buffydataviz

[buffydataviz]

Since tumblr launched polls there have been a lot of ship and character polls, and some include BTVS! A recent tournament for the AO3 top femslash ships included Tillow (Tara x Willow) and Fuffy (Faith x Buffy). In Round 3 Tillow lost, but Fuffy pulled out a win, by only 20 votes.

As part of the tournament there are downloadable data sets and line graphs. The line graphs are for every single poll, showing the votes over time for both ships in each round.

You can see above once Tillow reaches about 1,000 votes the other ship gets a strong lead and never looks back.

On the other hand, the Fuffy matchup was fairly close the entire round. The lead keeps changing between Fuffy and the Amity/Luz (from The Owl House) ship.

Super cool that people are visualizing this poll data!

[buffydataviz]

Is there a way to see the exact results of a tumblr poll (actual number, not the percentage?)

I've heard people say something about an API or something, but I'm very technophobic and tried to look up what that meant and couldn't understand it at all.

Could someone explain to a newbie? Doesn't have to be super detailed, just maybe a bit more than "use the API" as I don't even know how to get started with that, and tumblr's guide for their API makes it seem like it's for people who are trying to build an app on top of Tumblr?

(I am reasonably fluent in python (including web scraping with various python packages, but only for things I can read off the html of a page, and "number of votes" doesn't seem to be unless I'm misreading it), and have passing familiarity with javascript, but otherwise know Nothing about web programming)

[buffydataviz]

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Character: Buffy Summers

Sample Size: 14,801 stories

Source: AO3

[buffydataviz]

Did your ship make the top 10?

The new AO3 Ship Stats are now available to view on my AO3.

[buffydataviz]

The results of my Buffy survey!

So, a little over a week ago I posted a survey I made on the show. I was curious about the opinions in the fandom. The survey got 86 responses, which is way more than I thought it would! I had a lot of fun looking through all the responses as they came in and writing this up, and I've gotten lots of messages from people who filled it out that they also had fun! Also, thank you to anyone who reblogged

There are definitely some things I would change about how I did this and the questions I asked if I was to redo it in the future, but I tried to note the big things through the survey.

Also; when there were short response questions it would be way too long for me to have included all the responses. I tried to summarize the main themes, and then include a variety of responses and opinions that I found interesting.

If there’s a response of yours in this summary that you don’t want to be included please let me know and I will edit it out as soon as I can!

It's also a very long write-up, so... feel free to skim or whatever you need.

Question 1: When did you start watching the show?  22.1%; 2011-2015 (19/86 votes) 20.9%: 2021-present (18/86) 18.6%: 2016-2020 (16/86) 14%: 2000-2005 (12/86) 12.8%: As it came out (11/86) 11.6%: 2006-2010 (10/86)

Question 2: How were you introduced to the show?  The main themes from these responses included word of mouth from family, friends, or social media, watching it as it aired, or accidentally.  “I found a bunch of the books and some taped recordings of the show in my late-mother's belongings and realized it was her favorite show. I watched it to feel closer to her.” “My parents heard about it and we watched it together. I was 11. Do you know how crazy it is to watch Buffy and Spike fuck a house down with your parents when you're 11 on a DVD borrowed from your local library?” (yes, anon, actually i was in a very similar position haha) “I stumbled on it when channel surfing in the 90s”

Question 3: Would you consider the show to be an important and/or defining piece of media in your life?  94.1%: Yes (80/85 votes) 3.5%: No (3/85) 2.4%: Other (2/85): “I really like it but no”, “I’ve only started it recently so it hasn’t had time to fester. But i’m sure it will become load-bearing in future so yes”

Question 4: Who is your favorite main character in the show?  Note: a tumblr user pointed out to me that I included Anya and Faith in the least favorite question but not the favorite question. I fully understand that this was something I missed in this question and definitely could have skewed the data in this question and in a few future questions. 44.2%: Buffy (38/86 votes) 20.9%: Spike (18/86) 12.8%: Giles (11/86) 7%: Willow (6/11) 3.5%: Cordy (3/86) Faith (2), Oz (2), Zander (1), Jenny (1), Dawn (1), Angel (1), too hard! (1)

Question 5: Who is your least favorite character in the show?  55.8%: Riley (48/86 votes) 20.9%: Zander (18/86) 5.8%: Angel (5/86) 4.7%: Faith (4/86) Oz (3), Spike (2), Anya (2), Jenny (1), Willow (1), none of the characters (1), tie between Angel, Riley, and Zander (1)

Question 6: Who is your favorite season big bad?  30.6%: the Mayor (26/85 votes) 28.2%: Glory (24/85) 27.1%: Angelus (23/85) 7.1%: Willow- season 6 (6/85) 3.5%: the Master (3/85) 2.4%: Warren- season 6 (2/85) 1.2%: the Initiative (1/85)

Question 7: Who is your least favorite season big bad?  49.4%: Adam (41/83 votes) 22.9%: the First (19/83)  20.5%: Warren- season 6 (17/83) The Master (2), the Mayor (2), Angelus (1), Glory (1)

Question 8: Who are your favorite big bad sidekick pairs?  79.1%: Drusilla and Spike (68/86 votes) 19.8%: Faith and Mr. Trick (17/86) 1.2%: Warren and Jonathan (1/86)

Question 9: Who is your favorite smaller villain in the series?  51.2%: Drusilla (44/86) 17.4%: Harmony (15/86) 15.1%: Sweet (from OMWF) (13/86) 5.8%: Darla (5/86) 4.7%: Halfrek (4/86) Dracula (2), Lyle Gorch/the Gorch family (1), Ted (1)

Question 10: Which season has your favorite overall arc?  32.5%: Season 5 (27/ 83 votes) 27.7%: Season 3 (23/83) 18.1%: Season 6 (15/83) 14.5%: Season 2 (12/83) Season 4 (2), Season 7 (2), Season 1 (2)

Q11: Which season has your favorite individual episodes?  27.8%: Season 4 (22/79 votes) 24.1%: Season 3 (19/79) 19%: Season 6 (15/79) 12.7%: Season 5 (10/79) 8.9%: Season 2 (7/79) 5.1%: Season 1 (4/79) 2.5%: Season 7 (2/79)

Q12: What are your top 3 season 1 episodes?  79.5%: Prophecy Girl (66/83 votes) 43.4%: Nightmares (36/83) 41%: Witch (34/83)

Q13: What is your favorite “candy episode” in season 1? 26.8%: I, Robot… You, Jane (22/83) 19.3%: The Puppet Show (16/83)  18.1%: Don’t have one (15/83) 14.5%: The Pack (12/83) Out of Mind, Out of Sight (4), Teacher’s Pet (4), Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (3), Nightmares (3), Welcome to the Hellmouth (2), Prophecy Girl (1)

Q14: Why is that episode enjoyable for you?

Q15: What are your overall thoughts and opinions on the season?  Out of 56 responses, the main themes seemed to be that people enjoyed the season but it isn’t as good as the following seasons. People liked how fun and campy it was, as well as the early dynamics between the scoobies, and the format of monster of the week. “not my favorite but a good set up” “It was a rough season that I didn't enjoy. If I started watching buffy from season 1 I don't think I would have given it a chance” “Season one is classic and campy.” “It's super campy and fun! While not the tone the show took in the long run it's got the ground work of theme” “It's so cute but not necessarily good but god they're adorable” “Rough but compelling” “Rocky quality, a lot of 'so bad it's good' type episodes, but with a strong beginning and end that hints at later show quality” “I think it's the most unique - very much 'monster of the week' but it holds the most nostalgia for me and really encapsulates its own sort of 90s aesthetic”

Q16: What are your top 3 season 2 episodes?  58%: Becoming (pt 2) (47/81 votes) 44.4%: Halloween (36/81) 29.6%: School Hard (24/81)

Q17: What is your favorite “candy episode” in season 2?  17.5%: Go Fish (14/80) 12.5%: Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered (10/80) 12.5%: Don’t have one (10) 11.2%: Bad Eggs (9) 8.8%: Ted (7) 8.8%: Inca Mummy Girl (7) I Only Have Eyes for You (5), Halloween (5), Reptile Boy (5), School Hard (2), Some Assembly Required (2), The Dark Age (1), Phases (1), Killed by Death (1), When She Was Bad (1)

Q18: Why is that episode enjoyable for you?

Q19: What are your overall thoughts and opinions on the season?  Generally, responses were very positive about this season. While people mention disliking Angel/Angelus as a character as well as some individual episodes, many people also mention how meaningful the season is to them and how much it improved from season 1. “Getting more solid, but still has the camp from the first season. Still would never skip an ep, but it’s still not like next season, where almost every episode is GOLD. The introduction to the fanged F… three is a big deal and wonderful to watch, the metaphors and arcs are compelling. It’s just the Go Fishes, ya know?” “The Angelus reveal is so genuinely heartbreaking and you can kinda feel the shift in the shows tone” “Love it BUT angelus piss me off” “Lots of clunkers, could have used more Angelus rather than him being in the background aside from Innocence, Passion, and Becoming, but still a good season overall” “Hurts my chest in a good way . so important to my inner world I don’t know how to separate myself from it” “i think angel is a cool villain but a terrible boyfriend” “I feel like the show found itself a lot more here, and while there's things I despise (the racism of inherent to the angelus/jenny plotline, the introduction and then killing of kendra) overall its very well-written and Sarah michelle gellar's acting is given the chance to really shine. Brought in more emotional depth and the campy tone”

Q20: What are your top 3 season 3 episodes? 45.8%: Band Candy (38/83) 39.8%: Lover’s Walk (33/83) 31.3: The Wish (26/83)

Q21: What is your favorite candy episode of season 3?  25.3%: Band Candy (20/79 votes) 21.5%: Don’t have one (17/79) 13.9%: Gingerbread (11/79) 8.9%: The Zeppo (7/79) Dead Man’s Party (5), Lover’s Walk (5), Earshot (3), Homecoming (3), Beauty and the Beasts (2), Bad Girls (2), The Wish (2), Dopplegandland (1), Revelations (1)

Q22: Why is that episode enjoyable for you? 

Q23: What are your overall thoughts and opinions on the season?  People generally really enjoy season 3. People talked about liking Faith’s introduction, but wished that she had more screen time to watch her fall. Responses that disliked the season also tended to mention that they weren’t a big fan of Faith as a character or didn’t connect to her.  “Season 3 is overrated as a season TBH. It has really wonderful standalone episodes but theres only 7 actual plot episodes in this season and that makes watching it as a whole Super frustrating since they never actually reach the full potential of the plot since they spend No time on it !!!! also unlike season 2 the stand alone episodes are not as thematically relevant to the plot which makes everything feel even more disjointed. Also Faith and the Mayor are soooooo compelling but its almost all in theory since we get No actual time with them in the season.” “I actually don’t like season three nearly as much as season one or two, despite how many good episodes it has, and I think it’s for two reasons. 1. I don’t emotionally connect with Faith and that’s a huge part of enjoying the rest of the season, and 2. Buffy and Angel’s story goes from the interesting exploration of danger and gothic romance that season two provided to high school melodrama that I don’t really care about and think was dealt with in a more interesting way the previous season. And idk the mayor doesn’t really make up for the other two problems” “There are no stinkers in this season, and the addition of Faith makes it one of my top three favorite seasons.” “Excellent--I feel like I graduated with the people in that season.” “LOVE THIS SEASON. Might be the favourite. While I'll never forgive kendra' death, faith is an amazing character and I love everything that's done with her. I love buffy's character throughout the season too. Just an excellent season of television. Solidified the show. The "class protector" scene makes me so emotional”

Q24: What are your top 3 season 4 episodes?  72.5%: Hush (58/80 votes) 55%: Something Blue (44/80) 37.5%: Who Are You? (30/80)

Q25: What is your favorite candy episode of season 4?  28.9%: Beer Bad (22/76 votes) 14.5%: Something Blue (11/76) 13.2%: Don’t have one (10/76) Superstar (6), A New Man (4), Living Conditions (4), Pangs (4), Where the WIld Things Are (4), the Initiative (2), Restless (2), Fear, Itself (2), Wild at Heart (1), Who Are You? (1), the Yoko Factor (1), the Freshman (1), The Harsh Light of Day (1)

Q26: Why is that episode enjoyable for you? (short response)

Q27: What are your overall thoughts and opinions on the season?  A general consensus is that the episode is weaker because of the transition between the high school and post high school seasons. Some mentioned that Riley as a character limited the effectiveness of the initiative, as well as Walsh’s departure midway through the season. Many people agreed that the one-off episodes saved the season from the arc and elevated it in their eyes to be a good season.  “One of my favourite seasons honestly. The overall arc is a mess and not that amazing but the one-offs are so good that it helps the overall season for me.”  “Weak overall arc but some of the best comedy in the show tbh. Also some really strong one-offs!” “Not a great start to college years, the initiative seemed a bit irrelevant and annoying at times.” “i get why people don’t love it, but i feel that this season is the season of character building, there’s so much set up for the rest of the series. the underlying narrative behind the initiative is good, even if boring at times. love the new cast as well” “i always say s4 is my favorite which is so unpopular to say and i don't love the initiative plot but it's got both faith and tara like cmon!! and soooo many iconic episodes”

Q28: What are your top 3 season 5 episodes? 67.9%: The Gift (53/78 votes) 67.9%: The Body (53/78) 60.3%: Fool for Love (47/78)

Q29: What is your favorite candy episode of season 5? 31.5%: Buffy vs. Dracula (23/73 votes) 17.8%: Don’t have one (13/73)  8.2%: Triangle (6/73) 8.2%: Crush (6/73) Intervention (5), Family (5), Fool for Love (3), the Replacement (3), Checkpoint (3), Real Me (2), Spiral (1), Forever (1), I Was Made To Love You (1)

Q30: Why is that episode enjoyable for you? 

Q31: What are your thoughts and opinions on the season?  Overall people think this is a great season. It has good individual episodes as well as a good arc, and responses talk about how the season becomes significantly more adult and serious in this season. “This season is so grown-up and moving; I marvel at how this season can come from a show that has its roots in teen drama.” “so so sad, but so so good. it’s heartbreaking to see buffy grow up so fast but it feels so true to life. it’s the first season i really understood the stakes and it was a nice break from the big bad’s goal being apocalyptic. glory just wanted to go home!!!!” “Quite like it. Glory is a fantastic big bad and is a contender for my top big bad of the series. The most emotional season for me is well with both The Body and The Gift.” “Overall a really good season, both in terms of overarching story and individual episodes. I know Dawn is a controversial addition to the cast but I'm personally really on board with her. The main thing that I think drags it down is that the person who plays Glory doesn't really do anything particularly interesting with her imo.” “Similarly to s3, really coherent and beautifully built story-arc with in-season conclusion. I still think the introduction (and way of introducing, and also general arc) of dawn was an incredible choice that makes the entire show exceptional. Getting more serious, building up for the following seasons' themes.” “After Riley leaves it’s much better. Dawn is absolutely the worst by it’s forgiven at times of real stress and trauma, and she grows at the end and iirc is way more realistically a teenager after that.” “It’s kind of slow to start and the first time I saw it I was really frustrated by them just dropping Dawn in with no explanation, but it’s a good and solid season overall with the end of the season being truly amazing”

Q32: What are your top 3 episodes of season 6?  92.3%: Once More, With Feeling (72/78 votes) 64.1%: Tabula Rasa (50/78) 21.8%: Grave (17/78)

Q33: What is your favorite candy episode of season 6? 27%: Doublemeat Palace (20/74 votes) 24.3%: Don’t have one (18/74) 10.8%: Tabula Rasa (8/74) Life Serial (6), Once More, With Feeling (4), Flooded (4), All the Way (3), Gone (3), Normal Again (2), Bargaining (1), Entropy (1), Hell’s Bells (1), Older and Far Away (1)

Q34: Why is that episode enjoyable for you? 

Q35: What are your overall thoughts and opinions on the season?  This season is either liked or strongly disliked by the responses. Many people talked about how the themes were important to them personally, but many others talked about strongly disliking the season because of how the writers handled specific characters.  “As a whole I think the first half of the season was incredibly strong and the second half was much, much weaker. It has some of my favorite individual episodes but I could start to feel how the writers were becoming angry at the audience and started punishing certain characters. I couldn't finish certain episodes in the second half of this season. The rape scene with Spike made me stop watching the show for a while, Tara's death was a blow. It just went from being what could've been my favorite season to feeling like I was being punished as a viewer for liking certain characters. I know it's dark, and I can appreciate darkness, but at a certain point it felt vindictive and I lost enjoyment in the show.” “Once more with feeling brings it up so much (the best ever episode of Buffy) but so many decisions were wrong ie seeing red” “Rarely ever watch this season. IMHO the worst season hands down” “I find that I understand Buffy's depression more and more the older I get. It's a great season.” “Buffy's best and worst season all in one. Elevated the show beyond a merely well-done Campbellian hero's journey tale to something truly special. And it also made several storytelling decisions that ruined several character arcs beyond repair. Buffy's depression arc is her best seasonal arc by far and is an amazing interrogation of everything we've seen in seasons prior. Her climbing out of the grave in the finale and smiling at seeing the world before her is so incredibly satisfying. Her relationship with Spike is realistic and interesting to watch. And then...he tries to rape her, and their respective arcs are doomed to be about that moment for all of S7. Willow's slow descent into becoming an abusive girlfriend and power-hungry villain is utterly thrilling to watch. For the first eight episodes. And then...it becomes a drug addiction metaphor, and her arc goes to hell and never recovers. This season is BtVS in a nutshell: some experimental episodes, some risky and bold storytelling, some satisfying payoffs, and some serious backfiring.”

Q36: What are your top 3 episodes of season 7?  63%: Chosen (46/73 votes) 61.6%: Conversations with Dead People (45/73) 32.9%: Lies My Parents Told Me (24/73)

Q34: What is your favorite candy episode of season 7?  33.8%: Don’t have one (23/68 votes) 23.5%: Him (16/68) 16.2%: Storyteller (11/68) Conversations with Dead People (4), Same Time. Same Place (3), Dirty Girls (3), Beneath You (2), Get it Done (2), First Date (2), Showtime (1), The Killer in Me (1)

Q35: Why is that episode enjoyable for you? 

Q36: What are your overall thoughts and opinions on the season?  Generally responses agreed that season 7 isn’t the best season of the show. However, many responses have something they appreciated about the season. “To be honest, i had a hard time getting through season seven. I was already having problems with the show with the end of season six and It felt like even the show had no idea what to do with season seven. I skipped a lot of filler episodes or didn't pay attention to them when I was watching them. I don't even have a lot of opinions on season seven because I don't remember most of it. The finale was good and I appreciated the closure for the show.” “truly amazing. i wish i could speak eloquently on this but words are hard, just kno it is perfect” “I don't remember it much it's far too ambitious but I love the spuffy” “Only good thing about this season is Nathan Fillion” “It was a nice end to the series. I do think Anya should have survived.” “No ending is ever perfect, because nothing really ends, but it tied up the series better than The Gift.” “Augh. So many bad plot decisions or character assassinations. My least favorite season. I would watch Go Fish at least seven times before rewatching S7 willingly.” “A lot makes me angry about this season, but there’s so much good too. It brings the whole series home in one of the best finales in the history of television.”

Q37: Which episode is your favorite in the series, if you had to pick? 

Once More, With Feeling: 14 votes

Fool for Love: 5 votes

  Restless: 5 votes

The Body: 4 votes

Something Blue: 3 votes

Tabula Rasa: 2 votes

Dopplegangland: 2 votes

Becoming: 2 votes

Who Are You?: 2 votes

Passion: 2 votes

1 each: Hush, Checkpoint, the Prom, School Hard, I Only Have Eyes For You, Prophecy Girl, The Dark Age: the Wish, Gingerbread, Lover’s Walk, Band Candy, Chosen, the Gift, Amends, Weight of the World, Family, Halloween, A New Man, I, Robot… You, Jane

Q38: Which episode is most iconic, in your opinion?

Once More, With Feeling: 24 votes

Hush: 11 votes

Becoming pt 2: 3 votes

The Gift: 3 votes

Passion: 3 votes

Innocence & surprise: 2 votes

Prophecy Girl: 2 votes

Fool for Love: 1 vote

Anne: 1 vote

Q39: Which season do you rewatch episodes from the most frequently?  Season 2: 4 votes Season 3: 4 votes Season 6: 4 votes Season 4: 3 votes Season 1: 2 votes Season 5: 1 vote Season 7: 1 vote

Q40: How often would you say you rewatch individual episodes from the show?  17.1%: every 6 months (13/76 votes) 14.5%: monthly (11/76)  14.5%: every other month (11/76) 11.8%: yearly (9/76) 11.8%: every two weeks (9/76) 30.3%: other (including every few years, or watching many episodes over a period of time and then taking a break for months/years)

Q41: How often would you say you rewatch the entire series?  28.8%: yearly (21/73) 12.3%: every 6 months (9/73) Other: including haven’t rewatched yet, every few years, and used to rewatch frequently but not as much anymore. 

Q42: Do you frequently engage with the fandom?  66.7: yes (56/84 votes) 25%: no (21/84)

Q43: On which platforms do you engage with the fandom? Note: this question I was curious about, but understand I posted this survey on tumblr and on a discord for a BTVS youtuber and those facts have absolutely skewed the data. 93.7%: Tumblr (74 votes) 25.3%: Youtube- video essays (20) 19%: Youtube- reaction youtubers (15) 17.7%: Youtube- edits (14) 13.9%: Instagram (11) 12.7%: Podcasts (10) 7.6%: Tiktok (6) Other responses: Ao3, discord, facebook, twitter, pinterest, books, reddit, forums

Q44: Do you have a favorite creator in the fandom? All creators that were mentioned are included here.

Passion of the Nerd (youtube)

@/jennycalender (tumblr)

@/lefrenchunicorn (platform unknown)

the_Eclectic_Bookworm (Ao3)

Summerfrost (Ao3)

@/all-seeing-ifer (tumblr)

Mona Fuchs (art prints)

Off Your Bird (platform unknown)

herinsectreflection (youtube if I remember correctly)

@/spikedru (tumblr)

Cass reacts (youtube)

Q45: What’s the most interesting lore in the show to you?  “the demonic dimensions and vampire backstories!” “The nature of morality and the self !!” “Vengeance demons and their whole thing.” “Everything with Ripper. And the Fanged Four.” “I think that the vampire lore is deliciously messy and because of that there is so much you can do when interpreting it. Do I wish it was thought about more in the show? Yes. Am I pretty happy with it as it is? Also yes. I can have both.” “The Potentials and Watcher Council setup” “The non-strength attributes of the slayer” “I think the soul cannon is an interesting concept.”

Q46: Which is your favorite Buffy ship?  Note: Looking back I worded this question particularly poorly. What I was curious about was ships with specifically Buffy because I feel there’s some debate in the fandom about it 47.6%: Buffy/Spike (40/84 votes) 34.5%: Buffy/Faith (29/84) 6%: Buffy/Angel (5/84) 1 each: Buffy/Cordy, Buffy/Riley

Q47: What is something you most want to change in the show?  Many responses talked about Seeing Red, the lack of POC in the show (and their subsequent deaths) and specific character arcs (especially Zander). “probably xander's weird like thing with buffy and how he was always subconsiously protective over her, like with angel, spike, and riley” “Nothing, I tend to love things/people as they are, the good and the bad” “The racism is pretty bad -- the way there are 0 people of color in the main cast, most recurring characters of color die, the First Slayer is treated in such a racist way, the Slayer backstory is so racist, the portrayal of the Chumash in "Pangs", the portrayal of Mr. Trick, Chao-Ahn's existence, the treatment of Nikki and Robin Wood, etc. So I'd like to change that. If you want a more easily-executed character-based answer, I'd remove Willow's 'magic addiction' plotline and give her a proper villain arc instead.” “Seeing Red character decision for Spike which was out of character for him even though he didn't have a soul” “Not to be basic but all of that? did not have to happen to women.” “so Jenny Calendar was my favourite character in the show on first watch, and although I think her death was done incredibly well and part of a fantastic arc, I would have liked for her character and the contributions she made to the narrative to be remembered more often in later seasons, especially when it seems weird to me that the characters never bring her up (e.g. in discussions about re-souling vampires, Willow's growing magical ability, or Giles' personal life, all of which she played significant roles in)” “Kendra lives!” “Anya deserved a better ending” “well riley never existing would be great, or maybe xander losing his crush/ possessiveness over buffy, but really i just wish her friends would cut her some fucking slack.”

Q48: Favorite funny line/gag in the show?  “anything harmony probably” “Out for a walk bitch” “dawns in trouble. must be tuesday.” “Joyce and Spike being awkward in the living room in "Becoming Part 2".” “I may be dead but I'm still pretty (that's the first that came to mind it's impossible to pick!!)” “well you were mythtaken” “Oz's line about the mayor and hummus gets me every time” “Grr Argh” “Tiny, Tiny, Babies! And other lines from Rupert Giles” “"One of these days you're going to wake up in a coma." Iconic, no notes.” “I’m 17. Looking at linoleum makes me want to have sex.” “Can I trade the children for more money?”

Q49: Favorite moment or scene? “Cordelia bullying a vampire into running away in "Homecoming".” “Either the "we're family" from family or Buffy and Giles in the car in innocence” “Anything spuffy really” “Willow and Tara floating as they dance together” “Rest in Peace” “Buffy getting the "class protecter award"” “the final fight between buffy and angel in the s2 finale” “The scene where spike has the gun to kill buffy but ends up just sitting with her on the stairs” “The confrontation between Willow and Xander in “Grave””

Q50: Anything else you want to share, feel free to infodump here :) “Okay, I mentioned little crossovers Buffy has had over the years? The basics of it is little nods, references, and shout-outs. The show itself connects to not just Dracula, but The WIld Bunch and National Lampoon's Vacation. Angel also connects to Aliens, Buckaroo Banzai, The X-Files, Evil Dead, Niel Gaiman's Sandman. The Official Continuation comics for Buffy also add Doctor Who and Godzilla. Yes, Really.” anon this is super interesting I had no idea “giles and jenny were constantly making out in the WORKPLACE in the halls in the classrooms in the library can u imagine how many students tried to go get A Book for School, the Place Where These Two Work, and had to leave bc their teachers were in there sucking face again. im obsessed w them”“I don't interact with the fandom almost at all but the amount of Xander hate is so weird to me like he's not perfect and I think that's a good thing? He's just kind of a guy and people are really weird about him. Really turns me off from the fandom. But I sure love seeing gifs, fanart, and deep dives into lore so I do still look at some stuff despite the hostility towards some characters that are very dear to me since I was a child” “I am mid rewatching the show with some friends, currently mid s4, so my memories are mostly there. One other moment I really like that I'm guessing no one else will put: Chanterelle asking if she can be Anne in S3E1. Also I developed my love of puns from Buffy :)” “I love that folks are still here for Buffy. That show feels like my religion.”

That's the end of the questions! Again, thank you all so much for completing it and I hope you enjoyed it.

(this took longer than I thought to write up and I have a headache, so if you see some mistakes in the grammar or wording or any inconsistencies please let me know! i'll edit it when i can)

[buffydataviz]

AO3 demographic survey LINK

[buffydataviz]

Viewership Ratings for BTVS

Thanks to a recent Sunnydale Herald post, I learned of a post on BTVS Ratings by reddit user Normal-Appearance982. Using Nielsen Media Research the ratings cover all seven seasons. The numbers switch from household rating/share to an ages 18-49 ratings starting in S4. While there are average ratings for each season, there are also detailed numbers for each episode on their rating's website. The viewership is for the live showings of the episodes, it doesn't cover re-runs or streaming.

My only commentary is that their recap implies the show ended with S7 because of low ratings. My understanding is that the show was known to be ending early in the season, partially because SMG (understandably) did not want to continue playing Buffy.

I don't care about ratings data but wanted to pass this along as a data source. And if you are into it, there's some good OP comments and discussion on the reddit post.

[buffydataviz]

BTVS ships episode count review

I was thinking about Buffy's 3 main ships (to me): Bangel v. Spuffy v. Fuffy. I was wondering how many episodes (BTVS or ATS) where each ship has scenes together. Then inspired by these two polls I decided to add in two other non-Buffy ships: Gethan and Spangel.

Kudos to the Fuffy and Gethan shippers, who are working with not a TON of episodes with scenes together. Especially Gethan shippers, who only have 4 canon episodes! To be fair, Spangel fans only had 13 until S5 of ATS.

Summary ship episode count: Spuffy (Spike x Buffy): 71 Bangel (Buffy x Angel): 49 Spangel (Spike x Angel): 35 Fuffy (Faith x Buffy): 21 Gethan (Giles x Ethan): 4

Any blatant negative ship comments, like calling a specific ship indecent will get you blocked. Ship and let ship. Other comments welcome.

Full details under the cut!

What's the Universe? The TV Buffyverse. (BTVS TV or ATS TV eps, the comics and books don’t count.)

How to start? I started with the pre-count. The pre-count is episodes where both characters in the ship appeared.

Spuffy pre-count: 96 (inc. 0 on ATS) Bangel pre-count: 56 (inc. 2 on ATS) Spangel pre-count: 42 (inc. 22 on ATS) Fuffy pre-count: 21 (inc. 1 on ATS) Gethan pre-count: 4 (inc. 0 on ATS)

How to verify? I did not rewatch all the episodes! I rewatched a few, after checking transcripts, recaps, and ship gif pages.

What doesn't count? Someone talking about the other person, because I am not trying to include the various episodes where Faith is haunting the show. They must appear in a scene together for it to count. They must both be fully aware of each other. Shared dreams (like the Fuffy ones) do count, but regular dreams do not. Buffy Bot, Wishverse Buffy, and FirstEvil Buffy do not count. I treated Faith and Buffy as their "mental" selves during the two body swap episode scenes. Also I treated Angel the same as Angelus and soul-less Spike the same as soul-ed Spike.

Notes per Ship...

Spuffy (Spike x Buffy) 71 total S1: 0 / S2: 7 / S3: 1 / S4: 9 / S5: 18 / S6: 17 / S7: 19 / ATS: 0 4x06 Wild At Heart does not count because in the cemetery she is not aware he can hear her speech "to him." 4x16 Who Are You? does not count because Spike encounters Faith in Buffy's body, so I counted that as a Faith-Spike scene. 4x22 Restless also does not count because while he appears in Xander's dream and so does Buffy, this is Xander's dream so neither appearance counts. 5x08 Shadow does not count because he dreams of her, but it's not a shared dream. Bangel (Buffy x Angel) 49 total S1: 6 / S2: 19 / S3: 18 / S4: 1 / S5: 1 / S6: 0 / S7: 2 / ATS: 2 (S1) 3x03 Faith Hope and Trick does not count because when naked Angel appears at the end Buffy has already left. 3x09 The Wish does not count because Wishverse Buffy is not regular Buffy. 4x08 Pangs does not count because Buffy is not aware of him. Spangel (Spike x Angel) 35 total S1: 0 / S2: 10 / S3: 1 / S4: 0 / S5: 0 / S6: 0 / S7: 0 / ATS: 24 (S1, 2, 5) 4x08 Pangs does not count because Spike does not share a scene with Angel. 7x21 End of Days and 7x22 Chosen both do not count because while Spike watches Angel, Angel does not seem to be aware of him watching. For ATS, besides all of S5, they share scenes in 1x03 In The Dark and 2x07 Darla.

Fuffy (Faith x Buffy) 21 total S1: 0 / S2: 0 / S3: 13 / S4: 2 / S5: 0 / S6: 0 / S7: 5 / ATS: 1 (S1) Every Faith appearance in a BTVS episode means she will have a scene with Buffy. She has 5 Buffy-less episodes on ATS. I did count the dream sequence in 3x22 Graduation Day Part 2 because I read it as a shared dream. They are both aware of the other.

Gethan (Giles x Ethan) 4 total S1: 0 / S2: 2 / S3: 1 / S4: 1 / S5: 0 / S6: 0 / ATS: 0 Similar to Faith, whenever Ethan appears in an episode, he will have a scene with Giles.

This doesn't have visualization yet but I wanted to share the results.

[buffydataviz]

Tutorial for basic data on AO3 Top Ships

Earlier (while researching the BTVS Goncharov Index) I stumbled across the fact that Giles x Buffy is now #3 on the ship list for number of AO3 works! This is a change from before, the old top 5 in order were Spuffy, Spander, Bangel, Tillow, and Fuffy. I wanted to check the ranking of BTVS ships.

Ignoring the crossover effect (which is not too bad for BTVS ships), there is a very easy way to check what are the top ships on AO3. If you don't know how to do this, keep reading for simple directions and screenshots. I'll do another post with the Top 20+ ship results!

Pick your fandom on AO3, in this case "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)." You want the screen that lists all the works. Today there are 38K works for BTVS (TV). It looks like this:

(The default is sorted by Date Updated. Don't get distracted from your research by the new-to-you fic! Research!)

2. On the right hand side, under the Include section, click on the triangle by Relationships to expand it. It will show the top 10 ships. Next to each ship in parenthesis is the number of works.

3. Let's say you are bored by the top 5 (or 10) and want to dig into the even more rare ships. This is when the Exclude section is helpful. The Exclude section is under the Include section. Scroll down to it, expand the Relationships. Now click on the X, it will turn red once you exclude that ship. In the image I've excluded the top 4. Once you are done, click on Sort and Filter back up at the top.

4. The number of works will drop dramatically. Excluding the top 10 ships I end up with 22K works. Repeat the second step to expand the Relationships. You will find a new batch of 10 ships!

If you want to dig in on AO3 data, Destination Toast has a detailed tutorial that gets into more advanced stuff. I highly recommend it!

If you have a burning interest in non-Buffy fandom stats, but don't want to do the work yourself, you could nicely ask phantom statistician for some results. (You may have to wait a while, there's a long list of requests.) There is already a lot posted, so perhaps your question is already answered there. (She can use both AO3 and FFN as data sources.)

Shout out to Phantom Statistician who created the original pie chart of top ships in BTVS back in 2020, which is how I knew what the previous top 5 ships were.

And I know I've said it before, but while using AO3 data is easy, it does not include all fanworks, or even all fanfic for BTVS. Since Buffy went off the air before AO3 started, lots of works are on other websites and/or lost.

Also Elysian Fields is a huge long-standing Spuffy-only fanfic site, so focusing only on AO3 undercounts the amount of Spuffy fanworks. Even with that undercounting, Spuffy is still the number one BTVS ship on AO3.

[buffydataviz]

Goncharov Index for BTVS ships

It's been a while! This is a quick post on the Goncharov Index for BTVS. (Inspired by non-BTVS things like this complaint and this poll.)

Basically Goncharov Index = GI = your works / Goncharov works. As of today Goncharov has 777 works on AO3.

BTVS fandom: 38,932 works (nothing filtered out, so includes crossovers, so also includes ATS crossovers) ===> GI = 50

ATS fandom: 6,535 works (filtered out BTVS crossovers) ===> GI = 8

Buffyverse fandom (BTVS + ATS): 45,467 works ===> GI = 59

And what about the ships? This is a little weird because we are comparing one ship to a whole fandom, but then again Goncharov is a fake Tumblr-fever-dream so what the hell.

We already know the top 5 ships in BTVS. Oh WAIT! Actually this is a little different now. There is another top ship now and the order has changed too. I'll have to do a separate post about that. (An old archive that focused on Giles/Buffy got imported into AO3, so there's a new top ship.)

Spike x Buffy (Spuffy): 6,215 works ===> GI = 8.0

Buffy x Angel (Bangel): 2,377 works ===> GI = 3.1

Giles x Buffy (BG): 2,232 works ===> GI = 2.9

Spike x Xander (Spander): 1,989 works ===> GI = 2.6

Tara x Willow (Tillow): 1,692 works ===> GI = 2.2

Faith x Buffy (Fuffy): 1,487 works ===> GI = 1.9

Bangel moved past Spander for number of works! The numbers above are technically for any fandom. (From a quick glance at comparing the numbers overall vs just in the BTVS fandom the difference is small.)

If you are curious about the next largest ships on AO3, after these 6, it's Xander/Anya, Angel/Spike, Dru/Spike, and then Jenny/Giles.

[buffydataviz]

BTVS Fuffy fandom 2022 review (AO3)

(hey I have drafts for more speaking time viz but that will have to wait until 2023.) In the meantime, here's a viz-free summary of the Fuffy (Faith x Buffy) fandom on AO3. Will make some viz for it later.

For a show that's been off the air for almost 20 years, there's still a lot of activity on AO3! There were a total of 163 fanworks with the Faith / Buffy ship posted on AO3 in 2022. (Because AO3 accepts more than just written work, there's also artwork and videos!) Roughly half are rated adult and half are regular. And not once but twice we had 4 Fuffy fanworks posted in the same day! More details under the cut.

The month with the least fanworks was March with 9. The month with the most fanworks was December with 25. (For dates I used the AO3 posted date.) For the majority of these fanworks, Faith / Buffy was the only ship tagged. Several had other pairings (non-platonic) as minor or background, per the tags. Only 19 of the 163 fanworks listed another pairing first, before the eventual Faith / Buffy tag.

There were 2 dates with the highest number of works posted, both had 4 Fuffy fanworks posted that day. October 29th had 3 works rated G or T and 1 work that was unrated. December 4th had 2 works rated G or T and 2 works rated M or E.

The longest gap between Fuffy fanworks posted was 11 days, in the middle of March.

Ignoring the unrated works and including works with multiple ships (and including those where Faith / Buffy was not the first tagged ship), here's the breakdown between regular (G or T rated) and adult (M or E rated) Fuffy fanworks. (Although I am using the word "adult", works CAN be rated M or E due to graphic violence.)

There were 75 regular and 81 adult Fuffy works. (Ignoring the unrated works gives us a total of 156 fanworks.) So we have 48% regular and 52% adult Fuffy works.

That's it for 2022! I might take a look at the word length for the written Fuffy fanworks later, let me know if you have a specific question to analyze or specific visualization you want to see.

[buffydataviz]

As a sort of postscript to my earlier post, I’ve made a quick chart showing a selection of characters who die over the course of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the subsequent episodes they’re mentioned in (including appearances in dreams, visions and other realities, but not including any “previously on…” intro sections or that stupid flashback in Him).

For simplicity, I’m only counting characters who stay dead, and I’m obviously not counting any characters who die in Chosen (as there are no subsequent episodes for them to be mentioned in).  I’m also not counting characters like the Mayor or the Master who Buffy herself kills.

Whether or not Harmony should be included on this chart is not immediately clear to me.  On the one hand, all of the show’s established lore is pretty clear that she dies at the end of Season 3 and the vampire called ‘Harmony’ we see for the rest of the show is a demon wearing her body. But, on the other hand, none of the other characters ever mourn her or in any way act as if she died.  So I guess I won’t either.

The section of each character’s timeline shaded in blue shows the episodes between their first appearance and the episode in which they die.  (They don’t necessarily appear in all or even most of these episodes though.)  The episode in which they die is shaded in black.  And then any episodes after their death in which they are mentioned by another character (or make any sort of post-death appearance) are shaded in magenta.  The horizontal axis gives the episode numbers, counting up from 1 (Welcome to the Hellmouth) all the way to 144 (Chosen).

As I said in my first post, I think Joyce really stands out here as a character whose death continues to haunt the narrative, but perhaps worth noting as well that Tara and Warren both get mentioned a lot in Season 7 (mostly by Willow and Andrew, respectively; this season in general is also somewhat complicated by the appearance of the First).  Principal Snyder is also mentioned surprisingly often, especially in Season 7, but (perhaps understandably) nobody ever seems to be particularly upset that he got eaten.

[buffydataviz]

Made some charts on this, including the top 7 adult women and the top 5 adult men. Even if you exclude Giles, the top 4 adult men still have more speaking time than the top 7 adult women! Chart with details for each of these characters and also the summary chart that shows the top 4 adult men beat the top 7 adult women in speaking time. Posts on my page if you want all the gory details.

I’d somehow managed not to really think about just how few actual adult women there were on Buffy the Vampire Slayer until reading today’s Insect Reflection essay.   But I messed around a bit with J. Freedland’s Buffy speaking times dataset some more afterwards, and it really is striking, isn’t it?  Not just how rare they are, but what invariably happens to them.

The five adult women on Buffy with the most speaking time over the seven seasons of the show (not counting vampires or demons, and defining “adult” as “anyone who, throughout the whole of the show’s run, is too old to be in high school”) are as follows:

Joyce Summers appears at rank #11 on the list (with about as much speaking time over the whole show as Giles manages in just Season 2). Joyce appears in over 50 episodes over several seasons.  Then she dies.

Jenny Calendar appears at rank #22 on the list (with about a third as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles).  Jenny appears in 12 episodes over two seasons.  Then she dies.

Maggie Walsh ranks #36 on the list (with about 14% as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles).  Professor Walsh appears in 9 episodes in Season 4. Then she dies.

Gwendolyn Post ranks #68 on the list (with about 6% as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles). Mrs. Post appears in a single episode in Season 3.  Then she dies.

Catherine Madison ranks #106 on the list (with about 5% as much speaking time as S2!Giles). Catherine appears in a single episode in Season 1.  Then she … okay, technically she doesn’t die, I suppose.  (At least until the school blows up later.)

That means 40% of the “top five” only appear in a single episode.  Combined, they have about a third as much speaking time as Giles over the full run of the show.  And not one of them survives the series.  Honestly, I’m not even sure whether Catherine Madison counts, as most of the time she’s on screen she’s pretending to be her own teenage daughter.  (If you don’t count her, the next adult on the list is Doris Kroeger, Dawn’s social worker, at rank #123, who also appears in just a single episode …. but at least is still alive at the end of it?)

Not making the top five: Olivia Williams appears in three episodes across season 4 – although only in a dream sequence in the last of these – but she doesn’t speak much in any of them.  Olivia only ranks #218 on the overall list (one space below Diego/Marvin from Lie To Me, if you want an idea of just how low down the list that puts her).

For contrast, the top five adult men (also excluding vampires or demons, so not counting either Angel or Spike) are Rupert Giles (overall #4), Riley Finn (overall #10), Robin Wood (overall #19), Principal Snyder (overall #27) and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (overall #29).

All of whom, you might note, appear in more than one episode (and all but one of them survives their time on the show too).   Also appearing in more than one episode are Hank Summers and Ethan Rayne and Quentin Travers and Principal Flutie and Allan Finch and multiple others. And as I said, that top five excludes Angel or Spike, both of whom have (much) more speaking time than Drusilla or Darla or anyone else who might have made the list without the humans-only restriction.

[buffydataviz]

BTVS Speaking Time: Adults Men vs. Women edition part 2 (racing bar chart)

Inspired by this great coraniaid post, I created the Adults Men vs. Women edition of the speaking time racing bar chart in part 1. (It includes the top adults by speaking time, the top 7 adult women and the top 5 adult men. No demons or vampires included.) Spoilers for the show BTW!

Giles has an enormous amount of speaking time, so I wanted to explore that. Is it true that if we exclude Giles (who is Buffy's father figure) that the adult men and women have equivalent speaking times? (Of course this ignores that of the top 5 men only 1 dies and of the top 5 women they all die, but let's ignore death for a minute.)

Answer: Nope. Even excluding Giles the top 4 adult men have more speaking time than the top 7 adult women.

(Again, credit to J. Freedland who did the GitHub data work.) Details below the cut!

There are 4 bars in this chart. The top one is "Top 5 M", so this includes all top 5 adult men by speaking time, or more simply "Men." The next bar is "Top 4 M", this is the same as "Top 5 M" but excluding Giles. Think of it as "Men without Giles." The next bar is "Top 7 W," this is the top 7 adult women by speaking time. And the last bar is "Top 5 W," this is the top 5 adult women. You can think of this as Women without Ms. Kroger or Olivia if you like.

The interactive categories for this chart are Men, Men without Giles, and Women. They are color-coded in the chart and you can add or remove them at will.

While Giles does skew the Top 5 Men's numbers with his speaking time, even excluding him, the top 4 adult men have more speaking time than the top 7 adult women. It's not a TON, but it is a noticeable difference.

Same as in Part 1: For the purposes of these 13 characters, they are assumed to be men or women. This is assuming that all 13 characters are non-binary.

Same as in Part 1: The top 5 adult men by speaking time are: Rupert Giles (most speaking time), Riley Finn, Robin Wood, Principal Snyder, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Note that of these 5, only 1 of them dies during the show.

Same as in Part 1: The top 7 adult women by speaking time are: Joyce Summers (most speaking time), Jenny Calendar, Maggie Walsh, Gwendolyn Post, Catherine Madison (Amy's Mom), Ms. Doris Kroger (Dawn's social worker), and Olivia Williams (Rupert's British friend and romantic interest). Note that of these 7, the top 5 all die during the show.

Same as in Part 1: Joyce and Jenny and Maggie have speaking time after their deaths, because their ghost will appear, or the First will use their body.

Made using Flourish, it was free. This still lacks captions, which I hope to add in later. Will update if I do. End goal is a Tableau dashboard to dig into the full data, but this is fun for now.

This is a summary based on the cumulative speaking time per episode for these 13 characters in seconds. (The original J. Freedland data did the work of compiling this for each character for each episode. Note that on a high-level review it seems accurate. And the original data combines E01 and E02 for S06 into one entry.)

Happy to share the source data (currently in excel) upon request, however it is really just the raw csv from J. Freedland's GitHub in excel, and then basic math making it cumulative to put into Flourish.

If you have any requests for this type of chart for BTVS let me know!

[buffydataviz]

BTVS Speaking Time: Adults Men vs. Women edition part 1 (racing bar chart)

Inspired by this great coraniaid post, I created the Adults Men vs. Women edition of the speaking time racing bar chart. It includes the top 7 adult women by speaking time, as outlined by coraniaid. It also includes the top 5 adult men by speaking time. No demons or vampires included. This chart has the details for each of the 13 characters, so it is part 1.

(Again, credit to J. Freedland who did the GitHub data work.) Details below the cut, includes show spoilers!

For the purposes of these 13 characters, they are assumed to be men or women. This is assuming that all 13 characters are non-binary. Giles is his own category only because his speaking time is so much greater than everyone else's. He is the top adult man per speaking time in the show.

The top 5 adult men by speaking time are: Rupert Giles (most speaking time), Riley Finn, Robin Wood, Principal Snyder, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Note that of these 5, only 1 of them dies during the show.

The top 7 adult women by speaking time are: Joyce Summers (most speaking time), Jenny Calendar, Maggie Walsh, Gwendolyn Post, Catherine Madison (Amy's Mom), Ms. Doris Kroger (Dawn's social worker), and Olivia Williams (Rupert's British friend and romantic interest). Note that of these 7, the top 5 all die during the show.

There are INTERACTIVE CATEGORIES!! They are color-coded in the chart and you can add or remove them at will. The categories are Giles, Men, and Women.

Joyce and Jenny and Maggie have speaking time after their deaths, because their ghost will appear, or the First will use their body.

Made using Flourish, it was free. This still lacks captions, which I hope to add in later. Will update if I do. End goal is a Tableau dashboard to dig into the full data, but this is fun for now.

This is a cumulative speaking time per episode for these 13 characters in seconds. (The original J. Freedland data did the work of compiling this for each character for each episode. Note that on a high-level review it seems accurate. And the original data combines E01 and E02 for S06 into one entry.)

Happy to share the source data (currently in excel) upon request, however it is really just the raw csv from J. Freedland's GitHub in excel, and then basic math making it cumulative to put into Flourish.

If you have any requests for this type of chart for BTVS let me know!

[buffydataviz]

I’d somehow managed not to really think about just how few actual adult women there were on Buffy the Vampire Slayer until reading today’s Insect Reflection essay.   But I messed around a bit with J. Freedland’s Buffy speaking times dataset some more afterwards, and it really is striking, isn’t it?  Not just how rare they are, but what invariably happens to them.

The five adult women on Buffy with the most speaking time over the seven seasons of the show (not counting vampires or demons, and defining “adult” as “anyone who, throughout the whole of the show’s run, is too old to be in high school”) are as follows:

Joyce Summers appears at rank #11 on the list (with about as much speaking time over the whole show as Giles manages in just Season 2). Joyce appears in over 50 episodes over several seasons.  Then she dies.

Jenny Calendar appears at rank #22 on the list (with about a third as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles).  Jenny appears in 12 episodes over two seasons.  Then she dies.

Maggie Walsh ranks #36 on the list (with about 14% as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles).  Professor Walsh appears in 9 episodes in Season 4. Then she dies.

Gwendolyn Post ranks #68 on the list (with about 6% as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles). Mrs. Post appears in a single episode in Season 3.  Then she dies.

Catherine Madison ranks #106 on the list (with about 5% as much speaking time as S2!Giles). Catherine appears in a single episode in Season 1.  Then she … okay, technically she doesn’t die, I suppose.  (At least until the school blows up later.)

That means 40% of the “top five” only appear in a single episode.  Combined, they have about a third as much speaking time as Giles over the full run of the show.  And not one of them survives the series.  Honestly, I’m not even sure whether Catherine Madison counts, as most of the time she’s on screen she’s pretending to be her own teenage daughter.  (If you don’t count her, the next adult on the list is Doris Kroeger, Dawn’s social worker, at rank #123, who also appears in just a single episode …. but at least is still alive at the end of it?)

Not making the top five: Olivia Williams appears in three episodes across season 4 – although only in a dream sequence in the last of these – but she doesn’t speak much in any of them.  Olivia only ranks #218 on the overall list (one space below Diego/Marvin from Lie To Me, if you want an idea of just how low down the list that puts her).

For contrast, the top five adult men (also excluding vampires or demons, so not counting either Angel or Spike) are Rupert Giles (overall #4), Riley Finn (overall #10), Robin Wood (overall #19), Principal Snyder (overall #27) and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (overall #29).

All of whom, you might note, appear in more than one episode (and all but one of them survives their time on the show too).   Also appearing in more than one episode are Hank Summers and Ethan Rayne and Quentin Travers and Principal Flutie and Allan Finch and multiple others. And as I said, that top five excludes Angel or Spike, both of whom have (much) more speaking time than Drusilla or Darla or anyone else who might have made the list without the humans-only restriction.

[buffydataviz]

This is bonkers! 5% is a wildly high amount of speaking time for what most of us consider a minor character! Especially considering how many people are talking in Season 7. I have several charts in the works, but for now here's one with several characters that are non-Scoobies (and not Angel or Spike) to see how Andrew compares. You can click on the names at the top to add or remove them. (And @coraniaid thanks for your help finding minor errors in the original numbers!) "Maybe it would have been easier to fix all that if the season hadn’t devoted quite so much of its running time to fleshing out a minor joke villain from the previous season." Absolutely!!

Andrew Wells is responsible for more than 5.6% of all 291 minutes of words spoken in Season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Now, I’ll confess to being something of an Andrew apologist – in fact I think Storyteller is probably one of the stronger episodes of the second half of that season – but that’s … a lot, isn’t it?  An awful lot.

It’s more than long-running characters like Anya (5.2%) or Giles (4.4%) get. It’s more than Faith (2.8%) and Jonathan (0.8%) and Amy (0.4%) get that season combined, and these are characters who have all been around a lot longer than Andrew.  It’s more than new characters like Robin Wood (4.8%) or Kennedy (2.8%) or Cassie (1.3%) get, or any of the other Potenials Buffy is meant to be training.  It’s actually more than any other character in the whole season outside of Buffy, Xander, Willow, Dawn and Spike.

Proportionally, the 5.6% of speaking time Andrew gets this season is also more than Spike (3.9%) or Drusilla (2.5%) or Jenny Calendar (2.4%) got in Season 2, or Cordelia (5.0%) or the Mayor (4.1%) or Mr. Trick (1.0%) got in Season 3.  It’s more than Maggie Walsh (1.8%) and Forrest (1.7%) and Adam (1.7%) put together got in Season 4, more than Dawn (5.4%) got in Season 5, more than Tara (4.2%) got in Season 6.  It’s more than Buffy’s mother got in any single season of the show (the best she manages is 3.6% in Season 3).

In Storyteller alone Andrew gets more speaking time than Kendra managed over the course of the entire show. 

And is Andrew more important to the story of Season 7 than these characters were to their respective seasons? Is he more interesting?  Does he have more meaningful connections to Buffy?  Is there some compelling reason we should care about him this much?

A frequent criticism of Season 7 is that it introduces too many new characters and therefore can’t give everyone as much development as it should.  And I think there’s some merit to that: it would have been hard enough to juggle everyone who was around at the end of Season 6 without also introducing Robin Wood, the Potentials and a (mostly) new Big Bad. 

That’s (part of the reason) Willow and Xander have less speaking time in Season 7 than they had since Season 2, why none of the Potentials beyond Kennedy really get any proper characterization, why Faith only appears in the last five episodes, why Buffy doesn’t seem to actually spend any time hanging out with her sister or her friends.

But maybe it would have been easier to fix all that if the season hadn’t devoted quite so much of its running time to fleshing out a minor joke villain from the previous season. Especially when that character was himself only introduced because they weren’t able to recast the actor who played his brother in Season 3.

[Ultimate source for all these figures is Julian Freedland’s audio timestamp data on GitHub, if you were wondering.]