How much fun will reading the new reader comments be this week?? A lot of Restless elements popped up in this week's episodes, and Curds and Whey (aka Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0) makes her first appearance after Faith predicted her arrival at the end of season 3. Much to talk about!
21 comments:
If you go with the sheer number of memories Buffy/Joyce had altered coupled with the fact Dawn is essentially harmless to the Scoobies (too much so, the monks couldn't have given her Slayer strength when they merged the green ball and Buffy blood? When they know she has Glory on her path??. It's not surprsing nobody noticed she wasn't supposed to be there.
Johnathan wanted to be perfection and idolization. Dawn just wanted to be a girl. Who wants to believe someone you love is fake? Also their were probably at least a few times in the false memories of Seasons 1 & 2 where Buffy got to not feel so alone at home. Especially since supposedly Dawn got to drowned Buffy first, so it wasn't a secret like with Joyce.
That also adds to my annoyance they rush her away from a random corpse here, when seeing dead Buffy at like age 9 should have been worse.
Oh yeah, comic Dawn isn't as grating as TV Dawn for me.
"supposedly Dawn got to drowned Buffy first"
Really? When/where is this fact established?
Maybe Dawn is annoying and immature because the monks just never conjured up a teenage girl before. Or, maybe the monks made her that way on purpose so that Buffy would keep a closer eye on her than she might a more independent, grown up sister.
Whether Dawnie's annoying personality traits were by accident or by design, let's remember that she's the reason for the season, and what a great season it was.
And I love Dawn's relationships, especially her connection with Spike. Dawnie also allows Buffy to transition from daughter to fledgling mother-figure as Dawn swaps places with Joyce as the other member of Buffy's household.
My much bigger concern with Dawn is what happened after S5, when writers apparently had no idea what to do with her once Glory was out of the picture for good.
Tom Lenk was Cyrus? Without a rewatch, I would not have picked up on that little detail.
Harmony has minions! And then Glory has minions! Minions were big in S5.
Where is that ocean going to go? Not to mention that mountainy thing in the background.
Giles is thinking of leaving. "You'll be fine. You all will." Too bad he doesn't have a crystal ball to look into season six.
Dracula is right about the dark source of Buffy's power.
In Real Me there's a mention of books on tape. James Marsters will go on to read the Dresden Files books (except the upcoming one read by John Glover because of a scheduling conflict.)
"It's not like she saw the body." Dawn will try thoughout The Body to see her Mom.
Xander telling Anya that cash is good really seems to make an impact.
I wonder if Buffy thinking Dawn "needs to be protected and coddled" is part of the monks' spell. I also agree with Page48 that Dawn's personality probably comes from being created by people who have no concept of teenage girls.
You know how Buffy punches Spike a lot? You know how little kids punch other little kids they like because they don't know what is an appropriate response for attraction?
If Dawn could invite Harm in, she must be a real person. Those monks are good.
Poor Joyce. Her first headache.
Spike is building the mannikin to fight, but note how he runs his hand over its hair and cheek.
Now we're coming to the good stuff. Go Spuffy!
I agree that Dawn's childishness and Buffy's overprotective feelings for her might be related to the Monk's spell. I wonder if the reason Dawn seems so much younger than her age is because she is really a new human being.
I love Season 5. This is the season which I always say is my favourite season on paper, by which I mean that this is the season with the most of my favourite characters and relationships in the series (i.e. before Giles returns to England, and after Anya and Tara have become important cast members). It also some of my favourite episodes of all time, including "The Body" which is probably the best episode of Buffy ever.
Buffy vs Dracula:
I don't really have particularly strong feeling about this episode. I think it's better than the season openers that precede it, but not as good as the ones to come. Its fairly funny, and has some great lines in it, but I'm never that big a fan of 'mind-control' episodes. Having said that, having Dracula on Buffy was genius.
Real Me:
Personally, I don't hate Dawn as much as many people seem to. Sure, she's annoying and whiny, but I think she's supposed to be. She's Buffy's younger sister, so to us as an audience she feels like a younger sister as well. And everybody finds their younger sister annoying. I can also kind of forgive her for letting Harmony into the house: she's probably only known about vampires for about two years, the same time as Joyce ("Becoming") and it was clearly an accident and just a figure of speech. Also, I understand that she was originally supposed to be 12, so some of the dialogue is a bit young for her. But I think she gets better, and much less whiny and annoying, for Season 7 and the comics.
One slight question: was the monks sending the Key to Buffy such a good idea? Not only does Glory work out pretty much straight away that the Key will be with the Slayer, but Buffy's friends get kidnapped, attacked and killed so often anyway, that Dawn is just as likely to get killed as collateral damage as she is by Glory.
As an episode, I find "Real Me" fairly enjoyable. Its relatively amusing, and the introduction of Dawn as a plot device, regardless of how you feel about her as a character, is interesting.
The Replacement:
This episode is quite important for me, as this is really the turning point where I really started to like Xander. Before this episode, I found him fairly annoying: he was always the first person to say 'I told you so' and have a go at Buffy when she did something wrong, he was jealous of any boyfriend Buffy had, even when he had a girlfriend, and he was just a drifter who wasn't really successful at anything (not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it's just that it's very different to me personally; I'm much more like Willow). Sure, he had some great moments, like paying for Cordy's dress, and his conversation with Buffy in "The Freshman", but as a whole he got on my nerves. But in this episode that really starts to change.
Cont'd:
The Replacement:
This episode is quite important for me, as this is really the turning point where I really started to like Xander. Before this episode, I found him fairly annoying: he was always the first person to say 'I told you so' and have a go at Buffy when she did something wrong, he was jealous of any boyfriend Buffy had, even when he had a girlfriend, and he was just a drifter who wasn't really successful at anything (not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it's just that it's very different to me personally; I'm much more like Willow). Sure, he had some great moments, like paying for Cordy's dress, and his conversation with Buffy in "The Freshman", but as a whole he got on my nerves. But in this episode that really starts to change.
"The Replacement" largely deals with the issues which saw that Xander has in his dream in "Restless": never being able to escape the basement, never having a good job etc. Xander's biggest problem has really always been his lack of self belief. He doesn't think he'll ever be able to seriously help Buffy, he'll ever be able to afford an apartment of his own, and that when he's called in to see his boss it's to be fired. When he sees someone being a success in his body, he naturally assumes it's a demon, because there is no way he could do all those things. So it's only when he literally sees that he is capable of all these things, that he does have it within him to be a success, that he is able to start believing in himself, which turns him into the guy who tries to save Buffy and Riley's relationship, who is able to stop Willow destroying the world, and who makes that fantastic speech to Dawn in "Potential". The guy who is able to see the things that everybody else misses. The only thing which this episode doesn't help so much, is his belief in his relationship. After all, it is essentially Xander's lack of belief that he could be a better husband than his father which destroys his and Anya's relationship.
Another important point about this episode, is the similarities between the two Xanders; the aspects of his personality which are so present in him that even when he is split in two, they are present in both parts. Both Xanders care about his friends, and Anya, and want to protect her. And both Xanders seem to use humour to avoid the topic of their home life. When the woman mentions that he still lives in his parents' basement, the 'good qualities' Xander still makes jokes about it. These qualities are so fundamentally Xander that even split in two, they are still present.
As well as being, in my opinion, quite an important episode for Xander, this episode is also quite an entertaining episode, with some great scenes (Snoopy Dance!). A great episode.
Overall, a very enjoyable week of Buffy episodes. Next week, we get some more character-based episodes, an explanation of what Dawn is, and "Family", one of my favourite episodes this season.
In part of the Omnibus Vol 6. From the B & A Wiki: "In "False Memories", we can see that she was present when Buffy was bitten and drowned by the Master." This also mentions Angelus attacked her, not Willow in the school in Season 2.
Slightly off topic but I just read The Wolf, The Ram and The Heart" and it was pretty cool.
@Dusk: How canon is 'False Memories'? I was under the impression that only the Season 8 comics and a couple of others produced by Joss Whedon were canon.
Not sure. These kinds are from the same company as S8 if I remember right. And "Tales of Slayers features Fray finding the Watchers' library and that puple spider monkey thing, both of which are in S8. And the Wiki actually has images of False Memories, so I would assume whichever fans run those count them, like any other comic besides Tales, Fray and S8 (And IDW Angel stories stemming from ATF).
I'm not completly certain on the facts of canon yet. If anyone can prove I'm wrong then by all means go ahead. The Wiki, plus the certain assumptions we're supposed to make about stuff likke Dawn/Faith, Dawn/Angel has really confused me.
On the positive side i think I've figured out the reading order of many of the IDW stories. But thst's another potential canon conflict, no Joss since ATF.
I obviously have no authority over this, but for me the canon status of Buffy/Angel comics is simple: If Joss was involved in producing a comic, then it is canon. Thus, Season 8 and After the Fall are canon and everything else isn't.
Besides, it doesn't make much sense to me that Dawn could have known that Buffy was the slayer for a year or more before Joyce found out. Could Dawn really have kept that a secret, after finding Buffy dead and then being held hostage by Angelus? Besides, the scene with Xander and Angel and the drowned Buffy was a great moment, especially for Xander -- it would be ruined by the unnecessary insertion of Dawn! So, because I don't like it and Joss didn't write or produce it, I really don't want to think of it as canon. YMMV of course.
Ok. It's just for S9 apparently IDW will factor in, who much they will refrence another company I don't know, but they are kind of stuck when it comes to Lorne. He got a tribute/sendoff from there, and I doubt they'd not mention him at all in A & F.
Plus Gunn is sort of hard to write without refrencing the last IDW arc, and Illyria got a slight upgrade and makeover.
Lynch was asked to include something in his Spike series to lead into season 8.
As far as I'm concerned, TV is TV and comics are comics. Comics have their own canon, but something so few fans are familiar with, and could change if a movie suddenly surfaced, aren't my canon even if Joss wrote them. (And he wrote some Tales of the Slayers - are they canon?)
From what I've read about Tales of Slayers, I think it is. Fray has a story there and ele,ents of it are seen in her crossover with S8.
Apropos of Angel, for anyone who might be interested: there's a documentary film called "Super Amigos" which is about "social luchadors," Mexican wrestlers who are social activists. I enjoyed watching it and thinking about "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" and the relationship between fictional and real heroes. You can watch the film for free online -- just google the title to find it.
Good point about Tales of the Slayers being at least partly canon. I should reread those -- it's been ages!
And it will be interesting to see how Season 9 and especially "Angel and Faith" deals with all the stuff that happened with Gunn, Illyria, Connor, etc., in the comics. I tend to worry that those characters will get forgotten, at least for a while, while Angel is doing his own thing in London with Faith.
I can't be the only person that subscribes to the theory that DAWN is BUFFY pre-slayerhood.
It certainly explains why Buffy can't stand her most of the times and Dawn's annoyingness.
Supposedly their are plans for IIIyria and Connor, including him finally meeting Buffy.
I hope their is more balance, the Buffyverse never really respected the Angelverse I feel, at least when the shows were on air.
Oh yeah, Buffy was at one point a lot like Dawn.
"Maybe Dawn is annoying and immature because the monks just never conjured up a teenage girl before. Or, maybe the monks made her that way on purpose so that Buffy would keep a closer eye on her than she might a more independent, grown up sister." --Page48
"I wonder if Buffy thinking Dawn "needs to be protected and coddled" is part of the monks' spell. I also agree with Page48 that Dawn's personality probably comes from being created by people who have no concept of teenage girls." -- Colleen/redeem147
"I agree that Dawn's childishness and Buffy's overprotective feelings for her might be related to the Monk's spell. I wonder if the reason Dawn seems so much younger than her age is because she is really a new human being." -- Suzanne
Cool. My intended work here is done. By other brilliant people. Well stated.
I freakin' love this season. To me it combines the technical episode-by-episode and series-long story arc perfection of season 3 with the mythic/emotional passion of season 2. And the music...so great. Can't wait for more cheese.
I have GOT to catch up on my rewatch to experience it again for the, yeah, probably 20th time for me too. It's Mary Poppins (ppiew).
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