SELFLESS-vikings and vengence demons

[joxerlives]

SELFLESS
The Good;
Lovely to see Anya singing in her gorgeous wedding dress again. Great scenes between Anya and Halfrek, wonderful Swedish scenes and a terrific ending. Also like Buffy's busy school day.
The Bad;
?
Best line;
Villager; "Pelt him with fruits and various meats!"
Women good/men bad;
D'Hoffryn kills Halfrek to spite Anya, almost like killing one of his daughters. What the Frat boys do to the girl is horrible but doesn't warrant having your heart torn out.
Jeez!;
Frat boys with their hearts ripped out! Not the ep for you if you're arachnaphobic (we know Willow is from 'Nightmares' but she appears to keep it in check)
Kinky dinky;
Love Will's miniskirt and booties, you forget what a hot momma-yomma she can be sometimes! Buffy comments that Anya 'boned a troll' whilst Anya refers to the 'sweaty' part of a relationship.
Captain Subtext;
Xander refers to himself as 'giddy' which even Willow comments isn't a very masculine term.
Guantanamo Bay;
Buffy is prepared to kill Anya for the greater good, Xander doesn't want to. Buffy makes a good point that Spike, Angelus, The Master etc never chose to be evil, Anya chose to become a vengence demon once again and poses an ongoing threat to humanity. Also do we doubt that Xander and certainly Giles would have killed Angelus in season 2 if they could have?
Scoobies to the ER;
Missing scenes;
I would love to have seen the scene where D'Hoffryn looks at the slaughtered frat boys and says someone should phone Maxim and cancel 12 subscriptions, perhaps a comment on the Buffy/Angel girl's tendency to strip off and pose for that particular magazine seemingly at the drop of a hat (or a large cheque/free publicity for their upcoming projects?). Also interesting on the commentary is that they wanted Halfrek to appear to Anya in 'Conversations with Dead People'.
Apocalypses; 7,
Wheldon Cliches (with kind permission from Boo)

Scoobies in bondage:
Buffy: 8
Giles: 4
Cordy: 5
Will: 4
Jenny: 1
Angel: 4
Oz: 1
Faith: 3
Joyce: 1
Wes: 1
Xander; 2
Dawn; 4

Scoobies knocked out: yep, Xander
Buffy: 19
Giles: 12
Cordy: 6
Xander: 15
Will: 8
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 3
Faith: 1
Joyce: 3
Wes: 1
Anya;5
Dawn; 4
Tara; 1
Kills: demon spider for Buffy
Buffy: 109 vamps, 61 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 8 vamps, 2 demon, 1 human, 1 god.
Cordy: 3 vamps, ½ a demon
Will: 6 vamps + 3 demons +1 fawn+1 human.
Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human
Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie
Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans
Xander: 6 vamps, 2 zombies, 1½ a demon,
Anya: 1 vamp and 1½ a demon
Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons
Spike; 8 vamps and 6 demons
Buffybot; 2 vamps
Tara; 1 demon
Dawn; 1 vamp + 1 demon

Scoobies go evil: Anya does although she's not technically a Scooby at this point
Giles: 1
Cordy: 1
Will: 3
Jenny: 1
Angel: 1
Oz: 1
Joyce: 1
Xander: 4
Anya; 1
Dawn; 1
Buffy; 1

Alternate scoobies:
Buffy: 8
Giles: 4
Cordy: 1
Will: 5
Jenny: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 2
Joyce: 2
Xander: 4
Tara; 1
Dawn;1
Spike; 1
Anya; 2

Recurring characters killed: Halfrek but she's evil so she doesn't count-12
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce, Katrina, Tara

Sunnydale deaths; 12 frat boys dead but alive again by the end of the ep
99

Total number of scoobies: 4,
Xander, Buffy, Dawn, Willow

Xander demon magnet: 5(6?)
Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula?

Scoobies shot:
Giles: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 4
Riley; 1
Buffy; 1
Tara; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost:
Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes?
Cordy: 1?
Buffy: 4 confirmed; Angel, Parker, Riley, Spike. 1 possible, Dracula(?)
Angel: 1;Buffy
Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?)
Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca
Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley
Xander: 2; Faith, Anya
Willow: 2;Oz and Tara
Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore
Spike; 2 Buffy and Anya
Anya; 2 Spike and Xander
Dawn in peril; 12
Dawn the bashful virgin; 9
What the fanficcers thought;
Read a bizarre one once where Buffy and Xander are captured by the demon spider and Buffy get's impregnated by it (which is normally Cordy's job?). But in the follow up story they both escape after Buffy beguiles the spider with her feminine wiles and strangles it with it's own web because SHE's the Black Widow, she mates and then she kills (she certainly did with Angel!). You know what they say about the female of the species?
Also a much funnier one is where Anyanka's bunny fear stems from her cursing an unfaithful man to 'Go like a bunny forever' whereupon he is turned into a killer rabbit which goes on to attack Gabrielle in the Xena ep 'In sickness and in hell' and takes on the Monty Python's Knights of the Round table before being finished off by the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!
Questions and observations;
Very little Dawn in this one (plenty of her next ep), she only has one scene but it's Anya's ep so that's ok. A wonderful tour de force showing us all how much we've learned to love and care about Anya who was introduced as a one-note character 4 years back but who is now a regular and so deserves to be! Especially love her little vengful stare when she first meets D'Hoffryn.
Buffy still doesn't know about Xander's lie in Becoming pt2, another point against Normal Again being true but you wonder will he ever really pay for what he did? Dawn's advice to Willow about fitting in is reminiscent to that given to Bart by Homer Simpson. It never occured to me until this ep but much like the end titles for season 6 having the Buffybot at the end this season actually has the First-as-Buffy.
Unfortunately the last we'll ever see of D'Hoffryn or Halfrek. Anya comments she's good with math which is weird as we heard that she was failing it in season 3 (maybe running the Magic Shop improved it?). Anya's invented surname is Jenkins, did we know that before? A vengence demon's 'soul' is referred to? The final scene is very reminiscent of the final bit 'The Harsh Light of Day'.
Marks out of 10; 10/10 first of the season

[Randi Giles]

This episode actually made me like Anya alot. love everything in this episode. EC is a very good actress. And I loved the call back to the musical especially when they cut it to her having a sword in her chest. By the way I it was in Checkpoint when she said her name was Anya Chistina Emmanuella Jenkins. LOL.

[joxerlives]

One thing that bothers me is that Anya actually CHOOSES to be a vengence demon just because she was scorned. It's certainly something I'll address in my Guilty and Innocent post

[emanuele]

Dec 18, 2009 15:44:44 GMT -5 joxerlives said:

What the fanficcers thought;
Read a bizarre one once where Buffy and Xander are captured by the demon spider and Buffy get's impregnated by it (which is normally Cordy's job?). But in the follow up story they both escape after Buffy beguiles the spider with her feminine wiles and strangles it with it's own web because SHE's the Black Widow, she mates and then she kills (she certainly did with Angel!). You know what they say about the female of the species?

Man, sucks to be you and your taste in fanfic

[joxerlives]

1. Who says I'm a guy?

2. I didn't write it and it's certainly not to my taste!

[wenxina]

Please do NOT post links to adult material on the forum. EVER. Even if there's a disclaimer.

[joxerlives]

Ok

[Randi Giles]

Best Line for me - Mrs. Lame Ass Maiden Name Harris. I LMAO last night at that part.

[henzINNIT]

I really liked this, except the dilema Anya is in where she doesn't want to be a demon anymore and wants to take her evil doing back... that's totally doable. Just break her amulet.

[Randi Giles]

Dec 29, 2009 19:58:01 GMT -5 henzINNIT said:

Just break her amulet.

Hmm, why didn't she just do that?

[joxerlives]

Must say I never thought of that, does Anya have her necklace back in season 6/7?

[henzINNIT]

She does in 6. Haven't seen 7 in a lil while.

[monkeywrench]

Dec 29, 2009 19:58:01 GMT -5 henzINNIT said:

I really liked this, except the dilema Anya is in where she doesn't want to be a demon anymore and wants to take her evil doing back... that's totally doable. Just break her amulet.

It's a bit late replying to this, but never mind.

I've thought about this and here's how I think it works:

She wants to specifically take back the frat boys having their hearts ripped out. Remember that she herself can undo the things she has done (though it's not always easy), e.g., turning back the guy she turned into a worm demon, also Hallie lifting the curse she put on them in "Older and Far Away".

The problem is, she didn't directly kill them. She conjured the spider demon that killed them itself. So she couldn't undo it, even if her amulet was broken. If the girl had made her wish that their hearts could be ripped out, then Anya ripped them out herself then that would be reversible if her amulet was broken. However, if she smushed her amulet, the spider demon would go *poof!* but the damage the demon inflicted would still be there.

Just my 2 cents.

[joxerlives]

Good reasoning! And by all means work your way back through the entire series, always happy to talk over each ep