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Buffy 5x17 - full reaction

🕑 Added 2022-08-17 16:01:04 +0000 UTC

Comments

Cory James

A lot of people say they don't understand Spike in this episode and are trying to find his motivation but it's honestly really simple. Dawn was his motivation and Joyce was his motivation. He knew it was wrong and that's why he didn't want Buffy to know but he cared about Joyce and Joyce loved Dawn and Dawn is hurting so badly in this episode and Spike is the ONLY one that cares enough to follow her around and protect her instead of telling her no and then leaving her alone. There was no stopping her without alienating her, but at least she survived it now. Spike and Dawn are my favorite friendship tbh. She made him her protector and he just naturally kind of fell into it because he actually cares about HER as a person without Buffy being the motivation. He calls her niblet and lil' bit which is so adorable to me. Even though he is basically calling her a snack cause she's so little LOL. Dawn acted like a typical teenager in this episode. The things she said to Buffy weren't even true. She said them on purpose to hurt Buffy. To make Buffy cry because she felt like she was only one drowning in her own emotions and she wanted to see it from Buffy too. To know she wasn't actually alone like she felt. So yeah, she was venomous because she's Buffy's little sister and she knows exactly what buttons to push to get the reaction/attention she wants. But when Buffy actually reacted, Dawn was immediately contrite and upset. The projection from Dawn was what I loved. She accused Buffy of pushing her away because she doesn't want her around but that's exactly what Dawn was doing to everyone all episode. She was a raw open wound and lashed out trying to create space that she didn't even want. She's not wrong though. Buffy has her friends and Giles. Dawn has...Spike. Dawn was an afterthought to every single one of them except Buffy. Every time someone mentioned Dawn after Joyce died, everyone always went "Oh god Dawn." because her feelings aren't really in the forefront of their mind like Buffy's are. So while everyone is comforting Buffy, Dawn is getting shuffled around and treated like a baby because they can't treat her like a friend but that's what she needs and she's said before Spike speaks to her like she's a person and not like she's just a kid.

Steve Bondy

Didn't know that, but I'm glad I do now! Whedon really knew what he was doing!

Riddle

The Willow & Tara kiss, Whedon actually said he purposefully did it within that episode as he didn't want it to be used as a marketing tool or for their relationship to be exploited, he simply wanted to normalise the love between them and he knew the network wouldn't be able to make a big marketing thing over it if it was done within that episode.

TheLexiCrowd

yeah it's really cool to see Anya starting to accept the fact that she is mortal now and is even thinking about her future and that future is with Xander which is extra cool since this is the same person who didn't believe in love for a thousand years

Adoreandu

Also, you didn't mention your thoughts about the Anya+Xander scene (it's ok, there was so much to talk about), but that's one of my favorite scenes of the two of them because most of the time Anya is depicted as kind of immature/inexperienced in being human, and that was one of the few scenes where she's... you know, like a proper adult person who thinks about having children and a family and stuff. Anyway. I love the two of them together.