Fandoms I Have Loved, Part 8: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Given the rather unsurprising news that Joss Whedon is trash, it has felt weird to return to BtVS. Given it was pretty much my first real fandom, though, it also felt weird to not return. It's also been a long, long while since I've done a watch-through. Have I ever done a full watch-through? (I'm 100% positive I haven't rewatched the last three seasons beyond the first time around.) In any case, I wasn't going to do a full watch-through, but then I found a couple of watching-through podcasts, Must Be Tuesday and Buffering the Vampire Slayer, and honestly, there's no better way to get me to rewatch something. But would I still dig the show now, so many years later?

Spoiler alert: Kind of. A lot. With many caveats.



Note: BtVS and Angel are a shared universe, but Angel’s going to get its own post in time.

Logliney Stuff:
"Into every generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. She is the Slayer."

Or as Giles intoned in the second episode, "This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their, uh, their hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality and the way was made for mortal animals, for man. All that remains of the Old Ones are vestiges, certain magics, certain creatures."



What’s Up With That:
I actually didn't watch this as it started out because I was historically cowardly when it came to creepy stuff. (BtVS and The X-Files served as excellent inoculations.) Then I saw a commercial for "Angel" and was intrigued by the idea of some handsome dude turning out to be a vampire. (And WOW, did that get pretty tired in the past two decades.)

Buffy Summers is just, like, three months younger than me, I think. Not that it's significant except that I started watching in high school and I pretty much grew up with the show. It was formative in my snark development. Teenage idiocy is apparently much less noticeable when you're in the midst of teenage idiocy yourself. Also, it's possible I still talk like this show. It's possible I used to dress like this show and MAYBE still have some of those components lurking in my wardrobe.

I'm a sucker for found families, reluctant martyrs, and eons-old secret organizations, okay? It probably didn't start with BtVS, but the show certainly made it evident.

Metatext-Type Stuff:
Like I said earlier, this was my first fandom. Like, I was subscribed to, uh, whatever came before Yahoo Groups. eGroups? I first wrote fanfiction for this show! (It's still my most written-in fandom, but Supernatural is going to lap BtVS soon by, like, a lot.) I was there for the "Buffy said kick his ass" schism and the evolution of BNFs. I feel really old right now.



SPOILERS AHEAD.

Character Natterings:

• Buffy Summers
  The one girl in all the world. Buffy is supposed to come off as shallow, etc, to make her Slayer-ness all the more surprising. Even in the first season, though, it's pretty clear Buffy's more concerned about what she thinks she's supposed to care about than, like, actually being about it. She's obvs cagey because of the life she leads, but she's also really kind and, at least early on, inclined to believe the best of people. And once she decides someone's one of hers, she'll defend them to the death. Literally. I love her.
  
  
  
  
• Willow Rosenberg
  Adorable nerd for two seasons, self-righteous and in denial for five. Implausibly good at all things requiring thinking. Easily corrupted by knowledge. (Also: Canonical bisexual, though they struggle with terminology? Twenty years later, I'm willing to bet different language would be used.) Seriously, though: Willow has no patience for negative feelings and will magic them away if possible--even if it takes away the free will of her dearest friends. She tries to de-emotion Xander, she almost destructs Oz, she blinds Giles, she puts the love whammy on Buffy and Giles, she brainwashes Tara. It turns out Willow is kind of the worst? (I do like that she goes into some Jedi training in the final season, though.)
  
  
  
  As much as we tend to love Willow generally, I am quite confused at how she managed to partner up with two perfect human beings and then, uh, Kennedy.
  
  
• Xander Harris
  To idiot teenage girls, he is an immensely crushworthy nice guy. It turns out, though, "immensely crushworthy nice guy" = paragon of an incel in the making. Xander's a walking caution about toxic masculinity. I'd prefer a world where Xander isn't trash, but I'm not sure who he would be if he wasn't trash. (There's a brief, shining moment in the back half S5 where he's a decent human being, but that lasts, like, less than a year.) He's also, admittedly, the beating heart of the Scoobies, so it's hard to 100% loathe him.
  
  
  
  
• Rupert Giles
  This dude seriously needed some peers in which to confide. Librarian, trainer-of-warriors, former rebel, aspiring greengrocer, and apparently makes love like a stevedore. J'adore. (Counter: His judgment is questionable in S6. He's...mostly awful in S7? Oof.)
  
  
  
  
• Cordelia Chase
  "Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass." Seemingly shallow and snobby, AND YET threw herself fully into the demon fighting, despite the constant complaints. Cordelia has no patience for subterfuge, especially for the sake of propriety. (More on her when I eventually do my Angel write-up.)
  
  
  Yes, I know this is from Angel.
  
  
• Joyce Summers
  She is tops in the "Worst Mom-ming Ever" contest. But, obvs, it's sad when she dies. Also, she hit Spike with an ax once.
  
  
  
  
• Daniel “Oz" Osbourne
  Oz is perfect. I will accept no other reality.
  
  
  
  
• Faith Lehane
  *heart eyes* *shrug emoji* *skull emoji*
  
  
  
  A ton of Faith's arc happens in Angel, so it's sort of difficult to wholly talk about her in one spot. There's a lot to be said, though, about how she starts out fully messed up but, by the end of the series, is the most well-adjusted and complete person out of the lot of 'em.
  
  
• Anya Jenkins
  Former demon, fervent capitalist. She knows pretty much exactly how the world works, as well as how it should work, but these goddamn humans keep telling her she's wrong.
  
  
  
  
• Tara Maclay
  Witch with the heart of a tiny adorable fawn. Questionable taste in partners, probably due to a childhood filled with deprecation and confinement. Killed too soon.
  
  
  
  
• Dawn Summers
  In more ways than one, the Platonic ideal form of a little sister. Conjured by the universe. Though technically a being of true magic, pretty dang (understandably) whiny. And in S7, she's AMAZING.
  
  
  
  
• Angel
  Dude, remember that David Boreanaz was actually shit at acting when this started? And now he's actually headlined three multiple-season shows by this point. (He's excellent in Bones, for real.) Angel's pretty much a downer in proximity to Buffy, largely because he conflated her with the concept of redemption or something. Sorry, buddy.
  
  
  
  
• Spike and Drusilla
  The Sid and Nancy of the vampire realm. He's, like, a walking Trolley Problem. She was driven mad by visions and vampires, in that order. They have vastly differing definitions of fun.
  
  
  
  I love Spike, guys. I love him a lot and he's possibly the most interesting character in this show, and man oh man, did they do their very best to ruin him in "Seeing Red" by relying on tropes instead of, like, actual character work.

The Shipping News:

• Buffy/Spike
  Yeah, yeah. I also ship Draco/Hermione, Zuko/Katara, and Rey/Kylo Ren. I am that fangirl, the one of nothing but problematic faves. But legit, there are always those little moments, sitting on the back porch of the Summers house, where they do actually seem to get each other and like each other, and it's nice. And did I mention, hot?
  
  But, uh, everything after “Once More With Feeling” is NOT HEALTHY, let us be clear. Everyone is messed up and toxic and hurtful and nowhere near in the state to be in any sort of relationship. (There's a legit branch of reality, way in the future, when these two are in the right headspace where it could actually work.)
  
  
  
  
  Also, they've basically conceded they're work marrieds in S7 and I love it a lot.
  
  
• Buffy/Faith
  Queens of my heart. Nobody will ever understand them as much as they get each other. They solve problems with violence. All arrogance has been earned. Faith asked Buffy to the Homecoming dance.
  
  
  
  
  Blah
  blah blah shadow self blah blah blah projection.
  
  
• Angelus/Spike/Drusilla/Darla
  Darla becomes much more prominent in Angel the series, but she's still a major factor here. Darla sired Angelus sired Drusilla sired Spike. There are alllll sorts of power dynamics going on here. They'd be a decent example of polyamory if they didn't occasionally and sincerely try to kill each other. Also, they eat people.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Side note: I don't know how anybody can feel like Buffy/Angel is a forever thing when Darla is CLEARLY the true keeper of his soul. Er. "Soul." Because, as we discover much more in Angel's own series, Angelus, while certainly evil, also is a pretty true expression of his actual personality. But, uh, let's put a pin in that for a few months, yeah?
  
  
• Giles/Jenny Calendar
  They were cute and then she had a secret identity and then she died. I am currently trying to figure out a way to keep Jenny alive while still preserving continuity. Also, they may have been smart, but they are honestly poor excuses for faculty. Yeesh.
  
  
  
  
• Willow/Oz
  Back when Willow was adorable and Oz exuded perfection. They're a delightful combo: She's all quirk and anxiety, while he's all chill and admiration. The universe needs more couples that are fully starry-eyed when they look at each other, ever and always. I hope they do end up meeting in Istanbul.
  
  
  
  
• Xander/Anya
  If you're into bickering, they got it down. I mean, Anya deserved better, but also, Xander was usually the best version of himself because he knew she deserved it.
  
  
  

Live for the Memory:
Season One
The first season of BtVS is legendarily bad and it's largely, I think, because of its identity crisis. The movie from which the show sprung was, after all, intensely campy. The show sort of wavered back and forth a lot. Episodes like the praying mantis and internet demon one are awful, but then we also have "Angel" and "Prophecy Girl." The whole "high school is hell" thing is being sold really hard, but as straight-up teenagers, the Scoobies are pretty charming, and Giles is a great counterpoint.

• Welcome to the Hellmouth
  As a pilot, this is a pretty good one. Buffy's got the classic "A Stranger Comes to Town" role, but we end up with Willow and Xander playing the "I'm new to this world" roles. Also: Who was this Luke dude, that Darla of all people was scared of him? WTF. (This Darla is 100% the opposite of the Darla we come to know later.) ALSO: Poor Jesse.
  
  
  
  
• Angel
  In hindsight, it makes zero sense that nobody figured Angel for a vamp prior to him, like, being unable to make out with Buffy without vamping out. Knowing about his history with Darla, though, opens up a whole interesting world that thus far had been inaccessible. And then he kills Darla, which will mean waaaaaaay more as we continue on.
  
  
  
  
• Prophecy Girl
  Ohhhhh man, I was not prepared for this. As much as I knew how much Buffy's "read me the signs" scene is heartbreaking, I didn't think it could still make me cry? What a fool I was. This episode is spectacular. Even so early in the series, I kind of think this is the very best episode.
  
  

Season Two
Cordelia joins the Scooby Gang, Spike and Drusilla crash the party, Buffy's exited the mystical inheritance queue, Giles and Jenny fall in love, Oz arrives on the scene, and Buffy and Angel break up in the very worst way possible. The campiness of the first season is, for the most part, left by the wayside in favor of emotional verisimilitude. Spike and Dru would have been a pretty daunting Big Bad, but then we got the Angelus twist. The universe cracked open and David Boreanaz transformed into an excellent actor. This season is all feelings, all the time.

• Surprise/Innocence (alas, Angel)
  So yeah, when Buffy and Angel get down, he experiences a moment of true happiness and an old curse kicks in, robbing him of a soul. It's very dramatic, and then we find out Jenny Calendar comes from the folks that instituted the curse in the first place. It's pretty heartbreaking on both the human and supernatural levels But you know what sticks the most in my mind? "What's that do?"
  
  
  
  
• Passion (alas, Jenny)
  Jenny Calendar, in an effort to make things right, works out a way to restore Angel's soul. Thus, Angelus kills her--and makes sure Giles finds her, thinking it's a tryst. It's one horrifying tragedy piled atop of another, and another beyond.
  
  
  
  
• Becoming 1 and 2 (alas, Kendra)
  We get our first flashbacks of our fearsome four! Darla turns Angelus while he's still dumbass Liam! (Now that I'm, like, rather older than these kids supposedly are, it's pretty startling to realize that Angel was turned before he had formed any sort of character or personality. He's just, as I said, a dumbass kid.) Angelus begins his torture of Dru! Angelus is cursed! Angel gets recruited by TPTB and starts stalking brand-new slayer Buffy!
  
  Also, Drusilla kills Kendra. Also also we get the first step into the moral quandary that is Spike. Also also also, Dru makes Giles think she's Jenny. Also also also also, Willow begins her serious forays into the Dark Arts. Also also also also also, Angel gets his soul back and Buffy has to kill him anyway. DAMN IT, XANDER.
  
  
  
  So maybe that last "Close your eyes" got me weepy, too. Or that they got goddamn Sarah McLachlan to finish the season. MONSTERS.
  

Season Three
The season of Faith and her tragic heel turn. Also, the Mayor is a giant snake.

• Faith, Hope & Trick
  FAITH. FAITH ARRIVES. FAITH MY BELOVED. Darling, you need so much therapy.
  
  
  
  Also, new vampire Mr Trick accurately summarizes Sunnydale: "I mean, admittedly, it's not a haven for the brothers--you know, strictly the Caucasian persuasion here in the 'dale, but you know you've just got to stand up and salute that death rate." (I don't really care about Scott Hope all that much, as in, I forgot he existed.)
  
  
• The Wish
  A cuckolded (I guess that's the word) Cordelia wishes Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, as she thinks that's when things in her life started going wrong. Unfortunately, she wishes this in front of Anyanka (HI ANYA), vengeance demon and immediately gets shunted into an alternate universe and, let me tell you, this is AU candy. (Buffy gets sent to Cleveland instead and everything else falls apart. It's GREAT.) Thankfully, AU Giles finds out about the AU before Cordelia is killed by vampires Xander and Willow and manages to smash the AU MacGuffin and restore the timeline.
  
  I love this episode A LOT. Is it possible to adore Cordelia more? (Yes, but we didn't know it at this point.) Plus: Multiverse. The lack of a Darla appearance is the only thing keeping this episode from true perfection. Maybe Darla would have nudged the Master away from the Industrial Revolution?
  
  
  
  
• The Zeppo
  I maintain Xander is trash, but this is a good episode to showcase some of his better qualities. This is kind of the Rosencrantz and Guidenstern Are Dead version of the show. (Or, if you'd rather, The Lion King 1½.) Xander has to deal with a bunch of bad guys all on his lonesome because hey, the others are handling an apocalypse thing, so who's left? He deals pretty well; I suspect being threatened with death on a frequent basis makes it easy for him to play chicken with a zombie. I mean, it's ridic that he just hung out through three dead-raising ceremonies, but whatevs.
  
  
  
  
• Doppelgangland
  Alt Willow is just delightful. Willow pretending to be Alt Willow? Pure candy.
  
  
  
  
• The Prom
  Yeah, I still got teary-eyed at the "class protector" bit.
  
  
  
  
• Graduation Day 1 & 2
  End of an era AND Anya joins-ish the gang. After the "Class Protector" award, though, it's somewhat beautiful to see all the (extremely doomed) graduates pitch in, battling. Also, it's kind of heartbreaking to see that genuine love between Faith and the Mayor shattered by circumstances. Evil found families are still families, y'know?
  
  

Season Four
Buffy goes to college. The Initiative is revealed.

• Hush
  This is the one that got an Emmy nomination for writing and damn, but it completely deserves it. It largely takes place without any speech at all which, funnily and predictably enough, makes communication between Our Heroes much easier. PLUS, we get our first Tara appearance AND Buffy and Riley discover each other's secret identities in the most dramatic way possible.
  
  Plus, the Gentlemen? Uber-creepy.
  
  
  
  
• This Year's Girl/Who Are You
  FAITH. My girl Faith wakes from her coma and it's spectacular. The first ep in this is a searing collection of dream sequences, followed up by a heart-breaking bit where Faith gets the last message from the doting Mayor. And then the Mayor's last gift: Faith switches bodies with Buffy.
  
  There are many things that are excellent about "Who Are You," and one very unfortunate-and-yet-plot-necessary-ish bit of what we will extremely charitably label as dubcon. (Faith-as-Buffy seducing Riley is hella creepy, but it's also intentionally so.) And we've got perhaps two of my very favorite (and that of many others, I'm willing to bet) scenes in this entire series. First, we've got Faith-as-Buffy giving Spike the warm champagne speech. We'd known SMG and Marsters had insaaaane chemistry--and there was delight that was their constant making out in "Something Blue--but this speech kicks off, I think, the very explicit (heh) indication that this. Is. A. Thing.
  
  
  
  On the flip side, we've got Buffy-as-Faith trying to convince Giles she's really Buffy, in a talk that culminates with the pure bliss of Eliza Dushku, perplexed, asking, "What's a stevedore?"
  
  
  
  We don't get a ton of development for Buffy, but Faith's arc through these two episodes is intense. She starts out, as one might expect, pretty upset about having been stuck in a coma for eight months. As she spends time in Buffy's body, though, she gets treated like an actual human being worthy of respect, and she just...blooms. The final fight where she 100% starts beating the crap out of her own face and screaming, "You're evil," is fully heart-breaking.
  
  
• Restless
  Buffy's prophetic dreams have popped up now and then, consistently lyrical and unnerving. This is that, except it's everybody and it's amped as far as the dial can go. This is my favorite episode, I think? So much crunchy, salty goodness.
  
  
  
  

Season Five
Ah, season five. Where they spend the entire time making Spike one of the good guys and then, inexplicably, decide to take it all back in S6. But also, hey! Dawn! Is Real! How ballsy is it, honestly, to be entering into the fifth year of a series and deciding to completely and fundamentally change everything about the characters as we know them? Like, rewrite history so that nothing we watched is what anybody on the show thinks happened anymore?

• Fool for Love
  This, in conjunction with Angel's "Darla," frickin' blew my mind when they first aired. Darla and Angel and Drusilla and Spike and the centuries between them--there's so much to play with based on these episodes, and they're beautifully realized. Are these possibly my two favorite episodes of the franchise whole? Maybe "Restless" comes in second for me. "Fool for Love" edges ahead, mostly because of the GORGEOUS scene of Spike in the 70s intercutting with Spike in the now, poetic and creepy and all-around art.
  
  
  
  I could watch this and that on a loop and be happy. Also, according to this timeline, Darla had charge of Drusilla and Spike for twenty years on her own and that is HILARIOUS. Anyway, time for many, many GIFs.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Body
  I know I haven't kept track of how often I've done watch-throughs, or at least rewatched various episodes, but I know I only watched "The Body" once, back when it originally aired. I managed to finally rewatch it this time, but for real, this episode scares me more than anything else either BtVS or AtS ever did. (The thing with having no music at all? And the monologues, and sparse dialogue, and the distinct acts, and it's beautiful and hurtful theatre.) The body's eyes are the things I see behind every nightmare. Somewhere in the middle I cried a lot. I can't talk about this anymore.
  
  
  
  
• The Gift
  So, like, this isn't quite the peak of "Buffy's living inside a metaphor of depression"--that's what the sixth season is for--but amongst everything beautiful about this episode is, well, Buffy choosing to jump off a tower. For some folks, it's a beautiful sacrifice. For others? This is a goddamn slippery slope.
  
  

It's pretty perfect if you don't think about what the impact might be.

Season Six
This season is so depressing, but that's the point, right? I didn't know, really, what that meant when it first ran. A couple of decades later and, my god, it feels almost too real. And weirdly enough, it's almost all perfectly crafted until we hit the speed bump of "Smashed" and "Wrecked." (Trust this show to once again give the most vocal shippers exactly what they want in the worst way possible.) If I were ranking all the seasons according to craft, I honestly think this is would be the second best, after the third.

• Once More, With Feeling
  To the surprise of perhaps nobody, I do still, in fact, have every single note, aside, and pause of "Once More With Feeling" memorized. I rewatched but couldn't do it without rewinding every song, like, a half dozen times. ("Rest in Peace," "What You Feel," and the Giles/Tara duet, easily thrice that.) The music is catchy though not, in terms of composition, utterly brilliant--except, in terms of character reveal? Effin' amazing. I love this episode.
  
  

Tabula Rasa
Let us never speak of the plot (which is a beautifully crafted culmination of a few infuriating storylines) and instead watch this GIF on a loop:

Seeing Red
Annoyingly, this is actually a good episode, if not for 1) Spike's attempted rape of Buffy, which is wholly unnecessary to pretty much any part of any of the rest of the show, and 2) WTF NO TARA NO.

On the other hand, after a run of clunky metaphors and utmost misery (am I constantly bitter that all the Spike/Buffy sex happened within such a crappy context, TAKE A GUESS), this does kick off the trio (ugh, unintended pun) of truly excellent Dark Willow episodes, so there's that. And let's be real: The run from "Villains" to "Two to Go" to "Grave" is nonstop excellence.

Season Seven
You know how I wasn't sure I'd really watched all of seasons 4-6 more than once or twice (depending on the episode)? I 100% did not remember the plot of any single episode at all. AT ALL. I have a sense of Buffy's and Willow's arcs, as well as the arrival of Wood and the return of Faith, but THAT IS IT. Lordy. (I feel much different about Principal Wood since I know he's actually an angel of some import, lulz.)

• Lessons
  I'd forgotten how 10000% stoked I was when potential Slayers from across the world started to show up. Aside from the Fanged Four flashbacks (heh), we only got the barest glimpse outside Southern California when Kendra and then Faith came onto the scene. Now we kick off with Istanbul and transition into Westbury, England? Yessssss.
  
  ALSO, I love that Dawn's getting trained in the basics--something we should have seen with Xander and Willow and Cordelia and Oz and Anya and Tara. And with Dawn kicking off her high school career, we've got that good ol' high school nostalgia running high.
  
  
  
  ALSO ALSO. Nobody bothered to frickin' CONSECRATE the old school grounds? GOOD LORD, Giles, way to fall down on the job. And Buffy as a pseudo-guidance counselor? Actually kind of makes sense for a school on the Hellmouth--she's the one that gets students out alive, after all. And, uh, Buffy's now the Jenny Calendar of Hellmouth High?
  
  ALSO ALSO ALSO the Big Bad's intro is soooooo goooooood. "Right back to the beginning. Not the bang. Not the Word. The true beginning." (How much do you think those three minutes of guest stars cost?) Hey, did Dru and Spike ever met the Master? How must that have gone, do you think?
  
  
  
  
• Beneath You
  So, like, that last scene when Buffy realizes that Spike got his soul back, ye gods. And we can talk about Marsters chewing the scenery to bits, but SMG's face when Buffy clocks the actual change that's happened? And that wacky monologue and the whole "I will get a SOUL so I can be a MAN that Buffy DESERVES" is way, way, way melodramatic, but think back to dumbass William the Bloody Awful Poet, because this is exactly how goddamn dramatic that dude was, okay? Plus, imagery. Spike circling and circling and circling around Buffy, ranting and rambling while she stands, a fixed point, horrified and still.
  
  Dang.
  
  
  
  The spark. Y'know, something...effulgent.
  
  
• Conversations with Dead People
  This season, in a lot of ways, is all about being haunted by the past. Monsters and murders and the absence of loved ones. This episode feels lovely because it's quiet, because spectres gather and connect with Our Heroes. And, uh, Andrew. The thing is, dead people lie, and there are way more of them on the Hellmouth. And sometimes the dead aren't who you think they are.
  
  
  
  Holden Webster has a real Jason Bateman vibe going on. "Buffy, I'm here to kill you, not to judge you."
  
  Poor Jonathan.
  
  
• I didn't want to give "Empty Places" its own bullet because I hate it, but I had to make mention of it. In the final run of episodes, while Buffy's constant speech-making is a draaaag, I have possibly never been more incensed than when, SOMEHOW, everybody banded together to vote Buffy out of her own goddamn house. (In the next episode, when Spike hears that she's gone and just peaces out of the entire scene, is pretty much how I feel about this entire deal.) I was ready to throw the lot of 'em out and watch a show about Buffy and Faith pretending not to be in love while Spike watches with amusement from the sidelines. Also, Faith is, in her Faithly way, possibly the best and morally consistent character in this episode and its NUTS.
  
  
• End of Days/Chosen
  This show. This goddamn heartbreaking, beautiful show.
  
  

World-building Obsessions:

• Slayers and Watchers
  Centuries and centuries of warriors and those that train them. Stockpiles of arcane knowledge and magical doodads. A tradition of stalwart and organized righteousness that began in patriarchy and, like any institution, ultimately crumbled due to its own corruption.
  
  
  
  There's SO MUCH STUFF. This is an unending engine of narrative.
  
  
  
  
• The Initiative
  This, of course, is the obvious flip side to the Watchers' Council: A military entity that heavy-handedly insists that magic is actually just sufficiently advanced science, etc, etc. Being that it's military and, more specifically, secret American military, we don't really have to wonder about whether things will turn. The Initiative is corrupt from the jump, full stop. Cool toys, though.
  
  
  
  
• Ethan Rayne
  Ethan isn't very interesting in and of himself. He's, y'know, a cowardly dude who likes stirring shit up. Throw a rock into a Best Buy and you'll get a dozen of those. What he represents, though, is all intrigue: Giles in his Ripper days, rebelling against his Watcher family and fate by running headlong in the opposite direction. Ethan, more than almost anything else in this show (prior to "Fool For Love" and, honestly, most of it after) indicates there's a universe of arcana that we never get to see.
  
  
  
  
• Shades of Grey
  We start out with a pretty straightforward cosmology: Humans good, non-humans bad. Then, a few episodes in, we get Angel. But he's special, y'know. He has a soul. And then we get the Judge, who very specifically illustrates that vampires can have, if not souls, then soul-adjacent attributes. (He smokes a dude for liking books, for pete's sake.) Then we've got Spike, a four season exercise in the benefits of chaotic neutral. And Anya, who falls off the "being human" wagon repeatedly. And Willow, who goes full evil for a bit. And Clem! We've got Clem!
  
  If we're making the case that some of these demons can be good, how can we also be cool with the fairly indiscriminate slaying for the entirety of the series?
  
  
  
  
• Other Universes
  On one hand, we've got a multiverse--the ability of Vampire Willow to cross over from one version of reality to another makes it pretty clear that more than one can exist at once. Though, now that I think about it, if Cordelia's wish is what kicked off that universe, then DID ANYA CREATE AN ENTIRELY NEW UNIVERSE? In which case, I can't really blame Anya for deciding to become a vengeance demon again, if she is MORE POWERFUL THAN A GOD and all. See also: "Birthday" in Angel.
  
  Or do we want to make a case that things are more like "Normal Again," where magic can shunt the consciousness of one of Our Heroes into the version of themselves in a different reality? (This is the only way I can make the ending of that episode work, okay? Leave it alone.)
  
  
  
  
  
• Vengeance Demons
  Anya created an entire alternate universe, guys. She did that because some, uh, thousand years ago, she got cheated on and some demon waltzed in and said, Hey, you're good at this. And then he granted her powers to CREATE ALTERNATE UNIVERSES. And Anya's just one of a bunch! WTF!
  
  
  
  
• Ben Is Glory
  All these gods with all their dimensional body-hopping. It's sort of hard to grasp Glory as an actual otherworldly being--she's powerful, but we've seen powerful before--until "The Gift," and then it's like, wait. Wait, I have a lot of questions. If she's from another dimension, how did she get through? Why Ben? How long has Glory been part of Ben? Centuries? Decades? At what point did he realize that he was time-sharing his body with a god? What happened to Ben's parents? WHY DO WE KNOW NONE OF THESE THINGS.
  
  
  
  
• Vampire Flashbacks
  I already talked about my love for the Fanged Four, right? And "Fool for Love," obvs. These fill me with delight, always--even, after I got used to it, Boreanaz's dreadful Irish accent.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Multiple Slayers
  I mean, it's unfortunate that all the Potentials were intensely crappy. But Sineya? Xin Rong? Nikki Wood? Kendra? And Faith, of course. We've got a panoply of dangerous ladies, from all over the world, with all different styles and knowings and communities. There's so much out there.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Big Bads
  If nothing else, we've got to credit this show with making "Big Bad" a common cultural idiom.
  
  
  
  
• Resurrected Buffy
  I actually couldn't decide if I wanted to count this as fun thing or a frustrating thing. It's both, I guess? Fun because it opens up a lot of stuff in terms of story and cosmology. Frustrating because WOW could they never decide how traumatized Buffy was supposed to be about her repeated deaths.
  
  
  

What the Hell, Show?:

• Dark Willow and Willow/Tara
  This was so crappily done, even if it did give us "Two to Go" and "Grave." Willow manipulating Tara's memory for an extended amount of time, though, retroactively ruined their relationship for me. Instead of enjoying them as an adorable couple, I spent the rewatch being hyperaware of Willow's growth as a controlling and ultimately abusive partner and it suuuuuucked.
  
  
  
  
  
• School’s Out
  None of these people ever went to class and it offends me. When, in S7, they just...gave up on going to school? It was kind of a relief.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Dubious Consent
  I can't talk about this, honestly. But it bears mentioning. Because goddamn, this is such a huge problem.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• OMG, Xander is actually THE WORST
  “Buffy says kick his ass." And then, at the altar? AT THE ALTAR, you complete and utter TOOL? UGH.
  
  
  

Capacity to Fic:

• Everyone Loves Everyone
  This show is just a blessing for anyone who wants to ship anyone with everyone. Have they been in a scene together? Then they had chemistry. They haven't been in a scene together? They have chemistry anyway. It's that kind of cast, friends.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Everyday Apocalypses
  There's something kind of hilarious and sad that we could call this show one big workplace dramedy and it'd be true. They take it seriously every time, but there's something comforting about how matter-of-fact they get about it over time. They're goddamn professionals, y'know?
  
  
  
  
• Anne
  One of the nice things about the show originally being tied to the high school calendar is that we have these vast, wonderful summers in which anything could have happened. Buffy ran away and became a whole other person. Willow leveled up in powers at a steady rate. Giles went back to England and got himself an ambivalent lady friend. Xander apparently became a stripper for a short time. So many between-the-scenes to play with!
  
  
  
  
• In Every Generation
  I've gushed enough about the whole oodles of historical fun times, haven't I? I'm a Classics gal at heart and, thus, a sucker for a multigenerational epic.
  
  

Does This Suffice?:
I don’t know, guys. I mean:

• It's Complicated: Joss Whedon and Race by Mary Ellen Iatropoulos and Lowery A. Woodall III
• The Problematic Feminism of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by FR Kesby
• An abusive reckoning for "Buffy," a badass, occasionally feminist show created by a monstrous man by Alison Stine
• Revisiting The Queerness of 'Buffy': How Does it Stand Up? by Matt Wille

But...I love it?