rionaleonhart | What's The Word I'm Searching For?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always seemed like the sort of thing I should have watched; I've seen the musical episode about five times, but almost nothing else. But at last I'm actually getting around to it! Rei's been rewatching the occasional episode in my earshot, and the one that finally made me go 'fine, I'm going to start watching Buffy from the beginning' was one in which Giles was secretly sapping Buffy's powers for some sort of test and felt horrible about it.

Rei came into the room while I was watching the fourth episode.

Rei: Oh, are you watching Buffy now?
Riona: I am! I started watching because I was really interested in Buffy and Giles's relationship, and—
Rei: oh no
Riona: NOT IN A BAD WAY.
(pause)
Riona: I can't promise I won't end up down that well.

I resumed the episode.

'I think there are too many guys in your life,' Giles said to Buffy.

'I'll be honest: that line feels weird now,' I said.

Rei's apparently following a blogger who feels that Buffy only makes sense if Giles is in love with Buffy. I'm sort of half-watching through that lens now, and it does seem to fit. I blame Rei for bringing it up. (There is, let's be honest, a good chance that I'd have come to this conclusion on my own, but I blame Rei regardless.)

Other observations:

- Everything is so nineties and I love it.

- In appearance, speech and mannerisms, Xander feels like the child of Joey and Chandler from Friends. (Willow feels like Bambi. Her eyes are so big!)

- I spend sixty percent of Angel's screentime going 'I'm not sure I'm feeling the chemistry here' and forty percent going 'ahahaha, you voiced Leon in Kingdom Hearts.' (I am spending one hundred percent of that time being delighted by his constant brooding expression. He's so serious!)

- I cannot believe the plot of episode four was 'sexy teacher is actually a giant mantis in disguise'. I can believe there's an episode with that plot somewhere in Buffy. I can't believe it was so early on. I can't believe, in the first season of Buffy, they went 'okay, brand new show, we have to come up with twelve episode ideas, there are all sorts of supernatural concepts and creatures we could play with; where do we start? Oh, we'd better make sure we have the sexy praying mantis substitute teacher in there somewhere.'

(I always thought it was 'preying mantis' because they preyed on smaller insects! I was convinced! I've only just learnt, in research for this entry, that the spelling is actually 'praying mantis' because they look like they're in prayer. I can't believe I've been so confidently wrong about this for so long.)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Yay, another shared fandom! :D

I think the praying mantis teacher plot is such a 90's thing as well. There were a lot of shows back then that had totally bonkers supernatural plots (at least I was watching/traumatised by loads of shows like that :D).

My parents were huge Buffy fans (my mother loved all the 'teen' shows I was the ~target audience for like Buffy and Roswell), so I'd see episodes now and then, and they made a point to tape the musical episode and mail the VHS tape to me at university even though... they were the fans. But I did like it (and promptly downloaded all the songs and burned it to a cd-r that I still have) and am now going to have all the songs in my head so thanks...

I also remember the funny-syphilis episode, which may be a spoiler if you haven't gotten there yet.

All those nineties shows, full of praying mantis teacher plots. (I'm glad to share a new fandom with you!)

and they made a point to tape the musical episode and mail the VHS tape to me at university even though... they were the fans.

Awww, that's cute!

I haven't reached the funny-syphilis episode, but I'm not too concerned about being spoiled for Buffy; I've heard about a lot of the major developments already, so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy this weird ride.

Ooh, I haven't watched Buffy in ages! I think really just when it first came out?

I loved the praying mantis one!

At the start of the praying mantis episode I went 'oh, hey, I like Buffy's teacher; he really wants to help her achieve her potential' and then 'wait, are we playing by Supernatural rules, where it's a bad idea to get attached to any characters who appear before the opening credits?' and then he got praying mantised and I was very unhappy.

Is that blogger Jenny Trout? She's written very good Let's Watches for Buffy--I enjoy very much her balanced take. She clearly has a lot of love and nostalgia for the series, but also looks with a critical eye at the things that haven't aged so well.

Also, I never realized David Boreanaz voiced Leon, but now I can't unhear it oh my god.

Ooh, I think it must be Jenny Trout; Rei's mentioned the name before. Maybe I'll check out her recaps.

SURPRISE. Boreanaz only voices Leon in the first Kingdom Hearts, alas.

I was a Jr in high school when Buffy first aired so a lot of those fashions in Buffy, I WORE-- and whenever I sit down and watch episodes, I will see the style of clothing and I will be sucker punched with Nostalgia.

(And it's okay, I sorta ship Buffy/Giles too.. can't tell my husband that because he'd probably be like "GASP" since he's more of a Buffy fan then me.

Oh well, as I say-- y'ship where y'ship.

Glad you are having fun with the watching of it!

Here in the UK almost every school requires a uniform, so watching all these kids going around school in their own clothes is slightly wild for me. (Wearing a uniform did unfortunately mean I reached adulthood without a shred of fashion sense. I was halfway through my twenties before I developed any ability to tell whether clothes are too big for me.)

I now really want to see your husband react to your dark Buffy/Giles secret.

Maybe one day I will come out to him about it lol!

oh my gawwwwd, my first fandom! I haven't rewatched it in... oh wow. It has to be ten years. Perhaps I should. I'll be very interested to see your take on it and if you stick with it. Oh, how obsessed I was. You know that if you watch, you'll have to watch the Angel spinoff too, right?

... Right?

(I could never see B/G as anything more than platonic father figure, and in that case you can totally say that Giles loves her like a dad, but each to her own. This was the fandom where every conceivable pairing was acceptable. Just not Spike/Buffy. I may have to put my foot down about that one. Grrr.)

I'm pleased to be embarking on this long-overdue adventure! And don't worry; my housemate Ginger's a huge Buffy fan and has told me very firmly that we have to start alternating Buffy and Angel episodes when we hit the appropriate point.

Look, I have bad taste in pairings and if Spike/Buffy is a bad pairing there's a very real danger I'll love it. I hope we can still be friends in that scenario.

Ooh, Buffy! I'm glad you're having fun with it so far—it really is the most nineties thing, it's kind of incredible. (I forget, have you hit the internet episode yet? The internet episode is probably the single most nineties episode of television I've ever seen.)

And Angel's incredibly serious brooding is great, agreed. I feel like Angel taken seriously tends to be a slightly perplexing and off-putting experience, but Angel taking himself seriously is always A++.

I cannot believe the plot of episode four was 'sexy teacher is actually a giant mantis in disguise'.

And this comment is how you know you're new around here. :D

Aww, Buffy. I vaguely remember watching it, though it was never as much my thing as other terrible 90s shows were. And then I tried re-watching it during not-the-nineties, and I feel like I ever got very far in it. Still, it was such a part of ambient culture that I feel like I have a closer connection to it than I actually do.

...there is an episode, and I cannot remember when it is, which concerns hyenas. I'd be very curious as to hear your reaction to that.

I've just watched the hyena episode, and my main reaction is 'that was messed up' and 'BUT THE PIG WAS SO CUTE AND PRINCIPAL FLUTIE WAS SO PROUD OF IT.'

I suppose that explains why I thought I'd heard the principal's name in this show was Snyder.

I do like the note it ends on: Xander remembers the awful things he did, but Buffy and Willow don't know he remembers.

I watched the Internet episode just now! It is fantastically nineties, although Animorphs still has my favourite nineties line about the Internet: "Jake, you're not getting it. About half the girls in our school have a poster of Jeremy Jason McCole in their bedrooms or in their lockers, or both. He is the number one cute guy in the country. He has like twenty Web sites just about him."

I feel like Angel taken seriously tends to be a slightly perplexing and off-putting experience, but Angel taking himself seriously is always A++.

This line is the most perfect description.

And this comment is how you know you're new around here. :D

Ha! Now that I've watched the hyena episode and the Internet episode, I have to concede that you're right.

Willow is a great character and has a HUGE development arc. I think you're going to enjoy it - and cry over it.

I know some later developments about Willow already, but I'm looking forward to seeing more of her!

What's The Word I'm Searching For?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject