"I've Never Seen "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" So I Watched The Pilot And Finale And Nothing In Between"

[Moggin]

If we were giving some kind of award of what scene not to start with, "It is strongly suggested that Buffy is being sodomized by shady Spike while being made to watch her friends do a goofy lighthearted dance" would probably win. Second place would be one of those episodes from Season 7, where First Dru is ranting at Spike while he is being drowned in Holy Water by the Turok-Han, how would you even explain what is happening?

To be honest, the scene was so jarring and not what I expected from this show that it instantly made me want to find out more.

I first read the comments under the video and realized this was Spike and Buffy. Then, I beat a path to read descriptions on the characters. That still didn't help. Spike's bio kept mentioning Dru, and I kept looking for her. So, then I started with a full episode in Lies My Parents Told Me, which I thought from its description, might give me some of his origin. I immediately thought two things 1) oh boy this guy can act, and (2) wow this an interesting character.

I kind of got the gist of what was going on by that point, but watched everything backwards because everything I just watched had something else to be explained before it.

When I got to the end, I was kind of on a viewing high and just let my explode for a few minutes. I think I remember sitting by myself grinning like an idiot and saying "what?!" to myself over and over again. Then I greedily ran back through everything in the right order. I was hooked. Not sure how the original author of that article couldn't be. Even with the one show, there was enough to pique my interest.

 

[HowiMetdaSlayer]

First time I watched Buffy was somewhere in early season 2 right after arrival of Spike & Dru. My mom was watching on dvd.
She said I should just watch from beginning, but was like: I'll just watch this and see if I like it. Obviously I did and shortly after watched from beginning.

 

[AstridDante]

To be honest I never understood that suggestion, the scene always read to me that he was simply ‘taking her from behind’, surely there would be a lot more discomfort if he just thrust in like that without lubricant!!! She would be howling! I think the angles were weird as the series was on before a certain watershed so they couldn’t exactly have Buffy bent right over! A lot of their sex scenes seemed anatomically impossible 😂 I think some viewers use the sodomy suggestion as another thing to try and paint Spike in an even worse light again, as ‘degrading’ the heroine.

 

[AstridDante]

And don’t get me wrong the scene was iffy as it was with dubious consent and the crap Spike was coming out with but I also found it quite hot. I guess I am a bit wicked that way!

 

[Moggin]

To be honest I never understood that suggestion, the scene always read to me that he was simply ‘taking her from behind’, surely there would be a lot more discomfort if he just thrust in like that without lubricant!!! She would be howling! I think the angles were weird as the series was on before a certain watershed so they couldn’t exactly have Buffy bent right over! A lot of their sex scenes seemed anatomically impossible 😂 I think some viewers use the sodomy suggestion as another thing to try and paint Spike in an even worse light again, as ‘degrading’ the heroine.

Like you, I assumed it was a back way to get to the front entrance, rather than sodomy. She could have been standing the whole time, too, but he should have been lower and a bit hunched, if that be the case. It would have been less attractive, though, and film is all about making sex look attractive. At the end of the day, though, I think it may have been like the flesh-toned shorts in Wrecked, where they were rushing to film, working long days, and the directors just got sloppy/forgot what would show in the frame.

 

[AstridDante]

Like you, I assumed it was a back way to get to the front entrance, rather than sodomy. She could have been standing the whole time, too, but he should have been lower and a bit hunched, if that be the case. It would have been less attractive, though, and film is all about making sex look attractive. At the end of the day, though, I think it may have been like the flesh-toned shorts in Wrecked, where they were rushing to film, working long days, and the directors just got sloppy/forgot what would show in the frame.

Exactly, I think it was just poorly executed but what I saw was him taking her from behind but I guess if people want to think something else they can, I just don’t think it would be so smooth if that was the case!! Ha!

 

[katmobile]

And don’t get me wrong the scene was iffy as it was with dubious consent and the crap Spike was coming out with but I also found it quite hot. I guess I am a bit wicked that way!

I'm not sure that isn't how you're supposed to react to season six - hot but wrong/degrading or vice versa certainly seems to be how Buffy herself views it and consent is all over the place because they're both messed up people who want different things and in her case she wants him but doesn't want to and doesn't like what that says about her in fact it kinda eats her alive.

 

[AstridDante]

Yes I found the actual sex not to be the problem in the relationship, in fact I think it was the best thing about it, they both got something from that. The problem was the circumstances around it and their own respective issues they were both dealing with and their respective expectations

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Re: It could easily be either, I mean, it's not actually people having sex, it's people pretending to have sex, and preferably in what is understood as a degrading manner, any appearance of intercourse is just an optical illusion. I mostly think "Strongly Suggested" is a funny phrase, especially when a teen show is trying to be edgy.

 

[AstridDante]

Re: It could easily be either, I mean, it's not actually people having sex, it's people pretending to have sex, and preferably in what is understood as a degrading manner, any appearance of intercourse is just an optical illusion. I mostly think "Strongly Suggested" is a funny phrase, especially when a teen show is trying to be edgy.

I personally don’t think them engaging in public sex by definition is ‘degrading’, kinky yes but both were getting off on it. The problem was that Spike was feeding into her fears and maybe what she believed to be true that she doesn’t belong with her friends but in darkness with him. The seduction was hot in my view the little speech not so much

 

[spikenbuffy]

Can we please get back more on topic and not delve too much into Spuffy ?

 

[Moggin]

Did anyone else need multiple viewings to get interested in Buffy? Rather, let me put it this way, at what point did you get hooked, and can you even see the original author's point of view? I, for one, cannot. Curiosity alone has kept me going on many a show that I should have abandoned *cough* "Game of Thrones".

 

[Puppet]

I'm the opposite of a lot of people - I'm not very good at giving up on a show once I've started it. If I start something, chances are very high that I'll finish it, whether I'm loving it or just liking it. The few shows I've stopped, it has either been halfway through the pilot (like Wynonna Earp) or because I've binged 10 seasons in one, long sitting (like Criminal Minds), but I rarely stop once I'm, like, half a season in.

That being said, the chance of me remembering my initial reaction to Buffy? I was eight and it was back when it originally aired in '97. All I can say is that I definitely kept up with watching it, right up until it aired the finale and ended.

 

[Priceless]

I watched the first two episodes as they aired on BBC and thought the show was okay, but it was Witch that got me truly hooked. I loved the twist and trapping Amy's mum in that statue was just so good I couldn't stop watching after that.

 

[AstridDante]

Can we please get back more on topic and not delve too much into Spuffy ?

Sorry that was me derailing!

 

[thrasherpix]

Did anyone else need multiple viewings to get interested in Buffy? Rather, let me put it this way, at what point did you get hooked, and can you even see the original author's point of view? I, for one, cannot. Curiosity alone has kept me going on many a show that I should have abandoned *cough* "Game of Thrones".

I saw part of an episode when I was in high school. It was on TV while I waited with friends for a ride. I remember Snyder was in it and I'm almost certain it was season 1. It was watchable, but I missed the start, and had no regrets about turning it off when our ride arrived.

People kept telling me to get into it but at the time I had to budget things more carefully and wasn't willing to watch TV much. I did eventually rent season 1 from the local Blockbuster (or whatever it was called) and I was pretty much instantly hooked.

I do believe seeing season 1 first was important, because if I started out with season 2 where it's more serious (rather than getting serious) then I wouldn't have cared about the characters and wouldn't have stuck with it. It would be added to a long list of shows like Charmed in which I saw a handful of episodes which were okay and I even really enjoyed an episode or two, but didn't feel compelled to keep watching (though again, it cost rental money, if it were free with a subscription then I'd have given plenty of shows more of a chance).

At the time I was also coincidentally dealing with an internal gender issue. A girlfriend wanted me to femme myself up, but I had a subconscious fear that if I did then I'd lose my autonomy and also become a victim. Seeing girly girls (and even Buffy could be that way at times) be so assertive and take care of themselves was a great comfort, and I think added to the appeal. Had I not been wrestling with that at the time then the show may not have appealed to me as much as it did.



I'm certain if I started with season 6 that it would've turned me off completely (though I'd enjoy the first couple of eps or so and give it a chance...probably make it about half way through), thankfully I didn't. Not much of a fan of that season as it is, but at least I cared about the characters already and it felt like the writers were still invested rather than just earning a paycheck, so I stuck with it and willing to give season 7 a chance ('course it didn't help that I'd already purchased it...).

But I loathed season 7 so much (and even worse on a repeat viewing years later) that I refused to buy the Angel series (as it was, I had to budget to get the complete Buffy series on dvd, back in those days) since I figured it probably got just as bad. But upon my full rewatch with some kids, they wanted to see Angel, and I was curious, so I got it for them, and though I certainly have some issues with it, I don't regret seeing it or the money I spent (then again, having low expectations when I start helps be more pleasantly surprised, so in a way season 7 might've actually make me like Angel more than I otherwise would've )