![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The 30 Days of Buffy Meme
I've been reading a lot of Buffy fic and meta lately and it has reminded me how much I love that show so I thought I would give this a go - though all at once because I'll never to remember to keep posting for 30 days. (TV show only - haven't read the comics and as far as I'm concerned they don't exist.)
Day 1: Favorite Season
This had me thinking hard for quite a while because S2 has all the amazing, delicious Angel angst and it's where it really felt like things had kicked into gear. But in the end I'm going for S4 even though it has probably the least interesting villain and most boring love interest! But aside from that, it contains 2 of the very best and most experimental episodes they ever did (Hush and Restless), introduces a character I love (Tara), brings back as a regular another character I love (Spike) which allows for all kinds of developments later even though they were obviously figuring out what to do with him still, contains a couple of episodes that make me laugh like a hyena (Fear Itself and A New Man), brings Faith out of her coma via an absolutely fantastic example of the body-switching sci-fi trope and moves all of the main characters out of the comfort zone of the high school and sees what it does to them.
Day 2: Favorite Episode
Argh, this is so difficult... I think it is a dead tie between Restless, The Gift and Becoming Part 2.
Restless because it is so brilliantly shot and written to really feel surreal and dreamlike and because themes and images from that episode resonate both backwards and forwards through all the other series in a way that still amazes me and for Buffy's speech to the First Slayer:
"I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm going to be a fireman when floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out and I don't sleep on a bed of bones."
The Gift because the end breaks my heart every. Single. Time. With the music and the voiceover of Buffy speaking to Dawn, and... *sniffles* Excuse me... And it is the perfect tragic end to the whole season arc too.
Becoming Part 2 because of Spike switching sides and his speech about Happy Meals on legs where you can see Buffy being gradually drawn in to him, for the moment of silent communication between Spike and Buffy before she finally tells her mother she's the Slayer because they've been enemies all year and yet they can still connect like that, for breaking my heart again with the twist of it being Angel that Buffy has to kill, not Angelus, and always and above all for this:
"Take all of that away and what's left?"
"Me."
Day 3: Favorite Song Used In An Episode:
School Hard, don't know the name of the song but it goes roughly:
"I, I, I, I did a stupid thing last night
I called you
A moment of weakness
something, something moment, like three months of weakness
And I'm one step away
From crashing to my knees..."
while Spike prowls sexily round the dancefloor watching Buffy.
Day 4: Favorite Female Character:
Buffy. She's my hero. I love her strength and bravery, the way she makes the choice to go to her death at 16 because she couldn't choose anything else, the way she struggles and tries and fails and rises back up and keeps going even stronger. And I love the way she talks and her irreverence and fondness for puns while slaying. And I love everything else as well.
Day 5: Least Favorite Female Character:
Kennedy. I found her very irritating for a couple of reasons. Firstly, being a brat is not cute and I did not find it endearing of her even when she admitted it of herself. Second, it always felt slightly to me that she railroaded Willow into the relationship and that she never really listened to Willow's hesitation about either that or the magic. So yeah - pushy and annoying and overconfident. Not a good mix.
Day 6: Favorite Male Character:
Spiiiiiiike, Spike, Spike, Spike. For his wit and passion and vulnerability. His perceptiveness of other's emotions and awareness of his own and his adaptability and charm. The loyalty to those he cared for even when soulless and his affection for Joyce and Dawn. And the whole great big arc from monster to champion taking in everything in between. Not too mention the amount of fabulous lines he got.
Day 7: Least Favorite Male Character:
It has to be Riley. I didn't mind him in S4, a little bland but okay, but he pissed me off terribly in S5. I'll concede that he did love Buffy and want to support her but the fact that he could only conceive of doing that on his terms was very off-putting. He was only able to give what he thought she should need and couldn't accept that Buffy actually needed something else from him because it didn't fit in with his view of relationships. And getting bitten by vampires on purpose was the act of a total moron.
Day 8: Favorite Friendship:
Buffy and Willow. They are just so cute and sweet together for the first few seasons and (S6 dark!Willow and S7 ejection of Buffy aside) I believed that they supported and trusted each other all the way from Welcome to the Hellmouth to Chosen.
Day 9: Favorite Romance:
Hmm... if this was 'favourite love story' it would be Buffy and Spike hands down. But to me that is a big, epic, twisted rollercoaster mess of a relationship with a whole lot of love and passion but not much romance. Even in S7 when it has quietened down some it is more hesitance-love-restraint-trust. So I pick Willow/Oz instead. I really liked the slow burn of the way Oz was introduced and got more and more intrigued by Willow and the two of them were utterly adorable together. I firmly believe that Willow's prediction comes true and they end up together again when they are old and she has blue hair.
Day 10: Least Favorite Season:
I think it has to be S7. It did start to feel like the storytelling was going off the rails towards the end - too many things got rushed in the last few episodes that needed a bigger build up (Scythe and Guardian, I'm looking at you), and a few too many plotholes no matter what Joss says about emotional continuity being preferable to plot continuity. It still has some standout episodes, like Conversations with Dead People, Storyteller and Lies My Parents Told Me and some marvellous moments in other episodes but it didn't feel as cohesive as some of the other seasons and that let it down a bit.
Day 11: Least Favorite Romance:
Xander/Willow. It was interesting to get the pay-off from Willow's crush and for showing Willow's first attempt to shortcut and fix tricky emotions with magic but I so much prefer both of them with other people.
Day 12: Least Favorite Episode:
OMG, As You Were otherwise known as 'the episode that I will never rewatch unless you pay me a lot of money'. It seemed to me that the entire function of that episode was to set up as much humiliation and shame for Buffy's character as possible and I loathed it. The fact that it used Riley as the tool for showing Buffy how degraded she has apparently become and then had the nerve to make it something he says that reminds her she can be better when Riley is probably the character with the least insight into her out of the entire main cast was just adding salt to the wound.
Day 13: Favorite Potential Slayer:
Amanda because she was by far the funniest and most intriguing. I loved the D&D scene and I was gutted when she died in the finale fight.
Day 14: Favorite Female Villain:
And the winner is Glorificus! By anose red dress and some fabulous shoes. She managed to be hilarious, totally nuts and creepy by turns and she rocked.
Day 15: Favorite Male Villain:
Angelus, because of the angst and because his arrival turned the show into something unmissable and amazing.
Day 16: Episode You Like That Everyone Else Hates:
Well, apparently Beer Bad is disliked by a lot of people but I think cavewoman!Buffy is really funny and I love Willow smacking down Parker.
Day 17: Character You Relate To The Most
Gah. None of them and all of them by turns.
Day 18: Character Who Didn’t Get Enough Screen Time:
The Anointed One! ... kidding.
Faith, purely because I would have liked more conversations between her and Buffy in S7. I wanted to see them connect and get back on common ground as the Chosen Two again and though the little bit there was of that was great, I wanted more.
Day 19: Character You Like That Everyone Else Hates:
I don't really know who everyone else hates...
Day 20: Best Spike-centric Episode:
I really don't think I can choose just one. How can I choose between the thrill ride of his introduction in School Hard, the wildcard hurricane blowing and blowing up in Lover's Walk, the poet, fighter and dancer from Fool for Love, the inseparable mix of perversion and nobility of Intervention and the intense twist in the backstory in Lies My Parents Told Me? Impossible.
Day 21: Best Willow-centric Episode:
I've always really liked Choices. That was perfect Willow for me - suprisingly badass under the sweetness, brave, resourceful and I love her going toe-to-toe with Faith.
Day 22: Best Xander-centric Episode:
The Replacement because it was funny and also said a lot about where Xander was and his insecurities.
Day 23: Two Characters You Wanted To Get Together That Never Did:
Faith and Buffy! Talk about UST.
Day 24: Favorite Example of 90s Special Effects:
The first werewolf suit. Oh dear lord.
Day 25: Favorite Buffyverse Saying:
that's making the kind of sense that's... not.
Day 26: Favorite Scooby Moment:
I have no idea what episode this is, but one of the earlier ones opens with Buffy, Willow and Xander watching a Bollywood film and trying to work out what on earth it is about while Buffy and Xander braid Willow's hair. Totally random moment but I always liked that.
Day 27: Cutest Moment:
Buffy laughing hysterically over the idea of Harmony having a gang.
Day 28: Character You Love To Hate:
Professor Walsh. Even before she is explicitly evil she's... well, pretty evil!
Day 29: Episode You Hate That Everyone Else Loves:
Well the only one I hate is As You Were and I know I'm not alone in that.
Day 30: What You Think Made Buffy So Great:
The writing had wit and style - there's line after line that stick in my mind. The characters were engaging and the cast were perfect at playing them... everything just worked, maybe not all the time, but 90% of it. And I think one of the major factors in how good it was is that it never limited itself to being just one thing, one style. The tone could switch from comedy to tragedy without feeling out of place, even within one episode, it could do total crack like Dracula and the realism of a family death just as easily as each other, or take a cracky premise like a musical episode and turn it into a pivotal part of characters' arcs. So whatever your mood, whatever you are looking for, there is an episode of Buffy that will fit it exactly.
Day 1: Favorite Season
This had me thinking hard for quite a while because S2 has all the amazing, delicious Angel angst and it's where it really felt like things had kicked into gear. But in the end I'm going for S4 even though it has probably the least interesting villain and most boring love interest! But aside from that, it contains 2 of the very best and most experimental episodes they ever did (Hush and Restless), introduces a character I love (Tara), brings back as a regular another character I love (Spike) which allows for all kinds of developments later even though they were obviously figuring out what to do with him still, contains a couple of episodes that make me laugh like a hyena (Fear Itself and A New Man), brings Faith out of her coma via an absolutely fantastic example of the body-switching sci-fi trope and moves all of the main characters out of the comfort zone of the high school and sees what it does to them.
Day 2: Favorite Episode
Argh, this is so difficult... I think it is a dead tie between Restless, The Gift and Becoming Part 2.
Restless because it is so brilliantly shot and written to really feel surreal and dreamlike and because themes and images from that episode resonate both backwards and forwards through all the other series in a way that still amazes me and for Buffy's speech to the First Slayer:
"I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm going to be a fireman when floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out and I don't sleep on a bed of bones."
The Gift because the end breaks my heart every. Single. Time. With the music and the voiceover of Buffy speaking to Dawn, and... *sniffles* Excuse me... And it is the perfect tragic end to the whole season arc too.
Becoming Part 2 because of Spike switching sides and his speech about Happy Meals on legs where you can see Buffy being gradually drawn in to him, for the moment of silent communication between Spike and Buffy before she finally tells her mother she's the Slayer because they've been enemies all year and yet they can still connect like that, for breaking my heart again with the twist of it being Angel that Buffy has to kill, not Angelus, and always and above all for this:
"Take all of that away and what's left?"
"Me."
Day 3: Favorite Song Used In An Episode:
School Hard, don't know the name of the song but it goes roughly:
"I, I, I, I did a stupid thing last night
I called you
A moment of weakness
something, something moment, like three months of weakness
And I'm one step away
From crashing to my knees..."
while Spike prowls sexily round the dancefloor watching Buffy.
Day 4: Favorite Female Character:
Buffy. She's my hero. I love her strength and bravery, the way she makes the choice to go to her death at 16 because she couldn't choose anything else, the way she struggles and tries and fails and rises back up and keeps going even stronger. And I love the way she talks and her irreverence and fondness for puns while slaying. And I love everything else as well.
Day 5: Least Favorite Female Character:
Kennedy. I found her very irritating for a couple of reasons. Firstly, being a brat is not cute and I did not find it endearing of her even when she admitted it of herself. Second, it always felt slightly to me that she railroaded Willow into the relationship and that she never really listened to Willow's hesitation about either that or the magic. So yeah - pushy and annoying and overconfident. Not a good mix.
Day 6: Favorite Male Character:
Spiiiiiiike, Spike, Spike, Spike. For his wit and passion and vulnerability. His perceptiveness of other's emotions and awareness of his own and his adaptability and charm. The loyalty to those he cared for even when soulless and his affection for Joyce and Dawn. And the whole great big arc from monster to champion taking in everything in between. Not too mention the amount of fabulous lines he got.
Day 7: Least Favorite Male Character:
It has to be Riley. I didn't mind him in S4, a little bland but okay, but he pissed me off terribly in S5. I'll concede that he did love Buffy and want to support her but the fact that he could only conceive of doing that on his terms was very off-putting. He was only able to give what he thought she should need and couldn't accept that Buffy actually needed something else from him because it didn't fit in with his view of relationships. And getting bitten by vampires on purpose was the act of a total moron.
Day 8: Favorite Friendship:
Buffy and Willow. They are just so cute and sweet together for the first few seasons and (S6 dark!Willow and S7 ejection of Buffy aside) I believed that they supported and trusted each other all the way from Welcome to the Hellmouth to Chosen.
Day 9: Favorite Romance:
Hmm... if this was 'favourite love story' it would be Buffy and Spike hands down. But to me that is a big, epic, twisted rollercoaster mess of a relationship with a whole lot of love and passion but not much romance. Even in S7 when it has quietened down some it is more hesitance-love-restraint-trust. So I pick Willow/Oz instead. I really liked the slow burn of the way Oz was introduced and got more and more intrigued by Willow and the two of them were utterly adorable together. I firmly believe that Willow's prediction comes true and they end up together again when they are old and she has blue hair.
Day 10: Least Favorite Season:
I think it has to be S7. It did start to feel like the storytelling was going off the rails towards the end - too many things got rushed in the last few episodes that needed a bigger build up (Scythe and Guardian, I'm looking at you), and a few too many plotholes no matter what Joss says about emotional continuity being preferable to plot continuity. It still has some standout episodes, like Conversations with Dead People, Storyteller and Lies My Parents Told Me and some marvellous moments in other episodes but it didn't feel as cohesive as some of the other seasons and that let it down a bit.
Day 11: Least Favorite Romance:
Xander/Willow. It was interesting to get the pay-off from Willow's crush and for showing Willow's first attempt to shortcut and fix tricky emotions with magic but I so much prefer both of them with other people.
Day 12: Least Favorite Episode:
OMG, As You Were otherwise known as 'the episode that I will never rewatch unless you pay me a lot of money'. It seemed to me that the entire function of that episode was to set up as much humiliation and shame for Buffy's character as possible and I loathed it. The fact that it used Riley as the tool for showing Buffy how degraded she has apparently become and then had the nerve to make it something he says that reminds her she can be better when Riley is probably the character with the least insight into her out of the entire main cast was just adding salt to the wound.
Day 13: Favorite Potential Slayer:
Amanda because she was by far the funniest and most intriguing. I loved the D&D scene and I was gutted when she died in the finale fight.
Day 14: Favorite Female Villain:
And the winner is Glorificus! By a
Day 15: Favorite Male Villain:
Angelus, because of the angst and because his arrival turned the show into something unmissable and amazing.
Day 16: Episode You Like That Everyone Else Hates:
Well, apparently Beer Bad is disliked by a lot of people but I think cavewoman!Buffy is really funny and I love Willow smacking down Parker.
Day 17: Character You Relate To The Most
Gah. None of them and all of them by turns.
Day 18: Character Who Didn’t Get Enough Screen Time:
The Anointed One! ... kidding.
Faith, purely because I would have liked more conversations between her and Buffy in S7. I wanted to see them connect and get back on common ground as the Chosen Two again and though the little bit there was of that was great, I wanted more.
Day 19: Character You Like That Everyone Else Hates:
I don't really know who everyone else hates...
Day 20: Best Spike-centric Episode:
I really don't think I can choose just one. How can I choose between the thrill ride of his introduction in School Hard, the wildcard hurricane blowing and blowing up in Lover's Walk, the poet, fighter and dancer from Fool for Love, the inseparable mix of perversion and nobility of Intervention and the intense twist in the backstory in Lies My Parents Told Me? Impossible.
Day 21: Best Willow-centric Episode:
I've always really liked Choices. That was perfect Willow for me - suprisingly badass under the sweetness, brave, resourceful and I love her going toe-to-toe with Faith.
Day 22: Best Xander-centric Episode:
The Replacement because it was funny and also said a lot about where Xander was and his insecurities.
Day 23: Two Characters You Wanted To Get Together That Never Did:
Faith and Buffy! Talk about UST.
Day 24: Favorite Example of 90s Special Effects:
The first werewolf suit. Oh dear lord.
Day 25: Favorite Buffyverse Saying:
that's making the kind of sense that's... not.
Day 26: Favorite Scooby Moment:
I have no idea what episode this is, but one of the earlier ones opens with Buffy, Willow and Xander watching a Bollywood film and trying to work out what on earth it is about while Buffy and Xander braid Willow's hair. Totally random moment but I always liked that.
Day 27: Cutest Moment:
Buffy laughing hysterically over the idea of Harmony having a gang.
Day 28: Character You Love To Hate:
Professor Walsh. Even before she is explicitly evil she's... well, pretty evil!
Day 29: Episode You Hate That Everyone Else Loves:
Well the only one I hate is As You Were and I know I'm not alone in that.
Day 30: What You Think Made Buffy So Great:
The writing had wit and style - there's line after line that stick in my mind. The characters were engaging and the cast were perfect at playing them... everything just worked, maybe not all the time, but 90% of it. And I think one of the major factors in how good it was is that it never limited itself to being just one thing, one style. The tone could switch from comedy to tragedy without feeling out of place, even within one episode, it could do total crack like Dracula and the realism of a family death just as easily as each other, or take a cracky premise like a musical episode and turn it into a pivotal part of characters' arcs. So whatever your mood, whatever you are looking for, there is an episode of Buffy that will fit it exactly.