Buffy - mixed thoughts

[catscradle]

On a whole I really liked Selfless. I've been waiting for a good Anya episode where she was something more than the comic relief and this episode definately delivered on that.

First off, I don't think the writers have ever all sat down and worked out the character of Anya to maintain any sort of consistancy with her, let alone anything that makes a whole lot of sense. I think Emma Caulfield deserves sole credit for my liking the character so much.

As an 1100 year old demon, there have been many instances throughout the series that she should have known things and been given lines that were instead given to Giles or Willow - that always irked me. What they read about in books, she lived through and experienced. There was so much potential to develop her character and they chose to hand that off to characters they were more comfortable with while they made Anya the but of a joke. She's a demon, not an idiot. She caught the eye of D'Hoffryn, because in her day she was a powerful witch who caught a taste for vengence. It's in no way consistant to give her this background and the role of the series' clown.

Some writers handled her better than others - gave her more of a role. But the standard was to relegate her to B storylines and chuckles.

Moving on to tonight's episode, I agree with a few others that the beginning was a bit shaky and cartoonish, but it soon congeled and became a much more serious episode.

I'm not sure what I make of Medievel Anya's line that people don't like her because she takes things too literally and asks too many questions. You can take that in a few ways. We know she tends to take things too literally in the present because she's not been human very long. That makes sense. But in her first human life? Maybe she was always like that. But it's also possible she did that because no one would bother answering her questions that annoyed them so much. Women weren't suppose to be educated or ask too many questions. If something confused you and no one answered your question - sometime you might be forced to understand it in a literal way.

I don't think that's what the writers intended though, unfortunately.

Though it did occur to me that a vengence demon that took things very literally would make very good vengence demon. The whole "be careful what you wish for" thing. That's what got Spike in his mess, isn't it? His wish was taken to it's very literal conclusion. So maybe Anya was chosen specifically for that reason.

Buffy pissed the hell out of me. I don't want to quite yell "plot convenience" out of her "Anya needs to die" speech, because I think Buffy might come to that conclusion. On the other hand, I hated her speech to Xander about being the law and that Willow was different because she was human. Does Buffy really think it's better if a human causes havoc rather than a demon? 'Cause frankly, I think that the snipers and Ted Bundy's of the world are a hell of a lot scarier than demons. At least the demon has a better reason for what they do. Anyway, Willow tried to end the world. Angel tried to end the world. Anya killed a few frat boys with spider demons. Icky, sure, but not the freaking end of the world. There was nothing to say that Anya was completely insane and beyond reason here - Angel and Willow definately were. And again, end of the world.

Loved Willow in this episode. Everything about her rang true. I do wonder if she had to cut a deal to get D'Hoffryn to go to Anya - despite the fact that a price was paid by Hallie anyway. And D'Hoffryn's mention of the demon that had a poster on the wall of Willow skinning Warren was great *g*

As I mentioned elsewhere, Anya seemed to know she was going to get Buffy's attention some day soon and it seemed as though she knew how it would end, despite the fact that she spoke big and gave Buffy a fair fight. I like how she kept warning Xander to keep out of the way - and I loved that in the end he didn't.

Anya's powers are still a mystery to me. Last season Willow smacked the shit out of her a few times, this season Anya's doing a good job against the Slayer. Odd that. Still, I did enjoy the fight scene. About time Anya got to kick a little ass and look good doing it. And she did look good - even all demon-y looking.

I liked Anya's line to Buffy "Is that one of your pop references I never get?" The venom there was deserved. For too long I think Anya was left to her own devices for understanding the human world. The Scoobies always seemed more annoyed that she didn't understand them rather than taking two second to realize that since she was a demon for 1100yrs, she probably needed a clue or two about human life, idiomatic expressions and so forth. Even Xander acted like it was such a chore to correct her or explain things to her.

The ending with D'Hoffryn was just tragic. Anya looking into his eyes with such pain and asking him to take back those deaths. . . it tore at my heart, and I hope it tore at Buffy's too. Anya knew there that her life was over and there was such a need to make it all stop. Again, I love Emma. She did a great job there.

D'Hoffryn taking Hallie in place of Anya was a sadistic touch that I liked. Anya looked broken - I don't think anything worse could have been done to her - and that shows how much she's grown. She got the life back of the frat boys - and she only wanted that because she lost her taste for death. They didn't mean anything to her. Maybe it salvaged her intergrity a little, but I think Hallie's sacrifice snuffed that out.

I hope there's more on Anya this season - something that shows her building a new life base on self-discovery. It would be a shame if they fell back on her as comic relief.