The Buffy Thread
 

So, who all wants to do an alcohol-fueled Buffy rewatch aside from me and Bat? Should it be a once a week thing or what?

(I haven't actually done so properly in many years; when I did, I usually just watched the same few episodes from each season over and over while pretending certain plot lines didn't exist. If it were just me, I'd probably start with season 3, watch only the important episodes of season 4 and then the entirety of the remaining seasons.)

In

https://kearahunt.files.wordpress.co...-gif.gif?w=660

Chronological order - go on then
Random order - nah

Season 4 is worthwhile for reintroducing Spike, but everything about Riley can suck cock.

OK so what day of the week/what time? And since rabbit is consistently terrible, I assume we'd just try to synchronize it as well as we can via chat? (which one? Twitch?)

And yes, Riley is the worst. No one is good enough for Buffy, though.

What's wrong with it?

Someone (like me) is always getting lag.

Me too. It doesn't seem to matter what browser I use. I mean, it's tolerable but just barely. (But again, I don't imagine it would be too terribly difficult to synchronize everything if we're talking in chat in real-time.)

I seem to remember there's an app for Discord for Chromebooks, but not for Twitch.

I've never watched it.

Possibly #in

What the ****.

Was on Sky when I was a kid.

Never had Sky.

OK well I don't care what we do or don't use. I'll just download all of the things just in case. When do we start? I have a LOT of Buffy feelings to sort out.

Can you use Dub?

Also would be good if you could access it on mobile.

I imagine I could run both Dub (my laptop had trouble with it, but I have my PC now) and Discord just fine. My computer's been behaving pretty well this week. I thought Dub was only able to use youtube videos though? Buffy is only on netflix I think.

Ah. I've got no idea then.

I'm in anyway.

Lets just use Rabbit and suck it up shall we.

I've tried. It's ****ed for me and Chio apparently.

Ok, well I have both Twitch and Discord now. (Twitch username is zulabelle and on Discord I'm thebabayaga.)

Well???

I might be getting regular internet soon. If you guys are gonna watch it on rabb.it, etc., then get started without me, and I'll join in later.

Oh my goddddd



Can someone please tell me what day of the week we are doing this

How 'bout Sunday?

That works for me. (I'll be in New Orleans this Saturday so it'd have to be either tonight, Friday or Sunday)

*skulks in*

I'm back now, sorry. I see this thread is as popular as ever.

I've already started rewatching Buffy on my own.

Alright so the morality of Xander is bothering me. Clearly in the seasons with Angel Xander's hatred of him isn't because he's a vampire but because Xander is jealous of him. And yet I don't remember this being an issue that is ever truly addressed and Xander's black/white morality persists the entire show regarding male vampires courting Buffy, even while he himself dates demons without confronting this issue in any way whatsoever.

This is extra weird since he seems to be a self-insert character for Joss Whedon and when you learn about behind the scenes stuff you hear that Joss didn't want morally grey vampire characters. Angel as a romantic interest was a studio decision and he actually was openly hostile to Spike's actor because he wanted Spike dead within a few episodes but fan reaction dictated his entire arc of surviving, becoming a main character, and eventually a love interest for Buffy.

And yet Xander, Joss' self insert, never morally dealt with the idea of vampires as moral beings, seemingly as Joss never dealt with the issue seemingly out of protest. So is Xander a ****tier character than he could have been simply due to Joss having a boring sense of morality and also just kind of being an unrepentant incel?

definitely. In general I feel like of all the characters in the show, Xander's moral flaws are relatively unexamined, and to a lesser extent, those of Giles too. Buffy is consistently given a very hard time throughout the series and has to pay severely for her mistakes while others get off much more easily, to a point that episodes like Death Man's Party, Empty Places, and the abusive elements of Spike+Buffy are hard to watch. And other female characters (Willow, Faith, Cordelia, Anya) all have to go through serious redemption arcs.

The faults of not just Xander but all the male characters are examined to a much lesser extent, I think; some of their biggest obvious misdeeds do require redemption (because you can't get around Angel's past or Wesley keeping a slave woman in his closet, for instance), but many of their smaller but still significant misdeeds are almost ignored in the long run. Xander's toxic treatment of his love interests, his slut shaming, his lie about Angel being re-ensouled in Becoming, and Giles' initial participation in the horrible Watcher's council practices, his assasination attempt on Spike, Riley's stupid vampire whoring: there is (sometimes) some reaction against it by other characters, but no serious redemption, and often the show doesn't even take a moral stand against it (when Buffy leaves Riley for his ****ty behaviour he actually gets told off by Xander, and by the show by proxy :rolleyes:.). And I think it's no surprise that these are all flaws that seem to align with the character of Joss Whedon (although it's also my bias that picks out these particular issues).

Also, how did I not know this thread existed <3

Also after my rewatch I am DEEP into the metaphorical and subtextual layers of Buffy+Faith and it's glorious

@Charles, top 10 favourite episodes?

10. I
9. Am
8. Drunk
7. As
6. ****

So I gathered from the queer corner discussion, no excuse for not ranking your top 10 Buffy episodes. I'll give mine:
1. doppelgangland
2. once more with feeling
3. restless
4. tabula rasa
5. storyteller (hot take, I know. I love Andrew)
6. hush
7. bad girls
8. becoming
9. selfless
10. lovers walk

edit: wait maybe I should swap Lovers Walk for Who Are You. tough choice