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8
9[[WMG: Wishverse Willow was sired by Xander, who was sired by Jesse.]]
10In the main Buffyverse, Willow only gets picked up by that vampire due to Buffy's encouragement. Lacking that, only Jesse would have been picked up. Due to this, it is likely that Xander was turned by him, his best friend. Wherever Jesse is doesn't matter. Xander, however, clearly didn't just turn Willow. Her entire personality is different, which doesn't normally happen for vamps, not at their core. Liam was an asshole, Angelus was a major asshole. William was a hopeless romantic, Spike was a violent hopeless romantic. Drusilla was crazy, and just became crazy with a side of bloodlust after being turned. Even vamp Xander just seems to be Xander with the asshole part of him isolated and magnified. Instead, I believe he did much the same thing Angelus did with Dru. I believe that he killed her family, tormented her and broke her before turning her.
11* ''Cree-pee.'' The scary thing is this makes a certain amount of sense. But what I'm wondering is how Angelus became the way he was. He was sired by Darla. What did she do to him to make him undoubtedly the evilest, most sadistic BigBad?
12** The personality of a vampire is based on the human's at the time of siring. All of their sense of right and wrong is stripped away and their negative emotions are cranked up a bit. Every time we saw Liam (pre-turning Angelus) he was a drunken, rude, violent, disrespectful asshole douchebag ancient equivalent to a frat boy. So, he had what little morals he had stripped away, and because his only interest even before he was a vampire was himself, he became a violent, self-serving asshole who used people much like he did in life. Basically, Angelus became so evil because he was already a violent, self-serving heartless bastard in life who only loved himself. Or, to sum it up, [[Film/TheDarkKnight "Some men just want to watch the world burn."]]
13** That frankly makes it worse. Liam was a dickhead, we could see him becoming the monstrous Angelous. For Willow to fall so far as a vampire, or for her to be so completely off when she became a vampire...[[FanNickname Dork Willow]] wasn't as bad. At least she had a more altruistic motives (revenge, then stop the world from suffering). Vamp! Willow just wanted to hurt people.
14*** Vengeance is not an altruistic motive.
15*** Not really, Dark!Willow was fuelled by grief...Normal Willow has done some pretty f'ed up stuff by herself - using magic to manipulate her friends and Tara, arguing with Giles about magic...Arguably the influence of the magic on her, but more likely that she outright corrupts when given power. Take away her moral limitations by vamping her, and she could go very, ''very'' dark.
16*** Plus, the scary thing is is that it's easy to see Xander becoming alot like Angelus. Xander is the only one of them who constantly promoted killing good guys just because of their species, no matter how many times they helped. He's constantly shown that, were he to have power, he'd most likely abuse the hell out of it. He's also the only one to actually try to use mind control to mess with someone's feelings just because he was angry. If any of them could come even close to Angelus, it's him or Giles. Combine his already existing personality with the kind of warping to it caused by being turned and you could easily get Angelus 2.0.
17*** I'd go into detail over this when I put my mind back together, but Willow seems closer to Angelus than Xander. She comes across as lacking Dru's craziness and has the TortureTechnician part down pat. Xander, by your reasoning of being some vampire racist, would be perhaps closer to the way Twilight portrayed himself. Orchastrate a war against the Slayers, put an end to magic, that sort of thing.
18*** Dru seemed to be pretty skilled in the torture department and Willow's mind is clearly not what it was. Xander, in the Wishverse, wouldn't be a vampire racist. The point I was making is that he has shown that he has the potential to be evil even as a human and, baring Ripper, is the most Liam-like of the cast and therefor would be the most Angelus-like of the cast as a vampire (especially if he were sired by Jesse, as he'd be part of the same line as Angelus, all of whom are remarkably different from most vamps). The only reason Willow isn't completely batshit insane is because, even in Season 1, she was stronger willed than pre-vamping, pre-torment Dru (and didn't have psychic visions helping drive her nuttier than a fruitcake).
19*** Liam was an artist at heart, that's why he didn't just murder people. He delighted in torture, mutilation, and worse before finally either killing or siring people. In contrast, Xander is a high schooler whose post-school career path for a time included barkeep. It's probably more likely that Willow sired him - she carried a torch for Xander for years, and vampires often delight in killing/siring people that were emotionally important to them (see: Angelus killing his entire family).
20*** Xander's not a vampire racist in any verse. His reaction to them is pretty sane, considering.
21*** The personality of the vampire is very much the personality of the person... minus their conscience. Therefore the bigger the conscience, the bigger the difference in personality.
22** Having had a fresh look at this, you make a pretty good case. Looking over some of the episodes I have my own theory to add here.
23** The vampire Dalton was cruising the Bronze for chicks to bite anyway. Willow, attention-starved as she was could very well have been just as likely to be swept off her feet by a handsome young man seeingly courting her with or without Buffy's encouragement.
24* Can't agree with this one - Jesse was only turned into a vampire to lure in Buffy after the Master learned that the Slayer was in Sunnydale. Without Buffy being in the picture, there's no reason for Jesse to be upgraded from food to bait.
25* This is based on an incomplete understanding of how a vampire's personality is related to their living one. Liam wasn't just 'an asshole', he was at heart an artist and had a strong conscience, even if he was a drunkard and a layabout. Angelus is Liam with that conscience stripped away...but the artist within remained. This is why he was capable of doing something as horrific as what he did to Drusilla, and consider it his greatest achievement. In contrast, Angel considers it his worst crime, worse than any other murder he committed in 150 years. The whole point of the Vampire Willow we see in The Wish/Doppelgangland is to show us that deep down, Willow is a romantic, playful, fiery person, even confident. We see this Willow most effectively in the Angel episode 'Orpheus'. Doppelgangland is also a massive neon sign pointing to Willow's bisexuality, as in both episodes she has no problems 'playing' with men and women, even her living self.
26
27After five year, less, Buffy cracks. The Slayer cracks under all the crap she's been through. After two years, ''Dead Man's Party,'' it can be said that Xander and Willow crack as well to some degree. Imagine how they would be in the hell that was the Wishverse. They could have been sired by Tara and they'd be just as broken. But relationship wise yours would be the best bet as to who did who.
28* Not sure I buy this. The problem is that considering how completely f*cked the Wishverse was Buffy doesn't seem to have broken so much as adapted. She's still alive, her locations is known well enough that Giles is not only able to find her but summon her on short notice. Which suggests the entire world is so bad that she only came to Sunnydale because she actually had someplace better to be not just she hadn't heard of the place. Buffy didn't crack, that world cracked. As is mentioned in another WMG it's interesting to wonder how all the other villains stacked without Buffy.
29
30[[WMG: Anya purposely acts how she does.]]
31She was able to get into the Cordettes easily and continued to be open about her horniness and greed for years. I think she was doing it on purpose for the lulz.
32* Considering who she was trying to get a wish out of it's possible that her spell made her personality. While there are clearly more Vengence Demons than the two we've met we also know they work all around the world. Vengence Demons probably just learn language and assume the rough appearance and mannerisms of whatever culture they are infiltrating. It's entirely possible, even probable that Anya looks nothing like Aud did and since the only thing that contradicts that are two flashbacks that could easiliy be chalked up an unreliable narrator.
33* Something like this ought to be the case, as a NoSocialSkills honest-to-a-fault being would have a hard time successfully manipulating women into making specific wishes, which was her "job" as a Vengeance demon.
34** Depends on your viewpoint. For an optimist, maybe that makes sense, but to a cynic like myself, it makes perfect sense. The truth often hurts far worse than any lie, and just being blunt and honest can break someone.
35** Remember who she was trying to get in with. Cordelia cared about money and it seems all the Cordettes were upperclass and Cordy considers tact just not saying true stuff. Bluntly honest and knowing money is a perfect personality to ingratiate her to Cordelia
36
37[[WMG: In the future, Willow makes Xander, from birth, almost unkillable.]]
38The main evidence for this is the abuse Xander suffered throughout the show. Olaf's hammer knocks him out yet it's strong enough to beat the shit out of Glory. Unless the guy has something like this going for him there's no way that could work.
39
40[[WMG: Giles HAS been brain damaged throughout the show.]]
41The results of this is the fact that over the course of the show, he becomes more and more Ripper-like, with him [[spoiler:using dark magic to put a force field in around a man's brain using the guy's own book. The guy can break out of any spell in his own book. [[YourHeadAsplode His brain breaks out of his skull]].]]
42
43[[WMG: Buffy/Willow is going to become canon in Season 9.]]
44Mainly going off of stuff in Season 8, Buffy is possibly bi and is hinted to have a crush on Willow, Willow clearly has one on her, and it would piss off Kennedy, something that would make fans everywhere cheer.
45** I think this would be rather unlikely, for the time being. Willow's kind of upset over Buffy's actions at the moment.
46* Oh, and just go through all the crushes in [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer all]] [[Series/{{Angel}} of]] [[Series/{{Firefly}} Joss]] [[WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog Whedon's]] [[{{Series/Dollhouse}} works]]. In them, we have all of four or five non-mutual crushes, one of which still ended up with the crusher and the crushee getting together and may or may not have ended with it being mutual, one that went from non-mutual on one side to non-mutual on the other (Xander and Buffy, in that order, if you're wondering) and one that I'm not too sure about being non-mutual. Add all this up and it's very unlikely for this not to go somewhere.
47* *IF* you consider Buffy bi, wouldn't Buffy/Faith be just as likely, if not more considering the acknowledged subtext way back in Season3? And when did Buffy hint that she liked Willow in *that* sort of way? Maybe this tropette just missed out on it while read the comics?
48** While it was never said outright, when Willow denied ever having a crush on Buffy (Wolves At The Gate: Conclusion, after they got out of the sidewalk turned to water) Buffy acted much the same as Willow was. This was right after Willow grilled Satsu on what Buffy was like in bed, so we know that she is lying. Since Buffy is acting much the same, we can infer that she is lying as well. About Buffy/Faith, while hot, is unlikely since they basically hate each other). About the Satsu thing, well, even if she was lonely, she still enjoyed it. She's at least a bit bi.
49* And one more thing, if Joss did this he'd have a single break up that he could do and shatter the relationships between all of the cast, causing buckets of angst. Joss loves his angst.
50* Nah, gotta say he's going to bring back Tara somehow. Joss will want to use something that makes Conversations With Dead People look about as bad as Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered, especially since Creator/AmberBenson just knew he was going to do something horrible and declined returning.
51** Regarding the Buffy/Faith thing, was it not established in Season 6 that it was less "hate" and more "2 slayers shouldn't exist at the same time, that's why there's friction"? Or did I miss something?
52** Let's see: The time between Faith first being introduced and the beginning of the friction between her and Buffy is a common conversation point. It might be that Faith's personality had always bothered her, just the same there were times where she could have been useful...Beauty and the Beast, Band Candy and Halloween. Some say Faith is being shut out. Then she gets a new watcher, who's evil, finds out Angel is alive, goes to kill him, and fights Buffy. As you can imagine things are strained then.
53*** Then she bangs Xander, which upsets Willow. Buffy tries spending time with Faith after rejecting Wesley as her new watcher but with her robberies and accidental killing it ends in disaster. Turns out Faith is not up to Buffy's moral standards, which the others point out, before Faith tries to pin the killing on her. When Xander tries to reason with her [[MoralEventHorizon she tries to rape and kill him,]] disgusting even Angel. He and Buffy again attempt to get Faith to see sense, before the Council kidnap Faith, sealing the deal as far as working for the good guys is concerned. After saving Buffy from an assassination attempt she goes to work for [[BigBad the Mayor.]] After several incidents showing she is AxCrazy she and Buffy fight one last time, where Buffy stabs her with her own knife. This was over her poisoning Angel, after a bid to get him to lose his soul, and needing Slayer blood to save him, Faith's blood. Knowing this, Faith tosses herself into the back of a passing truck.
54*** Then things get interesting. There's a dream sequence where Faith is civil with Buffy, hinting at how to defeat the Mayor. This, coupled with her saving Buffy from an earlier assassination attempt, hints that she doesn't hate Buffy as such, but hates the way she is treated, and is also pretty jealous. Anyway, Faith wakes up from her coma, haunted by visions of Buffy coming after her and the Mayor, who had become a father figure. She confronts her, they fight, then Faith learns of the Mayor's parting gift for her, a device that swaps her body with Buffy's. She uses it then proceeds to basically be a {{Jerkass}} as Buffy, before feeling the calling of being a Slayer, once when she is genuinely affected at a girl's gratitude after saving her from a vampire, then when she hears about vampires holding a church full of people hostage. She goes to save the day, confronts Buffy, then when their bodies are switched back runs off. When she is whaling on and abusing Buffy in Faith's body she is actually doing this to herself, filled with a great deal of self hatred.
55*** Then there's her rampage in LA and Angel's bid to redeem her. She spends time in prison to get her head together, then Willow, who had recently been a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, goes to her for help. Buffy at this time is acting nasty beyond belief, so when Faith comes in she looks good in comparison. She starts off by trying to kill Spike, not knowing he has a soul now, before wanting to sleep with him. The Slayers in training want Faith over Buffy, then Faith is interested in Robin Wood. So basically Buffy sees Faith as taking Angel, Spike, Wood and her place as Slayer from her.
56*** Cue the comics where Giles hires Faith for an assassination on a rogue Slayer. Going undercover she finds herself becoming friends with this Slayer. When Faith finds out that Giles hired her because Buffy is targeted she is less than pleased. Then when she sees Buffy fighting her friend she snaps, diving for her, the two of them going out a window, into the shallow end of a pool. When Buffy accuses her of trying to kill her Faith snaps again and tries to drown her. Stuff of true romance, that.
57*** Not sure how things go between Buffy and Faith but as I understand it Faith is currently watching over Angel after he was possessed, killed Giles and went catatonic. So now you know.
58** Not season nine but Willow basically confirms she did it with the bot, that Buffy was in. Season ten, on the other hand, is very much leaning towards putting them together. Buffy had dumped Dowling on amicable terms, Kennedy is busy with Faith and Deepscan, and Willow had rejected going back to her Wonderland girlfriends and is getting really romantic with Buffy. Compare and contrast Angel, Riley, Wood and Spike who is currently more preoccupied with the current crisis, and Oz and Tara. Looking at season four Willow is seemingly more interested in a romance with Buffy now than she was even with Tara then, and Buffy seems to be reciprocating. If it doesn't happen a lot of fans will probably be very surprised.
59
60[[WMG: Unseen Nightmares during Nightmares:]]
61(Note: It was implied that all of reality was being affected)
62* Angel: Lost his soul.
63** Unintentionally made a [[NiceJobBreakingItHero mistake that caused the Apocalypse with the evil side winning, torturing and killing all humans]], fulfilling his prophecy and becoming human, but as the only human on Earth.
64** Since I don't think Angel knew he could lose his soul again back then, I think his nightmare would be him becoming evil even ''with'' his soul. Alternatively, his nightmare could have been him never getting redemption.
65* Angelus: [[TooKinkyToTorture Met]] ComicBook/TheJoker.
66** Or met [[TortureTechnician Wishverse Willow]].
67** Regained his soul (the Angel episode "Orpheus" provides some pretty good evidence for this.)
68** [[RunningGag Forced to sing ''Mandy.'']]
69*** [[FateWorseThanDeath Forced to listen to Angel sing ''Mandy.'']]
70* Dawn: Everyone left her.
71** Don't need one for Dawn, she didn't exist yet.
72*** But she was retconned into existing. She has "memories" of Buffy and Angel's relationships. She could very well have memories of whatever went on in seasons before her, although she'd be a lot younger anyways and probably wouldn't have the same damage as later in the show.
73** Saw vampires (for real) and was sent to the asylum with crazy!Buffy.
74** Buffy dies.
75** Her ''mom'' and sister both die, and she's left all alone. (Kids don't often have any real idea of what would happen to them if orphaned in the real world, and she'd probably have read some pretty bad scenarios in books or seen them on TV, but it would be vague and mixed up.)
76* Faith: Her Watcher died (if she had already been found as a Potential)
77* Joyce: Buffy, or in the Post Dawn world, Buffy and Dawn died.
78** Buffy did "die" in this episode, so perhaps too had been affected by this like Giles was or maybe Dawn died too.
79* Wesley: His father came to see him (it was made clear that he hates his father for treating him like shit).
80* Jenny: Angel lost his soul (remember, she was sent to Sunnyhell to make sure this didn't happen).
81** Either that, or she sees Giles die.
82* Caleb: Every human being besides for him became female.
83** [[GenderBender He became female.]]
84* Kendra: She became the Slayer and was awful at it.
85* Spike: Dru died.
86* Dru: Whatever it is it wouldn't make sense.
87** Arguably, Drusilla has a moment of perfectly clear sanity to comprehend what was done to her and CAN'T dust herself before her sanity fades. Afterwards Spike doesn't let her out of sight because of HIS nightmare.
88* Tara: Her family locked her up for life.
89** Her "demon" manifested before its time. She looked gross.
90* Anyanka: Bunnies. Billions of billions of bunnies.
91* The Master: Buffy won.
92* Ben: Glory takes over their body.
93* Glory: Ben takes over their body.
94* Warren: Women take over.
95* Andrew: Star Wars no longer exists.
96* Jonathan: Same thing as Andrew.
97* The Mayor: Someone kills him.
98** Germs. Everything gets covered in germs.
99*** [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Everything IS covered in germs.]]
100* Lorne: He got sent back to Pylea.
101** He couldn't sing.
102* Fred: She got found (she had been in Pylea for almost a year at this point)
103* Gunn: EVERYBODY in LA's a vamp.
104* Oz: His life hadn't gotten supernatural yet; the band broke up.
105** Alternatively, he lost his ability to play guitar.
106* Lindsey: Ended up just like his father.
107* Lilah: Got fired. Literally.
108* Kate: Disappointed her father.
109
110Feel free to continue the list and add more to people's if you have different ideas for their nightmares.
111
112[[WMG: As an alternate for the last sentence in the below WMG...]]
113The prophecy has been fulfilled. The first bit here is fact. Joyce, who has been assumed to be the First, said that when the time comes Buffy won't chose Dawn. At one point, Dawn was believed to be a Potential. This is where conjecture comes in. There is another WMG that theorizes that she really was one and that they just made sure that the spell didn't activate her. The evidence to support this is that Xander's speech on the importance of normals seems too rehearsed. Now, here's where things get a little more proofy. In the final episode, they activate all the Potential Slayers. If Dawn was one and they purposely didn't activate her then it's likely that it really was Joyce in CWDP and that the prophesy came true. The role of the Slayer is sometimes referred to as the Chosen One. The final episode was called Chosen. If Dawn was a Potential and she wasn't activated, she wasn't chosen. Buffy would have made this call. So, to sum things up, the time came and Buffy didn't choose Dawn. One further note of proof is that were Faith to die, being the natural Slayer, the line would have one place to go if there was only one unactivated Potential. That would be Dawn. This would most likely destroy any sort of relationship Dawn and the others, especially Buffy, had. As we all know, Creator/JossWhedon loves {{Angst}} and making his characters miserable. This would fit right in with what he loves to do.
114* The episode 'Potential' made it abundantly clear that Dawn isn't one, she just desperately wanted to be.
115* But why would Buffy do that? And is even Willow powerful enough to cast a spell to unleash every single potential on the planet's powers except one, because they would take a ton of control! And why would Willow and the rest go along with that?
116** The 'how' seems pretty simple. The slayer empowerment spell wasn't an off-the-cuff thing; Willow knows exactly the sorts of energies she's going to use to do it. She just takes the time beforehand to ward Dawn from them.
117
118[[WMG: That really was Joyce in Conversations With Dead People.]]
119Too many things don't add up. First off, the First can't touch things. Dawn was bleeding from her mouth, had a cut on her face and the house was basically destroyed. That evolves alot of contact, something that he can't do. Second, lets say that for some reason he could do all that stuff. Why not do it again and again throughout the season? Even if he some limited contact ability, why not just use that to use a gun and shoot Willow in the face? It would be far more effective to just kill Willow rather than terrify and trick Dawn. Third, the First has only been seen impersonating one person in a single area. We see an all black figure that is almost certainly not human (he can only impersonate dead people) and Joyce on the couch. Another thing he never does is glow. The First doesn't glow. Joyce glows. What this adds up to is that Joyce really did come back and that the prophecy may not have been fulfilled yet.
120** Actually The First is omnipresent so it can essentially be anywhere it wants to be at any time (which explains how it can be talking to Willow as Cassie while simultaneously leading Andrew into the high school as Warren).
121
122[[WMG: When Dawn tried to [[spoiler: bring Joyce back from the dead]] what came back was a [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Homunculus.]] ]]
123Two blond siblings, one older, more knowledgable about the ways of power, one younger and more naive, try to [[spoiler: bring back their dead mother.]] Regardless of what side of the gate they're on, they will both get the same thing. A horrific monster that looks like [[spoiler: their mother,]] but is really [[CameBackWrong a soulless abomination.]]
124
125[[WMG: The amulet which Spike used inside the hellmouth was meant to go to Dawn.]]
126No higher beings ever say that Dawn is no longer the Key, it is simply assumed by Dawn and the Scoobies that that aspect of her existence was used up in Glory's attempt to return home (even though the monks believed that the key's energies would not be consumed until all dimensions were one). When Willow goes insane, she threatens to turn Dawn back into a ball of energy. The First, known for tormenting people with harsh truths, tells Dawn that Buffy will not choose her. As Angel understands it, the amulet should go to "someone ensouled, but stronger than a human" which he takes to mean another Champion like himself. But, Dawn frequently feels remorse for her oft selfish actions, and is readily able (with only Xander at her side) to defend one of the exits of Sunnydale High, and even takes out several turok-hans herself during the fight.
127
128[[WMG: Someone or something caused the spell in Tabula Rasa to screw up.]]
129Take a look at the sparks that ignite the bag. First off, they're green. Why would they be green? Second, they fly straight to the corners of the bag. Third, they ignite the entire bag. Two tiny sparks would not do that. Something MADE it do that. Top contenders would be The First Evil (remember, he was given the ability to do his S7 plan due to Buffy being brought back so logically he could act before then as well) and Tara (she had been trying to get Willow to almost completely quit magic (and I still blame her for the magic addiction plot) so why not?).
130** It was the cosmos balancing out. Willow has been throwing magic around elft and right with no regards for the consequences (as shown before, magic is a balancing act). Thus, the fire sparked the way it did because the cosmos sought to balance out her actions.
131
132[[WMG: Giles is a [[Series/DoctorWho Time Lord]].]]
133His claim that he was dying after getting beaten by Dark Willow near the end of season 6 is because, like the 10th Doctor, he though of regeneration as death. In fact, he did regenerate but due to being able to control it he kept his look. The problem is is that his personality still changed, making him a bit crueler than before. He most likely doesn't even know his origins.
134* The fact he is [[spoiler: resurrected as a twelve-year-old in Season 10 may support this.]]
135
136[[WMG:Xander didn't summon Sweet.]]
137Xander knew all too well not to mess around with magic - especially after a certain love spell nearly got torn apart by a mob of crazed woman. What actually happened in "Once More With Feeling" was that Xander realized Sweet didn't know for certain who had summoned him, and gambled on the demon being heterosexual. This is why he was EasilyForgiven for getting a few people killed - he explained later it wasn't him.
138* I've believed this since the first time I saw the episode. Further evidence: Xander had long been established as a terrible liar, so how was he able to put on such an incredibly convincing performance of "What the heck is going on here?" throughout the episode (even while singing under the influence of the spell, which supposedly compels truthfulness)? On the other hand, Dawn was visibly nervous when she asked Tara if the gang had figured out who summoned Sweet, and only sang two lines -- which were implied to be about her stealing, but could just as easily apply to her having called up a demon in a bid for attention. I think Dawn summoned the demon, and Xander, realizing this, improvised a cover story for her. Sweet most likely knew he was lying, but it provided a face-saving way for him to get out of town without appearing completely defeated, so he went along. Xander told Buffy about it later, and she was devastated, which helps explain why her mental condition continued to deteriorate between OMWF and "Normal Again".
139
140[[WMG:Sweet is actually the most powerful being in the Buffyverse.]]
141Sweet is so powerful in the universe that taking over or destroying the world would be way too easy. It's more fun for him to spirit around the place making people dance and reveal all their secrets. It wasn't even his talisman that Dawn had on, he just found out she'd stolen it in a song we never got to see and thought he'd play along with it. It also explains how he could just disregard his rules as he saw fit, since he didn't actually have rules. When he sends out his minions he isn't worried in the least, as he can just power them up as needed, seen when Spike says how strong one is, yet Buffy defeats them in one or two shots each. He's also stupidly laid back, to the point where he doesn't even try to scare Buffy, and when she is stopped from burning by Spike he isn't even worried, just amused. In the end he senses some pretty strong power in Willow and thinks it would be more fun to take a step back and watch the inevitable fireworks. Personally, I remain convinced that Sweet could tap dance into the Hellmouth itself and all the Turok-Han would be doing a dance number with vocals from a manifestation of the First. Even Dark Willow would have a stirring revenge song lined up.
142
143[[WMG:Caleb's Soul is damned to live many different lifetimes until he learns to be a good person.]]
144These lifetimes include Series/{{Castle|2009}} and [[{{Series/Firefly}} Mal]]. He's currently on his final lifetime, Creator/NathanFillion. The PTB are just getting a good laugh out of it now.
145* So, wait, [[MindScrew his current life involves portraying all of his past lives on screen]]? Why?
146** He doesn't know about the whole many lives thing, it's just the Power's idea of a joke. Sort of a "We were bored and this is ironic enough to be funny." It kinda goes with the general feeling that they give off through Buffy and Angel, that the Powers are assholes.
147* Caleb is already Good. Aaccording to Whedon's system of morality, Love is the greatest evil and must be punished. Nerds punished Tara. Kennedy surived because she is incapable of love. Anya died because she committed the unforgivable sin of loving Xander.
148
149[[WMG: Mayor Wilkins was a [[Series/{{Angel}} Black Thorn]]]]
150And was Ascending to join the Senior Partners.
151
152Mayor Wilkins is evil, an accomplished sorcerer and has numerous vital connections to keep him in power, just like the rest of the Black Thorn. We know from the series finale with Angel that the Black Thorn includes at least one corrupt politician who surrounds themselves with vampire lackeys. His involvement with the Senior Partners led to them offering him the opportunity to join them on their plane, which he had to Ascend into a true demon in order to do. This also explains why he was willing to give up his invulnerability.
153* He didn't 'give up' his invulnerability; the invulnerability was a side effect of the ascension ritual.
154
155[[WMG:Twilight is Edward Cullen]]
156
157Look at the above description of him. The fact that he calls himself "Twilight".
158
159He scratches his skin so that Buffy won't notice that it sparkles.
160
161He wants to kill Buffy because some of the vampires that she killed used to be his friends.
162* Who would want to be friends with Edward?
163* Jossed. [[spoiler: it's Angel.]] and to top it all off, twilight is explicitly referred to in-universe as fictional.
164
165[[WMG:Twilight is Andrew]]
166Twilight knows Buffy, appears human, has a strong tendency to monologue, loses his train of thought in the midst of convoluted explanations, has itchy skin, and most damning of all: he's dressed like a tacky Supervillain. Most of the plot of season 8 has been Andrew playing various mystical factions against each other and especially against Buffy Summers, the one person he knows can take on ANYTHING, in order to eliminate them in prep for his final plan. He even manipulated the vampires in Tokyo into developing the ability to remove the Slayer's powers, then assisted in their defeat using his inside knowledge of their mech's design.
167
168* Jossed. We now know who Twilight is. Not that it makes any sense...
169
170* Them Fucking did? Joss has slipped his leash.
171
172[[WMG:Dawn will be instrumental to the defeat of Twilight in Season 8]]
173Aside from the obvious parralelism in their names, theres's quite a lot of potential to support this. Twilight plans to banish all demons and all magic from the world, a truly epic task requiring unbelievable power over dimensions. Who is the only being we know with the power to literally bring about the end of the multiverse by conjoining all dimensions? Also, in the backstory of Fray we see the aftermath of a battle against demons at a huge dimensional rip, like the kind that Dawn's blood can produce under the right circumstances. I find it shockingly improbable, even with the rampant narrative causality in the Buffyverse caused by the Hellmouths, that the Key, a mysteriously created artifact that has existed for 'just this side of forever', happened to have been created for a single use during the sixty years or so that Glory would have had to live as a mortal before dropping dead. Simply put, the Key is too important and has too big a destiny to fizzle into irrelevence after some exiled hellgod fails to use it to go home. Now that the key is in the form of Dawn, she will have to find some way to either use her power to counter Twilight's or to complete Twilight's goal herself without the genocide and bloodshed his plan entails.
174
175[[WMG: Cassie's name was written in a Manga/DeathNote]]
176I don't know if you remember Cassie, but she appeared in an episode of Season 7 claiming she was going to die on a certain day. On that day, Buffy rescues her from a bunch of kids trying to sacrifice her to a demon, and on the way out of there she has a sudden heart attack and dies.
177Now, in Death Note, you can write conditions for someone's death, but if that's not possible, they'll just have a heart attack at the appointed time. So maybe someone wrote Cassie name and 'sacrificed to a demon', and a certain time on that day, but Buffy saved her so she couldn't be sacrificed to a demon. Hence the heart attack instead.
178
179* Also note how Cassie physically resembles Misa Amane. Maybe Buffy TVS takes place in an alternate Death Note reality where Misa failed Light, fled and knew that he was going to kill her for her betrayal sooner or later. Hence her knowing she is going to die.
180
181[[WMG: Dawn got [[WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens hit by a meteor full of Quantonium]]]]
182
183Seriously, what the hell is a "thricewise"? It sounds like a made up word. Wanna know why? Because Dawn made it up.
184
185Dawn was really hit by a meteor full of Quantonium. He realized that Buffy isn't used to the concept of alien beings, so she came up with a fantasy/magical explanation of what happened so she would believe her.
186
187The reason why Dawn's clothes grew with her? Dawn's WeirdnessCensor. Susan wasn't familiar with strange and supernatural events, so she had less control over the powerful abilities Quantonium grants you, hence her ripping out of her clothes. Since Dawn is more used to strange things, she exerted subconscious control over the Quantonium so that her clothes would grow with her.
188
189The reason why she changes into a centaur and a doll is because her control over the Quantonium is merely subconscious, and thus can't fully harness her new powers.
190
191And the reason why those two bad guys in Tokyo didn't remember building MechaDawn? ''That's because they didn't''. It was built by Gallaxhar in an effort to get his Quantonium back.
192
193[[WMG: Supernatural affinity among humans affects sexual orientation or orientation determines affinity for the supernatural]]
194In real life the number of homosexual and bisexual people is numbered at around 12% but in the Buffyverse there are almost as many bisexuals and homosexuals as heterosexuals. However this only pertains to humans with supernatural affinities. The two main witches are bisexual and lesbian (Willow and Tara), several Slayers are revealed to be homosexual before and after activation. Buffy herself had a one night stand with a fellow Slayer in Season 8. So perhaps a persons affinity for the supernatural is determined by their sexual orientation or their sexual orientation determines their affinity for the supernatural.
195* Almost as many? The only * confirmed, definitely gay* characters are Tara, Kennedy, Satsu and Larry (although I may be forgetting somebody). Willow is probably bi, but identifies as lesbian. Andrew is likely bi, but it hasn't been confirmed. Buffy herself is.. ambiguous at best (see Willow's comment to Satsu in the comics). Now compare this to the het crowd.
196** Andrew is clearly gay. He doesn't even care about Buffy sleeping with Satsu and is bored while the Slayers play strip poker. He's gay.
197*** Or Asexual
198* Bisexuality is alot more common than some of the stricter definitions of straight. especially if you define EvenTheGuysWantHim or EvenTheGirlsWantHer as bisexuals
199Actually, it could just be that when you are aware of one thing out of the "ordinary" such as sexual orientation other than strictly heterosexual, it lets you consider other nonstandard things. The Nerds of Doom became aware of the supernatural because of their interesting in sci-fi/fantasy, which opened their minds to the oddness of the real world.
200
201[[WMG: One or more of the characters is a WMG/TimeLord.]]
202* Buffy does come back to life a LOT. The only possible explanation is regeneration.
203** Actually can go deaper then this. the first time Buffy died she regenerated into Kendra and when Kendra died she regenerated into faith and so on all slayers are just regenerations of the same JustForFun/TimeLord.
204* The girl that the First Watchers took and made into the First Slayer was actually a WMG/TimeLord.
205** The girl in "Incan Mummy Girl" was part of an attempt to repeat the ritual to try and empower multiple girls and have multiple lines without tapping out the demon which was the power source for the Slayer Spell by tapping a different demon for power. Unfortunately, what neither the Incans attempting the ritual nor the First Watchers realized was that you needed a WMG/TimeLord to empower the spell with their regenerations to begin with.
206
207[[WMG: Recklessness is part of being a vampire]]
208Consider: Towards the end of the series, Buffy is usually recognized on sight by attacking vampires, yet they still attack her. Seldom do you see a vampire flee, even when they're clearly losing. Nor do they tend to beg for their lives. Indeed, the psychologist vampire in "Conversations With Dead People" seemed remarkably unconcerned about the fact that Buffy was planning to kill him - he didn't even get offended by it! Both Angel and Spike regularly traveled around by day under flimsy shelter, especially Spike (often heading over to visit Buffy by day on a whim). Angel also has ChronicHeroSyndrome, which includes an element of recklessness.
209* Or being a glory hound might be part of it. Every vampire dreams of killing the Slayer and becoming famous for it.
210* Or relatively new vampires are just giddy and dumb.
211** That's the best explanation, probably. Consider: When you first rise as a vampire, you're filled with an incredible sense of power. You have eternal youth, superhuman strength and speed, you don't sleep or eat normal food. As Jesse said in the pilot, your senses are also enhanced. It's easy to overestimate yourself at that point. Even if you've already experienced Buffy kicking other vampires' asses, you can't grasp that those vampires were just as powerful as you - and if you've been outside the masquerade until now, you just have no idea what she can do.
212*** It's not even necessarily the new vampires. Keep in mind Spike's "Slayers have a death wish" monologue. He makes an extremely good point: all any vampire needs to kill a Slayer is one good day. If a somewhat older vampire is feeling confident, he might go for it purely out of the desire for glory.
213
214[[WMG: ''Alternately'' Buffy (and all other Slayers) exude a "Slayer Pheromone" that draws Vampires, Demons, and other supernatural creatures to them.]]
215This is to prevent those creatures from attacking as many innocents. Instead they are just drawn to the current Slayer, and attack her without consciously realizing what makes them want to target her.
216* This explains why Angel and Spike fell for Buffy, and why Drusilla (who, while completely insane, has many unique insights) was able to do anything other than just attack Buffy mindlessly simply for being in the vicinity, unlike most vampires.
217** This means that the line of Aurelius, which the Master, Darla, Angel(us), Drusilla, and Spike come from, has a degree of partial immunity to the "Slayer Pheromone" and react differently to it than other vampires.
218* The "Slayer Pheromone" also dulls the senses and cognition of vampires and other supernatural beasties. This explains how monsters of various sorts find their plans breaking down and themselves unable to think of better ones or improvise well when attacking a Slayer.
219It was established in Season with the conflict between Buffy and Faith that Slayers shouldn't be in the same place at the same time, since is causes tension. This may be because they both produce a pheromone that marks them as Alphas and just like in the examples of Slayers being animalistic, they are territorial and cannot stand each others' pheromones.
220
221[[WMG: Buffy and Angel are a BatmanGambit by the vampire population of the real world]]
222Angel from ''Buffy'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' sparked a wave of adoration and worship of the Vampire. ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', ''Series/TrueBlood'', and many more have all taken this devotion to the next level where Vampires are no longer the bloodthirsty and dark creatures they used to be. Without Angel to lead the way, it is unlikely that such an even would've occurred. Therefore, the character of Angel was a BatmanGambit by the vampire population of our earth to make vampires appear sexy and desirable so they could eventually reveal themselves and be free from persecution to kill us all.
223* We're doomed! DOOOOOOOOOMED!
224* Unlikely, considering Spike is far more popular than Angel and his fans raged when he went from a brutal killing machine to a love-sick puppy that babysat a whiny adolescent.
225** Er, still doomed if lots of people have the hots for a vampire who is a brutal killing machine.
226** And "more popular" is a bit of a stretch. Certainly, Spike's an EnsembleDarkHorse, but Angel was popular enough to get his own show. Actually, fans seem pretty evenly divided between Spike fans, Angel fans, and also with quite a few [[YaoiFangirl Spangel]] fans.
227** Alternately, it's not so they can kill us all, but so they can finally come out. Unfortunately fans of some series have them more afraid of us than we were ever afraid of them.
228
229[[WMG:Buffy did not fight {{Dracula}}, who is (or was) a fictional character even in the Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}.]]
230There is an eerie artificiality surrounding Dracula's entire appearance in Sunnydale -- his arbitrary initial appearance, his blatantly disparate power level and abilities compared to other vampires, the Main/MartyStu-style fascination he draws from the cast, his heretofore unmentioned past with other characters, and his oddly anticlimactic and inconclusive defeat (he's clearly ''not'' killed, and yet no one worries that he may return). And then there's the ''castle'' that suddenly appears in Sunnydale for him to live in! The key (no pun intended) to these oddities is that they all occur immediately prior to Dawn's first appearance; all of the events depicted are a sample of the invented memories created by the Order of Dagon when they inserted the Dawn persona into local reality. It has also been suggested that the monks used the blood "Dracula" got from biting Buffy for the spell they used to create Dawn.
231* {{Jossed}} (quite literally) in the Buffy Season 8 comics.
232
233[[WMG:The First won. It possessed Buffy in the Cavern]]
234An army of primitive vampires would not be enough to take over or destroy the world - the US military has more than enough napalm to stop them. Its plan was always to get all the Slayers activated. Activating all potential Slayers at once would end the Slayer line of succession, preventing any more Slayers being activated ever again.
235* Note that Joss's comic ''Fray'' shows a future where no Slayers have existed for a couple hundred years. (The first new one is finally activating.) It's been proposed that this is exactly how that situation came to be.
236* Alternatively, it could be planning to subvert or take over the leadership of the Slayers, turning them into its own army.
237* Alternatively again, humans are just as prone to evil as good. The First doesn't need to subvert all of the Slayers; just having a bunch of superpowerful women around for The First to play with should be plenty. Look at how much damage a single Slayer like Faith causes, and multiply that times dozens or hundreds. It also gives Buffy something to do - now she has to police these new Slayers; and it makes keeping the Main/{{Masquerade}} in check even harder.
238** The Main/{{Continuation}} comic book series may be heading in this direction, as Bad Slayers are a major plot point. The First hasn't shown up to gloat ''yet'', but...
239* Yeah, this makes sense in a crazy sort of way--Buffy always said that it would "never be Spike"; and yet, as she defeats the First, she says she loves him? And then he says no you don't? There's no way this could be the real Buffyverse.
240* It makes sense at first, but then you have to remember, being a Slayer isn't genetic, it's magical. Unless the spell extends into the future, this makes no sense.
241* The original guess is {{jossed}} by the comic book series, as some Slayers were activated after the spell. But the activation of the Slayers is the reason ''Fray'' came to pass: [[spoiler: the Slayers draw their powers from a demon. The activation of the Slayers drains the demon's power, until it can no longer sustain any Slayers and has to spend over 150 years restoring it's strength.]]
242* Another possible theory: It possessed Buffy ever since she died (from what seems to only be a minor wound) in the cavern, and the "Buffy" we see in Season 8 and onward is actually the First. See ''[[http://www.tthfanfic.org/Series-685 here]]''.
243
244[[WMG:The place Marcie gets taken at the end of "Out of Mind... Out of Sight" in S1 is [[Series/{{Firefly}} The Academy]] in its early infancy on Earth-that-was.]]
245Government functionaries who wear suits and come in pairs? Check. Teaching insane teenage girls to kill? Check. In a Creator/JossWhedon series? Check.
246* Also, it's the same as TheMenInBlack organization in {{Series/Dollhouse}}, which has the same [[AuthorAppeal interest in insane superpowered teenage girls]].
247** That actually makes total sense. After the debacle with Adam, the government outsources the whole super-powered teenage girls business to Rossum.
248** We seriously need a fanfic using this concept. Use time travel to have Echo, the crew of Serenity and the Scoobies team up to take them down in the present and future.
249* That also explains why her getting taken was like one big BigLippedAlligatorMoment.
250
251[[WMG: Slayer's powers increase dramatically after their 18th birthday]]
252When a Slayer turns 18 they gain such an increase in abilities that they become a threat to the Watcher's Council. Why else would the Watcher's Council set up an almost impossible task to test the Slayer at their 18th birthday? It makes far more sense to let the Slayer continue to fight rather than practically force them to die then have to spend resources finding and subsequently training a new Slayer unless the Slayer posed some sort of threat to the organization.
253* Because it's the Cruciamentum itself (or the drug that takes away the Slayer's powers) that makes the Slayer stronger. The Cruciamentum serum does not actually wear off for weeks or months, but the Slayer gets that much stronger to bring their strength under the effects of the serum up to Slayer-norm, so when it wears off, they are that much stronger.
254* Its more likely that Slayers are simply less easy to control after their 18th birthday because they've grown up. A high school age girl is much more likely to trust the authority of her watcher and do what he says without question than someone who is now an adult and ready to start taking responsibility for herself and make her own decisions. The Watcher's Council wants a Slayer who's easy to control so they make it so most Slayers don't live long enough to start thinking for themselves.
255* That makes sense because look at who Buffy fought before her 18th. Big Bad 1 + 2 were just vampires but who does she face after her 18th? An original demon, a government sponsored group of demon hunters, a hell god, the personification of dark magic, and the personification of ultimate evil. Each of these villains are drastically more powerful than the Master or Angelus so it only makes sense that she would need a huge strength boost to deal with them.
256** Remember, The Ascended Mayor was fought by an army, and killed with a C4 trap. Those demon hunters were run by the US Government. We do great with killing large armies, but give us a small guerrilla force to fight and we get our asses kicked (See: Korea, 'Nam, and the ongoing War on Terror). The hellgod was only beat due to combined effort, her being distracted and an {{Expy}} of Mjolnir. She didn't beat Dark Willow, or even fight her much, and it was Xander's little speech that got her to calm down. Plus, The First had the small problem of being unable to touch anything, and might have still been regaining his strength from that large drop in power he must have gotten when all of LA went under Jasmine's control. Really, the First lacked any power besides for the ability to influence someone.
257
258[[WMG: The Slayer is Neo.]]
259Building off of the previous WMG the world has to be kept in balance. As the Slayer grows in strength (or number) the amount and strength of the evil automatically balances the equation. Killing the Slayer while she's still young and weak (or in Buffy's case not the Slayer because Faith is THE Slayer) keeps the world world safe by keeping the [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil evil low end.]] It also explains the Trio. With Buffy completely off after being yanked from heaven there was no need for enormous evil.
260[[WMG:Dawn Summers is an avatar of Yog-Sothoth from Creator/HPLovecraft's [[Main/CosmicHorrorStory Cthulhu Mythos]].]]
261One of Yog-Sothoth's aliases is "The Key" -- Dawn's known pre-human identity -- and like her, it controls access to all times and places in and out of the material universe. The Monks of Dagon and the Dagon Sphere also point to Lovecraft, as Dagon was a servant of Cthulhu. In fact, the Main/BackStory of the series, with the Earth being home to eldritch monsters in prehistory, is all but identical with that of the Mythos.
262* Also, both Dawn and Yog-Sothoth have been described as [[Main/EnergyBeings beings of light]].
263
264[[WMG:Harmony Kendall is Amanda Buckman from ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' movies under an assumed name.]]
265After her (and her family's) disastrous encounters with the Addamses in ''Addams Family Values'', the entire Buckman clan fled and changed their names to escape the family of occult-loving psychopaths which had targeted them. Unfortunately, they had been "tainted" by the Addamses' attentions and were inevitably drawn to Sunnydale. The Addams influence may have even contributed to Harmony becoming a vampire.
266* [[http://ijemanja.livejournal.com/62820.html Here]] is a Harmony/Wednesday fic that explores this.
267
268[[WMG:Willow is bi.]]
269She only decided to turn Rick into a girl after Anya mentioned it, when she realized it would be a perfect way to cut out the competition.
270* Doesn't Willow have to be bi, canonically? Unless Joss wants fans to dismiss Willow's relationship with Oz as her being "confused", it seems like she can fall in love with either gender. Even after she and Tara were a couple, she was still describing Oz in [[BuffySpeak soul-matey]] terms.
271** She also thought that Giles's singing and Dracula were sexy. Willow is probably bisexual but is in denial about still being attracted to guys.
272* Counter suggestion: she's probably heterosexual but Tara was an exception.
273** No, she did it with Kennedy and snake woman, I think the idea that she was into men except for Tara has been blown out of the sky.
274* Remember Restless? Much of Willow's character in seasons five and six is a costume, a new identity and new persona she built so that no one would see scared, geeky computer nerd Willow underneath. A New Willow disguise so thick that Willow herself doesn't even realize she's playing a character. Being a lesbian is part of that character; Willow herself has demonstrated that she's bi on several occasions, but she suppresses it because New Willow is supposed to be 100% gay, just like how New Willow is confident, New Willow is powerful, New Willow can get anything she wants by just throwing magic at it, etc. etc. Being gay instead of bisexual is just part of the costume.
275* In real life (whatever that is) many bisexuals are more attracted to one sex than the other; although they are attracted to both- they tend to prefer on over the other. That may be the case with Willow- who likes both; but likes girls more.
276* More likely she's bisexual, but the trauma of what Oz did, how he did it, and why he did it led her to subconsciously deny male attraction and think that she's a lesbian. Canonically, she's liked more men than women, but women have gone better for her. Which, considering Tara, says quite a bit about my gender...
277* I don't know how up on LGBT people are here, but I classify Willow as a demisexual. Even when she was supposedly straight, she might have been curious but she never pursued many guys in that way. And even when she 'came out' as a lesbian, she never openly played the field with woman, so I don't consider her heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual. In fact, when you think about it, she's not really that sexual at all. But yet she's not entirely asexual either, because as shown with Tara and Kennedy, it's perfectly possible for her to have a sexual relationship, but only with someone that she loves. And that was only really with one person, Tara. Kennedy could be explained as a heat of the moment, with emotions flying, and fear of the apocalypse masquerading as romance for comfort (for her and Kennedy didn't last nearly as long as her and Tara did). Willow is, therefore, in that gray area between sexual and asexual, where the attraction is rooted on having a special connection established with someone first. Remember in the episode where her forgetting spell goes wrong, and all the characters forget who they are. She initially believes she's straight, and dating Xander, but yet her and Tara (oblivious and unaware of any of their history) can't help but have moments of attraction. Willow doesn't have that with any other female character, not even really with Kennedy. It's not because Tara is female that Willow is attracted to, it's because Tara is Tara. Willow doesn't know this though, and identifies herself as lesbian because she feels more comfortable with it. Also, case in point, RJ's jacket's spell works on Willow because even though she consciously thinks of herself as a lesbian, her unconscious mind's orientation is fluid and neutral.
278** She also has a sexual relationship with Oz before she comes out who she cares very deeply for and has a difficult time choosing between Tara over.
279** First of all, only having sex with people you love and not "playing the field" does not mean anything about your sexual ''attraction'' -- only your sexual ''behaviour''. Willow's reserved sexual behaviour does not automatically make her "demisexual". Secondly, Willow has been shown multiple times in the show to find strangers attractive -- so if demisexuality means "only being attracted to people with whom you have an emotional connection", this indicates Willow does not fit the definition. Thirdly, to be blunt, demisexuality is not a sexual orientation. Even giving the concept the best possible benefit of the doubt, it has nothing to do with a person's gender-based sexual attractions and ought to be considered something that a person may be ''in addition to'' being straight, gay, bi, etc. (I'm saying this as someone who is "up with LGBT", fitting into one of those categories myself: if you fit the definition of demisexual, but find yourself only ever becoming attracted to people of the opposite gender, you're still straight and should stop saying that you're not.) So the question of whether Willow is demisexual or not is unrelated to the WMG at hand.
280*** It sounds like you're denying demisexuality as a credible sexuality in itself, that's not very progressive or open minded. You claim you're up on LGBT, but it's problematic and incredibly anti-LGBT to have that mindset. Asexuals and demisexuals/greysexuals face denial and non acknowledgement within prejudice society all the time, please don't feed into that system.
281*** Me again -- and yes, demisexuality is not a credible sexuality in and of itself. Sexual orientation pertains to what gender/s your sense of sexual attraction is/are orientated towards -- anything else is supplementary. (I'm a man who is attracted to men, by the way, so thanks a lot for calling me anti-LGBT.) Oh, and to get back to the original WMG, let me reiterate: as Willow is shown to be attracted to strangers, she is not demisexual.
282*** Just because you're a gay man doesn't mean you can't be oppressive towards bisexuals, pansexuals, transexuals, demisexuals, asexuals, or even lesbians. Hell, you can even be oppressive to other gay people. There are gay Republicans in America, enough that there's a group, called the Log Cabin Republicans. That alone should prove that point. Bi, demi, ace, pan and transphobia are all problems within the gay community, and quite a few people have gone as far as claiming that one, some or all of those don't even belong in the community. So don't you try to use your status as a shield against criticism for oppressing others.
283*** To untangle that bit, let's look at the definition used by those who are concerned: According to The Bisexual Index, a network of UK bisexual organizations, being bisexual means being attracted or having been attracted to people of more than one gender. That is compatible with "demisexuality", meaning being only attracted to people you have a deep emotional connection with, as those obviously can be of any gender. Now, to answer the question of Willow's bisexuality, we must look whether she was sexually attracted to people of more than one gender during the course of the series: That is obviously the case with Oz and Xander (and Giles and Dracula) being male and Tara, Kennedy and Alluwyn being female. Now the question whether she is demisexual is harder to answer: She mostly shows sexual attraction only towards characters she has a deep emotional connection with, but that holds true for most characters in the Buffyverse. And Willow 'was' attracted to Dracula, whom she barely knew. Also, in one episode she says she is a lesbian because she is into "girl-on-girl action", though that might be part of her gay persona.
284*** "Sexual orientation pertains to what gender/s your sense of sexual attraction is/are orientated towards — anything else is supplementary." You realize you just erased asexuality completely? Okay, you're not anti-lgbt, maybe, but you are definitely coming off anti-asexual and, yes, anti-demisexual which IS a credible sexuality, and this troper will thank you not to try and deny their sexuality exists just because you don't know enough about it. Attraction and sexual attraction are not the same. You can appreciate the aesthethic of the way a person looks without wanting to bang them. You can want a romantic relationship with a person without wanting to have sex with them. You can want to have sex without feeling sexual attraction to a person, believe it or not. Besides that, sexuality can be fluid - you can change your labels when you find ones that fit better. Please don't talk about demisexuality anymore, though, because telling people their sexuality isn't "credible"? Is pretty freaking gross.
285
286
287
288[[WMG: Not only is Willow bi, the reason she's not into guys any more is magical backlash from the spell against Oz and Veruca.]]
289It was a "screw these two out of ever being able to enjoy love" spell, and the candles and potions were already hovering. All the power and intent was there, but Willow just let it all slough off when she dropped Oz's photo onto the counter instead of in the fire. The spell just isn't formulated to account for bisexuality, and possibly not for homosexuality either unless the targets were each the same sex as the other, which is [[PseudoRomanticFriendship why]] Willow was still able to fall for Tara. This is also why Oz leaves- while it makes sense that he should go somewhere without humans to work on control after [[spoiler: going after Willow once he killed Veruca in her defense]], the spell pushed him further in that direction, and made Willow feel worse about it (possibly) and get caught up on those feelings and what she felt for Oz any time she would have felt something remotely romantic about a guy (eventually making it magic-powered aversion therapy, like the original spell would probably have been a form of).
290
291[[WMG:Warren built a robot Buffy first.]]
292It's rather suspicious that Warren's robotic girlfriend is strong enough to fight Buffy on an equal footing -- surely it would be simpler to make a human-strength robot. It becomes even more suspicious when you realize the robot is about Buffy's height and build; and Warren admits to knowing Buffy from high school. Obviously, Warren's first robot was a copy of Buffy, super-strength included. He just changed its appearance later on, perhaps because he was afraid Buffy would discover it. This meant he could easily change it back when Spike requested the Buffybot.
293* But Warren, being the hardcore GenreSavvy Nerd that he is, would automatically aim for a robot with [[SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids stereotypical Sci-Fi attributes]]. He probably would have made it a DoAnythingRobot with built-in lasers and jets if he had more time.
294* Besides, it's Sunnydale. Having a robot girlfriend who can punch through a brick wall is common sense, what with all those bloody muggings.
295
296[[WMG:Leprechauns do exist in the Buffyverse.]]
297Buffy insists that she doesn't believe in coincidences or leprechauns. The fact that all other creatures of folklore exist in the Buffyverse makes it a lot easier to believe that leprechauns do.
298* There's an old saying that the smartest animal in the world is the one nobody's ever seen. Apply that to the Buffyverse and there's only one conclusion. The ones pulling the strings, the ones towering above the pure demons, the First, even the Powers that Be, are... the leprechauns.
299* A number of demons, etc. on "Buffy" and Series/{{Angel}} express derision at the idea of Leprechauns. This is not definitive evidence either way.
300
301* Alternatively, Leprechauns are the masters of The Masquerade, setting up the image of short, jovial, gold-giving and green-coat-wearing imps to hide the powerfully magical * but still short* beings that have been eluding capture for so long. The Scooby Gang may have even caught a Leprechaun at one point, and had the entire escapade magick'd away at the last...someone needs to write a fanfic about this STAT.
302** Powerfully * cough* livinghalloweendecorations* cough* magical but still * cough* don'ttauntthefeardemon* cough* short? The Scooby Gang may have caught a leprechaun at one point? [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial That's absolutely ridiculous and I doubt anyone will ever write a fic with that in mind.]] Now excuse me while I go find [[CoughSnarkCough some cough syrup]].
303* I could definitely see the Scooby Gang having an encounter with the [[Literature/ArtemisFowl Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit....]]
304
305
306[[WMG:Buffy CameBackWrong.]]
307It goes a long way towards explaining why she's such an uncaring, domineering bitch in the last two seasons. Some small part of her soul or essence was left behind because Willow's resurrection spell was interrupted by the biker demons at 99% completion. Buffy worries about this during Season 6 (when Spike's chip no longer recognizes her as human); Tara gives her some bizarre, vague ''{{WesternAnimation/Superfriends}}''-esque explanation about "molecules", and then it's never brought up again. Tara was lying.
308* Tara was probably explaining it and being honest as best as she could but there was never enough chance for her to research further before she left the group because of the whole Willow gets high on magic thing.
309** and simplifying ''a lot'' because Buffy is, let's be frank, kinda dim.
310* You know the shot at the very end of the opening credits? The show used a different one each season, but it's always of Buffy standing alone, looking powerful and defiant. Except... in the last two seasons, it's not her at all. For Season 6, they use a shot of the Buffybot from the battle with Glory; in Season 7, it's a shot of The-First-as-Buffy from the season premiere. Did we just ''blow your mind''?
311* That was probably an editing mistake but it's an editing mistake that works very well in your argument's favor.
312* Except that Creator/JossWhedon planned even small details out seasons ahead of time, and is a master of FridgeBrilliance.
313* Going to Heaven, being yanked back, having your best friend go psycho on you, and then having to lead a group of scared girls against the biggest, baddest Evil ever...well, you try being warm and friendly.
314** Don't forget having to dig herself out of her own grave!
315** Not to mention losing your mother suddenly in your very early twenties (is she is even legal to drink by Season Seven???), your father figure who has been helping you with basically everything since you were sixteen abandoning you when you were broke, trying to raise a teenager, and depressed, NONE of your friends noticing that you were depressed, your ex-boyfriend attempting to rape you... it'd been a rough couple years for Buffy.
316*** Buffy is 16 at the end of season 1, so 20 when Joyce dies; she turns 21 in “Older and Far Away”. Since you ask.
317
318[[WMG:Slayers are modified vampires.]]
319There are many supernatural abilities that would be useful if you were designing a vampire hunter. But Slayers just have super-strength, rapid healing, and mystical connections with other Slayers that influence their dreams. Just like vampires have super-strength, rapid healing, and mystical connections with other vampires that influence their dreams. Plus, the Slayer creation process puts demonic energy into a human body, which has obvious similarities to the vampire creation process.
320* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', we're told that vampires are low-quality mingling of human and demon; the trip to Lorne's home world lets us see what the demon that lives in vampires looks like. Slayers may be passing along a different sort of demon with similar semi-parasitic qualities. Maybe if Buffy had gone with them on that trip, we could have seen her transform, too.
321* Buffy's powers come from distilled essence of demon. It's entirely possible that the demon(s?) used for this purpose are the same species whose descendants merged with humans to become vampires.
322
323I always worked from the theory that the Clever Men (or whatever the hell you call the Watchers' Coucil in the dawn of time) made a first attempt with a warrior guy. It WentHorriblyWrong, he died and came back as a monster. So they tried again with a woman, and got the Slayers.
324
325Not possible. In "Family", Spike proves that there is no demon in Tara when he punches her and is hurt by his chip. If there was any demon in Buffy, Spike would be able to hurt her, even with the chip.
326* In later seasons, Spike can hurt Buffy even with the chip. That doesn't mean Buffy has suddenly turned into a demon, it just means that whatever "demon-esque" thing the chip picks up on, it's suddenly picking up on it after her resurrection (or maybe the chip picks up on a "human-esque" thing and it's no longer picking up on that, like an alignment between body and soul). Similarly, it may well be that as a slayer the chip initially reads her as completely human but that she does have demonic elements the chip doesn't pick up. We don't know how it works, just that when the chip was designed there was some trait which it picked up on which seemed to allow it to differentiate between demons and humans but there is evidence that it's not infallible.
327
328[[WMG:The parasitic 'demon' entities powering the Slayers, and possibly the vampires and such, are...]]
329 [[Series/StargateSG1 Goa'uld]].
330* No, those slugs that hatched from eggs were Goa'uld. And it was this slug that jumpstarted Willow's magic.
331
332[[WMG: Spike is braindamaged.]]
333Spike's [[BadassDecay spikefication]] didn't take hold until he developed his crush on one Buffy Summers. The episode in which we first learn about this crush just so happens to be the one in which a doctor had randomly cut into his brain trying (and failing) to remove one annoying chip. Moreover, Spike's sudden crush came as quite a shock even to him. Just out of the blue. While healing. From the brain operation. His spikefication didn't start to accelerate until his Buffy-crush; this crush, and thus the entirety of his spikefication, are a direct result of the brain-cutting. His mind didn't heal correctly.
334* Well, if you want to go down this road: Perhaps the Initiative caused some damage when they put the thing in (the spikefication started in season four, after all); after the botched removal, the chip slowly started to malfunction and leak unpleasant things into his brain (explaining the continuing spikefication). It also randomly conks out in season 7 with no real explanation, but by then the damage is done.
335* The brain damage is possibly healed when he's resurrected in the final season of Angel, as his personality is closer to his old self even though he has a soul.
336** Which makes sense. The spell (or whatever) would reconstruct his "natural" body and wouldn't include the brain damage or chip for the same reason as a mouse with it's tail cut off doesn't give birth to tailless mice. Doesn't explain why his hair is still bleached though. Unless... the spell reconstructs Spike's body from Spike's idealised self-image and he's been bleaching his hair so long that it's part of that self-image.
337*** I would take Spike getting closer to his original personality as perhaps being close to Angel, his rival/companion for, heck, most of the 200+ years he's been alive.
338
339[[WMG:''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''Buffy'' share a universe.]]
340The vampires and assorted nasties are not aliens, no. No, they have trickled through all through history. But when the Carrionites tear time/space holes in "The Shakespeare Code", they create a semi-dormant link to Quor-Toth, an alternate earth from a history where the Carrionites destroyed the Eternals rather than the Eternals banishing them. The Powers That Be are agents of the White Guardian, The Eternals, or both. The Master is... The Master, probably from the time he was stuck in his last body or else a new body he stole after "Survival" but before the movie.
341* How about this: after the Time War, the Doctor didn't want to be forgotten, so he arranged for the BBC to get its hands on a bunch of archival records from the TARDIS and release them as fiction. This is Old Who (note that ''Buffy'' predates New Who, so we don't need to explain that).
342* There was an arc in Old Who about a godlike entity, the Black Guardian, trying to get control of the Key to Time - the final part of which turned out to have been transformed into a teenage girl called Astra. Good thing the Guardian didn't notice what Glory was up to on Earth, or she might have had competition for Dawn...
343* A couple of Buffy characters cameo in the Doctor Who novels, although they also refer to Buffy as being a TV show in the Doctor Who universe (once within the same book.)
344* This is confirmed. A Buffy Season 8 Comic featured the Tenth Doctor and Rose ambling merrily along on the street, the TARDIS sitting behind them. It is, of course, only a background detail, but Canon, nonetheless.
345* The Mother in the S2 episode with the giant, spine-sucking pubic lice slugs from the egss was ''totally'' a Dalek with a demon in. Unfortunately, this proves that Daleks have souls.
346* Rose is a slayer. How did you ''think'' that she was strong enough to hold that BFG in "Journey's End"?
347** Ace must be a potential who [[MissedTheCall never got the call]]. This would suggest that, if she survived that long, she must have gotten [[TookALevelInBadass even more badass]] around 2003 ...
348* In the WMG/{{Angel}} WMG section, there are some compelling arguments that The Immortal, from one ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode, is [[Series/{{Torchwood}} Jack Harkness.]]
349* Also, John Hart just decided to pretend to be an English poet for a night, but he didn't look where he was going and got grabbed by Drusilla, who then turned him…
350* It could be both a show and fact in the Whoniverse. Which means...
351* Developing from the Master from one being the Master from the other, it could be that the Delgado Master got trapped on Earth and was sired, his form eventually shifting to the Master we know from Buffy. His Time Lord heritage would explain why he left a skeleton when staked, from which he could later be restored. Although Buffy smashed the skeleton, he was still partially resurrected from it, becoming the decaying version seen in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ and ‘The Keeper of Traken’, at which point he stole a mortal body again.
352* The King Vampire from "State of Decay" was an Old One. This is why the Doctor couldn't just stake him by hand. He needed to use a bloody spaceship (I have to think even Buffy would have been proud of that one).
353[[WMG: The Initiative Airs Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer in the Buffyverse]]
354After the fall of The Initiative, the government began a project to obfuscate the existence of Slayers and Demons in the world. To this end, they enlist the aid of The [[strike: Wotchers]] Watchers to record the events of her life and turn them into a comedy/horror TV show in order to make her escapades seem like fiction. This, incidentally, is why the Series/DoctorWho characters refer to it as both a show and to the "real" characters.
355
356[[WMG:Rupert Giles was killed by [[Series/DoctorWho Brother Lassar.]]]]
357Lassar then copied his form and used it to infiltrate a school. See ''Series/DoctorWho'' season 2/season 28 (depends how you count), "School Reunion".
358Or Brother Lassar just saw Giles in some Sunnydale High-related activity (school librarians' conference maybe?) and decide that he like Giles' form and soe copied it.
359
360[[WMG:Willow is one of the PowersThatBe.]]
361She merely forgot who and what she was. It explains her sexual identity confusion (the [=PTB's=] are genderless), her intelligence, and her disproportionately rapid growth of skills with both information systems and magic. It also explains why she grows arrogant the more power she uses (although this has happened in Main/RealLife to people who gain [[Main/SmallNameBigEgo only a little power]]).
362
363[[WMG: Manga/{{Claymore}}s are Slayers.]]
364Female warriors created by a shadowy organisation by infusing girls with demonic/yoma power. Does this seem familiar? Demonic powers are stronger in the Claymore-verse, making the Claymores more powerful, but Claymores are at risk of succumbing to their demonic nature themselves. Also note that in the Buffyverse, there are no male Slayers known to exist; in the Claymore universe, attempts at creating male warriors were abandoned because they fell to their demonic nature too easily... perhaps the same thing happened when the watchers tried to infuse a male with Slayer power in the Buffyverse?
365
366[[WMG: The real reason the Watchers are British...]]
367Is that, as everyone knows, the best thing to have after you've given blood (or just had your neck savaged by a brutal gang of undead monsters) is a cup of hot sweet tea. Basing the operation in Britain was a shortcut to this basic survival method.
368* On the other hand, how much direct sunlight does Britain get?
369** About seventeen minutes a year. I live here and have timed it.
370** The Watchers have headquarters in an area that gets little direct sunlight so that their vampirical observations are as up to date as possible.
371
372[[WMG: Tara was killed by a sniper sent by The First or some other agent of the apocalypse]]
373It strains credibility (even within the context of the show) that the shot that killed Tara could have come from Warren's gun. Someone was trying to bring about the End of the World, and it simply coincided with Warren's attack on the Scoobies.
374* Alternatively, the second shooter deliberately framed Warren to give the Scoobies the perfect fall guy-- one who believes that he did it. While the Scoobies are chasing after him, the real killer gets to escape scot-free, knowing that Willow will go evil and kill someone for a crime he did not [[strike: actually]] technically commit (he did ''shoot'' Buffy in cold blood).
375** The second shooter ''convinced'' Warren to go after Buffy with a gun, and even asked him to do it at a specific time under the pretense of getting a good look, or else used magic or hypnosis to go after Buffy at the time specified.
376* This 'second shooter' would have had to follow Warren because Willow uses Tara's blood to find the person who killed Tara, not Warren specifically.
377** Redirect Spell. Specifically, a spell to redirect the bullet so that it precisely hit and killed Tara. The bullet was fired from Warren's gun, and it did fly mostly straight and true, but Warren (or someone else) used magic to make sure it hit.
378*** Maybe he got some of the bullets enchanted to seek out flesh so that they would always hit.
379* This was Jossed in-episode by a follow-the-bullet cam.
380* The shot came from the grassy knoll.
381** Was there a cameraman named Zapruder for that episode ?
382*** When did this follow the bullet cam scene happen (and which episode of the several that followed Tara's death)?
383
384
385[[WMG: The Watchers and Slayers are headquartered in a tropical region or a desert for near-constant vamp-killing rays.]]
386This would explain the origins of several different religions that hail from desert, semi-arid, or tropical regions.
387* Note that this is compatible with the Watchers being British. The UK might not get that much sun, but there were a few hundred years when the British Empire was full of tropical regions and deserts. Even now, they could have headquarters in Gibraltar.
388** Then again, ''California'' is full of deserts...
389** The imperial connection was always how I figured they transitioned from African shamans to stuffy Brits.
390
391[[WMG: Willow Didn't Restore Amy to Human Form]]
392The "Amy" Willow supposedly restored is a demon who took advantage of Willow's mental state during the "magical addiction" arc to manifest as Amy, disposing of the real Amy by eating her, absorbing her, or squirreling her away in a Hell Dimension.
393
394The first time we see Amy Madison (S1), she's a meek, frightened girl trapped in her mother's body. Later (S2), we see her using not-especially-powerful magic to fake good grades and botch a love spell (aided by Xander's mixed feelings); then we see her change herself irreversibly into a rat (S3). Three years later (S6), we see Willow finally figure out how to change Amy back; in a peculiar use of her powers, she somehow ''magically'' devises the spell to accomplish that.
395
396While the restored Amy is superficially similar to the girl Willow knew in high school, she's '''markedly''' more powerful than before, at the lower end of S6's Willow's power range. She's also amoral; she mind-controls pretty girls to be smitten with Willow. Then she shifts over to outright hostile and evil by cursing Willow in S7 [[spoiler: while helping Warren fake his death and working on his side, according to the S8 comic.]]
397
398Considering Willow's resurrect-Buffy spell, made carefully during a saner time, may have been flawed, there's no reason to assume that the wildly off-the-cuff rat-to-Amy spell worked as advertised.
399* Hmm. This would also explain why she was intimately familiar with Sunnydale's underground magic scene (for example, Rack's literally invisible [[strike:opium den]] hideout).
400* If this is true... then Amy may be one of the most [[TheWoobie Woobieful]] characters in the Buffyverse. Her mother steals her body, she gets stuck as a rat, and now she's in a hell dimension? ''Jesus''.
401* I think that I'd like to dispute this. In S4xE09 ("Something Blue"), we [[spoiler: briefly see Amy get changed from rat form to human form]] before [[spoiler: getting changed back again]]. If anything, I believe that brief moment gave Amy but a taste of what it'd be like to be human again, so this example (for lack of a better term) might give some sort of credence to your idea.
402* Amy wasn't restored to human form because the spell that Willow used to reveal a way to de-rat Amy used a power of a demon, so the actual spell not only restored Amy, but also put a demon in her, producing a creature in many respects similar to a vampire, hence no conscience and a massive powerup.
403
404[[WMG: Amy's time spent stuck as a rat messed with her mind.]]
405See ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', specifically the character [[SixthRangerTraitor David]]
406* Being a rat for extended periods of time is ''really'' bad for your mental heath.
407* Her greater recklessness and lower inhibitions explain why her magic seems more powerful-- she was [[Main/IAmNotLeftHanded not holding back]] anymore.
408* You'd think that if Amy had already possessed the sort of powers she and Willow showed in 6th season, she would have come up with something better than "irreversibly turn into a rat" when people tried to burn her at the stake.
409** Well...yanno... spells tend to go really wrong in Sunnydale.
410*** I got the feeling from that particular episode that she was trying to turn the '''townspeople''' into rats, and that something Hansel and Gretel had done caused the spell to backfire, literally.
411* This troper's housemate suggested after watching Graduation Day that the thing that really messed with her mind was having to be there in the room whenever Willow had sex.
412
413[[WMG: Harmony never had a soul, not even as a human]]
414This is why her personality got slightly better (taking her appearances in ''Series/{{Angel}}'' into account). Becoming a vampire simply gave her a taste for blood.
415* Alternatively, Harmony is an ensouled vampire; but because she wasn't that nice a person to begin with, no-one, not even her, ever noticed.
416* Her main personality trait as a human - her petty sadism and meanness - ''vanishes'' after she becomes a vampire. Vampire Harmony is only mean towards her enemies or when angry, and is most respects ''is'' a nicer person (in an amoral ''drink your blood'' way).
417** This probably has a great deal to do with losing her soul. According to Angel, despite all the horrible things he did as Angelus, he never felt any malice toward his victims. Harmony was mean because she desired to be popular and thought she was better than everyone else. Vamp!Harmony is a nicer person because she no longer cares about those things.
418* Maybe a soul isn't necessarily a ''good'' thing - just a personality-defining thing that mortals have and vampires don't.
419* Not having a soul as a human would explain why the Scooby Gang is so blase when they learn she has become a vampire. There was no tragedy; a soulless monster has now become a demonically inhabited monster.
420* Or else Harmony's flaw was that she just didn't listen to the little voice in her head that told her what was right and wrong. Now that her human conscience has been replaced with demonic evil and right and wrong are inverted, she still doesn't listen to it.
421* I figured Harmony never had a personality of her own. She is an incurable follower, which made her a perfect Cordette in high school, and when she was on ''Angel'' she tried to get accepted by the heroes until a villain stood up and told her what to think, whereupon she immediately caved. Twice.
422
423[[WMG: Vampires take on the "shape" of their host personalities.]]
424Drusilla was already insane when she turned, so vamp Dru is also insane. William was a determined idealist, and he kept his idealism until Angelus finally stomped on it and remade him as Spike. Liam didn't have any defining traits, which let Angelus's demonic side kick into overdrive (which, ironically, is what gave Angel a belated sense of purpose once he got his soul back). Harmony's big personality trait is that she wants to belong, and so, even as a vampire, she's still seeking validation and trying to get people to like her.
425* Liam's main trait was his hedonism. Angelus took that, added an ''extreme'' lack of conscience, and ran with it.
426* Backed up, if not outright confirmed, by Darla's line in the ''Angel'' episode ''The Prodigal'':
427-->"What we once were informs all that we have become."
428* Confirmed in the comics; season 10 clarifies that vampiric lines are the result of the essence of a demon entering a human body and building a demon from what’s left of the soulless husk. Darla/Angelus/Dru/Spike all carried the essence of the same demon, but were not all simultaneously possessed by him at once. Rather, they were possessed by the half-breed demon built from the full-blooded demon’s essence and their body, personality and memories.
429
430[[WMG: Tara faked her own death or killed herself off]]
431Remember, Tara was the mysterious spirit guide in Buffy's visions before. She came in and did her thing to shake up the Scoobies (Willow ended up plowing ''through'' her evil to become an uber-powerful White Witch); and then, when it was time, she 'left'. At the very least, Tara was an agent of the Powers That Be.
432
433[[WMG: Tara is fighting evil in another dimension]]
434The First could imitate any dead person, but it did ''not'' assume the shape of Tara when trying to tempt Willow towards suicide in "Conversations with Dead People" - instead, it awkwardly assumed the guise of a ghost who claimed to be in contact with her, as if there was something special about Tara that would prevent it from doing so.
435
436There was: at or after her death, Tara ascended as a servant of the Powers That Be. Ever since, she's been a glowy spirit-entity working to make the universe a better place.
437* The commentary on that episode simply says that they did the weird secondhand-tempting thing because the actor that played Tara couldn't do it then.
438
439[[WMG: The Prize from Franchise/{{Highlander}} is to become The Slayer]]
440When The Gathering ended with only one immortal remaining in the late 1990s, that Immortal (Amanda) gained vast physical power beyond a normal Immortal and nigh-omniscience. Unfortunately, Ahriman/The First killed her. The Prize then passed to another but was twisted so that the "omniscience" portion was not accessible to a mind as small as that of a mortal human - only someone with centuries of context or or the free association of the unconscious (for example, someone who is dreaming) could gain its vast knowledge.
441* The Watchers found out about this and promptly began lying to this new Prizeholder about pretty much everything.
442** That doesn't work. There were male Highlanders and there can't be male Slayers.
443*** And who told you that there can't be male Slayers? ''The Watchers''.
444
445[[WMG: Xander is another female Slayer.]]
446The line diverged ''before'' Buffy drowned. Xander has been called as well. This is how 'he' can survive getting beaten and broken and stabbed in the eye and so forth. Everyone tolerates Xander's male delusion; it's harmless compared to, yanno, Angel going balls-evil.
447* Alternatively, Xander has girly parts. Faith and Anya never said anything because they are not transphobic. Anya's singing that "his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe" was indeed about Xander's genitals, she simply used the word penis rather than anything else, because that's what Xander calls his genitals. What they actually seem like is nobody else's business.
448*** Maybe he's an XXY carrier with Xander-shaped bits on one X and the Y and Slayer-y bits on the other X.
449*** That could make a good fanfic...
450*** There are RealLife conditions only seen in girls that are X-linked dominant with a lethal recessive form. For example, Rett Syndrome in girls causes an acquired form of severe autism, and in boys causes a severe degenerative brain disorder that kills them in infancy. It could be that being a Potential is genetically determined by an X-linked gene, which is fatal unless you have a normal allele as well - or else Potentials without a normal allele have something really bad happen if they're ever called (maybe they turn into a demon?). Therefore, an XXY guy would be just fine as a Slayer, but would never get called because the Slayer spell was designed to only call girls. Principal Wood could be an uncalled male Potential, which would explain why he managed to hold his own fighting vampires.
451* If this is the case, how did both the coven and Willow miss him when looking for Potentials in Season 7?
452** The Y chromosome shields him from detection-- the spell was only looking for fully-female Potentials.
453** Or they ''didn't'' miss him. They knew about him, specifically as a trans-male Potential. Willow must have presumably discussed it with him a long time ago and knew that he felt that including him in the Slayer line was dismissive of his own idea of his gender. They made the spell explicitly to exclude Xander from itself.
454
455[[WMG: Xander is a male carrier of the Slayer Gene.]]
456It's clearly X-linked, and males are called enough to get better-than-human damage resistance, but not enough to get any other part of the package, or be considered part of the line. This also explains his attraction to Slayers, especially Faith and Buffy: it's the Slayer spirit urging the production of more Slayers or carriers.
457* Or, Xander can be fully called, (maybe he's an XX man, maybe any of a hundred other reasons, whether real world things or supernatural reasons from the Buffyverse) and might even have been detected by the spell, but he either declined the empowering, or accepted it but kept his new Slayer abilities as lowkey as possible, for whatever reason. Maybe, like he said in his speech to Dawn, he finds it a lot easier to be underestimated as a "normal human", observing the enemy as they underestimate him, and only uses his Slayer power when he absolutely would fail to save the world if he did nothing.
458
459[[WMG: Xander deliberately avoids relationships with weaker women because he's afraid of becoming abusive.]]
460Xander is afraid that he will become an abuser like his father, and so deliberately avoids a relationship with Willow earlier on.
461* He's not oblivious to her crush on him, he's just scared that if he had a relationship with her it would turn abusive and she would do little or nothing to protest.
462* Xander has only had active crushes on/relationships with, women who are physically ''and'' mentally able to hurt him at least as badly as he could physically hurt them if not worse:
463** Buffy and Faith are Slayers, and either one would not hesitate to hit him back,
464** Cordelia is a major socialite who has a strong enough ego that she would hit back, tell everyone about him hitting her, and run him out of town.
465** By Season 3 [[spoiler: Willow]] is more than capable of defending herself with magic (although she would not be willing to hurt Xander, which is the other reason why he feels their relationship is "wrong").
466** Anya could take up her mantel as vengeance demon again.
467** [[spoiler: Dawn?]] Unless he had overcome his fear by this point
468*** [[spoiler: Buffy]] would kick his ass if he so much as put a finger on her.
469** He does seem a little off-kilter in Season 9, faced with the real world with out slaying and the such to take his mid off of domesticity.
470
471[[WMG: Buffy was hand-picked by the Powers That Be to be the Slayer as part of a GambitRoulette to replace the ineffective Watchers' Council with the more powerful Scooby Gang.]]
472Normally, the Slayer is picked at random from the few thousand or so Potential Slayers active at any time. However, the Powers That Be deliberately intervened to ensure that Buffy was picked over all the other Slayers because they knew she was different. They knew that Lothos would kill Merrick before he had a chance to "properly" train Buffy - she would learn on her own. They knew she would end up in Sunnydale (being from Los Angeles, she would inevitably be drawn towards the Hellmouth). They knew that Buffy would never accept orders from the Council - or anyone else. They knew she would recruit civilian allies who would become powerful warriors in their own right. Eventually, this would have led to a power play between the Watcher's Council and the Scooby Gang, which the Scoobies would win. This came to pass in "Checkpoint". It is likely, that had a new Slayer been called prior to the destruction of Sunnydale (say, if Faith had died in prison), the new Slayer would have been brought to Sunnydale.
473
474[[WMG: Twilight has a hold over [[spoiler:Riley]].]][[spoiler:Riley]]
475Think about it. The man's already [[spoiler:betrayed one military organisation for Buffy's sake]]. Why would you trust a guy who's done that to [[spoiler:be TheMole]]? Answer: Twilight has [[spoiler: Sam [[IHaveYourWife held hostage]] to ensure he remains a double agent]].
476* Or, alternatively, he's a triple-agent just pretending to be working with Twilight while loyal to the good guys.
477** For a minute, this looked like it would be about [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Cullens.]]
478*** Or ponies.
479
480[[WMG: Series/XenaWarriorPrincess was a Slayer.]]
481And/or
482* Buffy is one of Series/XenaWarriorPrincess's many incarnations
483* Faith is one of Series/XenaWarriorPrincess's many incarnations.
484** She's proactive and has the whole fall and redemption thing going on...
485** Buffy is one of ''Gabrielle's'' many incarnations! Sure, she's a Slayer, too, but that just means that most of her super-strength, combat training, and so on, are the result of an outside influence done with magic. Other than that, she's an entertainer (a bard when she was Gabrielle, then a cheerleader when she became Buffy) who instinctively wanted to cheer on other people for their physical prowess (Gabrielle wanted to write epic tales of Xena's heroic deeds, Buffy wants to be a cheerleader for her high school football team), but feels compelled when she sees a chance to contribute to heroics. (Gabrielle helps Xena in her heroic deeds, often finding some new heroics to get involved in. Buffy is only able to put up a token effort to resist her Slayer calling, before she finds a local vampire threat and accepts it as her life mission.) Xena was Gabrielle's canon soulmate, a dark haired woman who performed heroics as a method of redemption after doing some terrible things, turning all the skill and experience and physical abilities obtained from her evil past into assets for good. That is pretty much also Buffy's usual type...
486
487[[WMG:If Buffy turns evil, then Spike will be compelled to kill or redeem her, or else lose his soul.]]
488 Angel got his soul as a curse. Therefore, he loses his soul whenever it stops being a curse--that is, when it makes him happy.
489
490Spike got his soul "so Buffy can get what she deserves". So he should lose his soul if Buffy ever ''doesn't'' get what she deserves.
491* This would be considerably easier if he were still in regular contact with Buffy. Right now, it's possible that he could lose his soul and no one would even notice (since ensouled!Spike isn't as different from soulless!Spike as Angel is from Angelus).
492** Further confirmed by the comics. At one point Spike actually does lose his soul, and not only doesn't have any shift in personality, *he's still good.* Still capable of genuine emotion and still capable of making moral decisions, to the point where he outright does by giving the soul to Drusilla so she can find redemption. Of course, it doesn't stick long enough to see how a soulless Spike would act long term now, but still.
493* Alternatively, Buffy must always be miserable unless she turns evil, or else Spike will lose his soul. The stipulation here is that he has his soul so that "Buffy can get what she deserves", so if she ever DOES get what she deserves, the contract will be ended, and his soul returned to where it belongs (wherever that may be).
494** So, when someone finally punches her in the face and tells her to shove the general bullshit up her ass he'll lose his soul?
495* Spike's soul wasn't a curse or conditional in any way; he did trials to earn a wish and then wished for a soul, no strings attached. Presumably, he clarified off-screen specifically that he wanted a soul and not just the vague notion of "giving Buffy what she deserves". If he were that vague, it wouldn't particularly make sense for the demon who granted it to give him a soul--what Buffy deserves could be any number of things; it could be a normal life as a non-slayer, or her returning to heaven, etc. It's unlikely that the demon would conclude that "her ex-vampiric-sextoy ''she'' broke up with getting a soul" would be "what she deserves".
496
497[[WMG:Slayer healing abilities are not limited to physical injuries.]]
498They also extend to mental scars. All of the Scoobies are [[TheWoobie Woobies]] to some extent, but Buffy takes the cake. Yet none of the trauma she suffers ever lasts more than a few episodes. The exception is the scarring from her death and resurrection, but she even recovers from that by Season Seven. Apparently, Slayers are mentally tough as well as physically - which would make sense, given their job description.
499* It would also explain how Faith recovered from her coma. A normal human being would have remained in that coma forever.
500* This ability would presumably be linked to the endorphin rush slayers receive on dusting a vamp, or as Faith puts it, feeling "happy, hungry and horny."
501* The cause and effect could be reversed here, though. Slayers who don't have the resilience to deal with the sort of things they see die even sooner than average, and therefore don't get shows made about them.
502
503[[WMG: The Watcher's Council has been outright evil since forever]]
504They do their thing to knock off the competition. They do good as a propoganda machine. Saving the world means that there is a world for them to screw around with, like how Lex Luthor has assisted in saving the world because it's where he keeps all his stuff.
505* It would also explain so much more. When, for the first time in history, there are two Slayers, who shows up? First, a psychopathic nutjob who faked being a new Watcher because of a paperwork error. Sure. Uh huh. Nobody calls to say 'Hey, Giles, one of our female watchers went insane'. Then the person they DO send is an ineffectual loser who nearly wets his pants in his first fight.
506* It also would explain the homicidal mania they display if a Slayer has an eighteenth birthday.
507* Heck The Watcher's Council is almost certainly going out of their way to make the Slayer ineffective. In fact...
508
509[[WMG: The True Purpose of The Watcher's Council is to Prevent the Slayer From Becoming Powerful]]
510And they might be working for The First. Everything they have ever done has been to prevent Buffy from making a move she knows she ought to from the start, and they never seem to do anything to help her unless she uses considerable pressure. A few Watchers were chosen to join the council and establish a pretense of being good protectors of The Slayer, chosen because the council believes they will be inefficient in preparing The Slayer for her duties.
511
512[[WMG: The Watcher's Council is (Partially) a Fraud]]
513The Watcher's Council was one of many occult orders founded by self-interested Victorian would-be wizards in the late 19th century. Unlike most, they gained power and prominence for successfully finding real occult knowledge. Then, they lucked out big time, and discovered either the Slayer Line, or the means to create/activate it. Getting their hands on a form of mystic champion they could control put them over the top. The whole story about the origins of the Slayer and how the Watcher's Council exists to aid her in fighting evil? Mostly invented, for the benefit of better controlling the Slayer. Also why they try to kill off Slayers that get to old; younger Slayers are easier to control. The handful of decent Watchers are basically dupes, who joined the organization off their propaganda and haven't been told the real truth of why the order exists: the power and profit of its inner circle.
514
515[[WMG: The Cruciamentum is necessary and has grading scales.]]
516The Cruciamentum is in fact a test that all in-the-field Watchers and the mercenaries they hire to deal with vampires must go through.
517* Giles was looked down upon by other Watchers because he was the only one to survive his out of his peers and did not even manage to defeat the demon.
518* Just as Slayers have strong physical capabilities and can use most weapons instinctively, so can they pick up many ways of thinking and knowledge easily. The Cruciamentum is meant to stimulate their minds and get them thinking, and allow them to access their mental potential
519** Alternately, the whole point of the experience is to inoculate Slayers against the drug used for the Cruciamentum, and the whole vampire part is just to get the substance infused in their whole body, possibly in some chemical reaction with the adrenaline.
520* In terms of grading scales, if a Slayer did very well against the vampire and had survived until her eighteenth birthday, then it was clear that she would be around for long enough for the council to invest a fair sum of money in her and they would be now be able to legally do so, since she was no longer a minor.
521
522[[WMG: Kennedy knew about Willow's sexuality before they even met.]]
523In "The Killer In Me", Kennedy describes the process of figuring out a girl's sexuality ("flirting in code"). The process she describes is slow. But Kennedy was coming on to Willow pretty quickly, and Willow couldn't have been giving off a lot of signals without us noticing. Most likely, Giles briefed the Potentials on the situation in Sunnydale on the way over, and either told them about Tara or simply mentioned that Willow was lesbian.
524** Or he told that to them to see who would bunk with her because they might find it awkward.
525
526[[WMG: One of the minor Slayer powers is the ability to function without sleep.]]
527Throughout her career, Buffy is shown as getting by with very little sleep. In the first three seasons, she usually gets back from patrol well after midnight, but she manages to get up in the morning for school after what can't be more than a few hours of sleep. It is also unlikely that she compensates by sleeping in on weekends - Joyce would have noticed if Buffy was normally getting up at around three in the afternoon on Saturday. More likely, the most important functions of sleep - healing and processing of nutrients - are taken care of by Slayer healing. Buffy needs sleep mostly for psychological reasons.
528* In Season Seven, the Potentials are shown as talking all night, leading to Xander's comment that "Potentials can get by without sleep". This comment may have been in jest, or it may have been a reflection of reality. Perhaps even Potentials have the ability to function with minimal sleep.
529* In conjunction with the "Slayers are humans mixed with Vampire power" theory above, this might explain why Vampires get their sleep at night, despite being nighttime creatures. They only need a little, and at that time of night, nobody is around anyway.
530
531[[WMG: Potential Slayers aren't chosen by fate. They just fit the profile.]]
532The gist of this theory is that it takes a certain mix of physical and mental characteristics to handle Slayer power, beyond being female. All the Potentials, and all the girls activated in "Chosen", seem to fit a certain physical profile - adolescent, good physical shape. Beyond that, there is probably a common set of mental traits that Slayers must have, probably including bravery, mental fortitude, good instincts, and a spine of steel. Most people wouldn't be tough enough to handle what the Potentials do; but they do it, only breaking down under extreme stress. In the end, there are only a couple thousand people in the world who meet all these requirements.
533* There may be a gene that Potentials all share. If they have that gene and fit the criteria, the power goes to them.
534* Hypothetically, it could be possible to identify a Potential without magic but with a battery of sophisticated physical and psychological tests.
535* This could tie in to how the Watchers locate Potentials. They've infiltrated the psychiatric community, and altered the majority of common psychological tests to pick up on traits that might indicate a Potential. If a girl fits the profile, she's flagged for further investigation, probably involving magic.
536** Or maybe there is a secret test, hidden in UsefulNotes/SATs...
537* The age requirement probably only applies to the ability to receive the power. At least three Slayers made it to their early twenties with no loss of powers (Buffy, Faith, and Nikki Wood).
538** And odds are, more would have if the Watchers hadn't had a policy of killing 18-year-old Slayers.
539
540[[WMG: Tara was an evil force in human form]]
541From the first moment she showed up, Tara preoccupied Willow; and she was the one who really got her into magic. Without Tara, Willow would have come close to being the powerful witch she wound up as; but we saw how Willow fell over the edge in season 6. That was Tara's intention all along, to turn Willow evil. Note how Willow never had displayed any attraction to females before she met Tara, then turned exclusively lesbian - Tara has [[CharmPerson psychological powers]] and tapped into Willow's brain and enhanced her attraction to women and depleted her attraction to men. She also does this to Oz, making him angry enough about Willow & Tara to turn into a werewolf about it - henceforth ruining his chance at getting Willow back and eliminating him as competition.
542
543Tara may have ''intentionally'' screwed up the 'you will not see' spell to wreck everything for the Scoobies. While her family were sexist bastards, Tara thought they had figured out what she was; her smile at the end of ''Family'' was not happiness at having people care about her, but a smug smirk of victory. Beth's obsessive belief of what her family says about the women in it could be put down to Beth having some idea of Tara's true nature, and the 'demon' thing has an easy justification.
544
545Tara leaves Willow when the magic addiction gets out of hand, and this is ''said'' to be her trying not to get hurt. But it could be Tara trying to mess with Willow's head and make her even worse, spiraling the magic thing out of hand. For a couple of episodes, it works. They get back together when Willow seems to be doing better... only for Tara to die next episode. Coincidence? Tara organized her "death" (which was probably more like going back to whatever evil dimension she came from) simply to push Willow completely over the edge, which [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds worked.]] Her psychological powers may have been what convinced Warren to come after Buffy, and shoot Tara (an accident, but she still could have manipulated it).
546
547Plus, she's [[BitchInSheepsClothing so goddamn nice, she has to be evil.]]
548
549* Plus, in "Conversations with Dead People" the First Evil takes the form of Cassie when talking to Willow - not Tara's form. Ever wondered why? The First Evil can only assume the form of persons who have died. Tara is not dead, so the First Evil couldn't take her form. Tara just returned to some evil demon dimension where she came from.
550** No theory in which Tara was not human (particularly a demon) has any chance of being true, because Spike's chip went off when he hit her as a test. That meant there was no demon in her. We all know that the [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real reason]] that Tara could not be shown in CWDP was Amber Benson's unwillingness to play The First-as-Tara. That doesn't mean of course that we can't search for subtext in what was actually shown, such as Tara having ascended to a higher plane after death (as Cordelia temporarily did, but without the death)...but Spike's chip shows that Tara was not a demon.
551*** In the same episode ("Family") Spike said that he does not care what happens to Tara. However he has an apparent change of heart and hits her to find out she is human - thereby helping her. Why should Spike help Tara? Consider this: Spike *faked* the pain. He knew that Tara was an evil thing, not a human being, but when his chip did not fire, he decided to trick the Scoobies. He probably also knew that Tara was going after Willow and decided to take a step back and watch what happens, just for the lulz. Sure, Spike has been changing a lot through the seasons and eventually he really falls in love with Buffy. But does Spike like Willow? I don't think so. Does he like it when Willow suffers? Quite possibly so. Does he see Willow as an obstacle between himself and Buffy? Likely. Don't forget that Spike tried to kill Willow (4th season) only to find out they put the chip in his head. Helping Tara to maintain her disguise was the natural thing to do if you wanted to harm Willow. With Spike hitting Tara and seemingly proving that she was not a demon, the Scoobies thought it futile to test Tara's "demonishness" more thoroughly. Big mistake.
552*** Also, the chip may not be infallible. After Buffy's resurrection Spike was able to hit her. This didn't mean she was a demon, just that whatever quality the chip picked up on Buffy was reading as demon after her resurrection in spite of not being a demon (presumably... though I know there are theories to the contrary). The chip was built by The Initiative based around their knowledge presumably to detect some "human quality" or possibly to detect some "demon quality" and therefore to differentiate between the two. Either way, The Initiative didn't have a complete knowledge of the supernatural elements of the Buffy Universe. It's entirely possible for Tara to either possess some quality they thought only humans have (maybe she's even possessing a human body) or to lack some quality they though all demons had while still not being human (though personally I still like her).
553
554[[WMG: Xander has a subconscious [[DeathSeeker deathwish.]]]]
555He's basically so determined to fight the evil despite logic that it comes off as strange. ''The Zeppo'' is full of evidence for this: he seemed to have jumped directly in the demon's path for no reason. Buffy and Faith say outright that he'll get himself killed, and he seems okay with their saying it. He also avoids telling the others about the zombie issues, not even a passing mention - did he want to face it alone, where he had way worse of a chance?
556* It could also be interpreted as a desire to help his friends and a lack of training. He didn't tell them about the zombies because they were busy preventing the apocalypse and wanted him kept out of it.
557
558Also, in the bomb scene, he seems almost ''stalling'' with all his talk to Jack. He also seems slightly taken aback when Jack dismantles the bomb. Hell, he says outright: "I like the quiet."
559* I don't think he expected his plan to work. Also a psychological attack does take time. In that case the "I like the quiet" line makes more sense.
560
561''Restless'' contains a few hints too, with Dream!Giles calling Film/ApocalypseNow, which is probably meant to be a metaphor for Xander's life or just ''life'', "overrated". Also, Dream!Joyce offering him "rest", which could mean god knows how many things. Even in ''Grave'', he puts himself in the most dangerous situation possible - standing between a uber-powerful witch hellbent on global destruction and the same global destruction. He wanted to save the world and his friend; but he seems almost [[SuicideByCop ''baiting'' her to make her attack him]], so did he want to save himself?
562* Another thing to note is something David Fury said. [[WordOfGod According to him]], Xander's soldier skills, obtained in "Halloween", have faded from lack of use. Fair enough; Xander rarely handles anything gun-like after that episode. Unfortunately, people seem to forget that he had a competent level of hand-to-hand combat skill. This also fades, bringing him to his lowest point, his slap-fight with Harmony. That's right, he let a useful skill deteriorate despite constantly being in the fray. He's either a creative DeathSeeker, has MediumAwareness and is going for comedy [[ButtMonkey at his own expense]], or is ''trying'' to be TheMillstone.
563* In "Grave" the only way to make her stop is to force her to acknowledge an emotion other than pure rage. Xander did that when no other chacter could, by literally asking to be the first to die. His plan leads to either saving the world, or not, and his dying or not, and he's happy with either result on the latter choice.
564* He willingly sleeps outside on Christmas when he knows better. I think we can safely strike "subconsious" off this guess.
565** Or maybe he just considers various demons to be better company that his drunk parents.
566
567All the mentioned above are the most likely result of deep psychological issues involving his self-worth generated by above said drunk parents. He values his friends and wants to be of some use even if it means dying in the process if it can prove to himself that he isn't a useless waste of space. He probably was goading Dark Willow into an attack on him in the hopes that his heroic sacrifice would not only save the world but keep one of his friends from ever falling to darkness again.
568
569[[WMG: Anya created the second Hellmouth in Cleveland through Cordelia's wish.]]
570In the Season 3 episode, "The Wish," Anya created an alternate reality where "Buffy Summers never came to Sunnydale," as Cordelia wished. To make this happen, there had to be a reason for Buffy to not go there, since the PowersThatBe would have compelled the Slayer to go to the Hellmouth to fight its evil. The answer: have the Hellmouth be somewhere else. The problem was that this would seriously [[TemporalParadox disrupt the time stream]]; Sunnydale was built where it was by Mayor Wilkins centuries ago ''because'' there was a Hellmouth there. The best way to grant Cordelia's wish ''and'' maintain a StableTimeLoop was to create ''another'' Hellmouth for Buffy to be sent to by the Powers. In the series finale, "Chosen," we learn from Giles that the Hellmouth in Cleveland exists in that reality too. So this part of the wish wasn't limited to the "Wishverse."
571
572[[WMG: Willow accidentally stole a part of Giles' soul when she stole his borrowed magic]]
573Hence his horrible CharacterDerailment in season 7. Willow took the "true" magic from him, which comes from the essence of humanity; when she did that, she took some of his humanity. (She does turn into the mentor figure of the group.) Giles knew this would happen when he decided to dose her with the true magic. That's what he meant when he told Anya he was dying - he wasn't ''physically'' dying, but the Giles she and the gang knew would soon be gone.
574
575[[WMG: Spike is homophobic]]
576Think about it. Whenever other vampires suggest 'feeding' off males, he freaks out. His hatred for Angel comes from that one time; Angel remembers and wouldn't let him forget it. This explains the numerous poofter comments about Angel beyond simple insults.
577* It's also possible that Angelus raped him "that one time," and that resulted in his homophobia. It makes sense because Angelus was big on rape, and Spike was tame as far as vampires go before he joined the Scourge of Europe.
578** If there was any fic going with this premise, somebody should totally link it.
579** However, when Spike mentions "that one time", it sounds off-hand and nothing to really be concerned with, nothing traumatic like rape.
580*** This troper firmly believes that after a certain amount of time Spike would merely cease to care. Or at least make a show of doing so. (And if you've formed enough of a... psychological callus, I guess, around the subject, it's not impossible to make light of being raped.)
581** It's pretty canon that Spike and Angel basically see each other as each others' little/big brother in a weird sort of way. They have a vitriolic but still weirdly affectionate relationship, they're rivals, but they don't fully hate each other for the most part. Spike only grew to despise Angelus in S2 because he had stolen Spike's girlfriend and was openly lording it over him, but he was initially pretty thrilled Angelus was back. The bromance the show depicts doesn't gel at all with the idea that Spike is somehow Angelus' victim of rape, Spike resents him simply for taking Dru. His "Poof" and "Peaches" nicknames are just him trying to piss Angel off by playing against Angel's broody badass persona with cutesy nicknames. It's not that deep y'all.
582* ''"Whenever other vampires suggest 'feeding' off males, he freaks out"'' - um, when did this happen?
583** Joss has explicitly said that neither Angel or Spike had any such prejudices, and the implied liaison was consensual, if it happened at all.
584** Spike has sired at least one male vampire, Holden Webster.
585*** Two. Billy Fordham as well.
586*** There were definitely a couple more men in that basement in season 7, granted he was under mind control so it's probably not the best indicator.
587** The fact that Spike never once showed any sort of negitive reaction to Tara & Willow's relationship points to the fact that he isn't homophobic. When he first found out, he quite literally shrugged it off and proceeded to go about his business.
588** Yeah, I'm going to agree with Spike isn't homophobic, just because he doesn't want to bite a male human. I mean if someone asked a straight man to sleep with another man, and then called him homophobic for not doing so, doesn't really work. Of course Spike doesn't want to feed off other males, ''that's not his orientation.''
589*** And that's ''if'' Spike ever expressed such distaste, because I certainly don't remember that. What I do remember is that Spike ''has'' fed off of men, he did so in literally the first episode he appeared in and when TheBusCameBack for him in season 4; he ate the two guys that were with Sheila when he seduced her to bring her to Drusilla, and both had a man chained in his crypt for eating, as well as a male victim at the college party. In general, it's probably just much more reliable for vamps to go after victims of a different gender than themselves as seduction is an easy way to get someone alone and they'd be able to prey on both straight and bi/pan people that way, which will be the majority population in most cases. When Spike's ''not'' using seduction to feed, he doesn't seem to care who it is and will take a bite out of whoever. Food is food.
590*** He never expressed any distate of the kind. The OP straight-up imagined that.
591
592[[WMG: Tara is tied to 'The Key'/Dawn somehow]]
593Glory herself mistook her for it. She always seemed bonded with Dawn; when she died, Dawn's response was a physical breakdown - she didn't move for what must have been hours, possibly even a night. The timing is also suspicious - Tara appears the year before Dawn does and dies the year after the business with Glory ends. In ''Restless'', Tara plays the cryptic mentor, giving foreshadowing of Dawn's arrival: "Be back before Dawn".
594* Yeah, Tara and Dawn have a connection. It's just not mystical, it's the fact that when Buffy died Tara basically became Dawn's mommy. And then she died. So that's three mother figures that have died in a row. Not to mention this one in particular she finds in a pool of blood in her own home. You'd be traumatized too.
595
596[[WMG: When Dawn dies, another person will be created to be 'The Key']]
597The Key seems like something eternal; it's not going to be destroyed. But Dawn is human and will live out a human life. When she dies, it has to go somewhere. It is now bound to our world and human form; so upon losing one, it creates another. However, as it's not guided by the monks anymore, the creation will probably not be done so well - not created into a family like Dawn's, things like that. 'The Key' will probably wind up being the new ChosenOne for the magical world.
598
599Alternatively...
600
601[[WMG: Dawn cannot die a natural death]]
602As mentioned before, for this theory, the Key cannot be destroyed. The ritual Glory performed would make it lose its human form, but not destroy ''it''. Apart from this ritual, the Key will stay around, and it will stay in its human form - Dawn. We do see her age over the 3 years she's on the show, and the human form of the key does seem ''completely'' human, following human processes - so this human incarnation will reach early adulthood, then remain immortal.
603
604[[WMG: Memory spell caused Joyce's brain tumour.]]
605* Monks of Dagon cast the memory spell to plant fake memories about Dawn. After being mind-raped, Joyce catches brain-cancer. Coincidence???
606** I was just about to post this, looks like I got beaten to the punch ages ago. It makes sense; while the spell affected a lot of people, it effected Joyce the most; it had to rewrite a TON of her memories, far more than anyone else except for Buffy, who's a Slayer and can handle it better. The modification of 14 years of memories was a lot for her brain to handle, and so a tumor formed. Willow and Xander are fine because they only had a few years of memories rewritten, and most of the past few years wouldn't have focused a lot on Dawn anyway, so not nearly as much had to be changed.
607** I'm sorry, 'catches brain cancer'? It's not a cold...
608* Monks' spell is clearly related to Glory's forget spell and Jonathan's ''Superstar'' spell.
609
610
611[[WMG: Darla was a slayer when she was alive]]
612Vampires tend to be the inverse of the people they were in life. Drusilla was innocent and completely tormented as a human, devious but happy as a vampire. William was weak and timid as human; Spike is brash and headstrong. Liam was full of human weaknesses, and Angelus had no humanity in him. Harmony was petty and cruel as human, and ''nice'' as a vampire.
613
614One thing we notice about Darla is that she rarely uses violence to secure her victims, preferring to lure them - completely opposite to a slayer.
615
616In the flashback of her turning in ''Darla'', she doesn't seem shocked to see The Master in full vamp face. He seems to have sought her out to turn into a vampire, which he would not do if there was not something special about her. Making a slayer a vampire seems like a good recipe to make a powerful vampire.
617
618She appears to have no memory of her human life or name. She may have repressed these memories because of the dissonance between her lives, and to try to get rid of any leftover instincts telling her to destroy vampires, including herself.
619
620Her breakdown when returning to human is odd, since it doesn't seem to be from guilt or anything one would expect to come with a soul. This is the return of all those slayer instincts, telling her to destroy vampires, which still includes her by her way of thinking.
621
622She also doesn't seem to lose much strength on her return to human form; vampire strength is replaced by slayer strength. She is the first vampire we ever see on [=BtVS=], which should mean something. In the end, both times she dies, she is killed by a vampire, not the Slayer or any human: She's killed by Angel in ''Angel'' and by herself in ''Lullaby''.
623* It's actually implied in the Angel episode "Epiphany" that she was a prostitute. Which of course doesn't rule out her being a Slayer, but still.
624** A profession where she goes out mainly at night in the "wrong part of town"? It's the perfect cover!
625
626Plus, it'd [[RuleOfCool be cool]].
627* In some expanded universe materials of questionable canonicity, the Master turned a Japanese Slayer named Yuki Makimura a few years after he sired Darla (which could be indicative of a pattern); and there is a space of a few months between Yuki and the known Slayer before her in which the identity of the Slayer is unknown. However, a lot of this comes from material which is not officially canon but does not directly contradict canon, so take it with a grain of salt.
628
629[[WMG: Dawn is not actually in Season 6 or 7. She sacrificed herself at the end of Season 5]]
630
631 When Dawn sacrificed herself to save the world, Buffy couldn't deal with this last loss and went into catatonia for a summer - the summer she spent "dead". When she was awake again, she created an elaborate fantasy where she saved Dawn. However, how much she hated herself for what happened to Dawn crept in; hence how angsty things got in the last two seasons. All her friends do horrible things (Willow's FaceHeelTurn, Xander leaving Anya at the altar, Anya's return to vengeance) because she blames them for what happened to Dawn as well. "Normal Again" is her subconscious hinting to her conscious mind what has happened, but more blame issues (towards her friends) interfere. Buffy's delusions paint a picture of Dawn living a normal life, not being "the key" anymore; but Buffy does not believe she could ever take care of Dawn properly, hence Dawn's isolation and kleptomania in season 6.
632
633By season 7, Buffy is starting to forgive herself and everyone else for Dawn's fate; hence everyone's morality improving - Willow's return from the dark side, Anya's return from vengeance, Spike gaining his soul - and herself, living again.
634
635The Big Bads for seasons 6 and 7 are both symbols of what caused Dawn's death. Willow is their not defeating Glory in time, failing to save her. The First is simply the big mystical force of death. Death follows in the delusions, hence Tara - Buffy may not even have known Tara had regained her sanity before Dawn's death, giving extra meaning to that choice for a death. Willow in season 6 is picked to commit the worst crimes because of the magic, which Buffy no longer trusts because of the magical ritual and portal that led to Dawn dying. When the Potentials are activated, it means, for Buffy, that she will be less of an evil-apocalyptic-demon-magnet and not so special - and henceforth give Dawn a safer life. Buffy may or may not recover from her insanity.
636* This makes a lot more sense than one of the newer theories that Buffy has always been in delusions. Buffy just isn't creative enough to craft 7+ years worth of fake memories but if 5 of those years had been real and then she became insane it would make more sense because she already had enough knowledge of real demons to basically make up a few instances later.
637** One problem with both of those theories. ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Why? Because, Buffy isn't creative enough to create Angel Seasons 3, 4, and 5. Especially 5. Not to mention the fact she still hated Faith as of S5. Faith being turned to to save the day and becoming one of the good guys...plus the fact that Buffy would have had to create a few of his flashbacks, and the whole UsefulNotes/WW2 thing doesn't seem like her kind of thing, plus the whole weird Illyria time flashing thingy.
638** Going with this whole theory, it's possible that Buffy's hallucinations of Season Six and onward were in 'real time'. While it makes sense Buffy probably wouldn't think-up ''Series/{{Angel}}'' Seasons 3, 4, and 5, Buffy's opinion of people could have changed over time. After Dawn dies, Buffy hates herself and even the others for failing to save her, thus all the CharacterDerailment in S6 (although why Dawn went through some is a little strange). She didn't really get to know Tara, so she was the only one who couldn't go through derailment. However, ultimately, Tara was [[BuryYourGays killed]] because Buffy didn't want herself or Willow to be happy. By SeasonSeven, however, Buffy begins to forgive everyone, even Spike and Faith. Of course, since she's so used to death but didn't want any of her friends to die, she came up with the RedShirtArmy, the Potentials. Spike probably died because she never really stopped hating him or her hate was enhanced by Spike's AttemptedRape of her, even if it was just one of her hallucinations.
639** Actually [[WordofGod Joss]] thinks that Buffy was creative enough to make the whole thing up plus all of Angel. According to him though, the delusions were in fact from ''Normal Again'.
640
641[[WMG: Buffy's life is a delusion created by the First]]
642A fairly new theory is that Buffy's adventures always took place in her head and that none of it is real. The problem with those theories is that Buffy has never shown much creativity and so it is unlikely that she'd have the ability to invent an entire life that detailed for herself. What happened is that she was activated as a Slayer and she did burn down her school gym. The First realized that Buffy would be an ultra powerful slayer but he couldn't risk letting a new slayer get chosen, so he put Buffy into a state of delusion. All the adventures that would've happened to her happened in her head which allowed her to think that she was fulfilling her goal. Meanwhile, the Watcher's Council went crazy trying to find the Slayer while the Master and the Mayor divided Sunnydale between them, the Initiative fell due to these two unstoppable forces fighting against them, Angel retreated to LA because he couldn't fight alone, Glory got to the Key and used her armies to conquer the world before Dark Willow cleansed all other evils from the earth. Ultimately the First made a deal with Dark Willow and the two ruled over earth for eternity. All the while Buffy continued to be a mental patient who never realized her potential.
643* I doubt the Master would ever strike a deal with the Mayor. The Mayor might have approached the Master, I just doubt the Master would agree to it, thus making the Mayor send someone to kill the Master. Glory didn't want to conquer the world; she just wanted to go home, but that would release all sorts of demons into the world. If Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, there would be no Dark Willow. Just Vamp Willow, who would be under the Master's rule anyway. The First would not have been able to build an army without Buffy being brought back to life. So there'd just be the Mayor and Glory who won. MAYBE the Master. If the Mayor hadn't already disposed of him.
644** You mean the Master and or Glory who won. It seems self evident that in the Wish the Mayor was dead or dealt with. Before the count down to Ascending a he was simply ageless not invulnerable. Master comes up and kills him dead. Glory is a wild card here because honestly there lots of places to hide a key that less conspicious.
645*** Solid point that it seems self evident that as of year three it seems the Master would have won without challenge. We don't know the limits to what the Key could be made into. I assume there is a reason it wasn't made into say a satelite. If it was made into ANYTHING kept on earth the snake spell would have worked to locate it. Thing is who knows what the Master would have done in that situation. He seems pragmatic enough that he might have opened the portal, let Glory go home and kill/destroy the key and be done with it. The kink in the hose for me is what reason do we have to believe the Initiative wouldn't have still created Adam and either A hoped to control him (Maggie Walsh was a lot of things but suicidal and stupid weren't on the list) or B much like in many Godzilla flicks cut him loose anyway thinking the situation can't get any worse?
646[[WMG:Buffy's life is actually a novel or series of novels written by Dawn.]]
647While Buffy may not be creative enough to invent her detailed life, Dawn probably is. Having moved to a new town at the age of ten or so, isolated and probably socially awkward, she creates a fictional alter ego for herself. Older, prettier, and supernaturally powerful, Buffy (a name that would probably seem appealing to a ten year old) is [[InformedAbility supposed to be]] cool and popular, and yet is suspiciously unable to choose the right outfit for a party, because ''Dawn'' would have no idea what to wear. Her only friends are sweet but dorky, possibly based on people in Dawn's real life social circle.
648
649Eventually, Dawn begins to view all this as OldShame. (Note the burning of years' worth of diaries upon the discovery that Dawn is the Key.) Not ready to give it up, she tries to improve the series by introducing new characters and settings and a more impressive villain, and by changing Willow from a shy nerd to a [[DarkerandEdgier badass lesbian witch]]. (She portrays more and more magic use, possibly having gotten into schoolgirl Wicca on the side. Also she clearly doesn't understand homosexuality yet.) She also writes herself in (as [[AuthorAvatar herself]], not her [[MarySue idealized]] big sister) and falls into many of the traps common to writers at that age--Dawn-the-character is the sort-of long-lost sister of the main character, mysterious and more than she seems, the center of everyone's attention with the fate of the world in her hands, which is supposed to result in her death but doesn't. Spike is friendly with her and allows PG romantic tension with the most attractive (to a young teen) character, and even Glory is nice to her toward the end ([[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments hilariously]]).
650
651[[WMG:The Buffyverse version of Creator/JossWhedon is a member of the Scooby organization in the Season Eight comics]]
652In "The Long Way Home", we see a Slayer reading Joss's ''Fray'' comic. Therefore, ''Fray'' exists in the Buffyverse. However, the comic itself was written by someone with detailed knowledge of the Slayers and the scythe. The chances of someone outside the organization having that knowledge are virtually nil.
653* In addition, he also wrote "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" in order to help obfuscate the existance of an actual Vampire Slayer named Buffy, and to give hope to people who have encountered demons.
654Most likely, the Buffyverse Joss is a warlock or technician who works for Buffy. He wrote ''Fray'' in his spare time, and it is published exclusively within the organization.
655* Note: It's the panel where Andrew complains about being bored while three Slayers play strip poker in the background. A fourth is farther back, reading it.
656* Or perhaps he fell through the universes and is our Joss.
657
658[[WMG:Harmony is amazing in bed]]
659There's no other reason why Spike would have tolerated her for that long.
660* She was a cheerleader and the second most popular girl in the most popular clique in the school. All this adds up to Harmony being a sexpert
661** Makes sense, as stated above, Spike put up with her for that long. Furthermore, Hamilton looked ''awfully'' satisfied after bedding her towards the end of Angel S5.
662
663[[WMG:Drusilla went by another name as a human]]
664It's unlikely that a girl from a normal 19th-century English family would be named after Caligula's sister. Also, the others in the Scourge of Europe took new names as vampires. Darla was named by the Master, then Angelus picked up on his little sister thinking he'd returned from the grave as an angel and chose to go by the new name of Angelus. Spike, we know, was a name that Spike was given for his old habit of torturing people with spikes from railroad construction.
665
666[[WMG:Faith is a [[{{Series/Dollhouse}} Doll]] who went off assignment]]
667The Council found out that Echo was the new Slayer. Rather than try to take on the Dollhouse (a powerful organization), they paid a hefty sum to have her put out on indefinite assignment. They trained Echo's current handler as her Watcher while the Council researched ways to transfer the Slayer power to someone else. Faith's entire backstory is invented. Topher was given a little too much leeway on that part and built in her street origins to give her additional combat instincts.
668
669The problem occurred when Kakistos killed Faith's Watcher/handler and Faith ran. Without the handler, there was no way to recover Echo. The Dollhouse gave up and charged the Watchers an additional astronomical sum for the loss of their Doll.
670
671[[WMG:Faith is a [[{{Series/Dollhouse}} Doll]] ON assignment]]
672Wolfram & Hart contracted with The Rossum Corporation to imprint Echo as a slayer and send her to gather intelligence about The Scoobies, and later Angel, for them.
673
674[[WMG:Kendra is a [[{{Series/Dollhouse}} Doll]]]]
675In fact, that is what happens to all Potentials that the Watcher find. They get shipped off to the {{Series/Dollhouse}} and given the "Slayer" programming, along with enough of a background to keep them from standing out too much.
676* This explains why she had NoSocialSkills and only one shirt.
677* The Rossum Corporation is just one of the Watchers' Council's front organizations and the Dollhouse was originally designed specifically for programming Slayers with combat skills near-instantaneously.
678** Rather, someone discovered the Dollhouse, and told the Watchers' Council how it could be a ''massive'' money-maker.
679*** That same someone was the first Doll.
680* Also, the Cruciamentum is only given to Slayers who were not found before their activation (see above), and it is set up for the Slayer to fail it. When she does, the Watchers say that she died, use some technique to temporarily kill her and then revive her, and pack her off to the Dollhouse or their own private facilities of the same sort somewhere else to be "reprogrammed" and voilà! Another loyal Slayer.
681
682[[WMG:Slayers cannot be turned]]
683Think about it. There is nothing in canon to indicate that any Slayers were ever turned. We see some vampires planning to turn a Slayer, but we've never heard of a Slayer who ''did'' get turned. Most likely, the Slayer demon reacts badly to the vampire demon, causing the Slayer to simply stay dead. Any vampires that tried to turn a Slayer and failed probably wrote it off as a botched turning.
684* Well, there was a Slayer in Japan who got turned by the Master, but Joss didn't write her, so it isn't canon.
685** What about Harth then? He's at least half a slayer.
686*** Something went wrong with the reactivation of the Slayer line.
687* Unlikely. Buffy briefly becomes a vampire in season one because of that psychic kid. Giles likely would have mentioned it if that was otherwise impossible.
688** Means nothing. They were in a terrible rush, Giles didn't have time for a biology lesson at the time. Not to mention the scene cuts out shortly thereafter. Notice Buffy never mentioned that fear again. Likely Giles did tell her it was impossible and she got over it.
689* In season 2 of Buffy, Angel plans to tortue Buffy and turn her, and in Fray, the slayer powers were split between two people(one with the physical powers and one with the metnal powers) and one of them was turned. Given this, it seems unlikely that they are immune.
690* Jossed in the season 9 comics. Slayer can indeed be turned.
691
692[[WMG:Ampata from "Inca Mummy Girl" was a slayer]]
693Oh, c'mon. She was a ChosenOne who described herself "one girl in all the world"... The writers obviously want us to think this.
694
695[[WMG: Caleb was a Hell God like Glory]]
696He's just as [[ImplacableMan Implacable]] as she was, and we are never told what he is. Also, there's the irony of the religious God - the religious ''evil'' god, for that matter. The scythe was like Olaf's hammer, connected to a power older and greater; it could defeat even Caleb/Glory.
697* Caleb's power comes from the First. Notice that he was stronger when he did that melding thing with it in the episode "End of Days," and he spoke like they had done it before.
698
699[[WMG:''Ted'' was the first sign of Buffy's insanity, as seen in ''Normal Again'']]
700It's straightforward. Ted threatens to have her committed; Buffy freaks out and kills him. That was her subconsciously trying to break out of the fantasy. When it's revealed that he's a robot, that's just another level of delusion she creates to protect herself.
701* Another variant: Ted was one of the few characters who, like Joyce, is a real person and not one of Buffy's hallucinations. Buffy was being briefly released from the institution and met her mother's new boyfriend Ted. Ted realized that Buffy still believed in her hallucinations. Naturally, the result of this is that Buffy began to be paranoid about Ted's intentions, and attack him, and believe that he was a robot. When Buffy attacked Ted, she was put back in the institution.
702** However, it's shown in ''Normal Again'' that if Buffy did indeed have a mental breakdown, her parents never divorced, and remained married until at least Season 6.
703*** It's possible she dated Ted when on a trial separation, a daughter who was institutionalized is sure to be a major strain on any marriage.
704** I don't think so. If any of the hallucinations were real then they would have carried over into other episodes. Picture [[Anime/CowboyBebop Toys in the Attic]] where the crew hallucinate a monster killing them all and we get a picture that it was Buffy just reacting to the poison, courtesy of The TrioJoss trying to BreakTheCutie. [[CosmicPlaything Again]].
705
706[[WMG:Cordelia was a Potential]]
707Think about it. She is brave (mostly), she never backs down, she seems to attract trouble of a supernatural variety, and she stops rationalising the supernatural away quickly. She stood up to Lyle Gorch, got mistaken for Faith in the same episode, and feels a bond with Buffy even though she doesn't have much in common with her. Also, Xander and Angel both fall for her, and we know that they both like Slayers. Nobody ever found out because, by the time Buffy activated all the Potentials, she was [[Series/{{Angel}} in a coma; but the infusion of Slayer power was what allowed the Powers That Be to let her come back to help Angel one last time.]]
708
709This means that poor Xander has never had a girlfriend that wasn't SOME sort of magical creature.
710** After Cordelia became part-demon, then 'ascended', and then was possessed by Jasmine, that ceased to be true in any event.
711
712[[WMG:Bloodline makes a difference for vampires]]
713Most vampires are dispatched fairly easily by Buffy or even mere mortals. However, a number of Vampires put up a much better fight, nearly matching the Slayer and other luminaries. These vampires are Angel, Spike, Darla and Drusila. All of them are descendants of The Master, who was the only creature to ever kill Buffy. The Master was tougher than other vampires, and his brood were naturally tougher as well.
714* The Master also bears a definite resemblance to the First Evil's "pure" uber-vamps. That would imply that he was one of the first vampires and thus his blood is less "corrupted" by humanity. So his descendants, being 2nd- or 3rd-generation vamps while most are probably something like 1000th-generation, explains why they're so much stronger.
715** The Master can speak while the ubervamps seemingly can't so he's not one of them but he might be a close descendent. Say, 2 generations removed from the ubervamps.
716* The "bloodlines matter" theory would also explain why some vampires seem capable of emotions beyond self-interest and hate, but others are basically cannon fodder. The Master's line tends to throw vamps who are more emotional, better fighters and are smarter. Think about it - Dru and Spike are capable of love, and Darla and Angelus are vicious ''way'' beyond normal vampires. That kind of nastiness comes from intelligence. I figure Harmony got turned by someone from Aurelius's line, too; there must have been a lot of that bloodline wandering around Sunnydale since they'd had the Master locked in the sewers for decades.
717* This is pretty much canon (at least in BroadStrokes), since the line to which Angelus belongs has (and, I believe, is [[WordOfGod confirmed to have]]) greater resistance to sunlight (Angel gets little more than a skin-deep flesh wound and some [[HeroicRROD Battle Fatigue]] from weak-but-direct sunlight over a few seconds or more, Spike can sprint around the campus under his jacket or a blanket and get where he's going relatively unscathed beyond some steam and a few nasty knuckle burns).
718** This is without even mentioning that, while in the past vampires lit on fire have gone up like oil-soaked rags, after [[Recap/AngelS02E11Redefinition Angel lights up Darla and Drusilla]] they have enough time to scream their heads off, grab a sledgehammer, smash a fire hydrant open and put the fire out, and get off with only burns where most vamps would be dust in the wind.
719
720[[WMG: Each episode in season 5 symbolises the cards in the Major Arcana from Tarot]]
721(warning: This will be long)
722
723''501 Buffy vs. Dracula ''
724'''(I - The Magician: person with great power, held in respect and awe)'''
725Dracula, the famous vampire of famous power, who the Scoobies are drawn to. Also the introduction of Dawn, the ball of energy which can destroy the world. Power.
726
727''502 Real Me''
728'''(II - The High Priestess: Intuition, inner wisdom)'''
729Dawn becomes Buffy's heart and figure for her intuition over the course of the season, and this episode is dedicated to showing us who she is, and hence showing us what the heart is, what the intuition is for. Buffy's inner wisdom is all about Dawn.
730
731''503 The Replacement''
732'''(III - The Empress: Intellectuality, nurturing of ideas, creativity, abundance and luxury)'''
733The episode tries to usher Xander into maturity and full life, showing ideas fulfilled in his other self, equaling rewards. Xander has to follow this card.
734
735''504 Out Of My Mind''
736'''(IV - The Emperor: Stability, structure, authority and power, the concrete and tangible)'''
737Everything the Initiative was meant to be, stability and structure, also BR, meant to be stable. All that stability falls by the wayside, and Riley loses this. Riley has lost the concrete and the tangible.
738
739''505 No Place Like Home''
740'''(V - The Heirophant: Loving, giving advice to those seeking it, kindness and protection, blessing)'''
741“Love, kindness and protection,� is now what Buffy's duty to Dawn is, she becomes the spiritual leader for Dawn, even if Dawn does not know it. She leads the energy-ball-turned-little-sister through the world.
742
743''506 Family''
744'''(VI - The Lovers: romance, fulfillment and peace, need for guidance, choices)''''
745Willow and Tara are deeply in love (romance), Tara finds her place in the Scooby gang (fulfillment), and resolves her “demon half� (peace). Also, she has the choice over how to deal with her demon, family and friends, but the years of brainwashing have hurt her considerably, leaving her with a need for guide to put her back in the world.
746
747''507 Fool For Love''
748'''(VII - The Chariot: concentration, willpower and determination)'''
749Willpower, determination – this episode focuses on why Buffy lives, why she clings to life, unlike other slayers: where does Buffy's determination come from? She has the power to keep living, in spite of the implied deathwish, because of the things she has. So she decides to survive.
750
751''508 Shadow''
752'''(VIII - Strength: courage, conquering your fears, being brave in the face of hardship)'''
753Joyce has brain cancer, and Buffy can't do anything about it. She is forced to be brave in the face of hardship. Also, the 'monster' haunting Joyce may represent fear.
754
755''509 Listening To Fear''
756'''(IX - The Hermit: solitude, contemplation and thought. Wise from past experiences)'''
757Ben is alone, despite sharing a body, left to think his unique situation over. This makes him the wise man, who does what seems like the bad think because his life has driven him to thinking he has no other choice. Yay Ben.
758
759''510 Into The Woods''
760'''(X - Wheel of Fortune: twists of faith and life’s unexpected changes. Emotional rollercoaster)'''
761Twists of life: Buffy did not expect anyone to like getting Vamp Bites, and certainly not her boyfriend to be one of them. Riley probably didn't expect to be one of them either. The Wheel of Fortune spun for them both and landed on dark, strange, place.
762
763''511 Triangle''
764'''(XI - Justice: fairness, impartiality, balance and legal issues, consequences, responsibilities, difficult choices)'''
765Willow and Anya have to find a balance in their lives (i.e. how to properly share Xander). Anya also has to deal with the consequences of having turned Olaf into a troll, and both her and Willow have the responsibility of taking care of him after accidentally summoning him.
766
767''512 Checkpoint''
768'''(XII - The Hanged Man: Caught between opposites, spiritual revelations, freedom of the mind)'''
769Buffy gets caught between having to do all she can to save the world, and having to fulfill the Council's quotas and tests. These are the opposites she's confronted with, but a spiritual revelation shows her the Council is about her, not the other way around.
770
771''513 Blood Ties''
772'''(XIII - Death: Endings, letting go of the past)'''
773In a way, this is the death of Dawn as she discovers what she is, hence marking her more than what she was, destroying what she was. This is the end of her innocence, showing her as a new, dangerous thing: she is no longer an innocent little girl. Yet the Key has to let go of the past, and become Dawn Summers, not a ball of energy, which is what Dawn does in the end.
774
775''514 Crush''
776'''(XIV - Temperance: calm, balance, finding the middle way, compromise, forgiveness and patience)'''
777This episode flings Spike's love for Buffy out into the open, showing the need for compromise, forgiveness, etc. Buffy needs to accept how Spike feels, Spike needs to accept her rejection, and the strange ambivalent place in life. Spike cannot truly be a monster by the side of his deranged ex-girlfriend, he cannot be a good man by the side of the woman of his dreams, so what can he be? What is he?
778
779''515 I Was Made To Love You''
780'''(XV - The Devil: Addiction, obsession, desires)'''
781April was created out of Warren's desires, this episode is all about desire. When we cannot fulfill our desires naturally, we create a way to, but it feels hollow, empty. The fact the “villain� symbolised by this card is such a harmless, slightly sympathetic thing (for now, I am not taking season 6 into account) shows that the devil is in all of us.
782
783''516 The Body''
784'''(XVI - The Tower: sudden change, emotional breakdowns, chaotic situations, tearing down of belief)'''
785Shows a very sudden change – the sudden death of Joyce, which destroys Dawn's naivety (what she has left of it, anyway), puts Buffy into a depressive state that lasts until her death (and gets worse after that), and basically screws everyone up.
786
787''517 Forever''
788'''(XVII - The Star: guidance, spiritual renewal, hope, potential, possibilities)'''
789This episode shows some hope after Joyce's death, that the remaining Summers girls can't just cling to her memory, they have to live on – and, they can. The world keeps turning.
790
791''518 Intervention''
792'''(XVIII - The Moon: secrets, mystery, subconscious, confusion, things aren't what they seem)'''
793Buffy is not as she seems, as she is not Buffy, she is a robot duplicate. Spike is not as he seems, as he has the nobility and courage to keep the secret for the sakes of others. And we have the mystery and secret of the First Slayer's words. “Death is your gift.� The moonlight shines and everything looks different under it.
794
795''519 Tough Love''
796'''(XIX - The Sun: Promise, energy, ruination, casting down from heights)'''
797Tara starts off with promise, she is growing for confident, has a happy relationship with Willow, is a valued member of the Scooby Gang – then the reverse comes in, Glory's ruination of Tara. Not death, but being driven into insanity that throws her down from what she was becoming.
798
799''520 Spiral''
800'''(XX - Judgement: The past is the past, rebirth, resurrection, final choice, change)'''
801The Scoobies have to make a choice here, to cast aside their pasts, their fighting instincts, their current issues, to forsake it all and just run so they don't die, so they have a chance of saving the world.
802
803''521 Weight of the World''
804'''(XXI - The World: completion, full circle, reckoning to come)'''
805Buffy has decided to complete it, has decided she wants it all over and rushes herself to the inevitable conclusion, she decides it's over, cuts herself off from the world, and Glory escapes with Dawn. Buffy has deciding that's the ending of this story, but we know it isn't. The reverse of the card proves to be salvation as Buffy is drawn back into the real ending, to save the world, and face the consequences of doing so.
806
807''522 The Gift''
808'''(0 - The Fool: the new soul, the blank slate free from society)'''
809Buffy becomes the Fool here, freeing herself of the world's needs, but by death. She commits what is possibly the world's most foolish act: self-destruction, suicide, for love. Love for humanity and love for her sister drives her, she gives the gift of death and becomes the “fool for love� as episode 7 put it. She is no longer influenced by the world.
810
811* Insightful. I tip my hat to you.
812* Agreed, I have a hard time believing Season 5 wasn't written in conjunction with these cards because they are spot on.
813
814[[WMG: Dawn ''was'' a Potential after all]]
815Hey, if Buffy's blood is good enough to get the portal to close, Dawn might well be a Potential. She's pretty damn good at fighting (She holds of Bringers for quite a while in ''Never Leave Me'', and impresses even Buffy in the season 6 finale), brave and refuses to leave the supernatural weirdness (''End Of Days''). There happened to be another Potential behind the door, so everyone dismissed her once they found out. No-one noticed in the big battle because, well, Dawn wasn't expecting it, and was concentrating on the battle, so she didn't pay attention to an energy surge or whatever becoming a Slayer is meant to feel like - probably put it down as an adrenaline boost.
816* Alternatively, Dawn was a Slayer even before the mass awakening. While the Slayer line proper now passes through Faith, Dawn is in many respects a magical clone of Buffy. Upon her death, Dawn activated and joined the others in slaying, and while successful, there were just too many near misses to suit the Scoobies, so bringing Buffy back was an imperative. So they tricked Dawnie-TVS and locked both memories and powers away, something they came to regret when Buffy-bot was all glitchy and especially later on when the biker demons showed. Once back, Buffy forbade without comment ever reawakening Dawn. The spell in S7 was a very near miss. Willow made damn sure the scythe-spell went around Dawn. Xander had a ready-made speech about the worth of 'normals' all set up in case of the near miss, as well.
817** Also, Buffy has been trained since she was, what, sixteen? Dawn hadn't really been trained at all at that point. Even if she was stronger/faster/whatever, she'd be at a major disadvantage with no training or Watcher.
818
819[[WMG: The convoluted {{plan}} in Time Of Your Life was Willow committing suicide.]]
820"Time Of Your Life Part 4" .... the most important thing about death isn't who dies … it's who kills them.� It's relatively easy to infer from Future Willow's dialogue that she's very bored with life. When Harth asks her what's the goal of her plan her answer is "Death, of course" and tellingly doesn't say whose. Clearly over the centuries (do we know how many) she has gotten bored and wants to die, but she's not going to actually commit suicide, she'd far rather die at the hands of her old friend. So she summons Buffy from the past and manipulates events so that Buffy has no choice but to kill her.
821* This Troper already assumed that was the case after reading that issue.
822
823[[WMG: Hank Summers' absenteeism has something to do with Dawn]]
824In the first season, it is absolutely established that despite the Summers being divorced, Hank still cares about Buffy, she spends weekends with him, he keeps her for the summer between season 1 and 2. He misses taking her to the ice show in season 3, because of a business meeting, but that is sort of understandable. He still seems like a decent guy, and he's barely mentioned in season 4. However, in season 5, he's suddenly off in Spain with his secretary, "living the cliche", and the divorce starts to be squarely blamed on him. This comes off as a massive {{Retcon}}, but it follows with the other massive {{Retcon}}... [[CosmicRetcon Dawn!]] Hank Summers leaving the family the way he did had something to do with Dawn's appearance and life, possibly in some kind of attempt to protect her.
825* One possibility : Imagine you're Hank, abroad on a business trip. Maybe he was in a major holy spot or magic-interfering spot when Dawn is retro-created. Suddenly, demands for child support double, letters arrive about how she drives Joyce and Buffy crazy, and Hank wonders WTF is going on. He stays away, thinking his family back home has lost it, and makes the excuses he has to.
826** Or maybe the area covered by the magic retcon was limited to only what the monks thought would be necesary. Only the U.S. or California or even Sunnydale inmediate surrounding area. Just enough to alter the memories of everyone who could possibly have interaction with Dawn, and fake the legal papers and database entries to stablish Dawn's existence. They simply forgot about Hank being in Europe and so the spell didn't reach him. I'll be also pretty freaked if people tried to burden me with a child I knew couldn't possibly exist, and would give little to no credibility to anything they'd say to me, including news about my ex-wife death.
827*** It would have to include LA, as Angel and the rest of Angel Investigations get memories of her and they were in LA, so he was either out of LA at the time or this is Jossed.
828Actually maybe its because Hank did the math and may have a grey zone whether or not he could have actually been the one to get Joyce pregnant and over time his doubts isolated him from his family till the inevitable divorce.
829
830[[WMG: The end of Normal Again is true, but Buffy's still the slayer]]
831The revelations of vampires, demons, etcetera, combined with the amount of duty weighing on her, and not being able to tell anyone - this got too much for her, and she created a whole fantasy world.
832* Normal Again, true? Buffy did a tip-top job of creating a spin-off then. And there are things that just don't work--Buffy is imagining Spike dreaming of Buffy? Buffy can get into her friends' and enemies' heads whenever the series switches point of view? Normal Again was an interesting episode but the idea that Buffy's imagining the whole thing just doesn't make sense in the 'Verse.
833** That's why I theorize...
834** Nah. It was all the demon and The Trio.
835
836[[WMG: The demon in "Normal Again" doesn't really create hallucinations, but sends its victims mentally to alternate universes.]]
837So what really happened is that soul of the Buffy of the "normal" universe was killed, and the "actual" Buffy's soul put into her body. Cake and eaten too!
838
839[[WMG: Warren dressed up as a MadScientist in the Halloween episode]]
840Explains how a sophomore engineering student could build a robot, or all the gadgets he built in Season Six. Just as Xander retained the full knowledge of a soldier, Warren retained the knowledge of a mad scientist.
841* Additionally, he retained those skills because he continued to use and build upon them, whereas Xander let them atropy and eventually forgot them.
842* This is now my Fanon.
843
844[[WMG: The demons that turned Sid into a puppet in "The Puppet Show" are the same demons that turned Angel into a puppet in "Smile Time".]]
845
846* Jossed by "The Puppet Show". Sid was turned into a puppet by the demons that he was trying to hunt. That's why he died when he killed the last one. They might have a relation to them though.
847* Jossed again in ''Chaos Bleeds'' where he returns to help Buffy. Though we also get Faith being broken out of prison by Ethan Rayne to find some keys that The First wants, [[FanonDisContinuity so make of that what you will.]]
848
849
850[[WMG: Warren is the son of the original Ted]]
851Creator-Ted set some of his sperm aside for the android to one day impregnate a woman with. Warren spent his childhood doing maintenance on the android, and watching as each new family they hooked up with were killed, turning to blame the women in misguided grief. Explains his skills, his persona, and his basic beef with Buffy.
852* Where did he go after Robo-Ted was killed, though?
853** Robo-Ted had a stash of cash, either stolen somehow from female victims, earned, or inherited from Creator-Ted. Warren took this, hacked what he needed to buy a house, and went to Sunnydale High with parents eternally on vacation, something the good people of the town would never notice or care, save for that one worker Dawn and Buffy were saddled with. Warren would know how to work the system. This meant taking crap from the bullies and jocks, so as to go unnoticed until he was 18. Combined with a childhood of seeing Robo-Dad hooking up and killing off women, it could explain a lot.
854** Robo-Ted is apparently a superb salesman so he must earn money. Apart from the odd bit of repairs and the occasional replacement clothes, he doesn't have many expenditures.
855
856[[WMG: Twilight's goal is to stop Willow from [[AGodAmI becoming a god]].]]
857Willow's power has continued to increase over time. She is almost certainly the most powerful witch on the planet now, and there's no reason that this would stop. Soon, Willow will achieve clairvoyance, which will put her in a position to literally answer prayers. She'll attract followers, mostly witches who believe she is a goddess. Eventually, she'll make a decision to accept the role of a deity. Kennedy will probably end up as High Priestess of Willow or something.
858
859There are a million reasons why Twilight might be opposed to this, and he seeks the end of magic to put a stop to Willow's rise to power.
860
861[[WMG: Twilight is Dawn]]
862What does ending all magic do but get a young girl her older sister's full and undivided attention? She has access to magic, contacts with demons and government types, and knowledge of her sister's organization and methods. There's also the name connection.
863* I think someone said something somewhere about "the closest betrayal" in relation to Buffy and Twilight. Who's closer to Buffy than her sister?
864* "When it matters, Buffy won't choose you. She'll be against you." This came to pass, somehow, Dawn's mad and wants revenge, or just to stop whatever happened (note - this troper doesn't actually read the comics, she's just going on what she's heard).
865** WordOfGod says that vision was The First.
866* Jossed. We know who Twilight is now. Not that it makes any more sense than this WMG...
867
868[[WMG: Twilight is actually Caleb.]]
869The only reason a comic book villain wears a mask is because the audience-- the readers-- have already met his true identity. The comic has re-introduced virtually EVERY single male character since the beginning of the series, with the exception of Buffy's father.
870
871We know Twilight is incredibly strong. We have no proof that Caleb * couldn't* fly. And the red gash on Twilight's mask is vertical-- resembling a bloody stain left behind by someone who has been previously cut in half from the gut-on-upwards? We've only seen the side of Twilight's neck, not the front. Who's to say he hasn't been re-stitched and resurrected by the First?
872* Furthermore, during Buffy's fight with Twilight the first move she makes is an upward-swing groin-strike. How does he respond? He blocks it perfectly, and responds with something like "that isn't going to work a second time". The only way that sequence makes ANY sense is if A. Twilight is indeed some sort of uberCaleb or B. Twilight was just sorta hanging around in the background watching during Buffy's final fight with Caleb.
873* Jossed. Your version is better though.
874* The line he used was "I know that move, Slayer" and the only way he would "know that move" is if he was Caleb. However, it's been Jossed, Twilight is not Caleb. [[spoiler: However, he was most definitely at the battle with Caleb.]].
875** If you hadn't worked it out by now, Buffy had played with his balls at least a couple of times. [[spoiler: Angel, by the way.]]
876
877[[WMG:Twilight is Ben.]]
878If Warren can survive being skinned (or come back, or whatever happened), it’s conceivable that Ben could survive being smothered. We know that he at least had some magical knowledge (he summoned the Queller all by himself) and it’s conceivable given how fast Willow progressed that in two seasons he could reach Twilight’s level. The reason he doesn’t have Glory anymore is because his temporary death was enough to get rid of her. His motive for taking on the Slayers is revenge and his desire to get rid of all things supernatural comes from the fact that Glory and her minions made his life hell.
879** Alternate about Glory: his temporary death suppressed her deep, but she's coming back, and he wants to get her gone for good, as well as pure revenge.
880*** S7 Josses that, as one of the forms The First takes is Glory.
881
882[[WMG: Spike is a different type of vampire, evolutionary speaking]]
883We see from the Uber-Vamps in season 7 the vampires do evolve. Spike always had more capacity for human emotion than any other vampire we see (genuine love for Drusilla, Buffy, Dawn and his mother in flashbacks) - vampires are evolving to become more emotional (probably to make Slayers less likely to kill them), and Spike is the result of that process (which has been going on for ages). Also note, how the one guy I remember we ''know'' he sired (Holden from ''CWDP'') is very much of the AffablyEvil variety; he honestly wants to help Buffy with her issues, while trying to kill her. The mutation is passed on.
884* and Harmony is a similar step in that direction.
885* Alternatively, borrowing ideas from the World Of Darkness; maybe the demonic aspect of the vampire weakens the further down the line it goes, allowing for more and more “human” traits to seep in and stick around where they wouldn’t earlier up the chain. Spike was the youngest in the Darla line and the furthest from their original demonic benefactor (the chain following thusly: Archeaus [the demon] -> The Master -> Darla -> Angelus -> Drusilla -> Spike), thus was the comparatively least evil. Holden, being his own vampiric offspring, followed suit and also carried more human in him than those before him. It could also explain why Spike eats human food more than the others; maybe he’s got enough human in him to actually stomach it.
886
887[[WMG: The reason Buffy's friends believed she was in Hell was because her soul was in Glory's home dimension.]]
888Glory's "friends" ''really'' cleaned up the place since they kicked Glory out.
889* The reason it was so different after Glory was exiled was because one of her co-rulers would eventually go by the name Jasmine. Buffy's feelings of perfect happiness, the ''exact same thing'' everyone under Jasmine's spell experienced, were due to Jasmine converting that dimension into her paradise, magnified several magnitudes by it being Jasmine's home reality where she had managed to perfect the spell. After Jasmine left however it collapsed again into the hell dimension it was originally.
890
891[[WMG: Rupert Giles is related to Giles French of ''Series/FamilyAffair'']]
892Both Giles and Mister French oversaw girls named Buffy. French consulted a seer in the employ of the Council, and took a job with Bill Davis, hearing that an American girl named Buffy would be a Slayer of great importance one day. By the time he discovered his error, he was a part of that ersatz family, and like his younger cousin would one day, chose his charges over the Council. French was named for Rupert's family, considered the main line.
893
894[[WMG: Dr. Walsh from season 4 is a terrible psychologist]]
895Her assumption that Buffy has no strong male role model is based on correlation, not proper statistics. She assumes that Buffy being an active woman is a weakness on her part, but it's the only thing that keeps her going as a Slaon having that knowledge are virtually nil.
896
897[[WMG: Potentials are part Saiyan.]]
898They have obscene amounts of energy(I got tired just watching them run around) and as Slayers they get huge power boosts after near-death experiences.
899* There's a 'Buffy's Blonde Dye Job' joke in here, somewhere.
900
901[[WMG: The dragon seen escaping the interdimensional gateway at the end of Season 5 is the same dragon from the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' finale.]]
902It looks pretty much the same, and anyway, how many big dragons could possibly be flying around out there? I mean it's not like it got sucked back in when Buffy closed the gateway.
903* Considering that it's doubtful City Hall remained something out of ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' without someone noticing after a while (even Sunnydale has its limits), it probably did get sucked back. NoOntologicalInertia tends to occur when magic is involved.
904
905[[WMG: When Conner has a vision of his mother in Angel "Inside Out", it was actually the First.]]
906In this episode, the "Ghost" of Darla shows up to convince Conner not to shed innocent blood, thus hastening the birth of Jasmine, who would attempt to bring her own brand of world peace.
907It fits The First's MO perfectly: Appearance of a dead person, intangible, seen only by the intended target, trying to manipulate them into doing what it wants.
908The time line matches up; The First was fixing to unleash its own apocalypse, and Jasmine's plan for world domination was obviously going to be a problem in the long run.
909And Darla claims to be sent by the Powers? Please. That would be a complete 180 on the PTB's stance on Darla up until then.
910
911[[WMG: One of Anya's demonic powers was the ability to blend in with normal humans]]
912In her first, Demonic appearance, she can blend into humanity and can even [[VillainsNeverLie lie]] after she becomes human, she reverts back to the [[RaisedByWolves ignorant]] liar we know and love. The conversion was so powerful, her memory changed so she always was that goofy and stilted of a speaker.
913
914[[WMG:Like some other corrupt local politicians, Mayor Wilkins wins elections by counting the votes of people who died a few months or years before election day.]]
915However, in the case of Sunnydale, all of these dead voters actually did cast their votes, on the day of the election.
916* Mayor Wilkins got elected by having the voting take place at night, so few Sunnydale residents are there and all the vampires, demons, etc. can get to the polls.
917* Or, alternatively, the elections were held during the winter months (the closer to the winter solstice the better) when it is dark by dinner time.
918
919[[WMG:Dawn is the reincarnation of Nona Mecklenberg.]]
920Furthermore, [=BtVS=] and Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete are couniversal: Pete and Pete is just a more kid-friendly portrayal of the world on other side of the {{Masquerade}}. (Wellsville seems sufficiently far from any hellmouths that most of the expressions of supernatural weirdness would probably be more benign than those on [=BtVS=].)
921
922It would make perfect sense for the monks who created gave the Key human form to use the qualities of a recently deceased person rather than making a new persona from scratch. (Would you trust a bunch of monks to create a believable pre-teen middle class American girl?) Suppose that this depends on who had passed away most recently at the time of the creation of the Key, and one Nona F. Mecklenberg of Wellsvile, America happened to pass at just the right time, possibly due to a home disaster involving yard tools and the younger Pete Wrigley. The newly-formed Dawn retained the form and personality of Nona (let's assume Nona got a little less weird as she grew up and got over the thing with the arm cast). The aging between the two series matches perfectly.
923
924[[WMG:Wolfram & Hart has been expelled from this dimension.]]
925They would have been a priority target for the Slayers, and once the L.A. branch was eliminated, the Slayers would have had no reason not to simply wipe the law firm off the face of the Earth. And while Wolfram & Hart is powerful, they don't have the ability to stand against an army of Slayers. Or Willow Rosenberg. Or Willow Rosenberg and an army of Slayers.
926* This would explain why everyone from the Slayer organisation is so weird toward Angel during season 5 of his own series. The Beast destroys the LA branch, the Slayers wipe out the rest of this dimension's WRH offices and then Angel takes control of the resurrected LA branch (which, for all they know, he may have resurrected)? No wonder everyone's questioning his loyalties.
927
928[[WMG:The battle of the Hellmouth was the biblical Armageddon. Good won.]]
929As of now, the forces of good include an army of several hundred {{Super Soldier}}s committed to the cause of righteousness, and a witch of near-deific power. Wolfram & Hart may have been destroyed (see above), and the First is in retreat. Evil is still present in the world, but it is weak. Buffy's enemies consist primarily of those who don't want an army of {{Action Girl}}s with superpowers running around, not forces bent on destroying the world.
930
931[[WMG:The First's attempt at an apocalypse in Season Seven was a last-ditch gambit to stop Jasmine]]
932Jasmine would have wiped evil from the Earth, which would be bad for the First. And with mass media, Jasmine could easily take control of the bulk of the human race. So the First tried to take out the Slayers so Jasmine would lack a champion (it either wasn't counting on or didn't care about Angel), and then open the Hellmouth, unleashing an army of Turok-Han that would be immune to Jasmine's powers. The result would have been an apocalypse anyway, so it was a good thing that Buffy stopped it. This merely explains why the First was pulling this shit under the nose of Buffy "I eat apocalypses for breakfast" Summers, rather than waiting for her to die and leave the Hellmouth unguarded.
933
934[[WMG:Twilight is Edward Cullen!!!!!!]]
935Or as my actual theory goes, Twilight is a reincarnated Tara. Following on from the magic bullet theories above, about a mystical assassin sent to destroy Tara, she was actually a much more powerful witch than anyone assumed, and her death was only temporary, and when Willow turned crazy the outpouring of magic returned Tara from death. Horrified to see what Willow was turning into, she went into hiding and formulated a plan to keep Willow from ever becoming too powerful, which is now being played out in Season 8.
936
937[[WMG:Twilight is multiple people, including all of the above.]]
938Joss Whedon is a fan of comic books, as are a lot of people who write or Season 8. When Hush is introduced in ''ComicBook/BatmanHush'', he is being played by multiple members of Batman's rogues gallery, each dressing up (Two-Face, Clayface, Tommy Elliot). The writers of Buffy Season 8 took this idea and ran with it, making Twilight every villain who might not be dead from the Buffyverse. This includes Glory/Ben, Professor Walsh, Ethan Rayne (I know it looked like he got shot in the head but come on, this is Buffy), and anyone else you could possibly conceive of. They will all be revealed to have been part of a mass conspiracy, all aimed at destroying the slayers and Buffy, not even for an evil goal, but simply to get back at her and kill her.
939* This idea is vastly superior to the one that actually showed up in the book.
940
941[[WMG:Buffy and Dawn share a soul]]
942
943A lot is made of the fact that Dawn was created from Buffy from her blood, that the connection is close enough for Buffy to be able to close Glory's portal. Now if the Key is just some non-sentient mystical energy that was transmogrified into a human it still leaves us a soul short, and Dawn is clearly not soulless. So the monks establish the shared soul with Buffy.
944
945Buffy's death didn't matter because Dawn was still alive and the link was still there. What will be interesting is what happens when they both die - will Dawn's conciousness cease to exist or will it merge back into Buffy's concious to reunite the soul into one identity.
946
947[[WMG:Spike has his original human soul, while Angel does not]]
948Spike-with-a-soul is hardly very different to Spike-without-a-soul, or much different (in his base characteristics) from William. Angel is nothing like Angelus ''or'' Liam. Angel's soul was randomly plucked from the 'ether' and put into him when he was cursed, and isn't the same one that Liam possessed when he was alive. It's possible that he recieves a different soul each time he is re-cursed, as well -- it would explain the slight personality shifts he went though after each time:
949* Before Buffy and pre-season 2, Angel was more hands-off and neutral than anything, and preferred to wallow in his guilt rather than do anything about it, for the better part of an entire ''century''.
950* After Willow restored him the first time, his 'second soul' during the early episodes of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' was more brave and outgoing, and got off his ass and decided to become a good samaritan. Quite a shift from his rat-eating self of the past...
951* When he was reensouled again during ''Series/{{Angel}}'' season 4, he became a bit more morally forgiving and willing to get his hands dirty to achieve things; namely his willingness to take over Wolfram & Hart.
952* Given that it's a soul ''curse'' not some sort of partial ressurection, I think this is pretty obvious.
953** It helps that Spike specifically wished for the other demon to "make [him] what [he] once was". A vampire cursed with some random soul isn't William.
954* How is ensouled Spike like William? Aside from the poetry, they are nothing alike. And pre Buffy Angel was a lot like Liam: kinda pathetic and self-obsessed.
955** Living off rats in a dumpster isn't self obsessed. From what we know of Liam, which admittedly isn't that much, he probably would've gotten over the guilt of killing people within a decade or two. Or, even if he didn't, he'd still be boozing and whoring it up in Vegas.
956*** It is self-obsessed, just with ones own grief, guilt etc. The main impression I got of Liam was self-destructive, which fits preBuffy Angel to a tee.
957*** I got the impression that Liam was a self-indulgent hedonist, and I personally do think there's echoes of that in Angel's relentless guilt complex. He's drawn to these grand gestures of self-flagellation, like his speeches about how monstrous he is and his destroying of the gem of Amarra. I would agree that, in a roundabout way, Angel's fixation with his own guilt and unhappiness is a form of self-obsession.
958** Souled!Spike is William after a couple of centuries of confidence building and and ego inflating. Aside from the transitional period where he had the crushing weight of two centuries of killing whatever he felt like however he felt like, It is still conceivable that the shy Mama's Boy could/would grow into Spike after he stopped taking shit from everyone else. Especially if you remember that [[spoiler: he had repressed the trauma of turning his mother only to end up killing her when her vampire self was nothing like the kind caring woman he intended to save. That kind of trauma could wreck all kinds of havoc with a personality, even repressed]]
959*** Shyness in general is a trait that can be massively lessened with desensitization anyways, it's generally a transient trait most people grow out of by adulthood (I say this as a painfully shy child whose currently in the process of growing out of it in my own adulthood). Spike spent a century and a quarter without inhibitions because he’d lost that in vampiric transition, by the time William returned via the soul, he’s completely desensitized to his original social anxieties. Plus, if you pay attention in S7, it’s pretty clear that Spike’s confidence is largely a smokescreen post-soul. He ''does'' still carry some anxiety, it just doesn’t manifest in a shy demeanour anymore and rather internalized self-esteem issues which carry on into the comics (best shown in season 10). William was a dramatic, hopeless romantic Momma’s boy? So is Spike. He doted hand-and-foot on Dru, and was readily willing to die for Buffy even when she hated him. Yes, this hopeless romanticism was twisted into obsession by his evilness, but it was still there and it came from William. He also really got along with [[TeamMom Joyce]] and was genuinely sad about her death… you think that was a coincidence? That’s the momma’s boy coming out, he was drawn to her motherly vibes and took comfort in them the same as he had his own mother while human. William and Spike have tons in common, it’s not at all inconceivable that one became the other and Ensouled!Spike really is just the midpoint between the two--much less malicious and dangerous than Soulless!Spike, but also much less timid and innocent than William.
960
961[[WMG: Thaumogenesis demons are possible because they and other demons siphon off energy from their victims.]]
962The first "brought into being as a result of trying to bring a human back to life" demon would have required a human sacrifice to set up the "bring someone back" spell, and would have gained being by taking any of the energy that wasn't taken up in the "destruction" (see: atom-splitting) of the sacrifice's soul by dragging the human back from the afterlife. The demon started out comparatively weak, but gained more and more power with each act of destruction. Demons since then can be generated by doing something that results in thaumogenesis by taking a demon's worth of energy from the pool of excess siphoned energy, as well as the energy required to drag the person back from the dead if you don't use enough of a sacrifice. The only way to completely destroy all demons (at least without divine intervention of some sort) is to bring enough demons into existence and destroy them before they can pay back their quota, as well as all the other demons, and never again try to bring someone back from the dead.
963
964[[WMG: Joss Whedon is lying about Twilight being Angel.]]
965Angel being Twilight... makes no sense. When has Joss ever divulged information about his work prematurely? What would be the point? The disclosure feels like a ruse. What better way to hook your audience than to lead them in one direction and promptly surprise them with something completely different. That's certainly in Whedon's repertoire.
966* Oh please gods, let you be right. I'm more or less ignoring season 8, since I found the end of season 7 to be perfectly satisfying, but I heard about this and it pisses all over everything in Angel's story EVER.
967* Buffy Season 8 is contemporaneous with Angel Season 5. I've seen Angel Season 5 - ''Angel doesn't have that kind of free time!''
968** Angel S5 is set immediately after "Chosen", whereas it's stated very clearly as the start of Season 8 that it's been 18 months since "Chosen".
969*** It doesn't quite mesh because , shouldn't the World already know about the supernatural beacuse hey ...all of LA is aware of it because they retained their memories. Also in the current storyline Angel is a big name in Hollywood with a movie to his name. Instead the Harmony storyline in Buffy season eight is meant to be the first time the general public take an interest in Vampires. Angel already had a fanbase by then and a movie. Timelines do not add up. In the end unless the Both After the Fall and Buffy season eight end up in the same pages fans could easily write it up to FanonDiscontinuity.
970*** Angel Season 5 also went on for quite a bit longer in-universe time than it did on TV.
971* Sadly, [[spoiler: he was telling the truth]]. And yes, it makes no sense at all. This WMG page has several better ideas.
972
973[[WMG: Rebirth.]]
974This troper has the theory that Dawn is the reincarnation of the character Celia, who was a cousin to Buffy who died when she was eight.
975
976[[WMG: Slayers are [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Jinchuriki]]]]
977In ''Naruto'' there are people who have demons sealed into them. These people are known as Jinchuriki and there are many things about them in common with a slayer such as the origin of the powers, the demon showing itself with a psychical feature such as whiskers which is much like the ever-elusive slayer birthmark mentioned in the first movie as being shaped like an athame (ritual knife). Also if the Slayer is a jinchuriki and with the age of the power and the amount of people who have been hosts it is easy to believe that a slayer would be a match for a Naruto-verse jinchuriki. Also that the new slayers could be pseudo-jinchuriki like the character Sora.
978* ... this is canon. The Slayer Essence is a demon. Sealed into a human. A Jinchuriki is just a fancy name for a human with a demon sealed in them. Its true that in Naruto the Jinchuriki all have tailed beasts, but that's not a hard and fast rule. We've seen other demons, after all, they're just far less powerful.
979
980[[WMG: Andrew made up Season 8.]]
981In Season 8, Andrew is suddenly part of an entire squad in Rome, despite being mostly useless in Season 7. Twilight looks more like a comic book supervillain than any Big Bad so far. Xander is compared to Nick Fury. Dawn fights a giant Mech version of herself in Tokyo, which Andrew guides her through, even saying "My giant-sized teammate is fighting a mechanized version of herself in the streets of downtown Tokyo...I've been preparing for this day my entire life!". Andrew suddenly becoming a legitimate member of the Slayer organization, along with the comic book and sci-fi tropes, make the whole series make more sense if imagined by Andrew.
982* Jossed in Angel S5. He shows up with a small platoon of Slayers. There's no way he made up AS5.
983
984[[WMG: The First is the [[TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} Ebon Dragon]]]]
985(Glories on the Most High spoilers ahead) Either long after [[spoiler: the UCS is dead]] or he escaped into an alternate dimension. However, he can only manifest as incorporeal dead people because [[spoiler: without the Unconquered Sun, he's basically impotent, as with no BigGood to contrast, he's just a shadow.]] But as the Primordial concept of darkness and evil, he kind fits the First Evil's portfolio.
986* Wouldn't that make Slayers a specific exaltation of a Dawn Caste Solar? That makes sense because a slayer has to die for there to be another slayer. However when Buffy came back after the Master killed her, she got a different exaltation.
987** Slayers could also be a different exaltation completely.
988[[WMG: The sixth season is purposefully mocking the continuation of a show that should have ended with Season Five]]
989The Scoobies pulled Buffy out of heaven - ie. Buffy the show had finished and ascended to TV heaven, but MeddlingExecutives pulled it back onto our screen. Also see Buffy's comments in "After Life", that she was "Finished. Complete." The show was finished, but was forced to continue. The season's message that "life is hard" was code for "thinking up new and decent storylines is hard". Dark Willow trying to destroy the world to end humanity's suffering was a plea for the show to be cancelled so that the viewer's suffering would end. And then there's the whole of "Normal Again".
990* To add to the examples, maybe I'm looking for symbolism where there isn't any, but in "Doublemeat Palace" Manny the Manager had been there ten years and had obviously been there too long. The manager at the end seemed like she was still a reasonable person and in the end she indicated her badge and told Buffy that this was what she should aim for. She'd been there five years.
991[[WMG: Once More With Feeling is all a metaphor for Joss' feelings about the show being Uncancelled]]
992This was the impression that I had after watching the episode, and was surprised to find no mention of it on the web. I'm either a genius, an idiot, or it's common knowledge. Anyways, here's how I see it, song by song:
993* Going through the motions: The song is all about how Joss has run out of both enthusiasm and fresh ideas. By this point he was working heavily on Angel and developing Firefly. He felt there was nowhere new to go and nothing new to do. He was simply "going through the motions" on the writing (this could explain the lazy "magic addiction" storyline). The end lines, "I can't even see/if this is really me/and I just want to be/Alive" reinforce how confused he is, and how he just wants to write quality television.
994* If We're Together: About his (perhaps false) confidence that with the rest of the Mutant Enemy crew, they'll be able to get through the problems all the same. The song is a gung-ho "We can do anything" number, but as the rest of the episode shows, all of the characters were phoning in the confidence. They all have serious doubts about where they're going. This could be Joss saying that he knows the crew ultimately depends on him for leadership, and that their presence doesn't help his feelings of disassociation.
995* Under Your Spell: Joss describing how much he does love the show. A sweet love ballad, this tells us that even though he's lost, he does love Buffy and is permanently "under her spell." Buffy was the first feature screenplay he ever sold, and the first show he ever had. He deeply loves Buffy. You never forget your first.
996* I'll never tell: All about how Joss feels guilty about wanting to do other things. Despite wishing he could develop other projects, he feels "engaged" to Buffy; that he must stick it out to the end. But, of course, he'll never tell anyone about it. This would explain why he's never confirmed any of this WMG in an interview (either that, or the WMG is totally false).
997* Rest In Peace: Joss pleading with the show to leave him alone and let him rest in peace. He desperately want to leave, to "take [his] love and burry it in a hole six foot deep," he he can't make himself do it. As Spike is uncontrollably in love with Buffy the character, Joss is uncontrollably in love with Buffy the show. Lines toward the end express how he feels he gives everything to the show, and gets nothing in return: "I know/I should go/But I follow you/Like a man possessed/There's a traitor here/Beneath my breast/If my heart could beat/It would break my chest/But I can see/You're unimpressed/So leave me be/And let me rest in peace." After the song, Buffy walks away, leaving Spike in a grave. "What? You're leaving?!" Spike yells after her. This is Joss further expressing how, even if he could shake Buffy, he'd be drawn back to it.
998* Standing: Giles talking about standing in Buffy's way of growing into an adult it really taking on the voice of the show, standing in Joss's way of growing into a more versatile writer. Joss feels he's grown as much as he can with Buffy. The more complex character relations of Firefly were a taste of what he could be doing, but now he's back writing Buffy. After working for years on the show, what has he got in return? More Buffy. Joss is expressing how much he loves the show but feels it's in his way.
999* Under your spell/Standing (reprise): The earlier love song, about how much Joss loves Buffy, is now turned into a song declaring how he can't escape. He could have let the show just end after season 5 (as he had planned to do), but once it was picked up by UPN he was powerless to leave. He's under it's spell, and feels he has no control, the same way Tara feels she has no control with Willow.
1000* Walk Through the Fire: Like it or not, Joss is decaring that he's here. He'll walk through the fire (the fire can be both writer's block and disassociation) and let it burn. "I touch the fire and it freezes me/I look into it and it's black/Why can't I feel/My skin should crack and peel/I want the fire back." These lines from Buffy about how she feels nothing sonce coming back clearly echo Joss' feelings since the show came back. After going through the horrible pain of killing his creation at the end of season 5, anything else he does with Buffy feels hollow. "Now through the smoke/She calls to me/To make my way across the flame/To save the day/Or maybe melt away/ I guess it's all the same." The "she" is not just Dawn, but the show. It's calling Joss like the Siren's song. His show has been uncancelled, and he can either "save the day" (i.e. continue making groundbreaking television) or "fade away" (let the quality slip and have the show end as a joke). Joss seems to agree with Neil Young, that it's better to burn out than fade away. The finale of season five was burning out, and now he feels he's doomed to let the show fade away. And with his indifference, he feels it's all the same. Spike's lines, "I hope she fries/I'm free if that bitch dies/I'd better help her out" continue the theme of wanting the show gone, but still doing everything he can to keep it going.
1001* Something to Sing about: Joss' feelings of alienation are brought to the forefront. "There was no pain/No fear no doubt/'Till they pulled me out/From Heaven/I think I was in heaven." Constantly fighting with the network had caused pain, and he was always afraid that they would wreck his wonderful creation. With Buffy over, he was finally free from the pain and fear, and doubts about whether his writing was the best it could be. Then the show came back, pulling Joss from that heaven. Or, at least, what he thought was heaven. He still doesn't know if it was better to have the show cancelled or back on the air. Hence, his doubts about "heaven." Buffy pleads for the demon to give her something to sing about, as Joss is pleading for something to write about, as he feels the show has run it's course. It no longer gives him the sense of satisfaction it once did.
1002* Where do we go from here: Joss (and by extension, Mutant Enemy productions) wondering where he go's from here. "The battle's done/And we kind of won/So we sound our victory cheer." He succeeded in getting the show back, and is knows he should be happy. But where does he go from here? Like season 8 of Stargate [=SG1=] or season 4 of Babylon 5, he tied up all the plot threads. He brought his work to a satisfactory conclusion. Now he has to keep it going after the "battle" (i.e. narrative) is done. "Why is the path unclear/When he know hope is near/Understand/We'll go hand in hand/But we'll walk alone in fear." The show is back (hope) but the path of where to take it is unclear. Joss will work with the cast and crew he loves (the hand in hand part), but he knows he'll be walking alone in fear, since he's the creator, head writer, and executive producer. He feels he may be the only one with doubts.
1003* Coda: "This isn't real/But I just want to feel" Buffy sings right before making out with Spike, actions that will change the show forever. Perhaps Joss is saying that he knows Buffy/Spike isn't meant to be, and he's just doing to get some kind of emotion going in a show that's otherwise lifeless to him. The episode ends on a question, "Where do we go from here?" The words are left echoing on the screen.
1004
1005[[WMG: Spike is bisexual]]
1006As proven in the basement in "Sleeper" and with Holden Webster (who might also be bi since he had a girlfriend before being turned), Spike didn't just pick up women every night he went out.
1007. Let's not forget 'that one time' with Angel
1008* ALL vampires are technically bisexual. The process of becoming a vampire removes inhibitions and fear so afterward if they see someone they find attractive they no longer have any reason not to go for it. Though that's more functionally bisexual than actually bisexual.
1009** Wait, what? The process of becoming a vampire removes inhibitions/fear, yes. This means that a ''previously-bisexual'' vampire who had been closeted or in denial (especially the older ones who lived in less liberated times) would then likely act on any attraction instead of just socially acceptable ones. However, being vamped wouldn't ''make'' someone bisexual if they were straight - or gay or asexual, for that matter. It doesn't change a pre-existing sexual orientation.
1010
1011[[WMG: Ben is Glory]]
1012Wait, what? You're saying Ben knows something about Glory?!
1013* Confirmed. Ben would have been the next host for Glory had Giles not killed him.
1014
1015[[WMG: Buffy's "heaven" was a drug induced hallucination]]
1016Buffy's description of "heaven" sounds more like being high than an afterlife. All a false sense of [[WatchItStoned everything-is-just-absolutely-perfect]] and how she "knew" everyone she cared about was all right (while they were barely surviving against the vampires and then the demon biker gang showed up).
1017
1018So, Buffy was actually somewhere entirely different (Glory's hell dimension maybe) all drugged up and is subsequently suffering from withdrawal after being resurrected.
1019* It doesn't have to be drug induced anything. All of the stuff she talks about can be attributed to how she died. The connected to everything part could be because the portal was a breach in all the dimensions. Her not remembering her mother being there, despite being sure she was, could be because as she died she thought about seeing her mother in heaven. Basically it would be her final thoughts stretched across the entirety of the time she was dead, because she was at peace with how she was dying.
1020
1021[[WMG: Slayers can't be turned.]]
1022Dracula's mojo was working on Buffy right up until she tasted his blood, then she snapped out of it and kicked his ass. Hypothesis: Slayers ''metabolize'' vampire blood and use it as a powerup. (I haven't read Season 8 yet, so this may well have been Jossed already...)
1023* Indeed Jossed in the comics. They can be turned.
1024
1025[[WMG: Twilight is Angel.]]
1026Nah, you're right, that's just stupid.
1027* I think Angel was fake Twilight. The real one made him go bad.
1028
1029[[WMG: Dracula performed the same spell that Jonathan did in Season 5.]]
1030The one that turns you into a paragon. Think about it, Dracula is a huge MartyStu character with all the traditionally expected powers of a vampire, along with the way of causing spontaneous admiration in people, as well as a talent to find a nice castle to live in, wherever he goes. Perhaps he used to be an ordinary if old vamp, and his spell retroactively altered history to create the novel and subsequent adaptations made of his exploits. He still keeps losing, because he was trying to fulfill the classic vampire clichés too hard, becoming unbeatable, but still doomed to be defeated in fights with against vampire slayers. Being evil he probably doesn't care what his counterpart monster does, or perhaps he's locked it in some crypt somewhere. Or perhaps he's actually constantly on the move to keep ahead of it.
1031* Given that he's evil, maybe his counterpart monster is a force for ''good''?
1032** Maybe his counterpart is Van Helsing?
1033** Or the Slayer. Since it retroactively reshapes the world there is no way of knowing how much history is real or how many people have cast the spell.
1034** Or the Immortal. I need someone to blame for that awful, over-the-top character who can supposedly make a fool out of Angelus and Spike.
1035
1036[[WMG: The Gentlemen in ''Hush'' have ''never'' won. Because...]]
1037Aside from the aforementioned fairy tale where the princess somehow got her voice back, there was also a very small village (maybe eight or ten people) who tested the "swords don't harm them" myth and ended up whittling their numbers down to six or fewer, including victims who had already been taken, in an effort to avoid a potential FateWorseThanDeath and keep the world from ending. These Gentlemen were the (part of the) group that didn't get headsplattered by the princess's voice, and decided to come to a larger town so it would be easier to take seven hearts by going different places around the town (being less predictable so the victims would be less likely to have prepared ahead of time) and get all seven before there was an evacuation or mass death. Whether any Gentlemen still exist who haven't won and/or are still searching for hearts (depending on whether getting the seven would end their search or not) [[TemptingFate i]][[{{Jossed}} s]] [[ComicBookAdaptation a]] RiddleForTheAges.
1038
1039[[WMG: The Gentlemen were taking the hearts [[ForTheEvulz as part of a game]], and a human voice ''isn't'' fatal to them.]]
1040The most [[PsychicDreamsForEveryone receptive]] or most mystically important person gets the announcement: "[[MookChivalry The Gentlemen]] [[NoSneakAttacks are coming]]. You can't talk. You have until we get seven hearts to figure out how to stop us. These are the rules. Game on." If you don't stop them, they kill everyone. If you do stop them, they play off their [[YourHeadAsplode head asplodey]] endgame sequence and go to another town. [[spoiler: Riley]] smashing their box may have caused them to not offer a prize, or the prize may be something less noticeable but still substantial (like luck, or [[TheFairFolk not being slaughtered]]).
1041
1042[[WMG: The Gentlemen were taking the hearts for the good of the towns.]]
1043The people whose hearts they stole could have been returned to their original condition (plus a bit of trauma and minus their {{Masquerade}} blinders, both of which [[LaserGuidedAmnesia can be fixed]]), after the seven hearts are used in a ritual to give everyone in the town permanent immunity to disease and a slight increase over their human HealingFactor. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Heroic Mimes]]. They just can't express it because of their StarfishLanguage, and the little girl's ghost keeps [[NiceJobBreakingItHero foiling their plans]] (or they've succeeded before, and Buffy's Slayer premonitions [[PoorCommunicationKills really messed up again]]).
1044
1045[[WMG: The hearts would have been used to turn the Gentlemen human.]]
1046Lose grey skin and metal teeth, gain the ability to actually use your affluence for something more than hiring homicidal mutes. I'd say it's a fair trade.
1047
1048[[WMG: Paragon![name below where spoilermarks work] was telling the truth [[UnreliableNarrator as he knew it]] the whole time.]]
1049[[spoiler: Jonathan]] had been made a paragon in that universe, and not ''just'' to look like one to everyone else. When the monster started getting hurt was the first time he realized the truth, and before that all he knew of the demon was that it made him less capable when he attacked it. It could be assumed that the spell told him the curse scar was what he said it was, if gaining the mark actually was part of the process of casting.
1050
1051[[WMG: Giles has a hint of incubus or siren blood, or more likely has in the past (probably when he was still Ripper) attempted to magically augment the [[GroupieBrigade results]] of his singing.]]
1052Hence why every heterosexual female in the coffee shop, as well as the [[DeathOfTheAuthor bisexual female]](s) and ''the explicitly'' (but [[DeathOfTheAuthor arguably]] [[JustForFun/KinseyScaleOfTropes not necessarily]]) ''lesbian female'' swoon over his voice, but the only other male present starts to [[BuffySpeak get the wiggins]].
1053
1054[[WMG: The Cheese is the dream.]]
1055Spoilered so as not to ruin the effect of learning it through the episode, in case someone’s not had a chance to see the Season Epilogue episode. Not because I think it’s supposed to be a twist or anything.\
1056The Cheese Man is a benevolent demon or spirit. He made a space for the cheese, opening a pathway through Willow (during the head/heart/spirit/hands spell, which called upon the Slayer demon) so the dream could enter the four of them and help protect them from [[spoiler: the First]]. He tells Xander that “[the cheese] will not protect you” because even in dreams, even dreams from the Cheese Man, there are things in the Buffyverse that can harm you (such as the First). He tells Giles that he wears the cheese, the cheese does not wear him either because Giles must be the important one to survive the dream; If he lets the dream be the important one... well,, in possessed body, dream wears you), or because the cheese man is the one who brought the dream, he is not merely a part of it. The Cheese Man’s appearance in Buffy’s dream is him reminding her, “Hello, ‘’cheese’’”, and from then on she is more strongly, lucidly in control.
1057In a meta WMG (to unjoss the jossing, one might say), the meaningless of the Cheese Man was wrought into meaning by Joss’s free-form writing, trying to make it as dreamlike as possible instead of pre-planning as meticulously as possible. This manifested itself in the Cheese Man’s intended lack of meaning coming to mean the dream, the episode, itself.
1058
1059[[WMG: The Cheese is love.]]
1060Not just in a romantic way, but a way of comfort. Tara is Willow’s space for the cheese (yes, yes, sexual innuendo all around), and Willow’s love for Buffy, Xander, and Giles allowed her to act as the crux of the spell in the previous episode (her part of Spirit). Xander loves Anya (and lusts after everyone else, though his particular form of love for Buffy has changed as their relationships progressed), but even though she does love him, she’s incredibly selfish. Xander’s love for and from everyone else is not going to protect him from the outside world, since his friends will lose their connection if he doesn’t strike out on his own as they did, and Anya may leave him if he’s broke for too long. Giles sees his parental love for Buffy as an obligation, and isn’t sure if he loves her because he’s a watcher (the cheese wears me) or because that is who he is and how he feels, and is not sure if he has room in his life despite being Buffy’s (now-unofficial) Watcher for her (you can wear more than one slice of cheese, but you cannot be worn by more than one slice of cheese, or the attempt will tear you apart). This is exemplified in his meeting with [[spoiler: The First]], because unlike Buffy (who loves cheese), she was never allowed even artificial cheese-like substance—[[spoiler: “...because you’ve never had a Watcher.”]] In Buffy’s dream, the Cheese Man brought up the cheese to confirm to her that she had people who loved her, and whom she loved, despite what [[spoiler: The First]] was saying about how a Slayer, Buffy, or any Slayer, must always be alone.
1061
1062[[WMG: Buffy (and perhaps slayers in general), for one reason or another, finds beds, particularly empty beds, to be symbolic of things lost, particularly positive relationships.]]
1063For one example, she stabs Faith while they're making a bed in Faith's dreams. In one of her dreams, everyone she cared about deserted or was taken away from her, and there was a ''lot'' of focus on Willow's empty bed. She references along with her friends, her lack of being alone, that one of the ways she's different from the First is that she doesn't sleep on a bed of bones. This may hark back to the First's having to literally sleep on a bed of bones after she had been ripped from any semblance or possibility of having a human relationship when the original Watchers' Council stuck a demon in her soul, or it may just be because of negative relationshippy things that have happened in beds in her past ([[spoiler: Angel losing his soul and]] dumping her, [[spoiler: stupid-face college playboy, with the eyebrows,]] sleeping with her when she was both vulnerable and unusually trusting then denying they had a relationship, Faith being stuck in a bed, comatose, because of their complete inability to get along and Buffy subsequently being instrumental in the death of the only family Faith felt she had ever had). Could also be RapeAsDrama, but I don't see evidence for that (especially since all of the times I recall that a bed has been allegorically relevant, it was a lack of something or someone. That is, being empty or [in Faith's dream's case] just-made).
1064
1065[[WMG: Slayers are immortal.]]
1066In the same way as vampires, FromASingleCell, only they have a weakness to blood loss or loss of certain internal organs instead of crosses and (to a greater degree than humans and slayers) sunlight. The main difference is that they (probably) get to age. Alternatively, they ''don't'' age. The Crucible is to take out any Potentials who were turned early enough that they would be incapable of surviving, and as a bonus a, say, fourteen-year-old Slayer wouldn't have to excuse why she still looked like she did as a mid-adolescent when in her twenties.
1067
1068[[WMG: Buffy would have been immortal [[AchillesHeel except for]] the Thaumogenesis demon as long as it existed.]]
1069If the Scooby Gang had sealed it instead of sending it back or making it solid so Buffy could kill it, Buffy could be rocking the the road to hell and back and never have to worry about so much as getting her heart ripped out.
1070
1071[[WMG: Buffy has been immortal since ''Bargaining''.]]
1072For one thing, that's why Buffy doesn't register as a human anymore, based on Spike's chip (though we really don't know how it works). Humans normally get a 1-way ticket past Anubis, and the ritual invoked Osiris to tell him that you're supposed to go back to earth if your friends want you so much-- but doesn't give you a new ticket. You can die, but your ba and ka will still be stuck on earth and may as well continue moving around, slaying demons, breathing.
1073
1074[[WMG: The Urn of Osiris was ''meant'' to be broken during the ritual. The spell went perfectly, if in a bit of an unorthodox way.]]
1075It's just lucky that the closed circle was only necessary for the first part of the spell. Step 1: Witch calls to Osiris. Step 2: Osiris checks out the lay of the mindscape (which requires the circle). Step 3: Osiris starts pumping energy into the urn, using the witch as a conduit (does not require the circle). Step 4: The urn gets smashed before the witch dies (neither of which require the circle). Step 5: The energies built up in the urn go to the corpse and rebuild it. I'm sure that vomiting up a snake had something to do with the changeover between steps 2 and 3.
1076* That would explain why the urns were so rare.
1077* Original poster here: WMG: When Willow calls on Osiris a season later without an urn, she basically plans to do the same ritual, but forgoing the formalities and using herself as both conduit and battery, dumping the energy straight into the corpse from her own personal reservoir. Either because she is powerful enough to even think of trying it or because Osiris doesn't bother with steps 2 onward, Willow's will is all she needs to keep Osiris from accidentally frying her brain, and possibly the scenery, in step 2.
1078
1079[[WMG: The Toth demon from the episode The Replacement was sent by The Watchers Council.]]
1080Why would a demon who can split people into two actively search for the Slayer? Because he was contracted by The Council to split Buffy into the young adult who lives a normal life and the killing machine like how the first Slayer was, without humanity, so that the council can control the Slayer without those pesky human emotions interfering. Makes perfect sense.
1081
1082[[WMG: Amy was so much more powerful after being re-humaned because she was living in Willow's (and eventually Willow and Tara's) room.]]
1083You turn into a rat for three years and get stuck next to a person, and later a couple of people, who are practicing spells all the time and see if you don't become a familiar-by-proxy or accidentally soak up some unshielded magic thanks to sitting inside the shield.
1084* Following this theory, she probably also got a lot of [[BuffySpeak firsthand lesbian viewage]], meaning she's now either squicked by it or massively into girl-on-girl.
1085* Well, one of the first thing she does after being turned back into a human is to go to The Bronze with Willow and cast a spell on an attractive young woman to make her attracted to Willow. This strongly suggests that it's certainly not the former...
1086
1087[[WMG: After Buffy was Resurrected, Tara started working for The First.]]
1088It's said that The First was able to do what he did in S7 due to the resurrection, but this doesn't explain where he was in S6. However, if he appeared to Tara and was able to fool her, he could use her to destroy the gang's chances of beating him. All she had to do is get Willow to stop using magic, which she did. The First's {{plan}} was successful, but then Warren killed Tara, messing it up. This would also explain why Tara turned bitchy in Season Six, as she was actively trying to get Willow to stop using magic, as she could stop him if she became skilled enough (as we saw, activating all Potentials and all).
1089
1090[[WMG: Dawn has some Slayer Abilities.]]
1091She has shown that she is actually pretty skilled and strong, and I just don't think that just watching Buffy could allow her to be able to do things like that roll and kill thing (which, without Slayer abilities, takes alot of training). It would make sense, as she is basically an altered clone of Buffy, with either close or identical DNA, and the same soul. If the Slayer selection has something to do with the soul, it would make sense for her to be at least partially a Slayer, as other magical things (see: reality warping bubble dimension thing at the end of Season Five) think of them as the same person.
1092
1093[[WMG:Buffy's "Heaven" was the [[Franchise/TheMatrix Perfect Matrix]].]]
1094After dying, her soul was put into a new meatsuit in another dimension: The Matrix Universe. She was a person in the Perfect Matrix that later failed, hence the Heaven feeling.
1095
1096[[WMG: Buffy Ascended when she died the second time.]]
1097For those of you who have seen ''Series/{{Angel}}'', this will make much more sense. During Angel's second fight with Skip, Skip mentions that nobody has left Paradise before, which is where Cordelia had ascended to. He then goes on to say that there was one person who had, a Slayer. This is said in ''Angel'' Season 4, which takes place during ''Buffy'' Season 7. The whole Paradise thing would also fit with the whole "I think I was in Heaven" thing. It's unlikely that Skip was lying, as it's unlikely he knew that Angel knew Buffy.
1098
1099[[WMG: Spike/William the Bloody has/[[ThatManIsDead had]] Asperger's Syndrome [[BrokenBase and/or]] high-functioning autism.]]
1100He had trouble with communication and understanding people, and displayed similar signs to someone with Asperger's Syndrome being thrust into a social situation in what little I've seen of the flashbacks. This caused him to develop an unusual reaction to losing his soul, as did Liam and Harmony. While Liam and Angelus were hardly different, Angel seemed to have a completely different soul (completely different souls), and Harmony, instead of becoming evil, lost her petty sadism and meanness and gained mere immorality. Spike, on the other hand, lost the part of him in which he didn't store the key to social interaction. While most humans just listen to their equivalent of an inner demon, William had to build up a mental library of how to act, so he a) didn't lose it all when he got vamped and b) got well over a century of practice. He got his soul back, which didn't do [[PersonalitySwap the same thing]] Angel's souls did to/for Angelus, but just gave him that little touch of empathy he needed to (along with the aforementioned practice) have a shoulder angel chirping at him about what he shouldn't have done and when he should feel remorse for something he is doing.
1101* While William/Spike may have been following a social and moral to-do list, it probably wasn't due to autism or aspergers. Both are characterized by an general inability to make deep personal connections and a striking lack of eye contact, among other things. Spike had neither of those problems. People with those syndromes also tend to be very 'logical', and would most likely not understand or enjoy poetry.
1102** People with autism an Asperger's Syndrome are drawn to patterns. They have difficulty, but not an inability in making deep personal connections. While very logical, they can still understand and enjoy poetry as much as the next person.
1103*** Point in case, the troper who made the original guess, has made personal connections as deep and ([[WeAreAsMayflies relatively]]) as rarely as Spike, and enjoys well-written systematic poetry and metaphor but isn't very good at formulating it to properly evoke the desired emotions in readers. Oh, wait, who does that sound like? William the Bloody-awful-at-poetry, would you say? It's certainly not necessarily the case, but he's the most likely character I've found after [[Manga/DeathNote Near]] on any WMG page here (which is not to say that there arten't better examples, just that I've not seen or am not recalling them).
1104*** You're missing the point. People with autism and Asperger's can as creatively as neurotypicals. Sometimes even more so. Having a disability is not necessarily a basis for being a bad poet.
1105
1106[[WMG: Anyone who significantly interacts with the Slayer can subconsciously emit a wall of silence when needed.]]
1107This would explain why they never get strange looks when talking about [[BuffySpeak Slayer things.]]
1108
1109[[WMG: Glory is to human self-loathing as The First is to human evil.]]
1110She didn't just hate humans and being human because of being stuck in their dimension, it was because that was what she was. The First couldn't physically interact with mortals because evil cannot cause harm in and of itself, it can only drive people to cause harm, whereas self-loathing can directly cause harm... one form of which is angry, fearful, stressful insanity. Sound familiar? It's fortunate that using one of her offensive abilities allowed her to heal from the strain of being trapped in the mortal realm. This is backed up by some of her names, which include "the Beast" and "the Abomination" (Glory, Glorificus, is an IronicNickname that helps her deal with everything, as does her cult of simpering demons).
1111
1112[[WMG: Bunnies]]
1113Shortly after becoming a troll, Olaf retuned to Aud's cottage, devoured most of her bunnies alive, and made merry sport with their more attractive she-kits.
1114
1115Anya's attempts to suppress the horror have eventually warped into a pathological hatred and terror of all things bunny.
1116
1117[[WMG: The Season 8 Comics are actually one massive TakeThat against Stephanie Meyer perpetrated by a grumpy Joss Whedon]]
1118
1119Buffy ended with all the potential slayers of the world becoming active slayers, a scenario in which bright young women all over the globe come into their own powers and take their place in male-dominated society. Then, during the critical years of transition, someone or something called ''Twilight'' comes along and causes the superficial, reality-television-obsessed masses to reject these female heroes and become infatuated with sexy, soulless vampires. It's directly stated that Twilight "signifies the death of magic" and the end of the Slayer line, the latter of which has always represented female empowerment in the Buffyverse. And the big reveal? [[spoiler: Twilight is actually Angel, Whedon's own hunky, angsty proto-Edward]], to whom Ms. Meyer almost certainly owes a debt of [[strike: plagiarism]] gratitude. Was this one too obvious to qualify as Wild Mass Guessing?
1120* A little.
1121* Even if it wasn't originally meant to be a TakeThat against ''Twilight'', it certainly became one. Compare [[http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Buffytwi.jpg this]] cover of ''Last Gleaming, Part 1'' to [[http://twilightsaga.wikia.com/wiki/New_Moon_%28film%29 this]] cover of the ''New Moon'' DVD.
1122* It's certainly a sly [[ShoutOut nod]] to ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''. It's not insulting though, so I don't think it's meant as a TakeThat.
1123** The ''cover'' isn't insulting, but in the season eight comics, Twilight is an evil entity possessing and manipulating Buffy's protagonists in order to transform the world into one where magic is dead and women are less empowered. That's negative. Also, it's more than just a nod -- the idea that Twilight is using Buffy and Angel for its own selfish purposes and leaving a screwed-up society in its wake ''provides the main plot for the entire season''. This troper is surprised and a little confused that more people aren't making a fuss over this. Did I miss the fuss?
1124*** I think I get the story now, but please correct me wherever I'm wrong.
1125
1126Twilight is Angel. Angel figured he'd create this perfect world for Buffy. No pain. No suffering. All she's gotta do is sacrifice her family and friends. [[WhatTheHellHero Buffy took that about as well as you'd expect.]]
1127
1128Now on it's own that might not be such a big deal. But if we took it as a comparison to [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Belle all ''oooh oooh turn me into a vampire, I love Edward so much I'll happily sacrifice my humanity'']] then yeah, maybe, perhaps, I can see where fans are going with it being a TakeThat. Buffy is way better than Belle in any case.
1129
1130[[WMG: Dawn will die.]]
1131Only the original four can stay. Either she's written out or killed. They killed off Joyce, what's stopping them from killing of her?
1132* The only thing is perhaps Creator/JossWhedon and how he likes to defy audience expectations. What else can be done to Buffy and co before he kills them? After three seasons even I'n GenreSavvy enough to recognize his signature style. Perhaps he thinks having Dawn live would either be more of a surprise or a FateWorseThanDeath, [[CrapsackWorld considering.]]
1133* Nah. The entire reason he created Dawn is because he wanted Buffy to have a sister for a good long while beforehand. If anyone is going to die now, it's Xander. Though [[spoiler:he already killed Giles, so it's down to the Original Three.]]
1134
1135[[WMG: Dawn will NOT be killed.]]
1136Because she shares a soul with Buffy, she counts. Ignoring the parts where Buffy dies, this meshes nicely.
1137
1138[[WMG: Tara represents Jesus, Kennedy represents the Antichrist.]]
1139Think about it. Tara sort of gave Willow inner strength and tried to save her from the dark side. When she was killed, maybe she died for Buffy's sins?
1140
1141Kennedy is the opposite of Tara and universally disliked. People fear that Willow is getting too powerfull and will go evil again. Kennedy represents Dark!Willow's influence, and is the Antichrist because she's practically undoing the innocence of Tara's memory.
1142* Kennedy is '''not''' the opposite of Tara. That's not how opposites work. Furthermore, it's never given any negative connotation to Kennedy, in show, nor any of the typical traits that are associated with the Anti-Christ... not even the "positive" ones, like being ''very charming and LIKED BY MANY PEOPLE''! Kennedy is kind, loving and terribly uncharismatic, which is the opposite of the Anti-Christ. Heh... there was an opposite in there, after all.
1143
1144[[WMG: D'Hoffryn was behind the break-up of Xander and Anya]]
1145The guy who masqueraded as Older Xander turned out to be an ex-victim of Anyanka with a magic doodad. How did he escape from his hell-prison, and how did he get his hands on the doodad? How did he know to show up at just the right moment, and know just the right things to say to scare off Xander? These things were beyond his capacity, even as a demon; but easily within the power of the head of the Vengeance Demons. And what was D'Hoffryn's endgame? The return to the fold of his favorite, Anyanka. It worked (for a while).
1146
1147[[WMG: Miss Kitty Fantastico was a Slayer...]]
1148Faith died for a few seconds in prison. Courtyard fight, demonic incident, autoerotic asphyxiation... whatever. Before she was revived, Miss Kitty Fantastico was activated.
1149Then, Miss Kitty Fantastico was killed. 9 times. The entities who decide such issues were a little bit confused about the math, and that is why immediately after her death there were suddenly 81 Potentials living in one house.
1150
1151* There may have been even more cat deaths/ Potential callings than that, when one bears in mind that Miss Kitty Fantastico was the pet of Willow during the time period that she was most liberal with her magic useage. Hmmm.. explain to Tara that the lighting-bolt William Tell game didn't end well, or...?
1152
1153[[WMG: The Gentlemen were Heartless.]]
1154...And you know it.
1155* [[IncrediblyLamePun Ow.]]
1156
1157[[WMG: Tara will be revived in the comics.]]
1158[[WhatCouldHaveBeen was supposed to haven in the show,]] but now they can do it here without worrying about actors.
1159* Nope, it was not supposed to happen in the show. She was supposed to come back as a ghost (or rather, as the First masquerading as Tara) and speak to Willow in "Conversations with Dead People". Cassie took her place, instead.
1160* You are both right, because you are talking about different things. While speaking at Wizard World Chicago in 2004, Whedon said that he had proposed an episode where Buffy is given one wish with no restrictions or consequences, and she chose to make Tara alive again. So both that and Benson returning to play The-First-as-Tara were two separate possibilities that were discussed but neither came to pass.
1161
1162[[WMG: Angel being Twilight makes perfect sense.]]
1163This troper would like to point out that there's no reason it would have been anyone else. The entire character is Joss lampshading his role in the pussification of vampires. Think for a moment, who was the first vampire who stalked a teenage girl and watched her sleep and was totally obsessed with her? Angel. Who made that popular? Angel. What did this cause? It getting ripped off and being used in a book series that has ruined vampires. We already know what that series is called. Make sense now?
1164* Also, it could just be more along the lines of, "Hey, kids, remember the *original* Edward? What about the original Bella Swann, Buffy Summers? You know, normal girl turned superhuman who gets involved with a good vampire? Well, guess what, if the other author knew what she was doing, she would know that vampires getting jiggy with girls in such a sappy manner is [[SpaceWhaleAesop grounds for the apocalypse]]. Of stupidity."
1165
1166[[WMG: Spike never wanted his soul back. He just wanted the chip out of his head.]]
1167When he went to Africa to "give Buffy what she deserves", he meant he wanted to shed his BadassDecay and be the Big Bad again. Getting his soul back was the biggest gotcha of all time.
1168* In fact, it might be obvious enough to not even qualify as WMG. He was pissed at Buffy when he left for Africa, and was pretty horrified when he got his soul back.
1169** Because getting a soul is ''actively painful''. He was not surprised that his soul was what he'd gotten because that was the reason he'd done all of it in the first place--He just couldn't conceptualize how it would feel until he was feeling it, and even laments in S7 that he wished Angel had warned him. That's a pretty cut and dry admission from him that he'd taken inspiration from Angel and sought out his soul on purpose--you can't wish for a warning for something you never intended to do in the first place.
1170*** Plus, you have to remember that what makes someone soulless is the inability to truly repent and empathize. The closest emotion Spike was capable of in the aftermath of the incident was anger--anger at himself for his failure to "be a man" and anger at Buffy for confusing his ability to understand when he was doing wrong by her. Once he gets his soul, he regains his ability for both and acts accordingly, but until then all he could be was angry because he was legitimately ''incapable'' of anything else. Spike legitimately '''could not''', no matter how hard he tried (and he really did try), understand 'right' outside of the scope of his own self-interest. That's what soullessness ''means'' in Buffyverse--that's why Buffy couldn't love him, why it was necessary for Spike to gain the soul for real redemption, why they could never see eye-to-eye where morality was concerned until he did. But he knew what he was doing when he went to get the soul, he wasn't tricked. He chose to change his nature because while he couldn't empathize, he could ''love'', and he'd realized the woman he loved would never truly want or be safe with that version of him.
1171* But his chip didn't work with Buffy anyway. The incident that caused him to leave was when he nearly raped her, and when he realized he was hurting her he ran off in horror.
1172** The fact that the chip didn't work on Buffy wasn't the point. In fact, it was part of the problem. Their intense sexual relationship lacked boundries to the point where they didn't have a safe code. It's very likely that Spike didn't realize she actually meant "no" this time. To follow that logic, he stopped because he misinterpeted and thought Buffy was just brutally putting him down again. He fled in anger and, this confrontation being the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, left for Africa to get his chipp removed. Yes, it didn't work on Buffy. More importantly though, it left him defenseless to Willow and Tara, the most powerful witches in Sunnydale.
1173*** Nope, he wanted his soul back, season 7 is very explicitly clear about it as is WordOfGod. He says in “Beneath You” that he was looking for “the spark” that was missing because Buffy didn’t want him as he was; the chip wasn't missing, his soul was. Spike was pissed off in the aftermath of Seeing Red exactly ''because'' of what was described above; the bathroom incident was not a planned rape, he hadn’t meant to force her and believed Buffy’s denials was more of their usual SlapSlapKiss routine. When she kicked him away and he saw she was crying, he realized he’d been forcing himself on her and fled in horror. Notice how the first thing he says when kicked was ''"I wasn't going to--!"''... it was an accident born from months of a relationship with no boundaries and his own inability to dictate right from wrong naturally. He was angry with her because he, [[NeverMyFault while soulless]], blamed Buffy for confusing his ability to read her accurately with the MasterOfTheMixedMessage thing that she’d been doing all season. Once he got the soul, he realized that his intent in the situation didn’t matter more than the scars he'd left on her and rightfully stopped blaming her, [[ItsAllMyFault holding himself accountable instead]]. Before he left Sunnydale, he had the following line: ''"The chip. It won't let me be a monster. And I can't be a man. I'm nothing."'' You’re supposed to assume he’s frustrated about the first part, not being able to be the monster, but he was instead frustrated about the second part. "Seeing Red" made him truly want to be "a man", he states this directly when asked by Buffy why he’d get his soul; ''"To be the kind of man who’d never... to be a kind of man."'' It’s purposely ambiguous in the end of S6, they wanted the audience to believe he was getting his chip removed so it’d be a big reveal that he was getting his soul instead. Nothing he says ''actually'' contradicts the idea that he wanted his soul all along even if it seems that way, and S7 as well as the comics make it very, ''very'' clear getting his soul was always his intention the moment he left Sunnydale.
1174* [[WordOfGod WordOfJoss]] says that, yes, Spike did want his soul back.
1175** Besides, if Spike knew of some desert demon thing who could remove his chip, you think he wouldn’t have gone for it back in season 4?
1176
1177[[WMG: The gypsy curse was meant to give Angel eternal suffering even in heaven.]]
1178If he felt enough remorse to ever get into heaven (not just his soul, his conscience, but ''all'' of his self), they thought it still wouldn't have been enough. Without a soul, he would only be tormented by his existence in heaven, and he would lose his soul as soon as he experienced a moment of [[ExactWords perfect]] happiness.
1179
1180[[WMG: In "Normal Again", both the Asylum and Sunnydale are real places.]]
1181The Asylum is wherever Buffy was after she fell into the portal created by Dawn in Season 5. She described the place she went to as being a place where she was at peace, which could be The Asylum.(If you define "at peace" as not having to cope with the stresses of being The Slayer.) When she was resurrected, the spell didn't bring her all the way back because the ritual was interrupted. Thus, half of her was in Sunnydale and the other half was in the Asylum. When the demon stung her, the poison created a situation where she was forced to choose between one dimension or the other. She ultimately chose Sunnydale, which caused the Buffy from the Asylum to shut down. I suppose the consequence of this theory, although we never see it, is that Buffy eventually disappeared from The Asylum all together.
1182
1183[[WMG: Angel is a repressed sadist, even while he has a soul.]]
1184In the Buffyverse, a soul is basically a conscience, making one feel guilty about doing evil. Spike loses his soul and still loves his mom, loves Dru, and needs to be coaxed by Angel into his more monsterous activities. After he gains his soul back, after he gets over the insanity from suddenly feeling the guilt of thousands of murders, he's basically a slightly softer version of the same person. The only thing his soul gives him is the ability to know right from wrong. Angel, on the other hand, loses his soul and immediately begins torturing, murdering, and apocalypsing like he's trying to win an evil contest. But all he's lost is restraint - meaning he always ''wants'' to do those things, he just doesn't because he'd feel guilty about it.
1185* Spike's ability to love isn't that atypical. Willow and Xander in the Wishverse were clearly in love, for example. The Master was very affectionate towards Darla and The Annointed One. Angelus is the strange one for being as much of a monster as he is. There are a lot of very bad vampires out there, but most of them retain some measure of humanity. Angelus didn't. The reason that Spike is clearly Spike but Angel is nothing like Angelus is because the demon that took over William's body is less evil than the demon that took over Liam's body.
1186* The comics support your theory. Angel feels he has to be punished for his actions and he's not content to suffer alone, he feels everyone else has to be like him. This comes about when Drusilia appears sane thanks to a demon that fed on her trauma, and she trained it so that people can come to her for her help, and she has the demon feed on them so they can cope and not live in pain. Throughout this storyline Angel is dead against it, even though the people Drusilia helps go of their own free will and are better for it. He feels it's much better that people suffer.
1187
1188[[WMG: The Buffybot was borderline sapient--and in love with Spike.]]
1189When Willow reprogrammed the Buffybot to operate in full-time Slayer mode, she apparently still had a few quirks relating to Spike, even though Willow assured him that she'd purged all the sexbot subroutines from her system. She actually did--it's just that Buffybot had fallen for Spike on her own. Her programming clearly has her showing affection to Willow and Dawn, and she seems to love Dawn as much as she would if she were actually Buffy. And for the past three months she's seen Spike guard Dawn during every waking moment. She knows that Spike loves Dawn, has been tortured for her, and would probably die for her. Which leads her to love Spike as well. The reason she expresses it so strangely is because, well, she's a sexbot. She's basically speaking in her first language.
1190
1191[[WMG: Buffy was never in any Heaven.]]
1192Now, this might just be insanity, but perhaps she was completely wrong about being in heaven. Normally major things in the Buffyverse have a prophecy about them. Yet the resurrection of a Slayer which directly caused The First Evil to be able to start to try to take over the world which directly caused every Potential Slayer to be activated along with the recovery of an ancient Slayer weapon (I refuse to call it a scythe) never had one. Or did it? If you were a Hellgod or demon or whoever and you learned that an entire army of demon killing badasses was going to be created due to a Slayer being resurrected you'd want to stop that, right? Now, logically you could just lock up and torture every Slayer who dies to try to prevent that, right? No, that would be an awful idea. Think for a moment, you torture a Slayer and then she comes back to life. Chances are the first thing she'll want to do is get enough people to kick your ass three ways to Sunday. So, what is a hellgod or demon to do? Well, what about making her not WANT to kill demons or even live? Take away her will to fight? The best way to do that is to make her life a living hell if she's ever resurrected. So, you take away all her worries and make her the happiest being alive, err... dead. That way, she will most likely kill herself upon returning to life, stopping her from ruining your life ever again. After all, Buffy felt like everything would be fine and all would be good while she was dead. Yet her friends were suffering and if she didn't come back they would have all died. Clearly it was all a lie to try to sabotage her. It almost worked, too. Unluckily for them, you really cant fight prophecies.
1193* If only this was canon (it would be awesome but will never happen). BTW I agree 100%.
1194
1195[[WMG: Willow was just using the laptop as a keyboard and screen when reprogramming the Buffybot.]]
1196It was modified so that the accessory end of the USB cable could be plugged into the laptop and the computer end could be plugged into the Buffybot, because the buffybot ''was'' the computer, and the laptop was just a human-interface peripheral. (This is pretty much just to explain away a special effects error with the USB jack referenced on the Buffybot page of the Buffyverse wiki, it doesn't really matter in the big picture.)
1197
1198[[WMG: Giles knows a spell that lets him predict whom any magic-user is fated to marry.]]
1199This would be a fan-fic if I wrote fan-fiction, I think.
1200* He foresaw that Willow will eventually marry some white hat, which is why he has unshakeable faith in her essential goodness and was willing to stake the fate of the world on it.
1201* He foresaw that Anya would never be married, which is why he didn't bother flying in for her wedding.
1202* He introduced a number of magic-users to their future spouses in exchange for "a favor at a later date," hence his hold over the mage the Mayor summoned to remove Angel's soul.
1203* He knows that he himself will end up marrying Olivia, the old friend he has a fling with in Season 4. He believes his continued failure to woo her over the past thirty years means they'll get together too late to have children, hence his dream of her weeping over an empty baby carriage in ''Restless.''
1204** [[spoiler: Oh, no, he won't marry anyone.]]
1205
1206[[WMG:Warren will become a vengeance demon]]
1207This is mostly based on just the show itself, though I don't know if it's actually made impossible by the season 8 comics. Anya became a vengeance demon who avenges wronged women against men. Given Warren's issues with women, he probably considers himself wronged by women and could be given the job to avenge wronged men against women. Warren and Anya are actually pretty similar--consider what Anya tried to do to Xander after the failed wedding (I can just imagine Warren making a woman's breasts rot off the same as Anya tried to do to Xander's penis).
1208* Well, as of 8.39, [[spoiler:''splat''. [[{{Jossed}} Now he certainly won't]].]]
1209
1210[[WMG:Dawn has at least some of Buffy's powers.]]
1211She manages to do things that a normal human couldn't due more than occasionally. For example, she hears Buffy and her mother talking at an almost whisper level in S5E2. It just doesn't seem logical that she was yelling across the house and was about normal talking volume due to distance yet she could hear them at an almost whisper volume. However, if, due to being based on her DNA and basically having identical souls she got some of her sister's abilities, even on just a minor level, it would explain some of the things she does, like the roll in Season 6 (you don't learn how to do something by just watching someone, not that well. It takes practice).
1212
1213[[WMG: Cassie and Drusilla are distant relatives.]]
1214Cassie's got the same talent as Dru, without the fainting and stuff. Coincidence? I think not...
1215
1216[[WMG: All rockers of Sunnydale High are werewolves.]]
1217In 'The Pack,' Xander sniffs out a group of greasy rocker guys, saying to the pack, "Dogs." It's assumed he means the hot dogs the rockers were eating, but really he's recognized them as brothers. Oz was only the first of Sunnydale musicians to become a wolf!
1218* If they were werewolves then, clearly Oz isn't the first Sunnydale musician/werewolf, since he didn't become a werewolf until the middle of season 2 when his baby cousin bit him.
1219** Somebody had to bite his cousin.
1220
1221[[WMG: Season 6 was a massive {{Deconstruction}} of the series]]
1222The focus of the season was the main character's journey to adulthood. There was no long story arc or ancient evil to face. The bad guys are a bunch of nerds who never outgrew their childhood hobbies, symbolizing the fans who only liked the show's sci-fi and supernatural aspects. The real villain is not defeated by the strongest wizard or the mightiest warrior but by the comforting words of a friend. The season ended with Buffy affirming that she wants to live and Spike gets his soul back because the show is not about death or killing but the protection and sanctity of human life and that the world is a beautiful place to be despite all the hardships and tragedy we all face.
1223
1224[[WMG: The Mayor purposefully kept Sunnydale as a Cell Phone blackspot]]
1225We hardly ever saw anyone using cell phones in the early days of the show, despite them becoming popular and everyday tech around that time. Since Wilkins created Sunnydale as a demon feeding spot he probably abused planning and construction laws to make sure phone coverage was severly restricted so no one could dial 911 from a graveyard and save themselves from the vamps.
1226* Um, let's look at this proposal logically. 1. It doesn't take a vampire that long to kill a person unless they play 2. Cop response time equals one unmoving corpse and possibly an extra meal for the moving one. 3. If cops are in the know about vamps WHY would they risk trying to save some idiot from a vamp? Best wait for dawn when it's safer. 4. mayor killed in 1999. 90s cell-service reception was crap anyways.
1227* I have to disagree with that. 1. Even if the cops didn't have time to get there in time to save you, people would still try to occasionally call the cops if a vampire was chasing after them. 2. Not every cop was shown to know about vampires and stopping people from calling for help was a good way to keep up the masquerade. 3. 90s reception might not have been great but in a town where, according to Cordelia, the bad part of town was "about half a block" from the good part of town it's not ridiculous to think that you would have been close to the centre of town and would have had at least basic reception for emergency services.
1228
1229[[WMG: The Prophecy from Season 1 didn't actually say Buffy was going to die, directly.]]
1230Okay in order to get this you need a quick history lesson in death euphemisms.
1231
1232In the bible (for example) and other ancient texts there is a connection between breathing and life, a baby isn't alive until it takes its first breath, when you stop breathing you die. This makes sense because before the advent of CPR and respirators once you did stop breathing you were dead.
1233
1234Now here is where the WMG comes in that the Prophecy didn't say the slayer would die, it said the slayer would lose her breath or her breath would go out. This would be interpreted by any human with the proper background information as being killed but doesn't mean the slayer would stay dead. It would just be assumed by the prophet who made the prediction that she couldn't be revived.
1235* She died enough that Kendra was called. Why would the prophecy in question be ambigous?
1236
1237[[WMG:Season Six is all in insane Tara's head.]]
1238
1239Season Six, Season Seven, Season Eight, and the upcoming Season Nine are all in Tara Maclay’s head during her [[CloudCuckooLander brief insanity stint]] in Season Five. This is why there is all the CharacterDerailment—not because she doesn’t know her friends well, but because she is technically insane and her mind is not able to represent them properly at first. In fact, you can even compare it all to a FanFic of sorts!
1240
1241The Tara in this imagined verse is completely sane, but even though this is all in the insane mind of someone, it doesn’t make the someone in that imagined universe insane. In fact, the Tara seen in S6 may be the remaining threads of real!Tara’s sanity. So her [[ItWasHisSled de]][[KilledOffForReal ath]] in Seeing Red is…[[FridgeHorror oh God]]. There’s another theory for Tara dying near the end of Season Six even though I’m proposing this is all in insane!Tara’s head, but I’ll get to that later.
1242
1243Once More With Feeling was the saner part of Tara’s mind desperately trying to lighten things up, but [[TheDeterminator insane Tara]] would just not give up…
1244
1245Now, I suppose we must talk about Season Six Willow. It’s possible, in this theory’s version of ''The Gift'', she sensed the beginning of Willow’s dark magic, and knew that it would corrupt her over time. Also, Tara may have subconsciously, or maybe even consciously, felt hurt that Willow hid their relationship from the Scoobies for so long. These oh-so-small doubts in her LoveInterest are why, in insane Tara’s post-Gift imagined-universe, Willow went through massive CharacterDerailment and even turned out to be the Season’s BigBad.
1246
1247Theories for Tara’s death if Season Six and onward was all just a world inside insane!Tara’s head: It was to punish imaginary!Willow; [[TearJerker it was symbolic the last remaining thread of her sanity]]; even insane Tara hates S6 that much; etc.
1248
1249Season Seven has characters a lot more in-character. Insane Tara has become even more insane by the point she began imagining S7, but oddly her characterizations of her friends became more stabilized and less all over the place as they were in S6. Kennedy, as Tara’s complete opposite, was made because insane!Tara felt bad for putting Willow through S6. (Remember, this is all in Tara’s head!)
1250
1251(Now, it’s likely that all the events of Angel’s show that are set post-''The Gift'' on the Buffyverse timeline are in Tara’s head, but since Tara never met any of those in Angel Investigations—even Angel, I don’t think!—I’m not sure how I can fit them into this theory…)
1252
1253Robin Wood was introduced so that the Buffy of insane!Tara’s imaginaryverse would have hope that, since Robin is the son of a Slayer, Buffy herself could eventually have a family of her own. Maybe.
1254
1255As for Faith’s return, Tara may have seen the goodness in her during the [[FreakyFridayFlip Buffy-Faith body-swap incident]] in Season Four, when Tara saw Faith’s aura, so her redemption and all that was because even insane!Tara thinks of her as an EnsembleDarkHorse.
1256
1257Chosen was the finale, meant to be a [[EarnYourHappyEnding happy ending]] for Tara’s friends. However, something went wrong, and insane!Tara’s insanity increased exponentially. The result of that? [[TakeThat Season Eight.]]
1258
1259(Not too sure about Anya’s death in Chosen, though, since Tara never really seemed to have anything against her…)
1260
1261It is revealed in Season Eight that [[spoiler:Angel is Twilight, the BigBad. I don’t believe Tara ever met him, but what she did hear was enough to convince her that Buffy and Angel are not meant to be together, thus making him a villain.]]
1262
1263Finally, because I firmly believe that Season Nine, in some way, shape, or form [[spoiler:will have Tara be resurrected, somehow, it is a sign of Tara’s sanity returning, followed by ''The Gift'', though likely having forgotten the whole ‘verse she cooked-up in her head.]]
1264
1265Back in reality, either Buffy [[KilledOffForReal stays dead]] or [[BackFromTheDead doesn’t]], but either way, the actual events in the Buffyverse post-''The Gift'' were a lot different. You can think up whatever you want for that, if you want. [[ButNowIMustGo My work here is done.]]
1266* Congratulations, [[RetCon you've fulfilled roughly 70% of the fan's wishes.]]
1267* And lest we forget, "insane" doesn't equal "disconnected". She percieved Dawn's true nature, after all. It's entirely possible that she actually got to visit team Angel in this reality, probably twice: first time before the existence of Conner was revealed to team Angel (probably that time we saw Willow bring the news... make it the gang), then again after it (else how would she know of Angel [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre doing it]] with Darla? Her appearances in early Season 3 are {{Retcon}}s). Conner himself exists in reality, but we have no clue to his real character. Given all that, she could have made up Angel Seasons 3 through 6 based on her sketchy idea of him and his team, hence the mess with Conner, Angel/Angelus split personality Wall Banger and Angel's accepting of Wolfram & Hart.
1268
1269[[WMG: There have always been more than one Slayer]]
1270
1271* We know that Glory has only been on Earth for roughly 20 years. (which really begs the question of why ancient monks were gaurding the key, why they knew ANYTHING about Glory. . .and you know this probably belongs in the justbugsme page now that I'm giving it thought. But once she's told that Buffy's the slayer she instantly knows what one is and calls it common. Unless they have slayers where she's from (and likely that the activate all cheat code was entered) why would a being from another universe know about something as incredibly rare as a Slayer unless they had them where she came from? The chances that in Ben's 20 years of life that he/she randomly ran into a slayer is incredibly low. For starters of those twenty years it's spend 5 as Buffy Summers. If she'd met any of the previous slayers she most likely would have killed them and the Watcher's would have been making plans, serious plans to stop her.
1272** Except that everyone in the underworld knows of the slayer; heck, even Forrest knew what a slayer was, even if he didn't believe she was more than a tall tale. And just because Glory hates our world doesn't mean she's ignorant of it. Slayers (and other champions from our world) have a habit of stomping on other dimensional powers' plans; see Angel in Pylea and Holtz and Connor in Quartoth for a couple examples of mostly-human champions causing trouble off their home turf.
1273
1274[[WMG: Giles hung out with John Constantine a bit during his Ripper days.]]
1275
1276And possibly played with Mucous Membrane on occasion.
1277
1278[[WMG: The Trio's choice of ''Film/JamesBond'' actors]]
1279Reflected their own personalities.
1280* Warren liked Creator/SeanConnery because he was charming yet ruthless. Warren is ruthless without the charm.
1281* Jonathan liked Creator/RogerMoore because he was smooth with women.
1282* Andrew liked Creator/TimothyDalton because he had edge, something Andrew obviously lacked.
1283
1284[[WMG: The reason the love spell went screwy in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" is because Cordelia was already in love with Xander]]
1285Because she was already inlove, the spell bounced off and affected the whole town. During the course of that episode, she actually felt the same level of emotion as all of the "crazy" women. She was just already used to it so her behavior didn't change at all.
1286* It doesn't track; the spell's actual effect wasn't love... it was uncontrollable desire. And we already have a damn fine reason given in the episode: Xander's motives weren't pure. He was trying to make Cordelia love him so he could hurt her the way she hurt him. Strangely enough, the goddess Amy invoked wasn't pleased.
1287** That can happen when you try to invoke ''[[VirginPower Diana]]'' for a ''lust spell''.
1288
1289[[WMG: Various famous people through time have preformed the Paragon spell.]]
1290These people would include General George Washington (badass motherfucker who managed to lead a RagtagBunchOfMisfits against the British Army and then proceeded to lead a country), Adolf Hitler (managed to take over Germany just via charisma, most likely broken at some point, hence his horrid leadership), Gene Simmons (leader of the rock band Music/{{KISS}}, massive asshole who's still loved, bedded over 1000 women and counting while still in a stable relationship with children) and more. Most of them were smart enough to tone down the awesomeness they get out of it, but Jonathan was, to put it nicely, a noob.
1291
1292[[WMG: Buffy in season seven was actually The First.]]
1293
1294We know that The First likes to pretend to be Buffy, right? Well I have a theory that there's a bit of MindScrew for the audience here, in that there are times where we see who is meant to be Buffy, but it's actually The First. How else you explain her bitchiness tearing the team apart? Get It Done, I'm looking at YOU.
1295
1296[[WMG: Dracula is the same Dracula from Franchise/{{Castlevania}}.]]
1297And this explains the castle. Creature of chaos, indeed. It can appear in Sunnydale.
1298
1299[[WMG: Xander and Dracula had sex while Xander was under his thrall.]]
1300Xander said that Dracula had turned him into a "Spider eating man-bitch," which can have some connotations. He also referred to himself as the "Butt Monkey" that same scene. Although that scene named the the phrase ButtMonkey as a trope, if you think about it, it does sound kind of dirty. "Butt Monkey" has also been used in the scene in season six, where Andrew and Jonathan were in prison. Jonathan comments about a man in an adjacent cell "That guy's been looking at me. I think he wants to make me his butt monkey. ... I hear they like the small ones, little hands like their girlfriends'" That indicates that the phrase may have some more sexual meanings.
1301
1302[[WMG: Faith and Angel will become canon in the comic series.]]
1303Think about it. Angel needs to be rehabilitated in exactly the same way he once helped her, they're staying in a small house together with him permanently in a bed, they're both single, they've kissed before and it was hot, and no one else intends to come near them for the foreseeable future. Two hotties in isolation together? Suuuure nothings going to happen. Plus, they're co-starring in the 25-issue ''Angel and Faith'' comic series.
1304** At the very least Buffy's gonna think it and she'll get pissed. Faith's realized that she's pushed away every guy who's ever been the least bit decent to her, given all they've been through Angel would be a prime candidate for love interest. Now, if that's going to happen, might Xander get a shot with Buffy?
1305
1306[[WMG: With Creator/JossWhedon not on the reboot, Buffy will be far far less tortured.]]
1307
1308Nuff said.
1309
1310[[WMG: The Annointed One was Vampire Jesus.]]
1311According to our ArtisticLicenseReligion page, Christ means "The Annointed One", so a Vampire who's name is literally Christ and is a vampire would be their Jesus. Spike is too badass to let something like being the Vampire Messiah get in his way, though.
1312
1313[[WMG: Anya was raped by a [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16223_gay-bigfoot-7-weirdest-mythical-creatures-in-world.html Wolpertinger]].]]
1314The Wolpertinger is a mythological creature that looks like a rabbit, but has the antlers of a roebuck, the wings of a jay and the feet of a duck. They also have a thing for hot chicks, namely humans. Though, who's to say that one didn't get confused?
1315
1316
1317[[WMG: Eric and Chris Epps were recruited by the Initiative.]]
1318Eric and Chris, if you don't remember, were the brothers who found a completely sciencey way to bring the dead back to life in "Some Assembly Required" (S2, E2). During the episode, they committed four counts of grave robbing, one count of kidnapping, a count of breaking and entering, a count of arson, at least two, likely more, counts of attempted murder and at least one count of theft. So, they get arrested, but the Initiative notices their work. As their research was destroyed, they make them an offer. We'll wipe the charges, get you out of that shithole house and give you the life of your dreams, and in return, you help us with a project. The result being, of course, Adam.
1319* Also, we know the Initiative has existed since early World War 2 and knows Angel. So, it's likely they were watching Sunnydale, as Angel was there. So we can almost certainly put them at the scene (Angel showed up after the building burnt down). Visually, Adam and their creations are similar. Plus, they could be tried as adults at their age. With a list of charges like that, with that many witnesses combined with them admitting it, it's likely they'd get life in prison.
1320
1321[[WMG: Along with the above WMG, Warren was also recruited.]]
1322Warren has the skills and knowhow to create super strong, human-like machines. Previously, we saw Ted, an extra strong, human-like machine. Perhaps Warren was taken in by Ted, and raised to take care of and repair him. After the events of "Ted", Warren was alone, and brought into the Initiative to work on their zombie robot demon soldier, having the most knowhow they could find.
1323* This makes even more sense when you think about April and the Buffybot. To build something like that can't be cheap. However, if you've got the US Government giving you a nice retirement package, it's alot easier to do.
1324
1325[[WMG: It's Angel's fault Buffy became the Slayer]]
1326Before Willow did her thing with the Scythe, which Potential became the next Slayer wasn't as random as it appeared. The Potential who is closest to a vampire at the moment of the previous Slayer's death becomes the next Slayer. We see a flashback of Whistler showing Buffy to Angel at what appears to be the moment she is called.
1327* That's the moment she met her first Watcher, not the moment she was called. The Counsil had overlooked her completely until after she was called.
1328
1329[[WMG: The Old Watcher's Council was more competent than they appeared.]]
1330In Sunnydale, there was at least one apocalypse per year that Buffy prevented. Considering there is more than one Hellmouth on Earth, and Buffy doesn't go to each one routinely and put out the demon and vampire uprisings going on there, the Watchers do their share of the heavy lifting, we just don't see it. There's also the fact of the two Watchers we see for a long enough time, both become badasses rather than dead, Robin Wood could be included in this as he was raised by a Watcher and he is a badass as well. That Watcher Academy training must be good for something. Also consider that in season seven, Quentin Travers was rallying the Watchers to war, which would have been an ally that would have put Buffy's side over the edge against the First, so of course the First had Caleb destroy the Watchers, they were a far greater threat than Buffy was. This also explains why there isn't a bunch of Watchers in Sunnydale, seeing as how she was the only Slayer for the longest time, their resources were deployed elsewhere.
1331
1332[[WMG: ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' (and by extension, ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' and ''Series/{{Alphas}}'') takes place in the "Normal Again" world from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', and Creator/BeatrixPotter was the pen name of Anyanka the Vengeance Demon.]]
1333Anya/Aud's worst nightmare was something happening to her beloved bunnies. As her experimentation with mycological toxins for vengeance purposes during the increasingly technological Edwardian era turned back on her, giving her nightmares about her bunnies being put in dangerous situations, harmed, and worse, her fear evolved from bunnies being harmed with her unable to help into a fear of the bunnies themselves (a sort of Pavlovian response).
1334
1335Magic clearly hasn't overrun the world in ''Normal Again'' as it had in the Wishverse and the "What if Buffy died" verse, so the [[RightHandVersusLeftHand bureaucratic confusion]] amongst various government agencies ensures that the [[Series/{{Warehouse 13}} Secret Service]] and [[Series/{{Alphas}} DCIS]] are unaware of the Watchers and the Slayer, and the British are still ticked about Warehouse 12 being moved so the Slayer and most Watchers don't know of the existence of the Warehouse. Most of the creators of artifacts put their own brand of energy into the artifacts by the focus and near-ritualistic repetition of what they did (see: witchcraft and its demon-worshipper equivalents), strengthened (or even [[TheThemeParkVersion changed outright]]) by their [[CommonKnowledge public]] [[TheThemeParkVersion image]]. Alphas are probably unrelated to magic, and more closely tie into the MadScience of Series/{{Eureka}} and [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Warren Mears]].
1336
1337As for the thing in Sector 5? It is (among [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow other things]]) the heaven-dimension equivalent of a Hellmouth. Beauty, comfort, [[CoincidenceMagnet energy]], and a MadScience field come from it the same way dark feelings, demons, and an increased magical field come from the Hellmouths.
1338
1339[[BrickJoke Long story short]]? [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Anya's afraid of bunnies because of a series of increasingly bad trips back in the nineteen-aughts]].
1340
1341
1342[[WMG: Dawn was made helpless so Buffy would protect her better]]
1343The monks had the power to change reality so drastically that everything and everyone is Dawn's made-up life knew who she was: memories were made out of thin air and documents were changed to fit the new reality. So why not make Dawn a badass? The monks purposefully made Dawn so helpless in order to guarantee that Buffy would do her absolute best to protect Dawn. If Dawn had the slightest bit of competence then Buffy would not be protecting Dawn to the best of her abilities because she would trust Dawn not to be a total screw-up.
1344
1345[[WMG: Willow is a spark.]]
1346The magic addiction arc is her going into her madness place.
1347
1348[[WMG: Rupert Giles is descended from Uther Pendragon, and the Watchers Council is the continuation of the Knights of Camelot.]]
1349Regarding Giles, descent from Uther Pendragon would explain the strong physical resemblance between the two men, his large personal library of ancient magical texts, the collection of medieval weaponry, and above all his ruthless streak. We know that Giles' father was a Watcher, and since the Council didn't seize all his books and weapons after they kicked him out, we can assume that these items are family heirlooms.
1350
1351Of course, once the Uther/Giles connection is established, the Knights of Camelot/Watchers Council becomes even more apparent. Both organizations are dedicated to standing against black magic, see stability and order as paramount concerns, and have no problem with using extreme measures to carry out their mission. Plus, it would explain why the Watchers Council is based in Britain; it existed there long before it became the Watchers Council, and the prestige of the Camelot lineage would go a long way towards convincing Slayers and fellow travelers from around the world to place themselves under the Council's leadership, regardless of its geographic location.
1352
1353
1354[[WMG: Dawn is a Slayer]]
1355
1356I'm kind surprised that I haven't seen this yet. When Buffy died in "The Gift", it DID call a new Slayer; Dawn. Nobody realized because they were always trying to keep Dawn out of harm's way, and so she didn't get a chance to fight. The first time she gets to do anything isn't until the season 6 finale, "Grave", where she fights surprisingly well against the earth demon things that Dark Willow summons to kill her and Buffy; she says that she watched Buffy fight, but Dawn's never even held a sword before. Then we do see her fight in season 7, and she's a lot more competent than you'd think she'd be, given that she had no training. The finding spell that Willow used ignored Dawn and went to Amanda because it was only looking for Potentials (or alternately, it DID find Dawn too, Dawn and Amanda just happened to be standing a few feet away from each other without realizing). So Dawn is another Slayer and no one realized.
1357
1358[[WMG: ''Normal Again'' was real...]]
1359
1360...And Buffy's favorite tv show was ''Series/{{Angel}}''. She watched it all the time before developing severe schizophrenia, and it became part of her hallucination. In her delusions, her favorite hero was the man she was always meant to be with and who loved her as much as she loved him. Many characters that appeared in ''Angel'' appeared in her delusions, such as Cordelia, Wesley, etc., though most of her delusions were made up by her (Willow, Xander, Giles, etc.) Therefore, Sunnydale being all in her mind doesn't contradict the existence of ''Angel'' because it was never real to begin with, it was always a tv show.
1361** But how could there be Angel without Buffy in the first place?
1362*** It wasn't that she inserted herself into the show, it was that she put herself in the show's universe and changed it so that she was Angel's love interest and whatnot. The original show was mostly the same show that we watch, except that Buffy inserts herself in crossovers and her brain made up the whole thing with Angel losing his soul to her (in the original show she watched, it was really someone else as part of the backstory). In fact, Buffy may have had her entire delusion based on this backstory in ''Angel'' that was never really fleshed out.
1363** But that would mean that Buffy shouldn't have been in episodes such as Sanctuary, which means that if Buffy's not real then Faith shouldn't be a part of it either, and...[[MindScrew owwww...]]
1364*** Okay, going by the evidence here's what seems to have happened. Buffy's actions and hallucinations: real (see her comment about her friends forgiving her and Willow saying she thought an insane asylum was an escape from the real world.) Insane asylum: fake.
1365
1366[[WMG: The "loser preacher" who seduced Lily was Caleb]]
1367
1368One of her fake surnames is "Houston", implying that she's at least visited the deep south (Caleb once murdered a choir girl in Tennessee). Before graduating to serial murder, Caleb was already a defrocked priest who rebelled by forming his own shoestring sect. When Lily got away from him, it drove Caleb into such a rage that he went on to continually murder blonde girls of Lily's approximate age (i.e. Betty from Knoxville) until eventually being tapped by The First.
1369
1370[[WMG: In Willow's dream in "Restless" when she sees Harmony repeatedly trying to bite Giles' neck just before the play]]
1371. . . and Giles keeps telling Harmony to "stop that" she's actually processing a buried memory of a time she walked in on Harmony hitting on Giles in the Library.
1372
1373[[WMG: Buffy's uncle is [[Series/TwentyFour Jack Bauer]].]]
1374
1375Buffy's watcher in the film was Donald Sutherland. Buffy's mother of course was Kristen Sutherland. She tortures a vamp by shoving a cross down it's throat. Who could have taught her that? The TropeNamer for JackBauerInterrogationTechnique perhaps, Keifer Sutherland?
1376
1377[[WMG: Olivia left Giles because she wanted children.]]
1378
1379In Restless, Giles' dream has Olivia pregnant and pushing a pram, but later she's no longer pregnant and she's weeping over the empty pram. It's possible that Olivia left Giles because she wanted children and he was either unwilling or unable. Alternatively, they had got pregnant and she lost the baby. The second theory, one wonders if he had known before she left, or if maybe he had found out after or never found out at all, and his subconcious was telling him. Or warning him.
1380
1381[[WMG: The Powers That Be consist entirely of future Big Bads, protecting the Earth from the current Big Bad so that they can take it over later.]]
1382They help Angel out because he tends to be important to their long-term plans, and help random do-gooders like Buffy because they need the world intact for them to feast on later. They act like angels when appearing to heroes because that just works better. Earth survives by the same principle that prevents crabs from climbing out of a bucket: whenever one gets close to escaping, the others pull it down.
1383* Confirmed with Jasmine in season 4 of Angel.
1384
1385[[WMG: Buffy TookALevelInJerkass because of Faith]]
1386* Faith [[GrandTheftMe stole Buffy's body]] at the height of her JerkAss ways. Even though it wasn't for long the good in Buffy worked it's magic on Faith and rather than running like she intended she goes out to be a hero. When things get back to normal Buffy would later changed her personality, to the point where she is compared to Faith. The reason? The poison Faith left when she stole Buffy's body infects her. The same as the goodness in Buffy led Faith to reform.
1387
1388[[WMG: Joyce's death was a direct result of Dawn's existence.]]
1389There's always a price for magic, but giving life and human form to The Key is apparently repercussion-free. However, not 2 episodes after Dawn's introduction does Joyce's illness make its first appearance, suggesting some sort of link between the two. It would be interesting if Dawn's existence required the death of Joyce, and would pile on a steaming heap of angst onto the poor girl if she ever found out, as Joss is wont to do.
1390* FridgeBrilliance maybe?
1391** They didn't give the Key life, it was already living energy, they merely changed it's form and used magic to insert her into their lives.
1392* That's been my own personal Fanon. My theory (semi-confirmed by WordOfGod) is that the monks actually changed the past so that Dawn had existed from the time she was conceived. They didn't just alter memories, but changed reality so that as of the end of "Buffy v. Dracula," Dawn had always existed. I figure the pregnancy was a problematic one that drained Joyce's health, eventually leading to Joyce's illness. It appears that the timing of Joyce's illness was just a RedHerring to make us suspicious of Dawn (which is most likely the writers' intent), but in my mind the "coincidence" was because without Dawn, Joyce would have been healthy.
1393** Could a problematic pregnancy really make Joyce more susceptible to illness fourteen years later?
1394*** Um... possibly? Probably not because of brain cancer, but some people who have things like gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia can have lasting side effects following pregnancy.
1395
1396[[WMG: "Blood Ties" Is How Buffy Was Able To Substitute For Dawn In "The Gift".]]
1397At the end of "Blood Ties" Dawn has cut her wrists and Buffy has her arms cut as well and she presses them together for the "Summers blood" line. When she does that she takes some of Dawn's blood into herself. She had The Key's blood in her so that's why she was able to stop the portal in "The Gift".
1398
1399[[WMG: Season 9 Will have White haired Willow v Dark Willow.]]
1400There has to be, I mean in Season 8 Dark Willow brings Buffy to the future with the clear intention of getting Buffy to kill her, now I know Joss likes his angst but there's a point when it's just too much, seriously Willow goes dark, probably kills a bunch of people, becomes functionally immortal, outlives everyone that might have even mattered to Willow and then gets stabbed in the chest by her previous best friend, there's {{DownerEnding}}s and then there's this. In Season 9 Willow is going to have to fight Dark Willow somehow, the future where Buffy wound up in is an alternate universe where Dark Willow won the fight and that's how she went dark to begin with, but in the regular timeline Willow wins and that's the last we ever see of Dark Willow.
1401* This whole thing is based on the assumption that Dark Willow is a separate entity of Willow, which I always thought she was, Dark Willow has a completely different demeanor, speaks about Willow as if she's a different person, different speech pattern, different mannerisms, sort of like Angel/Angelus.
1402** Jossed. In the season 9 mini-series spinoff ''Willow: Wonderland'' an important plot point is that Dark Willow and regular Willow are one and the same, even though Willow tried denying it.
1403
1404[[WMG: The first Turok-Han was the host of the First the same way Caleb was.]]
1405
1406Why is it so much stronger than all the other Turok-Han Ubervamps we see? For the same reason Caleb is stronger than all of the other humans we see. We see just how strong the Turok-Hans actually are in the finale (a bit tougher than regular vamps, and a lot stupider); but we see the extraordinarily powerful one first, so we assume they're all like that.
1407** Buffy was also exhausted during that point. She wasn't sleeping and was heavily stressed. Once she gets some rest she kills the ubervamp without much trouble. Basically it wasn't THAT much stronger than the rest, Buffy was just in poor condition at the time so it seemed tougher.
1408
1409[[WMG: The reason why Kennedy gave Buffy a job.]]
1410
1411* In the season nine comics Buffy is DesperatelySeekingAPurposeInLife and Kennedy had gathered up some Slayers to work as bodyguards and offered Buffy a job working for her. While on the surface this might seem like the perfect solution there are two wrinkles.
1412** 1. Kennedy is using Buffy to boost her image. People would love the idea of having a Slayer protect them. How much better for Kennedy if she had Buffy herself on the payroll?
1413** 2. While Kennedy does come across as genuinely helpful, there might be another reason for what she's doing: the chance to lord it over Buffy.
1414----
1415
1416[[WMG: Buffy's 'heaven' is actually the institution from 'Normal Again'.]]
1417Both these different worlds exist side by side with a wall between them but the gap was some how broken on the first episode of the series since Joyce mentions that institution Buffy has been there for 6 years. When slayer Buffy is infected by the demon the wall is broken on both sides allowing both Buffy minds to blend. Joyce also mentions that Buffy has began a normal life in the institution world during the time that slayer Buffy died and that Buffy was normal and happy. Presuming that Institution Buffy was on powerful enough medication that would explain the feeling of contentment that Buffy felt while she was dead.
1418* All but confirmed in the episode. The doctor says that she was lucid for one summer before slipping back into her delusion.
1419
1420
1421----
1422
1423[[WMG: Buffy's supernatural sense is impaired]]
1424Slayers are supposed to have some sort of supernatural sense. However, Buffy never demonstrated it. It may be she's got the supernatural equivalent of being nearsighted.
1425** She does display a supernatural sense on occasion, but it's largely in regards to knowing when Angel is near. Maybe having a vampire stalking her for so long made her accustomed to the presence of vampires so now she has trouble sensing them normally.
1426
1427[[WMG: Tara's [[TilMurderDoUsPart father killed her mother]]]]
1428For starters, if the demon-esque appearance only affected women of the Maclay line, how on Earth would Tara's mom be part demon since she married into the family and isn't related by blood?
1429
1430In reality, her dad killed his wife for whatever reason. Tara wasn't around when it happened, so her father lied to her and said that she became demon and had no choice but to kill her.
1431
1432Also, consider that Tara's brother flat out, in front of her daddy and friends mind you, threatened to beat her up. One just doesn't say something like that in public unless they were taught it was the right thing to do.
1433** Tara's mother died of illness, she discusses it with Buffy in The Body. The family's lies were based around them being able to keep the women's demonic side under control. It seems as though the family didn't become so obviously abusive until after the mother's death.
1434
1435[[WMG: The franchise takes place in the same universe as Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica]]
1436Some had to say it.
1437
1438[[WMG: Willow's still dormant magical powers made it so no one ever talked about Jesse again]]
1439She was so scarred by what had happened (and because it was upsetting for Xander, whom we all knew she was in love with then), the power within her broke out for a second and made it so that he would never be spoken of again. Perhaps she wished to take away Xander's pain?
1440
1441[[WMG: Buffy's job at the DoubleMeat Palace is a metaphor for sex work]]
1442Obviously it's a bit of a stretch, but the exchange between Buffy and Spike seemed a little dramatic for fast food work:
1443
1444->SPIKE: You're not happy here.
1445->BUFFY: Please don't make this harder.
1446->SPIKE: You don't belong here. You're something... you're better than this.
1447->BUFFY: I need the money.
1448->SPIKE: I can get money. Walk with me now, come on.
1449->BUFFY: I ... I need to go help Gary with the fries.
1450->SPIKE: You gotta get outta here, this place'll do stuff to you. This place'll kill you!
1451Theres's also the video where "the cow and the chicken come together, even though they've never met" and the huge penis monster. Prostitution seems like it would be one of very few jobs compatible with being a slayer, although the DoubleMeat Palace is probably more similar to working in pornography. And don't forget that Sunnydale is pretty close to Los Angeles, one of the only places in the U.S. where you can legally shoot porn. Of course, this makes it extra awkward that her family and friends came to visit her at work...
1452
1453[[WMG: Anya's [[CharacterizationMarchesOn Change in personality]] is the result of having lost her demon powers.]]
1454
1455Vengeance Demons have the ability to become whoever they need to be in order to get close to their marks. In Anya's case, it was a girl who was a senior in high school. Anya no longer needed to to be a girl in high school since she graduated with the rest of the Scoobies, leaving her personality a blank slate save for [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters what she remembered about humans]] from her line of work.
1456
1457* Actually, a flashback in season 7 shows that Anya was extremely literal and blatantly honest the first time she was human, when she was Aud. As a demon, she likely had the ability to take on whatever traits she needed to blend in, but when she lost her powers, she was reverted back to her original human personality.
1458
1459[[WMG: If she hadn't been killed [[spoiler:Nikki Wood might have been the one to activate all potentials]] ]]
1460
1461Buffy Summers was able to do so because she had family and friends and because she saw [[spoiler:how the slayer was created via the shadow casters. Nikki Wood had the shadow casters so she could/would have known. Nikki also had a son. Though her love for him might have been hindered because of her duty maybe if the fight with Spike had ended in her nearly dying, but ultimately killing him it could have been a life changing event. She might have seen it as sign she was meant for something more than fighting until death. That purpose might include raising her son which would make her form relationships (family and friends) that would tie her to this life.]] This refusal to accept death, the knowledge at her fingertips and an impending apocalypse could have led her down a path ending in the [[spoiler:activation of all potentials.]]
1462* Doubtful. What little we see of Nikki doesn't seem to suggest that she had access to any sort of spell caster much less someone on Willow's level and she certainly didn't know about the scythe.
1463
1464[[WMG: When Drusilla dies, it will be a DyingMomentOfAwesome.]]
1465In the comics, of course, I'm aware the show's been off the air for over ten years.
1466
1467[[WMG: The bartender from Beer Bad was arrested for selling tainted beer.]]
1468Even if the authorities did a traditional coverup, he could easily be thrown in jail for spiking his drinks with mind-altering drugs. Drugging people to the point where they think they're a caveman and their lives were seriously endangered (they couldn't identify a car and one had a car crash into him), especially when their only major crime was being pompous, is the kind of thing that gets you thrown in jail for a long, long time.
1469
1470[[WMG: Willow's overuse of magic got [[spoiler:Tara killed]] ]]
1471A big deal is made about the fact that magic is a balancing act (make fire to light the bbq, it causes rain as a result). Willow was getting deep into powerful magic, and was constantly using it for her own personal pleasure. Thus, [[spoiler:Tara getting shot was an act to balance out the scales and restore equilibrium to nature, as Tara's death would undo all of the pleasure/comfort/convenience Willow had given herself by misusing the magic. Making it a "natural" death was just an additional slap in the face to Willow, since it made it impossible to restore Tara to life.]]
1472** I've long held the belief that Tara's death was a sort of balance required by the resurrection spell. Gain a life, lose a life. The rain example used above was the result of Dracula though, not Willow's use of magic.
1473*** That might be the reason, but the universe works in mysterious ways. Dracula came to Sunnydale, and he brought the rain, after Willow created fire. Willow and Tara brought Buffy back to life, and then Warren shot Tara. Magic doesn't necessarily have to create the balance itself, the universe simply balances itself out.
1474
1475[[WMG: Maggie Walsh was a Potential.]]
1476And she expressed the Slayer line's subconscious knowledge of what a Slayer is by creating a part-human, part-demon being to kill demons.
1477
1478[[WMG: Kennedy will pull on a BigDamnHeroes moment in the last chapter of the comics.]]
1479Buffy working for her was the focal point mid way through the series then that story was dropped, and she flew Buffy, Willow and Xander out to fight Simone. [[spoiler: Now Buffy is defeated and pretty much everyone else is tied up.]] The last issue suggests Buffy will win the day with a little help from her friends. While Kennedy might not exactly be a friend what's she doing while all this is going on? Looking for a new girlfriend? Maybe she is, but she's about the only one left to do something, and it it would be a ChekhovsGun.
1480[[spoiler: ** Called it. The last Buffy hadn't been released yet but the last Angel & Faith reveals chatting up a new girl was exactly what she was doing, she offered Faith a job training Deepscan, her slayer bodyguards.]]
1481
1482[[WMG: Willow turning RJ into a girl would not affect the jacket's power]]
1483And make all of the girls lesbians.
1484
1485[[WMG: Tara is a Potential.]]
1486She seems to have a strange connection to Buffy -- firstly, in S4 she is the only one to realize that something is wrong with Buffy when Faith has taken over her body. Secondly -- and perhaps more tellingly -- Tara is the one in the dreams from the S4 finale to prophesy Dawn's existence. The prophetic dreams that Slayers have connect them to the rest of the Slayer line and Buffy barely knows Tara at this point. Why else would Tara be in her dream, predicting the future no less, if Tara isn't part of the Slayer line?
1487
1488[[WMG: Angel kept quiet about Faith's attempted rape and murder of Xander.]]
1489* Faith's still alive. One of Xander's best friends is a Slayer who as far as we know never heard about the incident, and was vengeful enough to try and go through her ex in a bid to get at Faith. His other best friend is a vengeful witch who by the time the incident happened had it in for Faith. And Angel wanted to try and get Faith to reform. He wouldn't want her death getting in the way were Buffy or Willow to find out, and Xander kept quiet about it out of shame.
1490* Alternatively, Xander was also trying to save Faith (if memory serves wasn't he there to try and help her after the death of the Deputy Mayor in the first place) and kept quiet for the same reason Angel did.
1491
1492[[WMG: Giles and Devon Coven supplied Rack with Heroin Magic.]]
1493* Willow sucked the magic out of Giles' books and went veiny and dark-haired.
1494* Giles teleported in, Willow sucked out Giles' "True" magic and the destroy the World spell. Willow's reaction to Giles' "True" magic was exactly the same as her reaction to Rack's heroin.
1495* Giles says he teleported all the way from England because he felt a DisturbanceInTheForce.
1496* Yeah! This is the first time ever than a Witch's lover got murdered. It is such a big deal that it can be detected 7000 miles away.
1497
1498* Giles was the courier delivering "True" magic from "Devon Coven" to Rack.
1499* Giles goes to Sunnydale, finds Rack is dead, casts a detect spell, discovers Willow killed Rack and goes on rampaging vengeance versus Willow.
1500* Therefore, the Destroy the World spell was originally intended to be sold to Rack.
1501
1502[[WMG: some of the vampires who attack the Slayer are suicidal.]]
1503Ok, there are definitely vampires and other demons who attack the Slayer thinking they can kill them, but what was the vampire from the beginning of As You Were thinking? He showed no signs of special skills, and even though he decided he didn't want to bite Buffy, he clearly knew who she was, and intended to fight her again later. Sounds like he's suffering a case of WhoWantsToLiveForever.
1504
1505[[WMG: Eventually we'll meet a Vengeance Demon who specializes in punishing people who've wronged the mentally ill.]]
1506You have to admit, there'd be alot of potential there. With the way society treats the mentally ill, D'Hoffran would have so many candidates he might as well hold a lottery for the position. It could also make a very bold statement if they made this vengeance demon far more sympathetic than the others, when everyone would expect him to be insanely unhinged. Instead, he's interested not in avenging petty slights, but in removing monsters from the world. Orderlies who raped their patients, bullies who drove the weird kid to suicide and felt no remorse, parents who caused their child's death by putting them through an exorcism...
1507* While this wouldn't shock me here's the issue. In fiction land the mentally ill tend to fall in two camps. Those are genuinely unbalanced in some way and Vengeance Demons seem to be LawfulEvil. I can't imagine a Vengeance Demon who was interested in vengeance for the mentally ill doing the mental gymnastics necessary to get around the fact that they were themselves taking advantage of someone unable to properly understand the decisions they are making. The others are people who aren't mentally ill at all and are instead locked up for refusing to maintain the Masquerade but that would fall outside of their jurisdiction.
1508
1509[[WMG: During season ten Kennedy will get epically pwned.]]
1510* She's TheScrappy, right? What's she into at the moment? Guns. What has the series had a thing against? Guns. With her going all ''Series/CallOfDuty'' what's the bet she'll get a pasting due to GunsAreWorthless?
1511
1512[[WMG: Buffy Summers isn't really Dawn's sister...]]
1513* ... she's her '''''mother'''''. And Dawn's "father" is Faith Lehane. (Or, if you will, Faith is Dawn's mother and Buffy is Dawn's father; either is equally possible.) '''Follow:''' It is specifically stated in canon that the Monks of Dagon made Dawn "out of the Slayer." Thus, Dawn would technically be a clone of Buffy and clones are offspring, not siblings, of the original. But clearly, Dawn is not identical to Buffy, as she would be were she merely a genetic copy. How is this possible? Simple: at the time of Dawn's creation, there were ''two'' Slayers active, not just one. When the monks made Dawn, they took genetic material from both slayers and combined them by way of magic. The only reason why anyone thinks that Dawn is Buffy's sister, and doesn't associate Dawn with being related to Faith at all is because the monks "programmed" everyone's memories that way. But the reality is, Dawn is the magically created child of both Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane.
1514* Maybe not Faith but sadly this would explain why Dawn looks so much more like Riley then Buffy.
1515
1516* Actually I've had the same thought, particularly since both Buffy and Joyce are blond yet Dawn has brown hair (though it could be Hank, he's in the show so little I forgot what he looked like).
1517
1518My logic is that the spell initially sought out Faith, because, since the end of season 2 Faith was actually ''The'' Slayer, having been called when Kendra died, while Buffy ceased to be ''The'' Slayer after her death against the Master, only for either the Monks or magic itself to realize that with Faith in prison she wasn't in a good place to protect the key, not to mention that we don't know much about Faith's past, but no family ever went looking after she fled from Boston to Sunnydale after her Watcher's death, so it's possible she'd run away from home, or was removed from her home by social services before her calling, and therefore her existing history didn't lend itself as well to a sister being thrown in.
1519
1520Then they became aware that Buffy, a former slayer who had survived her death, retained her powers and continued her duty, not to mention having a background a sister could far more easily be slotted in, so switch the spell to her.
1521
1522However before they changed targets the spell had already started creating Dawn's body with Faith's DNA, before adding Buffy's DNA since it had switched to making Dawn her sister, therefore the spell created a body that was a mix of Buffy and Faith, which then became Dawn.
1523
1524[[WMG: If the series ended in season six Willow would have destroyed the BigBad.]]
1525* Wait, you say, she ''was'' the BigBad. Or if we are counting Warren she already did that. Not quite. [[WordOfGod Word of Joss]] is life was the BigBad. If the series ended here Willow would have succeeded in wiping out all life on Earth. What's the bet this would happen given how much Whedon thinks life sucks?
1526
1527[[WMG: Xander and Buffy are the reincarnations of Guts and Casca from Berserk.]]
1528
1529* Buffy
1530[[spoiler: Warrior woman, fell in love with a man who became a demon. Nearly drowned, brave leader, demon magnet, rape experience, near rape from someone she trusted, life keeps getting worse, hid away as a childlike mind to avoid deep trauma.]]
1531
1532* Xander
1533[[spoiler: Poor family life, tries to always save the girl, struggles against fate, demon magnet, constantly survives demonic attacks, a normal guy in an army of mystics, blood knight tendencies when dealing with vampires, possessed by a feral animal, saved Buffy from drowning, lost an eye, how he fought the judge showed he’s a combat pragmatist. Hundreds of years later he’s still fighting demons.]]
1534
1535[[WMG: Slayers dying was convenient and not just for control.]]
1536* Us living in the modern world tend to very easily forget that until recently traveling from New York to Los Angeles would take weeks or longer and getting to Africa or Australia might be physically impossible especially with any sort of time table at hand for a given slayer. The current slayer dying and a new one being called up in close proximity to the next high tier threat might be a feature not a bug.
1537
1538[[WMG: Tara will be revived.]]
1539* It was possible to revive someone from a natural death without magic, making this not such the insurmountable effort now it's back. If Andrew messes this up Willow would probably kill him, but being a pretty prominent character it's unlikely he will be. There were plans to bring Tara back before for more torture but [[Creator/AmberBenson her actress]] wouldn't allow it, with not having to worry about that it would be possible to make it ten times worse. [[FridgeBrilliance And now the kicker:]] horror takes a holiday on Halloween, leaving less chance of this messing up.
1540** Reviving Tara and having The first impersonate Tara are two different things both of which were possibilities. While speaking at Wizard World Chicago in 2004 Whedon said that he had proposed an episode where Buffy is given one wish with no restrictions or consequences, and she chose to make Tara alive again. Neither of these came to pass in the television series, but anything can happen in a comic book.
1541
1542[[WMG: Vampires don't ''automatically'' 'evolve' into more animalistic forms as they age.]]
1543* It is down to deliberate choices on the part of the vampire to embrace their demonic heritage. The Master was more demonic because he devoted himself to the Old Ones while the four hundred year old Darla, who paid lip service to those ideals but prefered to live in the human world with Angelus, is still fully capable of assuming human form. Dracula (who is even older than Darla and very much caught up in his own myth) never shows his game face at all.
1544
1545[[WMG:Cordy comes from a line decended from a Dragon in human form]]
1546* Which is why she loves - to the point of obsession - physical money so much, to the point of smelling it and hoarding it. If she had enough to do so, she'd probably gather the money into a great pile and sleep on it. Her extreme desire for material wealth does subside when she gets her calling in life, but it did start out ''awfully'' extreme.
1547* Her family was very wealthy and presumably powerful. An intelligent dragon ala D&D, Shadowrun and many other fantasy universes tend to build empires around themselves, and even if one had to maintain a mascarade in human form, they'd likely still build themselves an empire of sorts. It's decendants would naturally carry on as it did and possibly come away with the same personality quirks of dragon-style wealth hoarding.
1548----
1549
1550[[WMG:Dawn had to repeat the 9th grade]]
1551* At the beginning of season 5 Dawn says she is 14, in the same episode that Joyce asks Buffy to take Dawn back-to-school shopping (which usually happens before the school year starts). Dawn mentions to Riley later in the season that her birthday is right after the time the Summers women moved to Sunnydale (which was in March), meaning she'll turn 15 this year. An additional comment made by Dawn in season 5 is something along the lines of "The monks dropped k-8 in my head, why don't we see if they do 9 too?" This, and her age, implies she's currently in ninth grade. In season six, when the vampire boy she crushes on asks if she's a sophomore (10th grade in the U.S.) she's embarassed to say she's a freshman (9th grade). While being the youngest grade in high school is often treated as coming with some shame, this could go with her having been held back and being ''supposed'' to be a tenth grader but still being in ninth. Just my attempt at fixing a continuity issue.
1552* Also justified in that she found out all of her memories were technically fake and then her mom died, and it's mentioned that she's been cutting school and her grades have all dropped. It's unlikely that she would have been held back before that year because she specifically states that she loves school early on.
1553
1554[[WMG:Dawn's behavior throughout season 5 actually ''is'' consistent with a 14-year-old]]
1555Not the average 14-year-old, mind you, but one who's older sister is the Slayer. Buffy's parents got divorced right before Dawn turned 11. Then her mom found out about Buffy Slaying when Dawn was 12. Those are much more appropriate ages for some of her especially childish behaviors throughout early/middle season 5, when Dawn was 14. Part of Joyce accepting how dangerous Buffy's life was involved subconsciously babying Dawn so that she could keep one of her daughters young and protectable, because a parent simply '''can't''' protect their child from being the Chosen One. I am aware that the reason for Dawn's behavior not matching her age is because she was supposed to be younger and Michelle Trachtenberg did great at her audition but this didn't allow time for early script edits. However, in universe this actually makes sense. Once Joyce realizes Dawn is a) not her real child and b) also involved in the supernatural life, she starts to treat Dawn a little more like someone her age. All of Dawn's behaviors after this acceptance on Joyce's part are age appropriate for the poor kid who has, among other things, the realization that her life was fabricated, the death of her mother and then sister to deal with, and then her sister's resurrection and subsequent depression/seeming uncaring attitude. (Just counting issues through mid-season 6).
1556* And apparently Dawn has no really close friends to confide all of this to.
1557
1558[[WMG: Vampires are so easy to stake in this show because their bodies are degenerating from possession]]
1559It's been noted how easy it is to get a stake through a vampires ribs. But there's a reason for that. Virtually every case of a human body being possessed by a demon, either a living body or a corpse, eventually burns out the body and causes severe degeneration in the meantime. The unusual thing isn't that vampire ribs don't hold up against their weakness, it's that vampires are weak enough or well enough adapted to preying on humanity that their bodies don't fall apart within days.
1560
1561[[WMG: The Knights of Byzantium aren't just regular humans]]
1562Much is made of the Knights [[WeHaveReserves nigh-infinite reserves]], both by their own boasts that they could send "a thousand men" or even "legions" and by their enemies ("no matter how many we kill, they'll keep coming").
1563
1564To maintain an army that large, the Knights would need an incredible level of resources and infrastructure, as well as an unending source of recruits willing to take up medieval weapons and die as cannon fodder, all while managing to maintain the {{Masquerade}}.
1565
1566It would be much more plausible if the Knights' reinforcements (at least the foot-soldiers, unlike the leaders and clerics) had a mystical origin - possibly created or even cloned by magic.
1567
1568
1569[[WMG: Buffy, Faith, ect are not just HormoneAdledTeenagers, AllWomenAreLustful is part of the Slayer package.]]
1570* Evidence of this is seen where Buffy was the aggressor with most of her boyfriends, Faith was this way as standard, Kennedy hit on Willow hard, as did Satsu with Buffy, it's brought up Nikki Wood liked to blow off steam this way and she even had a son, and Sid was with a Korean Slayer who dug that he was hypersexual. In a way it makes sense, blowing off the stress of Slaying, GladToBeAliveSex and that need to procreate, bring up a new, stronger generation, that would be even more of a thing for a vampire hunter.
1571** So Faith ''was'' right and Slaying ''does'' make one horny?
1572
1573[[WMG: Reality was altered during "The Zeppo".]]
1574It was altered by someone (maybe the Powers That Be) because they knew what Jack and his friends were planning to do at the school.
1575
1576If Xander hadn't been there to stop them, it most likely would have killed everyone trying to prevent the impending apocalypse in the library.
1577
1578This is why everyone was acting so dramatic throughout the episode. Something was manipulating them to act this way so that they would keep Xander out of the fight and free to stop Jack and his friends.
1579[[WMG: Crosses don't work because of the Christian association, crosses have the Christian association because they work]]
1580It's a common enough element of vampire mythology that they can be repelled or even harmed by crosses/crucifixes. This is part of the Buffy mythology as well. However, traditionally the vampires being repelled by crosses idea came from the idea of crosses being holy, representing God's power and purity, and by extension from the basis of a Christian religious background. Given Buffy makes use of "Powers That Be" and "Hell Dimensions" it doesn't quite seem compatible with the idea of an underlying Christian mythology (though "The Devil's Robot" was once mentioned). Vampires don't seem to be repelled by symbols from other religions in the same way (and Willow once raised the fact that her, presumably Jewish father, wouldn't be too happy about her wearing a cross). So why then would crosses work? Holy Water makes sense since the water is specifically blessed and so could have some magic cast upon it in the process, whether that magic involved God or not. However, what about crosses?
1581
1582One possible explanation is that they're actually an underlying weakness of vampires (like the whole "not entering without an invitation" thing) completely unrelated to religion. However, after realising that, someone introduced them to the church as a symbol as a way to help repel vampires (note, in real life early Christians didn't use the cross as a symbol at first). Perhaps in the same way that joining together parts of a building and making them a home gives then a "forcefield" like effect against vampires, joining together two pieces of a material across each other in just the right way can achieve the same result.
1583
1584[[WMG:Amy is… a bit Willow]]
1585Similarly to the whole Willow restored Amy as a Demon idea, Willow restored Amy as…Willow. Basically, it’d been so long since Amy was human that her human identity was lost or at least damaged. In fact, since, Amy turned back to a human older than when she was a rat this version of Amy had never really existed before (even her hairstyle had changed). The only way Willow was able to make Amy human again was to “extrapolate” and use a spell that filled in the gaps, using herself as the base. In other words, the changes that had occurred in Willow over the years occurred in Amy as well. The reason why Amy was suddenly more powerful than she had been before was because Willow was more powerful than she had been before. The reason why Amy was more willing to misuse magic was because Willow was more willing to misuse magic. The reason why Amy was suddenly a less moral character was because Willow was too (and since Amy started from a less moral base she was worse than Willow was). Of course that doesn’t really explain why Amy magically had contacts in the magical underworld that she wouldn’t have had before, though it’s not unreasonable to think that with her mother’s history she may have met them previously and only now that she was evil did she decide to contact them.
1586
1587[[WMG:Willow’s Homosexuality and Lover's Walk]]
1588
1589In season four, Willow came out as a lesbian. There’s nothing unusual about a person discovering an attraction to members of their own sex at that age. What is unusual is that after Willow had previously shown a clear attraction to men during the first three seasons, she was suddenly identifying herself as exclusively lesbian. Of course, it’s not unusual for a bisexual person to favour one sex over another. However, even when Willow was the victim of a spell which made her fall in love with a teenage boy, she described herself as being able to “overlook” the fact that he was male and her reaction was to try to turn him into a girl (suggesting that she didn’t really consider being with a man an option, even when she was in love with one).
1590
1591This appears to be a contradiction (and I know I’m far from the first person to raise it) but there is a possible explanation. In “Lover’s Walk” Willow was working on a “De-Lusting” spell, a sort of reverse love spell, to stop her from being attracted to Xander. She didn’t get to use it in that episode. However, what if she did eventually get to use that spell, either for her attraction to Xander or possibly to help her get over her feelings for Oz? Further, what if it backfired in the same way that the love spell Xander had once used did? When Xander had used a love spell on Cordelia and it backfired, every woman except Cordelia ended up in love with him. What if Willow’s “De-Lusting” spell backfired, causing her to no longer be attracted to men (either to every man or at least to every man except the target of the spell)? So if she was bisexual before the spell was cast, she’d effectively be a lesbian after the spell was cast.
1592[[WMG:Anya's Personality]]
1593
1594When we see a flackback of Anya as a human, she was always a bit odd and literal but she also nice. Yet now she’s become blunt and rude, albeit without meaning to be. This could be put down to living life as a demon for centuries, but she actually spent centuries interacting with people, frequently under cover, and if anything should have developed a great understanding of social customs. However, in “Prom” Anya refers to having been stuck in this “persona” when she lost her powers. The persona she adopted was originally one to allow her to get close to Cordelia. Maybe the reason why she’s blunt and lacks empathy in spite of centuries of impersonating people and human observation is actually because the personality she took on and got stuck in was one designed to emulate Cordelia. As a consequence, she adopted many of Cordelia’s own mannerisms (bluntly speaking the truth, not really understanding how her words would impact people, ordering people around).
1595
1596[[WMG:Spike's season seven sirings]]
1597
1598Yay! AddedAlliterativeAppeal! We know that the sailor Angel sired while the latter had a soul wasn't fully evil. He tried, but couldn't savor it the way other vampires did. This suggests that they're somewhere in-between the souled vampires represented by Spike and Angel and the completely soulless monsters that vampires normally represent.
1599
1600Perhaps the reason Holden Webster (from [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E7ConversationsWithDeadPeople Conversations With Dead People]]) is so effective as a therapist is because he has enough soul left in him to mute the monstrous drive and keep him from attacking her on sight, but leaving him monstrous enough to still hurt her (which makes him somewhat more effective, in their limited time together).
1601
1602Was this part of the First's plans? An army of vampires driven by monstrous impulses, but with enough soul to make them more pliable? Souled enough to work together, but not so souled as to avoid an evil plan?
1603
1604[[WMG: Season ten spoilers: [[spoiler: Xander will be KilledOffForReal]].]]
1605
1606With one issue left in the season ten comics it ends with Ghost!Anya turned back into a vengeance demon and turning Xander to ash because of what he did to her. Now we may be thinking it's a trick or there'll be a way to reverse it but there's the unfortunate personal situation with his actor Nicholas Brendan. With alcoholism and the recent domestic abuse it may just be that the character will be retired and this death will take.
1607
1608[[WMG: The "witch's coven" that Giles was working with during Season 6 was Hogwarts ]]
1609Voldemort had killed the original Muggle Studies teacher, and his regime replaced the teacher with one who taught that Muggles were inferior. After Voldemort was defeated, Hogwarts needed a new Muggle Studies teacher, and [=McGonagall=] chose Giles, who was a Muggle who knew a lot about magic. But he couldn't explain this to his friends in Sunnydale, and he couldn't return to Sunnydale until the school year was over.
1610
1611[[WMG: Comic season 11 spoilers: Kennedy will become the BigBad.]]
1612* The basic plot has basically become a SuperRegistrationAct where vampires, Slayers, witches, the supernatural, they need to be monitored and watched by the government, after a horrific disaster breaks the masquerade. Buffy, Willow, Spike and the like are dead set against the idea. Dead set against Slayers working for the government trying to control the situation. Kennedy had been recruited. Kennedy is in favor of guns and military tactics that kind of automatically makes her evil. InUniverse Kennedy is considered TheScrappy of scrappies, to say nothing of what the fans think of her. And Kennedy has always had this...unfettered maybe attitude in that it doesn't matter what others think about the use of guns, doesn't matter that stopping Wolfram & Hart involves corporate terrorism. Outside of some new threat or that there is an evil left that had not been dealt with then Kennedy is a...hmmm, [[{{Pun}} potential]] antagonist. Well more antagonistic anyway.
1613** Jossed. The Secretary of State was the Big Bad.
1614
1615[[WMG: Spike has lost his British accent long ago, but prefers to keep up the charade.]]
1616* Most UK viewers aren't fooled by James Marsters' British accent, and they shouldn't be. Spike, who has travelled the world, hasn't lived in England for over a century. Arnold Schwarzenegger needs an accent coach to maintain his iconic Austrian accent, because living in California for most of his life would have decimated the accent. Spike is too proud to remove his accent, even though it now sounds a bit fake to British ears. He keeps it when losing his memory because his tongue retained its muscle memory. Notably, neither Angel nor Angelus keep up the fake accent charade, because they find the idea of clinging to an accent to be hokey. (David Boreanaz's accent as 18th-century Liam, however, was simply just a bad acting accent.)
1617** It's 100% canon that Spike's dialect is in fact fake; William Pratt had a Received Pronunciation accent (YMMV on how accurately James was able to recreate it, but regardless, that's the intent), and he fabricated a Cockney one to make himself sound tougher and hide his upper-class origins.
1618
1619[[WMG: Buffy shares a universe with Series/FantasyIsland and Tattoo is a prophet]]
1620* In the Series/FantasyIsland episode "I Want to Get Married/The Jewel Thief" (written a couple of decades before Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Tattoo decided to go into the greeting card business. He wrote three unusual greeting cards.
1621** 1. Congratulations on your divorce. Next time look before you leap.
1622** 2. Condolences on your 40th birthday. Insurance paid up?
1623** 3. Dear graduate, congratulations on your graduation. Too bad they had to burn the school down.
1624** The first is reasonably generic but could easily tie in with Joyce's divorce recently before the start of the series and the fact that the next time she got serious with someone he turned out to be an insane robot. The second one, more darkly, could quite clearly be linked with the fact that Joyce did die in her early 40s. For the third, alright technically the school blew up more then it burned down at graduation (it was the gym that burned down) but it's still a pretty big coincidence.
1625
1626[[WMG:The adventures of Melaka Fray are in an alternate timeline.]]
1627At the time of Melaka Fray, magic has left Earth, as well as in the ninth season of the series. However, she has returned in the ninth season. By the absence of magic no vampires could be created, and the humans who were bitten were turned into a kind of zombies called [[http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Zompire zompires]]. When the magic returned, a new breed of [[http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/New_vampire vampires]] emerged, which were much more powerful than the old breed. In the time of Melaka Fray, however, there are neither zompires nor the new vampires, but only the already known breed.
1628* In addition, the magic of Willow has ensured that there are many slayers around the world, but at the time of Melaka, she is the only slayer in the world.
1629* In the comics Melaka learns of a century-old witch named "Dark Willow". Maybe Willow has stayed nasty in Melaka's timeline, that never created the magic that created countless slayers, and the magic was not destroyed in the way it did in the ninth season, so no zompires or new vampires were created.
1630
1631[[WMG:The prehistoric animals were actually demons.]]
1632There are several indications for this. It is emphasized several times that the Earth was a world of demons for millions of years. Thus there is no time at which primeval animals could have existed. Also, in the comics, Angel finds a demon in Los Angels that looks like a T-Rex.
1633
1634[[WMG: The Master couldn't open the Hellmouth in the Wishverse because of prophecy]]
1635The Master had planned to open the hellmouth. Given how powerful he became, he should have succeeded. However, the Master and Buffy fighting and her dying had been prophesised since long before Buffy came to Sunnydale (meaning long before Cordelia's wish came into play). If the prophecy was unavoidable for her, it would have been for him as well. Opening the hellmouth would have prevented the fight. In fact, there's a good chance that the pure demons would have just killed the Master. If anyone was going to survive once the hellmouth was open, it would be Buffy. So the prophecy would be invalidated if he opened the hellmouth before he killed her, meaning that until she came to Sunnydale whatever force ensures prophecies come true made sure he couldn't.
1636
1637[[WMG: Miss Kitty Fantastico isn't dead]]
1638All we have to go on regarding the disappearance of Tara and Willow's cat is an offhand statement that a crossbow was somehow involved. No one showed any sign of mourning or even concern when it was brought up, as you would expect if she were actually killed. And if Dawn were truly responsible for the death of a friend's pet through leaving a crossbow unattended, she would have displayed a lot more guilt over it than she did. Finally, the wording of the statement itself can be interpreted in any number of ways.
1639My guess about what happened is this: Miss Kitty Fantastico accidentally triggered a loaded crossbow that had been left on the floor, and the bolt hit a PricelessMingVase and caused it to shatter. Miss Kitty was so scared by the noise that she ran outside and got lost.
1640[[WMG: Glory's home dimension was Quor'toth]]
1641Willow, even when not at her most powerful, could send Olaf to another dimension (albeit she admitted some uncertainty about his destination). Angel showed opening portals to Pylea was relatively straightforward with the right equipment. Yet sending Glory to her home dimension required massive amounts of energy and basically tearing down the walls of reality. One could suggest this was related to her being a God (as if her full self couldn't fit through a normal portal), yet Willow was able to teleport Glory without incident.
1642
1643However, Quor'toth was specifically said to be different than most dimensions. It was a place where you couldn't access it by a normal portal and instead needed a tear in the fabric of reality. This also handily ties in with how Quor'toth was described as being the darkest of the dark worlds but Connor seemed to be the most dangerous thing there. It could be that it really was awful when Glory was around, but once she was expelled the remaining gods weren't too bad.
1644
1645[[WMG: Angel's soul is not the same soul he had as Liam.]]
1646 This is why Angel appears to show a greater sense of morality, self reflection and guilt as Angel, than he did as Liam. Which would also explain why Liam and Angelus are more similar than Liam and Angel. The gypsy curse says he is cursed with "a soul," so it could be any soul. Spike, on the contrary, gets his original soul back, because he asks to be returned/restored to the way he was. This could explain why, Spike's character doesn't change as drastically from being William to being ensouled Spike.
1647
1648[[WMG: Ensouled Vampires will go to a heaven realm when they die]]
1649The comics indicate that Anya moved on to heaven after her season 7 death. If she--a former demon who'd killed ruthlessly and brutally for centuries on end--could redeem herself in the eyes of The Powers That Be (or however it's dictated that they're allowed in heaven) enough to make it to heaven, there's no reason Angel and Spike can't too.
1650
1651[[WMG: Spike originally returned to Sunnydale to prove Drusilla wrong]]
1652"Fool for Love" shows that Dru foresaw his incoming infatuation with Buffy and dumped him over it. Once over the shock of being dumped after his appearance in season 3, Spike responds by coming back to Sunnydale with a plan to kill Buffy by finding an artifact that would have basically guaranteed his victory if Harmony hadn't blabbed about it. He seems genuinely determined to kill her at first, and is actually acting as the pragmatist by trying to keep his presence a secret--his plans almost verge on early season 2 level badassery, the only reason they fell apart was Harmony. He probably ''would'' have won that fight too if things had gone according to plan, because if Buffy hadn't known about the gem of Amarra beforehand, she wouldn't have known to rip it off his finger, giving him plenty of time to wear her down and kill her.
1653
1654Beyond that, he was okay with staking his new girlfriend for being annoying as soon as he'd opened the tomb, because he no longer needed her and knew all he needed to do was kill Buffy then go back to Dru and he'd have his Dark Mistress back. No need for the rebound girl when he was about to get the original back, right?
1655
1656Spike still hadn't given up on Drusilla, and he planned to get her back by killing the Slayer she'd accused him of being in love with.
1657
1658[[WMG: Buffyverse Vamps have blood-flow; they're just pale in a normal, stays-out-of-the-sun way]]
1659It's common in vampire lore for the vamps to be pale because they have no blood flow. However, Buffy herself became very... ahem... ''acquainted'' with the fact that male vampires are perfectly capable of regular sexual performance, and well... that requires blood flow. It's not propelled by their hearts, as they're stated to not have pulses, but there ''is'' blood flow of some kind. Thus, the vampires are pale only because they have to stay out of the sun.
1660
1661[[WMG: Jesse was never mentioned again because of Sunnydale Syndrome]]
1662It is mentioned, a few times, how high the death rate in Sunnydale (for one thing the ''school newspaper'' has an ''obituaries'' section) and yet we never see anyone specifically mention anyone they knew someone who'd died. Much like not mentioning the supernatural stuff that goes on in Sunnydale, people just don't talk about their dead people.
1663
1664[[WMG: Jesse is why Xander is so against the idea of Good Vampires]]
1665It's honestly quite simple Xander killed Jesse, an argument can be made that a girl bumped Jesse into the stake Xander was holding, does anyone think that matters to Xander? As far as he cares he killed his best friend. And he was able to deal with that because he accepted Giles' Watcher influenced advice that Vampires are evil and Jesse was dead the moment he was turned.
1666
1667Now Angel would be bad enough, the wound was still less than a year old but at least he had a soul to explain why he was good or more than just a monster, but with Spike, he didn't have a soul, just a chip and a crush on Buffy to motivate him. But it's easy to understand why Xander wouldn't want to believe Vampires could be anything more than monsters, because if they are then why did he kill his best friend?
1668* Pretty much confirmed in the comics; Xander admits outright that he has trauma associated with vampires and Jesse and that he feels he killed his childhood friend.
1669
1670[[WMG: The Gypsy curse did more than just give Angel his soul back.]]
1671It has been noted, by Angel himself, that Spike suffered far less after regaining his soul than Angel did. Now this could be explained as something to do with Spike, but there is another possibility.
1672
1673Obviously, as we know, Spike got his soul as a reward, he fought in trials to win his soul back, and that's what he got.
1674
1675On the other hand Angel's soul was restored by a curse, something specifically intended to be a punishment. So it's possible that the curse had more to it, intended to make Angel suffer more. Now this could be something like a compulsion to constantly feel guilt for his actions, but there could be something more.
1676
1677If we look at the original explanation about how Vampires work in the Buffyverse, according to Giles, a vampire is not the person that was turned, that person died and was consumed by a demon that used their essence to craft their new persona. Using that logic a Vampire with a Soul is not the same person as the Vampire they were before they got their soul back, Liam wasn't Angelus, but he was Angel, William wasn't Season 2-6 Spike, but he was Season 7 onwards Spike. This theory is supported by The ''Angel'' episode ''[[/Recap/AngelS04E15Orpheus Orpheus]]'' which presents Angel and Angelus as separate entities. By this logic Angel and ensouled Spike aren't Angelus and pre soul Spike, they're their jailers.
1678
1679Now my theory is that Spike, who only got his soul back with no extras, is, at the very least subconsciously, aware of this distinction, his soul wasn't as weighed down by the guilt over his demon's past acts because deep down he knows that they are separate entities. Meanwhile the curse robs Angel of the capacity to process this distinction, and as such the weight of his past affects him more.
1680
1681Of course a question could be argued, why did Willow and Jenny use the spell if it did this to Angel? It is entirely possible Jenny didn't have a chance to translate enough to find this out, and Willow never thought to look past what Jenny had found, not to mention that they were in a rush to restore Angel, and didn't have time to think about the consequences.
1682
1683[[WMG: Spike’s VillainDecay in season 5 is a direct result of the spell that made Dawn]]
1684With the CosmicRetcon creating Dawn, even Spike’s memories were changed. Adding Dawn as a sympathetic character to his past made him have a bit of a soft spot for the Summers women. After all in Season 4 he occasionally helps the Scoobies for cash. Season 5 he starts helping for less and less cash, and eventually for free.
1685
1686[[WMG: The First Evil is lying about its true nature]]
1687The First Evil claims to be a force beyond the universe, but that doesn't make sense. Since evil is a human (or, in this universe demon) construct, how can it exist before sentient beings? Plus, as Buffy is keen to point out, the First's abilities aren't really that impressive. Maybe the Turok-Han were more independent than we believed, and Caleb really did most of the heavy lifting in Season 7. In reality, the First is a [[ShapeshifterGuiltTrip one-trick pony]] ghost that just intimidates people into thinking its an all-powerful EldritchAbomination. After season 7, it's gone for good.
1688
1689[[WMG: Amilyn survived the stake in the heart]]
1690
1691Amilyn survived the stake through the heart and is still in the starewell to this day. Bear in mind that the stake through the heart really hurts and he hasn't left the starewell. He is just in pain constantly as studients, teachers, & faculty pass by the stairwell daily while he is moaning in pain trying to get that stake removed from his chest. I'm sure multiple times Buffy has passed him by between classes only to shout "How Are You Not Dead?"
1692
1693[[WMG: Spike wouldn’t have been capable of loving Buffy and having his HeelFaceTurn without getting the chip first]]
1694
1695Essentially the chip acted as a kind of aversion therapy that made his character development possible. We know vampires aren’t necessarily pure evil, the Judges powers confirmed this. Spike, while a ruthless, sadistic psychopath as a vampire, still had a spark of humanity in him in his ability to love others like his mother and Dru. However, like other vampires, his demonic side was always dominant. But once he was chipped the demonic side was basically starved out. It couldn’t be fed by feeding on or killing humans so the spark of humanity began to grow. It allows him to fall in love with Buffy which manifests as a twisted romantic and sexual obsession but eventually grows into a much more respectful reverence for her. And after she dies, he doesn’t even have the possibility of her loving him back as a reward anymore but he chooses to stay in Sunnydale, fighting alongside people he doesn’t even like out of respect for her memory.
1696
1697Spike grows much more of a conscience than any other soulless vampire before him but his demon half was always still there, waiting to reassert itself in times of weakness. By now the evil acts give him no pleasure. He feels nothing but shame and disgust after his attempted rape of Buffy so he decides to finally get his soul back entirely. His human side finally wipes out the demon in him. It’s possible the chip would have a similar effect on all vampires depending on their individual humanity.
1698
1699[[WMG: the first Turok-Han was stronger than the rest because]]
1700* He was the strongest. That’s why he got out first.
1701* He grabbed a snack before he went to fight, unlike the others, who were starving.
1702* It takes time to regain your full strength after waking up from their whole thing. He took the time, the rest didn’t get the chance.
1703* Turok-Han are naturally good at fighting multiple opponents simultaneously, but that same power makes them ''abysmally'' bad at teamwork, and get in each other’s way constantly. A lone vampire doesn’t have that problem.
1704* Some combination of the above.
1705
1706[[WMG: The Slayer is a Wolfram & Hart creation.]]
1707Consider the following:
1708
17091. Season 5 shows that the First Slayer was a girl kidnapped by three sorcerers, the first Watchers, who summoned demonic forces to infuse her into becoming the Hunter of the monsters. This happened thousands of years ago.
1710
17112. Three true demons, the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart, are the rulers of Earth. The Apocalypse has been going on for thousands of years, as they slowly feast upon the cumulative human corruption.
1712
17133. The Slayer routinely stops Apocalypses from happening due to some demonic force or another trying to break open the Hellmouth and push through.
1714
17154. The Watchers' council researches prophesies, which then form the Slayer's instructions on how to prevent the Apocalypses from happening due to demonic incursions at the Hellmouth.
1716
17175. Buffy never interacts with Wolfram & Hart or any of their schemes.
1718
17196. Long ago demons walked the Earth, but they were driven out to the other dimensions and now they are trying to break back in, but they are having hard time doing that, except in few weak spots, known as Hellmouths.
1720
1721Conclusion: The Demonic forces the infused the First Slayer and all the subsequent ones are none other than the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. Those three true demons are playing the slow game, as they take their time to feast upon the human world. However, they face plenty of competition from the other true demons, whom want to partake in on the feast and are trying to crash the party. Therefore the Slayer was created as a Watchdog to help keep the party crashers out and to weed out the population of the more rowdy vampires and demons who fail to play by Wolfram & Hart's rules, thus letting the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart feast in peace. The Prophesies are merely the notes Wolfram & Hart leaves for the Watchers' council to guide the Slayer into the next danger spot. Long ago the true demon on Earth were driven out, likely by the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. They have no doubt erected a dimensional barrier around the Human world to keep the competition from returning, and they are fully aware, where and when any given true demon is about to get through a weak spot centuries in advance, so when a breakthrough happens, the true demon trying to invade finds the Watchdog waiting for him. Naturally none of the prophesies include any mention of the Wolfram & Hart.
1722
1723Conclusion 2: Buffy never saved the World from the Apocalypse. She merely enables one specific Apocalypse over others.
1724
1725[[WMG: The First Evil didn't care about the Slayer Line; it was scared of Buffy in particular]]
1726
1727In "Showtime", Beljoxa's Eye is asked why the First Evil is attacking ''now'' of all times, and it answers that the First is seizing an opportunity created by Buffy's resurrection interfering with the Slayer line of succession. This is interpreted, of course, as Willow's resurrection spell. But by the time Buffy died for real in "The Gift", the Slayer line had ''already'' been disrupted. That happened as early as "Prophecy Girl" at the end of the first season, when Buffy is briefly "dead" enough for Kendra to be called as her successor. Kendra's death in "Becoming" then calls Faith, while Buffy's second death doesn't call anyone. Buffy has merely been ''a'' Slayer, while Kendra and Faith have carried the real succession line.
1728
1729The full details of which of Buffy's two deaths weakened the succession line might have been glossed over by Beljoxa's Eye, but that still leaves the question: Why didn't the First attack until Buffy came back a second time - and for that matter, why didn't it do so in season six?
1730
1731Not because it finally ''could'', but because it finally ''had to''. It was scared of what Buffy would become in the future: Founder of the Slayer Organization and a powerful figure in the fight against evil.
1732

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