What If: Anya didn't go to the house party

[nightshade]

In Fear Itself Anya is late and turns up to see thar something is wrong, and gets Giles with a chainsaw, however what if she decided not to go?

We would miss out on the bunny outfit, but what else would have changed?

 

[NotASlayer]

No iconic bunny outfit or Chainsaw Giles? The horror!

The Scoobies might still have managed to get out, though there could well have been more than one death amongst the other partygoers. Xander could still have remembered about the book, but whether that accomplished anything would largely depend on whether Willow could read it.

The Scoobies themselves had managed to regroup and get past their fears, but the place was still sealed up thanks to Gachnar. Willow might have been able to use magic to break down a wall, but her magic was at best only 50/50! Buffy may have had the strength to break down a wooden wall, if she had tried, and she might have broken the symbol of her own accord, once she knew what it was. Or just because it was an occult symbol, given what was going on.

Gachnar, once manifested was, um, less than impressive; the issue was a lack of knowledge. The book had the knowledge they needed, but if they could not read it, it would not have helped.

 

[November]

Willow would have floated something to use as a battering ram to get out of the house. Either that or accidently killed everyone with it.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Please, Willow uses the force witch signals to contact Giles.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Honestly, I don’t even want to think about that! Anya being afraid of bunnies, and choosing that as a costume because she thinks it’s “scary”, is one of the funniest jokes in the series.

But in all seriousness, isn’t it Anya who alerts Giles that they need help? Sure, we can theorize that Willow would have found another way to get them out of there, but there’s no guarantee of that.

 

[NotASlayer]

But in all seriousness, isn’t it Anya who alerts Giles that they need help?

Yes, and she knew the sort of thing it was and who to go to to find help to fix it.. Neither the first nor the last time her knowledge had proven useful to invaluable to the Scoobies.

On a meta level, I am positive ASH himself is smirking in a "Sometimes I love my job" way as he gets to make a door.