When She Was Bad

Wow, the dance scene in the Bronze was well-done. Buffy deliberately hurts three people that she loves with just one thing. The levels of ouch in that scene are horrible foreshadowing for the levels of ouch in the season. And I always fixate on Xander's reaction, because it's just so complicated - Willow and Angel are betrayed and hurt, but Xander is betrayed, hurt, confused, and majorly turned-on. His jaw when she grinds up against him... just so much ouch. And his face after she leaves breaks my heart. God, that's a horrible thing to do to someone you know wants you.

Oh, and in our last shot of Xander in the Bronze, Willow is over one shoulder and Cordy is over the other, while Buffy has taken herself out of the picture.

She just uses everything she knows to hurt them. It's a horrible thing to do. But it's still a hell of a sexy dance.

WSWB - OMWF

It's interesting how in WSWB, Buffy is hurting and decides that she has to go alone, while by OMWF, when she's hurting, Giles is the one who decides she should fight alone.

In Seasons 1-3, Buffy does try to push the gang out of the fight. After that, she pretty much stops, yeah (and transfers that to Dawn)? Hmm. I need to rewatch S4-6. I know that it's stopped in 6&7, but I'm trying to figure the exact turning point. Why did she figure out that she couldn't protect them when they wanted in the fight?

Some Assembly Required

And we have Buffy-Xander-Angel doing the greeting thing - and Angel doesn't ignore Xander, and even treats him like an equal, instead not greeting Buffy.

You know, I really think that Angel's feelings changed in Prophecy Girl, when he saw how far Xander was willing to go for Buffy. In S1, he isn't jealous of Xander - has no reason to be. In S2, he still doesn't have a real reason to be, because Buffy wants him, but he respects Xander in a way he didn't, before. PG may be why Angelus took Xander seriously in KBD.

And this episode has the hints of Xander and Cordelia. I think that she notices him as a guy during the dance in WSWB ("...wouldn't have even noticed Xander Harris if Buffy hadn't made him marginally cooler by hanging with him...") and then notices him as a good kind of guy when he saves her here. Which is kinda echoed in how she admits to liking Doyle after he saves her in The Bachelor Party. The Xander Harris connection is strong.

Inca Mummy Girl

This episode really is a B/X shipper's dream. There's no Angel and not a single sign that Buffy was feeling the lack of Angel (actually, I get why Angel would want to get away a bit after the advent of Spike and Dru, especially taking into account what we know now). And Buffy never discourages Xander's blatent jealousy in early S2. She calls Angel on his jealousy but doesn't call Xander on his. It makes her smile, even. Like she told Xander in I Robot, You Jane, it's nice being the Belle of the Ball and a person gets used to that. But wow, it's amazing how open he is about it. It really puts into perspective her comments later on in the season. Because he had it bad for her and everyone in visual and audio range knew it. I get why she leaps to the jealous conclusion later on, even though I think she's mostly wrong.

And then there's her expression after Ampata (I wish we knew her real name) and Xander leave for the dance. It's wistful... not like she was wishing that she could go to the dance with Xander necessarily, but that she could be the kind of girl who could go to the dance. But there's a real longing there. And then there's the moment of connection at the end, over Ampata and over Buffy's death.

"I had you to bring me back."

And it's the beginning of Willow and Oz. Which begins as all of Willow's relationships do, with the other party falling hard for her on first sight. God, that girl gets romantic happiness handed to her on a golden platter. She had the perfect boyfriend and then she had the perfect girlfriend. And she didn't appreciate either enough at the beginning.

Five Fandom Opinions

I gave some thought to doing the 'unpopular fandom opinions' meme but a) it seems like too much work figuring out which of my opinions are popular and which aren't (though one or two are guaranteed - yay for Eve) and b) y'all probably know most of them anyway.

Five Fandom Opinions (that I don't mention much)

1) I prefer Ezri Daz to Jadzia Dax (Deep Space 9).

2) The writers made the right choice in killing off Jonathan and in keeping Andrew (Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

3) Like my mom, I miss Cordy not at all (Angel). Actually, it's kinda nice not to have her around, being bitchy and never getting called on it.

4) The John/Aeryn thing is too easy (Farscape). And that sounds silly, given all they go through, but it's too easy. She's too human-looking for me to ever take her seriously as an alien and so the entire relationship feels false and fake and... easy. It feels like the easy writing choice - stick him with a girl who looks human.

5) Ross and Rachel are as exciting as counting the number of holes that are in a ceiling when you're too sick to move and have nothing else to do (Friends). And if anyone ever calls me their lobster, there will be eye-rolling and then avoidance.

Oh, and I haven't seen most of Season Three of Angel, so I was hoping someone could place a moment for me. Wesley's holding Connor and Angel kisses Connor on the cheek and it's ten kinds of adorable. Anyone know where that's from? It kills me even out of context.

Random thought -

You know, I read Justin's quote from RS and it could have come off badly to me, but then there was that last line - "But I'm a cocky bastard", which just made me grin and go, "Fucking A, J." He is a cocky bastard. And good for him. He's good enough to earn that kind of feeling. Boy makes me sad that I don't have any Justin icons uploaded. Then again, maybe this is a sign that I need to made a new Justin icon - with the words 'cocky bastard' on it.