Least favorite Buffy characters
- Thread starter TremblingBluStar
- Start date
I saw it on a Buffy board years ago. I'd be hard pressed to find or remember it now. It was in some small, throw away interview as I recall. But I was able to find this:
http://www.smgboard.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4543&hl=
SMG may have had a reputation of being a bit of a diva on set. But if it's one thing I always liked about her was that she was always a huge fan of the characters and the story, so she knows what she's talking about. I remember reading somewhere that one of the reasons she agreed to come back for two more seasons was that Jossy Poo had promised her in the first season Xander and Buffy would end up together, and she wanted to see that through. She felt betrayed by what eventually happened. Which is why she's more or less cut her ties to Mutant Enemy.
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Xander was by far my least favorite of the core group. I'm just talking about BTVS; didn't like "Angel" enough to care.
Dawn -- throughout Seasons 5 & 6 she was just annoying. She didn't really bug me that much in Season 7, but that may have been because she was starting to look noticeably hotter to me, I don't know. 
Conner -- same thing. Annoying, treacherous, and selfish. His appearances in Season 5, however, were tolerable -- actually, his showing up to help Angel fight in the finale was actually kind of... cool. Who would've guessed?
Kennedy -- admitting that you are a brat doesn't make your brattiness any more acceptable. God, she irked me. And I didn't buy her relationship with Willow either; Tara took a little while to grow on me, but I eventually came to love her. She and Willow were a great match. With Kennedy, it was more like, "Hey, were both hot lesbians, let's hook up!" Which, in and of itself, isn't a bad thing, naturally (), but as I've said, her actual character was too much of a bitch for me to get anything out of their relationship.
Wesley (but only when he was on Buffy) -- yes, he was written to be annoying, pompous, incompetent, and cowardly, so I guess we weren't supposed to like him. When he first showed up on Angel, I was extremely skeptical and apprehensive, but over the course of the series he changed so drastically (yet believably) that he evolved into arguably the coolest character in the Slayerverse.
There are other characters that would occasionally bother me, some more than others (but in spite of them, I still loved both shows), however, I'd say these are the ones at the top of my list.
Conner -- same thing. Annoying, treacherous, and selfish. His appearances in Season 5, however, were tolerable -- actually, his showing up to help Angel fight in the finale was actually kind of... cool. Who would've guessed?
Kennedy -- admitting that you are a brat doesn't make your brattiness any more acceptable. God, she irked me. And I didn't buy her relationship with Willow either; Tara took a little while to grow on me, but I eventually came to love her. She and Willow were a great match. With Kennedy, it was more like, "Hey, were both hot lesbians, let's hook up!" Which, in and of itself, isn't a bad thing, naturally (
), but as I've said, her actual character was too much of a bitch for me to get anything out of their relationship.Wesley (but only when he was on Buffy) -- yes, he was written to be annoying, pompous, incompetent, and cowardly, so I guess we weren't supposed to like him. When he first showed up on Angel, I was extremely skeptical and apprehensive, but over the course of the series he changed so drastically (yet believably) that he evolved into arguably the coolest character in the Slayerverse.
There are other characters that would occasionally bother me, some more than others (but in spite of them, I still loved both shows), however, I'd say these are the ones at the top of my list.
The Potentials
Adam
Connor pre-season 5
Lorne
Gunn
Jasmine
Those motherfucker college students in Beer Bad
That cock college professor who kept calliing Buffy "blonde girl"
The Master
Oz
The First
Adam
Connor pre-season 5
Lorne
Gunn
Jasmine
Those motherfucker college students in Beer Bad
That cock college professor who kept calliing Buffy "blonde girl"
The Master
Oz
The First
I think Wesley has one of the best character arcs on either Buffyverse shows. He probably changes the most, but in a believable and sometimes heart-wrenching way, we get to actually see him become the character he is in Not Fade Away, rather than him just waking up a badass one morning. I think it's wonderfully summed up in the exchange with Gunn:
"What happened to you man?"
"I got my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me."
I'd have given this honour to Willow except the writers chickened out of following her character arc through in season 6 and examining her 'control freak to hide my insecurities' thing that they'd been hinting at since Restless, making it instead a by-the-numbers addiction story. Up to about Tabula Rasa, I was very impressed with her character arc. After that, not so much.
Exactly. Throughout that whole episode I kept thinking 'why couldn't they have written a more likable character?' I mean, she didn't have to be a total sleaze for us to sympathize with Willow! Her whole motivations made absolutely no sense! It may have if they explained that being a werewolf and being out there and free felt good, or was addicting. But it was established on more than one occasion that people can't remember and aren't in control of their actions when in wolf form. So what difference would it make to her if she were sitting in a cage or free to roam about and kill???
It would have been better if the situation were not so black and white, with shades of gray - something Whedon excels at writing. Though, to be fair, he didn't write every single Buffy episode and at the time was producing two shows.
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Yeah because Buffy and Spike was universally loved. I remeber all the Spuffy hate sites that used to be out there. How many veiwers did they lose after season 6 again? Oh don't get me wrong, it still has it's fans. But they're mostly what David Fury called "a bunch of serial killer groupies".
I really don't care honestly. Either way, it would have been better then that crap finale. But I can think of a few reasons why it would be a good closer. How about having things come full circle? How about it being about the the main 4 again, rather then The Shirtless Wonder? How about Buffy finding someone she could actually settle down and have a family with? How about her not spreading her legs like a $2 dollar whore for the walking corpses she was trained and chosen to kill? Any of those are decent enough reasons I suppose. But I know we can't have goodness, decency, and happiness in this venue. It's nothing but unflinching, snarky, nihilism. That's what veiwers want, right Joss? Fuck this hero nonsense.
She has several films in the works, and a new show on HBO coming up. Her films have grossed over $628 million dollars. The Greatest and Bestest Movie of All Times That Is Going To Make Star Wars Look like A Wet Fart By Comparison(that would be Serenity) I'm pretty sure didn't even make half of what The Grudge did. I'm not a big SMG fan by any means. I just have far more respect for her integrity then I ever will Joss Whedon or his fans. Because, after all, she's not the one who fired long time loyal trooper Charisma Carpenter for the unforgivable and heinious crime of having sex with her husband so he could bring in the love of his life, James Marsters. That right there is how he earned my ire. Granted, it did lead to her Playboy spread(to quote Borat "Very Nice!"). So maybe my dislike for Whedon is misdirected only for that reason. And she's going to be in The Expendables. So again, "Very Nice!".
But Whedon's doing just fine? Seriously? There was the huge success that was Firefly. Then of course there was the film version that broke box office records. Then he moved on to bigger and better things when he wrote some overhyped and mediocre X-Men comic book that he couldn't ever manage to get done on time. Because his schedule was so full. Then there was Doctor Whogivesacrap's Whateverthehellitwas. And now we have the insanely popular Dollhouse, in which Whedon has managed to do the unthinkable: He made Eliza Dushku look mediocre. If karma were real I'd have sex with it.
Yeah... Spike was good for a laugh now and then, but was really at his best worst when he was a Bad Guy. Not the Neutered Bad Guy boffing the Good Girl because the Good Girl has been dragged back to Earth from Heaven.
Your points regarding nihilism being the favored direction of modern genre media are particularly relevant, IMO. Just because there isn't always a happy ending in real life doesn't mean there can't be one in fiction once in a while.
Where's the applause smiley?
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
Interesting...this would also explain why there has been no rush to exploit (beyond the comics) the one arguably good property still left in Joss' arsenal. He'd have to recast.
Your dislike for Whedon is clearly bordering on stalker-ish obsession.
I certainly didn't mean to imply that SMG has no career or is a failure - just not the type of success Hollywood rags like EW tried to make her out to be after The Grudge. I remember reading an article that touted her as the next big thing in Hollywood. Clearly didn't pan out that way.
3D Master
Rear Admiral
Hear! Hear!
As long as he was a villain he was great, a villain can be all of the above, but when they went to playing him as if he was some kine of...
Ugh, I'm not even going to bother with the bastard.
Lesbian Willow never sold me because:
1. She cheated on Oz, with a GUY, a GUY she had had a crush on for years.
2. She ogled Giles, practically drooling, even saying out loud "I remember why I had a crush on him in high school" with Tara, her girlfriend, standing right next to her!
3. Obviously still had feelings for Oz, and was split about whether he should take him back, or remain with Tara.
4. Gushing about the hotness that was Dracula with Tara right next to her.
In other words; she was played as bisexual until mid S5, and as bisexual I'll buy her. But they decided they were going to kill of Tara, and that killing Tara would make Willow go all black eyes on everyone's asses, thus Tara had to become Willow's greatest, truest, deepest love - uh... her one true love! But... what about Oz and the other guys - some of which she all but droolingly ogled with her one true love next to her? Well, they could have let this become true by developing Tara more; and through that allowing us to see their relationship grow and deepen, and see them become so much more to each other, or...
Willow's gay nowTM.
Once more: Hear! Hear!
How much more powerful would S4 have been, if Riley had only been a recurring character, and his character arc was given to Xander; ie. after an Initiative group gets their ass saved by Xander out on his own soldier-inspired patrols, he gets recruited for the Initiative - a new family to replace the one he lost when Bufffy and Willow went off to college and he wasn't part of it?
Well, I would too given the chance. When I first saw that I was more upset by Cordy's participation in it. That all became much clearer and easier to deal with when it became obvious that Cordelia never actually appeared between "Tomorrow" and "You're Welcome".
If I recall it didn't even make half of what the animated Clone Wars movie made and CW was considered a box office disapointment.
Has anybody said "Buffy" yet? Because I feel like I'm the only person on the planet who never watched BTVS to see Buffy. She was a whiny, bitchy cheerleader (Which was supposed to be Cordy's role, but they gave Buffy different things to whine and bitch about.) with super strength. Most of the time watching, I would be like, "Yeah, whatever, cheerleader. just go kill the demon, 'Kay?"
My actual favorite character was Anya.
My actual favorite character was Anya.
Kennedy, the nerds of evil and s6 Buffy all come to mind immediately for me for least favourite characters.
None of them clicked for me and in Buffy's case, I really wasn't that sympathetic to her plight. The nerds just were annoying and Kennedy was just this lame almost afterthought to the whole thing.
Adam was probably my least favourite of the level bosses (I mean series ending villains).
None of them clicked for me and in Buffy's case, I really wasn't that sympathetic to her plight. The nerds just were annoying and Kennedy was just this lame almost afterthought to the whole thing.
Adam was probably my least favourite of the level bosses (I mean series ending villains).
This certainly explains why just about every guest star and semi-regular and member of the crew and staff appear in "about Buffy" documentaries, panels, and commentaries, but SMG *NEVER* shows up. The one person I'd want to hear from -- the titular star of the show -- IS NEVER THERE!
Please keep this on topic while you jerk your lightsaber. Thanks.If I recall it didn't even make half of what the animated Clone Wars movie made and CW was considered a box office disapointment.
I did. I mentioned that she seemed to exist only as a center for the other characters without ever really being a character herself. She was whiny and self-absorbed, but you have to admit that represents 99% of the teenagers out there. I found it rather incredulous that someone as old as Angel would put up with her behavior half the time.
Which brings me to the question I'd like everybody to ponder - why is this all being taken so seriously? I mean, throughout the shows first, at the very least three seasons Buffy was a fun romp that had laughs, some action, and cheezy horror. It was never meant to be a serious look at existentialism or the human condition. So why are people wasting their energy hating a stupid cheezy vampire character that was never meant to be taken seriously???
If anything, the show flaunted the utter lack of consequences the characters lived with. I mean, look at the episode where Buffy kills John Ritter? It starts out with a serious examination of what would happen if a Slayer accidentally offs a real human being and ends with a chitzy, malfunctioning robot from the 50's. Thus no consequences were faced.
In one episode it is revealed that Giles as a teen participated in a group that raised a demon. The demon returns and one by one hunts and kills Giles friends with the exception of Giles and Ethan. Does Giles spend the rest of his life with regret and survivors guilt? Of course not! It's never mentioned again.
I'm not saying there were never events that had lasting effects on the characters and which were brought up on occasion. I'm saying that the show had such an air of unreality about it, with the chitzy special effects, people cracking jokes while fighting for their lives, and halloween mask style "demons" that it was damn near impossible to take things seriously - and that's what made the show fun to watch!
So why are certain people getting their panties bunched up over a crotchity british vampire who was loved by fans because he was fun to watch?
"Oh, but he killed people! That's like loving a serial killer!"
Bullshit! A fictional character that killed fictional people!
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