really such a good idea? What if we admit that W/X wasn't that bad after all compared to the sugary and eventually doomed W/O romance?

I wonder what kept Joss Almighty from obliterating Xander during/after season 4? He would've had a heart attack as a result of the Enjoining spell in Primeval. He could just go down in the blaze of glory back then... Also there are rumors it was Xander intended to be the human prison/vessel for Glory in season 5 instead of Ben. And that at first they wanted him dead rather than maimed after meeting Caleb in Dirty Girls.

Something tells me Giles played in Sex Pistols in the wild days of his youth...

And up until then fanfiction writers who explored Oz-centric or Willoz-related issues, tried desperately to figure it out. The variations I came across indicated Wolfboy's first name to be Oswald or Kenneth...

Sometimes I think Faith was simply honest about what beeing a Slayer, the Chosen One, really meant to her. While Buffy either wanted to keep quiet or wasn't corrupt enough at the moment. But I got a feeling that some seeds were sown back then. True, both Buffy and Faith were the Chosen Ones and kick-ass Slayers, but they were also human beings first and foremost. Everytime humans assume the role of God and start acting like they're "judge, jury and the executioner" on every matter (I dare say that for Faith robbing Meyer's Sport and Tackle shop had little to do with fighting Eliminati, but a lot to do with the thrill of it all, JMO) that's when the troubles begin. Getting away with robbery attempt and (involuntary) manslaughter triggered Faith into a downward spiral.

Yeah, that whole "I'm eleven hundred and twenty years old! Just gimme a friggin' beer!" scene was helluva fun. I think this version of Anya could combine hell-bitchiness of a vengeance demon with occassional comic relief. You can be a gifted comedian and play nasty evil characters after all.

True, our Will was a monster of the Buffyverse (sarcasm, of course).

Rewatched the episode recently. Second encounter with Anya J. Still cunning and manipulative. Had some fantasies 'bout VampWillow after first watching the ep back in my younger days. She's really... you know, cute. No wonder Aly wanted to keep the outfit. Sometimes you need to punch a schoolboy to make a schoolboy learn. Why didn't she consider siring Xander back since he was such a huge part of her un-life in the Wishverse? And I really like the way normal Willow punched Anya during the confrontation at the Bronze (that was a nice hit, Will!). In fact both Willows seemed to share the same opinion of One of (actual) Willow's many shining moments in S.03... IMO.

I remember when I saw the ep for the first time over 15 years ago, Giles just made my day.

What really bugs me about this whole episode is not only Willow acting like Mother Theresa towards Spike, but the annoyingly cartoonish image of a guy, who had to work for a living. Is taking odd jobs considered inferior to going to college in the Whedonverse? Are working guys always look so uncool? Or college with constant partying is such a spiritual journey compared to the life of average working Joe?

Some Willow-haters use the scene in the computer lab (The Harvest) where Willow told Cordelia and Harmony to hit the "deliver" key as one of the earlier "proofs" of her "dark" and "vindictive" nature. If someone is biased against a particular character, then literally everything can be used to prove the point.

Some very sadomasochistic threesome, Cordelia being the submissive.

Right, I understand it. I didn't mean to put it that way. Those cases are not the same, true, but there are people in the fandom who think that, quoting Buffy from Triangle, "They have a miraculous love!", so in their regard we may just agree to disagree. Dunno why, but I myself prefer Buffy/Cordelia sex to Buffy/Willow bonding :-) Maybe 'cause I'm a little biased about Buffy since the whole shit from S.05 - 07... I think White Knight deserves more than Buffy... I was pretty much done with them since Prophecy Girl. In my world the only way Buffy can come closer to Xander that way is through B/W/X or, ok, B/W/X/C. But JMO. Unfortunately Joss W for some totally twisted reasons was eager to get rid of Xander (if those rumours about him approaching NB around S.04 are true), rather than all those others you mentioned.

Wasn't happy with the development in the first part of an ep (W & X tryin' to make it up to their "significant others" was kinda pathetic, then it was Cordy goin' back to her old bitchy ways). Dunno, whether it was that necessary to leave dozens of messages or setting up the "no-touching" rule, but... JMO. Then it was the second part. First Cordy in the bizarro world of her own making. Then Xander and Willow in black leather. And immortal "Booored now". Of course, Cordy, you cannot win. So get over it. And, you know, that scene when W & X vampire selves draining Cordelia in the library is one of my favorite in the season. Sometimes payback is a bitch, Cordelia Chase. I liked the way Anya looked in that episode overall.

When I saw When She Was Bad for the first time twenty years ago, there was a particular scene which one might call the moment of clarity in my case. After figuring out she was misled by Absalom and his his cronies, Buffy "This is my fight" Summers comes back to the library only to find the place trashed and with none of the other Scoobs in sight. When Xander regains consciousness and gets up, Buffy rushes over to help, but he shakes her off. And then there is: Together with saving Buffy's life (and the whole world for that matter) in Prophecy Girl that moment solidified my perception of Xander Harris for the rest of the series. This is Xander I like the most. I like it when he challenges Buffy and the other authority figures in the Scooby Gang. I have no doubts that if Willow really got hurt, Buffy wouln't get away with it - even if she was the Slayer and Xander just could have gotten himself killed in the ensuing confrontation. I like it when he says things straight into others' faces. Unpopular things, hard truth (Angel may have a soul, but he's still a demon,and there's no guarantee he won't start killing again - Xander knew it all along). Even though the writers did everything to make him look like a jerk and hypocritre toward the end of the show, the course of events proved Xander right on many occassions. When it came to Willow and other people he loved Xander didn't think about himself for one second. He was much more than just a "hormonal time bomb", a good friend, a joker, a shoulder to cry on, Buffy's or Anya's lapdog, or Dawnie's nanny. He wasn't a loser who had to live in his parents' basement and whose only achievement seemed to be holding a steady job. He had no superpowers or special skills but that was exactly what made him so special and made his willingness to sacrifice for the ones that mattered to him worthy of respect. He may have looked like a black sheep of the family among the slayers and magical keys, ensoulde vampires and ex-demons, witches and watchers, werewolves and the agents of PTB, still it was him who helped the SG and the show in general to maintain its humanity and follow the initial course of saving people and the world from the dark... As for the 'shipping thing... I respect the opinions of those who are in favor of Xander/Cordy or Xander/Anya pairings, I know many fans love those couples for all the right reasons and have solid argumentations, and, hey, it's just a matter of taste or personal preferences, but yours truly has always been and always will be rooting for two extraordinary Sunnydale kids who became the Slayer's best friends since day one and whose friendship is one of the most beautiful and touching things in the whole Buffyverse. And who had a lot of potential as a couple, but didn't make it due to writers' obstinacy.