Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Vampire

[Doomed_hero]

I never did get why that kiss caused him to ''vamp out'' since I don't remember that ever happening again.

it wasnt the kiss, he was injured the night before and buffy touched it while they where kissing. I do agree about Spike, I like his character but felt the final season should have had more focus on the core group of characters.

 

[Figs]

Ah, nice, you just started. I too was skeptical of this show and never watched it when it was on, but found myself begrudgingly enjoying it at the point you're at (considering I was practically forced to watch it in the first place). Season 3 was the season that won me over completely, so I'd certainly be interested in hearing your reactions as the season goes on.

I highly recommend adding Angel to your viewing after this season. Originally, S1 of that show ran parallel with S4 of Buffy on the same night (with each Buffy ep airing first), and they feature A LOT of interweaving storylines and character crossovers. Angel really helps expand the universe and complete the experience, imo. Plus, it's damn good. t:

EDIT: ok yay, you were already considering it, and everyone else beat me to it. So I'll just re-iterate: YES DO IT.

So I take it I should watch episode 1 of Season 4 then episode 1 of Angel and so on?

 

[flickchick85]

So I take it I should watch episode 1 of Season 4 then episode 1 of Angel and so on?

Yep.

Just a warning though - Angel follows the same pattern that Buffy did, in that the 1st season was really just a warm-up for things to come. Both shows really needed time to find their identity. Lots more standalone episodes than the later seasons, lots of tonal shifts. But Angel S1 is SOOOO much better than Buffy S1, and there were plenty of crossovers that season too (since they logically wanted to use Buffy's popularity to establish a strong audience for Angel), so it's well worth the watch.

 

[AxlsAppetite]

You should also look at the wikipedia page with the list of episode because there are some instances when there were 2 episodes in a row of each show. That confused the heel out of me when I didn't know.

 

[Marvolo]

Im down to the wire...only 2 episodes left. Damn, I'm gonna miss it. I'm glad I didn't watch Angel with it, tho, cause now I have 5 seasons of that to look forward to. No more Xander, Willow or Buffy (except for a few crossovers) really bumbs me out.

P.S. This is the quickest I've ever watched a series. I watched Supernatural quick, but I had to wait to get the dvds from blockbuster. This I had all at once. I went to fast, and I feel like I've lost something doing it. Almost like I abused the privalidge of having it all there at once. I doubt I'll ever do it again like this. Wish I could have learned this lesson with another series.

 

[O'Haire]

No more Xander, Willow or Buffy (except for a few crossovers) really bumbs me out.

Lots of great character on Angel. So it's all good.

 

[Marvolo]

Watching Xander lose his eye was rough. He gets thrown around, but nothing like that really happens to him. I'm really concerned for these characters in these last two episodes. I already know one death. At least, I think I do unless it was BS that I read by accident. I certainly hope it was. It would be unrealistic for no one to die, but I don't want anyone to.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Thanks for the comments. It's funny originally seeing Boreanas(sp?) on Bones and now seeing him play a vampire.

david looks younger in bones than he did during last half of angel s4/5

 

[flickchick85]

Im down to the wire...only 2 episodes left. Damn, I'm gonna miss it. I'm glad I didn't watch Angel with it, tho, cause now I have 5 seasons of that to look forward to. No more Xander, Willow or Buffy (except for a few crossovers) really bumbs me out.

P.S. This is the quickest I've ever watched a series. I watched Supernatural quick, but I had to wait to get the dvds from blockbuster. This I had all at once. I went to fast, and I feel like I've lost something doing it. Almost like I abused the privalidge of having it all there at once. I doubt I'll ever do it again like this. Wish I could have learned this lesson with another series.

Good Lord, have you slept?! I always thought I was able to tear through TV shows in pretty swift marathons, but you sir have put me to shame.

But don't worry, that feeling of "loss" is perfectly natural no matter how fast you watched the show. And I still envy you for having all that Angel to experience for the first time.

 

[Marvolo]

Good Lord, have you slept?! I always thought I was able to tear through TV shows in pretty swift marathons, but you sir have put me to shame.

But don't worry, that feeling of "loss" is perfectly natural no matter how fast you watched the show. And I still envy you for having all that Angel to experience for the first time.

Sleep? What is this thing you speak of? Lol, I have a lot of spare time at the moment. Back in December I was shot, and I'm out of work recovering from that. I'll be out of work for the better part of the year, so I have a lot of time to do nothing but watch tv and movies and read books when I'm not in physical therapy.

I went and checked my netflix viewing history. I watched this entire series in 3 weeks! I knew i went through it fast, but I didn't realize it was that fast.

 

[flickchick85]

Sleep? What is this thing you speak of? Lol, I have a lot of spare time at the moment. Back in December I was shot, and I'm out of work recovering from that. I'll be out of work for the better part of the year, so I have a lot of time to do nothing but watch tv and movies and read books when I'm not in physical therapy.

Oh my gosh, I'm glad you're alright! How terrifying. Godspeed on your recovery.

3 weeks is still damned impressive. I think it took me about 2 months back in college, and I was pretty much watching it all day on the weekends and every waking minute that I wasn't in class (Homework you say? Pfft, I went to an art school.).

Have you seen Whedon's other non-Buffyverse shows? Those would also be extremely worthwhile time-killers when you're done with Angel. But then, there are a lot of great non-Whedon shows worth checking out, too.

 

[Marvolo]

Oh my gosh, I'm glad you're alright! How terrifying. Godspeed on your recovery.

3 weeks is still damned impressive. I think it took me about 2 months back in college, and I was pretty much watching it all day on the weekends and every waking minute that I wasn't in class (Homework you say? Pfft, I went to an art school.).

Have you seen Whedon's other non-Buffyverse shows? Those would also be extremely worthwhile time-killers when you're done with Angel. But then, there are a lot of great non-Whedon shows worth checking out, too.

Browncoat for life!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

david looks younger in bones than he did during last half of angel s4/5

Yeah, he does. Although I thought it wasn't as bad in season 5. Maybe because he had Spike to contrast with. Angel's sort of built like a tank whereas Spike is lanky.

What caused Boreanaz to gain so much weight, again? A knee injury that prevented him from working out or something?

 

[hopefuldreamer]

Firefly's great, but checkout Dollhouse too if you get a chance. It takes a while to get into, and doesn't have quite the same element of humour - but it gets really good, and there are some great characters in there.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the characters in Angel - both the new ones and the Buffy alums

Spike's soul drama worked fine for me. It only felt a little awkward for having to be condensed into just a few episodes, as opposed to the decades Angel took to work through his guilt.

When Angel got his soul, he had no idea what was happening. It was unheard of at that time, and nothing prepared him for it.

Spike on the other hand knew what to expect because of Angel. And him getting a soul was planned, so he was prepared as he could be for it.

I never did get why that kiss caused him to ''vamp out'' since I don't remember that ever happening again.

Weirdly, when I first saw it I didn't see it as a 'vamp out because I'm turned on' thing.

I thought it was a defense mechanism. He'd given in to his desires, then got a wave of guilt, got angry at himself and lashed out with a 'no, this isn't right, cause THIS is what I am' kind of vamp out.

Probably over complicated that way tho

 

[Marvolo]

Its over.

Thoughts :
Anya deserved better
Great finish to a great series
Spikes sacrifice was perfect. I love that he went out with a smile on his face.

I have seen a lot of series finales but rarely am I this satisfied with one. If not for Anya getting shortchanged I would say it was perfect.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

Thing is, they kind of had to kill someone off. They couldn't do a battle on that epic a scale, against vampires that even Buffy struggled to fight, and have everyone get out okay.

And if it hadn't been Anya, who? Who would have been the more fitting person to die?

You don't touch the original scoobies, killing of Dawn would be too depressing for Buffy, Principal Wood wouldn't have been a big enough death to have the effect, Andrew... Well would any of the scoobies really care?

It kind of logically had to be Anya, as much as I loved her

 

[Havok83]

I loved the twist when Anya became a demon again. I hated that they didnt do more with it and how short it lasted. Her fight with Buffy though was great

 

[hopefuldreamer]

I loved the twist when Anya became a demon again. I hated that they didnt do more with it and how short it lasted. Her fight with Buffy though was great

Yeah I loved that too. I think they did enough with it though. Selfless kind of said everything that needed to be said to wrap it up, and said it very effectively.

Certainly would have been handy to have demon powers in the final episode though!

 

[Marvolo]

Thing is, they kind of had to kill someone off. They couldn't do a battle on that epic a scale, against vampires that even Buffy struggled to fight, and have everyone get out okay.

And if it hadn't been Anya, who? Who would have been the more fitting person to die?

You don't touch the original scoobies, killing of Dawn would be too depressing for Buffy, Principal Wood wouldn't have been a big enough death to have the effect, Andrew... Well would any of the scoobies really care?

It kind of logically had to be Anya, as much as I loved her

That's kind of what made me not like it. She was killed cause she was the only safe but hard hitting choice. Her character was sacrificed essentially to meet a needed quota. Ive known since the beginning Anya and Spike died. I was spoiled long ago. Thing is Spike had a great death. Anya's was just aggravating. It was the way it was done. It felt rushed. Like they didn't have enough time in the episode to give her a proper send off but had to kill someone so they just bumped her off. She was slashed uber quick from behind while fighting along side a character who was cannon fodder at that point and she was left in the rubble under a Bringer. I've seen non essential blink and you'll miss it characters get a better death.

I don't want to seem b*tchy tho. It was an otherwise perfect series finale.

I can't really rank the seasons, but I can say that season 4 was my least favorite.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

That's kind of what made me not like it. She was killed cause she was the only safe but hard hitting choice. Her character was sacrificed essentially to meet a needed quota. Ive known since the beginning Anya and Spike died. I was spoiled long ago. Thing is Spike had a great death. Anya's was just aggravating. It was the way it was done. It felt rushed. Like they didn't have enough time in the episode to give her a proper send off but had to kill someone so they just bumped her off. She was slashed uber quick from behind while fighting along side a character who was cannon fodder at that point and she was left in the rubble under a Bringer. I've seen non essential blink and you'll miss it characters get a better death.

I don't wanna come on as b*tchy tho. It was an otherwise perfect series finale.

No I totally know what you mean, and it's definately the least time they ever spent on a characters death in the series, and kind of didn't have enough time to show anyone but Xander and Andrew even cared.

I think the point was though, that that IS how fast it's all over in battle. That IS how quickly someone can be cut down and people just have to accept that it could happen before they go in - that's why her death wasn't in slow motion with some angelic music in the background or something , and that's why Xander just had to swallow it down and accept it so quickly.

Right after all that action they were all just counting their blessings any of them got out alive

 

[Marvolo]

No I totally know what you mean, and it's definately the least time they ever spent on a characters death in the series, and kind of didn't have enough time to show anyone but Xander and Andrew even cared.

I think the point was though, that that IS how fast it's all over in battle. That IS how quickly someone can be cut down and people just have to accept that it could happen before they go in - that's why her death wasn't in slow motion with some angelic music in the background or something , and that's why Xander just had to swallow it down and accept it so quickly.

Oh I agree. Battle is swift and deadly and it wasn't cliche so it gets points for that. Had it been a two parted I'm sure more time would have been spent on the fallout. And that's what her quick death needed. A moment of solace from the gang. It all felt like a series finale except that. Anyas death felt like a season finale storyline that would pick up next season and show the gang mourning her. The episode could have done with 15 more minutes. Hell 5 minutes more would have worked, but I commend Whedon for pulling it off at all. The whole show could have crashed and burned on more than one occasion but somehow they pulled off a balancing act.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

I haven't read Buffy season 8, mainly because I was so satisfied with the ending. It felt finished. Complete.

 

[ironmaidenrules]

I liked anya's death. Her dying in battle is a wonderful conclusion to her arc. While human she loved, was loved, got dumped then she became a demon but since she learned so much she gave up that power. She died as a moral who cared more for others than herself. She saved lives. And yes it was quick because it was meant to feel real. Think of Sarah Conner chronicles, when the dude from 90210 dies, quick, no time to mourn. Death is rarely announced.

 

[Marvolo]

I'm fine with that but the last 2 minutes felt rushed. It could have done with an extra 5-10 minutes.

 

[Marvolo]

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