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linkspooky · 11 months

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BUFFY SEASON 2, EPISODE 7: Lie to Me Thoughts

Hello this is part of a new series I'm working on where I plan to cover all of my favorite Buffy episodes through all seven seasons, and the deeper themes and character ideas hidden within.

Buffy is a special kind of show. I'm far from the first person to write essays trying to cover the content within it. It is a show I'm so passionate about that I have repeatedly forced my closest friends to watch through the series on me. One thing I've noticed is during every watch though, my friends will experience a moment where they cross the line from being entertained by the show, to deeply invested. Which episode "Hooks" them depends on the person, but for me personally Buffy crosses the line from a fun adventure of the week style show with the neat little idea of having the protagonist be a blonde, peppy high school girl who would usually be the victim of the vampires rather than what they fear.

Season one is obviously entertaining, and it doesn't coast on that premise by the end it's already started to dig deeper into the ideas of the show. However, there's a marked change between season one and season two where the writers become invested in creating an overarching theme for the entire season that not only digs into the genre of the show, but also continues on a lot of ideas from season one. I've told my friends that season 2 is "nothing but the hits, baybee" and I think it speaks to the strength of the show that some of the series best episodes happen already in season two.

Tvtropes defines a Myth arc as being like a story arc, but spanning the entire season. The term originated with the X-FIles, whose writers used it to refer to the alien conspiracy that stretches the whole series. As X-Files is a show divided into one-off episodes where they search for big-foot, and plot episodes where they advance the conspiracy.

I'd tweak this definition for buffy, because while there's no conspiracy the characters are chasing that spans all seven seasons as each season has a standalone story arc, there is a theme which ties into every season. The overall theme is the fantasy retreating from reality.

Summarized by Spike in one song lyric in the widely acclaimed musical episode.

Life's not a song; Life isn't bliss. Life is just this. It's living You'll get along The pain that you feel You only can heal By living You have to go on living So one of us is living.

Life is just living. A lot of people expect life to play out like a story or a song, beucase as people we want to feel like the main characters of a story. However, reality will always trump the fantasy. No matter what fantasy you try to build out of life, in the end life is just lived day to day. You have to live in reality, because a fantasy doesn't really exist that's what makes it a fantasy. A fantasy is no different from a lie.

What makes "Lie to Me" such a standout episode is it's the first episode where this theme is solidified. It's literally in the title "Lie to Me." It's about how fantasies are ultimately just lies we tell ourselves, or lies we tell other people, but on top of that people actually want to be lied to, because some lies are comforting and inviting rather than facing a harsh reality.

Lie to me, is an episode where several characters are liars. What makes it so nuanced is it's not just the villain Ford that's lying, Buffy, Angel pretty much every important character is either lying to themselves or telling a lie to someone else. They're all avoiding an uncomfortable truth that they'll be forced to confront either this episode of later in the season.

1. Buffy

Buffy Summers is the protagonist of the show. In normal narratives, the entire narrative and the world crafted tends to center around the protagonist, their thoughts, and viewpoints for simplicity's sake with other characters being side characters.

When you say someone thinks they are the "protagonist of reality" it's usually a joking about a person who is self-absorbed they think everything revolves around themselves. Buffy is someone you could make the argument that she is the literal protagonist of reality, because the universe marked her as "the chosen one" and she is the only one slayer.

Buffy is a heroic selfless character, but I'd argue she's not the "hero" of the story. In BTVS's efforts to deconstruct the myth, the show goes to great lengths to show the person behind the hero. Buffy's a normal girl, who has been destignated a hero by some otherworldly forced that marked her as the chosen one.

In a way she's forced to be a hero, both by moral obligation if Buffy does not slay vampires they will kill other innocent people, by situation sometimes these villains will attempt to destroy the world and you know Buffy lives here. Finally, she is pressured by the people around her into acting like a hero, all of her friends who have been saved by her on multiple occasions tend to call her a hero, and idealize her. In fact it's one of the unhealthier aspects of the Scooby Gang dynamic, that her friends have such an idealized image of her that when Buffy shows human flaws they tend to be overcritical of her.

Buffy sees herself as the hero of the story, as a way of coping with both the harsh reality of being a slayer, and the various pressures it applies to her life. Not only that she is also a teenager, and teenagers are naturally prone to black and white thinking because they are not emotionally mature.

All of this to say, during the episode itself when Buffy accuses Ford of pretending that everything is just a movie in order to justify his actions, she's guilty of doing the exact same thing. BTVS as a show shines because it's capable of being just as critical as its protagonist as it is of its villains. Especially in early seasons where Joss has stated on multiple occasions that the vampires are metaphors for the struggles of teenage life. The vampires weren't originally meant to be nuanced characters, so the character drama has to focus on the flaws of the protagonists because most vampires in this show are chaotic neutral demons with no souls. It goes into the mythos of the show itself, that vampires are not the people they formerly were, they're corpses that are ressurected by placing a demon inside of them.

So, following Buffy throughout the episode and the lies she is struggling with, we start right away with her witnessing the encounter between Drusilla and Angel.

Drusilla: The slayer. Your heart stinks of her. Poor little thing. She has no idea what's in store. She stops -- actually sensing Buffy watching. She glances at the girl, smiling to herself. Angel: This can't go on, Drusilla. It's gotta end. Drusilla: Oh, no, my pet... She leans in for what looks to Buffy like a kiss, whispers in Angel's ears: Drusilla: This is just the beginning.

The big lie Angel tells Buffy in this episode is his relationship with Drusilla. While Angel is actively lying to Buffy by concealing information, Buffy is also lying to herself on some level which is what makes it easy for her to fall victim to the lie.

Drusilla's statement "she has no idea what's in store" seems at first brush to be just a generic ominous statement a villain might say, but it's strong foreshadowing for the mid-season twist. Season 2 is a pretty well structured season in terms of foreshadowing and payoff, the first half indicates several times Buffy is deliberately blinding herself to Angel's true nature leading up to the mid-season twist. "She has no idea what's in store" in this context means that Buffy is completely blindsided to Angel's true nature, partly because of the fantasy she's constructed about him.

Which is where I say that Buffy is lying to herself. The thing is Buffy's initial reaction to this scene is not horror that Angel may have some connection to the series villains, but romantic jealousy. In a way, Buffy gets insecure and sees Drusilla as some sort of a love rival. In the halloween episode, Buffy sees a portrait of a woman who heavily resembles Drusilla and assumes that it's Angel's "type." The scene is written, and Buffy talks about it with Willow later, like Angel's seeing another girl behind his back.

So, this lie distances herself from Angel, and shotly afterwards Ford walks back into her life.

Ford as a character almost seems like a retcon. Hey, here's a guy from my old school that I've known since childhood, used to have a crush on, who knows me better than all of my current friends that I never thought to mention until now.

The story however, uses the abruptness of Ford's appearance in its favor, because the very first lie that Ford tells Buffy is his reapparance back into her life. He's not actually transferring in, he only came to Sunnydale to become a vampire. That's one of the first things they dig up about him that clues the main characters into how shady he is.

However, the lie this scene represents is also how inviting it is for Buffy who has difficulty opening up in front of others because of the parts of her life she has to keep a secret, have this friend who's known her for so long she doesn't HAVE to open up.

Xander: "This is ford, my bestest friend of all my friends." Jeez, didn't she know any fat guys?

And, then how convenient is it that Ford spots her slaying a vampire at the Bronze, but oh she can avoid that awkward conversation because it turns out Ford already knew even before she left Los Angeles.

This is where we get into the Ford and Angel foiling, because both of them are in this episode important men in Buffy's life who lie to her because they want to use her on some level. Angel, because he wants to use Buffy as a comfort, this is something he admits out loud in the Christmas episode. Ford, because he is literally using her as a part of his scheme to be a vampire.

Then, there is Buffy who falls for these lies easily, because she has this romantic desire for someone who can share the darker parts of her life with. As she believes in episodes like "Never kill a boy on the First Date" that she can't really date, or connect with normal people because either they'll be in danger, or they won't be able to understand what she is going through.

Part of the appeal of Angel to Buffy, is that as a vampire he can survive the danger of her lifestyle, and at the same time he will understand the slayer part of her because of the connection between Vampires and Slayers. You could say that part of the reason Buffy keeps going back to Angel even when it's clearly not working, is because she doesn't want to give up on the comfort the ideal of Angel brings to her, that he's someone who she can talk to about this part of her life and she'll just get it.

When she starts becoming suspicious that Angel is holding secrets for her, she immediately retreats to Ford, because he represents the same idea. Sure, he's not a vampire but unlike Angel who there's a pretty significant age difference and Buffy is constantly at odds with the fact she doesn't know anything about his life, Buffy knows everything about Ford, except that's not true either.

However, Buffy's personal failing to see through Ford and Angel's lie doesn't just impact her. Other people are put in danger, because Buffy fails to see through them in time. Jenny even dies later on in season as a direct result of Buffy's inability to slay Angel on time, something Xander blames her for and he's not... totally incorrect.

Buffy both fails to see what is suspicious about Ford in this singular episode, and for the first half of the season is unable to see the dangerous aspects of Angel, because she's caught up in her romantic fantasy of who she wants him to be, rather than who she is.

Antoher big part of the second season of Buffy is deconstructing romanticism. A lot of people have told me they don't really "get" Angel's character, until the end of season 2. Which is in part due to the fact in season one he's just a guy who shows up, gives information and then leaves. The writers were clearly figuring out his character as they go along, and his season two characterization goes with the deconstruction of Angel as this sympathetic, Anne Rice vampire who's lived a long life feeding on other people, but he's really sorry about it guys.

Which is where we get to Buffy's confrontation about Angel lying to her about his meeting with Drusilla. Once again, Buffy approaches the conversation seeing Drusilla more as a romantic rival than like a dangerous person that Angel clearly is associating with. I mean, as a slayer her first priority should probably be that Drusilla was literally about to kill children, and while Angel protected the children he also let her go rather than slaying her on the spot.

Then we get to the real meat of why Angel is lying.

Angel: I did a lot of unconsciouable things when I became a Vampire. Drusilla was the worst. She was... an obsession of ine. She was pure, and sweet and chaste. Buffy: You made her a vampire. Angel: First, I made her insane. Killed everyone she loved, visited every mental torture on her I could devise. She eventually fled to a convent and the day she took her holy orders I turned her into a demon.

The information she hears immediately destroys the romantic fantasy of Angel as a vampire, with a soul and a troubled past. Angel didn't just feed on people, he went out of his way to twist the knife in the most horrific way possible. Buffy knows Angel has killed people, but she's never had to see one of his victims. She doesn't know the details, and Angel clearly intentionally keeps these things from her because he wants Buffy to like him.

By not ever truly confronting the fact that Angel is capable of doing these horrible things, things that stand out even from other vampires, she's ignoring the danger both to herself and others.

Drusilla in this scenario is a clear foil for Buffy. Angel's feelings for Buffy stem from the purity and innocence of her, she's a teenage girl who he pretty much developed feelings for her on the spot, much like he immediately took an interest in Drusilla. When he loses his soul, his obsession with tormenting Buffy is a clear parallel to what he did to Drusilla. Angel is also positioned as an older man, taking advantage of someone who is young and innocent in Buffy the same way he did to Drusilla, heck even before he loses his soul he often lies to her or uses his age to talk down to her.

Age difference is a thing in vampire novels, which like you sometimes have to just look past because it's a romantic fantasy, but in this case the story deliberately draws parallels to real life where they refer to Angel as a "College Boyfriend" and "Older Man" and Buffy's way of telling her mom about the situation with Angel is that after dating him he turned out to be someone she didn't expect him to be. They're making it out to be a situation where Buffy is groomed by an older man, who after sleeping with her, reveals his true nature. Heck, the way he treats her the morning after losing his soul has some clear parallels to how Parker treated her the first few episodes of season four.

Not only is there a strong foiling between Buffy and Drusilla. They are both people with prophetic dreams, in fact Buffy and Drusilla even share the same dream at one point with Drusilla aware Buffy is there. They are both women who are victimized by Angelus. There are even fan theories that Drusilla's power of prophecy might have come from the fact she was a potential slayer who was vamped before she ever was activated. Later on, they both share a connection to Spike. There's even a bit of a love triangle, one of Drusilla's primary goals in the season is to get Angelus back from Buffy so she can reunite her family.

You could even make the argument that it's Drusilla who's the main villain of the season, not Angel or Spike. There's the captain and tonille monologue after the piano organ falls on Spike where it speculates that Drusilla was the one pulling the strings all along. As crazy as Drusilla seems, in her more lucid moments she's clearly capable of manipulating both Spike and Angelus by pitting them against each other.

Most important of all, I would say that Drusilla is the only character with a real reason of wanting to unleash a demon into the world at the end of the season to turn it into a hellscape. Spike doesn't want to destroy the world, he's all talk, he likes the world. Angelus doesn't really care about destroying the world, he only wants to remove the sword from the stone because it makes him feel like he's chosen and special. Drusilla is the vampire with a tragic backstory, she's the one stuck as an insane, evil thing. She has the most compelling reason for wanting to unleash chaos, because it will either end her life, or make other people suffer for what she's suffering.

Drusilla has a personal motivation against Buffy too, because like I said she views Buffy as having stolen Angelus away from her. Angelus is the father of her family which is the only thing that brings any sense of stability in her life.

Not only does Buffy not see anything she has in common with Drusilla, she also just completely ignores the fact that Drusilla is also a victim of Angel. There's a few little moments where she deliberately ignores the humanity of Drusilla. Such as when she takes Drusilla hostage, and Spike completely drops everything because Dru's safety is more important to him than anything. Which directly contradicts Buffy's view that vampires are incapable of love.

She also, doesn't want to see Ford as a victim later on in the show when forced to view the truth of his situation.

Ford: Okay, well, you try vomitting for twenty four hours straight because the pain your head is so intense, and then we'll discuss the concept of right and wrong. These people are sheep. They want to be vampires because they're lonely, miserable, or bored. But I don't have a choice. Buffy: You have a choice. You don't have a good choice: what's behind door number one there is pretty mcuh a dead fish but you have a choice. You're opting for mass murder here and nothing you say to me is gonna make that okay. Ford: You think I need to justify myself to you? Buffy: I think this is all a part of your little fantasy drama. Isn't this just how you imagined it? You tell me how you've suffered and I feel sorry for you. Well I do feel sorry for you, and if those vampires come in here and start feeding I'll kill you myself. For a moment, Ford betrays an entirely genuine affection. He almost smiles, and quietly says: FORD: You know what, Summers? I really did miss you

Which leads to Buffy's struggle in this scene. The tension between the natural empathy she feels for Ford, but also the fact she has to shut her emotions down and do her job, because people are going to die. Buffy sounds pretty unsympathetic here, but if you watch the clip rather than reading the script Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting really drives home this struggle, Buffy's tearing up as she's saying these things.

Buffy's accusation of Ford treating this like it's all a movie, is also hypocritical on her part because it's something she does too, she just assigns herself the role of hero rather than villain. Which doesn't sound bad, because she does save people, she's in general someone with strong morals, in fact it's her moral obligation to protect people that makes her shut down her sympathy for Ford.

At the same time, Buffy later goes on to apply this Black and White thinking to characters who aren't as clear cut as Ford. The biggest example is Faith, which I will cover in depth later, but before Faith even did anything wrong Buffy was desperate to see her as "The Bad Slayer" to make Buffy herself look like the "Good Slayer." To the point where she was practically waiting for Faith to screw up, and when she did jumped on her. Buffy's victim blaming of Faith in her time of greatest need is some pretty callous behavior, especially since her ousting Faith played a role in what drove her to the Mayor in the first place. Buffy is a middle class kid, who has a stable circle of friends, a supportive mom and a school life and in addition to that a watcher.

Faith is a poor kid, a victim of abuse, someone who lives in a motel, and has no stable watcher and Buffy refuses to see any of this and is quick to jump to the idea that Faith just had these violent tendencies to begin with.

So, Buffy will villainize people besides Ford, and refuse to extend sympathy to them before they really do anything wrong and this has consequences. In this situation she's morally right and justified, but Buffy will continue to do this as time goes on and her inability to see herself as anything but the hero will cause her to not own up to it when she is behaving badly.

Buffy: You mean life? Giles: Yeah. Does it get easy? Giles: What do you want me to say. Buffy: Lie to me. Giles: Yes, it's terriby simple. The good-guys are stalwart and true. The bad-guys are easily distinguished. by their pointy horns or black hats and we always defeat them and save the day. Nobody ever dies.. and everybody lives happily ever after.

However, she has a sympathetic reason for doing this, and it's because Buffy's life is hard, and she wants a comforting story to tell herself. She wants to do this because her life is very hard. In a way, she also parallels Ford even further.

FORD: A couple more days and we'll get to do the two things every American teen should have the chance to do. Die young and stay pretty... BUFFY: I may be dead, but I'm still pretty.

Buffy, like Ford is faced with the prospect that she is probably going to die young, and in a gratuitously painful way, so in that situation who wouldn't lie to themselves?

2. ANGEL

As mentioned above, a lot of people have told me they do not get Angel until they watch Becoming and then it clicks for them. This is actually understandable, because not only does Angel lie to Buffy throughout the whole season, but Angel himself is kind of not a person.

In the Christmas Episode in Season 3, Jenny / the First draws attention to the fact that before Angel became a vampire, he was just a drunken disappointment to his father. Angel is someone lacking in any identity, and because of that he leans into the role that Darla offers him as her soulless partner in crime because at least that's something.

The duality between Angel and Angelus is that when he is Angel, he's a mostly boring and stuff brooding vampire who doesn't want to socailize and is at best emotionally distant even to someone like Buffy who he claims to passionately love, and when he's Angelus he's almost cartoonishly evil, but this split means neither of them are really a fully fleshed out person.

Angel is someone who is at the same time questing for identity, and also someone who doesn't want to form his own identity, because to do so he'd have to live in the world the same as anyone else and he doesn't want that.

Angel and Buffy are foils, because they both see themselves as the protagonists of reality. However, unlike Buffy who longs for a normal life and to live in the world, Angel wants to be the champion of his own heroic myth. Which is part of his attraction to Buffy, she is the chosen one, and by his association with her he's also special. As much as Buffy wants to lean into the Romeo and Juliet tragic lovestory aspect of their relationship, Angel wants that too because being the special someone in Buffy's eyes uplifts him.

Before seeing Buffy and making the decision to change his life, Angel was eating rats in an alleyway for more than 100 years. Buffy is the inspiration for him to actually make an effort to be someone. In worlds where he does not meet Buffy, and does not meet Cordelia, the isolation eventually drives him insane, he's being tortured in Anya's wishverse, and in the world he doesn't meet Cordelia he's an insane prophet who's constantly chattering nonsense like Drusilla.

Here's where I'll give Angel the benefit of the doubt, I don't believe his initial reasoning for trying to be a part of Buffy's life was to groom her to have a romantic attachment to him. I do think he sympathized with a teenage girl and wanted to help make her life easier by being an ally. Angel's capable of being a sympathetic guy when he lets go of his various issues, just look at his much stronger platonic relationship with Faith. However, Angel's intention became mixed when he developed romantic feelings.

Angel: Because I wanted to! I want you so badly. I wanna take comfort in you and I know it'll cost me my soul and part of me doesn't care.

Not only is Buffy unaware of the danger that Angel presents to her, Angel is lacking self awareness on the unhealthier aspects of his relationship to Buffy. As I said Angel doesn't have a fully developed sense of self, and his compromise on this is to try to become important in Buffy's life rather than working on himself. IT's why Angel's character development doesn't really begin until he gets his own series and is forced to separate from Buffy and build a life outside of her.

Angel is all too happy to play along with Buffy's romantic fantasy of him as the brooding tortured vampire, because it provides him comfort. There are two lies Angel tells Buffy this episode. The first is when he begins to sneak around and investigate Ford behind her back.

While this doesn't seem too bad because it's done with her best intentions, Angel's not treating her like a person with agency. He doesn't come clean with her and talk to her about his suspicions, he goes behind her back and just does it. He doesn't have respect for Buffy's opinions on this situation because his will trumps hers. If it were a one time instance it would be one thing, but Angel constantly either goes behind Buffy's back, or talks down to her like she's a child and he's an adult therefore taking the high ground in their relationship.

Angel: Buffy. May I come in? Buffy: Sure. I thought once you'd been invited you could always just walk in. Angel: I can. I was being polite. Buffy: Oh. Angel: We need to talk. Buffy: Do we? Angel: It's about your friend Ford. He's not what he seems. Buffy: Well, who is these days?

There's a lot of double meaning in this statement. Starting out with the fact Angel asks Buffy for permission to come in the house, and Buffy highlighting the fact he usually doesn't do this. Which is something he should do, you know as a boundaries thing. This becomes darker later on in the season where he breaks into her house to leave drawings on her bed, when earlier the idea of him coming into her room to watch her sleep is romanticized. Even Angel asking Willow for permission to enter her room late at night, allows him to break into her room after losing his soul to kill her fish and leave yet another direct threat to Buffy. Things that seem minor or even romantic early on in this season, turn to violations of her boundaries.

Which also supports the idea that as much as Angel wants to deny it, him and Angelus are the same person. Even before losing his soul again, he was clearly walking all over Buffy and not treating her well it just became obvious when Angelus started putting the screws to her.

Angel says Ford is not what he seems, when he himself is deliberately presenting a false image to Buffy. He wants to tone down his greater crimes, because Buffy loving him is a comfort to him and he fears her rejection. It's something he even deliberately asks for when we get to his second lie, his concealing of his relationship with Drusilla.

Angel: Sometimes the truth is worse. You live long enough, you find that out. Buffy: I can take it. I can take the truth. Angel: Do you love me? Buffy: What? Angel: Do you? Buffy: I love you. I don't know if I trust you. Angel: Maybe you shouldn't either. Buffy: Maybe I'm the one who should decide.

So, to put aside the topic of whether Angel is deliberately grooming Buffy here even before he becomes Angelus, the very fact he needs to confirm her love for him before telling the truth speaks of his priorities. He's not telling this lie for Buffy's sake, but for his own.

Just this conversation is a pretty manipulative action, whether or not you think in a broader context that Angel approached Buffy to begin with having the intention of manipulate her. Buffy even points out that it's up to her to decide whether or not she trusts him. Angel wants to take this choice away from her, because he's afraid of that rejection. He pretends that he is lying to her for her own good because she can't handle his darker nature, but it's Angel himself who can't handle or come to terms with what he did in any real way.

Which is what Whistler says to him way way later in Becoming, that the best thing to do for him would be to try living in the world the same as everyone else, in spite of what he's done. Angel here is choosing the romantic fantasy Buffy has on him and trying to preserve it, rather than just admitting what he has done and letting Buffy decide for herself how she wants to judge him.

There's also small moments in this episode, where Angel playing up to vampire tropes is pointed out. They're played off as jokes, but like I said Angelus whole identity is just "evil vampire", because if he's not evil then he's just a loser.

Angel: Things used to be pretty ismple. A hudnred years just hanging out, feeling guilty. I really honed my brooding skills. Then she comes along... [...] Angel: These people don't know anything about vampires. What they are, how they live, how they dress. THE same moment he says that a club member walks by in THE EXACT SAME OUTFIT that angel is wearing. Angel looks sheepish for a moment as Xander and Willow eye him sardonically.

So you have two lampshades, number one Angel making himself out to be the brooding vampire who falls head over heels in love, number two the vampire worshipping cult dresses exactly the same as Angel the broody vampire who dresses in all black and wears leather pants.

This is an episode that commentaries on the pop culture idea of vampires in general, because as I said, there's a vampire worshipping cult of people who have this idealized image of vampires as tortured and lonely souls when according to the lore of Buffy, they are demons who are possessing corpses.

BUFFY: I got a newflash, braintrust. That's not how it works. You die. A demon sets up shop in your old house. It walks and talks and remembers your life but it's not you.

Which again speaks to Angel's lack of identity. It's ambiguous later on if who you are as a vampire is the same or different from who you were as a demon. Drusilla believes that you remain the same person. Angel believes that soulless Angelus is an entirely different person than him, while Angelus insists the opposite. Spike after being souled, develops a conscious and the ability to self reflect on the morality of his actions but pretty much acts the same.

Angel however, has three identities. Liam was a loser. Angelus is a soulless monster. Angel is someone who wants to be neither of these things, but fails to form an identity of his own. Angel clearly believes that being a vampire he cannot be human or a person in the world in any way that counts and uses this fact to separate himself from others which further inhibits his ability to form an identity.

Which is the foiling with Buffy coming back in again, they both fall into the Vampire and Slayer forbidden love, because in theory it should work. There's some things about Angel's life that only Buffy would understand because she is a Slayer. At least Angel believes so. Angel who thinks he's incapable of connecting with normal people tries to form that connection he's lacking with Buffy. Also, as I've said I do believe Angel WANTS to be there for Buffy, and WANTS to be the person she can confide in. It's just his lack of identity makes it impossible for him to be those things, because he can't set healthy relationship boundaries.

He's in love with Buffy as the hero, just as much as Buffy is in love with him as the brooding vampire. Which is why Angel has the much more selfish angle of wanting to get into the relationship because it uplifts him and makes him feel special. It's no coincidence that when Angel is granted his wish of being human again, he immediately goes back in time to undo that fact when he finds out he's not as strong in a fight against Buffy. There are other characters who are just normal human beings with no powers like Giles and Xander who support Buffy just fine, but Angel can't do that.

Angel believes Buffy is a special person in a way that he is not, and this is a big part of his attraction to her. He literally says as much in Halloween, the previous episode.

Angel: I hated the girls back then. Especially the nobelwomen. Buffy: You did? Angel: They were just incredibly dull. Simpering morons, the lot of them. I always wished I could meet someone... exciting.

Angel pretty much says he likes Buffy because she's "Not like other girls" which sort of misses the point, Buffy is exactly like other girls, and what she longs for his normalcy.

It's not an insurmountable obstacle in their relationship, because Angel could make an effort to learn the person who Buffy is behind her role of the hero, but he doesn't do that.

In fact, idealizing your partner isn't healthy, but Angel goes a step beyond that. His latter half of season two actions with Buffy are a direct parallel to what he did to Drusilla. He was similiarly obsessed with Drusilla at first sight, and he went out of his way to cultivate her into what she is now. He saw Drusilla as special, and then twisted her around his finger.

Angelus obsession with Buffy, mirrors the way he saw Drusilla. In a way he almost wants to knock her down from her pedestal, because that's what he did to Dru. He made Drusilla into a vampire like him, reducing her to someone on his level.

Even as Angel, he constantly takes the higher ground on Buffy in his relationship with her, asserting that she is a kid, and he knows better on a few occasions. In a meta-sense, it's almost like he wants to take the role of hero away from her. In a standard narrative b/c most narratives are male centric, Buffy would be the love interest, and Angel the hero.

This is a joke in the Jonathan episode of season four, Jonathan is made into the special hero who everyone else revolves around and despite being the Slayer, Buffy is reduced to a more weak-willed and unconfident version of herself that needs to go to Jonathan for advice. Angel's so desperate to be a champion he's almost going out of his way to supplant Buffy's role as the main character.

He does it passively as Angel, by just being manipulative and not respecting her, and then actively as Angelus by literally trying to tear her down. Which is another thing that Angelus wants to go out of his way to punish Buffy BECAUSE he made him love her. Angelus like Angel is a non-person, and part of the reason he goes out of his way to be especially cruel is because of his rejection of human emotion. When a ghost possesses his body and makes him feel love, he literally starts scrubbing himself in the shower until his skin goes raw.

Angel plays the brooding hero on a mission of redemption, Angelus plays the villain, neither of them are at this point in their character arc making an effort to just be a person. Which is what really sabotages his relationship with Buffy, because Buffy DOES love Angel and wants to know who he is as a person. If Angel could just let go of the fantasy romeo x juliet aspect of his relationship with Buffy they could make an attempt at having a real relationship, but he can't.

3. Lie to Me.

This episode is essentially where it all starts. At this point it's like Buffy is locked into the tragedy that's going to hit her in the latter part of the season. Her decision to ignore the clear warning sirens that Angel is giving off here, is what makes his turn to Angelus blindside her so hard.

That's also what's interesting about Buffy as a show in general, because as much as this episode seems like a one-off standalone, it contributes to the myth arc. Buffy doesn't stop lying to herself at the end of the episode. She still keeps lying until the reality slaps her in the face. The themes of this individual episode carry on for the rest of the season.

Which is what makes the final quote in the show between Giles and Buffy so meaningful, because she asks him to lie to her, and being confronted with those harsh lies Buffy doesn't really have a revelation she goes back to the lie because she can't let go of that comfort. The fantasy is peeled back and we're shown reality for just a moment, only for Buffy to retreat into the fantasy again, something she will continue to do for almost the entire show until the very end when the chosen one myth is deconstructed fully.

#btvs meta #buffy the vampire slayer #buffy the vampire slayer analysis #buffy the vampire slayer meta #drusilla #buffy summers #buffy meta #buffy #angelus #angel

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thewarlocknerd · 2 years

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So, I was listening to the latest Buffering the Vampire Slayer episode on “Empty Places” and....yikes. Let me start off by saying that I’m really uncomfortable with the way Jenny and Kristin have consistently bagged on Buffy Summers to the extent that the only other character who receives as much as criticism is fucking Xander of all people!! I’m just so tired of the constant judgment of Buffy as “so self-absorbed” “not a good enough friend to others” “a bitch” without ever really acknowledging the faults of other characters! Willow, Faith, Anya all get a pass bc the hosts love them and even with characters that they’re not overly fond of such as (early seasons) Angel and Riley, they allow them all so much nuance in the choices they make whether good or bad and their terrible behaviors even when there are instances in which these situations and behaviors are unquestionably amoral yet for every bad decision Buffy makes or for every time she isn’t The Sweetest Person In The World 24/7, they come down so unfairly hard on her! Especially with this last episode, where they justified and cheered at her GETTING KICKED OUT OF HER OWN GODDAMN HOUSE!!

For God’s sake!!

It’s the middle of the apocalypse, Turok-Han and Caleb are all hunting them down, and these bastards (who, sure, have room to question some of her decisions) throw her out of her own house to wander this town all by herself where she could be murdered at any moment! And Jenny and Kristin are just so celebratory throughout the whole event and even defend Anya’s words to Buffy about “not earning her gifts” and “being luckier than the rest of us” as if we haven’t had 7 FUCKING SEASONS as proof that this is nowhere near the case! As if it’s more than just Buffy taking up the role of leader by herself and being prone to isolating herself but also the Scoobies continuously putting her within that position and placing pressure on her at every moment to save the day and lead them all to victory when tbh, aside from Spike and(to an extent Willow), none of them have been doing a whole hell of a lot to help her and actually aid her in this fight!! So no wonder she feels like she has to double down on being the sole leader, protector, and general of this huge group of people all pressuring her to be their savior! Giles is the one throughout season 7 consistently telling her to step up and be the general and make the hard decisions and detach herself from her emotions then has the nerve to get all pissy and upset when she follows his fucking instructions and starts acting as the general!

I’m just so annoyed at Kristin and Jenny for even admitting at the start of the episode that Buffy is just so damn broken from all that she has experienced this season and yet still calls her a bitch for what?!? Not telling Clem to take care of himself when he’s leaving?? And it only goes downhill from the beginning!

It feels like they missed the entire point of the series: the series is focused on Buffy Summers! It’s primarily shown from her perspective! You can’t call her self-absorbed and a narcissist when the show is quite literally grounded in her perspective and places the audience in her shoes!

Back to “Empty Places” and Anya’s speech: Buffy was not born with these powers! She had them forced upon her when she was only 15 goddamn years old! She wasn’t like Anya who chose to become a vengeance demon(TWICE),for the past seven years she has been doing the best she can with a burden that has placed the weight of the world on her shoulders since she was a child, stolen so many loved ones from her, and has placed an early death sentence upon her!

BUFFY SUMMERS IS NOT LUCKY!!

Does she make mistakes? Yes!

Does she tend not to handle her problems in the healthiest of ways? Of course!

Does she care about every single person around her and only wants to protect and take care of them with all of her heart and soul?? HELL FUCKING YES

She may not always have all the answers but for seven years she has tried her best over and over again to save the world and take care of her loved ones and lead them to victory and provide a better life for them! She has forgiven these people for so many of the horrible and quite frankly at times unforgivable things they’ve done to her

AND THEY KICK HER OUT OF HER OWN HOUSE!

So for Kristin and Jenny, to cheer for Anya’s speech, to say stuff like Buffy deserved that bc she “doesn’t know how to be a follower” (when she was forced by these same people into the role!) and that she “would be all or nothing” in terms of choosing to hand over leadership or leave the house....I just couldn’t disagree more!

Anyways, even two decades later, Buffy Summers deserves so much better from her loved ones, her fandom, from podcasters, from her narrative, and deserves so much more nuance in the analysis of her character rather than just deeming her a “privileged bitch”

Buffering the Vampire Slayer really dropped the ball on this one

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffering the vampire slayer #buffy summers #buffy summers defense squad #podcast #btvs meta #btvs rant #the scooby gang #fuck the scoobies!#btvs season 7 #willow rosenberg #anya jenkins #rupert giles #faith lehane #angel #riley finn #fuck buffy season 7!!

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mcgnagallsarmy · 2 years

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Spuffy style Reading Challenge - #5: The Clock Reading Challenge

One Girl in All the World by violettathepiratequeen [G]

Early S6. During one of Spike's (hopefully many) visits to the back porch, he recounts to Buffy the tale of the greatest Slayer there ever was.

My Life Closed Twice by anaross [R]

Post-Not Fade Away. Buffy seeks Spike's remains, but then finds him in the most unusal place.

Noel: A Miracle in Three Parts by pfeifferpack [G]

Things had gone steadily pear shaped ever since the resurrection that brought Buffy back into the world but far from back to life. The vampire that loves her is challenged to know the right thing to do to actually help as things go from bad to worse. Meanwhile a witch with more power and insecurities than is safe for the world is struggling to avoid the temptation of magic. All in all it’s a typical holiday season in Sunnydale. Maybe it’s time for a bit of an intervention of the helpful kind?

Four Colours by GillO [PG]

Spike's POV: four colours which have been important in his unlife.

Five Gold Rings by slaymesoftly [PG-13]

Dawn finds the perfect gift for Buffy on eBay, but someone else is bidding against her...

In Just Six Minutes by angi3m [NC-17] - this is an all human story

Lonely and workaholic singleton Buffy Summers decides to let her roommate drag her along to a speed-dating party. The whole night seems like a total bust until the timer dings and a blonde stranger sits down across from her.

Seven Days by TwilightChild [NC-17]

Buffy gets a second chance to convince Spike she loves him before she must give him up to death again.

Crazy Eights by spikes_heart [NC-17]

Spike is not chipped and not souled. Buffy never died. The relationship between Spike and Buffy is cautiously friendly. Spike NEVER attempted to rape Buffy. Angel and Dru are out of the picture. Don’t even know if there is a Dawn, Glory never existed. Joyce may or may not be deceased. Nobody’s heard of The First. The story is like a game of Crazy Eights with everything wild.

Nine Crimes by EllieRose101 [R]

“You wanna hear about me and Spike? Fine. It’s time for a history lesson.” When Buffy finds out that Spike’s still getting chewed out for what he almost did, by her friends and family a year after the events of Seeing Red, she decides it’s time to set the record straight, once and for all.

10:

Ten Minutes by FlightsofFancy [R]

Buffy, alone, looking for Oz in the Initiative. She only has ten minutes. She finds someone else. Life of a hero, impossible odds.

11:

The Eleventh Hour by Wonder and Ashes [PG-13]

Vampires and magic and monsters are real. But would it be crazy to assume that time travel is real, too?

12:

The Twelve Days Before Christmas by Annabellee [NC-17]

In this crazy one shot based on the popular Christmas song, Spike spends the twelve days before Christmas trying to find the perfect gift for his lady love for their very first holiday as a couple. Unfortunately, the universe seems hell-bent on keeping him from finding it until the last possible moment! To find a gift worthy of the Slayer, Spike must overcome such obstacles as gooey demons, Christmas crowds, Slayers-in-training, the internet, and Hallmark movies.

#Buffy The Vampire Slayer #btvs #spuffy #ficrec #reading challenges

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oveliagirlhaditright · 9 months

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Has anyone read the Buffy the Vampire Slayer virtual season "Project Paranormal?" Because I've been reading the heck out of that lately, and it's so good!

Right now, I'm on season four (and there are only four seasons), so I'm definitely going to miss it when I'm done with it. LOL

I don't want to spoil too much about it, for those who haven't read it, but it starts with Angel getting rescued (or actually, coming back to life) after the big battle in the alley at the end of Angel season five.

...I actually accidentally missed reading the first chapter--that's actually a prologue--when I first started reading this fic. So, I don't have all the details on how everything started (and have just gotten the bits of pieces when the cast talked about it all again in subsequent parts. At this point, I plan to go back to that chapter when I finish the story. XD).

But it sounds like Giles was training the newly turned Slayers in England by himself, and somehow heard that Angel had come back--or could come back, or was going to come back--and went to help him for Buffy's sake, and told Buffy about this, of course (I think she was in Rome?), who then joined up with him. And then Buffy ended up back in England with Giles and the girls, where she tried to help a healing Angel (in a lot of ways, he starts out like he did when he first got brought out of Hell in season three). But while there, also helps out with the girls' training.

Angel gets better, and he also starts training the girls some.

Of course there's some Bangel stuff, as well as Buffy and Giles moments... As well as Angel and Giles character development that's really impressively done--realistic and believable--and the two are actually able to become friends again.

Then Giles starts up "Project Paranormal" for Angel--something akin to Angel Investigations--so he won't get too bored. And then Buffy becomes a part of it, as well, and even Giles. And their adventures there, and some of the plot things that happen with it (that always end with apocalypses, of course) are where the plot really lie.

I feel like the thing that stands out to me the most about this fic, is that with all of the Buffyverse fanfics I've read... for the most part with the ship fic... Even if it's supposed to be an ensemble cast, and the author does their best to try and make the other characters have chapters, have development, and feel like their canon selves, it still feels like they're side characters, somehow, compared to the main ship in said fic.

Not here. Buffy, Angel, and Giles are all equally important.

It also seems to me that in most fics post-Buffy season seven, Giles gets left out a lot--or is really in the background--as the author seems to feel like Buffy has really grown-up and doesn't need him as much anymore. So it's nice to see this fic really breaking that trend.

And as this is a virtual season--with multiple different authors writing the chapters, but working together to make sure it's one cohesive story, they did a bang-up job with it.

Edit: For anyone who might be interested, here's a link where you can read said fic:

:) But to not make the mistake that I did, make sure that you read the prologue "Consequences" first;)

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sunnydaleherald · 10 months

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, June 28

DAWN: I just don't see why people bother. I mean, you put all this energy into chasing and having and brooding and— I just don't understand these relationships where you all do insane things.

~~Him~~

If you DO see why the Herald editors bother to post the newsletter, maybe consider joining us if you can spare a couple of hours a week! Find out more here. :)

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Looking Back by badly_knitted (Willow, Oz, PG)

someone take me home (get me out of here) by frnklyfrankie (Faith & Oz, Faith/Kenny, M)

Watch The World Burn by Blackmysteria (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Chaptered Fiction]

This woman's work - Chapter 1 by buffyandfaith (Buffy/Faith/Spike, M)

who could ever leave me, darling—but who could stay? (you could stay) Ch. 13 by MillennialCryBaby (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Seven, Ch. 48 by Holly (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Written in the Dust, Ch. 20 by Indi_Shaw (Buffy/Spike, R)

Diamonds, Ch. 2 by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, R)

Under the Influence, Ch. 4 by Hostile17-1996 (Buffy/Spike, R)

Presumably Dead Arm, Ch. 10 by tragic (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Aspectus, Ch. 27 by Kirinin (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Homecoming episode poster by cutest-patootie (Buffy, Cordelia, worksafe)

148 100px icons of Robia Lamorte in BtVS Season 1 by strngerph (Jenny Calendar, worksafe)

70s spike but ….sluttier by tubesock86 (probably worksafe)

“What do you say? Wanna be bad?” by tmcarlee (Willow, vampire Willow, worksafe)

Digital painting: William by MIKAELA R G (worksafe)

[Reviews & Recaps]

Pop Culture Role Call: UwU Wuthewfowd - Angel S04E22 - Home

Angel on Top - 5.17 Underneath

[Recs & In Search Of]

Top 10 Spuffy fics I’ve read (June 2023) by mcgnagallsarmy

[Community Announcements]

New roleplay forum: hellmouth.forumactif.com (in French)

[Fandom Discussions]

Firing a bullet through the vampire coffin by PeterVincent85 and others

Who do you wish joined Team Angel? by buffyangel468

Which moments/scenes do you enjoy watching YouTube reactors reacting to? by Excellent-Durian-509

This show has unexpectedly brought me massive relief and closure (re: Katrina in Dead Things) by Aurorafaery

What do you think of the balcony scene in Dead Things? by aeryn1227

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series

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jayciethings · 2 years

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Bangel Appreciation Week 2022: Day Seven: Free Choice - post BtVS and AtS fanfic

Two seasoned warriors drown their sorrows after fighting the Apocalypse. It turns out to be the most important drink they'll ever have.

Irish Wake

There were only two customers in the dimly lit bar.

Actually, three, but only two of them were fully conscious.

The third was currently crashed out in the corner, making faint moaning noises.

Jace, the bar's owner, had seen some pretty insane shit the last few days, even by L.A.'s standards. The goddamn sky cracking open; terrible, terrifying creatures raining down; maiming, killing, eating…

After seeing all that, watching an itty-bitty slip of a girl lay out a crim twice her height and three times her weight was pretty small-fry.

He'd expected trouble when Royce got a little frisky with the blonde, but he'd expected it from her companion. But the big dark-haired guy had just leaned on the bar throughout, alert, but seeming more amused than anything else.

Once she broke Royce's wrist, however, the rest of his gang piled on. At that point her large hulking friend had joined in.

Five minutes later, three of Jace's stools were broken, a dozen glasses were smashed, and the toughest gang in Downtown had bolted, leaving a semi-comatose Royce behind.

"You gonna pay for that damage?" Jace groused, surveying the broken stools.

The dark guy slapped some bills down on the counter. "How about you give us a bottle of Bourbon and we don't call the police about how you stood by and let a violent gang attack poor innocent customers?"

Jace snorted. "Innocent… Yeah, right."

But green was green, so he smacked down the bottle and two tumblers, and then retreated to the backroom where he could pretend to clean glasses in peace.

"Okay… so, how d'you wanna do this?"

Buffy blinked at him. "Me? This is your area."

"How is this my area? Spike's the big drinker, not me," Angel objected.

"Isn't this supposed to be one of…" She waggled a hand in the air. "Your people's traditions."

His brows drew together in bewilderment. "Vampires?"

She rolled her eyes. "Irish people! You know, the whole honour the dead with a drink thing…" Her expression faltered. "I don't know. After everything we've seen, I just know I want a whole lot of alcohol. And if we're gonna be drinking, why not use it to say thank you to them? …and goodbye."

Their eyes met. The moment held.

"Okay," he agreed softly, smiling at her in way that made the years roll back.

It helped reassure her.

He was still Angel.

"Okay," she agreed. The urge to smile back faded as she raised her glass and Angel mimicked her gesture.

"To Amanda. She loved swing music; she was shy but fierce; and she could absolutely kick Andrew's ass at Dungeons and Dragons."

"To Amanda," Angel said softy. They drank from the tumblers. "She died in the Alley Battle?"

"No," Buffy said just as quietly, peering into her glass. "She died in Sunnydale, fighting the Turok-Han. We never did this after the battle there. We should've…" Then she frowned. "You really need to come up with a cooler name than 'The Alley Battle'."

Angel looked a little defensive. "It took place in an alley," he pointed out.

Buffy scrunched her face up. "Imagine if we did that with all the battles? I would have killed you in the 'Girly Mansion Battle'. That really how you wanna go out?"

"Okay, point."

She nudged him with her shoulder. "Your turn."

He took a moment then raised his glass. "To Doyle."

She waited, but when he didn't say anything more, she copied his gesture, and they both drank.

"Tell me about him," she prompted.

"Doyle?" Angel smiled. "Now, Doyle really was an Irishman… He could drink Spike under the table. He was a hustler who worked extremely hard to avoid doing an honest day's work…" His smile faded; he looked sad but proud. "He was also one of the bravest people I ever met. He went knowingly to his death to save others. He was the first person I lost here." His brows lowered, brooding. "I didn't know then what a pattern that would become."

Buffy silently refilled their glasses then raised her own once more. "To Shannon."

"To Shannon," Angel echoed.

"Shannon was from Ohio. She loved to draw. She had this big crush on Willow but never said anything because of Kennedy. She let me see her sketchbook one day, and I saw this portrait she did of Will… It was amazing. She survived being stabbed by Caleb; and she survived the Hellmouth. Then she died here after a demon snapped her neck. She was seventeen."

"I'm sorry, Buff."

"Yeah." She smiled sadly. "Lot of sorrys to go around."

He lightly squeezed her shoulder and she covered his hand with hers. They sat in companionable silence for a while before she spoke again: "You can talk about her if you want to, you know."

"Who?" he asked.

"Cordelia. Illyria told me what happened. I just wanted you to know it's okay to talk about her."

He inhaled through his nostrils then nodded, releasing her shoulder. He raised his tumbler.

"To Cordy."

"To Cordy," she agreed. Then she dropped her head slightly between her shoulders and gently slid her glass from one hand to the other along the bar.

"How come you never told us about her?"

"What do you mean?"

"How come you never told us about everything that happened with Cordelia," she clarified. "It took Fred telling Willow before we even found out she was in a coma. Let alone that she'd died in it. Why wouldn't you call and tell us? …why wouldn't you tell me?"

"It was just too painful, I guess. Too painful to talk about."

She gave him a measuring look. "Okay… That's one reason. What's the other?"

He exhaled, slow and steady. "Our lives had become separate, Buff. I'd worked hard to keep it that way. We both had. I already knew from Wolfram and Hart that Willow couldn't help with the coma, and as for the rest…"

"What? You thought we wouldn't care? That we didn't deserve to know? Cordelia was a part of us, too, you know." She sounded hurt.

He shook his head. "Not like the way she was here. She was part of your gang… she was more than that to us." He looked indescribably sad.

"Because you loved her." Her voice was soft.

"She was family," he replied.

One of Buffy's eyebrows shot up. "Kissing cousins?"

He shifted a little guiltily. "Someone's been telling tales."

Buffy shrugged, looking slightly mischievous. "Illyria has access to all of Fred's memories without any of those pesky human qualms about spilling them getting in the way." When she saw Angel was still looking uncomfortable, she laid a hand on his arm. "Angel – it's okay. You had feelings for her. That's allowed. And it's not like I'm really in a position to criticise here."

"My feelings for Cordy…" He trailed off, and then tried again. "They were complicated. She was the light, you know? The glue. She held us all together. I needed her. To keep going. To be a Champion. To fight the good fight – I needed her." Despite her previous protestation, Buffy looked a little pained. "And… yeah, I wanted her, too. How could I not? She was one of the best people I knew." He surveyed the contents of his glass, eyes far away. "I… I don't know exactly how to explain my feelings for her; I just know she was in my heart." He looked at her significantly.

"Touché." Buffy smiled, a little wryly. Then her smile turned warmer. "I'm glad that you had her. I'm glad that you had each other."

Once upon a time jealousy had been one of their relationship's defining characteristics. He'd always taken it as a sign they still cared. Him over Riley. Buffy over Faith…

But somewhere along the way that had changed. Somewhere along the way he'd realised all that really mattered to him was that she was happy.

Guess that's what people called growing up… and it had only taken two hundred and fifty years to get there. Buffy had got there in under twenty-five.

Possibly he should be embarrassed about that.

He smiled proudly at her. Proud of the woman she'd become, even if he hadn't been able to be there for a chunk of it.

"Your turn." He mimicked her earlier gesture, nudging her shoulder.

She exhaled, just short of a sigh then raised her glass in a salute. "To Anya."

Angel followed suit, but then looked a little hesitant. "I never really knew her. What was she like?"

"Anya?" Buffy seemed amused. "Anya was one of a kind. We weren't amazingly close, but she kind of grows on you, like a Chia pet, and before you know it, you don't really know how to get along without her… She was totally blunt. Absolutely no filter. I mean, she made Cordelia look tactful... But if she decided you were worth it, she was a hundred per cent loyal. Kinda like Spike, I guess…" She turned to him. "You know they actually hooked up one time?"

Angel pulled a "no kidding?" face then frowned a little. "You ever think our two groups are a little incestuous?"

Buffy snorted into her glass. "What makes you say that? Just 'cos half of us have boinked the other half…"

"I was going to put it more elegantly than that but… yeah." They clinked their glasses, chuckling. "Speaking of boinking…" Angel angled his body towards her. "How are you and Spike?"

Her nose wrinkled in appalled disgust. "Worst. Segue. Ever."

He looked at her. "You didn't get to talk yet?"

She pursed her lips and shook her head slowly. "He's kinda been avoiding me since the battle. I think he's still mad about what happened in Rome."

It was Angel's turn to purse his lips. "Well, can't totally blame him for that… I didn't really enjoy seeing you lick the roof of the Immortal's mouth either…"

"I told you a thousand times – that wasn't me. It was one of my decoys. After we blew up the Hellmouth in Sunnydale, a lot of people wanted me dead. Even more than normal," she mused. "We had to do something to throw them off the scent. Setting up a few decoys round the world was a good start."

"Well, it looked pretty damn convincing," Angel muttered.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Duh – that's kind of the point of a decoy. Willow spelled them that way to make sure it was convincing."

Angel wasn't done grousing (okay: maybe he wasn't totally over the jealousy thing). "Still though, you couldn't have given us a heads-up?"

One eyebrow went up. "You were doing a pretty convincing impression of evil exclamation point Angel at the time," she reminded him. "Plus, I could say the same to you, former head of Wolfram and Hart – why not give me a heads-up about what you were really up to?" She prodded him in the side, catching a still-healing rib, and he grunted, twisting away from the ticklishly painful sensation. "Oops, sorry." She widened her eyes, looking guilty.

Angel shrugged but the pain in his eyes undercut the casual gesture, a pain that wasn't just physical. "You'd already made it clear you didn't trust me. I figured I was on my own. And… I felt like this was my fight. Like you did, in Sunnydale." He met her gaze then. "Why did you come? You thought I was evil – what made you change your mind?"

Her answer was the last one he expected.

"Gunn." Angel blinked. "Sasha – one of his old crew – responded to the Slayer call when Willow cast the Potentials spell. Sasha runs with Vi's squad in Chicago now. Gunn and her had stayed in touch, so when he asked, Sasha put him in contact with me a few days ago. He told me what you were up to with the Black Thorn Circle." She smirked. "It was so noble and stupidly martyrish, I knew you had to be you. Angelus was never that dumb."

Angel smiled sardonically. "Thanks…"

"You're welcome," she chirped. Then her voice turned soft. "I liked Gunn. How's he doing?"

Some of the pain smoothed out of Angel's face, making her smile a little in turn. "He lost a lot of blood, but the doctors are cautiously optimistic. If Willow hadn't shown up and cast that stasis spell, I never would have got him to the hospital in time… By the way, when did she become totally terrifying?"

"Few years back," Buffy said non-chalantly. "Turned evil and nearly destroyed the world."

"Oh." They side-eyed one another. "Well, can't really throw stones about that one…" He tapped his upper lip thoughtfully. "I should probably get her some kind of thank-you gift…"

Buffy thought for a moment. "She likes bath salts," she offered.

He nodded gratefully.

They took another swig from their Bourbons.

"I'm sorry about Wesley," Buffy spoke into the comfortable silence.

His shoulders moved in a micro-shrug. "It's not your fault. He died before you even arrived in L.A."

"Yeah, but… if we'd gotten word to you, arrived a little sooner, you wouldn't have…" She trailed off.

"Put him in that position?" Angel finished.

She grimaced. "Angel, it's not your fault. From what Illyria told me, he thought he had stuff to atone for. You of all people should get why he felt he had to fight. He knew the risks. It was his choice."

He met her gaze levelly. "That how you feel when one of your girls dies?"

She bit her lip. "Okay, point… So maybe we both take on more responsibility than we should…"

He snorted. "Maybe."

There was another pause as Buffy considered whether or not to bring something up.

"So, lllyria's interesting."

A muscle in Angel's jaw clenched.

"I don't really know her. The only person she ever really bonded with was Wes… I guess because of Fred's influence."

It gave her the opening she was looking for.

"She was really important to you." It was a statement, not a question.

He nodded but didn't meet her gaze. "It was my job to save her. And I failed." Now he looked up. "I chose the world instead."

Buffy flinched from the look in his eyes. It was all too familiar; she'd seen it in the mirror for months when she was seventeen.

"Angel… Remember when I stabbed you with the sword?"

He smiled faintly. "It rings a bell or two."

Her returning smile was just as wan. "It was you or the world. It was the hardest choice I ever had to make. But I made it."

He spoke warmly, instinctively. "You did the right thing."

Her smile became a little more genuine. "See, I can tell you really mean that. You don't blame me for what I did. You don't think I had another option. Wouldn't Fred feel the same way?"

He stared at her.

She raised her glass. "To Fred and Wes."

He jerked his glass upwards; his voice was barely audible. "To Fred and Wes."

Buffy cast around for a change of subject. Something happy…

"Was Spike peeved you were the one who got to shanshu?"

What? Annoying Spike was Angel's idea of happy.

Same the other way around, actually.

Angel half-smiled, half-grimaced. "The first thing he did was punch me in the face."

She looked a little troubled. "He was that upset?"

Angel shook his head. "Nope. Said he wanted me to experience a proper vamp punch now I was all 'weedy and human' again. He was especially gleeful at the idea of me balding and turning grey. Of course that was before he found out about the extras…"

"Ah yes…" She ran a fingertip round her glass's edge. "'Power akin though short of the Slayer's.' What exactly does that mean?"

"It means I broke his nose when I punched him back." He touched a finger to the yellowed flesh round his left eye. "It means this will only take a day to fully heal, rather than a week." He met her gaze. "It means I will live and die a human's life but retain most of my vampire strength."

Slowly, tentatively, she reached out and slid her hand up his chest.

And felt the steady thud of his heartbeat.

Which meant he felt the moment she started to tremble.

Another silence fell, but it was a silence of a different kind. The air coiled with tension.

Then Buffy looked away.

Half-relieved, half-disappointed, they both downed the last of the Bourbon in their glasses. But Angel went one better and refilled his.

He looked up to see Buffy watching him with a dubious expression. "Maybe you should go a little easy there, tiger. From what you just told me, you've got a human's metabolism now – drinking on an empty stomach could lead to all kinds of badness." She gritted her teeth in a smile. "I speak from painfully embarrassing experience."

He sent her a scouring look that warmed her from the inside-out in a way that totally eclipsed the Bourbon.

"What would you recommend instead, Miss Summers?"

His eyes had always killed her. From the first moment they met.

Mocking and taunting.

Gentle and kind.

Capable of seeing right through her.

There'd been heat in them, too. More than once. But the heat had always been carefully controlled.

First because of her youth, later because of their curse.

She'd forgotten what it was like to see them unbound, unguarded…

She wasn't sure she'd ever seen it so fully.

Something sparked. Almost like a memory. Then it was gone again… but it left something in its wake.

A powerful craving.

"Ice-cream is always a fan favourite."

"Ah, yes." His eyes gleamed with laughter. "I've heard that."

He was noticeably closer.

She realised she was leaning forward in her stool. She made a heroic effort to recall her train of thought.

"So, would you like to get some? Cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip? On me?"

He stared at her as if she'd said something deeply profound, eyes burning with emotion so strong she almost wanted to look away. But she didn't. "What made you pick that flavour?"

She shrugged, an attempt at casual, and got to her feet. "Why waste time on the inferior? I say go straight for the good stuff."

He stood up as well. "Sounds good to me."

Oh, God. When did his voice get so husky?

"So we should go…. and get… ice-cream."

"Right. Ice-cream." How was he standing still yet coming closer?

"Right."

He bent his head.

She craned her neck.

Their lips met.

And they both went up in flames.

Jace returned from the backroom, rolled his eyes in disgust, and left the increasingly passionate couple to it.

Eventually, they parted, lips buzzing, gasping for breath. (Buffy grinned, wondering if she'd ever be able to take Angel actually needing to breathe for granted. Somehow, she didn't think so.)

His hand gripped his chest; he looked shocked and elated. "It feels like it's gonna beat right out my chest!"

Buffy couldn't resist. Her eyebrow shot up. "Already? Gosh… imagine how fast we could get it going if we really tried…"

There was a pregnant pause, during which his eyes flamed so hot, she thought she might combust on the spot.

Then with a visible effort, he leaned back a little and spoke levelly. "The only thing is… the cookies in that ice-cream, I hear they're not done baking." He peered down at her through unfairly long lashes, hopeful but anxious.

She smiled back, wide and free, and began to lead him from the bar.

"Everyone knows cookies taste best half-baked."

fin

#bangelappreciationwk2022 #bangel #bangel fic #bangel fanfic #buffy x angel #angel x buffy

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dancergurl3000 · 1 year

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My thoughts on “Conversations with Dead People” 20 years after it premiered. An essay.

I admit, I think “Touched” when Buffy and Spike officially become a couple is probably the best episode of Buffy season 7, but this one I think tops this. The date and the name of the episode hit at the top: November 12th, 2002. And in those twenty years, a lot has changed since Buffy was unabashedly unafraid to dig up the grave of a vampire that she had no idea used to be a high school study buddy. One of the things that always interested me in a rewatch of this episode was how isolated every single one of the main “Scoobies” were that night, the direction seems 100% deliberate, pick them off one by one, as The First Evil sets out to do for the rest of season seven of Buffy with the potential slayers. I always resonated so much with what happens to “Dawn” inside this episode. This episode has “Dawn” Home Alone and encountering a terrifying moment of paranormal activity. And if you don’t think it could happen to you, oh it could. Every millennial remembers staying home from school because they had the chicken pox, and we’ve all seen the Home Alone movies. The scary part of the episode is how terrorized “Dawn” seems to be this episode specifically and that the terror itself is because her dead mother is trying to relay a message to her from beyond the grave. And before anyone says anything about whether or not ghosts do exist; I just want to point out how vulnerable “Dawn” really was and that Buffy seems to be nowhere to be found when she calls in a panic. Twenty years later, this episode still seems like a knock out. Not just for the emotional release Buffy has with a vampiric stranger, but because of the ending: the way the First evil saunters and tricks might I add “Willow” so hastily; so brazenly, she didn’t even know she was being tricked by an apparition. I love the conversation that Buffy has with Holden, because it was the definition of what my acting teacher called “a character’s epiphany”. Buffy says: “I feel like I’m worse than anyone.” “Really. I’m beneath them.” “My friends. My boyfriends.” “I feel like I’m not worthy of their love.” “Because even though they love me, it doesn’t mean anything because their opinions don’t matter.” “They don’t know.” “They haven’t been through what I’ve been through.” “They’re not the slayer.” “I am.” “Sometimes I feel like this is awful.” “Sometimes I feel like I’m better than them.” “Superior.” It was a true moment of Buffy feeling sorry for herself. And for all her talk about being so numb and unfeeling, it was refreshing to hear her talk like this. Twenty years later, I would hope that not only could Buffy feel sorry for herself, but also feel other things such as joy, happiness, and contentment. I would hope that for Buffy’s sake, just like my favorite stand up comic wants, I would want her to have fun at her own wedding; and feel other emotions other than sorrow. Buffy deserves that, and so does everybody else.

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herinsectreflection · 2 years

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The Magicks I Used Are Very Powerful (Becoming: Part One)

(This is the first of four essays on 'Becoming'. They are standalone and you do not have to read them to understand this one, but if you want you can find them all here)

There are few characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer who undergo as radical a transformation over its seven seasons as Willow Rosenberg. The shy, awkward girl who let herself be bullied away from a water fountain at the start of Season One is the same woman who fights a God in Season Five, who nearly destroys the world in Season Six, who transforms the world in Season Seven. She changes so much, and yet always remains fundamentally Willow.

This episode is all about the moments in our lives - small and large - that determine its course, and here we hit upon a major transformative moment for Willow. This moment puts her on a new set of tracks, and carries her to a destination we would’ve never thought possible in episode one. Here, Willow opens a door that she will not be able to close.

#I am really happy with this i love willow a lot #willow rosenberg #s2 #becoming #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs meta #meta #essay #insect reflection #dark willow #tillow

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nileqt87 · 2 years

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Response to the idea that Smallville was the origin of the CW’s DC shows and other thoughts

Smallville really just took its formula from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (as did the revival of Doctor Who, same as Angel: the Series doing the same for Torchwood by Russell T Davies' own admission), which also has a superhero in high school origin story and a strange town overrun with freaky things happening. Smallville's meteor freaks were exactly like the Hellmouth and the high death rates of their respective student bodies.

Roswell is another show that had a similar setup and was actually the first WB show about aliens with magic powers in high school. Max Evans is not too subtly Clark Kent-like, right down to the famous moment of transforming a lump of coal into a diamond. The alien/human hybrid quartet of Max Evans, Michael Guerin, Isabel Evans and the infamous Tess Harding are reincarnations of alien royalty/elite from a destroyed planet, so the connection is obvious.

Except that show went far further with what would happen if the government found out than Smallville dared beyond a few episodes here and there. Max certainly had more done to him (the White Room and going on the run in the finale) than Clark ever did in that regard. Humans who get a little too close to the inhuman with plans for science or personal gain certainly is a trope that pops up in other genre shows (often humans desiring eternal life at a cost or captive experimentation/torture).

Sheriff Jim Valenti (who was the villain of the Roswell High books the shows were based on!) turned out to be the kids' fiercest protector, not unlike Lionel Luthor, despite being initial antagonists. Lionel being the king of horrific fathers contrasted hugely with Jonathan Kent. Jor-El's A.I. practically martyred Jonathan in a trade for Lana Lang, so this version is absolutely not comparable to the Christopher Reeve version's relationship with Marlon Brando's! Smallville's Clark is nearly a reversal of the old films in regards to farm boy Clark being the real deal, not the mere disguises of Superman and the hapless reporter (this is also true of Dean Cain's iteration), as well as the nurture over nature message of the Kents being his true parents in all but blood, whereas the focus is strictly on Jor-El over Jonathan as the father figure in the 1978 and DCEU versions.

Closest to danger Clark ever got outside of Lex Luthor's experimentation (only with the anonymous blood vial that eventually led to hybrid Lex/Clark clone test tube baby Conner Kent) was from General Sam Lane and the anti-vigilantism plot, but Clark never got nearly so exposed. Max also told his secret in the first episode, so it's a stark contrast to how long it took for Clark to tell his love interests and friends. Clark and Lucifer Morningstar are the kings of the long-delayed reveal! By contrast, Angel waited seven whole episodes and most of the rest of the characters mentioned here did so in their first episode, if not their first scene.

The WB was already a home to many shows like Smallville, though it certainly started DC adopting the channel as their home to drop their properties into that already-established format.

Angel: the Series, Smallville and Supernatural were the more masculine side (Angel: the Series and Supernatural are definitely the most mature, horror-based shows, as well) on a channel that also had Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the original genre show on a channel that was heavily just sitcoms and 7th Heaven prior to 1997 and quickly transformed the whole channel), Charmed and Roswell (not to mention Dawson's Creek and other more soapy, non-genre offerings).

Shows like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer were the ones that pretty much formed everything we expect from a modern fantasy/sci-fi/supernatural/horror series now, including the mix of overarching long-form story arcs and soap opera/relationship dramas mixed with the Monster of the Week and seasonal Big Bad formats. Monster of the Week (Smallville used Freak of the Week) and 'shipping were terms coined by The X-Files' fandom (yep, the biggest controversy of that show was whether Fox Mulder and Dana Scully should remain platonic colleagues as intended by the creator or become a romantic relationship, which took an interminable slow burn of seven seasons), while Big Bad (and thus arcs surrounding that Big Bad seeded throughout the season) was coined on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All these terms are used for discussing nearly every subsequent genre show today. Television prior to these shows did not have these formats, minus the old-as-dirt episodic Monsters of the Week, but not using that terminology yet.

Smallville was a marriage of comic book superheroes into the genre show format that was already going strong on the old WB. Some of these other non-comic-origin characters wouldn't be out of place in the comic world either. Definitely true for Buffy Summers and Angel, as they basically are superheroes. Buffy has the more straight-forward Peter Parker-esque origin story, while Angel's is told completely non-linear (often through a slow drip of flashbacks--his soul was returned a century prior, not during the course of the show, yet he most certainly didn't become a hero then).

It's surprising that Supernatural never quite went all-out with a real comic tie-in presence beyond some short runs early on. Neither the comics or the novels use Castiel much at all, who is the most super-powered main on the roster (so much so that the show writers were terrified to put him in Monster of the Week episodes and even tried to kill him off in seasons 6/7 due to him making the Winchesters irrelevant). Castiel is the Eldritch being-level angelic equivalent of The Little Mermaid trying to understand humanity, but with the tragic ending of the novel.

Clark himself has a mix of Dorothy Gale (check out that Over the Rainbow shot on the bridge in Smallville's pilot, which is an image also echoed in Luke Skywalker's binary sunset, followed by him doing an Ariel pulling Lex Luthor from the water) and Peter Pan (more than just the flying boy--he also has an immortality problem) in his DNA.

It's that little piece of inconvenient canon (alluded to numerous times through Smallville) that is at the heart of the adverse reactions of many Superman purists who were horrified by Smallville's Clark choosing to live a human life and have a family with Lois in the CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths. It wasn't just because Tom Welling still refuses to wear tights, but because it was the real unsolved existential crisis facing the character. Conversations with the Kents, Dax-Ur and General Lane all exposed this issue as an insecurity he had quite early on in the series. It's hardly teen angst, nor was it with Angel and the Doctor saying it repeatedly to Buffy and Rose; it doesn't make it teen angst just because they were teenagers. Clark likewise shares the tragedy of many other inhuman immortals (and yet, they keep doing it!) in that he can't father children naturally with humans without some kind of sci-fi workaround (like Blue or Gold Kryptonite).

We might like to see these characters be Peter Pan forever, but sometimes even Peter needs to grow up (as in Hook), lest he forever remain a tragedy. Make no mistake, the immortality trope is always a tragedy, which is why so many of these characters either run away from seeing it played out or they most desire to live human lives. Having duties greater than themselves and a need to save lives they'd never be able to as mortals are often the reasons for these sacrifices, but it still remains a sacrifice and ultimately a damnation, not a gift. These characters are either doomed to lose everyone they've ever loved or go out in a blaze of glory, which is what television shows using the trope are actually daring to show more recently.

Not being a tragic horror story, Superman tends to avoid it, but it's the same problem. That brief scene in Crisis on Infinite Earths was more in line with Smallville than Superman purists wished.

The Doctor is Peter Pan. It's most obvious with the imagery of little and big Amelia Pond in her nightgown, but the story with Rose Tyler juxtaposed beside Sarah Jane Smith also shows his Peter Pan-esque tendencies. He's the immortal who keeps picking up new companions to take on far-off adventures, only to leave them behind over and over again before he has to face their human mortality. Although the Doctor is older than Spock, he has picked up many Spockisms over the years like touch telepathy (yup, the Vulcan mind-meld), the half-human aspect of the 1996 TV movie that fans and the show do their best to ignore and the 10th Doctor's sacrifice via a glass case of radiation (see The Wrath of Khan).

Angel, of course, is Pinocchio (with a big dollop of Highlander's Prize), the Beast, the immortality of Peter Pan, Louis de Pointe du Lac and pre-retcon evil!Lestat de Lioncourt (the retconned one is, of course, Spike) morphed into Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and a touch of Steve Rogers meets Clark Kent, but with the aesthetic (not character) of Bruce Wayne (that mix is all there). Like Pinocchio and the Beast, there are those major elements of temptation, redemption and atonement.

The Buffyverse definitely borrowed heavily from the sympathetic vampire begun by Varney the Vampire, Nosferatu's plagiarization of Dracula that gave birth to death by sunlight (see the whole aesthetic of the Buffyverse's Master), the antiheroization (quite evil initially) in Dark Shadows, the archetypes of Anne Rice (the entire Master + Fanged Four are her lineup--Akasha, Gabrielle, IwtV!Lestat/Louis, Claudia and retcon!Lestat vs. the Master, Darla, Angel(us), Drusilla and Spike), the prosthetics of The Lost Boys and the vampire detective setup of Forever Knight (which copied Barnabas Collins' cure for vampirism arc, while Angel's Shanshu borrows more from Highlander's Prize). Blade and Angel added apocalypse-fighting/comic superheroes to that mix.

Ironically, the more recent examples of the good vampire have gutted their mythologies of evil-default vampires entirely (making the exceptions to the rule far less alienated and unique amongst their own kinds) and certainly kicked out the apocalyptic superheroing for soap opera. The Buffyverse is ironically closer to Anne Rice's full-blooded, evil, murderous inhuman creatures (no matter the guilt and eating rats in alleys) than it is Twilight and The Vampire Diaries in spite of the human/inhuman romance plots, marking a strong separation between the WB's era and the CW's.

That's a strong example of how the genre show environment has changed in the last two decades, so it's not just the differences between the eras of Smallville and the Arrowverse/DCEU.

Supernatural is a particularly weird example in that it ran for so long with the same cast (unlike Doctor Who, which is fast approaching its 60th anniversary and has gone through many changes, not just its format) that it was still following the same show format and catering to a generation who grew up along with it (not to mention the actors going from young to middle-aged) from 2005 through 2020. The format all the way to the end (though never again as desaturated, jump-scare horrific as that first season was--its inspirations from The X-Files showed) is most certainly pre-streaming and owes much to its old WB origins using a formula born in the 1990s, despite the CW's rebranding in 2006. Castiel's ushering in of the whole angel mythology was the most seismic change in Supernatural's history, though even he was like a horror creature early on. The show certainly had early comedy episodes, but they definitely got more frequent later. One only has to look at the season 15 premiere's handling of the Woman in White and Bloody Mary's returns to see how alien the season 1 atmosphere was to the show by then.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer likewise shed its gothic horror atmosphere and went into the sunlight (not for the better) around the time Angel took his gothic fairy tale-turned-noir with him to L.A. See Lucifer aiming for the same aesthetic in its first season. Smallville was likewise a show that spanned the WB and CW, but before the television landscape completely left that late-'90s/'00s aesthetic. You can definitely start to feel similar differences in the change from Smallville High to Metropolis and Lana to Lois. There's a pretty stark generational shift in the shows aimed at late Gen-X/older Gen-Y (Millennials) and now Gen-Z (Zoomers). That's the biggest shift between the WB and the Arrowverse-era CW.

Castiel, despite him learning how to love, being the ultimate example of free will in a mythology that has none by design (he truly did have a “crack in his chassis”) and even adopting a son whom he can finally relate to, ends with him tired, very sad and unloved in return. Not a single character in the history of Supernatural ever tells Castiel that they love him. Frankly, Meg and Crowley, who kept saving his life, showed more care about and affection for him than the Winchesters, particularly Dean (who belittled, refused to help and abandoned Castiel for years before the Jack and Mary drama shattered the relationship irrevocably). Sam, who used to feel the same othering from John and Dean as the Boy with the Demon Blood that got heaped on Castiel if he dared remind Dean he wasn’t “human, or at least like one”, had a bad habit of following his brother in questionable acts like putting Jack in the box. Castiel says he loves others several times, but he never once hears it back. As in The Little Mermaid, Castiel sacrifices himself for someone who will never love him back, except in place of sea form is the black goo of the Empty. At least Jack cared, but you’ll notice Castiel is nowhere to be seen when the Winchesters reunite in Heaven. Not even Sam (who was equally sad and tired at the end, while Dean was just angrily lashing out at everyone while blaming everyone but himself) bothered to place a single photo of Castiel amongst his shrine to John, Mary and Dean. Sam literally knew Castiel longer than he ever knew Mary and his relationship with John was so bad that he left his father and brother to go to Stanford. Boy, did that final episode say it all about Castiel loving, but never being loved in return. Bobby Singer was wrong; it turns out that, for the Winchesters, family did end in blood.

The alienated outsider archetype who doesn't quite fit in amongst human society (often with an immortality/lifespan problem on top of other interspecies differences), but often desperately wants to find human belonging, love and family, is true of characters like Clark, the Doctor, Spock, Connor/Duncan MacLeod, Angel, Castiel, Lucifer, etc... These are subsequently the shows and storylines that borrow most from the Superman mythos.

See the many takes on Superman II's Pinocchio plot, except having to give it all up for a higher purpose (not to mention many other Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio and Peter Pan parallels), such as Angel's I Will Remember You, Smallville!Clark's Arrival/Mortal/Hidden, the Doctor's Human Nature/The Family of Blood and Castiel's season 9 arc.

That's Superman and Clark's real impact on the television landscape.

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