Something You Dislike About Your Favourite Character

[thetopher]

Okay, take your favourite character and tell the rest of us something about that character that really irritates you, or at least that you could really do without, and would get rid of if you could. (Nobody's perfect after all).

Also mention something you really like about them that might be less than obvious, even if it would seem strange to somebody else.


Okay, I'll start. I find people who use the term 'girlfriend' as a term of familiarity really irritating, and Faith uses it quite a few times in S3. 'Hey girlfrined, what's up?' *Urgh*

It always seems fake friendly to me, like its trying to denote intimacy that really isn't there. 🙁

I explain this away by saying that Faith, having always been a loner and not that popular, uses this term with Buffy to hide her own insecurity about her tenuous friendship with the other girl. Aww...

Also the Fuffy in me thinks its also a subliminan thing. Say it to Buffy enough times and she might realise Faith's true feelings...🙂


As for liking a particular quirk...I like Faith's accent. 😳

Weird right? It's just that most of the American characters on the show have fairly generic California accent and Faith's stands out as nice and earthy. Sort of working class.
(It helps that Eliza has a very sexy voice!)

Honestly I get a little kick when her Boston accent flattens those 'O's...aboot. 😛

I'll have a stab at Wesley or Angel a bit later- they have a couple of things about them that I don't really care for.

 

[brinkster130]

I thought Riley could have broke the news about getting hitched in a better way. Showing up and being really friendly with your ex only to surprise her with the presence of your new wife wasn't the smoothest.

I really appreciate Riley's flexibility and ability to adapt. Over the short period of time that we saw Riley, he had almost every aspect of his life (and beliefs) challenged; and for the most part he really handled that well.

 

[MarlieTheSlayer]

I hate how Buffy always cut herself off from everyone. I can understand why, but it really annoys me sometimes.

Not really a secret, but I like that she has strong morals.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

Okay, I'll start. I find people who use the term 'girlfriend' as a term of familiarity really irritating, and Faith uses it quite a few times in S3. 'Hey girlfrined, what's up?' *Urgh*
It always seems fake friendly to me, like its trying to denote intimacy that really isn't there. 🙁
I explain this away by saying that Faith, having always been a loner and not that popular, uses this term with Buffy to hide her own insecurity about her tenuous friendship with the other girl. Aww...
Also the Fuffy in me thinks its also a subliminan thing. Say it to Buffy enough times and she might realise Faith's true feelings...🙂
As for liking a particular quirk...I like Faith's accent. 😳
Weird right? It's just that most of the American characters on the show have fairly generic California accent and Faith's stands out as nice and earthy. Sort of working class.
(It helps that Eliza has a very sexy voice!)
Honestly I get a little kick when her Boston accent flattens those 'O's...aboot. 😛.

Yea Faith saying girlfriend is a little awkward, but I think that was just a 90's thing. I like your theory that maybe she says it subconsciously because of her feelings for Buffy. She says it cuz she wants it to be true maybe. lol. And yes her (Eliza's) accent is great. I always listen for the aboot. lol. It's so cute 🙂 Other than that, I don't think there's anything I dislike about Faith. She's my favorite for a reason. lol.

Xander's not my favorite character but sometimes I dislike his humor. At times it feels a little out of place and inappropriate. Not to mention his hate for Angel, that's annoying.

 

[Lyri]

I don't like Buffy's stubbornness. A lot of the time, she gets an idea into her head, and that's it, that's how it's going to go down. Prime example being 'Empty Places'. As much as I hated watching the gang turn against Buffy and Dawn asking her to leave, they did have a point in that it was a stupid thing for them to go back to the Vineyard without a better understand of what was going on and a solid plan.

One thing I like about Buffy is that she never lost the ability to laugh. Despite everything that has happened in her life, she can still laugh and find fun in the world.

I'll be back to say something about Connor later - I just have to come up with something that actually sounds like it's coming from a Connor fan, lol.

 

[WillowTaraHolic]

Hmmm...

I'll be back with something about Tara.

I could say MANY things about Willow. But then I'd sound like a hater. I'll be back with that one too. 😛

Buffy in season 7 was very annoying. Way too... depressing. She sorta aged in personality WAY too much over the few months between s6 and s7. We kinda lost her funny quips and entertaining personality. I think if s1 Buffy saw a glimpse of what she would become, she would say 'No way is that ever going to happen to me!'.

 

[EVIL UU]

I dislike Buffy's trust issues, 'cause that's what it has to be, right? She keeps on lying to her friends - about Angel/Spike being back in Sunnydale, about her afterlife, about Dawn. Why? I don't understand it, I don't wanna understand it and she has gross emotional problems. And the whole Spike's the only one who has my back bullshit, I can't stand it. I mean, there are two people who dragged her dead back back from the grave and fought next to her for seven years and counting but I guess that's not good enough. What's her damage?!

I like Buffy's dance moves, I mean, damn, this chick can dance! Is it less than obvious enough? OK, onto Willow...

I dislike Willow's insecurity. Actually, I hate it and yeah I get why she's so insecure but as the seasons go by it gets more and more irritating. It's like she's insecure about her everything, her body, her fashion choices, her hacking skills, her magic, her...you get the point. It's completely insane! Willow, you are hot, you clothes are OK, you can hack into almost everything and program a freaking android and curse a vampire and hurt a god and resurrect a person. You're awesome so just...just WOMAN UP already! Geez.

Saying that, I like Willow's, it's not childishness you know but this sort of child-like quality, like there's always a kid, in the best sense of the word, inside her with all of the assorted curiosity and sensitivity. There's a scene in "Inca Mummy Girl" that sort of illustrates it very well. Willow tries to grab some cheese and topples the Eiffel Cheese Tower in the process. Look at her face. Or take "Chosen". She's quite possibly the most powerful human ever who just cast one of the most powerful spells ever quite possibly altering the future of the entire human race. Her reaction? Ha! That was nifty. I love it.

 

[Blaze]

I'm trying real hard to think of something, but truth is I usually like a character for their faults, I need to think about it some more.

 

[thetopher]

Wesley:

I guess I dislike thae fact that, even though his Watcher instincts should've been deep-sixed long ago, Wesley still keeps relying on them. And they are the things that tend to screw things up for him.
He never really made a right call as Watcher, not with Buffy, not with Faith, not with anybody really. And their not as deeply ingrained as Giles are- he's a lot younger and a lot more inexperienced, which means that Wesley should be more flexible in his thinking, not less.

He did more good when he started thinking like 'the knowledge guy who helps Angel, and who gets things done his own way' rather than as a former Watcher.

The whole mess with Connor was his fault precisely because Wesley fell back on his outmoded Watcher training- being secretive/need to know, sacrifice for the greater good and all that crap.
The guy should believe in himself and his own abilities, not the insticts drilled into him by a bunch of archaic stuffed shirts he was clearly better off without.

And I like the guy because he never, ever catches a break.
I never thought that Wesley was truly happy on the show (except for that brief moment in S5 when he was with Fred and was unaware of what he did to Connor), during the course of Angel he loses his friends, he betrayed the only guy who really gave him a break, and he dies knowing that he never will be happy again. He dies knowing that Fred is dead, and that her soul has been destroyed along with everything else when Illyria was born. (no seeing her in the sweet hereafter)

I always like and root for characters who never really catch a break, who never get the girl, who try and do right but screw up or always get screwed over. I tend to like them even when they don't like themselves.
I suppose that's why I like characters such as Faith or Angel and don't particularly care for characters who screw up all on their own (Xander) or who are pretty full of themselves. (name rhymes with bike. 😉)

 

[FlowerPower]

Willow is my favorite BtVS character and Wesley is my favorite AtS character.

I love how Wesley is organized and professional about mystery-solving and evil-fighting. He operates like a *real* detective. He rigorously kept diaries and notes and files on everyone, whether as a Stuffy Watcher or a Real Rogue Demon Hunter. He segregates and preserves evidence in baggies, charts courses on maps, IMO, got Angel to carry around a cell phone and tried to get Buffy to leave the number of a place where she can be contacted if she doesn't have a cell phone, etc. Wesley does the legwork of being a detective since he's more concerned with catching the *right* perp efficiently than how he *looks* doing it.

As for a problem with Wesley, I actually think he usually ranges from fair to out and out wonderful with the women in his life. However, his language choice is pretty sexist. In his banter with Cordelia, Wesley always runs for the bimbo jokes. He can be protectively condescending. Even with other women, he describes other women as "doxies" or "philies". He chooses to base a whole monologue about Angel liking Nina based on how the "ladies" and the "girls in transcription" are the ones who read whether Nina dresses sexy. I get the impression that his upbringing instilled a lot of sexist tripe in him. Usually, Wesley deals with women as the actual facts warrant because Wesley has too keen a mind and lives too much in the moment to just treat women according to outmoded the stereotypes. However, the outmoded stereotypes left an impression.

Willow is such a heroine of mine because she often tries to look at things from the assumed perp's POV. I love her for standing in front of Buffy when Buffy's righteous guns a'blazing to urge her to not be too hard on Chris Epps or for her trying to defend James in IOHEFY for having *some* virtues like intelligence even if he committed a grievous crimes. Or Willow dwelling on the tragedy that the real Ted was actually a genius who had a lot to offer but he went so wrong. When Buffy was berating Debbie for being an abuse victim, I love Willow for holding Debbie and then feeling guilty for her's and Buffy's aggressive posture. "I think we broke her." Creepily, there's also Willow trying to have compassion for Warren building the Aprilbot because loneliness takes a toll. Obviously, Willow goes out on a limb to defend her SO's- her grabbing Giles's lapels with "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO KILL OZ" when he and Buffy are off to the hunt the werewolf or physically getting down her knees to meet Tara at eye level to see if she wants to be taken home while the Scoobies were still mad at Tara for almost killing them. And in all of those cases, Willow went against Buffy or the majority or even the *plot* or some combination of the three because her own sense of justice and compassion motivates her instead of what's popular.

I struggle with finding a negative quality of Willow's. Her obvious flaws are obvious and frequently discussed- her violent temper, her disregard for autonomy. I actually love her for some of her criticized flaws like I love that she breaks Snyder's, Tara's, Giles's, Shelia's, or whoever's arbitrary, bullshit rules. Or I disagree with the criticism frequently- I thought she did her best to help Buffy in every season, even if her best wasn't enough because both girls' problems were too big. It's hard to find a rare criticism of Willow that doesn't sound enabling. To risk that type of enabling, over-soft criticism, I think Willow should speak her mind much more instead of bottling. In a bunch of scenes, it was clear that Willow really wanted to say something but she held back to keep the peace and instead, played a much less productive role in the scene.

For instance in Empty Places, Willow didn't want to go back to the vineyard but I got the vibe that she was *very* uncomfortable with how anti-Buffy the mutiny became. Willow's face showed displeasure with how it all went down. She half-heartedly tried to restrain Kennedy and she ashamedly and nervously recounted what went down to Spike in Touched. IMO, Willow should have spoken her mind more freely because the intervention badly needed someone who shared the mob's concerns about going back to the vineyard who was still pointedly on Buffy's side as a leader. Instead, I felt that Willow's continued her S7 guilt-spiral continue to silence her from playing any role as a leader or Buffy's Skipper.

 

[YummySushiPJs]

I always find it hard to choose an ultimate favourite character although I guess in most ways it's Tara.

Annoying - I honestly can't think of something about her that annoys me. I hate that she's not a main character but that's not a character flaw. I guess I liked her blonde zig-zag season 4 hair better than the darker blonde of season 5 and 6. Does that count? And I don't like how she doesn't take sides during Willow and Anya's argument in Triangle (though IMO Anya was in the right so it would probably be out of character for Tara - still quite shy at this stage - not to defend Willow).

Something nice I like about her. It's not mentioned much but I love the hints that she has some kind of spiritual-psychic-specialness to her. It is mentioned in one episode she can tell fortunes - she wants to do it in the Magic Box (though nothing ever comes of this). She is the one who foreshadows Dawn's arrival in Restless, albeit in a dream and it's not really her. But the fact that out of all the people, Tara was used, must have significance. She can see auras and immediately notices Buffy is not Buffy (when Faith is in her body). Glory makes a comment about Tara having an exceptional mind after she brain-eats her, which is something that doesn't usually impress her. And of course Tara foreshadows Giles killing Ben.

 

[Evil Angelus 95]

I literally can't stand how selfish Willow is at times. It definitely makes her human, but still 🙁

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Great thread idea!

Okay, take your favourite character and tell the rest of us something about that character that really irritates you, or at least that you could really do without, and would get rid of if you could. (Nobody's perfect after all).

Also mention something you really like about them that might be less than obvious, even if it would seem strange to somebody else.

Spike.

I hate how weak Spike is when it comes to love. When he falls for someone (say, Buffy) he allows that person to completely consume him, losing his identity in the process. I used to think that was romantic, but now I see how dysfunctional it is, and how much it says about Spike's insecurities.

I love how much Spike respects and admires strong women. He calls Buffy his "hero", and a lot of the reason he is so attracted to her is because of her intelligence and talent.

 

[janas]

Angel? Why do you think you don't deserve love and forgiveness? Ok I understand, the Angelus thing and blah blah blah .. But now enough with the past. You're not him.

Buffy? My hero, sometimes you're so stubborn that... you make me really angry. I know you're the Chosen One, and the weight of the world is all about you, and I know that you have the slayer instinct that guides you, but you're not invincible ...and you're not alone.

Connor? Dear boy, you'll give up too easily, you know? I know you've had a terrible childhood, but now you're a man, and it is time to leave the past behind you, have you inherited this from your daddy? Always believe, never surrender!

 

[Aud]

Buffy's stubbornness. I know she was a hero, and she often felt isolated, but man. Sometimes she just straight up ordered her friends around in a thankless manner. Here I specifically have seasons 6-7 in mind.

I also like Giles (not necessarily my favorite character, although he is one of the few that I consistently liked and who at no point annoyed me beyond belief), but I do sort of wish, for his own sake, that he had been more proactive about seeking out a life for himself apart from the Scoobies and his Watcher duties. I know that this was a recurring theme for the character and may also have meant that Giles would've had less screen time, but for the sanity and well-being of this character, I wish he had been allowed more of an outside life. That being said, there were rare clues that he did, like when the Scoobies found him playing guitar at that coffee shop. That was a wonderful moment.

Angel? Why do you think you don't deserve love and forgiveness? Ok I understand, the Angelus thing and blah blah blah .. But now enough with the past. You're not him.

I agree. I get that the theme for this character is redemption, but enough already! Several of the characters around him go to great lengths to underscore the fact that Angel ≠ Angelus. If Angel is not Angelus, Angel is not culpable for Angelus's actions. The only one who doesn't seem to think so is Angel.

 

[Doppelgang]

I need to figure out who my favorite character is first...

Well, Anya, not my favorite character per se, its probably Buffy, but as noone has done Anya yet:

Her tendency to see things as black and white, its either all good or all bad. Its either Xander wanting to be with her forever, get married, have kids and grow old together, or Xander must hate her guts. She assumes everyone is against her after Hells Bells, taking Xanders side. But she is rushing to a conclusion, seeing things as all bad and against her, just because one thing didn't turn out to be good and go her way.

 

[Taake]

Angel - that tendency you have to make decisions, for others or that greatly effect others... I know you do it with their best interest at heart, but honestly Angel-cakes, it's not your best quality.

One of your better qualities is that you love music. I mean sure, Barry Manilow is not my favorite, but sing it loud and sing it proud man and if you were feel like going to the ballet again I'll gladly tag along, though I'd prefer it if it wasn't haunted.

 

[jom]

wesley is one of my two favorite. i didnt like his obsession with Fred, and yet i wonder if he had not been so obsessed over fred, would his character had had such a powerful impact?.

 

[Mr Trick]

Not sure on my favourite character it might be Willow. Buffy, Spike and Xander are all close too. Also do you mean dislike as in that side of the character was badly written or that the actor over did something? Or is it more of moral thing. With Willow yes her black magic and addiction is a bad act, but I like that storyline because it brings a fresh side of her character out. To me the most boring characters are the ones without flaws, because they just don't feel real. 

wesley is one of my two favorite. i didnt like his obsession with Fred, and yet i wonder if he had not been so obsessed over fred, would his character had had such a powerful impact?.

I personally found his love for Fred very touching🙂

 

[jom]

I personally found his love for Fred very touching🙂

you mean loving somebody that doesnt want you?, that will really screw up your life. Life is short, you cannot blind yourself to one love that doesnt reciprocates while there are many loves around that do reciprocate

 

[Mr Trick]

you mean loving somebody that doesnt want you?, that will really screw up your life. Life is short, you cannot blind yourself to one love that doesnt reciprocates while there are many loves around that do reciprocate

What?! She does love him, thats why they get together? If you mean when she is with Gunn? I have two points on that. First human emotions don't work that simply. If you love someone and you think there is a chance they might love you back you can't just switch your feelings off because they happen to be seeing someone else. Clearly until Fred starts seeing Gunn then Wes believes there is a good chance of a romance. Also, there is a connection between him and Fred even then, and it is possible that she had those kinds of feelings for him even while still being attracted to Gunn. Who knows.