Mine too, together with the uncle wiggily one. No one writes about children as well as Salinger and Astrid Lindgren, I think. Or maybe Katherine Mansfield

The mayor is great, and season 3 has Faith! And the doppelgangland episode! Of course season one deserves our love and appreciation. I feel bad for rating season 2 low too, but the Buffy-Angel drama always tires me..

The **** are you two on about? Season 1 was still trying to figure itself out but everything that made BtVS what it is was there, correct, and fresh. I don't know how the **** you can choose comparatively dull, tired crap like 6 and 7 over it.

2&3 (I can neither separate them nor choose)>5>1>4>6>7

The Mayor and Faith were incredible but Angelus was the most deliciously evil villain of the whole series and almost single-handedly took the show to another level.

I agree that seasons 6 and 7 are problematic and they lack freshness, but the first season is so unrefined. (weird that that bothers me because in music I don't find that a problem) The later seasons have so much history to build upon and they are also funnier, in my recollection (Tabula Rasa!). But it's true that when you look at it objectively, the whole season 2 Angelus storyline probably captures best what the whole series is about.

Buffy never had the same dramatic stakes after season 2. Every episode Angelus was in seemed to find a new way to emotionally scar Buffy and her friends in ways they never truly recovered from. That's also a lot of what makes season 1 great tbh. It didn't have all of that trauma and felt light and fun and cozy. On its own it's good but in hindsight it's the only time when having a main character whose name was "Buffy" was 100% tonally appropriate.

I love that observation!
It reminds me of that moment in season 4 when Faith stands in front of the mirror, after bodyswapping with Buffy, and pronounces her name

1: Basically one big b-movie, introduced the main scoobies, fruit punch mouth, Joss Whedon's attempts at hip young slang

2: Spike in a wheelchair, good ole leather pants Angelus (he's pretty corny tbh, and had a way creepier portrayal on Angel), Oz trying to find out who Willow is, the Latvian bugman, everyone in the audience cheering when The Annoying One got roasted

3: Faith + The Mayor = weird villain combo that somehow worked really well, Mr. Pointy, vampire Willow, Slayerfest, WELL GOSH, Mr. Trick was great, and The Mayor had an awesome evil master plan (he just wanted to be a big snake, was that so much to ask?)

4: Followed the audience into the craziness of college, Hush, evil robo-demon Charles Manson with a machine gun arm, Chip Spike (the beginning of an actually pretty interesting character study of an arc), Willow + Tara, Xander + Anya, Demon Giles, Restless (my personal favorite episode of the whole series), the body swap

5: The Body, Buffy Bot, Glory was awesome and hilarious, Dawn isn't nearly as annoying on re-watches, insane troll logic, great finale (Buffy smashing a god's face with a troll hammer is >), OH SHI-, She Saved The World A Lot

6: Followed the audience into the soul crushing pain of young adulthood, Dawn and Spike as a weird sort of big brother and little sister is actually kinda adorable, Fast Food Buffy, Bill Paying Buffy, Suicidal Buffy, Once More With Feeling, Evil Willow, Hell's Bells (which in hindsight is actually a fantastic episode that perfectly played off of a huge fear that a big chunk of the aging audience probably had), Buffy + Spike is an interesting (and simultaneously great and awful) flawed relationship, THE NEEEERRRDDDSSS!, Buffy stabbing Anya (and the totally left field musical interlude that did not make me cry, really)

7: Crazy Spike, the scoobie gang getting back together, Sunnydale High revisited, Dawn actually becoming useful

I'll be honest after season 3 one of my main considerations for how much I liked the season was, "Wait, what was Spike doing?" Spike > Buffy

And hell yes Dawn was way better than some would have you believe and was a catalyst for some of the greatest lulz of the series (that scene where Spike is telling Dawn a story of when he murdered an orphanage and she's just so into it is one of the best moments of the series). She was supposed to be annoying so pointing out that she is annoying is like saying that leaves are green so **** trees. And... well after a season or two she... well she grew up. Gulp.

But come on, season 6 was great for Whedon-ness but as an actual season of Buffy? The nerds were godawful villains. Fun to laugh at, but provided zero tension.

The Nerds were actually probably the creepiest villains, because they were the most realistic; dorks (who each have charming sides and relatable quirks) with low self-esteem who got addicted to feeling powerful over others. Warren shooting Buffy freaked people out more than any other act by any other villain because literally any angry loser can buy or steal a gun and go full on school shooter. Watching Warren develop from a harmless weirdo into pretty much a ****ing serial killer is tense as ****.

And the episode where they test Buffy is ****ing hilarious. Mummy hand >

Nah they were just dorks. You're reaching like OH for a pussy.

Tbh, I thought you of all people would appreciate The Doublemeat Palace

I've always liked Dawn (and her pizza topping preferences; I still quote her anchovies song). The nerds are underrated too I think. Warren is legitimately creepy and Andrew is hilarious. And Anya's marriage song interlude is my favourite musical Buffy moment.

Is the complete omission of Riley in your Buffy summary intentional? If so I don't blame you :)

I just started rewatching season 5 and was quite incensed that he hadn't already left the cast. I'd thought he was gone by the end of season 4. Easily the most boring and useless main character in all of Buffy-dom.

They're creepy in a very boring way. They're fun, but not in a way that drives the plot. They're side characters elevated for no good reason.

Maaaaaybe :D

Honestly though, I don't dislike him. He has his moments ("I'm an anarchist!"). It's just that most of the time, he's just sort of... there.

He has no purpose beyond being the bridge between Angel and Spike.

I think that was kinda the point. It was intentional, sort of like how Dawn was supposed to be annoying. Even Riley himself admitted that he was the convenient rebound guy. Which is why he became obsessed with getting bit by vampire gals, and then took off.

Riley existed as a way of forcing Buffy to admit that cheesecake normies just didn't cut it for her.

Yes but that didn't make him any less lame or boring. I don't think any Buffy fan wasn't waiting for him to leave.

He does, a little. It's about the problems Buffy dating a normal guy, or in general problems of guys dating girls who are stronger/dominant/bring in the money. But that doesn't help the fact that he's very boring.

I really do think that it was intentional, not just overtly but in a subtle way that a lot of people missed.

Like how throughout Season 5, they really tried to get the audience to be mad at Dawn for getting in the way, butting into the continuity, whining, etc. They wanted her to be sort of intrusive, and annoying. Hell, even Buffy seriously considers just giving up and letting Glory take her. And it all culminates in the pivotal moment where Buffy and the gang have to talk about whether or not they're going to kill her to save the world, and you realize "Holy ****, Dawn is just an accurate representation of a teenager, and not even all that annoying of one in the long run, and yet like 90% of the audience is cheering for her death, and even mailing waves of 'Kill Dawn' letters", a realization that ultimately makes Buffy's seemingly stubborn decision look more like the only decision that she could have made.

In that same way, the audience was meant to yawn at Riley and wish that he would go away so Buffy could get back to ass kicking instead of worrying about him. And when he finally leaves, it's like, "Holy ****, Riley was actually an awesome guy who gave up everything for someone that he knew didn't even really love him, knew how to kick some serious ass, had a great sense of humor, and out of the context of the show would have been like ultimate marriage material, because he actually wasn't nearly as dull as the first impression painted him, it's just that everything else in the show was so over the top that people couldn't help but see him as a boring sort of anchor to reality".

And in that way, the characters of Dawn and Riley, the two most reviled in the history of the show, are both actually really interesting case studies in audience manipulation. Maybe not on the level of the baby in Eraserhead that everyone is like "OH GOD, KILL IT," and totally forgets that it's in all likelihood just an exaggerated personification of maliciousness applied by an unreliable narrator to a normal baby that doesn't actually know what the **** is going on. But still interesting.

Yes but Dawn fit into the show and was entertaining. Riley never was. He was legit boring as a person.

If by fit, you mean forcefully injected by a bunch of Italian monks, sure.

To be fair, there are stranger things about the show. Like Willow's early-seasons fashion sense.

Aw come on, early Willow's wardrobe was adorable and you know it

Of course.
https://media.giphy.com/media/uOUmlEwL7JbDW/giphy.gif

But still later seasons cute/sexy Willow > early seasons adorable Willow.

In hindsight, I should have just made this the official BtVS thread.

Best non-main Buffy villain:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KGXGKJ4zD9...indestod_4.jpg

eww no.
Although the fact that he's so repulsive probably means that you're right

Wait no I retract that. The best non-main villain is that first girl-bot. I didn't know it was possible to feel so sad for a piece of technology

I like the fear demon who turns out to be three inches tall.

Oh yes that one was amazing. But actually vampire Willow counts as a non-main villain so that settles it for me

Oh wait wasn't that the episode where we found out Anya's greatest fear is bunnies?

Yeah, Fear Itself

Plus...

http://i.imgur.com/U97jV.gif