History Headscratchers / BuffyVerse

* Is very common for writers to use the same ideas many times. Of course, if the writer is talented we don't notice. Orwell, Garcia Marquez, Twain, Tolkien, they all said more or less the same stories several times. Whedon is not exception, you can see same tropes in his work use many times over; for example his obsession with the Apocalypse; in Buffy and Angel they face apocalyptic treats at least once by season, CabinInTheWoods is also about the EndOfTheWorld, Firefly happens AfterTheEnd and Dollhouse also has an apocalyptic motif at the end of the series. Also (and I guess this is because he is liberal) the EvilCorporation trope, the heroes fighting very powerful and evil corporations like the Rossum Corporation in Dollhouse, Wolfram and Hart in Angel and even when some Libertarians and Conservatives seem Firefly as an anti-big government manifesto, truth is the Alliance seem pretty Conservative with rich people at the top of the social system and a government that clearly protect their interest and not the common people’s (not to mention the Blue Sun Corporation). So, the warrior girl trope is just another trope that he uses a lot. Although I do agree he is also doing it out of idealism promoting women's empowerment.

I know Angel took the idea explored in Buffy about some social demons that are not evil ''per se'' and are able to live peacefully among humans (especially in season four), and that was an interesting idea that took away the extreme BlackAndWhiteMorality of the firsts season, but then Angel made a flanderization of the issue creating a more Franchise/XMen-vibe with demons as a persecuted minority and with some areas looking more like Series/BabylonFive. \\\

** The point was Spike was already falling for Buffy without realising it and Drusilla picked up on it since she's psychic and left him.

** What I want to know is why the Gypsies never told Angel about the CurseEscapeClause. When you think about their agenda of making Angel Suffer, it actually works in their favor: First, now Angel would know that if he ever experiences happiness, he become souless again, which would make definitely make him suffer more, and secondly, it would have saved many more lives, because he would have been even less likely to become Angelus ever again. I mean, I know they were only interested in Revenge, but it would has really worked in everyone's best interest, not just Angel.

*** Because, she'd only be pushed off the edge to kill herself if she had a soul, and if she had a soul she'd be essentially a good person, or at least human enough that her dying would be bad. It'd be like killing Angel or ensouled Spike out of cold blood.

*** Liam is not a "dominant half," and while I'm at it I want to express my dissatisfaction with the way that Angel portrayed Liam, Angel and Angelus as separate personalities. Liam was your basic {{Jerkass}}; Angelus was Liam sans humanity with a superdose of serious evil. Angel is a product of CharacterDevelopment. Being granted a soul didn't transform Angelus into, well, an [[IncrediblyLamePun angel]]. Angel is souled!Angelus after the extensive time and angst that went into sorting his unlife out. Angelus is undead and held back only by a conscience.

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* So Oz's little cousin Jordy -- who was no more than 4-7 months old when he bit Oz, since his baby teeth were just coming in -- is a werewolf. Who can spread lycanthropy in human form. And his parents already knew. Knowing that a lot of this explanation falls under BaitAndSwitch RuleOfFunny (since up until Oz's reveal Lenny was set up to be the werewolf), a few questions still pop up from this:
** First of all, ''how''? How did a ''baby'' get bitten by a werewolf and survive, unless one of the parents a carrier for werewolfism? (Then again, if the family lives in Sunnydale, that might by enough of an explanation...)
** Why didn't the family tell Oz this was a possibility after he was bitten? Even if they don't regard it as a big deal, it probably should have come up before Oz asked. Unless they didn't know Jordy could spread it in human form.

* So Oz's little cousin Jordy -- who can be no more than 4-7 months, since his baby teeth were just coming in -- is a werewolf. Who can spread lycanthropy in human form. And his parents already knew. Knowing that a lot of this explanation falls under BaitAndSwitch RuleOfFunny (since up until Oz's reveal Lenny was set up to be the werewolf), a few questions still pop up from this:

*** See - All the comments from before season 4 that allude to Willow being gay, it wasn't foreshadowing, or Buffy's "FunnyAneurysmMoment" just because Joyce died from one doesn't mean that when the line was written they were planning on killing her off then, until a future writer takes off with one of these things they're just throw away lines or basic plot points that were in the story for no other reason than the characters needed to do something.

*** You know, there comes a point where you're just going to have to repeat the MST3KMantra or at least just settle for grumbling how it sucks. Your mind apparently isn't going to change no matter what anyone says, and it seems to me like you've moved from a valid Headscratchers to just being willfully stubborn. Lots of people don't keep up with ''any'' of that stuff and I think you're overestimating how important any of it is to two small-town kids who aren't specifically into those things (I was into comics in the TheNineties, I had friends who were even more into them, and I've never even ''heard'' of Creator/ValiantComics ...oh, so Wiki/TheOtherWiki says they're the Turok/Shadowman publishers. That's still incredibly obscure compared to Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Wildstorm and so on). Not ''every'' teenager is into the latest pop-cultural trends. Some are oblivious to them. Willow and Xander are most likely making ''Star Wars'' references because they liked the movies as ''children'', not because they're particularly immersed in the sci-fi genre as teenagers. If that explanation doesn't work for you, then I don't know what else you're looking for, apart from other people saying "yeah it sucks". Other people are conceding that there's a Doylist reason behind it, but you're not willing to give a single Watsonian inch, so there doesn't seem to be much point to the discussion.

For Headscratchers entries about slayer rules, [[Headscratchers/BuffyverseSlayers click here]].