Dating the Immortal yay or nay to the retcon ?

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Scooby
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Ok so in TGIQ Buffy is dating the Immortal. In S8 its retconned to a Buffy body double and Andrew thinking it a funny joke.

Now I always had issues with the body double thing anyway but be that as it may.
With this retcon both Angel and Spike look like total losers chasing around after a fake Buffy and even bigger losers being played by Andrew.

So is the retcon a good or a bad idea ?
 
A strong nay but for different reasons. Angel and Spike are total losers anyway.

I just liked the idea of Buffy living it large with some larger-than-life playboy and without the usual angst and heartache. And it felt like the writers caved in to outrage from the fandom.

During S5 of AtS, you get the sense that the Scoobies have transcended to super stardom, leaving Team Angel in the dust. It's nice to imagine Buffy partying in Italy, Willow exploring the astral plane and Xander being a bad ass in Africa.
 
No, in hindsight I didn't like the ret-con at all.
Nothing much to do with Angel and Spike- TGIQ did plenty of damage to their characters either way- but because I find it more realistic that after all that she'd been through in Sunnydale Buffy would want to kick back and relax for a while.
She's still in her early twenties and now has a chance to see the world, relax without the weight of the world on her shoulders. Why wouldn't she go somewhere new and refreshing, party, date and have a little fun.
The way Andrew described it she was still on hand to recruit slayers or help out, she just had more of a life now.

Instead she's turned into some lonely workaholic stuck in a castle. Pining away until the two vampires fly back into her life. The comics did a real diservice to Buffy's romantic prospects.

Plus we never found out anything about the Immortal in the comics. He's supposed to be this legendary bad-ass that thinks nothing of pissing off half The Whirlwind whilst shagging the other half.
Guy's a rock-star, clearly, and yet he's never referred to again.
 
You make good points. Yeah I think the retcon was a bad idea. Why shouldn't Buffy go and have some fun in Italy
 
I've never made any sort of secret about my disappointment at never getting to find out just who, or more likely, what, the Immortal was. It's like Joss just said, "We'll have Buffy hook up with this super cool immortal dude and drive both Angel and Spike crazy. It'll work out great, and we don't even have to decide what kind of character the Immortal really is. The mystery will be the best part of the story." Then, when Season 8 happened, the writers just plain didn't have a clue as to what this super sexy mystery man could possibly be, so they ditched the whole thing. I felt robbed.

But once we know that the whole thing was a hoax, it brings up something else. Given the well established Buffyverse vampire sense of smell, how could the neither Angel nor Spike not recognize the fact that Buffy's scent was nowhere around her supposed apartment, and, for that matter, why didn't they pick up on the fact that Andrew, who was supposedly only a guest there, could invite them inside? Only the legal resident can admit vampires in the Buffyverse.
 
white avenger said:
I've never made any sort of secret about my disappointment at never getting to find out just who, or more likely, what, the Immortal was. It's like Joss just said, "We'll have Buffy hook up with this super cool immortal dude and drive both Angel and Spike crazy. It'll work out great, and we don't even have to decide what kind of character the Immortal really is. The mystery will be the best part of the story." Then, when Season 8 happened, the writers just plain didn't have a clue as to what this super sexy mystery man could possibly be, so they ditched the whole thing. I felt robbed.

But once we know that the whole thing was a hoax, it brings up something else. Given the well established Buffyverse vampire sense of smell, how could the neither Angel nor Spike not recognize the fact that Buffy's scent was nowhere around her supposed apartment, and, for that matter, why didn't they pick up on the fact that Andrew, who was supposedly only a guest there, could invite them inside? Only the legal resident can admit vampires in the Buffyverse.
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It's so lame that the comic writers were scratching their heads, because I've seen so many different versions of The Immortal in fanfiction where he is written so well, so it's not like it's not doable.
 
Puppet said:
I've seen so many different versions of The Immortal in fanfiction where he is written so well, so it's not like it's not doable.
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At the time, I found myself wondering if the Immortal might not have been inspired by a character from the TV series "Highlander," a show about immortals, and a secret society of humans who chronicaled their lives, called Watchers. There were a ton of assorted fan fiction crossovers between the two shows, and given his rather ambiguous past, neither good nor bad, neither man nor demon, the character of Methos would have been a perfect candidate.

Of course, such a legitimate crossover between te two series would have been impossible.
 
AlphaFoxtrot
AlphaFoxtrot
I always assumed The Immortal was Connor MacLeod Triumphant as well. As opposed to another, yawn, vampire or demon.
white avenger said:
At the time, I found myself wondering if the Immortal might not have been inspired by a character from the TV series "Highlander," a show about immortals, and a secret society of humans who chronicaled their lives, called Watchers. There were a ton of assorted fan fiction crossovers between the two shows, and given his rather ambiguous past, neither good nor bad, neither man nor demon, the character of Methos would have been a perfect candidate.

Of course, such a legitimate crossover between te two series would have been impossible.
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I have watched neither Doctor Who nor Torchwood, but there's an amazing crossover fanfiction where The Immortal is actually Captain Jack Harkness and I feel it's handled really well (again, coming from someone who isn't familiar with the character)

You're right, though, we would never get a legitimate TV crossover, unfortunately 🙂
 
Professor Walsh
Professor Walsh
Oh, cool. Link?
I always thought the Immortal exuded some kind of aura that made him more attractive to members of the opposite sex, it's not a spell like a love spell, but just makes women more attracted to him.

I thought the whole Buffy and the Immortal thing was tacky, and this retcon sounds even tackier.
 
Puppet
Puppet
Pheromones. I've read fan-fiction where it's him releasing attracting pheromones :)
DeadlyDuo said:
I always thought the Immortal exuded some kind of aura that made him more attractive to members of the opposite sex, it's not a spell like a love spell, but just makes women more attracted to him.
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Possibly an Incubus, the male equivalent of a Succubus, that feeds on sexual energy the same way that a vampire feeds on blood. That would have been interesting, especially if it were established that a Slayer's sexual energy is as uniqe to is as her blood is to a vampire.

(Damn, why didn't Joss just call us to help him out with this one? It would have been great.)
 
white avenger said:
But once we know that the whole thing was a hoax, it brings up something else. Given the well established Buffyverse vampire sense of smell, how could the neither Angel nor Spike not recognize the fact that Buffy's scent was nowhere around her supposed apartment, and, for that matter, why didn't they pick up on the fact that Andrew, who was supposedly only a guest there, could invite them inside? Only the legal resident can admit vampires in the Buffyverse.
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Oh, its well established that Angel and Spike are complete idiots in this episode; crappy entitled jerks that have no sense of priority.
So obviously the writers didn't want to write them doing something as smart as reasoning out why they keep on missing Buffy, or what Andrew is even doing there in the first place.
From what I remember of S7 Buffy didn't even like him that much, would she really tolerate him in her vacation residence?
 
yeah anything that takes place after season 5 of Angel just feels like glorified fan fiction to me, I enjoy the comics but season 8 was to wild and messy for me to ever consider all the comics to be canon.
 
If Angel had continued, it would be great if the Immortal had returned as the same unseen legend. I like that he is undefined. He's like El Diablo Robotico—more awesome than imagination.

Literature uses this trick all the time—having a character that is so awesome or so contradictory that it would be impossible to conceive them in the flesh. Such characters are trickier to do on TV.
 
Puppet
Puppet
My favorite use of that trick is Maris on Frasier :D
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