Buffy Awards

[cdybedahl]

And the awards go to...

So. After 144 episodes Buffy the Vampire Slayer has come to a close. Which means that it is, of course, time to look back at all of it and give out the awards. Let's see who was the best, what was the coolest, who was the wor... No, on second thought, let's not see who was the worst. Let the bad be consigned to oblivion, and let our memories be filled with that which we liked. We're "we" really means "I", since it is I who write this.

Best Season

Let's begin with the big picture. Which season was the most enjoyable?

Third Place: Season Seven

After a year and a half of solid gloom, season 7 came as a breath of fresh air. Also, it was painfully obvious that Joss Whedon again paid attention to the series, after having spent most of the year before on Firefly.

Second place: Season Four

Not the most even of seasons, but its high points were high indeed. And it had the beginnings of Willow's relationship with Tara. Plus, at the very end it started to look a bit closer at what the Slayer actually was

First Place: Season Three

None of the series' highest points are in this season, but it keeps a very high average goodness. It introduces Faith. It has the vampire version of Willow. It introduces Anya. It's got Giles and Joyce boinking. It has, in short, got it all.

Best Big Bad

Each season had a Big Bad, a main villain for Buffy and the Scoobies to overcome. These villains varied a lot in quality and spookiness. None of them were dull, exactly, but some definitely were better than others.

Third Place: The First

The Big Bad of the seventh season first appeared in the third-season episode Amends, where it pestered Angel. It was the primal evil, the sum total of everything bad and hurtful in the world. Appearing in the form of deceased people from the other characters' backgrounds, it occasionally managed to be really spooky.

Second Place: Angelus

When Angel lost his soul, he reverted to his old, bad vampire self. And what a self that was. Cruel just for the fun of it and very inventively nasty to Buffy and her friends, he was easily the most entertaining of the Big Bads. Unfortunately, he was only around for about half a season and he had to share the limelight with the then nasty Spike and the deliciously deranged Drusilla, so he has to cede the top spot to...

First Place: Mayor Richard Wilkins III

The mayor and, as it turned out, the founder of Sunnydale was the Big Bad of season three. Combining the manner of an all-american family-father with ruthless megalomania, he was possibly the freakiest and definitely the most entertaining of the Big Bads. That he seemed to genuinely care for and in a fatherly way love Faith only made him worse, somehow.

Best Non-Main Character

Over the years, many characters came and went. Some of them we forgot almost before they left the screen. Some of them left long-lasting impressions. And the line between main character and often occuring non-main is a bit vague.

Sixth Place: Kendra the Vampire Slayer

I don't hug!

Beautiful, dedicated and appearing in far too few episodes. She was badly overshadowed by Faith, but the first Second Slayer clearly deserves a place in this list.

Fifth Place: Willy the Snitch

Has either of you girls considered modeling?

I always hoped there would be an episode that gave us a little of Willy's background. I mean, how do you end up running a bar for demons and other beings of that ilk?

Fourth Place: Jenny Calendar

That's not where I dangle it.

Sexy, smart and interesting. She made a very good partner for Giles. Her death was the first in the series that really made an impact.

Third Place: The Buffybot

It wasn't one time. It was lots of times. And lots of
different ways. I could make sketches.

Buffy's perky and slightly deranged electronic twin amused us in several episodes before she came to a strangely affecting end in early season six.

Second Place: Ethan Rayne

I really got to learn to just do the damage and get out of
town. It's the "stay and gloat" that gets me every time.

Every time he showed up, we knew that it'd be a fun episode. And I remain convinced that he and Giles used to be lovers. There's no way Giles could be that pissed off with him otherwise.

First Place: Vampire Willow

In my world there are people in chains, and we can ride them like ponies.

Do I really have to explain? All the cute, sexy and smart of Willow with absolutely no inhibitions whatsoever. Only minutes after she's been dragged into an alternate reality she's well on her way to taking the place over.

Best Episode

Many episodes were better than others, but only a few were a lot better than the rest.

Sixth Place: Storyteller

This seventh-season episode elegantly showed off many of the things that made Buffy such a great series. It had quirky humor, entertaining use of language and deep drama. All in forty-two minutes.

Fifth Place: Doppelgangland

Even if you try to disregard the presence of VampWillow, this episode is just plain a lot of fun.

Fourth Place: Hush

The first of Joss' really experimental episodes. More than half the episode has no spoken dialogue at all. It succeeds wonderfully at squeezing an entire horror movie into less than an hour. Plus, it introduces Tara.

Third Place: Once More, With Feeling

The third of Joss' experiments has the cast singing and dancing all through the episode. Wildly entertaining, and with suprisingly good music. I've listened to it so many times I know long stretches by heart...

First Place: The Body

No, I didn't miscount. I really think The Body is that much better than the next best. The other episodes on this list are very, very good, but this one is absolutely amazing. The writing is first-class, all of the actors are having really good days, the directing and photo is awesome, everything in it just clicks. The episode is so good that watching it hurts.

Best Rant

Occasionally, we got these outbursts from some character or another...

Third Place: Buffy, in Checkpoint

You're Watchers. Without a Slayer, you're pretty much just watchin' Masterpiece Theater. You can't stop Glory. You can't do anything with the information you have except maybe publish it in the "Everyone Thinks We're Insane-O's Home Journal." So here's how it's gonna work. You're gonna tell me everything you know. Then you're gonna go away.

Second Place: Spike, in Lover's Walk

You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood... blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.

First Place: Anya, in The Body

I don't understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she's, there's just a body, and I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead anymore. It's stupid. It's mortal and stupid. And, and Xander's crying and not talking, and, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch ever, and she'll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why.

Comments

[archbishopm.livejournal.com]

Upon rewatching, surprisingly (to me), my favourite seasons are (3) Season Three, (2) Season Two, (1) Season Five. The surprising thing being that I rate season two higher than season three. On first watching I thought season three was clearly superior. But on second viewing season two has an impressive coherence about it that season three (IMO) lacks. Season five will always reign supreme, because, dude, sexbots.

My top six episodes? (because you had six. Although actually you didn't)

6. Becoming Part 2
5. Doppelgangland
4. The Zeppo
3. Once More, With Feeling
2. Restless
1. Fool For Love

I suspect I would probably be able to rate "The Body" higher if I could ever psyche myself up enough to watch it again. Everyone says it's brilliant. I watched it once and was just too traumatized to be able to contemplate its artistic merits, and I've never been able to bring myself to watch it again. Whereas strangely I have been able to rewatch "Seeing Red" a couple of times even though my eyes are now Pavlovianly trained to start tearing up at the opening scene. Pavlovianly? Um...

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I'm far too fickle to choose 'best of's for anything so well done to those who can. No comments in there that I would disagree with, although I do have a bit of a thing for 'The Wish' too.

And if we were doing 'Angel' then I'd have to think about giving Best Guest Character to Repo-Man.

Gina