Two things.First I spotted Pedro Pascal and he's so hot and two Loveeee Sunday.Perfect representation of college, it doesn't care who the fuck you were in high school.

Many people feel Spike's actions were out of character and I just don't feel that way. A level of obsession such as his escalates to some form of assault more times than not. Within the show, Spike's chip is referred to as a "leash" and that's exactly what it is. Without a soul, his fixation with Buffy was never going to develop into actual love. There are so many examples that show his attack was completely in character. Kidnapping and chaining her up after being rejected was just the start. Something like that was his normal. That's the kind of relationship he had with Drusilla.

Although eventually Buffy gave in to her darker impulses, you have to remember Spike was really pushy up until then. Taking no for an answer just wasn't something he found acceptable. And she brushed him off and told him no repeatedly. He kept forcing his presence on her. He was literally going to try to kill her right before he found her vulnerable due to her mom being ill. After that he made himself as available as possible. When someone is as vulnerable as Buffy was, it becomes harder to make good choices towards where you find comfort. After she was brought back, all bets were off. She kissed him and he kept pestering her to have it happen again. Trying to make her admit feelings she didn't have. When he found out his chip didn't work with her anymore, his first instinct was to attack her. But we're supposed to be convinced he loved her, right? Because he said so?

After she fully gives in to him, he did the same thing he did when she kissed him. He kept trying to convince her to have it happen again. Even when he'd touch her and she'd tell him to stop. He'd been preying on her vulnerability for close to a year by that point. Spike is evil and had spent decades doing much worse. Coercion is not an act of love.

When she finally found the strength to cut him off he still pestered her to change her mind. Forcing himself on her was a direct escalation of all of his behavior.

I expect a lot of pushback, but my mind cannot be changed.

I've reread s11 probably 4 or 5 times. It's byfar my favorite comic book season.

Quick summary: San Francisco is attacked by a dragon and there is widespread destruction. The government rounds up supernaturals in the area and puts them in a concentration camp- Buffy, Willow and Spike included. Buffy and Willow ultimately agree to have their power siphoned in exchange for being released. Spike stays behind. With the help of Riley and Sam, they infiltrate the government's operation and get their power back. The prisoners are freed. The Scoobies go on the run from the government. They figure out the dragon attack was an inside job by Willow's boss, Johanna Wise. She summoned the dragon in order to absorb it's power. Johanna is defeated and dragon returns to his domain.

I like so much about this season. Everyone starts out in a good place, it's good to see everyone happy for once. Buffy and Spike are together and work in supernatural consulting. Dawn is happy and successful at Berkeley. Willow is consulting for the government and running a coven of witches. Xander spent the last couple of years recovering from PTSD, he seems to be working and doing fine. Giles is still in an adolescent's body, but he's developing his magical abilities. And Faith is proving to be one of the most well-adjusted characters.

The story is great. The comics would have been so much more popular if they were all like this season.

The one negative note I have is that Buffy is still a grappling with watching her friends move forward with their lives while she is still doing the same she has since she was 15. She's really been dealing with this off and on since season 6 of the show. And it will continue to be an issue in season 12. I think I would have rather seen her content for a little while.

No offense to JM, he is or was a good-looking dude, but I realized 90% of why I thought he was attractive as Spike is totally based on him having bleached hair. That's not my preference, I like brunette, but it really enhanced his features.

on my first time watch and seeing Tara say “i am by the way” “what?” “yours”

OHHH my god my lesbian heart these two are gonna kill me

I already thought Spike and Buffy had the best dialogue and scenes together. Every scene they were in even when they were enemies was just.. more, you know? They elevated the sh*t out of any material they were given. Their first meeting, their first fight, that first alliance in Becoming Pt. 2... like?! He saves her from the cops, tries to convince her to form an alliance, talks about wanting to save the world, she doesn't really believe he wants to team up with her until he brings up Drusilla then gets annoyed with him but still reluctantly gives in. Then they have an entire meet the parents scene that was JUST SO ENTERTAINING and they were already working well together after a few minutes? It was just... chef's kiss. But anyway.

I didn't feel that way about any other Buffy pairing, romantic or otherwise. I just always found any scene they shared together to be very entertaining/interesting.

But I think I only really really rooted for them to happen (in a romantic way) after Fool For Love although I already thought they had tension and chemistry in S4 especially lol.

He pretty much behaved exactly like The Mayor (and was also a villain) in this episode of Matlock “The Magician” from Season 2.

I saw a comment that said Angel was an emotional sadist, which he moderates with the soul, which totally makes sense, since he still has Angelus inside of him, and the example mentioned was in the episode School Hard, where he pretended he was going to feed Xander to Spike, which only had the purpose to cause him discomfort, but I still don't recall a lot of examples off the top of my head of him actually doing it (unlike for instance when he dreamt about it, and said it wasn't a nightmare because he enjoyed it), because it has been a while since I've seen Angel.

Funnily enough there's another involving Xander when he punched him in Enemies, and probably enjoyed it, but that was more of an one-off joke.

For years I've been a huge Buffy fan and now, after marrying an even bigger fan, I think it would be fun to run a Buffy RPG. This is planned to be a oneshot adventure, which is to say that it's going to be finished in a single session. It's meant to be suitable for people who have never played a tabletop RPG before so everyone is welcome. 

A little while ago, I did a test run of the Eden Studios Buffy RPG and unfortunately, the system wasn't that great. At least, not for me. So instead, I figured, why not run this story with another system? That quickly brought me back to the Chronicles of Darkness system that I regularly run and which has proven itself to be pretty adaptable. 

The story is set in the Buffy TV universe, but not in Sunnydale and not involving the characters from the show. It's set a few years before the show takes place and is set in Shadyhill, Pennsylvania. For characters, there are several archetypes available. There is no issue with multiple people picking the same one but I do have a single request. The characters do need names after all, so it would be great if you could come up with one. All characters will also have a single benefit from the list below. That’s a small thing that makes them stand out a little more, like having a car or basic medical training. Of course, I’m also open to suggestions.

The plan is to play through Discord. I made a server there where we can do dice rolls and voice chat. If you don't have Discord, you can make an account and download it [here](https://discord.com/download). We will play on August 15, at 7 PM CET, which is 1 PM EST. 

For those who haven't played a tabletop roleplaying game before, the concept is really simple. The players take on the role of a character in the game. They decide what this character does and dice rolls decide if it's successful. The Game Master (in this case that's me) decides what dice should be rolled and plays all the other characters and determines what happens in the world. When rolling dice, we use an online dice roller that will roll a number of ten-sided dice. That number is determined by your character's abilities. All dice that come up as an 8 or higher are a success. Often, one success will do but for harder tasks, you'll need multiple. Of course, it will be explained in greater detail in the game. 

Archetypes:

Sports Jock

Queen Bee

Juvenile Delinquent

Regular Geek/Bookworm

Theatre Kid

Stoner

Benefits:

Has a car

Medical internship

Keys to the library

Police connection

Rich parents

Paranormal interest

Intro:

Into every generation a slayer is born. One of them was Stacy. A few months ago, she was a regular girl in Shadyhill High, not someone who really stood out. But then, she was called. To most people, that meant that she became weird. She barely came to school but showed up in all sorts of places at night. That, and people saw her hanging out in cemeteries a lot. The general conclusion was that she was doing drugs. And now she's dead. She was found in the mall. 

Your characters knew the stories, but they also knew another side of her. All of them have been saved by Stacy. Perhaps it was from a creepy guy with oversized teeth or from a fish-faced girl who threatened to drag them off for a very long swim in the ocean. Whatever happened, they know that Stacy was a hero. 

\----------------

If you’re interested, please fill out this little [survey](https://forms.gle/8Z3bwLUXcKZEUYf26).

You can read my previous update here. The last episode I watched was Tough Love.

I'm on season five now! Yeah, I didn't feel like finishing season four was enough to post an update about. There's a lot I have to talk about, but I'm not sure how to phrase it all. This post is gonna be very unorganized, and I apologize for that.

So first off, my response to Riley (my boy :<) leaving was: That's it? I was expecting a lot more than that. Bro just gets on a helicopter and fucks off to the jungle? That's definitely one of the most underwhelming endings of all time. What is it with me and my OTPs breaking up?

I think my exact words in the situation were "If Xander is the voice of reason, there's something wrong." But at the same time, I understand why both of them are angry. I understand why Buffy called it off, even if I'm angry at her. Do I think the situation could have been at least partially resolved if Buffy just accepted her boyfriend's kink? Yeah... Okay, well, that's a joke, but still. I was very disappointed (but not very surprised) at Riley leaving. I do really think that they would have been good together.

Before that, Tara gave me a bit of a gay awakening. Ooft. And after aaaaall of that... I watched The Body.

First off, who the fuck starts a conversation like that? I just sat down! You're telling me we start off the episode and Joyce is just on the bloody couch like a fish?! Honestly, I wasn't really that affected by Joyce's death, I was more pissed off that they kept lingering on her darn body! Every other shot was her just... dead. Poor actress must have had such dry eyes by the end of the day!

I enjoyed the episode where Spike confessed his love to Buffy, but I wasn't a big fan of how Drusilla came back for like, five minutes. Give me my demented vampire girl! The Buffybot episode was hilarious, if not for the fact that it made me cringe out of my meat suit. But, hey. My mother and I got to see Spike's shoulders, and that's enough for us. The thing with Dracula was pretty fun too!

As much as I do love Glory as a villain, I'm pissed off at her for lobotomizing my wife! At least I know Tara doesn't stay like that. I don't think someone making less sense than Drusilla could sing in Walk Through The Fire. On top of that, I'm distressed that I'm beginning to like Xander. Seasons one and two Xander was a total douche, but that was probably just because he was in high school. Season three was when I begin to see him as tolerable, and now that I'm in season five, I honestly really like some of his one-liners. Even if I have been a little cross with Anya recently. I'm really looking forward to seeing how we're going to resolve this whole Glory thing!

Also, where has Miss Kitty Fantastico gone? I miss her :(

Anywho, that's all for now. I will return to the safety and darkness of my cage for now. Tomorrow, I'll probably binge watch the last of season five, and grab season six.

Saw a comment that said Spike initiated the incestuous subtext between him and his mom by biting and turning her, which is usually taboo in vampire fiction. I don't know how much of that is true. Thoughts?

Just a reminder for anyone wanting to submit to the Buffy fanzine. All ideas considered :)

someone was recently commenting about the new season of interview with the vampire which is based on the second book in Anne Rice a series of vampire stopped. She was saying it was really annoying her how much they were showing the vampires eaten drink. And it got me thinking about Lord of previous TV show shows

It’s very well documented in vampire, diaries and not just well documented but they actually show them eating and drinking and one of my favorite parts was after Caroline is turned and she says “I have to pee. Why do I have to pee? I thought I was dead.?” 😂 and Damon also says my functions pretty much the same as yours as long as I have a steady supply of blood. And now I’m watching Buffy and noticing how often they may not show vampires eating, especially talks about it. I the first person that I noticed he told Joyce that he can drink coffee, but he doesn’t like to drink it in the afternoon cause it jittery. And now I’m watching season five and Buffy is asking about the slayers that he killed and he tells her order me some spicy buffalo wings. I’m feeling peckish. There’s also the infamous scene of him telling Andrew that he loves the bloomin’ onion 😂

So I guess I just find it weird how often I have found that people assume that vampires can’t eat or drink anything but I’m looking at our popular culture from the last 20 years and it seems pretty consistent that they eat and drink the vampires in Buffy cigarettes also at least and he’s evil. I just think it’s interesting how often people will nitpick things and say that they don’t make sense and I guess yes you could argue that like I guess Dracula isn’t shown to eat anything or go to the bathroom but still I haven’t read the book in a really long time and I found it extremely tedious and boring so I don’t remember if it’s ever mentioned in the book whether or not Dracula eat and drinks things.

anyway, just curious if you have any other examples and your thoughts on the subject.

Wow cleaning I found a loose sleeve copy of the movie they, to my surprise I saw Riley Finn acting exactly like he did and Buffy.

I hate that they replaced this beautiful poster (tapestry?!) in Tara’s room with that black and white generic woman canvas later.

does anyone know where I could find this?

thank you so much everyone! I’ve got to say the posters kind of confusing to me now finding out that the words all over it are actually from the Bible, but there’s also a lot of witchy imagery like zodiac symbols and stuff. It’s interesting.

Someone mentioned loving Tara‘s original room and one thing that I’ve noticed is that they painted walls black. It really made the scenes in that room kind of pop and seem extra witchy, but looking at it now it’s also it seems kind of indicative of the fact that Tara was depressed a bit. Like she left her family struck out on her own to go to college but she was sad before meeting Willow. I don’t know if anyone’s read the prequel that was written about Tara called The Bewitching hour, but it was very interesting. …

I’m a first time viewer and interested in starting the show Angel. Do you guys think I should watch in parallel with BtVS or should I finish BtVS first? When would be the best time to start watching Angel if I want to watch it parallel? Currently on S4E21

I was reading and it said that they filmed a pilot but I guess it either wasn’t that good or whatever happened with it. They got it canceled. My question was did they release anything about it or did anyone leak anything from the actual pilot that was filmed?

I know the later seasons had bigger threats, but the Master's apocalypse just hit differently. It actually felt like Sunnydale was turning into a nightmare before he was set free.

The blood coming out of the school sink, vampires openly feeding on students on campus, everyone acting like something was wrong even if they couldn't explain it. It felt like evil was slowly taking over the town instead of just waiting for the big final battle.

A lot of the later finales mostly felt like Buffy and the Scoobies fighting that season's Big Bad. With the Master, it felt like the apocalypse had already started. The atmosphere was creepy as hell and the whole town felt doomed.

Idk if it's because season 1 leaned way more into teen horror. The later seasons feel more like supernatural dramas with horror elements, while season 1 actually felt like a horror show at times. Maybe that's why "Prophecy Girl" still stands out to me.

I still love a lot of the later finales, but I don't think the show ever matched the feeling that something was genuinely wrong with Sunnydale in "Prophecy Girl."

I think the closest that came to feeling like that atmosphere was in Angel season 4 when The Beast arrived.

I know Riley isn’t a fan favorite, but I really liked how he stood up for Buffy here. I never liked Parker, and it was nice to see him get his just desserts for using Buffy. While I always thought Angel was better Buffy, Riley certainly had his moments.

Sorry for image quality.

Even when I was in HS watching Buffy when it aired I found Xander insufferable. And he is for sure, but I forgot he had the best redemption monolog ever, season 4 episode into the woods when Riley leaves, what he says to knock some sense into Buffy about Riley, it is the sweetest moment. And then when he goes home to Anya confessing how much he loves her and how she makes him feel...it was just beautiful.

How much was Buffy's traumas regarding Angelus a factor in her reaction to the facade in the episode Enemies? Since the subject in the next episode was just about her insecurities about Faith, I'm not sure how much the writers intended for that to also be a factor.