essay – Insect Reflection

I’m So Evil, And Skanky, And I Think I Kinda Gay (Bad Girls)

Buffy and Faith dancing together in the Bronze

“In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust. I had no distinct thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into adoration – and also ofContinue reading “I’m So Evil, And Skanky, And I Think I Kinda Gay (Bad Girls)”

To Live So Close To The Spotlight (The Zeppo)

A shot of Faith and Xander reflected in a television screen.

I have, in essays past, referred to Xander Harris as one of the most controversial characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After spending more time in the current fandom landscape, I need to correct that statement. He’s simply one of the most disliked characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A lot of people hate him,Continue reading “To Live So Close To The Spotlight (The Zeppo)”

But You’re Just A Girl (Helpless)

Buffy holds a bottle of holy water as she looks defiantly at Kralik.

The test that Buffy undergoes in this episode – in which she is stripped of her powers, locked inside a house, and forced to fight a mentally unstable vampire – is named in the script as The Cruciamentum. Giles describes it as “an archaic exercise in cruelty”, and it’s difficult to think of a descriptionContinue reading “But You’re Just A Girl (Helpless)”

I Guess Her Generation Isn’t Cool With Witchcraft (Gingerbread)

Buffy tied to a stake, surrounded by books that have been lit on fire.

Please be aware that this essay contains discussion of homophobia, transphobia, racism, antisemitism, general bigotry and hate speech. On the 24th May 1988 the Conservative government of Great Britain, led by Margaret Thatcher, passed a law known officially as the United Kingdom Local Government Act 1988. This Act had many effects, but by far itsContinue reading “I Guess Her Generation Isn’t Cool With Witchcraft (Gingerbread)”

A New Kind of Bad, Just In Time For Christmas (Amends)

“All he wants for Christmas is redemption for two hundred years of killing.” The original WB trailer for Amends, first aired in 1998. Holiday episodes are a dying art form in the televisual world of 2023. With the domination of on-demand streaming services, the exact airdate of an episode has come to matter less andContinue reading “A New Kind of Bad, Just In Time For Christmas (Amends)”

It Wasn’t Our World Anymore (The Wish)

Cordelia sits in a pile of refuse, looking angry.

Part One: The Girl It must really suck to be Cordelia Chase. She was created to represent the alternate life that Buffy Summers could have had, and the shadow desires that still live inside her. Everybody on this show exists in relation to Buffy in some way. She is the nexus of this universe, aroundContinue reading “It Wasn’t Our World Anymore (The Wish)”

The Big Bad Is Back (Lovers Walk)

Spike lies on the ground after falling out of his car.

It’s April 2004; the sunset days of Web 1.0. A new website has just been created: a cross-media wiki known as TVTropes. It’s a site for fans of all manner to identify and record common storytelling conventions as they recur throughout different pieces of media, and it will grow to become a dominant knowledge-base forContinue reading “The Big Bad Is Back (Lovers Walk)”

Defensiveness and Weird Mixed Signals (Revelations)

Buffy looks sadly downwards, outside Faith's motel room.

The seventh episode in any season is always an important milestone, for while the first third of the season clears up the debris of the previous and sets up the various cogs of plot that will be needed going forward, Episode Sevens are notable for not only being generally very good, but for stretching outContinue reading “Defensiveness and Weird Mixed Signals (Revelations)”

I’m A Teen, I’ve Yet To Mature (Band Candy)

Buffy searches for Ethan with a serious expression. Giles stands out of focus behind her.

There are few demographics more underrepresented in Buffy the Vampire Slayer than Adult Female Characters. As a coming-of-age story, the bulk of Buffy’s cast is understandably made up of Adolescents, who carry on their stories as Young Adults as the show moves on past high school. Beyond these characters though, the show finds time andContinue reading “I’m A Teen, I’ve Yet To Mature (Band Candy)”

We’re Like Sisters, With Really Different Hair (Homecoming)

Since this series started, Cordelia Chase has existed for one specific purpose – to act as Buffy’s Shadow Self. She has represented Buffy’s pre-Slayer self, and her desire to return to that state. That part of Buffy’s life is her childhood – both literally in the sense that she was fifteen years old when sheContinue reading “We’re Like Sisters, With Really Different Hair (Homecoming)”