El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 15, 2010 20:00:11 GMT -5
Willow refers to herself as the junior partner in comparison to Tara? When did that happen? I'd like to look it up. "Tough Love", the fight they have in their room right before Glory sucks Tara's brain.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 14, 2010 21:23:23 GMT -5
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 13, 2010 16:43:46 GMT -5
skywarp, I know that this has turned into a very long thread, but did you read any of it (even just to skim thru it), or just the original post? 'Cause I'll say it yet again: I don't hate Xander. He's not one of my favorite characters, but I don't hate the guy. For me, his really good moments and really bad moments pretty much cancel each other out, leaving me just on the 'mild dislike' side of neutral towards him. My original reason for starting this topic was because I'd never seen him called out on any of his many far-from-shining moments, and think he's gotten a close-to-sparkingly-perfect reputation over the years that he doesn't deserve. Over the course of this discussion, I've found out that some of these things have been brought up, and apparently he has taken some much-deserved heat for some of them--I had just never seen it myself. TGIQ already made the point that I would have, which is that Anya has a far worse history than either Spike or Angel. Since she's a lot older than either of them, she's probably killed more men than both of those 2 put together. But Xander just kind of shrugs that off, while continuing to be majorly hypocritical to Buffy about her evil, murdering vampire boyfriends. As for seeing his ex "humping Hannibal Lecter", his reaction had nothing to do with Spike. It was all about his anger toward Anya, which was completely out-of-line, considering what he'd just done to her. (He didn't have any problem with "Hannibal Lecter" babysitting Dawn all those nights while Buffy was dead, did he?) He was pissed off at Anya for doing something that hurt him, and Spike being a soulless, evil monster just gave him an excuse to take his anger out on something, since nobody's going to complain much about him killing a vampire, whatever his reasons might be. His attitude toward Angel... Why was he so against re-ensouling him? After all, Angel had done a lot of good in that first season-and-a-half before turning evil, right? He'd fought on their side, helped save the lives of all of them at some point or another, and had never hurt anyone. If Xander was trying to justify it, I suppose he might argue that, "If we give him his soul back, how long before he loses it again and goes on another rampage?" Yet isn't that exactly what eventually happened with Anya? She became a vengeance demon again, and he walks into a frat house and sees a dozen bloody corpses that she's directly responsible for, and his reaction is to try to save her, and argue that no, she's just made a mistake, and we can help her. I think it was actually very nice of Buffy there not to lash out at him with the same sort of bitter, hurtful attitude that he would've used in that case ("Re-ensouling Angel seems to have been Jenny's last wish"; "Yeah, well, Jenny's dead!"). When Anya first lost her powers back in S3, why didn't he push for them to kill her, anyway, with the reasoning that she might get them back again and someday become a threat? Wouldn't that have been consistent with how he felt about Angel? But no--because he thought she was hot, and she was actually interested in him, all those centuries of murder and torture were forgiven, just like that. But hey, welcome to the forums, and I'll give you karma just for using your very first post to disagree with me!
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 11, 2010 14:25:57 GMT -5
Xander/Dawn - Incesty badness. Plus, Dawn deserves someone a whole lot better than him. Someone who's not a pretty likely bet to leave her at the altar one day. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to ignore the stuff in the comics and pretend it never happened. Angel/Cordy - I loved the great friendship they had, and wish that had stayed as it was for the whole course of the series. Plus, the way it just suddenly shifted from 'best friends' to 'having the hots for each other' in "Offspring" wasn't a real smooth transition. If the writers were determined to take the story that way, a little more of a gradual set-up might've been nice. Connor/Cordy - Yes, of course we know it wasn't really Cordy, but it's still awful just for how nauseatingly bad all their scenes together are. EvilCordy's not just a villain, she's an "arch" villain ( way too arch), and Connor is turned into a brain-dead lackey easily led around by his... his... well, a major body-part south of his belt-buckle. Riley/Sam - Unlike a lot of people, I actually like Riley well enough. But I couldn't stand Sam. Not sure if it was the writing or the actress, but she's just awful.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 10, 2010 21:18:36 GMT -5
Yep, I've mentioned it before myself, and seen others bring it up, too, so you're definitely not alone. It's like the writers got so focused on the gritty realism of "Buffy vs. real-life" and wanting to put her in this bad financial situation, that they ended up making it completely unrealistic by ignoring this major plot-hole. Willow's parents were both professionals, so they were obviously doing well financially. If Willow couldn't get money from them, she still could've gotten a part-time job, as could Tara. By the time Buffy comes back, the money is almost all used up; what were they planning to do if the spell hadn't worked, and she'd stayed dead? They would've had to have gotten jobs then, right? But it did work, so instead they just say, "Pfft--not our problem, even tho we're living in your house, eating your food, and using your electricity, water, and telephone"? Nice friends you've got there, Buffy...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 9, 2010 17:05:46 GMT -5
Could anyone tell me their favorite Buffy non-fiction work so far? I want to start with the really good ones first. I really liked Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Write About Their Favorite Show. A couple of the essays in there are duds, but it was mostly a very good read.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 9, 2010 16:53:36 GMT -5
Hey, Jaz, what's your user name at Full Tilt? And are there any other SlayAlivers out there who play there? I'm Daniel_B33 if anyone feels like looking me up and sharing a table... --edit-- And just so I don't get accused of dragging the thread off-topic: 'Cause 2 Michelles are better than 1.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 8, 2010 15:03:46 GMT -5
Cordy: Big demerits for the store-bought boobs. It's Buffy, Willow, Faith, and Fred for me. TRAITOR!!! Where's your Satsu love?! I love her as a character, but when you're strictly talking about "sexy"? Tough to compare squiggles on a piece of paper to the flesh&blood of SMG, Aly, Eliza, and Amy. But I will rank the squiggles way ahead of someone who's been surgically-enhanced...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 8, 2010 14:19:07 GMT -5
Cordy: Big demerits for the store-bought boobs. It's Buffy, Willow, Faith, and Fred for me.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 7, 2010 19:34:39 GMT -5
^^ you're so sweet.....but yeah, i'm really surprised she got eliminated that quickly. Yet Bennett's still there. I mean, I love-love- love Summer, but that was just not a likable character at all, IMO, in spite of the cute nerd-love thing she had going on with Topher. Oh, well, I guess it would be really boring if we all liked the same stuff...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 5, 2010 18:13:30 GMT -5
When I re-watch S4, I begin by looking forward to "The House Always Wins" and "Spin the Bottle". Then once those eps are done, I just try my best to sit thru the next few until Angelus, Faith, and Willow show up. Then once "Orpheus" ends, I sigh and say, "Well, that's the end of the good stuff in S4," and have to convince myself to finish it out, and not just skip ahead to S5. They're pretty much 3 of the only good things about S4...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 28, 2010 16:09:12 GMT -5
haha yeah. And "Angel's Angels"? Sound shitting ridiculous lol, I don't buy it. Tho Angel himself probably would've liked it. Probably would've thought it was even better than "Angel's Avengers". But I don't buy it, either, unless it was a really early concept that got thrown out before they were even halfway thru BtVS S3. The only rumor I've heard about a different cast for "Angel" originally that I give any credence to was that Joss wanted to bring back Whistler, but the actor was already busy with something else so he changed it to a "Whistler-like character", which became Doyle...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 28, 2010 15:40:36 GMT -5
Im sad because in this David Boreanaz unauthorized autobio i got I think it was Charles Barkley who once claimed that he was misquoted in his own autobiography, but how the heck does someone write an "unauthorized autobiography"?
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 24, 2010 18:43:05 GMT -5
It was fabulous. Such a beautiful and heart-wrenching story. I'm so glad Richard's story is finally told. I have an overwhelming urge to make Richard banners/icons Anyway, can't wait for next week's episode too. I'm sure a Jin/Sun reunion would be equally sweet. So, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who is a huge LOST fan. She brought up a question that's been bugging me. She's wondering why Richard's wife Isabella was seen on the island if her body is not physically there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but only the dead who have their bodies somewhere on the island can be seen, isn't that right? Remember back to the first Ben-centric episode, when he sees his mother, chases her out into the jungle, and meets Richard for the first time. Richard asks him if his mother died there on the island, or somewhere else, and if I'm remembering it right, seemed very surprised and intrigued to find out that she didn't. I guess now we know why...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 24, 2010 18:14:35 GMT -5
My all-time favorite book is "The Stand", and I know that it, and King's "Dark Tower" series, have been a big influence on the writers over the course of the series... and as this season goes along, the parallels to "The Stand" are becoming more and more obvious. But I actually laughed out loud during the scene on the ship of the MiB offering to let Ricardo out of his chains if he'd agree to help him--that was Randall Flagg and Lloyd Henreid in the Phoenix jail! So awesome! ;D I'm just hoping, tho, that "Lost" doesn't end the way "The Dark Tower" did. I won't spoil it for anyone that hasn't read it, but anyone that has knows what I'm talking about...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 15, 2010 19:04:26 GMT -5
I don't get why people love glory so much. Because before Toth tried to use that "creepy stick thing" on Buffy in "The Replacement", he first went to LA and tested it out on Cordelia, and split her in two. All the positive qualities remained in the Cordy that we saw over the next 2 seasons: she was thoughtful, caring, polite, tactful... In other words: boring. Meanwhile, all the qualities that had made her so hilariously-awesome for 4 years got dumped into this Hellgod named Glory, and turned her into one of the wackiest, coolest villains ever...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 13, 2010 19:00:16 GMT -5
My dad had this same problem on his computer a few years ago (XP, tho, not Vista). It looked like some official Windows antivirus program, and the "Your PC is infected!" thing popped up every 30 seconds and made the thing just about impossible to use. When you ran the suggested "virus scan", it came back with about 2,000 results--most of which were "critical"--and urged you to buy the full program to disinfect your system right away. I don't remember for sure, but I think he had to do a full system restore to get rid of it. I hope you get it fixed without having to go that far, but whenever you do get it taken care of, I'd recommend getting Kaspersky Internet Security to keep it from happening again. It's one of the best out there (much better than Norton, apparently), and I've had it for awhile and am totally happy with it...
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 13, 2010 15:18:51 GMT -5
I disagree that Xander's reasons for disliking Spike had anything to do with jealousy. Xander may see things in a naive way, and would only wake up when he's in Buffy's shoes in Selfless, but the facts remain; Anya became human, tries to act like humans, tries to fit in. Spike, on the other hand, is a soulless vampire, acts like a vampire, and doesn't try to fit in. Jealousy was why Xander disliked Angel and every other boy who expressed interest in Buffy during the first two seasons. After that, his dislike for Angel and Spike is far more complex. If jealousy is a factor, why wasn't he jealous of Scott Hope, Riley, Ben or Wood? I believe him when he tells Riley in "The Replacement" that he's not into Buffy anymore. I think he got over her about the same time he started going out with Anya, and realized that she was never going to be interested in him in "that way". I think that's part of what made him okay with Buffy/Riley, and also because he recognized that Riley was a good man. If he couldn't have Buffy himself, Riley was the type of nice, decent guy that he could handle losing her to. There's probably some of that in how he felt about Scott, Ben, and Wood, too, tho mostly I just think that her relationships with them didn't go far enough or last long enough to give him the chance to show any feelings about them, good or bad. When he finds out about her and Spike, even tho he doesn't still want her, I think there's still a big element of, "You never wanted me, but you do want him?!" in his reaction. I just don't see how else to explain the way he reacts there toward Buffy. Hurt and betrayal toward Anya, sure, (even tho it's uncalled for, and he has no one to blame but himself), and anger toward Spike, but anger toward Buffy? If he can sleep with a reformed mass-murderer, then she should be able to, too.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 12, 2010 14:56:40 GMT -5
This whole issue with Buffy's dorm and how vampires can and can't go in it at a certain time is confusing because it kinda contradicts when Angel is able to go into the fraternity house in "Reptile Boy" with the explanation that they are only temporary residents. (I can't find a quote on who says that but it's on BuffyWikia here ...scroll down to the bottom in the Continuity section.) I wouldn't rely on any Wiki as a definitive source of information. It's not a goof, or continuity error. Angel enters the frat house, but none of the individual rooms that the guys live in. That's no different than vamps (Angel, Spike, Sundays's gang) being able to enter the dorms, but not the individual rooms themselves. Because it's the rooms that are considered residences, and need an invite, not the entire building.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Mar 12, 2010 14:49:43 GMT -5
I think that arguing too deeply about issues like the soul, morality and the gravity of death in the show, taking the jokes as seriously as the heavy moments and expecting to get an internally consistent picture of all of these things is expecting far too much from the writers. The show wouldn't be half as enjoyable if it wasn't so funny all of the time, and the reason its funny so often is because it defies traditional rules about morality and death and pokes fun at everyone for being so serious all the time. We can't have our cake and eat it. Trying to plaster over the cracks by saying that Anya has no soul so that the actions of other characters can seem more consistent seems fruitless to me. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy a good chin-scratch about these things, but I would argue that there's only so far you can go with the characters alone, before you have to consider that the needs of the writers to propel the story in a particular direction clearly outweigh any internal justification that the fans can come up with. "It's fruitless. No fruit for gumgnome." ;D But yeah--I agree with you. Anya's there strictly for comic-relief, and you kind of miss the whole point of her character if you start pulling her apart and really trying to analyze her too deeply. The only time it does become important, tho, is in relation to Xander, and how he treats Buffy over Angel & Spike. He rips her for sleeping with a guy who "slaughtered half Europe", but less than 10 eps later admits his ex-fiance has "killed more men than smallpox". If he was a little more honest and just admitted that his main problem with the two vamps was jealousy, that wouldn't be so bad, but he hides behind being High Moral Ground Boy, and tries to make it seem that his dislike is all about the horrible things they've done, and how dangerous they are. But somehow that doesn't apply to him when he falls in love with a mass-murdering ex-demon.
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