Believability

[BuffyThoughts]

Although we are ready to suspend disbelief when reading/watching fiction, sometimes we read/see things we just can't swallow.

I'm curious to know ... did any of you find a scene or situation in the Buffyverse that struck you as not believable? If so, why was it not believable?

If not ... or even if so ... can you give examples of fictional happenings that you just couldn't believe or accept? I'm interested in what are the limits of what an audience will accept.

I'll give an example. I recently watched an episode of "Lost" where Michael kills two women, Ana Lucia and Libby, as part of the writers' genocide against the "Tailies."

First, I always cringe when a rank amateur like Michael fires a handgun and manages to hit something. In real life, as in Uncle Vanya, both those bullets would've missed. But we're conditioned to accept that.

What I found really unbelievable was that this man, with no history of violence, would be capable of shooting and killing two women he didn't even know. Surely he would chicken out, then wait to see if he had another opportunity to accomplish his goal without bloodshed.

In any case, I never thought Michael's monomania about his son was convincing.

This has gone on too long ... I'm awaiting replies.

 

[zobothehobo]

In Amends when the snow sticks. I can deal with mystical powers making it snow, but I don't care how cold they make it or how hard that snow is falling... if it was that warm that day, the snow would melt as soon as it hit the ground. That always bothers me/pisses me off.

 

[prophecygrrl]

The most relevant example that comes to mind is in 'Seeing Red', when Tara gets hit with that stray bullet. I really do NOT understand how in the world she would be hit when Xander, who is much closer to both Buffy and Warren, doesn't have a scratch on him! I guess the point of that scene is to show how random violence and death can be, but seriously...this was almost too unbelievable. She's in the second story of the house for cripes sake...😛

---------- Post added at 12:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ----------

zobothehobo agrees: I saw something somewhere where someone did the physics and proved that impossible.

I am not surprised at all. Obviously bringing guns into the Buffyverse is of The Bad and someone has to get hurt, but it makes much more sense to have Tara and Willow somehow in the backyard (or at least the first story of the house!), because the way that scene is set up, it makes Xander far more likely to be hit than Tara. Gah.

 

[white avenger]

I would say the entire episode "As You Were" from Season 6 makes me cringe every time that T think about it, but everyone here has heard my objections to and theories about that travesty, so I'll go with Buffy's first fight with Spike in "School Hard." Spike had Buffy beaten. She was meat on a platter, and it wasn't as much that Spike was that much better a fighter (at that point, he probably was, but that's beside the point) as it was the fact that she totally underestimated him and just how dangerous an opponent he could be, despite knowing that he had already killed two Slayers. But that's not my cringe point here.

Joyce cracks Spike across the head with the blunt side of a fire axe, and he RUNS AWAY. Right. A master vampire, known as William the Bloody for no doubt quite good reason, who could have snapped Joyce's neck with a flick of his wrist and still chalked up Slayer Number 3, and he runs away from an art gallery mom (that's 3 steps below a soccer mom, for those of you who didn't happen to know) with a fire axe.

Please understand, I love Buffy's mom. Her courage in protecting her daughter puts me in mind of a mother lioness. Also, the bond of friendship that develops between Spike and Joyce is one of my favorite "buddy ships." But, in the real world, or even a more realistic part of Buffy's world, Joyce would have wound up just like another character did under similar circumstances at the end of Season 8.

 

[Icarium]

I'm curious to know ... did any of you find a scene or situation in the Buffyverse that struck you as not believable?

Yes, hundreds of them. 🙂 The very premise of the show is unbelievable. One Slayer in all the world, the Sunnydale residents adamantly refusing to see what hellhole their town is, etc.

As for more specific examples, off the top of my head:

- The US government turning a blind eye to Buffy three times breaking into their top secret facility, threatening commanding officers and so on. And then they just pulled out of Sunnydale and decided to go hunt demons in Nepal and Central America...
- The Council of Watchers. We only learn about their existence in S3 and it remains a mystery why Giles didn't just call them for information instead of relying on teenagers' help and his limited collection of books.
- Vampires not using guns against Buffy.
- Sunnydale having an international airport. 🙂
- Tara believing the demon story. She had the means to check it and apparently her dad knows nothing about magic but she believes it anyway? Why?
- Spike not being staked. Not even by the Watcher's Council's delegation in Checkpoint

 

[Kean]

Xander's job progression over the course of a year during S5-S6. It didn't appear that Xander had so much as taken wood work in school, yet by S6 he is the foreman of a construction company? Completely daft.

 

[brinkster130]

The Trio. That creepy van that was in the background everywhere but Buffy never noticed it. It took Buffy and the scoobies forever to figure out who it was.... totally unbelievable that it would have taken Buffy so long to figure out who it was and what they were up to.

 

[Ms.Trick]

The fact Buffy could afford life in season 6 and 7 with only one job, a house to pay, and multiple mouths to feed. And I can't imagine the water bill etc...
That's the most unbelievable to me!

 

[Kean]

- Sunnydale having an international airport. 🙂

Not to mention seeming to have a rather large university.

Or how, though appearing to be landlocked in "Chosen", Sunnydale still managed to have a beach and sustained itself as a rather substantial port town.

 

[zobothehobo]

the supposedly second most deadly vampire of all time was Spike.

 

[The Unspoken]

Worldbuilding definitely isn't Buffy's strong suit. It is somewhat annoying, because with some slight changes, most of these problems would be easily remedied. For example, making Buffy slightly more physically resilient would already explain why she isn't the frequent target of drive-by shootings.

As for specific character moments:
-Willow going for another mind-rape in 'Tabula Rasa'. Yikes.
-Buffy blithely keeping trigger!Spike unchained for several months, despite the fact that he could easily slaughter them all in their sleep.
-The First's idiotic actions, like taunting Andrew about how he couldn't install a microwave or practically gift wrapping the Scythe for Buffy (this is supposed to be the ultimate evil?).

 

[Icarium]

- Anya being accepted into the Scooby gang and her murderous past being treated as a joke.
- The Council not killing Faith while she was in a coma.
- Connor surviving as a baby in the worst hell dimension.
- Andrew joining the Scooby gang.

 

[sk]

In Amends when the snow sticks. I can deal with mystical powers making it snow, but I don't care how cold they make it or how hard that snow is falling... if it was that warm that day, the snow would melt as soon as it hit the ground. That always bothers me/pisses me off.

There is obvious lots of unbelievable stuff going on in a show like Buffy.
But this, with the snow, is pretty much the only thing that actually bugs me. Not sure why really, but it does.

/SK

 

[EvilBuffy]

Might not be exactly in category, but I kind of look away from the screen during the last bit of Chosen. The animation of the town caving in and the bus driving away bugs the crap out of me. That's all I can think of off the top of my head that hasn't already been mentioned.

 

[Kean]

How the clause of Angel's curse was never even researched. Even a little bit.

I can't imagine Willow not looking into it.

 

[Carrrrgh]

The "Loan Shark" in Tabula Rasa....Really? I mean most of the demons were understandable but this one was just terrible and I cant even look at him when I watch this episode.

Oh and Spike not putting two and two together that Principal Wood was Nikki Woods son...even I put that together before it was confirmed.

One more lol; the fact that his name was Robin Wood....too much like Robin Hood & now I picture him singing "We are men...in tights..."

http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php?hid=xqVo6WM0UKU=

 

[Hale Caesar]

Some things that bothered me was the fact that Baby Connor and Holtz (a normal human) were able to survive in the worst hell dimension in the universe...bullshit. And that Buffy was able to live comfortably after Joyce died, seriously, she made minimum wage and we never got mention that Joyce left her any sort of sizable inheritance. Joss disappointed me in the later seasons

 

[WakingNightmare]

A group of teenagers living in California and none of them owning cell phones.

 

[white avenger]

The very idea that a place like Sunnydale exists right on top of a hellmouth, which apparently makes it the Mecca for vampires and demons of every imaginable type, quite a few of which feed on human beings. People keep dying under mysterious circumstances, and, not only do the local citizens not seem to notice, but no investigative reporters from shows like "Unsolved Mysteries," and "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" seem to have the slightest curiosity about it.

 

[BuffyThoughts]

Guns?

- Vampires not using guns against Buffy.

Interesting. Remember Darla did that in Angel, 107, and failed. The topic comes up again in S8, at the campfire meeting with Andrew. It's true, that one requires an heroic suspension of disbelief, but we have to do it. If guns were introduced, the fight scenes ... I don't want to think about it.

Here's a few thoughts.

If the vampires know where Buffy lives, why don't they lob a grenade onto her front porch? Or maybe they wouldn't want to kill a Slayer who's silly enough to let them know where she lives. The next Slayer might hide her identity better. So they could make noise all night, prevent her from sleeping.

On the other other hand ... why don't the Scoobies use flame throwers? Or suppose they brought along a Catholic Priest who could bless the water in a fire hose or a sprinkler system? This actually happens in a novel by Christopher Golden.

The crosses always bothered me. I've heard they bothered Joss, too. If crosses repel vampires and Stars of David or Islamic Crescents Buddhist "Wheels of the Law" don't, then why don't Buffy and Willow turn Christian? But maybe these other symbols of faith will also repel vampires? There seems to be a general assumption in the fandom that they do, but I don't remember that ever being put to the test. Do you?