James Marsters, you've melted my damn heart here sir, you really have. 'It was the worst day of my professional career' yet you explained the writers motivations so fairly and insightfully. Dude.
Willow going dark just really made it clear how hypocritical the Scooby‘s were and who they were willing to forgive for murder. Scooby‘s quick to be like it’s fine we love you will yellow crayon.
Thank you for this video, Vee. For so long I questioned why they did that Spike/Buffy scene the way they did. So glad James was so willing to be up front about the whole thing.
Yep!! And what sucked was how it ended with xander saying he loved her over nd over, it was a pure cringefest!!! This whole video is a list of wat was great about buffy and defense of wat actually sucked!!!!
@@nicolelooton6134 i disagree with you that scene was great is showed why Xander is the heart of the group and he was the only one who could've brought her back from the darkness without killing her because of the history they shared
Thank God James reiterated the RRK story behind "Seeing Red". I love how he put it, too: "Our secrets with fangs on them." He is so humble. Great video!
It strikes me how, even decades later, the attempted rape scene in Seeing Red still affects James Marsters so much. He already looked fairly older, but recalling that aged him even more with regret.
Spike was my favorite on show because work for his gold's hard work showing that he good enough if not better. The episode where he tells his history is my favorite episode
Spike was able to very subtly feel the soul of a person, his experiences and emotions. he always spoke to his face The truth that a person already understood but was afraid to admit to himself. he was open, straightforward and sincere. he always behaved as he felt. He gave her his love, tenderness, body and soul, and cared for her.
That was an amazing answer James gave to your question. I was already impressed by his insight before he started talking about "Seeing Red," but his frankness about that episode really got to me. I'll admit it, I'm crying right now! James Marsters was my first love when I was 12 years old, I'm happy to know that I chose well. ;)
@@joseystrife8780 I always found the body-swap trope too out of ordinary life to really fit into realistic rape discourses. I mean: uncomfortable? Sure. Deceitful? Certainly. Evil? Yup yup yup. But it has too many layered meanings, such as "is someone's love really just about the body or can they recognise the mind and personality?" or "does a person get new feelings by literally putting oneself into another person's life?", to just be reduced to a real-life instance of "rape via deceit". The same goes for other love-and-sex magic stories, such as love spells (Xander - "is passion ever real?") or reality-bending wishes (Jonathan - "would you be loved if you were different, and would that satisfy you inside?").
At least with the Faith and Xander thing Angel turned up and knocked Faith out. But Season 6 was during a point where they were trying to redeem Spike and make him a hero but the rape of Buffy was something Season 2 villain Spike might do but not Seasons 5-7 reformed Spike.
I've heard James tell this same story in other videos, and it's apparent that the original writer envisioned Buffy being strong enough to easily get Spike off of her. Given that vampire bites in the show tended to be portrayed in a suggestive manner, it can even be argued that Buffy fights off such assaults regularly. But since the goal is to make the audience hate Spike, they decided to portray Buffy as a helpless victim. It's very doubtful that the scene would've played out the same way if say Angel was the victim and Drusilla was the attacker.
This was a great video. The contribution from James is fantastic. I was surprised how open and honest he was and I'd never thought before about how much of an impact on the actors scenes like that might have. Really looking forward to the second part.
Kudos to James Marsters for not being one of those actors who claims that [the attempted rape scene] was intense and empowering for his acting, etc. I'm glad that not only did he think it was a mistake at the time, he's still disturbed by it! I often read about how many actors claim these bad experience were "positive" somehow for their careers and for once, this one tells it like it was!
Buffy was released in 97 not the early 2000s as you said. Google, was not a thing as it wasn't founded until 98. AskJeebs was the main search engine at the time. And not everyone had access to the internet. So the episodes such as Willow dating an internet demon were not clichéd at all, because Buffy was one of the first shows to do something like that. However in 2021, Google is very much a thing... And it would have taken YOU like 30 seconds to find that, had you bothered to look.
Well said. I barely knew what the internet is in 97. I made my first email address in a shop in 98 I barely knew what it even means I just wanted to try it. I didn't have internet until 2000 and that was in school. I was amazed my websites and it was so slow but that was normal. Altavista and yahoo were dominant search engines and they sucked.
Thank God someone shares my disgust for scenes like the one james explained. We as people are here to help learn from one another. Infinite respect to james marsters for standing beside his morals. Great video, loved it 🙏
I don't like watching these scenes either, but looking away doesn't clear the issue. Rape is sadly still a common crime and it was a powerful moment to show that even the strongest woman we can think of can't escape this threat
Willow started using magic as a way out from the start. When she had the affair with Xander she tried to end it by using magic and not telling Xander about it. She tried to use magic as revenge after Oz cheated. She was even approached by Dhofryn to work for him as vengeance demon king way before Tara died. In the beginning when she started magic Giles warned her about going into more complicated spells like soul restoration because once you go there there is no way back. Magic was shown as a drug in first couple of seasons by showing us Giles as an addict with Ethan worshiping Eyghon ( I gone ) and loosing some friends because of it ( magic = drug use) I like your videos but I don’t think you gave this one much research. I do agree that the Kennedy + Willow was just there to not make her go back to guys so her relationship with Tara wasn’t just college experimentation. I didn’t like Kennedy as a character because she was horribly undeveloped.
The issue was less that Kennedy was underdeveloped and more that she was actually just a shitty person. Also, if Kennedy et al. are meant to be "potential Slayers", shouldn't they all be 15/16?
Thank you, I like your reply. Magic was always a vehicle for different metaphors (drugs, attraction, power, knowledge, enlightenment...) depending on how and why it was used. It's also clear that there are dark forces but also more luminous, harmonious ones that magic can tap into. There is nothing inconsistent with Willow's development, and she actually needs a whole season of struggle in order to find true resolution and redemption.
I totally agree, evrything he said sucked was what was great aboyt buffy and he defended th utter shlock that actually was what killed th show. This kid knows nothing
I thought the SEEING RED bathroom scene was just heartbreaking and the craziest shit EVER at the time it premiered. This is the third or fourth time James Marsters spoke about this- I agree about his fustration. I wish she would’ve fukked up him up earlier in the scene.
Not even the only Buffy rape or attempted rape scene though! Faith rapes Riley and potentially attempts to rape Xander! They frame it completely differently though. Edited for clarity on the Xander situation as it's slightly more vague.
@@AmoMe2009 Ehh from what I remember he was trying to get away and she had him pinned to the bed strangling him and talked in some fashion about doing what she wants to him. I'd have to re-watch to be sure, though! In any case it made me very uncomfortable.
@@AmoMe2009 The first time, yes. The second time, Xander was just trying to talk to her, and she tried to rape and strangle him. Angel saved him and knocked her out.
I think dark willow was perfect. I'm sure if I was in her shoes I would have done worse. The fact that tara was killed by just normal humans is interesting
Agreed, I felt the video was spot on besides that part, loved the Dark Willow arc and there was subtle clues of magic consuming her throughout the season so it did not come out nowhere only that it was Tara who pushed it over the edge.
Dark Willow had nothing to do with Willows magic ‘abuse’ during s6. Magic was Willows weapon, she used it like Buffy would use her fists. I agree it wasn’t a surprise that Willow took that path; what was terrible is that in ep 21 and 22 they started mixing up magic, drugs, grief, vengeance, good magic and a super power who didn’t manage to actually hurt anyone
@@chrisdavis2719 They've shown magic as a dangerous force that always takes a toll from the very first season. They cemented the idea that it can open doors you cannot close in season two. And they repeatedly used it as a metaphor for any inner force you can lose control over. So what happened in season 6 is fully consistent.
@@nicolelooton6134 🤣 You really have some problems with that scene, right, Dan? (Don't be mad, it's just about the fourth or fifth time in this comment section that I read that comment from you 😉.) I think it actually makes sense. Willow couldn't have been beaten by any of the other characters, who had superpowers like Buffy, for example. The killing of Tara took away her feelings, she practically built a wall around herself, her soul, to not have to deal with the loss (so the opposite of the Willow we see after Joyce died, and who was going through the motions, desperately searching her blue pullover, because Joyce liked it so much (btw, a great scene, I have done similar things when my Mom was dying (she had the same tumor Buffy's Mom had, so yeah, tough episode(s) to re-watch)). Xander broke said wall with telling her he will always love her, no matter what Willow she is. The feelings came back, she was able to cry about her loss. Personally, I liked that story arc.
I think that one of the only if not the only Vampire biological age v/s emotional age dichotomy that had acknowledge the problem was "Interview with the Vampire" with Claudia character, even if is the contrary to what's commonly happened. Claudia is way too young when she is converted, she is a kid but as time go by, she is a grown up woman in the body of a girl, she think and desire as a woman, but everyone sees her as a kid. Anne rice did this for her own reasons, but still I found it interesting. Pd: sorry English is not my first language. Pd: I can just talk about the book but for some reason I still don't watch the movie and I really want to watch it.
Yes Vee, age is the big issue in Buffy and Angels relationship and not that Angel is a undead murderer who lives on blood who had a split personality who was the most evil vampire on record..... Oh and did the PTB not know that Angel was going to fall in love with Buffy when they sent him to help her? Come on, PTB knew what they were doing all along, sent Angel to the one person who could break the curse? Sure.
Joss Whedon hating James Marsters for being as popular as he was, and wanting to force Angel x Buffy as endgame and hating the fact that the fans still wanted Spike x Buffy more...or Spike at all... I think Joss knew EXACTLY what he was doing in forcing James Marsters to act that scene with Buffy. Joss was not against doing things he knew would hurt others as his own way of exerting control and was a known emotionally manipulative bully. I don't doubt for one second that Joss was 100% behind that decision to put not just Marsters through that, but to 'finally' in his mind "put Spike in his place" in the fans eyes. I'm glad Spike eventually got a soul, it seems Whedon never will.
To be fair if they never mentioned Angel's age it could've been implied that he was alot younger when he was turned unfortunately that was thrown out the window thanks to the writers on Angel
@@cloudsombrero yeah that would solved the problem of the actors looking older as the series goes on which might actually be why they made Angel's age 26 in the first place
I think Angel/Buffy said he was a freshman in college in S1, but he couldn’t pass for an 18 year old by the time he was on Angel so they retconned his age
Giles tries to slow down Willow's use of magic in season 2, saying it could open doors that might not be able to be closed again. And to drive the point home, there is the episode with the demon "aygon the dreamwalker", where we learn that Giles also used magic for the same kind of pleasure as Willow starts using it for.,
Seeing an interview like this with James Marsters, I can't NOT be just a little in love with a man I've never, personally, known. The depth of introspection and external application that comes through in these few minutes is true beauty.
Dark Willow was always where her character was headed. Tara's death was tragic but necessary to push Willow over the edge and give us the awesomeness of Dark Willow!
Kennedy, while a decent prospect of a character on her own, was literally thrown into Willow's life as a girl who liked girls. Which was the only reason they got together. But yeah... they completely ignored that Willow wasn't a full-on lesbian there. They also forgot that she wasn't attracted to Tara because she was female. They came together naturally. Like, she was never in love with Oz or shared a strong attraction with Xander. Nope! Just throw her in with a random new girl!
Kennedy honestly came off as a sexual predator with how she was onto Willow without considering how she feels. Even Willow, who was uncomfortable with her advances for 3 full episodes, suddenly does a 180 and responds to them. The whole thing was stupidly written.
Buffy is one of my all time favorite shows, like...we're talking top 5, but this "not a list" list is 100% correct. And super well done and VERY entertaining, so kudos kudos kudos. I also lu-lu-loooove James Marsters and admittedly was one of those "I love Spike, I don't care if he's evil" viewers....as an adult re-watching the series, I totally understand, but back in the day....back in the day....
I really loved the “Dark Willow” storyline. Especially in a season when life was the big bad I enjoyed the idea that Willow would binge out on magik. I agree with the majority of your other points. I LOVED the James Marsters cameo!!! I’m looking so forward to the other two vids.
I am pretty sure that Kennedy was only created because the fans accused the show of being homophobic for killing Tara. They probably thought that just making Willow find a new girlfriend would be enough...well, it wasn't hahaha
They did establish the magic being used as a narcotic pretty early on in The Dark Age, where they revealed Giles and his friends summoned Eyegon to get high, which really makes Giles coming back to deal with it appropriate, as he'd gone through something similar around the same age. For Angel, the creep factor is tempered as he's presented as a drunken manchild as a human and isn't really presented as palling around with other adults during his and Buffys relationship, which works in tandem with Buffy coming off more adult and self sufficient for her age. Where I really felt the creep factor was in the last season of Angels series, where the creature is giving him the series of random dreams and he see's Spike going at it with the Buffy standin and there's her audio about prom and he's all concerned about not being able to go to prom with her. Maybe its that Angel was a father at that point, the darker themes of his own series, or just that he's in a corporate executive role at that point that makes him seem more aged and it more creepy than this long lived gothic peter pan role he filled moreso on Buffy
Thank you so much for this video! I just have to disagree on the Tara and Willow arch. Tara´s death had a huge reason which was, to tip Willow over the edge because from season 2 on we could see a slow developement of Willow relying on magic to make her feel special/worthy of being loved or feeling good enough. Like she said in season 6 before Taras death, ´´who would you rather be? Plain old Willow or Willow with powers?´´ (or something like that). She is insecure about not being good enough if she would ´´loose´´ her magic or give it up because it has become an addiction. I think the drug metaphor for her magic is beautifully portrayed in season 6... and then she got better, Tara came back, and I see how this is suuuuper upsetting to have Tara be killed off seemingly for no reason but the point is that Willow needed to become her own person as well... I don´t know how to explain this right, also keep in mind this is just my opinion but season 6 is my favorite because of this arch... cause it´s very close to home when you exchange magic with drugs or being codependent. Willows choices to cut herself off and go completely into vengence and killing Warren - a human nontheless (I mean, I didn´t mind and rather enjoyed that scene but he still is human) - becoming suicidle and homocidle because she couldn´t control life. That´s dangerous and let her to the consequences of a) now being a murderer herself b) a recovering (this time really recovering) addict. Also the trio triggered the true big bad to come out so they have a reason to be in the season, and look at season 7... it all builds on each other. Long reply, sorry! But I love Tara and her death didn´t happen in vain I think.
Yeah. His reading of this seems like he didn’t rewatch the show recently. The buildup is there, but the only way you can see Tara’s death as unnecessary is to then slag off the Dark Willow storyline entirely.
Oh my God! That clip at the end showing that the Rogue/Kitty dance scene from X-Men Evolution was lifted straight from Faith and Buffy blew my mind!!! Oh, and I love "Beer Bad". Probably because I don't drink and I can't stand being around drunks.
Spike Had a Good . Story arc First He come To try Kill Buffy Than Got Chip put in his head ... Try Date Buffy ..But was Rejected Than He got his Soul back Than joined Team Angel
Just a reminder that if you love Buffy Angel Firefly and Dollhouse. If you liked all that content. Watch Agents of Shield. Its truly the last of that era and has the least problematic writers.
I remember watching Faith and Buffy fight in Buffy’s house and when they go falling down the stairs, you can see the camera man on the side when they switch angles. I honestly like finding shit like this in tv shows.
@@Nassit-Gnuoy they also messed with color timing, time of day in some scenes, and other shit, like digital noise reduction. the show looks WORSE. the show deserves a widescreen remaster like the one X-files got.
I think we do see this perverted portrayal of magic in the first season of Buffy. When Amy's mom (a witch) can't seem to stop using magic, her eyes turn black, and she doesn't care who she hurts along the way (even her own daughter). Also, we know that Willow feels insecure and seeks to gain power. We also see that she does have a dark side in the wish episode where her vampire counterpart tortures Angel more than the rest of the vampires. This could be attributed to her being a vampire, but there is still that darkness inside of her. There is plenty of foreshadowing, but we just have to pay attention.
Ooo! You watched Angel before Buffy! Ok, question for you, what was your thoughts on Buffy just from what you saw on Angel? I also totally agree with you about the Angel/Buffy age thing especially during the flash back (they did point it out a few times, but it was like "oh he's old...anyways...") I loved Spike and Buffy together because they were both themselves and eachother as growing adults, much more comfortable.
I am the first person who will defend spuffy and I get attacked for it because of the attempted rape scene but if anyone knew how much that scene hurt James Marsters they would leave him alone and literally ask him about anything else but they dont they just choose to torture him with it.
@@PeterParker-ff7ub even the writers for Buffy agreed that she and spike belong together. It was all over twitter like a year ago. Alison Hanigan agreed.
I only just found out that James (spike) is American and not English. Always thought he did an amazing performance and now i think he did an unbelievable performance.. Makes me appreciate him so much more.
For years I’ve seen people claim that Willow’s turn to the darkness came out of nowhere and there was no build up, I would have to disagree with that. There were hints all season long that she was heading towards a dark path, like when she snapped at Giles (who btw she’s always considered as a mentor/father figure) after he says she shouldn't have brought Buffy back, what she does to Tara's memory and then doesn't learn and tries to do the same to Buffy's, and when her addiction to magic even got worse when she is with Amy after Amy isn't a rat anymore. Hell, I’d dare say the series has been building up to this in previous seasons if you really think about it. Thats why I feel Willow going dark was totally believable. And I for one loved the Dark Willow episodes tho I do feel agree that I hate that Tara was killed off and wished we had more time with her character with that said I’ll always cherish the relationship her and Willow had in the series. And as far as the whole Buffy and Angel age difference, the show has brought it up a couple of times often making light of it. In fact Angel even blatantly brings up him being 200 something year old and her being 16 in an awkward conversation they have in one episode. Again whenever it was brough up, it was like show poking fun at the matter. plus I was never really bothered by it cus how many vampire stories have we seen or read where the teenage girl makes out or dates a vampire and those vampire tend to be way older than the girl so it’s very common lol. Now if that’s a trope that still bothers you then fine that’s fair but Buffy isn’t the one that does this just it pointing that out there.
We want more big bad! I think a big thing for me is you watch David Boreanaz learn how to act as you watch. His acting in season 1 of buffy is... something haha. By season 1 of Angel he does so good 🥰
Mr. Marsters nailed it; he described the show basically as a fable or parable in modern mythology (again, his argument in my own words); in a way to describe the dangers of the world.
As a bi guy, I think Vee is misinterpreting the whole "Bury your gays" trope. It doesn't imply that gay characters should be "immune" to perils in their lives, but rather, they shouldn't be relegated to the background, until it's time to make them suffer and/or to show "representation". And two gay characters shouldn't just be paired together simply because they're both "gay". While I loved Willow as a character, I always thought Zander should've been the "token gay/bi" character in the show (because they were only going to assign that to 1 of the main cast). But of course, lesbians are more widely accepted, & it gave guys/lesbians something to lust over. Otherwise, they would've done more than simply imply that Spike & Angel had "a bisexual encounter"...once. That relationship would've made more sense, since everything works differently for vampires, including their views on sexuality (plus it would've sidestepped the whole age difference issue). And vampires aren't "the living dead" (that's zombies), they're "the living undead".
Willows plot line was a struggle with abusing magic.... losing terra and having in the past used magic to being back the dead.... it made perfect sense that she went off the deep end.
As someone who was an adult in his early 20's when Buffy first came out and was on the internet fandom even way back then, it did come up. Not as much as it surely would now, but there were fans who called them on that even back then. I assumed it was because they wanted to cast David Boreanaz (sp?) and figured even by Hollywood logic he was too old to pass for a teenager. But most would argue that is not a good excuse.
U cant bash Joss and the writing team for making an episode in the first season about the internet when it was made BEFORE HIGH SPEED CONNECTIVITY EVEN EXISTED. That episode was COMPLETELY relevant when it aired
The mean spirited treatment of spike (and just vampires in general) in the later seasons will leave me forever bitter. For a show about transitioning from adolescence to adulthood, they sure seemed determined to hang onto their soul/soulless binary. The fact that joss whedon traumatized james marsters to punish fans for liking his character is petty bullshit. It’s just so unnecessary. No other character is framed like spike in the show, and then season 7 rolls around and they make him Angel 2.0 with his pity routine and it’s just so fucking tired by that point. You made us sit through seeing red for that??? Arguably the least interesting version of spike? Fuck joss whedon, man.
I do agree that Joss giving Spike cruddy plots to punish fans later on was stupid. But Spike is NOT Angel 2.0 lol. Spike is not Angel. Angel has a curse. Spike had a great redemption arc in this show but the writers still did stupid things with him. Like that dumb Buffy Bot episode
💯 The show *never* brings up Angel being an adult vs Buffy being a teenager....like seriously never. Whenever they bring up Angel's age, it focuses on his being a centuries old vampire, but nothing in context of him being an *adult*!!! Its just accepted. Giles, Buffys father figure, finds it charming/romantic having this dude around in love with Buffy.....like, what??? It's really super bizarre and not ok lol. Plus, Bangel fans that are very anti-Spuffy aways complain how creepy stalker Spike is......and like, did they not watch their Bangel ship?? Lol....do a drinking game in season's 1-3, and drink every time Angel is A) lurking around Buffy B) following/stalking/watching Buffy C) being jealous of every male around her D) enters her teenage girl bedroom E) is purely preoccupied with Buffy (looking for her, nosing in her business, etc).....that is every. single. scene he has (not even counting what he was like with her when soulless).....and they complain about Spike being stalkery?? LOL
Angel wasnt maturing over time, thats the point of this whole 'angelus and angel are different characters' thing. As a human (Liam) he didn't have a lot of personality. He was a drunken failure. The deamon inside him developed a personality, a very bad one. When he got his soul back he went through an identity crisis. Not wanting to go back to being Liam and definitly not wanting to be like angelus, he struggled a lot with his identity. He barely was a person until he saw buffy the first time. He was living like a homeless person up until this point. Season 1 of buffy we see him forming his identity as angel, the vampire with a soul and a deamon inside him and constant burden of being miserable. He wasn't mature at all. He did know a lot and was experienced in some way but mentally and body wise he was young
Thank you for this video. Make many more “worst of buffy” videos. Make “worst of angel” videos. Make the best of both. Hell, any Buffy-verse content im on board for. And as someone who kissed the video games, I’m down for videos focusing on them!
@@TastyChurro once Jasmine manifests, I really like the season. Also I liked the episode Awakening (it caught me off guard), and the Faith episodes. But yeah, it’s definitely the most problematic season...but season 5 is the best!
@@TastyChurro Season 4 was terrible on first time but on rewatches, it got much better. Though the Connor/Cordelia bullshit is still disgusting as Hell and of course the retcon that Jasmine was influencing the whole team from the start, which was just cheap. But 4x7-4x15 is in my opinion the 3rd best arc of the whole show due to its epic scale as well as Faith and Angelus (if not for the Cordelia/Connor bullshit with which they ruined Cordy, I'd put it on top). Still, like the other guy said, it is the most problematic Season for sure.
Technically, Willow was not the "heart" of the Scoobies, she was the "spirit". Xander was the heart, Giles the mind. Canon reference S4/E21. "Beer Bad" was indeed a bottom 10 episode. But my personal favorite for worst was actually Season 1 "I Robot, You Jane". Also worse than "Beer Bad" was Season 1 with the Preying Mantis woman, "Teacher's Pet". "Beer Bad" is probably number 10 on the bottom 10.
Honestly most of those allegorical episodes went totally over my head and I have rewatched Buffy as an adult. They seem so obvious now. I also think it's worth noting that during the time when Angel was growing up, him banging a teenage girl would probably have been fine. We want the next Big Bad
I disagree with everything said about the Tara death and the change in Willow. I thought it was all brilliant, and I LOVED watching Kennedy working so hard to pull Willow out of herself a little.
I'mma be real here, buffy has a problem with not taking sexual assulalt seriously. Wether it's spike/buffy or Faith/xander or Faith/Riley when she used buffy's body.
Maybe the show learned us to be not a victim all of the time and cry in a corner what teenagers do nowadays, but just being strong and moving on. Everything is racist, sexual harassment, sexist or something like that. I am glad Buffy was not a serie about pleasing the political correct and the feminists. But just something you can relate to and look up to.
Great interview with James Marsters. Anyone who bothered listening to what he was saying, though, might not have chosen to replay the scene behind him SO MANY TIMES. Once would have been plenty. just sayin'.
I don’t think that’s an unpopular opinion. Majority of people loved the dark willow storyline it’s just that Vee didn’t and that’s okay, everyone has there own opinion
They _kinda_ did with the Boom comics. I haven't read it beyond skimming the first issue, but from what I understand, it isn't a follow-up like their new Firefly comics (those discount Dark Horse's Serenity comics, for the record) but rather a full-on relaunch.
Personally, I would love to see a show in the Buffyverse that takes place in the Victorian era. (Perhaps Jack The Ripper could be one of the Big Bads, he was a vampire of course)
I'll fight on the dark willow saga it gave us something new and fresh with her character and we saw that she was already slipping into a slippery slope was going into magic drugs and ultimately when everything was coming back together tragedy hits and it wasn't a powerful force to stop her and it's going to sound corny but the power of love done Right
I don't personally understand why anyone would try to attach human acceptability's to a Vampire. A well written Vampire is not going to have a Human Modus Operandi. The only possible way they can die is through a violent act, are destined to hell regardless of what they do with their unlife, and have to eat humans to sustain themselves. Bare Minimum they will have their own Moral Compass and sensibilities. Sensibilities that likely wont be driven by emotion, but rather pragmatism. What possible reason would a Vampire have to care about what happens to Humans? How they feel about things? A wolf doesn't sit awake at night pondering the life of the lamb it must eat, it just eats.
Since there was the Angel spin off you gonna do the Worst of Angel like the episode Angel takes a guy who tried to trap his girlfriend forever for a beer to commiserate with him.
While I agree with you on most points I don’t agree with Buffy and Angel age difference, that was never an issue for me because if you look at Angel before he was turned he was kinda of a bum, who seem to despise his very existence, he mostly just drank and slept around with no goal in mind using his father’s money and when Darla turned him he was more then eager to leave his human existence behind, when he got his soul back however and realized all the terrible things he’s done, he kept away from everyone, he had a soul but he wasn’t human and he couldn’t be a vampire either, when he saw Buffy for the first time, He saw someone pure and innocent similarly to Drusilla which explains why he was so fascinated by her but unlike Angelus he saw a young girl with a calling and he understood all the sacrifice and loneliness that comes with that, with being a slayer, something a high school boy Buffy’s age will never understand, and that’s why Buffy and Angel worked, there’s was also an undeniable attraction and u can also see at the beginning that Angel did try to stay away from her to avoid temptation but he was still a men inside and he has desires but he was always most respectful with her, he never did anything that she wasn’t comfortable with and this was for the both of them the experience of first love, it’s important to stress that out cause Angel never experienced love like that, for all the years that he’s been alive. the reason why Riley never worked wasn’t because he wasn’t Angel it’s because he never understood her the way Angel and Spike ever did, he was kinda of judgmental and treated her being a slayer as a job, he also said that he was okey with how strong Buffy is but clearly he wasn’t cause he was always getting upset that she doesn’t rely on him and was intimidated by her, where as Spike and Angel admired how strong Buffy is, Angel said so as well how he hated the girls back then when he was human, he was always fascinated by strong women, like he was when he first saw Darla and probably recognized it in Drusilla as well. bottom line Spike and Angel were Buffy’s strongest relationship because they both understood her as a slayer and a human like no one else and age has nothing to do with it.
The first season was filmed in the 90s. There was definitely no Google when it was filmed. There were however encyclopedias which contained information about hyenas.
Yes even if there was Google he just want to say something to be negative about the episode. It doesn't even matter to me or the story if the pack had a female leader or not. And besides that, Xander was not the leader of that group or something. They never mentioned it.
Spike was, is, and will forever be my favorite character on both shows. James Marsters is a phenomenal actor in my opinion.
Feel bad for the guy for being tricking into doing Dragonball: Evolution
@@killerVeNoM101 he still is the only reason I bought the hunk of junk movie
Yes the character is perfectly portrayed by James
I love Spike but for me he kinda fell of the rails in the later seasons of Buffy. He was great on Angel though
Spike was great, but he was no Groosalugg...
James Marsters, you've melted my damn heart here sir, you really have. 'It was the worst day of my professional career' yet you explained the writers motivations so fairly and insightfully. Dude.
James Marsters is a prince among men. Thank you for getting that cameo, Vee Infuso!
Willow going dark just really made it clear how hypocritical the Scooby‘s were and who they were willing to forgive for murder.
Scooby‘s quick to be like it’s fine we love you will yellow crayon.
you're right and you should say it.
Lol yeah I guess if your a vampire your not forgiven even if you didn't have a soul at the time
Someone hasn't seen Selfless.
This comment SCREAMS Vampire Diaries
The ending wen xander was all "i love u, i love u" was just insanely cringeworthy!!!!! That was wen th show really died 4 me.
Thank you for this video, Vee. For so long I questioned why they did that Spike/Buffy scene the way they did. So glad James was so willing to be up front about the whole thing.
Dark Willow is not out of character for Willow, her using magic to avenge Tara happened before in season 5 and in season 4 when Oz cheated on her
Thank you!!
Willow kept building her overuse of magic even in s6 so it defo makes sense
Yep!! And what sucked was how it ended with xander saying he loved her over nd over, it was a pure cringefest!!! This whole video is a list of wat was great about buffy and defense of wat actually sucked!!!!
@@nicolelooton6134 i disagree with you that scene was great is showed why Xander is the heart of the group and he was the only one who could've brought her back from the darkness without killing her because of the history they shared
@@EminemLove1994 thats fair enough, i just thought th cheese had gone too far haha, iv not th best tollerance for cheese in my tv
Thank God James reiterated the RRK story behind "Seeing Red". I love how he put it, too: "Our secrets with fangs on them." He is so humble. Great video!
Spike is the character that made me fall in love with vampires.
James Marsters is such a class act and a thoughtful individual 😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️
On top of being as talented as he is
It strikes me how, even decades later, the attempted rape scene in Seeing Red still affects James Marsters so much. He already looked fairly older, but recalling that aged him even more with regret.
Even after all these years, I still can't get use to the fact that James Marsters isn't British
Same
As an English person this was always obvious to me, but most non-English people struggle with English accents.
@@JoeCool90 I might sound real dumb but I didn’t realise he was suppose to be British.
@@MrSqurk I wouldn't have if I hadn't looked it up. His accent was honestly distractingly bad for me in the early days, as an English person.
Cameo has turned into a great resource, I really love the way you use it Vee. Hope all is well with you bro, be well.
Spike was my favorite on show because work for his gold's hard work showing that he good enough if not better. The episode where he tells his history is my favorite episode
Spike was able to very subtly feel the soul of a person, his experiences and emotions. he always spoke to his face The truth that a person already understood but was afraid to admit to himself. he was open, straightforward and sincere. he always behaved as he felt. He gave her his love, tenderness, body and soul, and cared for her.
James honestly comes across as a down to earth guy
HOLY SHIT BALLS, JAMES MARSTERS!!!
That was an amazing answer James gave to your question. I was already impressed by his insight before he started talking about "Seeing Red," but his frankness about that episode really got to me. I'll admit it, I'm crying right now! James Marsters was my first love when I was 12 years old, I'm happy to know that I chose well. ;)
While the Spike/Buffy was rough, but so was The Faith/Xander scene when Faith almost assaults Xander.
What about the scene when she technically raped Riley while in Buffy's body
@@joseystrife8780 Yes that too was rough too
@@dodson43 Faith managed to rape Riley and Buffy in the same motion
@@joseystrife8780 I always found the body-swap trope too out of ordinary life to really fit into realistic rape discourses.
I mean: uncomfortable? Sure. Deceitful? Certainly. Evil? Yup yup yup.
But it has too many layered meanings, such as "is someone's love really just about the body or can they recognise the mind and personality?" or "does a person get new feelings by literally putting oneself into another person's life?", to just be reduced to a real-life instance of "rape via deceit".
The same goes for other love-and-sex magic stories, such as love spells (Xander - "is passion ever real?") or reality-bending wishes (Jonathan - "would you be loved if you were different, and would that satisfy you inside?").
At least with the Faith and Xander thing Angel turned up and knocked Faith out. But Season 6 was during a point where they were trying to redeem Spike and make him a hero but the rape of Buffy was something Season 2 villain Spike might do but not Seasons 5-7 reformed Spike.
What an emotional interview with the legend himself
I've heard James tell this same story in other videos, and it's apparent that the original writer envisioned Buffy being strong enough to easily get Spike off of her. Given that vampire bites in the show tended to be portrayed in a suggestive manner, it can even be argued that Buffy fights off such assaults regularly. But since the goal is to make the audience hate Spike, they decided to portray Buffy as a helpless victim. It's very doubtful that the scene would've played out the same way if say Angel was the victim and Drusilla was the attacker.
This was a great video. The contribution from James is fantastic. I was surprised how open and honest he was and I'd never thought before about how much of an impact on the actors scenes like that might have. Really looking forward to the second part.
Kudos to James Marsters for not being one of those actors who claims that [the attempted rape scene] was intense and empowering for his acting, etc. I'm glad that not only did he think it was a mistake at the time, he's still disturbed by it! I often read about how many actors claim these bad experience were "positive" somehow for their careers and for once, this one tells it like it was!
The whole show is about murder and torture but people are offended by rape.
@@PeterParker-ff7ub Murder and torture of who?
yes i hated the writers for doing that!
James Marsters was THISCLOSE to saying “we live in a society”...and now I totally want to see him try his hand as The Joker.
Why do you guys get stuck on that line? It's not from a joker comics, he doesn't say it in a movie (until now) .. It's not an famous joker line
@@mullaoslo because we do
He's played and still does the voice in animation of Brainiac
So he could voice him at the very least
Absolutely not
@@mullaoslo It's a meme, you dip
Buffy was released in 97 not the early 2000s as you said. Google, was not a thing as it wasn't founded until 98. AskJeebs was the main search engine at the time. And not everyone had access to the internet. So the episodes such as Willow dating an internet demon were not clichéd at all, because Buffy was one of the first shows to do something like that.
However in 2021, Google is very much a thing... And it would have taken YOU like 30 seconds to find that, had you bothered to look.
Well said. I barely knew what the internet is in 97. I made my first email address in a shop in 98 I barely knew what it even means I just wanted to try it. I didn't have internet until 2000 and that was in school. I was amazed my websites and it was so slow but that was normal. Altavista and yahoo were dominant search engines and they sucked.
Personally, I didn't mind Beer Bad that much. It's certainly not in my top episodes, but when watching it, I didn't really have a problem with it.
It stopped her moping about Parker so should get credit for that! LOL
@@Haplo699g Some people are just whiny. Thats a great episode and the show should be funny sometime.
@@PeterParker-ff7ub Rough day? 😉
Thank God someone shares my disgust for scenes like the one james explained. We as people are here to help learn from one another. Infinite respect to james marsters for standing beside his morals. Great video, loved it 🙏
I don't like watching these scenes either, but looking away doesn't clear the issue. Rape is sadly still a common crime and it was a powerful moment to show that even the strongest woman we can think of can't escape this threat
James: I really don’t recall, I would have to watch the show again
Also James: that was the fucking worst day of my life
He was talking about the rest of the worst moments, this was his definitive stand out from back then.
Willow started using magic as a way out from the start. When she had the affair with Xander she tried to end it by using magic and not telling Xander about it. She tried to use magic as revenge after Oz cheated. She was even approached by Dhofryn to work for him as vengeance demon king way before Tara died.
In the beginning when she started magic Giles warned her about going into more complicated spells like soul restoration because once you go there there is no way back. Magic was shown as a drug in first couple of seasons by showing us Giles as an addict with Ethan worshiping Eyghon ( I gone ) and loosing some friends because of it ( magic = drug use)
I like your videos but I don’t think you gave this one much research.
I do agree that the Kennedy + Willow was just there to not make her go back to guys so her relationship with Tara wasn’t just college experimentation. I didn’t like Kennedy as a character because she was horribly undeveloped.
The issue was less that Kennedy was underdeveloped and more that she was actually just a shitty person. Also, if Kennedy et al. are meant to be "potential Slayers", shouldn't they all be 15/16?
Thank you, I like your reply. Magic was always a vehicle for different metaphors (drugs, attraction, power, knowledge, enlightenment...) depending on how and why it was used. It's also clear that there are dark forces but also more luminous, harmonious ones that magic can tap into. There is nothing inconsistent with Willow's development, and she actually needs a whole season of struggle in order to find true resolution and redemption.
I totally agree, evrything he said sucked was what was great aboyt buffy and he defended th utter shlock that actually was what killed th show. This kid knows nothing
so true. this review did not think out this well enough. and tbh, if ur not a hardcore fan, its difficult to review a 7 season show with 22 episodes.
I thought the SEEING RED bathroom scene was just heartbreaking and the craziest shit EVER at the time it premiered. This is the third or fourth time James Marsters spoke about this- I agree about his fustration. I wish she would’ve fukked up him up earlier in the scene.
Not even the only Buffy rape or attempted rape scene though! Faith rapes Riley and potentially attempts to rape Xander! They frame it completely differently though.
Edited for clarity on the Xander situation as it's slightly more vague.
@@brooketrotter18 Riley yes she did but Xander? More like rough sex right?
@@AmoMe2009 Ehh from what I remember he was trying to get away and she had him pinned to the bed strangling him and talked in some fashion about doing what she wants to him. I'd have to re-watch to be sure, though!
In any case it made me very uncomfortable.
@@AmoMe2009 The first time, yes. The second time, Xander was just trying to talk to her, and she tried to rape and strangle him. Angel saved him and knocked her out.
@@Guy8288 oooooh ok thanks! I was only remember about the first time in the Zeppo. Ok thanks!
I think dark willow was perfect. I'm sure if I was in her shoes I would have done worse.
The fact that tara was killed by just normal humans is interesting
Agreed, I felt the video was spot on besides that part, loved the Dark Willow arc and there was subtle clues of magic consuming her throughout the season so it did not come out nowhere only that it was Tara who pushed it over the edge.
Dark Willow had nothing to do with Willows magic ‘abuse’ during s6. Magic was Willows weapon, she used it like Buffy would use her fists. I agree it wasn’t a surprise that Willow took that path; what was terrible is that in ep 21 and 22 they started mixing up magic, drugs, grief, vengeance, good magic and a super power who didn’t manage to actually hurt anyone
@@chrisdavis2719 They've shown magic as a dangerous force that always takes a toll from the very first season. They cemented the idea that it can open doors you cannot close in season two. And they repeatedly used it as a metaphor for any inner force you can lose control over. So what happened in season 6 is fully consistent.
Exept the ending sucked with xander, so cringe
@@nicolelooton6134 🤣 You really have some problems with that scene, right, Dan? (Don't be mad, it's just about the fourth or fifth time in this comment section that I read that comment from you 😉.)
I think it actually makes sense. Willow couldn't have been beaten by any of the other characters, who had superpowers like Buffy, for example. The killing of Tara took away her feelings, she practically built a wall around herself, her soul, to not have to deal with the loss (so the opposite of the Willow we see after Joyce died, and who was going through the motions, desperately searching her blue pullover, because Joyce liked it so much (btw, a great scene, I have done similar things when my Mom was dying (she had the same tumor Buffy's Mom had, so yeah, tough episode(s) to re-watch)). Xander broke said wall with telling her he will always love her, no matter what Willow she is. The feelings came back, she was able to cry about her loss. Personally, I liked that story arc.
I think that one of the only if not the only Vampire biological age v/s emotional age dichotomy that had acknowledge the problem was "Interview with the Vampire" with Claudia character, even if is the contrary to what's commonly happened.
Claudia is way too young when she is converted, she is a kid but as time go by, she is a grown up woman in the body of a girl, she think and desire as a woman, but everyone sees her as a kid.
Anne rice did this for her own reasons, but still I found it interesting.
Pd: sorry English is not my first language.
Pd: I can just talk about the book but for some reason I still don't watch the movie and I really want to watch it.
Thank you James Marsters for that brutally honest answer!
Yes Vee, age is the big issue in Buffy and Angels relationship and not that Angel is a undead murderer who lives on blood who had a split personality who was the most evil vampire on record..... Oh and did the PTB not know that Angel was going to fall in love with Buffy when they sent him to help her? Come on, PTB knew what they were doing all along, sent Angel to the one person who could break the curse? Sure.
Joss Whedon hating James Marsters for being as popular as he was, and wanting to force Angel x Buffy as endgame and hating the fact that the fans still wanted Spike x Buffy more...or Spike at all...
I think Joss knew EXACTLY what he was doing in forcing James Marsters to act that scene with Buffy. Joss was not against doing things he knew would hurt others as his own way of exerting control and was a known emotionally manipulative bully. I don't doubt for one second that Joss was 100% behind that decision to put not just Marsters through that, but to 'finally' in his mind "put Spike in his place" in the fans eyes.
I'm glad Spike eventually got a soul, it seems Whedon never will.
To be fair if they never mentioned Angel's age it could've been implied that he was alot younger when he was turned unfortunately that was thrown out the window thanks to the writers on Angel
He was 20 something
Yeah but I mean I think he could've passed for early twenties late teens when he first popped up on Buffy
I would like to have vampires that do age but slowly like in the vampires assistant
@@cloudsombrero yeah that would solved the problem of the actors looking older as the series goes on which might actually be why they made Angel's age 26 in the first place
I think Angel/Buffy said he was a freshman in college in S1, but he couldn’t pass for an 18 year old by the time he was on Angel so they retconned his age
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I'd also like to see a Best of Buffy, once you've finished this series. You should also do the same for Angel's series.
Giles tries to slow down Willow's use of magic in season 2, saying it could open doors that might not be able to be closed again. And to drive the point home, there is the episode with the demon "aygon the dreamwalker", where we learn that Giles also used magic for the same kind of pleasure as Willow starts using it for.,
Seeing an interview like this with James Marsters, I can't NOT be just a little in love with a man I've never, personally, known. The depth of introspection and external application that comes through in these few minutes is true beauty.
Dark Willow was always where her character was headed. Tara's death was tragic but necessary to push Willow over the edge and give us the awesomeness of Dark Willow!
Today I found out that there are people out there who don’t love the Dark Willow arc with all their heart. This fact has left me very confused.
Kennedy, while a decent prospect of a character on her own, was literally thrown into Willow's life as a girl who liked girls. Which was the only reason they got together. But yeah... they completely ignored that Willow wasn't a full-on lesbian there. They also forgot that she wasn't attracted to Tara because she was female. They came together naturally. Like, she was never in love with Oz or shared a strong attraction with Xander. Nope! Just throw her in with a random new girl!
Kennedy honestly came off as a sexual predator with how she was onto Willow without considering how she feels. Even Willow, who was uncomfortable with her advances for 3 full episodes, suddenly does a 180 and responds to them. The whole thing was stupidly written.
Great video! Loved the interview with Marsden, I mean Marsters, oops. Lol 🤣
Spike will always be my favorite character in the series.
Buffy is one of my all time favorite shows, like...we're talking top 5, but this "not a list" list is 100% correct. And super well done and VERY entertaining, so kudos kudos kudos. I also lu-lu-loooove James Marsters and admittedly was one of those "I love Spike, I don't care if he's evil" viewers....as an adult re-watching the series, I totally understand, but back in the day....back in the day....
“There was a time if ya know what I mean ;) “ I got you. I hear you. I hear you.
Wow James Marston is incredibly insightful
I really loved the “Dark Willow” storyline. Especially in a season when life was the big bad I enjoyed the idea that Willow would binge out on magik. I agree with the majority of your other points. I LOVED the James Marsters cameo!!! I’m looking so forward to the other two vids.
I am pretty sure that Kennedy was only created because the fans accused the show of being homophobic for killing Tara. They probably thought that just making Willow find a new girlfriend would be enough...well, it wasn't hahaha
So James Whathisface seems like a Shaman now. His calming tone and cadence, man, dude's still got it, whatever "it" is.
GODDAMNIT! CAN I NOT HAVE A BELVOED SHOW FROM MY CHILDHOOD WITHOUT HEARING HOW IT HASN'T AGED WELL?
They did establish the magic being used as a narcotic pretty early on in The Dark Age, where they revealed Giles and his friends summoned Eyegon to get high, which really makes Giles coming back to deal with it appropriate, as he'd gone through something similar around the same age.
For Angel, the creep factor is tempered as he's presented as a drunken manchild as a human and isn't really presented as palling around with other adults during his and Buffys relationship, which works in tandem with Buffy coming off more adult and self sufficient for her age.
Where I really felt the creep factor was in the last season of Angels series, where the creature is giving him the series of random dreams and he see's Spike going at it with the Buffy standin and there's her audio about prom and he's all concerned about not being able to go to prom with her. Maybe its that Angel was a father at that point, the darker themes of his own series, or just that he's in a corporate executive role at that point that makes him seem more aged and it more creepy than this long lived gothic peter pan role he filled moreso on Buffy
Thank you so much for this video! I just have to disagree on the Tara and Willow arch.
Tara´s death had a huge reason which was, to tip Willow over the edge because from season 2 on we could see a slow developement of Willow relying on magic to make her feel special/worthy of being loved or feeling good enough. Like she said in season 6 before Taras death, ´´who would you rather be? Plain old Willow or Willow with powers?´´ (or something like that).
She is insecure about not being good enough if she would ´´loose´´ her magic or give it up because it has become an addiction. I think the drug metaphor for her magic is beautifully portrayed in season 6... and then she got better, Tara came back, and I see how this is suuuuper upsetting to have Tara be killed off seemingly for no reason but the point is that Willow needed to become her own person as well... I don´t know how to explain this right, also keep in mind this is just my opinion but season 6 is my favorite because of this arch... cause it´s very close to home when you exchange magic with drugs or being codependent.
Willows choices to cut herself off and go completely into vengence and killing Warren - a human nontheless (I mean, I didn´t mind and rather enjoyed that scene but he still is human) - becoming suicidle and homocidle because she couldn´t control life. That´s dangerous and let her to the consequences of a) now being a murderer herself b) a recovering (this time really recovering) addict.
Also the trio triggered the true big bad to come out so they have a reason to be in the season, and look at season 7... it all builds on each other.
Long reply, sorry! But I love Tara and her death didn´t happen in vain I think.
Yeah. His reading of this seems like he didn’t rewatch the show recently. The buildup is there, but the only way you can see Tara’s death as unnecessary is to then slag off the Dark Willow storyline entirely.
Oh my God! That clip at the end showing that the Rogue/Kitty dance scene from X-Men Evolution was lifted straight from Faith and Buffy blew my mind!!!
Oh, and I love "Beer Bad". Probably because I don't drink and I can't stand being around drunks.
Spike Had a Good . Story arc First He come To try Kill Buffy Than Got Chip put in his head ... Try Date Buffy ..But was Rejected Than He got his Soul back Than joined Team Angel
Just a reminder that if you love Buffy Angel Firefly and Dollhouse. If you liked all that content. Watch Agents of Shield. Its truly the last of that era and has the least problematic writers.
I remember watching Faith and Buffy fight in Buffy’s house and when they go falling down the stairs, you can see the camera man on the side when they switch angles. I honestly like finding shit like this in tv shows.
must be the terrible hd remaster you watched
@@whodatninja439 Lol. It was on Hulu.
@@Nassit-Gnuoy exactly. in the remaster they made the show 16:9 without thinking that you arent supposed to see the sides of the screen
@@whodatninja439 Ah. I wasn’t aware. Makes sense tho.
@@Nassit-Gnuoy they also messed with color timing, time of day in some scenes, and other shit, like digital noise reduction. the show looks WORSE.
the show deserves a widescreen remaster like the one X-files got.
I think we do see this perverted portrayal of magic in the first season of Buffy. When Amy's mom (a witch) can't seem to stop using magic, her eyes turn black, and she doesn't care who she hurts along the way (even her own daughter). Also, we know that Willow feels insecure and seeks to gain power. We also see that she does have a dark side in the wish episode where her vampire counterpart tortures Angel more than the rest of the vampires. This could be attributed to her being a vampire, but there is still that darkness inside of her. There is plenty of foreshadowing, but we just have to pay attention.
Ooo! You watched Angel before Buffy! Ok, question for you, what was your thoughts on Buffy just from what you saw on Angel?
I also totally agree with you about the Angel/Buffy age thing especially during the flash back (they did point it out a few times, but it was like "oh he's old...anyways...") I loved Spike and Buffy together because they were both themselves and eachother as growing adults, much more comfortable.
I am the first person who will defend spuffy and I get attacked for it because of the attempted rape scene but if anyone knew how much that scene hurt James Marsters they would leave him alone and literally ask him about anything else but they dont they just choose to torture him with it.
Buffy deserves better
@@PeterParker-ff7ub no Spike derserves better. That rape scene was a terrible idea but lets blame the writers not the characters
@@PeterParker-ff7ub even the writers for Buffy agreed that she and spike belong together. It was all over twitter like a year ago. Alison Hanigan agreed.
The angel was 226 fact ruined my day....so I am going ruin everyone else's day by sharing it with other Buffy fans
Thanx Vee!
No, Age is just a number. Which we created as a society. Angel looked young, thought young. And I always thought Buffy like older men by herself.
I only just found out that James (spike) is American and not English.
Always thought he did an amazing performance and now i think he did an unbelievable performance.. Makes me appreciate him so much more.
For years I’ve seen people claim that Willow’s turn to the darkness came out of nowhere and there was no build up, I would have to disagree with that. There were hints all season long that she was heading towards a dark path, like when she snapped at Giles (who btw she’s always considered as a mentor/father figure) after he says she shouldn't have brought Buffy back, what she does to Tara's memory and then doesn't learn and tries to do the same to Buffy's, and when her addiction to magic even got worse when she is with Amy after Amy isn't a rat anymore. Hell, I’d dare say the series has been building up to this in previous seasons if you really think about it. Thats why I feel Willow going dark was totally believable. And I for one loved the Dark Willow episodes tho I do feel agree that I hate that Tara was killed off and wished we had more time with her character with that said I’ll always cherish the relationship her and Willow had in the series. And as far as the whole Buffy and Angel age difference, the show has brought it up a couple of times often making light of it. In fact Angel even blatantly brings up him being 200 something year old and her being 16 in an awkward conversation they have in one episode. Again whenever it was brough up, it was like show poking fun at the matter. plus I was never really bothered by it cus how many vampire stories have we seen or read where the teenage girl makes out or dates a vampire and those vampire tend to be way older than the girl so it’s very common lol. Now if that’s a trope that still bothers you then fine that’s fair but Buffy isn’t the one that does this just it pointing that out there.
We want more big bad!
I think a big thing for me is you watch David Boreanaz learn how to act as you watch. His acting in season 1 of buffy is... something haha. By season 1 of Angel he does so good 🥰
Mr. Marsters nailed it; he described the show basically as a fable or parable in modern mythology (again, his argument in my own words); in a way to describe the dangers of the world.
Wow, James Marsters is freakin’ awesome!
Some of the answer from James was a guy holding his tongue of things he wanted to say because he was hoping to not talk himself out of any future work
Wait, Harry Dresden is joining you?! Consider it watched.
I loved the Dark!Willow storyline, and I love how it was foreshadowed throughout season 6 (with some hints even earlier)
Wow, James gave a crazy good response!
As a bi guy, I think Vee is misinterpreting the whole "Bury your gays" trope. It doesn't imply that gay characters should be "immune" to perils in their lives, but rather, they shouldn't be relegated to the background, until it's time to make them suffer and/or to show "representation". And two gay characters shouldn't just be paired together simply because they're both "gay". While I loved Willow as a character, I always thought Zander should've been the "token gay/bi" character in the show (because they were only going to assign that to 1 of the main cast). But of course, lesbians are more widely accepted, & it gave guys/lesbians something to lust over. Otherwise, they would've done more than simply imply that Spike & Angel had "a bisexual encounter"...once. That relationship would've made more sense, since everything works differently for vampires, including their views on sexuality (plus it would've sidestepped the whole age difference issue). And vampires aren't "the living dead" (that's zombies), they're "the living undead".
When all is said and done the show had way more hits then misses but it is great to point out the flaws and head scratchers and cage rattlers
Willows plot line was a struggle with abusing magic.... losing terra and having in the past used magic to being back the dead.... it made perfect sense that she went off the deep end.
As someone who was an adult in his early 20's when Buffy first came out and was on the internet fandom even way back then, it did come up. Not as much as it surely would now, but there were fans who called them on that even back then. I assumed it was because they wanted to cast David Boreanaz (sp?) and figured even by Hollywood logic he was too old to pass for a teenager. But most would argue that is not a good excuse.
U cant bash Joss and the writing team for making an episode in the first season about the internet when it was made BEFORE HIGH SPEED CONNECTIVITY EVEN EXISTED. That episode was COMPLETELY relevant when it aired
Agreed about Beer Bad lol, I ALWAYS skip that episode whenever I go back for a binge.
Wow, Spike looks great
The mean spirited treatment of spike (and just vampires in general) in the later seasons will leave me forever bitter. For a show about transitioning from adolescence to adulthood, they sure seemed determined to hang onto their soul/soulless binary.
The fact that joss whedon traumatized james marsters to punish fans for liking his character is petty bullshit. It’s just so unnecessary. No other character is framed like spike in the show, and then season 7 rolls around and they make him Angel 2.0 with his pity routine and it’s just so fucking tired by that point. You made us sit through seeing red for that??? Arguably the least interesting version of spike? Fuck joss whedon, man.
I do agree that Joss giving Spike cruddy plots to punish fans later on was stupid. But Spike is NOT Angel 2.0 lol. Spike is not Angel. Angel has a curse. Spike had a great redemption arc in this show but the writers still did stupid things with him. Like that dumb Buffy Bot episode
Great video Vee.
Awesome video ! Glad someone finally called out the Angel thing being a little creepy like you said love him but it is a little odd
💯 The show *never* brings up Angel being an adult vs Buffy being a teenager....like seriously never. Whenever they bring up Angel's age, it focuses on his being a centuries old vampire, but nothing in context of him being an *adult*!!! Its just accepted. Giles, Buffys father figure, finds it charming/romantic having this dude around in love with Buffy.....like, what??? It's really super bizarre and not ok lol. Plus, Bangel fans that are very anti-Spuffy aways complain how creepy stalker Spike is......and like, did they not watch their Bangel ship?? Lol....do a drinking game in season's 1-3, and drink every time Angel is A) lurking around Buffy B) following/stalking/watching Buffy C) being jealous of every male around her D) enters her teenage girl bedroom E) is purely preoccupied with Buffy (looking for her, nosing in her business, etc).....that is every. single. scene he has (not even counting what he was like with her when soulless).....and they complain about Spike being stalkery?? LOL
Angel wasnt maturing over time, thats the point of this whole 'angelus and angel are different characters' thing. As a human (Liam) he didn't have a lot of personality. He was a drunken failure. The deamon inside him developed a personality, a very bad one. When he got his soul back he went through an identity crisis. Not wanting to go back to being Liam and definitly not wanting to be like angelus, he struggled a lot with his identity. He barely was a person until he saw buffy the first time. He was living like a homeless person up until this point. Season 1 of buffy we see him forming his identity as angel, the vampire with a soul and a deamon inside him and constant burden of being miserable. He wasn't mature at all. He did know a lot and was experienced in some way but mentally and body wise he was young
I'd agrue that Joss Whedon is the worst part of the whole series.
yeah
Joss is a woke soy boy who treats women like shit. Basically the worst any person can get.
Joss made it clear what kinda person he is.
How do you know everything he did and didnt do
What did Joss Whedon do exactly I been left dark right now.
Dark willow is the best big bad. It wasn't out of character for her she use magic for revenge a few times.
Thank you for this video. Make many more “worst of buffy” videos. Make “worst of angel” videos. Make the best of both. Hell, any Buffy-verse content im on board for. And as someone who kissed the video games, I’m down for videos focusing on them!
Worst of Angel is all of Season 4 lol.
@@TastyChurro once Jasmine manifests, I really like the season. Also I liked the episode Awakening (it caught me off guard), and the Faith episodes. But yeah, it’s definitely the most problematic season...but season 5 is the best!
@@TastyChurro Season 4 was terrible on first time but on rewatches, it got much better. Though the Connor/Cordelia bullshit is still disgusting as Hell and of course the retcon that Jasmine was influencing the whole team from the start, which was just cheap. But 4x7-4x15 is in my opinion the 3rd best arc of the whole show due to its epic scale as well as Faith and Angelus (if not for the Cordelia/Connor bullshit with which they ruined Cordy, I'd put it on top). Still, like the other guy said, it is the most problematic Season for sure.
I just finished watching s6. Dark Willow was the cherry top. Great acting performance.
Technically, Willow was not the "heart" of the Scoobies, she was the "spirit". Xander was the heart, Giles the mind. Canon reference S4/E21. "Beer Bad" was indeed a bottom 10 episode. But my personal favorite for worst was actually Season 1 "I Robot, You Jane". Also worse than "Beer Bad" was Season 1 with the Preying Mantis woman, "Teacher's Pet". "Beer Bad" is probably number 10 on the bottom 10.
Honestly most of those allegorical episodes went totally over my head and I have rewatched Buffy as an adult. They seem so obvious now.
I also think it's worth noting that during the time when Angel was growing up, him banging a teenage girl would probably have been fine.
We want the next Big Bad
What an eloquent answer from James Marsden
Marsters!
Shit!
In all seriousness tho, I’m sorry he had to film such a shitty scene
I disagree with everything said about the Tara death and the change in Willow. I thought it was all brilliant, and I LOVED watching Kennedy working so hard to pull Willow out of herself a little.
I'mma be real here, buffy has a problem with not taking sexual assulalt seriously. Wether it's spike/buffy or Faith/xander or
Faith/Riley when she used buffy's body.
I mean considering who made the show that sadly makes sense.....
@@Oliviagarry69420 His issues has been verbal abuse. Also they definitely took The Spike/Buffy assault very seriously.
@@leonzaduncan2438 For the sake of Spike’s character arc. That’s it.
Maybe the show learned us to be not a victim all of the time and cry in a corner what teenagers do nowadays, but just being strong and moving on. Everything is racist, sexual harassment, sexist or something like that. I am glad Buffy was not a serie about pleasing the political correct and the feminists. But just something you can relate to and look up to.
@@Jongen. lmfao at you
Great video... Cant wait for the test ❤️
Great interview with James Marsters. Anyone who bothered listening to what he was saying, though, might not have chosen to replay the scene behind him SO MANY TIMES. Once would have been plenty. just sayin'.
We want the next big bad! Great video, can't wait for the next one!
Unpopular opinion; I thought Dark Willow added to her character a lot. 😌
I don’t think that’s an unpopular opinion. Majority of people loved the dark willow storyline it’s just that Vee didn’t and that’s okay, everyone has there own opinion
I really hope they don’t reboot Buffy like they did with Charmed and Sabrina.
They _kinda_ did with the Boom comics. I haven't read it beyond skimming the first issue, but from what I understand, it isn't a follow-up like their new Firefly comics (those discount Dark Horse's Serenity comics, for the record) but rather a full-on relaunch.
Personally, I would love to see a show in the Buffyverse that takes place in the Victorian era. (Perhaps Jack The Ripper could be one of the Big Bads, he was a vampire of course)
I'll fight on the dark willow saga it gave us something new and fresh with her character and we saw that she was already slipping into a slippery slope was going into magic drugs and ultimately when everything was coming back together tragedy hits and it wasn't a powerful force to stop her and it's going to sound corny but the power of love done Right
I don't personally understand why anyone would try to attach human acceptability's to a Vampire.
A well written Vampire is not going to have a Human Modus Operandi. The only possible way they can die is through a violent act, are destined to hell regardless of what they do with their unlife, and have to eat humans to sustain themselves. Bare Minimum they will have their own Moral Compass and sensibilities. Sensibilities that likely wont be driven by emotion, but rather pragmatism.
What possible reason would a Vampire have to care about what happens to Humans? How they feel about things?
A wolf doesn't sit awake at night pondering the life of the lamb it must eat, it just eats.
Season 7 is my least favorite season but it had a good finale though compared to other shows like Lost and Smallville.
Since there was the Angel spin off you gonna do the Worst of Angel like the episode Angel takes a guy who tried to trap his girlfriend forever for a beer to commiserate with him.
While I agree with you on most points I don’t agree with Buffy and Angel age difference, that was never an issue for me because if you look at Angel before he was turned he was kinda of a bum, who seem to despise his very existence, he mostly just drank and slept around with no goal in mind using his father’s money and when Darla turned him he was more then eager to leave his human existence behind, when he got his soul back however and realized all the terrible things he’s done, he kept away from everyone, he had a soul but he wasn’t human and he couldn’t be a vampire either, when he saw Buffy for the first time, He saw someone pure and innocent similarly to Drusilla which explains why he was so fascinated by her but unlike Angelus he saw a young girl with a calling and he understood all the sacrifice and loneliness that comes with that, with being a slayer, something a high school boy Buffy’s age will never understand, and that’s why Buffy and Angel worked, there’s was also an undeniable attraction and u can also see at the beginning that Angel did try to stay away from her to avoid temptation but he was still a men inside and he has desires but he was always most respectful with her, he never did anything that she wasn’t comfortable with and this was for the both of them the experience of first love, it’s important to stress that out cause Angel never experienced love like that, for all the years that he’s been alive. the reason why Riley never worked wasn’t because he wasn’t Angel it’s because he never understood her the way Angel and Spike ever did, he was kinda of judgmental and treated her being a slayer as a job, he also said that he was okey with how strong Buffy is but clearly he wasn’t cause he was always getting upset that she doesn’t rely on him and was intimidated by her, where as Spike and Angel admired how strong Buffy is, Angel said so as well how he hated the girls back then when he was human, he was always fascinated by strong women, like he was when he first saw Darla and probably recognized it in Drusilla as well. bottom line Spike and Angel were Buffy’s strongest relationship because they both understood her as a slayer and a human like no one else and age has nothing to do with it.
The first season was filmed in the 90s. There was definitely no Google when it was filmed. There were however encyclopedias which contained information about hyenas.
Yahoo was though. Lol
Had the same thought, I was like, "Uhhm, we didn't have internet back then 🤔..."
@@thalia7104 yes we did. Lol before Google we had Yahoo
@@leonzaduncan2438 No, I meant, I (personally) didn't have internet access. We got internet in 2004 😉. And, you know, the really sllloooooooow one 😂.
Yes even if there was Google he just want to say something to be negative about the episode. It doesn't even matter to me or the story if the pack had a female leader or not. And besides that, Xander was not the leader of that group or something. They never mentioned it.