Characters that grew on you after the first watch

[AnthonyCordova]

I just finished BtVS yesterday. I know that during a re-watch my opinion will definitely change about some of the characters. I'm thinking specifically about Faith: early on in the first watch my feeling about her was somewhat negative. I didn't buy the excuses for her turning evil, and although I did think she made a good villain, I just didn't like her very much on a personal level. The changes of Faith's character in later Angel and Buffy had me feeling different about her by the end though. So maybe I will feel differently about early Faith on a re-watch someday. Or maybe she will be to me what early Spuffy and Spuffy S7 are to other people: intolerable in the early versions but much more palatable later on.

So anyway, are there any characters (from Buffy or Angel) that you have changed your opinions/feelings about (in a good or bad way) since the first time you watched the shows? Anyone that you like (or don't like now) that you felt the opposite about the first time through?

And on a side (but related) note I really think I need to see everything at least once or maybe twice more before I can really say how I feel about everything. You miss things the first time, you don't evaluate things as objectively the first time because initial strong feelings also get in the way of an objective analysis, etc.

 

[Lyri]

Spike.

I was a BIG Spike fan when I was younger, and I actually still like Spike up until the end of S4. I loved his bad guy arc, his awkward arc as he tried to make things work around the chip. I would have loved for him to stay like that.

Getting older, watching the show for the 10th, 15th time, my love for Spike lessened. I grew up, became more worldly, noticed things that I didn't notice when I was a teenager. And I grew to hate the Spike that came after S4. I still hate him now. I wish he'd been dusted in 'Crush' instead of just locked out of the house.

Willow.

I like Willow up until S5, when magic starts to take over. She was always a selfish person, but when her magic starts to become more powerful, she grows more arrogant. Everything becomes all about her and her pain, her feelings. I have no time for that. And she just keeps on getting worse.

 

[thetopher]

Yeah, Spike.

I really liked him the first time around, all the way up to S5, then in Season 6...I went off him big time, and it changed my whole perception of the character.
Looking back I still think he's one of the greatest bad guys of the season, but as a good guy...vastly, vastly overrated.


Faith I liked from the start, I was disappointed when she went evil (although even the first time I understood why), then she came back and was one of the best things about S4, and then her transformation on Angel...😀
She is still the only character (apart from Willow and Angel) that I love way more as a good guy than as bad. (see Angel S4 and Buffy S7 for details. 🙂)

Angel.

The first time around I hated Angel, or rather Bangel and all the romantic, soppy stuff. I hated all the soapy back and forth between the two of them. But now I've grown up I have more of appreciation for love/romance on the show I kinda like it, plus I always liked Angel on his own show.

Xander.

First time around in the highschool years my favourite character was Xander, because he was funniest, had the best lines...after all my rewatches I actually prefer him post-highschool when he matures and grows up. He isn't so self-righteous/jealous/annoying. My favourite highschool character now is probably Giles, and Buffy. 🙂

 

[RoxySilver]

Faith

I didn't like her the first time around. I was something like 12 so I was all about Buffy: good, Faith: bad.

10 years later, I can say she is one of my favourite characters. I like her arc, I like the way she deals with things, I get her and feel for her. And Eliza Dushku does an amazing job.

Buffy:
I adored her as a young teenager. Now, not so much. Don't get me wrong, I like the character, SMG is an amazing actress. But sometimes she gets on my nerves and I think this is why I like and dislike her. I think this is amazing to have a show in which the main character creates mixed feelings in the audience.

Angel/Angelus
I loved Angel (the whole teenage crush on a star thing) but now I find him boring and useless. To me, he makes a poor excuse of a man and of a love interest.
On the contrary, I hated Angelus, of course. I now think he is one of the most compelling villains of the series. His cruelty is without limits and I love it. Plus, I think David Boreanaz makes a great Angelus while he doesn't convinve me as Angel (in the buffy series, in Angel series, it's another story).

Those are the main characters that flipped around for me. But I could tell much more on others!

 

[white avenger]

Giles- I liked Giles in the earlier seasons, when, as Travers said, he had a father's love and concern for Buffy and all of her friends. Leaving in Season 6, when Buffy needed him more than she ever did before, ruined the character for me, and destroyed, of at least badly damaged, the bond that he and Buffy had shared before.

 

[thetopher]

Giles- I liked Giles in the earlier seasons, when, as Travers said, he had a father's love and concern for Buffy and all of her friends. Leaving in Season 6, when Buffy needed him more than she ever did before, ruined the character for me, and destroyed, of at least badly damaged, the bond that he and Buffy had shared before.

Sort of ironic that, since Giles leaving indiretly lead to Spuffy...😛

Still, I take your point, but it's Giles behaviour in S7 that I like even less, and I think that leads to their rift later on.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I really hated Illyria the first time I watched "Angel". I was pissed that they killed Fred before she and Wes could really begin, and I was bitter about that for a long time. But after a couple rewatches, I came to really love Illyria.

On the flipside, I used to love Willow and now I can barely stand her past Season 4. I like her in the early seasons, but knowing what she became and how Alyson played her, she grates on my nerves now.

 

[white avenger]

Sort of ironic that, since Giles leaving indiretly lead to Spuffy...😛

Still, I take your point, but it's Giles behaviour in S7 that I like even less, and I think that leads to their rift later on.

I'll have to at least partially agree with you. Giles leaving led to Spuffy in the mutually self destructive way that it happened, but I honestly do believe that it would have happened anyhow. Let's be honest, Buffy was going to have somebody as a romantic interest, and everybody else was spoken for or had left town. It was either Spike or Clem.

And don't even say it, Bangels.....

 

[Kean]

Buffy and Angel have always been my main focus in terms of characters. Everyone else were enjoyable and I didn't think about them beyond that point.

Once I was older and started giving the show a closer reading, Buffy and Angel became much more complex, greyer characters for me. While they remain the focal point of my fandom, there are a lot of things about them that I don't like. As for the rest of the characters? I grew to dislike them an awful lot. Particularly the other core Buffy characters.

In one way I'm happy to have a more critical and i dept understanding of the show/characters but on the other, I just wish I could enjoy my shows again.

 

[Robb Stark]

The first time, and through my first rewatch, I saw the series I loved Buffy. LOVED her. Now though...I don't know, it's just...different. I still really like her, but Angel and Spike have both surpassed her as favorite characters for me.

When I think about it, it's odd, because I used to love her SO much. I'm not even really sure when this fandom transition happened. I think, and this is not a criticism, it occurred the more I discussed the series online. S7 and S8 really cemented Buffy as not all that intelligent, and while she's still amazing to me in S1-3, I have found that those later years have tarnished her a bit.

By contrast however, Angel was probably my second favorite character previously, and now he's a clear-cut number one. I've also come to like Spike a lot more, though he was always a favorite as well.

 

[Lyri]

Buffy will always be my favorite character in the show, I will always be in her corner, but there are characters that I find more interesting than her, such as Connor and Lindsey. I like their grayness, I like Lindsey's struggle to be anything but his father. I like Connor's inner battle as he tries to hold on to what Holtz's taught him while he realizes that Holtz was wrong, and it's for this reason that I usually say they are my favorite characters if someone asks.

The first time I watched the show, I adored Lindsey instantly and that love has only grown and Christian Kane will always be my favorite person in the world. But the first time I watched, Connor didn't really register on my radar. He was just there.

And then I went to my first convention, back in 2006, which Vinnie attended, and I listened to him explain Connor in his own words, from his own perspective. It changed everything for me and I went home and rewatched S3, 4 and 5 and I saw what Vinnie was talking about. It's for this reason why I will always stand up for Connor.

Xander used to be my favorite character and while I still like him a lot, his actions in some instances just enrage me. I recently watched 'Dead Man's Party' and 'Revelations' for the first time in years and I just wanted to reach into the TV and smack him silly.

 

[Blaze]

Buffy is probably the biggest one for me. I liked her before, but I grew to really, really love her. I think the biggest contribution to her growing on me was my own life. It just sort of turned out that I identified with her more and more as I grew older (vs willow when I was younger).

 

[The Bronze]

Hmmm I don't think my opinions have changed an awful lot from my first viewing to whatever one I'm on now. I'm currently on Season 4 Buffy & Season 1 Angel. I enjoyed Willow a lot more than I remember. Just little things, the odd comments and jokes that you forget about. I suspect that my opinion of her will probably go down again by the end of the series.

I think Angel is the one I see in a more negative light than I remember. He winds me up a lot in Season 1 of Buffy by standing on the sidelines. Then various decisions he makes later on bug me, OMWF being the one freshest in my mind.

Doyle is even better than I remember him. I find him very entertaining and relatable. It's a shame we saw so little of him.

 

[NeonNightLight]

I know that many prefer Angel on his own series, but rewatching him on Buffy makes me recognize a subtle depth in him. When first watching BtVS, I never really thought of him outside of his relationship with Buffy, but after revisiting the series after a few years, I saw what a rich and complex character he was.

I also didn't like Faith initially, but I read many of her fans' points of view, and that, coupled with rewatching, made me see her in an entirely different light. However, if not for her appearances in Angel, I definitely wouldn't have the same appreciation for her character.

Spike. I'm not sure where to start with him. I have to admit, I'm partially biased when it comes to him, as I've had the misfortune of previously being in a Buffy forum with a lot of blinding Spike love, to the point where if any character (or viewer) looked at him wrong, they were bashed and hated on. Rewatching him after that really soured my opinion on him. Also, I was 14 when I first watched BtVS, and while I first loved Spike in his villain role, by the end of the series I was kinda iffy on him. I knew there were many things about his character that didn't sit well with me, but I didn't want to acknowledge them because I liked him *so* much before. Rewatching forced me to face the parts of his character in seasons 5-7 that I disliked so much before.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

Dawn. On first watching Buffy I didn't like her but after rewatching season 5. 6 and 7 again, I don't think shes as bad as I first thought, with some exceptions( like her behavior in Older and Far Away.)

And Spuffy. On rewatch I grew to like Spikes side of Spuffy a lot better.

 

[The Bronze]

[MENTION=11975]Robb Stark[/MENTION] I'm annoyed that Angel didn't show up and sing! We all deserved another rendition of Mandy 😀. Alternatively I might have meant IWRY... a lesson in not posting too late at night 😱