All posts by Ellesy

For the same reason Anya is an ex-demon and not a "demoness" and Buffy is a vampire hunter and not a "huntress." I believe it's because some gendered words don't have the same impact, they tend to drive attention more to the gender of the character than to their power. Like with Dawn always correcting Xander about being a "centaurette" instead of a centaur in season 8: he talked about her mythical nature, but she insisted she was still a girl. Or like when an interviewer asks someone about being a "female writer" or a "female comedian" etc. instead of about their job overall.

It seems like you just began season 5 and, as you should, got confused with the episode "Real Me." Just keep watching and it will be all explained.

The film came out in 1992, and the series came out in 1997. The story of the film takes place before the series, so the series would be the "sequel." Some changes were made when the series came out, such as:

• Buffy is a high school sophomore instead of a senior;

• vampires no longer give Slayers cramps when in close proximity;

• Slayers no longer have a distinctive birthmark;

• Watchers do not live hundreds of years nor train Slayers for many lives.

Since the Buffyverse Wiki has the series as the ultimate canon source, the film is considered non-canon because it contradicts the series in a lot of ways. The overall story in the film, however, is mostly considered canon, because the series mentions Buffy burning down the school gym in Los Angeles. You can see the canonical version of the film in the comic miniseries The Origin.

For a brief time in the episode "Crush"! Drusilla even overpower Buffy (who is chained), but Spike quickly throws Dru to the side and she decides to leave.

You may be talking about the Season Eight Motion Comic, which has a very particular style of animating static images from comics. But once upon a time there was a project for Buffy the Animated Series, which had a very fun pilot involving Jeph Loeb and Eric Wight.

There are some great ideas from other abandoned projects, but I'm particular about Anthony Head returning for Ripper as a Giles spin-off. Adapting some of the novels would also be amazing, like a miniseries expanding Tales of the Slayer, a live-action film for Pretty Maids All in a Row, or an animation for Big Bad.

With the exception of the Buffy S3E18 episode "Earshot" (as noted in the list), every airing date reflects its chronological place in the Buffyverse. We have an article that organizes flashback scenes, but I don't believe that's your intention or a good approach for a first viewer.

Really, the airing order is enough for following the chronology, and that's the way both series were intended to interact.

The earlier instance of his tattoo appearing was during the episode "Angel" (1997); he never appears shirtless in any flashback. After it, the tattoo is only ever mentioned to identify Angel as himself, like when Wesley recognizes him in "Through the Looking Glass." So it's really never explained.

But the tattoo also appears in the comic Blood & Trenches #1: Over There, that takes place during World War I. The story was was never confirmed as canon, but here's what it says:

Nurse: "Oh, what an interesting tattoo. What does it mean?"

Angel: "I... don't really know. I got drunk one night, and the next morning, there it was."

But, of course, Angel might also be lying...

There are some unreleased productions indeed!

These eventually got around the internet:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot

• Angel pitch tape

• Buffy the Animated Series pilot

• and the RPG books Investigator's Casebook, Encyclopedia Demonica, Military Monster Squad, Welcome to Sunnydale, and Tea & Crossbow

Some are only available in part:

• "Corrupt" episode (script)

• the book and deck The Slayer's Tarot (nine cards)

• Buffy the Animated Series episodes (titles, unseen script)

• Drusilla: Run and Catch comic miniseries (covers and preview)

And these were simply never made:

• Ripper television series/film

• Faith the Vampire Slayer television series

• Slayer School television series

• Spike film

• Lawyers, Gods, and Money RPG book

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer film reboot

At the top of my head, I can think of the following instances:

1. blood drained in "Prophecy Girl" (only the drowning killed her);

2. sedated in "Out of Mind, Out of Sight";

3. drink spiked in "Reptile Boy";

4. cursed and scared in "Halloween";

5. hit on the head in "The Dark Age";

6. fainting sick in "Killed by Death";

7. sedated in "Killed by Death";

8. smothered with chloroform in "Gingerbread";

9. overwhelmed by mind reading in "Earshot";

10. blood drained in "Graduation Day, Part Two";

11. punched in "This Year's Girl";

12. hitting the head on a rock in "The Yoko Factor";

13. shocked with a cattle prod in "Crush";

14. falling under a spell in "Tabula Rasa";

15. poisoned in "Normal Again";

16. under surgery in "Villains";

17. and buried by rubble in "Bring on the Night."

Buffy became the Slayer because of unknown forces/destiny. Anya became one of the many vengeance demons because D'Hoffryn saw her performing impressive vengeance as a human, and she only lost her powers as a temporary punishment. While I believe Buffy deserves her powers and does the best she can do with them, Anya is questioning if someone else could have been a better Chosen One:

"But we don't know. We don't know if you're actually better. I mean, you came into the world with certain advantages, sure. I mean, that's the legacy. But you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You've never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn't make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us."

Anya puts into question the mysterious way Slayers are chosen, while Anya, who has a very practical mind, only experienced the gain and loss of powers from D'Hoffryn's judgment. It would be a valid question if Anya weren't implying Buffy is a bad leader/Slayer because of it.

Like in real life, "god" does not have a clear definition in the Buffyverse. A member of any species can be considered a god or even become one. Some examples are:

• Glory was a god sharing the body of a mortal human ("Spiral");

• Olaf, transformed into a troll, was called the trollgod ("The Gift");

• Cordelia was a half-demon when she ascended ("Tomorrow");

• Illyria, an Old One, was often described as a god ("Time Bomb");

• Dawn was a human when her "god-like" Key powers were worshiped (In Pieces on the Ground, Part Five).

Several other names are mentioned in prayers and spells during the series, but no other information about these deities is ever described. Some of them are borrowed from real religions (mostly Ancient Egyptian Greek), and, as such, the Buffyverse does not attempt to answer theological questions (heaven, hell, soul are all vague concepts). Therefore, the Buffyverse allows every level of abstraction to be real when asking the question: "What is a god?"

Wikipedia uses a broad definition applicable to the Buffyverse: "A deity or a god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred." (Encyclopedia of Gender and Society). Despite power often being the reason for worship, the definition says nothing about the level of power.

One observation: when first described, Glory is said to be "not a demon. She's a god." ("Checkpoint"). She's the god of a specific hell dimension, but her origins are unknown. Demon is another broad word that covers several species, but, apparently, it does not apply to Glory.

A second observation: when you say "ancients or higher demons," I believe you are referring to the Old Ones, the powerful demons who dominated the Earth before humans. They are not gods by definition, but they could be worshiped and considered one (Illyria is an example), as any other species could.

It does!

In the comic series Angel: After the Fall, we see the Senior Partners sent Los Angeles and its population to hell as retaliation for Angel's plan. Angel eventually realized that Wolfram & Hart needed him to be alive, so he provoked his own death. To prevent it, the Senior Partners reset time to the point of the final scene of "Not Fade Away." The differences are the Wolfram & Hart building did not exist in L.A. anymore, Team Angel knew how to win the battle this time, and Angel was famous among those who witnessed the fall of Los Angeles.

I believe you mean what happened to Spike in the episode "Grave," when the demon returns his soul, and how Spike described the event to Buffy in "Beneath You":

Spike: "I tried to find it, of course. [...] The spark. The missing... the piece that fit. That would make me fit. Because you didn't want... [...] I dreamed of killing you. Did you make me weak, thinking of you, holding myself, and spilling useless buckets of salt over your... ending? Angel — he should've warned me. He makes a good show of forgetting, but it's here, in me, all the time. The spark. I wanted to give you what you deserve, and I got it. They put the spark in me and now all it does is burn."

Buffy: "Your soul. [...] You got your soul back. How? [...] Why? Why would you do that—"

Spike: "Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn't? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would never— To be a kind of man."

Spike goes after his soul and he regains it; that's all. Everything else is his interpretation of having a soul and his explanation for going after it. Buffy made him a "weak" vampire because her influence made him care for others, so he wanted to fit with Buffy being more like a man (with a conscience) and less like a monster (evil and selfless), which he knew Angel achieved by having a soul. Spike now has a soul, but, like Angel, he's still just a vampire.

The cheerleading trophy is seen again in the episode "Doomed," when the Scoobies visit the ruins of Sunnydale High for the first time. It's apparently intact, just fallen on the floor.

On an interesting note, the shooting script for the episode reveals the deleted scene:

"Willow nods. Makes a face. Steps on another piece of debris. It's a cheerleading trophy, black with smoke-damage. In fact — it's Amy's mother. Still entombed, her eyes dart desperately as Willow's foot comes crashing down on her. After Willow moves off, Amy's mom glares at her despite her impotence."