An Extremely Shitty Ranking Of Buffy Characters
Wow this is bad.
I mean, I know that that's the purpose of Buzzfeed...but that doesn't make it good.
They got the lowest-ranking character right (Kennedy...the Jar Jar Binks of the Buffyverse...) But Willow as #1? No way, dude...and I love me some Willow. Early Willow, anyway...before late season 4 when actors start falling into routines with the characters, and Tara comes along and both Tara and Willow start talking in baby talk.. Early Willow is awesome. She's got some of my favorite deliveries of lines in the show, and she gets so hot around season 3-4 or so... But not the best character in the show.
I mean...Graham, Principal Flutie, Percy, the Beast and Eve all in, like, the bottom 25? Nope, nope, nope...
...And I'm a big fat nerd, aren't I?
I really do have an unhealthy love for that show...
I mean, I know that that's the purpose of Buzzfeed...but that doesn't make it good.
They got the lowest-ranking character right (Kennedy...the Jar Jar Binks of the Buffyverse...) But Willow as #1? No way, dude...and I love me some Willow. Early Willow, anyway...before late season 4 when actors start falling into routines with the characters, and Tara comes along and both Tara and Willow start talking in baby talk.. Early Willow is awesome. She's got some of my favorite deliveries of lines in the show, and she gets so hot around season 3-4 or so... But not the best character in the show.
I mean...Graham, Principal Flutie, Percy, the Beast and Eve all in, like, the bottom 25? Nope, nope, nope...
...And I'm a big fat nerd, aren't I?
I really do have an unhealthy love for that show...
posted by Winston Smith at
1:03 PM
5 Comments:
WHY does everyone rank Spike so high? WHY?
He's great in the early seasons, when he's evil, but I HATE the Spike fans who wanted Buffy to get back together with Spike after his sexual assault.
HATE.
Did he redeem himself? Yes. But does that mean Buffy should have taken up boinking him again?
No.
I have a soft spot for Arim Shimmerman's character, because: Deep Space Nine.
I absolutely agree that Spike is best when he's evil--and, I'd say, when he's mooning over Buffy. But I'm not wild about it when they get together. Except for the very first time, in "Once More With Feeling," which we just re-watched. I actually think that works...
As for the sexual assault--I absolutely see your point...though I got pretty irritable about this stuff when I used to frequent Metafilter... Many of the Buffy fans there are so overtly sexist against dudes that it's really nauseating. Oh, man, did they hate Xander, for example. In case you didn't realize it, he's an attempted rapist because of what happened when he was possessed by hyenas in "The Pack"... They didn't seem to care that Willow actually *is* a rapist, given that she put a forgetfulness spell on Tara and had sex with her while she was still under the influence...*that* was just dandy, because, y'know, men are evil or something....
But...I digress... I guess my general thinking on all that is that at some point you have to make allowances for artistic license...they crank up the drama and then need to gloss over it in order for the series to go on... I don't know when one gets to deploy that principle...but the Spike case does seem pretty egregious... Maybe it's because he really had no chance of succeeding against Buffy? I dunno...
Yeah, though I only flirted with ST:DS9 from time to time, I, too, like Armin Shimerman as principal Snyder. But I also liked the other dude as Principal Flutie...
I think a lot of it is one's personal reaction--the scene where Spike attempts to rape Buffy really distresses me to the point that I'd probably leave the room during that scene (mind you, I leave the room during lots of things, though my top leave the room scenes are for characters being humiliated (think lots of 80s teen movies and shows and any early in the show interaction between Willow and Cordelia)).
Blaming someone for something they did while possessed? That's... ridiculous.
Oh, the other principal WAS awesome, but as DS9 is my favorite show ever (possibly above even Firefly), Armin Shimerman wins out. (Really, if you haven't watched it all the way through, I highly recommend. The first two seasons are weak, but lay the groundwork for the awesomeness of seasons 4, 5, and 6. And if you don't appreciate "In the Pale Moonlight", well, I'll eat my hat. (I adore the lack of moral absolutes in that show, as well as the growth that so many of the characters get to have. Plus: Michael Dorn is ADORABLE.)
And if you want REAL geek cred, watch Babylon 5. The first season is painful, but absolutely necessary to the later seasons.
Yeah, I know exactly the scenes/kinds of scenes you're talking about, and they're pretty damn agitating... Charisma Carpenter was just great, IMO...extremely hateable (early on, at least). She had the mean girl thing down pat. (And her comedic chops are even better, IMHO...)
I'll take your advice on both ST:DS9 and Bab 5...both are shows that I've tried to get into. I've seen...oh...maybe 10 episodes of the latter and 20 or so of the former...and I really liked DS9 for awhile, but just couldn't ever seen to get the episodes in order watching them as re-runs...but I need to try on Netflix. I couldn't even get into Buffy until I watched it on DVD...and I adore that show to the point of it being kinda...unhealthy or something... As much as I love Firefly and Angel, even they can't really touch Buffy in my mind...
As a geek myself, watching kids/teens get picked on is just to painful for me. Luckily, I can walk out of the room. :) And Cordelia was why I never really could get into Angel. I believe in redemption, and love seeing it, but she was just *so damned cruel* in early Buffy I just had a terrible time rooting for her.
Babylon 5 *has* to be watched in order. It has utterly amazing story telling. I mean, in one of the later seasons, I was gobsmacked by what bits had been set up in the first season.
And once they figure out storytelling with cameras, the show improves markedly. (The first several episodes have very abrupt cuts, such as you'd have in a comic, but they're very jarring on film.)
With DS9, the first two seasons can be watched somewhat randomly, but season 3 forward has some marvelous story arcs that need to be watched in order.
And one of the things I adore about DS9 is that they got Jake Sisco so very right. (Unlike Wesley Crusher, who is mortifyingly embarrassing IMO.) Avery Brooks and Cirroc Loften developed a very close father-son relationship IRL, and that very much comes through in the show.
"The Visitor" which is a later season stand-alone makes me cry *every single time*. In fact, if you want to watch one episode that exemplifies so much of what *I* love about DS9 story telling, it's that episode.
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