Any Buffy Fans- Page 16

[RobbO]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 10:13am

okay, now you just made me order "bolt"

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 10:19am

AHHH! Best...scene...ever!
The only thing that makes me sad is that WIllow wasn't quite powerful enough to stop Glory...yet. imagine Dark Willow bursting back into that room, though...now THAT'D be a fight to see.

[GuyfromGermany]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 10:19am

LOL!
Well, that's not so bad, either...

[wyou17]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 10:51am

You know who always knew how to use a good lick...
She knows what she wants...

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:16am

Oh Willow...always looking so vulnerable. You just want to hold her and protect her from whatever is going to hurt her.

Of course, that feeling is cultivated during the first five seasons. Then we get Season 6. And Willow shows us why she needs no protection.

[GuyfromGermany]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:19am

Don't you think that Season 6 shows us that Willow DEFINITELY needs protection?

[wyou17]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:24am

Season 6 Willow was just confused. Going from being the victim (often in trouble, often powerless) to being more powerful than any other character on the show will play with your head.

Kind of like the kid who is always picked on who starts working out and gets big and strong. The power is a rush.

I don't know that she needed protection, but she did need help putting things in perspective.

[GuyfromGermany]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:27am

Well, what I meant was that she needed protection from herself since she wasn't able to control herself anymore...

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:27am

I think the difference is that in Season 6, Willow needed protection from herself, whereas in all of the prior seasons she sort of needed the protection from everything else. I think that's what made Vampire Willow such a surprise. That wasn't the girl we knew, in ANY way, and it created such a rub.

She's always been the girl struggling for control, whether it was control of the situations around her, or in Season 6 struggling for control of herself and her powers.

I also think that's what makes the Series Finale so rewarding in terms of character arcs. Willow Rosenberg finally gets hers.

[wyou17]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:35am

I agreem about the finale. Willow finally has power, is able to use it without second guessing, and is able to stay in control.

I wish I liked Kennedy more, though. There's a part of me that doesn't think that character earned the right to be a part of a scene that important in Willow's arch.

The goddess line was nice. Appropriate, I suppose, but came off in a way that doesn't sit right with me. Kennedy doesn't deserve the line.

Willow's "nifty" line makes up for all of that, though.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:38am

Wyou, you of all people know how badly I wanted Tara to come back. The scene and its writing would have been perfect if Tara had been in Kennedy's place.

I didn't like Kennedy and my memories of her are almost non-existent. I blotted her from my memories of the show. Every other character very much EARNED their ending on that show. Even Anya. The right to die beside people she loved and cared about, defending them, to die FOR them to live.

But to give Kennedy an ending like that? No, doesn't sit well at all.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:42am

Ulgh, I hated Kennedy. Actually I didn't mind her the first episode; I preferred her to the rest, but then she really got on my nerves.

Robbo, do you have a DVD burner? If so, maybe you could copy the discs and we could split the cost.

Loved the Dru. Especially seeing her transform from being so weak to truly letting her meanness and insanity come out. Even though I wasn't a huge Spike & Buffy fan compared to Angel, in season 5, I desperately preferred him to Riley, so I remember loving the episode that Dru guest starred in season 5, when Spike declared his "love" for Buffy. Love Harm in that episode too.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 11:47am

I HATED Drusilla with the heat of a thousand suns. The voice, the character, everything about her. By FAR, my least favorite character of the series. (Although reading reviews of the series, people did NOT like Riley, and I didn't really have any problems with him at all. Kinda liked him. Maybe I'm weird.)

If you liked Harmony, you definitely have to watch Angel. She's given much more to do, in terms of storyline and character growth. She's fun in Buffy, she's priceless in Angel.

[wyou17]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:02pm

"The voice, the character, everything about her"

But, the beauty is that all of the other characters on the show felt the same way. Everyone got tired of her. No one understood her. Even Spike, who loved her, clearly has moments where you see the frustration with having to deal with her way of communicating. My favorite examples involve Darla though. Watch those flashback scenes with the four vampires. The amount of eye rolling, interrupting, and ignoring Julie Benz puts into the Darla-Dru interactions are hilarious without being a major focus.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:12pm

I fought my love for Darla. (and now I'm talking like I was on the show)

But you can't. You sort of have to love Darla.

I think that it's the subtleties with which Julie Benz handles Darla that make her character give worth to Drusilla's. So it is through Darla that I think we're able to enjoy more completely Drusilla. I just thought that her character was underwritten.

But I'll acquiesce a bit on this one, and admit that I did get a little excited when I saw her pop up on Angel.

[RobbO]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:14pm

i'm sure the dvds are copy protected, wrq.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:16pm

RobbO,

I know I copied Seasons One and Two for a friend. Didn't seem to have any problems with copying.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:19pm

Wow. I must be one of the few people who, upon viewing the entirety of season 4, thinks the Initiative storyline not only works but works very well. And so does Riley. He was wonderful and a perfect change for Buffy. It's the fact that the arc was so different from the first three seasons that blew everyone's mind and upset them.

As for Dru? LOVE HER. Can't get enough of her. I squeal in anticipation everytime she's about to wrap that silly Cockney around a simple sentence and stretch it into a 5 minute monologue.
One cannot help but LOVE Darla/Julie Benz. In fact, she popped up as a feature in one episode of Supernatural this year and how I hoped beyond HOPE that she'd become recurring. Amy Acker appeared on the show as well (different ep).
Harmony is perfection. Always was. I love how she pops up as a vampire, which is great since you do get to see her being attacked by the vampire in Graduation Day.

[wyou17]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:27pm

I think Season 4 works very well. It gave us Beer Bad, considered by many to be one of THE worst episodes, but it was a strong story.

People hated Riley because he wasn't Angel. People hated the season because it breaks up the group dynamic more than it ever had before. Willow and Buffy fighting, Giles and Xander feeling left out. But it all made sense. To the characters, to the situation, to that stage in a person's life.

And again, this is another plotline that works very well when viewed all at once (or as close to all at once as an actual life allows)

EDIT- Plus, it answers a HUGE question in terms of difining the Whedonverse: does the government know about the supernatural and what are they doing about it? It makes the world more real to actually address this than to just never mention. Updated On: 8/16/06 at 12:27 PM

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:30pm

Right. It also has to be viewed in light of reality and the way people won't behave the same. The whole point of that season was "college now, not high school."

Oh, and to go back previously, I would like to second the comments about Kennedy. She neither deserved to have Willow's love NOR that spot in the finale. It should have been Tara's ghost...or even Xander.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:35pm

Ok, well now that it's been received well, I'll come out of the closet.

I like Riley. Liked him during the season, thought that The Initiative was a really clever idea and was well-executed.

I thought at first that I didn't like the transition to college because suddenly everything I had come to know and like (the library, Sunnydale High in general) was different, and only the characters kept it together.

Looking back, I realize that the writing of the series was so good and so well executed that I was actually experiencing the same emotions that the characters were feeling. We missed Sunnydale High, and after having been there for three years, it was hard to leave it behind and embrace something new. From awkward transitions (Buffy), the desire to resist or turn away from change (Xander), but then ultimately the need to just pour yourself into it and accept it (Willow), this season really proves itself to you when being held up against the other seasons.

And no, Riley was no Angel. And I loved that.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:40pm

ok, where's Guy From Germany, because we sure do need us some shirtless Marc Blucas pics up in this bizness.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:51pm

Easy champ, you're at work.

Though I welcome the Marc Blucas pics. I'm at home.

And I'm also going to put out the "Favor Request" for the illustrations Giles did in "Hush". If we can get those posted, it would make me a happy boy.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 12:56pm

Didn't Andrew also do some fun drawings as well, with Anya, of the uber-vamps?

work, schmork, Maniac. I wants my Blucas!

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 1:02pm

Oh yes! So my "Favor Request" now extends for both myself and Singer, for the Andrew and Giles drawings.

Here's a reward for anyone who will look for those pictures for me. I reward in advance.

www.tomlenk.com and click on "Strangely Attractive"

Enjoy!