What was the general experience like for you? Did you watch with friends, or alone? Did you spend time reading info in magazines and watching promos, anticipating the next episode? Were you involved in online fandom at that time? (Can't remember how long BB has been around)
I started watching, but not properly, in season 2 but it wasn't till season 3 when Angel came back that the show got me hooked so I watched weekly from season 3 on. I watched season 3 and 4 on Irish TV but we were like a season behind, so season 5 was on an English channel at the same time.
I watched The Gift in a friends house without having seen any of season 5 (or I think I'd seen the first few episodes I can't remember)
I'd bough season 1 on DVD and gotten caught up, then I bought season 3 then 2 over the summer before season 6 started (I'd seen all of 3, but only like 1/4 of 2)
My best friends mom bought the Angel VHS box sets and we'd all watch Angel together, and we got Sky over that summer as well, so I started watching both Buffy and Angel on English TV for seasons 6 and 7
I wasn't really a member of online fandom, I used to visit the old Buffy Site, which I can't really remember except that had a Buffy animated Gif, it was very dark and one of the icons was a chalice. I only really started using the internet during season 6 but it was mostly spoiler hunting and reading stuff about the show, not actually interacting with other fans. My first fandom thing was taking part in a Buffy RPGs in a chatroom that I think was part of the offical site, but I can't remember now, and I think I started that during season 7.
Before that I used to buy the Buffy magazine from Forbidden planet, and Sky used to have a spoiler hotline you could ring select a show and it would give you information about upcoming episodes. The first time I used that was right after the season 5 finale (I used it in secret and never told my parents as it was a premium charge per minuet) I also remember downloading video clips on Once More With Feeling right after it aired in the states but hadn't here, and we only had dial up internet, as broadband wasn't available in most of Ireland, so you used to be charged for the amount of data you downloaded, so I can only imagine I cost my parents a load of money on internet bills.
I used to get promo clips from the internet and synopsis of the next episode from Teletext, you could check up to 1 week ahead only, you the moment an episode of Buffy finished at 9pm you could go to 1 week ahead and check what the next episode was about.
What plot twists and character changes were most surprising/shocking to you? How did you feel about Angel returning in season 3, Joyce's death, the resurrection of Darla in Angel season 1 etc? Which episodes/scenes/events moved you?
The best plot twist for me was Angel coming back, I knew he'd died at the end of season 2, but it wasn't till he fell from the sky that I really wanted to know why he was back and how he was back.
Joyce's death I ruined for myself as I watched The Gift before seeing most of season 5, same thing with Dawn, a friend of mine explained that they added a sister to the show (before the explanation was out) and we all thought it was some stupid just drop her in and pretend she was always there.
I watched season 1 of Angel before I saw season 1 of buffy, so Darla was more of a shock when I watched Buffy season 1
My favourite kinda twist was when Kendra showed up, and the explanation for her made perfect logical sense, the idea of a slayer dying and another being called just seemed so simple a story but made perfect sense, I loved the mythology behind it, that was my first mythology moment, where I realised I loved back story and a larger story behind just the weekly episodes.
Were there things you didn't get at the time of airing? Things you spent time speculating on? Like who was Dawn, what was the First's plan, what Darla would give birth to, where the heck is Pylea etc?
Dawn was the biggest one, even having watched The Gift before most of season 5, I didn't fully get Dawns story, so her story was still interesting as it unfolded.
I remember hearing about Willow being the big bad for season 6 before it started airing (from the spoiler hotline) so I spent all of season 6 wondering how that was going to happening. A lot of time reading online about Buffy coming back, how it would happen, everyone online from what I remember had figured it would be Willow and magic that brought her back. I remember joining Angelfire(?) or yahoo groups about Buffy to read other peoples theories but didn't post.
I didn't know about message boards properly, and I remember hearing about them a lot but not knowing what they were so I eventually googled them, found out what they were and then in the same night googling Buffy and message boards, this was the first one that came up and I joined
What did you think of the finales of both shows at the time of original airing?
The Gift had me gob smacked, I went on a year of wanting to know as much as possible, so read every spoiler and rang the spoiler hotline all through season 6, by the time season 6 finished I realised I didn't enjoy the series as much, and thought maybe it was cuz I knew everything before it happened, so then avoided spoilers for season 7.
The season 6 finale I liked becasue I loved Willow and though her going dark was amazing.
The season 7 finale was weird, cuz I really thought they'd kill Buffy again, and I remember not believing it was over when it finished.
One last miscellaneous question: when Spike got his soul back in Grave, did you think that was his intention or that he was really seeking to have his chip removed/deactivated but the demon have his soul instead? Was this a deliberate mislead by the writers? Were there other misleads that took you by surprise?
All during the lead up I though he was going to get his soul out, but when it happened I got that it was just a mislead, I didn't think he'd been tricked, I thought it was what he wanted but we (the audience) had been mislead. I didn't know people thought Spike was tricked into getting his soul till I joined here.
I can't think of any other misleads, but I think the most shocking thing over all the series was Freds death, I didn't think she'd die, or I thought they'd get her back, same with Tara.