BtVS Rewatch, Finishing up season 2

[dragonyphoenix]

Becoming

• I know Liam's an indolent rake, but I like him oh so much better than Angel.


• London 1860 scene. And how did Angelus get into a church in the middle of the day? Is he trapped there until dusk? If so, he likes to live dangerously.


• Gypsy Man: It hurts, yes? Good. It will hurt more. Why does the gypsy play this so low key? Every time I see this scene, I imagine Londo Mollari bellowing out a “Good” that carries to the edge of the forest.
  
  Watch on YouTube


• Giles: Um, well, this, um... certainly points the way, but... the ritual itself requires a greater knowledge of the black arts than I, I, I can claim. Willow: Well, I've been going through her files and, and researching the black arts, for fun, or educational fun, and I may be able to work this. Shouldn't someone worry that Willow studies the black arts for fun? Sometime before season 7?


• Angelus: we're about to make history... end. I always think that line's sort of stupid.


• Kendra: We have. (pulls a sword from her bag) Blessed by the knight who first slew the demon. Look at Giles, excited by the sword.


• So it's the first try with the ritual to Acathala. They put the sacrifice down before Angelus and the guy just sits there waiting to be killed? What? He doesn't at least try to run away?


• Flashback to the night Buffy learns she's a vampire Slayer. Buffy gets home and Joyce yells at her for being out so late. Then Joyce says “Dinner's in ten minutes.” Either Joyce has an odd definition of late or they eat dinner at like eleven in the evening.


• Aw, look, Kendra's sharing her favorite stake just before being killed so we'll be sadder about her death.


• For some reason I'm flashing on Willow's ritual as a Houston rocket launch. “Stinky herbs are a go.” “Blast off in 3 … 2 … 1 …”


• I think part of the reason Kendra is hypnotized by Dru is to set up Dru's hypnotizing Giles.


• Whistler: No one asks for their life to change, not really. When I started writing, I understood that it would change me. Then one night I felt it emotionally. Writing would change me! I was terrified. I could have given up writing then and there, but, even though I was afraid to change, I also wanted and desperately needed to change.


• Angelus: I mean, the last time I tortured somebody, they didn't even *have* chainsaws. I hate this line. It bugs me every time.


• Watching Angel torturing Giles reminded me of this: Xander violently kicks a waste basket. "I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good."


• Drusilla kneels behind Giles, patting the sweat from his forehead. "Is that better?" Does this make Drusilla the good cop?


• During the fight, one of the minions knocked Buffy to the floor?


• Is anyone else finding the dramatic fight music somewhat annoying?


• Aww, Joyce reading the letter left on Buffy's bed. Sniff. *wipes away tears*


• Willow: Or maybe Angel *was* saved, and they want to be alone together. And another awww. Willow's glass is half-full.

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

I do find Willow being Optimism Girl quite touching.


Gabrielle

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

Sometimes Willow's 'optimism' reminds me of my own; especially when I rewatch those first three seasons.

I wonder now whether she was using it as a means of covering depression.

kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

When I was depressed I wasn't optimistic at all. It had to have been obvious something was wrong.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

It's just that sometimes her optimistic side seems as much a mask as mine is a lot of the time.

I can be pretty outrageous a lot of the time; very much a mask for the chronic, and sometimes pretty debilitating, shyness I suffer from.

The two seem to come as a package with me, but Willow doesn't seem to have that second one, maybe that's why the constant search for a purpose; dark magic bceomes so dangerous and potentially life-threatening for her friends.

kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

It is sweet and seems very in-character for her. I don't think I'd ever noticed it before. Now that I'm posting, I'm playing closer attention.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

They put a lot of effort into making Willow sweet and innocent when she was constantly doing things that, if she weren't Willow, would heap trouble on her head.

It does seem a lot like the, 'my country, right or wrong' kind of patriotism at times. The more I see the earlier Willow I think she was being set up for being a potentially major threat, but that got curtailed very quickly when, or even if, that's what they were trying to do at the end of S6.

kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Deliver button. Even that Catherine Madison, when all witched up, looked an awful lot like Dark Willow.

I'd guess that they didn't want to keep her dark for too long. She is one of the good guys and they wanted her back on the Scoobies.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

I think the last comment answers the question about Willow and dark magic.

Everytime Willow didn't something wrong, nobody took it seriously, so she got away with worse and worse, until she almost destroyed the world.

I still believe S7 would have been a lot better if she, and not The First had been the 'big bad'.

I've always assumed the sacrificial victim was drugged or hypnotised.

And, though I'd not thought of it before, we know know how those bugs got aboard Babylon 5 don't we?

:-)

kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the First really didn't make that great a big bad.

Oooh, drugged or hypnotized. That makes some sense. Thanks.

We know how the bugs got on B5? I don't follow.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

Those bugs look very like the one the mayor has to swallow; I thought that's why you posted the vid :-)

Maybe the one that Londo has on the end of his sword is what they look like de-magickified?

Possible plot-bunny there for one of my verses now that I say that.

kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

No, the vid was to show how outrageous Londo would be compared to the gypsy in that scene.

I look forward to the story. ;-)

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

What bugs you about the chainsaw line? I always like it because it highlights how long these guys have been around. The idea of watching history progress from outside is one of the things I like best about vampire stories.

Drusilla is the weird, unbalanced cop.

Buffy gets knocked down lots by random vamps. Remember the opening scenes in "Prophecy Girl" and "Halloween"? But then she gets back up and finishes her dusting. *\o/*

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

What bugs you about the chainsaw line? I don't know. Maybe it's just the way Angel says it? I'm not fond of Angel in general. I do wonder if it's a reference to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie (movies?).

Buffy gets knocked down lots by random vamps. Okay. It just seems odd to me that random vamps would throw her. I see her as being Master vamp level of fighter.

Ah, yes, the crazy cop meme:

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's what Dru's doing with her time these days...

If I think about that chainsaw line at all it's to wonder what he's do with a chainsaw anyway. Unless it's to point out all the technology he could use as torture devices that have come along in the hundred yeats since he was souled.

But still, a chainsaw?

Even the greatest of champions fuck up, or get caught by a lucky punch occasionally. I recall a brilliant scene, where she shows her bandaged, by Riley, wound to a very impressed Dawn.


kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I suspect the chainsaw is a reference to specific horror movies.

Yeah, okay, if Riley can mess her up then even a minion can. ;-)

[kikimay]

Why you like Liam? XD Although I also don't like the "history end" line. I do like the one about the chainshaw!

I also think that Willow gets away with the dark magic when she uses it for the Scoobies. It's an unclear approach and that ultimately brings Willow into the dark side. She thinks she's doing something good and that how she justifies her mistakes in S6. I quite like this gradual but realistic development. Pity that they fucked up with the magic=drugs thing.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I think Liam seems vulnerable in a way that I don't see in either Angel or Angelus. Angelus has this whole "I'm better than you" vibe going, which, given he's Angelus, I rather expect. But Angel, at least in season 1, does as well. When he and Buffy interact, in s1, his goofy boyfriend smirk seems to have a hint of patronizing a-hole. At least that's what I see. Liam's more open than his other two personas.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

Hadn't thought of it like that but maybe that was part of why I never liked Angel on BtVS, or very little anyway never quite understood the obsession with Buffy/Angel either (these days it would be too easy to compare them with the unhealthy teen obsession that is Twilight).

Shall have to rewatch that first season again. :-)

kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I'd started the rewatch to, possibly, work on a story. That doesn't seem to be happening, but I am enjoying the rewatch.

[double_dutchess]

Shouldn't someone worry that Willow studies the black arts for fun? Sometime before season 7?

But it's educational fun, so that's allright!

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Educational fun is always good.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

Unless it's Sex Ed.

Teenagers don't have sex on TV.

On TV's all the time, but not On TV...

kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Sex on those flat screens, sound pretty unstable.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

I like that Willow tries to be optimism girl and I like that she starts to come into her own powers. But...I don't like that it creates the assumption that all witchcraft is "black magick."

I also don't understand how Giles can maintain all his limbs if Angel is in fact torturing him with a chainsaw.
*shrugs*

Also, yes, Drusilla is totally the good cop. :P

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the magic does take Willow over. It is actually a disturbing scene. Ah, so it would make sense for Willow to be Optimism Girl after, to counteract the earlier darkness.

We never see Angelus actually break out chainsaws.