Foreshadowing

[Tueuse de Vampires]

In 'Anne' this Ken guy who hands out the leaflets says over LA "You get old fast here", which I think is foreshadowing about this whole thing that happens to the kids, you know, with the working in this other dimension where time goes way fadter and then coming back a day later being completely old.

 

[kurtlaynevedder]

Fly On The Wall, it seems like foreshadowing to me vs. play on words because Faith hadn't gone evil yet. Actually in the episode he was trying to kill faith. I could be wrong and it could just be a coincidence, but the way he said it made it seem so.

 

[Silum]

Ive read a lot of these forshadowing things and to be honest a lot of them are just chance. In fact, i would say 90% perfecnt of them are. There are certain episodes that alude to a lot of future stuff sure (Restless, OMWF) but the rest are really stretches. I mean, yea Willow said 'i think im kinda gay' but since Joss was considering Xander as turning gay and not willow up until Oz's departure, i really dont see how any of the writers had the foresight to write these things in.

Xander blind references were only really intentional in the beginning of S7 and that doesnt really count as foreshadowing in my opinion. Yes, it is foreshadowing, but clearly writers have season arcs laid out in advance so this is nothing special.

What I do think is special, especially on Buffy, is that writers sieze upon previous dialog to make things tie in. THIS is what makes Buffy very unique in the way it values the fans by referencing previous episodes and delving deeper into certain themes. So this thread is more about how foreshadowing was integrated into buffy than how the show knew where things were going and how they were going to get there. Either way, connecting the dots is brilliant fun!

 

[Frketson]

Tara was originally intended to be evil? Really? Wow. Where did you read this? I'm curious...

i remember reading something on wikipedia and while YES its not the msot reliable source it was still interesting nonetheless, im going to try and find it now....

Here are the notes on the Wikipedia article for the Ep in S5 called "Family"

"Family" was written in part to help tie up several plot threads regarding Tara. It also plays upon earlier plans to possibly reveal Tara as a secret villain[citation needed] who had infiltrated the Scooby Gang in order to strike at Buffy from within her circle of friends. That idea was tabled once it was determined that the romantic relationship between Tara and Willow was too great of a great success, and it was decided that Tara would not be used as a villain after all. However, there were several small hints already peppered throughout Season Four that suggested otherwise; Whedon would explain them away[citation needed] with this episode, by revealing that Tara feared she would turn demonic soon, and thus she secretly committed small acts designed to hide that knowledge from Willow.

heres a link to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_(Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_episode)

 

[Silum]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_(Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_episode)

keywords: Citation needed

end of the day... it was a typical Joss misdirect.

 

[Frketson]

maybe, but its still interesting nonetheless.

also i just picked up on something while watching angel.

In the episode 'Ground State" in S4, Gunn says "We could have gone to Vegas" and in the very next episode "The House Always Wins", guess what? They go to vegas 🙂

 

[AustinA123]

In the episode, "Conversations With Dead People", Andrew mentions saving Sunnydale, and "maybe joining Buffy's group, and hanging out at her house."

Later in the season, that pretty much happens.

 

[hazzard]

i don't know if this has been said, but i was just watching "fear itself" in season 4 and willow and buffy are talking in the lunchline about willow's newfound magic abilities and willow says to buffy..."what is college for if not experimenting? you know, maybe i can handle it, i'll know when i've reached my limit..." foreshadowing just how much she will not know her limit in season 6...

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

Okay I just got something from 'Restless' and am close to banging my head against the wall for not thinking of this earlier. In Giles' dream when he sings, isn't that perfect foreshadowing of the musical? I mean, it was not just singing, it was singing like in the musical. You know, with basically putting everything you have to say into song.

 

[Professor Walsh]

In "Angel", I'd say this points towards Willow soon becoming a very skilled Research Girl.

Willow: "How is it you always know this stuff? You always know what's going
on. I never know what's going on."
Giles: "Well, you weren't here from midnight until six researching it."
Willow: "No, I was sleeping."

 

[atticus]

Lindsey's " La Song" back in season two's " Dead End", always reminds me of season four's Apocalypse / Jasmine storyline.
"The sky's gonna open/People gonna pray and crawl/Gonna rain down fire/Gonna burn us all"
"She's pretty as a picture/ settles me with love and laughter " , sounds like Jasmine.
Actually the whole song sounds like it could be about Connor. And how lost he was.

 

[Mumrik]

In "Spin The Bottle", when Fred reverts back to being her High School Pothead self she starts talking to a plant, which foreshadows the coming of Illyria whom could talk to plants. I don't know exactly in which episode it was but she says, after losing most of her powers, something along the lines of "I can't hear the Song of the Green anymore".

I don't really know if it really is foreshadowing but there's a lot of cheese references when talking about Buffy, maybe foreshadowing the Cheese Man from Restless. I know he's supposed to be random but... there's really a lot of them. The only one I can remember at the moment is when Willow tells Riley that Buffy likes cheese when he asks her to tell him something he could talk about to her. But there's more.

Also, not really foreshadowing as a lot of it happened later but every woman Xander dated/was intimate with/interested in was/is some kind of a demon. The teacher from Teacher's Pet, that rope chick from S7, Anya of course, Willow's vampire self from "The Wish" and "Doppelgängerland". And to some extent even Buffy and Faith

Spoiler

and Renee from S8

as in S7 it is revealed that the Slayer power was a demonic power. There might be more but those are the ones that spring to mind. Maybe that was some kind of foreshadowing/backshadowing of Cordelia becoming part demon in S3 of Angel.

 

[eunsoma]

This one was pretty obvious but I thought I'd bring it up anyway,

In 'A Hole in the World'
FRED: It's Los Angeles, the City of Angels, remember?

ROGER (Fred's Dad): And if you meet one angel there, I'll eat the dogs.

I'm sure this was intentional, but there's a chronological foreshadowing there!

 

[InsaneMystic]

Watching "Wild at Heart" yesterday, I wondered if Willow's babbling in her sleep ("...it's out in the sand") is foreshadowing the Primal Slayer in the desert dream scenes in "Restless".

 

[Relic]

At the end of season one ep 2 The harvest, at the very end the scoobies are talking about how odd it is that everyone is going about their business after the vamp raid on the bronze/ additional scoobie talk...eventually talk of getting kicked out of school again comes up and Willow mention something about blowing up the school doing the trick.

It's not exactly foreshadowing in a classic sense as they are not related, but Buffy does get kicked out again(no suprise there) and at graduation two seasons latter, she does blow up the school.

 

[Fusions2]

At the end of season one ep 2 The harvest, at the very end the scoobies are talking about how odd it is that everyone is going about their business after the vamp raid on the bronze/ additional scoobie talk...eventually talk of getting kicked out of school again comes up and Willow mention something about blowing up the school doing the trick.

It's not exactly foreshadowing in a classic sense as they are not related, but Buffy does get kicked out again(no suprise there) and at graduation two seasons latter, she does blow up the school.

OoOoOo I don't remember that one, I shall have to watch it again to be reminded but I do know Xander made a reference about "Nuking the school" in the season 2 (I think) and voila next season they did do it.

 

[eunsoma]

Um this one is clearly intentional as Joss would have had the season planned but in 'When She Was Bad':

BUFFY: "You think you can take me?"

ANGEL: "What?"

BUFFY: "Oh, c'mon! I mean, you must've thought about it. What would happen if it ever came down to a fight, you vampire, me the Slayer, I mean, you must've wondered! Well, why don't we find out?"

Then Angel goes and loses his soul 6 months later... poor Buffy she pretty much asked for it lol

 

[itsxpaperdoll]

It's all really vague in my head right now, but in 'Earshot', Willow questions Jonathan about if he's never want to be very famous, or rich, or powerful or something like that. It's probably not intentional but it could be a bit of foreshadowing to the s4 episode 'Superstar', when he in fact appears to be all those things, right?

 

[Blair Waldorf-Bass]

When Willow said in season 3 that the vamp version of her might be gay.

 

[clemsgirlfriend]

This one's almost certainly not intentional foreshadowing, but in season 1 of btvs, Buffy, Xander, and Willow recite a scene from Oedipus in the school talent show, and then in season 3/4 of Angel, Connor tries to kill his father (when he first arrives there) and later sleeps with his mother-figure (Cordelia wasn't his biological mom, but she did take care of him when he was a baby and was his dad's love.)