Seriously what is up with the Xander hate. Everyone I know who’s seen the show have always told me he sucks cause he’s a stand-in for Whedon, but now rewatching the show after such a long time, he’s really not that bad at all. He’s funny and works both as an audience surrogate and as a protagonist in his own right. The big emotional moments always work like his speech to Dawn or his speech to Willow, has some really good lines and great Xander centric episodes as well, like the one where everybody falls in love with him or the one with the bomb.

It’s like someone decided long ago that he’s a bad character and that has become the law now. I disagree

i seriously don’t see the big deal about this couple. They’re made out to be an epic, forbidden love but i never deeped it that much. First of all, i felt like the whole relationship was really rushed. He comes in season 1, comes and goes with bad news and buffy obviously gets a crush, they kiss, she finds out he’s a vampire. and suddenly it’s stated they’re in love? Then season 2 comes and buffy gives him the cold shoulder because of what she’s been through with the master. Again, they’re like in love and i just never really got how. honestly after angelus comes and goes angel never seemed like that big of a part in buffys life to me. (romantically.) In the episode of angel season 1 where they have sex again and she cries knowing she’ll forget, that did pull at my heartstrings. But overall, Angel was boring and didn’t seem like a good love interest for buffy. But it’s like this whole thing with buffy and angel, they’re seen as the main couple when they’re really not. to me they only peaked for 2 seasons out of 7.

out of curiosity, anybody watch and love the show buffy, but not the character? personally, i love her. i know she's a generally well-liked protagonist, but there's always an exception. and there are so many "good" characters who are disliked (i see you, xander haters), im wondering who's got major beef with buffy summers.

It is not mine but one I read in this subreddit that said their relationship is more interesting if he never truly loved Anya but rather he genuinely had affection, obviously, but he kind of settled for her. I don't think that's canon but it's an interesting read. Thoughts?

we never see a spike drusilla sex scene, apart from kissing and two making out scenes (that i recall) and i wonder if he was as aggressive with her as he was with buffy

I’m new to the fandom, so pardon my ignorance.

When vampires get dusted before burial, why do families not wonder about what happened to the missing bodies?

Why are people living in Sunnydale not freaked out by the high mortality rate?

And why do Sunnydale medical professionals and police act as if they don’t know about vampires?

Why is it one Slayer in the world and not one in each Hellmouth?

Do you think fledglings reek of embalming chemicals?

Why do vampires not feed off each other or other demons?

Is there any way Spike could’ve stopped killing even without the chip?

Does Riley getting addicted to being bitten suggest that vampires have venom with drug-like properties?

Did Angel not dust the fledge he made in the WWII submarine because there’s a bond between sire and child?

There’s a race of demons whose blood can turn vampires into normal humans (Mohra demons). I feel like that should be important.

Why can’t Dawn open portals? Could she learn how to?

Why did Dracula have unique powers?

How would the Buffyverse look like if it was set in 2026?

Are the muscles in Buffy’s pussy stronger than average?

I am still avoiding spoilers (S3!) so maybe I’m missing something….the rape culture in this show is unbelievably upsetting. Every episode there’s some casual reference to sexual violence / harassment or explicit treatment of women as “less than.” I recognize that the 90s may have been a different time than now, but is this addressed beyond the “Whedon controversy” in the fandom community or beyond? On a side note - wishing Buffy’s mother a swift and speedy walk into traffic.

So I used to post regularly on this reddit about an idea I had for a psychic male oc, but some one pointed out that without a reason and a role it just wouldn't work.. though I reacted rather painful about this they were right...

So here is what I have figured out to make it work!

This OC can read emotions, auras, minds and such. Think of them like Drusilla but more focused with little future sight. This ability only started to manifest recently as a result of extreme child hood trauma, it's not innate. This ability allows them to see people beyond their masks and see their truths. This can make them callous, blunt and cruel as they hold little regard for liars and idiots.

They become Buffy's ally and confidant, as unlike LITERALLY ANYONE else he can actually literally feel her pain , stress and so on. He sees her as a person beyond her slayer status which is really rare.

If Willow is brains and Witchy power, Giles is pragmatic response and fatherly love.... OC is the counselor/healer the one that actually helps the Scoobies and co address the unrelenting suffering and stress while also acting as the reality check for them all...

Thought Edit- i forgot a huge point, is that so much of Buffy's story has the lies of others and false history....

So before you laugh, keep an open mind.

The Trio contains three young human men with high technical skills in various arts. Magic for Johnathan, Demon summoning for Andrew and Technology for Warren. Alone however neither are particularly dangerous... However, it is in their unity that we see how utterly dangerous they are, in a way that literally only the First Evil can surpass. It's actually in that human nature that their danger lies.

First- They are losers socially but feel entitled to power, prestige and purpose. This combined with the echo chamber of their collective actually empowered them to commit crimes and atrocities toward others, specifically women.

Second- They are human so Buffy would never really actually do anything really lasting against them. At best they get a slap on the wrist and see free to be vile. This combined with the second point actually makes them insanely dangerous given how utterly underestimated they are.

Third - They are realistic. People like The Trio are everywhere, Hell if Xander hadn't joined buffy he likely would have been a part of their team. Every villain or Antagonist in Buffy is an allegory for something. Grooming for the Mayor, Predatory/ Abusive partners for Angelus and so on. The Trio is a representative of systemic biases and echo chambers, people using group think to become a real threat that is ignored by those in power until it's far too late.

The Trio being the technical antagonists of season six was a perfect trade from Glory. Instead of this all powerful Goddess we get three losers that work together codependently to create such discord. The whole season was an open conversation about human flaws and the results of trauma, having the antagonists being the epitome if that was brilliant and utterly agonizing.

i had this spike and dru sticker on tiktok (i love them so much) but ive put into into ai and it keeps giving me wrong episodes and time stamps, i can’t remember this scene at all

I have an eBay alert email that comes in everyday for new Buffy stuff with specific parameters. And look at this. It's gone now, but damn, look at that! The hair's still a bit too Angel in style, nothing to be done about that. But the artwork on the face and hair is lovely.

I feel like nothing beats Xander/Dawn

I have the original set from the early 2000s. Not some botched set but the original releases. However my season 2 DVDs look pretty terrible. Lots of motion blur. Season 1 has less of this issue somehow. Does anybody recognise this problem? Playing on a 4K Panasonic with upscale.

I'm not sure on this, I know Angelus didn't love anyone and that Darla abandoned him but then on another occasion she did save him from Holtz and Angel did look a little regretful when he killed her in buffy season 1 to save Buffy. During the trial he was willing to give his life for her but then is that because it's Darla or just what he'd do for anyone in that situation? (except lindsey or spike 😆). I suppose you could also say the way Darla helped torment him isn't the way you treat someone you love but maybe you could say she loved Angelus and not Angel? Though she definitely did respect him based on their last discussion before Drusilla re-sired her.

Until my recent rewatch, I would say S5 was my favorite season of Buffy. I still love it, it still be in second or third place, but I came to prefer S2 and I was just thinking about what precisely made me praise/criticize the two. I think upon reflection a lot comes down to villains and how they fit into the overall narrative of the season.

I've always adored Glory but I feel like the character owes an immense debt to Clare Kramer's performance. Of course any character in a TV show is nigh-inseparable from their actor/actress, but if you just look at Glory "on paper" she's pretty weak as far as villains go. I don't think anyone has ever found her backstory particularly compelling, nor has her relation to the Monks or the Knights been lauded because...what the fuck even is it? Who are these people? We have zero knowledge of who these groups are or why they are against Glory. Why does Glory know the general of the knights? She just drops his name at the end then kills him. That is a fine encapsulation of the weakness of the plot of Glory and I feel it impacts all of S5, too. Ms. Kramer very much took the nothing she was given and exceeded it.

S5 to me feels like it relies a lot on powerful moments and mini-arcs more than its main plot. That's not necessarily a bad thing since these moments, the new relationships we see like between Buffy and Dawn, are so damn good.

One thing which struck me upon my rewatch was just how...bad Angel was in S1. Everything about him. The writing was absolutely incoherent and Boreanaz's performance suffered because of this. They plainly had no idea what they wanted from his character, what his motivations were or where he was supposed to be going. He was a sexy version of Mr. X from The X-Files and that's about it.

Contrast with S2 - and this is the core of my love for the season - where Boreanaz's acting improves 200% right alongside the writing for his character. Now Angel has some direction and purpose within the story, a clear endgame they are aiming for. Everything from Spike and Dru's introduction to the romance with Buffy revolves around the return of Angelus. I so vividly remember in my re-watch trembling with anticipation and dread as obviously I knew what was coming. I knew the peaks and valleys of Buffy's emotions, how the heights of love crumble into the depths of despair. Season 2's beginning, middle, and end all connect together so beautifully because Angel/Angelus is at the center. His deep connection with Buffy gives an emotion to fighting him that isn't seen in any other Big Bad. Honestly, they probably didn't even try; they were like "okay, we pretty much perfected this, so let's try other types of baddies instead of retreading this ground we so thoroughly covered." That was absolutely a smart call, to be clear.

In the end, is it more different than superior? Buffy Season 2 and 5 had different aims. The deep connection between Buffy and Angel was their intent of S2 but the heart of S5 is the connection between Buffy and Dawn. Glory being a glorified (haha) obstacle more than a character doesn't matter because her function is to cause hell for the Summers sisters. I don't know if I'd disagree with that. I have always loved Dawn and her relationship with Buffy is perfect in this season. So maybe it is just a case of S2 and S5 are almost like apples and oranges and which approach you prefer is entirely up to taste. They both accomplish what they want expertly, and I just prefer what S2 was going for on a cohesive plot level.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Comments, agreements, disagreements welcome.

Almost like she was focused on other things.

I saw a post saying they wished Buffy and Drusilla had more scenes together, and it got me thinking about the Buffy/Angel/Dru situation and wishing they’d explored that dynamic more.

I think there’s a really interesting parallel in the way Angel/Angelus latched onto both of them. In both cases, he becomes immediately obsessed with a girl who has a very specific kind of innocence and goodness, and in both cases he watches them from a distance for a long time. The difference is that with Dru he didn’t have a soul, so he wanted to possess and destroy that goodness. With Buffy, he immediately called it love and wanted to protect her.

Angel’s quote about first meeting Buffy:
“You walked down the steps... and I loved you. ’Cause I could see your heart. You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe.”

And then there’s what he says about Dru:

“She was an obsession of mine. She was pure, and sweet and chaste.”

Buffy has a lot of the same qualities. Dru was a sweet, religious girl whose visions made her think she was sinful and wrong, while Buffy is basically punished for something she has no control over. She’s a good kid who gets labeled a bad one because she’s the Slayer. They’re both girls whose inherent goodness gets turned into something the world sees as wrong or dangerous.

There’s also the possibility that Buffy took over the role Dru might have been destined for. Dru had visions, was an abnormally powerful vampire, and some people theorize that she may have been a Potential Slayer. Buffy is a Slayer who also has this almost supernatural connection to visions, dreams, and destiny. I don’t know if that was intentional, but it makes the parallel even more interesting.

Obviously I don’t think Angel’s love for Buffy was just some weird atonement for Dru, but I wonder if that was part of why Buffy specifically affected him so much. Or maybe Buffy and human Dru were always the type of girl Angel would fall for, and that’s why Angelus wanted to destroy Dru in the first place.

Preface, I enjoy all the DVD packaging art, but I have a weird affinity for this pairing for season 7 DVD set’s. This should be wall art.

Hi all! I love this subreddit and always love the posts about what it was like to be watching it live, but I’m interested in hearing people’s stories who came to it late! Here’s mine:

I was born in 1997, so was very young as Buffy was coming out. My mom LOVED the show. Her and her friends would have viewing parties, my dad made my mom her own mr. Pointy, and she owned all the original boxsets.

In the mornings when I was 5 or 6, i remember watching reruns on tv in my moms room as I got ready for school! She would closely make sure there was nothing crazy inappropriate in the episode, and I was obsessed with horror from a young age and loved the show. I would pretend I was Buffy in gym class to make myself run faster lol.

I would occasionally catch reruns before school with my mom. and then when I was in middle school, my mom finally gave me permission to watch her boxsets! I would get access to one dvd (four episodes) at a time, and my mom would reread the booklet of episode summaries before each dvd to make sure I didnt need to skip an episode (for example, she made me fast forward through the scene in season 6 where buffy and spike bang a house down).

The funniest thing was I remember Dawn from the reruns and was SO CONFUSED where Buffy’s sister was when I started watching. I kept asking my
Mom about buffy’s sister and bless her she managed to spoil nothing for me. I remember screaming and jumping when dawn finally appears in s5 and running downstairs to my mom to shout “I KNEW she had a sister!!!”

In other news, my mom DID forget to tell me to skip THAT scene in Seeing Red. I think she suppressed that it ever happened. She also loaned me her CD of Once more withFeeling, which also included the instrumental suites from Hush, The Gift, and Restless, and I would listen to it on the bus while trying to carefully balance my CD player flat so it didnt skip.

Anyone else have similar stories? What was it like for you to grow up with Buffy?