These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
British people: Buffy calls Merrick a "scone-head."
A character remarks that he thinks the soulless, cruel, evil vampires "were Young Republicans".
Accidental Innuendo: "I was just saving your butt!....Well, there was an exchange of butts...."
Adaptation Displacement: Some fans of the series probably weren't even aware that a movie was made.
Few have seen the movie. Whedon considers his script — not the film that was actually made — to be canon.
Big Lipped Alligator Moment: In the school counselor's office, Buffy kills a fly by spitting a dart at it - apparently for no other reason than because she's bored.
The novelization takes this further, one of Buffy's friends is kidnapped and brought to him to be fed on. In the movie we don't see anything beyond Amilyn waking her up and Lothos descending toward her, implying she was fed on, turned and became a part of his undead army. In the book she actually speaks with him but on the mention of the word "God", he instantly tears out her throat and throws her against a wall, killing her instantly from a snapped neck.
Fair for Its Day / Reactionary Fantasy: Okay, let's level here: before this movie came along, there really weren't that many examples of strong females in popular culture that weren't either Stripperific, One of the Boys, or novelty characters who were just used for a quick laugh. For breaking through each of these stereotypes, this movie certainly deserves a great deal of credit. And, yes, the character of Buffy herself is to be lauded for overcoming a Primal Fear that would have left most humans - including most men - gibbering wrecks. All that said, it's worth pointing out that Buffy needs a man to intervene on her behalf in each of her three battles with Lothos: Merrick at the parade float yard, when he sacrifices his own life to save hers; Pike while she's confronting Lothos in the school's boiler room, when he electrocutes a vampire in the ballroom, thus causing the school's sound system to short out and put an end to a heavy metal song that Lothos is apparently using to mesmerize Buffy; and Pike again during the final fight on the ballroom floor, when he leaps onto Lothos's back to distract him so that Buffy can strike a killing blow.
Harsher in Hindsight: Donald Sutherland plays Merrick, a man who lives to kill vampires. His son was previously in a similar movie... as a vampire.
Fridge: Why do you think he live only to kill vampires. That wasn't just Donald Sutherland's son playing a vampire: Merrick's son was turned.
Ho Yay: The scene where Amilyn watches over Lothos as he sleeps and kisses his hand makes you wonder....
Retroactive Recognition: Hilary Swank as Kimberley, one of Buffy's Girl Posse. Ben Affleck and Ricki Lake in bit parts, as a baseball player and a waitress respectively. Though his scene got left on the cutting room floor, Seth Green (Oz from the series) does appear on the tape, and DVD covers.
Seinfeld Is Unfunny: This movie bombed in its theatrical release but proved to be a cult favorite on videotape. It was this cult status that ultimately inspired the TV series, which ironically now tends to make the movie look bad by comparison.
So Okay, It's Average: It's not a masterpiece and looked on unfavorably by folks who only know the series from the TV show. But in it's own right, it's a good horror/superhero origin film with some great bits of comedy and character development.
Alternate Character Interpretation: Or rather, Alternate Episode Interpretation. The much maligned "Beer Bad" is actually a really funny and enjoyable episode if you approach it as just an amusing story than an anvilicious lecture.
Joss Whedon says to bring your own subtext and the way the characters act and are presented have led to a lot of discussions about them. Is Buffy still the nice girl she began as that's cracking from what's happened to her, or has she become a domineering bitch? Did Willow bring her Back from the Dead simply because of how much she cares for her, or does Willow want to show off?
Angst Dissonance: Buffy in season 6. Yes, it must have been absolutely terrible to be ripped out of heaven into earth, which can really suck, but after hearing Buffy complain about it for the entire season gets really grating. She still has a good life, despite having the burden of being a slayer. Of course, in real life it would take a long time to be able to get over such an ordeal, but fiction, especially television, is allowed to speed up grieving as so not make the viewer want to smack Buffy in the face to get her to shut up.
However, since Spike can hurt her adds to her own belief that she Came Back Wrong and it's implied that one of the reasons she decided to perform a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Series 5 was because by that point, she had become a Death Seeker. However, even death didn't stop her friends from bringing her back and forcing her to fight their battles! Buffy has a lot of reasons to be bitter for!
Anvilicious: Willow's storyline in Season 6 (drug addiction) "Beer Bad" (alcoholism), "Pangs" (atrocities to Native Americans), "Halloween" (female empowerment).
While pants-soilingly disturbing, the most heavy-handed part of "Gingerbread" ( about prejudice) was when Cordelia fire hosed down the brainwashed parents.
Badass Decay: Formerly known as Spikeification, as Spike went from an intimdating presence who was cool in his evil-doing and clever enough to fool Angelus, to a sort of Butt Monkey who lost most of his cool, and nearly all of his evil and cleverness. He got over it by Season 7, and completely inverted it when he moved to LA afterwards.
It's the price that had to be paid for keeping Spike around. S2 & S3 Spike was established as such a badass, that Buffy could never have a conceiveable excuse for not dusting him if she got the opportunity to, and badass Spike, would of course kill Buffy if he could. The two could only co-exist if Spike was rendered to be a non-threat, such as the chip he gets in S4. Of course a harmless Spike is anything but a Badass — and the Scooby gang never tire of reminding Spike of this in S4.
Big Lipped Alligator Moment: After the opening theme rolls in the episode "The Body" we see a five minute random flashback to Christmas dinner at Buffy's house that has nothing to do with the rest of the episode. Word Of God has said the scene is there because they didn't want to have the opening credits playing over Buffy trying to revive Joyce.
The Men in Black subplot of "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" which was never brought up or mentioned again, not even when the Initiative showed up or when the army went against the Slayers in Season 8.
Brain Bleach And all the pesky moral questions about who gets to prescribe it.
Broken Base: The comics: good or bad? Canon or not?
Should the show have been uncancelled or were Seasons 6 and 7 a waste of time?
Was Season Five dull and Dawn a Wangst-yScrappy character or was it a fitting end for the show and a nice attempt to get in touch with a newer generation of fans?
Tara as a character and her relationship with Willow. Grounding break for its time and/or poorly written, poorly acted and too abrupt.
Described by one of the most ancient, powerful and evil vampires as 'The most vicious creature he'd ever met, ' Angelus set the standards for evil in the Buffyverse. For centuries, Angelus was the scourge of Europe with countless murders, rapes and torture to his name. Angelus kicked off a career in evil with the murders of his own family. Refusing to kill a longstanding nemesis vampire hunter, Angelus contented himself by murdering the man's wife and baby son, turning his young daughter into a vampire to force her own father to destroy her. His self-admitted masterpiece was seducing a pious, tormented girl with psychic powers, murdering her family and driving her to a convent before slaughtering everyone in the walls and turning her into a vampire to preserve his insane, broken work of art forever. When his soul is lost again, Angel delights in psychologically tormenting his former beloved Buffy's friends and family out of disgust for the human feeling Buffy gave him. The ultimate culmination of this was his brutal murder of Jenny Calendar, leaving the corpse for her lover Giles to find in a parody of a romantic rendezvous. Angelus's evil extended to his hope of awakening a demon to suck all of humanity into a hell dimension for eternal torture, solely for the fun involved.
Season 7's last five episodes introduced Caleb, the only villain in the series to rival Angelus in depravity. A defrocked priest turned Serial Killer of young women, Caleb uses the trust that people have in him to get closer to his victims, before torturing and killing them. In his first appearance he guts one of the Potential Slayers and leaves her at the side of the road, as a message for Buffy. He then kills another one of the girls during a battle, mangles the arm of another, and puts out Xander's eye, all while cracking bad jokes the entire time. He also coordinates the actions of the Bringers, organising the bombing of the Watcher Council's headquarters (resulting in most of their deaths), arranging the assaults on numerous Potentials, and trying to have Faith killed while she was in prison. A misogynisticsadist, who believes that all women are whores and deserve what he does to them, Caleb is The First Evil's right-hand man, and lives for the oncoming apocalypse, seeing the end of the world as a way to dispose of all those who do not share his mad religious convictions; he also gets a real kick out reenacting his murders with the shapeshifting First. Perhaps the most frightening thing about Caleb, however, is that he is entirely human, with nary a supernatural excuse, nor a Freudian Excuse, in sight.
Corrupt Politician: Alternatively Mayor Richard Wilkins III considers the demonic population of Sunnydale (who technically were there before the human population) to be his actual constituency, and the humans as just another service the town provides: Heat, Water, Power, and Food. It's not his fault that humans fail to recognize their position as just another town-provided utility.
Designated Protagonist Syndrome: It's arguable, but there are quite a lot of fans who don't especially care for Buffy herself. Especially in the last season, when she starts giving those "I'm-better-than-all-of-you-and-you're-all-gonna-die" inspirational speeches.
Faith. Those pants are personally responsible for some sympathetic views of Faith in fanfic. And lots of Freudian Excuses, a well executed Heel Realization, and a Heel Face Turn works to excuse, well, most of her actions.
Caleb.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Spike. It's clear that he was a major character from the get go (but originally just for Season 2), and the writers always liked the character, but it seems like nobody quite expected just how mucheveryone was going to love him. Many, many Buffy fans consider him the best character in the show, to the point where despite the weirdness of his relationship with Buffy in Season 6 there are still a vast number of Spike/Buffy shippers about.
Word of God states that Tara and Joyce Summers were given more prominent roles than originally intended largely because of this.
Among other characters like Faith who originally was intended to last only five episodes.
Despite not having many lines (for obvious reasons) and having the second-fewest appearances for a main character (second only to Riley), Oz is one of the more popular characters.
Ethan Rayne has a massively disproportionate fandom and fanfic representation for a character who only appeared in four episodes, thanks to his importance to Giles's past and the sexual tension between them.
It also might have something to do with the fact that any time Ethan shows up, wacky chaos is abound. Cases in point? Turning anyone wearing his Halloween costumes into the things they're supposed to be (i.e. little demon kids), spiking fundraiser chocolate so that it regresses the mind of adults into that of teenagers, turning Giles into a Fyarl demon, so on and so forth. As Spike puts it, "neat" things happen when Ethan shows up.
Fan Dumb / Hate Dumb: It's not as obvious nowadays, but when it was airing, complaining about Buffy was one of the two things the internet did. The other was gushing over it.
Buffy/Angel and Buffy/Spike battle for prominence among the fandom, generally depending on which season(s) the particular fan prefers. Some fans Take a Third Option and pair them in a three-way relationship, or bring Faith in and make it a foursome. (Please don't ask how this Troper aquired this information.
Buffy's pretty much the Launcherof A Thousand Ships. Buffy/Xander, Buffy/Faith, Buffy/Willow. The list goes on.
Dawn/Spike has a very popular following
Fetish Fuel: In "What's My Line, Part Two" Angel tied up and tortured by Drusilla.
Fetish Retardant: Vamp!Willow, who not only looks like an old hag is utterly psycho. Faith, when she goes bad it overshadows anything that was appealing to her, though in this case it's deliberate.
Foe Yay: Buffy and Spike (which later becomes Dating Catwoman), Buffy and Faith, the torture scene with Drusilla and Angel in season 2, Drusilla and Kendra, Giles and Ethan, Glory and Dawn, and most famously Xander and Spike.
In Season 3, Cordelia comments that Giles gets so much head trauma that one day, he'll wake up in a coma. Funny, sure. But let me tell you about this episode of Angel, involving Cordelia by the name of "You're Welcome"...
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show was successful in the US but enjoys massive popularity in Europe, where the stigma of science fiction/fantasy isn't as pronounced.
Of course, now Chiller, Oxygen, Logo, and Teen Nick are all showing it in the 'States.
Growing the Beard: Starting with the arrival of Spike and Drusilla. Full growth was achieved when Angel lost his soul.
Harsher in Hindsight: In Season 4 Buffy and Faith switch bodies, with the former appearing a complete and total Jerk Ass and the latter desperately trying to gain acceptance. Compare and contrast season 7.
Especially if one looks at the recent comics. Buffy's atoning for her past actions in Season 8 while Faith assumes the role as the more responsible Slayer.
Also, in Season 2's "Halloween", Spike is about to kill Buffy, who is weak due to taking on the personality of a colonial-era proper lady. The comment Spike makes about her and her situation before he makes the attempt sounds alot like he's about to rape her. Way later, there's the infamous incident in Season 6.....
Angel has mentioned several times that vampires can't have children. Now, go watch Season 3 of Angel
On an out-of-universe basis, the Season 2 episode "I Only Have Eyes for You", which concerns an affair between a (young) teacher and a student that ends in a fatal shooting. Depictions of guns in schools have become quite unsettling after Columbine, and the Pædo Hunt of the past decade turns what was supposed to be a tragic love story into Squick for many people.
During career day, Willow questions out loud if she likes trees or shrubs (another word for bushes) more. Xander replies, "That's between you and your god." and that he definitely likes shrubs, while Buffy says "No shrubs for me!" Willow turns out to be bisexual..
Although no viewer could have known it at the time, the whole plot where if Angel experienced one moment of true happiness, he would lose his soul turns out to be a pretty good metaphor for any fan of anything Joss Whedon has written since ever. (Although most of us tend to be more "constantly depressed" than "irredeemably evil.")
Spike: You wanna put these demons down and end this Twilight crap once and for all?
Another Twilight example comes from the first season when Angel is in Buffy's room (It Makes Sense in Context) he mentions how great she would look when she sleeps. It gets even better when all he does is sleep on her floor.
Twilight is so RICH for this. The first episode of Season 2 has Buffy telling Angel that girls don't think stalking is sexy. Apparently, Buffy is very atypical.
The episode Nightmares, when Willow says they're facing their dreams. Giles corrects her that it's nightmares. "Dreams would be a musical comedy version of this." This of course gets a Shout Out in Once More With Feeling, when Willow sings "I've got a theory, some kid is dreaming, and we're all trapped inside his whacky broadway nightmare."
Xander: The Avengers gotta get with the assembling.
The show had a Running Gag where Xander would keep accidentally making sexual or romantic comments about Dawn. It just seems like a way to poke fun at Xander and Dawn's crush on him. Of course, after Season 8...
After she first meets Angel Buffy says she really didn't like him. Over eight seasons the two had enough UST to detonate a sun and she is still obsessed with him in season nine, some thirteen years later, where the mere mention of his names makes her all warm and gooey.
Ho Yay: Buffy and Faith, Drusilla and Kendra, Vamp Xander and Angel, Glory and Dawn, Xander and Spike so ''so'' much.
Les Yay: Willow and Tara, before their relationship became explicitly romantic. According to Alyson, Joss worked very carefully to create the right subtext in their scenes together. Creators have also acknowledged lesbian subtext between Buffy and Faith and say in the commentary that it was fun to play with.
The Master was a pretty cunning villain and he certainly had the Deadpan Snarker vibe down to a tee.
Sweet from Once More With Feeling. He came to town, killed a bunch of people, made the Scoobies reveal a bunch of embarrassing secrets about themselves, nearly killed Buffy and left town without getting a scratch on him. Enough said.
The First Evil plays everyone like a fiddle.
Memetic Badass: Buffy's plan in season 7 involves Spike becoming this. Results vary.
Angelus, anyone?
Buffy: They're trapped in here. Terrified. Meat for the beast, and there's nothing they can do but wait. That's all they've been doing for days. Waiting to be picked off. Having nightmares about monsters that can't be killed. But I don't believe in that. I always find a way. I'm the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now, you and me are gonna show 'em why. It's time. Welcome to Thunderdome.
Also, in a more unusual example, Xander. By any Real Life standards, Xander is Bad Ass simply by merit of the fact that he's still alive after seven years of fighting the Good Fight (or more, depending on whether you count the Season 8 comics as canon). In many a Fan Fic, this is taken Up to Eleven, and Xander effectively becomes the merciless god of his universe.
D'Hoffryn in "Selfless" after he kills Anya's best friend when she was expecting to be able to sacrifice herself to bring the people she killed back to life. He was more of an Affably Evil guy before.
This moment is made especially disturbing by his casual comment that "he has plenty of girls", making him sound less like an amusing albeit demonic office boss and more like a pimp.
The Trio were just considered a nuisance until Warren accidentally killed his ex Katrina and made Buffy think she did it. Then, there was "Normal Again"...
"Family": "Tara, if you don't get in that car I swear by God I'm gonna beat you down."
Nightmare Fuel: While most of the things that take place in the universe are pretty creepy and disturbing with a hint of dark humor, Skinless Warren in the comics will haunt you, even if he does still have the same dorky ass persona from before.
One True Pairing: Angel and Buffy. While both date other people and fall in love with other people, in the end it always comes back to their tragic and doomed relationship, to the point of them eventually planning to be together when Buffy is ready/when Angel becomes human. Also to the point that it can become extremely annoying.
Joss' policy was always "bring your own subtext," and he never really had any pairings set in stone. Sarah Michelle Gellar still thinks that Buffy and Xander were supposed to end up together.
One True Threesome: Buffy\Angel\Spike; between her fantasies of the two vampires oil wrestling and another fantasy of her in a nurse outfit chained to them naked, is officially canon. Even today no matter how much of a sweetheart Spike is Buffy gets all squiggly at the merest mention of Angel.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: When Tara was first picked as Willow's Suddenly Sexuality love interest, fans wrote such viciously nasty things about her all over the net that Amber Benson nearly left the show. Fast forward to her death two seasons later, and Joss Whedon actually received death threats for letting her go.
Her replacement Kennedy achieves this in season nine, where she suddenly becomes cool. She sets up a bodyguard agency and offers Buffy work, her personality is less about how gay and selfish she is and with Willow gone for the time acts the way she thinks her ex would. Loading up on guns, grenades and a sword for corporate terrorism doesn't hurt either.
Some fans, while approving of the character change, still simply wish Kennedy would be Put on a Bus as her appearances could arguably be the reason for other characters being put Out of Focus (though there is nothing confirming this, and Word of God has yet to comment)
Willow was a Scrappy Generator. Oz started out as a scrappy because he wasn't Xander. Tara started out as a scrappy because she wasn't Oz. Kennedy was a scrappy because she wasn't Tara.
Basically everyone is The Scrappy to someone. Especially Buffy herself, mainly in the show's later seasons.
Take That, Scrappy!: Willow reams out Dawn for being a whiny crybaby in "Two To Go". And in the comics, she breaks up with Kennedy.
There was also when Buffy snarked about Dawn's position as a Damsel Scrappy.
Buffy gives Kennedy a well-deserved punch to the face in Season 9.
Dawn does has a strong fanbase in-spite of her haters.
Seasonal Rot: Seasons 4, 6, and 7 are the least-regarded seasons of the series.
Seinfeld Is Unfunny: People watching it for the first time today (possibly after seeing other shows by Joss Whedon) might not appreciate all that the show has done for TV... it has earned its Kilowick status.
Strawman Has a Point: Willow's first meeting with the Wiccan group where she meets Tara. The Wiccans dismiss Willow for suggesting they try actual magic, as they would do in any real life school. They're protrayed as being close-minded posers, despite the fact that The Masquerade is in effect and as far as they're concerned, Willow's suggestion is no more valid than it would be in real life.
Tear Jerker: S2:E19 I Only Have Eyes For You. I challenge you not to cry over this one, even if you're not a Bangel fan.
A particularly strange example (given the show's love of putting characters through the emotional wringer) is the lack of fallout from Faith sexually assaulting Xander in Season 3. The act is interrupted almost at once but the episode never gets raised again even after Faith is redeemed and joins the Scoobies.
Values Dissonance: Villains is full of it. After the things Warren does, including nearly killing Buffy, he comes back, shoots Buffy and kills Tara. Apparently Willow wanting to kill him for these things is wrong, with Buffy about the only one not going for it.
Because Willow was trying to murder for revenge - justice had nothing to do with it. While Warren is an asshole (at least after his actions to this point), the episode posits that killing for revenge, while not without reason, is objectively wrong. More to the point, killing him didn't make her feel any better in the long run and only drove her further down the path of evil - whether or not Warren deserved it, Andrew and Jonathan didn't.
Demonic Spiders: Actual demonic spiders at that. They're quick, knock Buffy down in one hit (intsakill on low health) and can not be punched.
Genius Bonus. In a bid to be resurrected, The Master possesses Angel. In the first episode of season two The Master was not played by Mark Metcalf, but David Boreanaz.
Good Bad Bugs: When certain enemies are killing Buffy it's easy to go to the inventory and heal.
Les Yay: Willow keeps referring to Tara as sweetie, and makes comment on playing doctors and nurses with her. As an alternate world vampire, Tara says Willow is a domme.
Most Wonderful Sound: Fill up the combo bar and the main theme will sound signalling your accomplishment.
No Problem With Licensed Games: The first Buffy game on XBOX is pretty much regarded as a must have title, even if you've never watched the show. Chaos Bleeds is pretty good as well. Sacrifice and the Game Boy versions would be closer to the trope below.
The Problem with Licensed Games: Strongly averted in the first game, which nails the right tone of when the story's set and hits all the right notes. The second game is roughly on par with season six. The Game Boy versions on the other hand follow the trope to the letter, and the DS Sacrifice to a lesser extent.
