My fannishness is a time traveler

[holdouttrout]

I finally figured out what's wrong with me and why I haven't been able to get fannish about any new things lately: it appears that my fannishness has jumped back in time to the 90s/early 00s and has fixated on Buffy.

Yes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Further validating my time travel theory, I appear to be incapable of watching it in a normal order. You see, I'd seen some of the first season back when it first aired, and a handful of episodes throughout the years. Then, I saw that hulu had season three free, so I watched that. Then I got season four from the library. Then I realized I was hooked (a little late, I say), and I went back to watch the remainder of seasons one and two.

So, I just finished season two, but I've watched through season four.

...Yeah. Just in case any of you have never seen Buffy and plan to watch someday, don't do what I did. Or do! It's sort of entertaining.

I was going to say that I'm completely spoiled for Buffy, but I'm not really. I mean, I know lots of things, but not always how they connect. Instead, I'm going to write down some random thoughts and questions!



1. Buffy/Angel: the original Bella/Edward, right? Only for some reason it's not as disturbing to me... perhaps because it is acknowledged as disturbing by many of the characters? Or maybe because it shouldn't and DOESN'T work out? Either way, the similarities are a little creepy.

2. Boy, am I glad that Willow's crush on Xander sort of went away.

3. I cannot for the life of me remember how the Xander/Cordelia thing was resolved--I've been watching them in season two just completely puzzled about the whole thing. I'm fairly sure I had to have watched them break up or something. Help?

4. How big is Sunnydale that people don't really seem to notice all the mysterious deaths, maulings, and giant demons--and how is it then small enough for one girl to patrol nightly?

5. What are patrolling hours? Dark to midnight? Midnight to dawn? Does it vary? WHY DO I CARE? (It's just that Buffy talks about needing to get home after patrolling, but do vampires not attack in the wee hours of the morning? AUGH.)

6. Can Sarah Michelle Gellar do ANY physical stunts at all? I don't know why my brain decided to fixate on this, but I can't help but notice the lack of facial features in fight scenes.

7. How much do I love that they have these longer arcs--like Angel being evil for most of season two--and how that's not just a one-episode thing, and it's not easy, and it doesn't exactly get solved so that it's like it never happened? See also: Oz. (Sometimes it IS easy, because this is television, but still!)

8. I'm kind of in love with Giles. Oops.

9. I'm also in love with the storytelling. It's brilliant. Especially season three. It's not particularly surprising, but it is tight and fun and keeps you on your toes.

10. Foreshadowing! <3

11. When does Dracula show up?

Comments

[l_jade]

*iz excited* it's beeen a looong time since I can talk about Buffy.. but I love the Show.. before my love for SG-1.. I ended up loving ANGEL more than Buffy, coz the last few seasons it's more Buffy/Spike than Buffy/Angel.. I like Spike in Angel, but I really don't like SPike in relationship with Buffy, although I adored his relationship with the Scoobies

1. I think Buffy is a kick-ass girl and Angel respects her first before he loves her
2. ditto
3. Cordy saw Xander hug/kiss WIllow, she ran & stumbled & impaled herself > hospital > broke up with Xander, she could be bitchy but she did have spine.
4. Big enough to have a mall, several graveyards, school, univ, museums, etc..
5. After dark/before midnight, when vampires can roam out & still find people around to bite.
6. She did some, she has some training in Tae Kwon Do (?) so her kicks are really realistic, if you watch it.
7. I love the continuity of long-arc.. because WHedon MAKE SURE of it.. his series are always have these thing carefully attached & mentioned often & in between .. and OZ.. *sigh* I love him.. he was supposed to join ANGEL & co should they gfot season 6 :(
8. DOn't we all ?? From when he's singing to crying those dry-wrecked sob over his death girlfriend & coldly kill Glory counterpart
9. I love season 3 the best.. IMO, best eps is Amends, but it's really a let down to watch season 4 :(
10. Which one ?? :P
11. First eps of Season 5

[holdouttrout]

3. See, I had TOTALLY SPACED that whole storyline, and I acutally liked the way the fallout from that worked out.

4. I'm not sure, but I think the town is bigger on the inside...

6. Now I'm wondering if all the kicks I though weren't her actually were. It's going to drive me nuts.

7. There's some amazing continuity, to be sure! I also like how the characters talk about their prior experiences.

10. ALL OF IT. So much foreshadowing!

[eilowyn1]

Seasons 5, 6 and 7 are my favorites, so you're up for a lot of good stuff! I refer to Angel as Proto-Cullen on a regular basis, and I am so glad someone else recognizes the creepiness and similarities with Bella and Edward in Buffy and Angel. Buffy and Spike will be a much more realistic, layered and nuanced, grown-up relationship by comparison. Sarah eventually learns Tae Kwon Do and does more of her stunt work, but they still rely on doubles for the hard and/or dangerous stuff, everybody loves Giles, and Dracula makes his appearance in season 5. I can remember exactly where I was when that episode aired, and oddly it wasn't watching Buffy, but talking about it on a bus trip in Washington, D.C. Odd digression. But yeah. Real depth and characterization coming up!

[holdouttrout]

I had to take a bit of a break because of library items that need to be read/watched, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the series! :)

[missparker.livejournal.com]

OMG I HAVE ANSWERS. Basically Cordelia and Oz stumble across willow and Xander kissing and then she falls through the stairs and almost dies and then she helps introduce the Anya character and Xander sets sail in that direction while cordelia obsesses over the new watcher.

Sunnydale isn't that big, they are all just deeply in denial. It's like they all know but won't acknowledge it. Also I think they sort of shrug off the wee hours because its too close to sunrise? Like all the vamps can smell the sun coming and start to tone it down I guess.

GILES IS THE BEST THAT IS ALL.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THAT. Okay, yes. Now I remember all the guilty kissing and the Anya stuff (which was hilarious), and the new-watcher obsession.

I guess if I were a vampire, I'd totally go out and have fun earlier rather than later, too, so that makes sense.

:-)

[missparker.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah also dracula shows up in 5x01.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Oh, good! It's been bugging me, because I knew he was in here somewhere...

[poetressforgod.livejournal.com]

PLEASE tell me you are going to get into Angel next. Cordelia and New Watcher Weasly get AWESOME in it. ALso, Fred, the Total Science Girl!!!!

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I have seen WAY more Angel than Buffy. I mean, I'd guess I've seen at least 75% of Angel. So, yes! Fred! :-)

[jeanniewal.livejournal.com]

OK, well look, you're going to have to fight the hordes of 90's fangirls for Giles ;) It's an awesome show, probably the best written ever. And yes, I also got that the vamps could sense the sunrise coming, also that Buffy was just so badass that a single patrol sufficed! As to the stunts, SMG is a highly qualified tae kwon do practitioner, and certainly at the time she said she did all her own stunts and fights. I'd have to watch again to see if it's a stuntwoman. Oh the hardship!!

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Buffy IS pretty badass. I like the part in season four where he's all proud about his 17 kills, and she's like, "Oh, wow. Yeah, that's like... a week for me." HAH.

And hmm. It always seems like the fight scenes are shot to hide the face, but maybe I'm just noticing something that really isn't there.

[anna-sg1.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the invasion in the converstaion - just wanted to say that often than not it's tptb that don't let the actors/actresses (especially ones that play title characters and especially if it's a show as supposed to a movie) do their own stunts for fear of injury. Then the production gets halted and that costs them a lot of money.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It makes sense financially, and honestly, I don't know why we should expect that the actors do dangerous things they should really be trained for. I definitely understand that. I just... Found myself noticing. *shrugs*

[sjhw-tolerance.livejournal.com]

Buffy is the most awesome show ever. And yes, you really should watch it all in order and yes, the foreshadowing is freaky and they keep everything connected up until the very end. I really would like to do a rewatch but darn life keeps getting in the way.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Dratted life! I started this watching thing back before all the school-year driven scheduling started up again, and now I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to finish any time soon... and I don't even have kids!

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

I'm basically the same way. I have a lot of shows on now that I LOVE but all the fandoms I'm actually involved in are off the air.

I didn't start watching Buffy (and Angel) until 2007. Mostly because I was bored waiting to take my daughter to the bus stop in the morning. I started recording it and watched every day until we moved (we didn't have a DVR after that and it came on too early at our new place) starting in season 3-part way through 4 (and starting in season 4 of Angel almost all the way through to the end of the show). I was in love after just the first day of watching.

I just did a massive rewatch of both series so I can answer any questions.

1. OMG, when I first read about Twilight (which was when the 3rd book was coming out, I think) I was like... TOTAL RIP OFF of Buffy/Angel. I've never actually read or watched Twilight but the description in the article I read cracked me up at the similarities between the two. Obviously Buffy and Angel are better because Buffy would kick Edward's ass from here to next Tuesday. And Angel's a million times cooler.

3. What missparker said above. Xander and Willow screw up and let their hormones get the best of them and get caught by Cordelia and Oz. Oz forgives Willow but Cordy can't get past it. They spend the rest of the time Cordelia is on the show at each other's throats (which is quite funny most of the time).

4. Sunnydale is supposed to be small but they seem to have everything, including docks even though they're supposed to be in the middle of the desert. It's a mystery. And, yeah, the people are in complete denial. Every time there's an apocalypse or something insane happens I laugh because nobody leaves. A giant snake tries to eat the entire graduating class but people stay and keep sending their kids to school (although not that school), lol. Like Jonathan says at the prom: their class has the least fatalities of any thanks to Buffy. That just says a lot about the school and town, kids disappear weekly and everyone just ignores it. Which just makes things funnier, if you ask me.

5. Buffy patrols when she feels like it, basically. There are too many vamps for her to really control the entire population so she patrols the graveyards where they're most likely to show up. Sometimes she doesn't find any, sometimes they are off doing other stuff she doesn't know about. She has to get home before light so her mother doesn't know what she's doing (in the first couple seasons) and so that she doesn't worry (in later seasons).

6. Once I got fixated on the stunt doubles I had a hard time not seeing them whenever there was a fight scene. This last watch thru I forced myself to just see the fight, to believe it was really the characters. Drives me nuts.

7. That is pretty cool, although it makes it hard to come in mid-season because you don't really know what is going on. I think the first episodes I watched were towards the beginning half of season 3 after Angel is back but before everyone knows and I was so confused. I only knew who he was from stuff online but I had no idea what was happening to his character.

8. Giles is pretty bad ass. The older I get, the more appealing he is.

9. That and the dialogue is what got me hooked. The show is so freaking funny. I wish I could tell stories like that. The more I watch the more I pick up on stuff like that. Then I start analyzing.

11. first episode of season 5.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

1. I think the thing that cracked me up when watching Buffy is that Angel totally comes over and watches her sleep. Of course, I think he had an actual reason for popping by and then got distracted, but still!

3. I actually pretty much prefer Cordelia and Xander as antagonistic to a certain degree.

4. Well, they're on the coast when it suits them! *grins* I think everyone in the town is affected by the Hellmouth, so they just sort of assume all the weird things happen other places, too...

5. I wonder if the vampires pass word around about Buffy's likely patrol for the night. Hee!

6. Most of the time I can do this, but every once in a while... and you know what? Hair does not look that shiny after exercise. *is petty*

7. Yes, it's definitely not the most accessible choice, but it makes it more fun as a long-term fan. And hey, now that we have the internet, you'd think it would make people more likely to jump in and/or write longer arcs, but apparently this is just a beautiful dream I've had.

8. Yes! See, if actors could just not age until I was the right age to have appropriate crushes on them, that would be nice. *grins*

9. I LOVE the dialogue. I mean, I've heard people say that all the characters are quippy in the same way, and I guess that's somewhat true, but the quippiness still comes out of their character. And the stories! SO GOOD.

11. :-)

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

1. OMG, yes, he was way creepy with the stalking at first. You find out through all sorts of flashbacks (in Buffy and Angel) more of his history and how he's been in love with Buffy since she first learned she was a slayer. In the show's canon that was when she was 15. When you're watching them together it feels... natural. Then you think about it and... kind of ew. But they do make that point to themselves and things move on. It's not like Angel's really going to find someone his own age, lol.

3. I liked them together (they still bickered all the time) but, yeah, they are so much better when they are fighting. They bring out the worst and the best in each other. There were a few times after the broke up that I wanted to smack Xander upside the head for being such a douche to Cordy. Her bitchy behavior was normal for her, but Xander didn't need to be such a jerk all the time.

4. LOL, I didn't even realize they were supposed to be in the desert until years later while chatting with some people online. I just assumed they were near the coast since they went to the beach and they had docs. Apparently the Hellmouth can transport the entire town at will. But, again, the inconsistencies just add to the hilarity and charm of the show.

5. I always wondered about that. You'd think they'd want to avoid her so they don't get killed. Then again, a lot of the vampires are complete morons. Even Xander and Willow can kill them.

6. LOL about the hair. I forget which episode, it might have been in Angel, after this huge ordeal he comes out of it with his hair perfect and I just sat there dumbfounded on the whole thing. Seriously? What the hell does he put in his hair, lol.

7. Apparently Americans don't like to have to think when watching TV. I prefer a more involved storyline to keep me interested.

8. Ooh, yes, that sounds good.

9. All of Joss's shows have that kind of great dialogue.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

There was one episode where Buffy said that vampires were picky about who they turned, and I was like. "really? What vampires have you seen lately?" it was funny enough that I winded if maybe I heard the line wrong.

And it always comes back to the hair. :)

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think of it is the older vampires (like Angel and Spike) are picky because they've been around awhile.

The new vamps are idiots and think they are indestructible so they turn other morons right away until they realize, DUH, that's competition for food.