Notes from a Buffy Virgin

[RoJoHen]

Snyder's rationalizations never made sense to me since he knew all about the Hellmouth. I don't want to get too far into it since the OP is still in the middle of Season 2, but he was such an inconsistent character. Sometimes he seems to know what was going on, but other times he was completely clueless.

 

[stonester1]

Intellectual awareness is one thing. But emotional acceptance/knowing in your "SOUL"....the difference between the abstract and the concrete.

 

[MarianLH]

Snyder's rationalizations never made sense to me since he knew all about the Hellmouth. I don't want to get too far into it since the OP is still in the middle of Season 2, but he was such an inconsistent character. Sometimes he seems to know what was going on, but other times he was completely clueless.

It's been awhile since I saw "School Hard", so maybe I misremember, but I thought Snyder's "gang on PCP" rationalizing wasn't for himself, but for the other people trapped with him.


Marian

 

[darkwing_duck1]

^ Nope. It was afterwards, when he was talking to either the Chief of Police or the Fire Chief and it was pretty clear they BOTH knew they were making up a story...

 

[Jimmy Bob]

However, I think there is something very earnest & real about Sarah Michelle Gellar's performance during the 1st couple seasons. I can relate to her because it's very palpable how lonely, insecure, & isolated she feels, not because she's the Slayer but because she's human. (Unfortunately, she gradually starts getting selfish & bitchier starting with Season 3. By Season 7, I absolutely hated her.)

Really? I found season 7 Buffy to be a wonderfully haunting tragic figure. 5-7 was awesome. 5 starts with destroying Buffy and in the end Buffy is just completely out from this world, just sitting still the entire episode and it was awesome. Then she just goes to fight the big bad with whatever remnants she has left of her strength to live. And then the big bad is gone but she is still broken. So the entire 6th season she is empty inside, but by 7th season she has built herself up and now the entire universe is against her and she stands bravely against it, fighting till the end. The final 3 seasons were just very inspiring and powerful. But the thing is, I started watching Buffy from 4th season, so my introduction with the character was different.

Anyway, I am now watching the first 3 seasons and my initial reaction was "wtf is this shit! i can't belive it's the same show!" Second season started really kicking (for me) with What's My Line? - with Marti Noxon coming on board. However I came to enjoy first season with it's own unique qualities. I quite enjoyed The Pack and Nightmares and Buffy's babyface. But a bit too dry and formulaic for me. Which is actually kinda funny, because the turning point for most viewers - "Innocence" - is 26th episode of Buffy. Buffy starts to get good at the moment when Dollhouse ends.

 

[CorporalClegg]

^
I agree. For better or worse, in the end, Buffy is still the pinnacle character of the Buffyverse.

I know people love to rave about WWP around here, but whether they'll admit it or not, 90% of his "transformation" occurs between "Dad" and "Sleep Tight." That's what, six episodes?

On the other hand, Buffy's tale was truly evolutionary.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't mind the last couple seasons, and I thought Season 7 was off to a great start with everybody pretty much happy again. I wish it had continued that way instead of getting so gloomy and depressing.

It always just makes me nostalgic for the high school years.

 

[Ethros]

I love the first ep of Season 7 (basically just because of that final scene), but it's funny how there's an element to that episode that was quickly forgotten. When Dawn gets her two new friends, Kitt & Carlos, who are basically set up to be the Willow & Xander to her Buffy.
Although they are never seen or heard from ever again after the episode

Plus at the time there were a lot of rumours flying around that perhaps there'd be a Dawn the Vampire Slayer spinoff when Buffy ended

 

[Sci]

As much of a fan of the show as I am, I never did get why there's only (supposed to be) one slayer at a time. Seems rather short-sighted, to me...

Spoiler: Season Seven, Episode 15, "Get It Done"

In the last season, we discover that the first Slayer was created thousands upon thousands of years ago by a group of village shamans called the Shadow Men by imbuing a young girl with the essence of a Demon against the girl's wishes. After giving her the powers of the Slayer, they forced her to fight the Vampires and Demons that threatened their village, but only created one at a time to prevent the Slayer from overpowering them. The Shadow Men picked a girl because they did not value female life as strongly as male life, and wished for the First Slayer to be a weapon/cannon fodder. The Shadow Men eventually evolved into the Britain-based Watchers Council.

It is amazing to what lengths people on these shows will sometimes go to rationalize the supernatural. Principal Snyder explained away the vampires in "School Hard" as "a gang on PCP." And then there were all those socialites in "Players" coming up with ludicrous explanations for all the weird stuff that happened in Angel Season 4. (Someone around here once posted a fake CNN webpage that attempted to give some "scientific" explanations for the rain of fire & blotting out the sun.)

That was me! It was fun to make that.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Hmmm, perhaps it's a poor idea to be talking about season seven, when the OP is only on season two?

 

[Dream]

Hmmm, perhaps it's a poor idea to be talking about season seven, when the OP is only on season two?

I find it funny that people are already talking about season seven already. It's like they completely ignored the topic title.

 

[DS9Continuing]

Well, the Hellmouth acted as sort of a monster magnet. Demons and the like were drawn to it, hence why Sunnydale was such a hotspot for activity.

Which is a nice narrative device, yet we know Buffy was originally in LA, where she apparently had no trouble finding vampires to kill - and of course, Angel ends up there, also having no trouble finding bad guys to go up against. I gather the Hellmouth is an explanation for why so many apocalyptic events go down in Sunnydale, all fine and dandy, but there is little to explain how and why so many monsters exist in general, and why, if they do exist, the world seems pretty much like our own, except it comes with monsters. My problem with that is, our world plus monsters really wouldn't look like our world. I don't know, it seemed to me that Angel did a pretty good job of riffing on that idea, but Buffy is a little more obviously mixing horror movie and superhero tropes. I guess the genre-bending that Whedon is known for is just in its early stages here, and he gets a little smoother at it as he goes along, maybe? Buffy at this point feels a little clunky.

In Sunnydale's case, as stated, it's because the mystical influence of the Hellmouth acts as a magnet. In Los Angeles, it's because it's a massive city with lots of room for people and other things to hide in, underground or in the shadows.

The fact that Los Angeles is a city that emphasises surface over depth is not a coincidence. Demons can get along there much easier than elsewhere because all of LA is dedicated to ignoring what is ugly or evil or imperfect, as long as there are pretty and fake images to think about.

And, well, really, we haven't seen any other locations to any great extent. We're told that other places have high demon levels - Cleveland, Boston, Southern England - but we never really see how the world deals with it there. So I don't think we can say exactly how widespread this is.

And the important thing to remember, as also stated, is the incredibly willful denial that the majority of the public will put themselves through to avoid facing unpleasant realities. Although, it may be of interest that in After the Fall, the post-finale comics that are equivalent to Angel season 6, events happen in such a way that no citizen of Los Angeles can ever possibly ignore what's all around them again.

 

[Sci]

For my money, I always assumed that Los Angeles had a lot of Demon activity because L.A. is so close to Sunnydale; I tend to presume that most of Southern California has very high levels of mystical energy because of the Sunnydale Hellmouth and that the entire region has higher than normal Demonic activity, with Sunnydale being the epicenter of it all.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

And, well, really, we haven't seen any other locations to any great extent. We're told that other places have high demon levels - Cleveland, Boston, Southern England - but we never really see how the world deals with it there. So I don't think we can say exactly how widespread this is.

Fair enough, but what seems strange to me is that much is made of the Slayer being tremendously important in the battle against demons - but if all she's doing is hanging out in Sunnydale going to high school and patrolling at night, then she doesn't seem to have a big impact on the demons in the world in general. I'm not far enough along to know if the Slayer is some sort of mystical or man-made creation, but either way, it doesn't seem like she makes all that big a difference.

Don't get me wrong, I recognize all this is simply narrative set up for the sake of giving shape to the show's formula - it just seems a tad clumsy in its background mythology is all.

And the important thing to remember, as also stated, is the incredibly willful denial that the majority of the public will put themselves through to avoid facing unpleasant realities. Although, it may be of interest that in After the Fall, the post-finale comics that are equivalent to Angel season 6, events happen in such a way that no citizen of Los Angeles can ever possibly ignore what's all around them again.

See I had much less problem with the idea of demons in LA because it is huge and its super easy to ignore all kinds of things. But smaller towns are very different in that way. But, hey, I'm still struggling with the idea that there's a groovy cool club for high schoolers in Sunnydale. How does that place stay open with kids hanging out and only buying cokes all night?

Dream and OdoWan, you guys are sweet to worry about spoliers, but over the years here I've already picked up a ton of information about what happens across the course of Buffy, so it's no big deal if people want to talk about the later seasons.

 

[Dream]

And, well, really, we haven't seen any other locations to any great extent. We're told that other places have high demon levels - Cleveland, Boston, Southern England - but we never really see how the world deals with it there. So I don't think we can say exactly how widespread this is.

Fair enough, but what seems strange to me is that much is made of the Slayer being tremendously important in the battle against demons - but if all she's doing is hanging out in Sunnydale going to high school and patrolling at night, then she doesn't seem to have a big impact on the demons in the world in general. I'm not far enough along to know if the Slayer is some sort of mystical or man-made creation, but either way, it doesn't seem like she makes all that big a difference.

The Slayer isn't the only thing out there fighting the demonic forces. We learn on Angel that there are humans joining together to fight vampires in LA like Gunn and his friends. I'd imagine that happening anywhere where there are too many vampires or demons. Evil would have overwhelmed the world already if the world depended soley on a cheerleader to protect them.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm still struggling with the idea that there's a groovy cool club for high schoolers in Sunnydale. How does that place stay open with kids hanging out and only buying cokes all night?

We had an "18 and under" club when I was in high school. It stayed open just fine.

But you will find out later that The Bronze actually does serve alcohol to people who are old enough. It's not just a for high school kids.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

I'm still struggling with the idea that there's a groovy cool club for high schoolers in Sunnydale. How does that place stay open with kids hanging out and only buying cokes all night?

We had an "18 and under" club when I was in high school. It stayed open just fine.

But you will find out later that The Bronze actually does serve alcohol to people who are old enough. It's not just a for high school kids.

Both of the ones that tried to make it in my town closed within two months, but they were strictly no alcohol. I've been to many a successful 18 and up club that did serve alcohol to people of legal age, and of course made my way into lots that were 21 and up when I was in high school. Ah, the joys of fake IDs...

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm still struggling with the idea that there's a groovy cool club for high schoolers in Sunnydale. How does that place stay open with kids hanging out and only buying cokes all night?

We had an "18 and under" club when I was in high school. It stayed open just fine.

But you will find out later that The Bronze actually does serve alcohol to people who are old enough. It's not just a for high school kids.

Both of the ones that tried to make it in my town closed within two months, but they were strictly no alcohol. I've been to many a successful 18 and up club that did serve alcohol to people of legal age, and of course made my way into lots that were 21 and up when I was in high school. Ah, the joys of fake IDs...

The one I went to was 16-18 years old. That was about 10 years ago, and it's still open.

 

[CorporalClegg]

There was a place near where I grew up that was 15-18 on Fridays (and Sundays during summer and Monday holidays), 18+ on Saturdays and 21+ the rest of the week. It seemed to be a nice balance.

 

[ITL]

We just indulged in good old underage drinking...every now and then when the cops did the rounds to throw any underage drinkers out of the pub, we found that not acting the fool and drinking with the over 18's did the trick. Never did get thrown out...

On topic: Fire bad, tree pretty.