(no subject)

[frelling_tralk]

The Ultimate “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” Poll


1. Which is the Best Season of Buffy?

The most popular seasons in order were 3, 2, 5, 6, 1, 4, 7. I am surprised that season 3 beat season 2, it's usually season 2 that's always brought up as the classic season, otherwise the results are about what I'd have expected. Season 4 deserves to be higher though :(

I voted season 3, although half of the people discussing the poll are confused at all the love that it's getting lol, it seems to be a real love it or hate it season with a lot of people not getting what's the big deal about that year? I dunno, I just always think of it as the classic high school season when they were really hitting their stride, it's so much more polished than season 2 when it comes to balancing MotW episodes with the central arc, and there are a TON of classic episodes that year (The Wish! The Prom! Lover's Walk! Earshot! Doopelgangland!) Plus it had Faith of course <3 My own order of favourite seasons would probably be 3, 5, 6, 4, 2, 1, 7.

2. Who is the best character from the original Scooby Gang?

Buffy, Willow, Giles, and Xander in again about the order that I'd expect. Buffy and Willow are actually tied very closely, Giles is quite far behind, and then Xander even further. I voted Buffy as my fav :)

3. Who is the best recurring female character?

Results were Anya, Cordelia, Faith, Tara, Dawn. Nothing too surprising there, although I did wonder if Cordelia would be placed higher as she seems to have a huge tumblr-based fandom, but Anya was actually ahead by quite a significant margin. I was torn between voting for Anya or Faith, but ultimately went with Anya

4. Who is the best recurring male character?

Spike had that one in the bag shockingly enough, then Angel, Oz, and finally Riley with just 1% of the votes lol. And I'm sure my flist doesn't need to ask who I voted for :P

5. Who is the most underrated male character?

Results were Andrew, Wesley, Jonathan, Robin Wood, Warren. I mean for me it was hard to see any of those characters as underrated as I wasn't that crazy about any of them really? Wesley would be a good candidate I suppose as he developed so much on Angel, but just looking strictly at his Buffy appearances, I wouldn't have voted for him. I ended up voting for Robin Wood, but I don't really know why at all lol. I just couldn't vote for any of the trio, and as I said, I don't think that Wesley's season 3 appearances are particularly underrated. It's a pretty hopeless selection to choosen between, but Robin Wood did at least have an interesting tie-in to the main arc I suppose

6. Who is the most underrated female character?

Sooo much easier *g* The votes go Drusilla, Joyce, Harmony, Jenny Calender, Kendra, Kennedy. Nothing too surprising about those results, although Kennedy did pick up a few more votes than I would have predicted at 3%! I voted for Drusilla cause I LOVE her, otherwise I would have probably gone with Harmony as my next fav as she was always a lot of fun IMO

7. Which character is your least favourite?

Dawn headed that list booo, she's really least favourite next to characters as widely reviled as Riley and Kennedy?! Meh. Anyway the vote goes Dawn, Riley, Principal Synder, Kennedy, Veruca, Parker, and Kathy Newman. I'm surprised that Synder got as many votes as he did, the whole point of his character was that he was supposed to be annoying, as opposed to the usual unpopular names that come up because viewers didn't see them how the writers intended to portray them. I voted for Kennedy anyway


8. Which "Once More, With Feeling" song do you love the most?

Results in order were Walk Through The Fire, Rest In Piece, Under Your Spell, Where Do We Go From Here, I've Got A Theory, Going Through The Motions, I'll Never Tell, Something To Sing About, The Mustard. More in less in line with what I would have predicted, but I am surprised that Something To Sing About isn't placed a little higher when it was such an emotive part of Buffy's arc :( That was the one I voted for! And for some reason the Giles/Tara duet wasn't an option to vote for?

9. Who is the greatest Big Bad?

The winners in order were Dark Willow, Glorificus, Angelus, The First Evil, Mayor Richard Wilkins, Spike and Drusilla, The Master, Caleb, and Adam. I knew that Dark Willow was popular, but I am surprised that she won the overall vote over Angelus, and I'm also surprised at The First placing so highly, the Mayor was so much cooler?!

I voted for Glorificus as the quintessential Buffy villain *g* I did think about Spike and Drusilla, but I don't really consider them to be Big Bad's in the way that The Master, Angelus, The Mayor, Adam etc were

10. Who is the best minor villain?

Results were The Gentlemen, Vampire Willow, The Trio, Darla, Dracula, Turok-Han (Ubervamps), Ted, Gwendolyn Post, Sunday, Marcie Ross. After Dracula though all of the results following are basically at 1% or 2%. Urgh I can't believe that the lame portrayal of Dracula beat Sunday, she was SUCH an awesome minor villain :( I almost voted for Vampire Willow, but I had to throw a vote Sunday's way because I really liked that portrayal and knew that she would be near the bottom. Very sad to see her beaten by Gwendolyn Post (seriously?) and Dracula though, I expected her to place a little higher than that!

11. Which couple gives you the most feels?

Willow/Tara, Buffy/Angel, Buffy/Spike were all way out ahead of the other results, then it was Willow/Oz, Xander/Anya, Giles/Jenny, Xander/Cordelia, Buffy/Riley, Willow/Kennedy. I'm kind of surprised that W/T beat both B/A and B/S tbh, but I guess they have always had a vocal fanbase *shrugs* Also I would have expected Xander/Cordelia to score higher than they did, they were only just ahead of Buffy/Riley! I guess that most people who would once have voted for that couple would more likely have gone for Xander/Anya instead though?

12. Who do you ship Buffy with?

Spike, and then Angel were obviously way out in front, then Riley and Parker. I'm surprised they didn't include Faith, Xander, or Willow to give people more options, especially if they were going to put Parker in there!

13. Which death had the biggest impact on you?

I voted for Joyce, the results were Joyce, Tara, Buffy, Spike, Angel, Anya, Jenny, Kendra. More or less in line with what I would have expected, although maybe I would have predicated Jenny to be a little higher as her death was a pretty impactful one at the time

14. Which quote is the most memorable?

The quotes they choose were kind of random/odd (where was the "love's bitch" quote?!?), but results were:

"Out for a walk, bitch"
"The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live"
"Bunnies, bunnies, it must be BUNNIES"
"I may be dead but I’m still pretty"
"If the apocalypse comes, beep me"
"That’s my girl. Always doing the stupid thing"
"The earth is doomed"
"I’m cookie dough. I’m not done baking"

15. Which season finale is the greatest?

The results in order were The Gift, Graduation Day, Chosen, Becoming, Grave, Prophecy Girl, Restless. I'm very surprised that Becoming didn't place higher, and also Restless's low placing is kind of a bummer, although I guess that it's not the most memorable episode as a finale. I voted for Restless just because it's my favourite episode and I knew that it wouldn't get many votes lol, but otherwise my fav episodes as finales would be Prophecy Girl and Chosen

Comments

[penderies.livejournal.com]

I took this quiz yesterday. I has them Buffy feels :')

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Heh same, I'm considering a rewatch of seasons 6 and 7 now

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

I thought "Spike" was a series regular? Recurring is for me only someone who was in several episodes but never series regular, but well... I might have another opinion about that :D

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

He was a regular in seasons 4-7 only, Buffy, Willow, Giles, and Xander were the only characters who were regulars for all seven seasons, so I guess that's how they made the distinction?

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

Season 3 is the season where nothing internal happens. It's just the Core Four reaction to external strife instead of inner conflict. It's the most stagnant season character-wise. Easier to watch, I guess.

>grave above prophecy girl or restless

Willow fans running wild.

especially if they were going to put Parker in there!

The others weren't canon ships, though.

It's buzzfeed, though, clickbait supreme.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah that's true I suppose, I was thinking of that question more in terms of fandom ships for Buffy when I read it, but I guess that it makes more sense to just list the canon ships!

And I don't get why Grave always seems to do well in polls for favourite finales, or even just favourite episodes, it's always been one of my least favourite finales and it lacked Joss's touch IMHO. I remember there being a lot of disappointment at the time with how season 6 wrapped up, but fandom as a whole seems a lot happier with the dark Willow arc these days :shrugs:

And I think that season 3 was a pretty interesting season character-wise for Buffy actually, Faith's intro led to an examination of what being a slayer meant in episodes like Bad Girls, and the cliffhanger of that year was Buffy taking on Faith and stabbing a human being for the first time with her friends worrying that she might lose herself. For purely external threat I would think more of what season 4 did with the overall arc with Adam/the Iniative (although the individual episodes and the character work that year saved it for me)

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

but fandom as a whole seems a lot happier with the dark Willow arc these days

I'd have been happy if it were just Willow. 'Dark Willow' was nothing but a copout ending to a copout season involving Will.

Faith's intro led to an examination of what being a slayer meant in episodes like Bad Girls, and the cliffhanger of that year was Buffy taking on Faith and stabbing a human being for the first time with her friends worrying that she might lose herself.

Already done with Ted and done 10x better without all the poppycock 'could have been me' nonsense. Buffy from Anne = Graduation Day. It's pretty much the only season where none of the Big 4 go through any changes. When something does happen, it's immediately waved away, like an SNL sketch. It's a comfy season. S4 is kinda like that, too, but it has Riley, who I think gets a bad rap. He's boring, but no more boring than S3 Angel. We also get interesting changes in all the Core Four.

S3 is actually a good metaphor for Senior year of high school. You're really just treading water to get to graduation.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

I picked Joyce as my most underrated character.


Gabrielle

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

She seemed like a popular pick too :)

[bearshorty.livejournal.com]

Now I miss Buffy. Maybe I'll rewatch an episode but then that would lead to more episodes : )

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking that I should rewatch seasons 6 and 7 sometime as those are the seasons that I've seen less off in comparison to the others, but it's hard fitting in older shows when there so many new shows on my to-watch list *g*

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

GAH I CAN'T! I can't pick! I know which ones are my least favorites but ranking anything as The Best is really hard for me with this series.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It is tough! I picked season 3 as my fav, but I could probably have just as easily chosen 5 or 6 as I loved those years too

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

JOYCE is the second most underrated female character?? Joyce HAS a fanbase??

Okay.

#JUSTICEFORDAWN

Also, isn't it completely contradictory that Angel/Buffy beat out Buffy/Spike in the general ships category but came second to them in the Buffy ships category???? EXPLAIN YOURSELF, BUZZFEED.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I knew that Dawn wasn't super-popular, but man I did not expect her to be losing to characters like Riley and Kennedy??? :is judging Buffy fandom so hard right now:

And heh true, I guess that more Spuffy shippers had a preference for another ship in the question for favourite Buffyverse ship? *g*

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

For me, Season 3 is vastly diminished by all the boring Angel parts. I love Faith, the Mayor, and the excellent specialty episodes — Band Candy, Lover's Walk, The Wish, Doppelgangland, even The Zeppo — but Amends is my absolute least favorite episode of the entire series. Angel was a lot of fun in the first 2 seasons, but I was done with him after that.

The season also suffers from a distinct lack of Spike. ;-) But in its favor it was the first season to get the spiffed up cinematography, so it's awfully nice to look at.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I've heard that a lot from my flist as their reason for not thinking back fondly on season 3, but I guess I just don't see it as an impactful part of the season? Of course B/A were at their height in season 2 if I had to pick a season for their story, but most season 3 episodes only gave them 2 or 3 scenes per episode if that, so they just wasn't a noticeable part of the season to me most of the time. It felt like Angel was only getting a token appearance in most episodes to keep him around for the spin-off. What could have brought down the overall quality for me would have been if he was playing some important role in the main arc and I wasn't invested in that for whatever reason, but instead he was basically just off playing tai ci with Buffy or whatever most of the time, and that took up a very small part of the overall epi :P

And if anything season 3 has noticeably less clunkers than seasons 1, 2, and 4 IMO, so I can live with Amends over the 6 or 7 MotW episodes that I'd rather lose from season 2 for example, I find season 3 a really consistently strong season

Agreed about the cinematography, on my last watch it was a really noticeable step-up from the first two seasons :)

[braverys.livejournal.com]

Buffy was hands down my favorite character too, just because haha.

As for seasons, I'd have to say that 6 and 5 are my favorites simply because there is a lot of Spike and Buffy in them and I just do not like season 4. When I did my rewatch not too long ago, I appreciated it more, but the whole storyline with the initiative was just not interesting to me. And I didn't really like Riley.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed seasons 5 and 6 too :) I have to stick up for season 4 though! I agree that the Iniative arc was very weak, but there were so many fun individual episodes that year that save it for me. I think it's one of the best seasons for just dipping into for one-off comedy episodes, I also liked the whole college feel that year for Buffy and Willow

I'm not a fan of Riley and the central arc focusing on him, but at the same time I suppose that it was nice that there was at least one season that had no major trauma or angst for Buffy, and was more or less light-hearted *g*

[woodycakes.livejournal.com]

this is a handy post of when i finally do a re-watch. :D

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

:)

[stolenglimpse.livejournal.com]

Best seasons for me would be: 5, 3, 6 & 2, 4, 1 and 7.

Season 4 is ranking lower due to the Initiative and Riley being front and center. But it has awesome episodes that do save it. I mean, you can't beat Hush. If you can, it's with episodes like The Body, for example.

I can't choose between 6 and 2 so they're tied for me. 2's first half is shaky at best with the MotW. 6 has flaws (the Trio, really?) but I loved the whole depression and temptations/addictions.

Same order for the main cast, for me.

Best recurring female would be Faith and Anya for me. Not in a matter of 1 and 2 but tying. Faith is intriguing and Anya grew so much. I liked Tara a lot so I think she would be 3rd. Cordy grew as a character a lot more on Angel.

Recurring male: Spike, hands down. Angel was awesome in 1 and 2. Boring in 3 and I was done with B/A when she stabbed him and sent him to hell so...

Drusilla and Joyce for underrated females.

Least favorite characters: Riley and Kennedy. I actually liked Riley in 4, to his defense. Kennedy was too pushy to my liking. I actually liked Dawn. A bit less in 5 as she was childish but she grew as a nice teenager, mature.

I can't decide my favorite song from OMWF. I just... can't.

Big bad... I think I would go with Glory, Angelus, The Master... the others... I don't know. Once a became the snake, the mayor was nothing. Spike and Dru aren't big bad material, not really, The First is nothing. Caleb, well, he'd be nothing if it hadn't been for the First. Dark Willow... meh... she was mostly vengenace on the Trio and then she felt too much "feels" and it took a yellow crayon mention to get her back. I found her more threatening, in a way, in 7... maybe... I don't know...

Minor villain... I have no idea who to pick. The Gentlemen are a good choice. I liked Sunday. And Marcy Ross (too bad that was one open-ended thing... like the praying mantis).

Couple that give the most feels: Hum... Willow/Tara, Willow/Oz, Spike/Buffy, Buffy/Angel, Giles/Jenny. Buffy/Angel and Willow/Oz, a lot of firsts and they were cute. Giles/Jenny, rooting for a grown-up to have a love life. Willow/Tara, iconic.

Buffy pairings: Spike, Angel, Faith... I feel like I should even put Faith before Angel but... I don't know...

Death with the most impact... Joyce. Jenny, Tara. I think Joyce and Jenny should tie but... I don't know. They both hit very close to home. Tara should have had a better impact but with Willow turning evil, you kinda forget, in a way, that she's dead even though she's the reason for Willow turning but nobody mentions it/everyone is too occupied. I don't know.

Which quote is the most memorable? The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. From the quotes selection anyway. Whistler had an awesome one with the greater moments. Angelus and passion. Spike's love's bitch...

Season finale... hard one. The Gift, maybe. And then Graduation Day. I don't know. I don't know if Restless was a good finale episode. It was an awesome episode but as a finale, not sure. Goes with the "oddness" that season 4 was, I suppose.

I'm answering all this without a real actual thought so there's a lot of uncertainties lol

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

The general order of fav seasons does seem to more or less fall along those lines of 3, 5, 2, 6 always being the favourites, and 1, 4, 7 always the least favourites

I can overlook the Initiative part of season 4 as it's really only a few arc episodes that heavily deal with it (The Initiative, The I In Team, Goodbye Iowa, Primevil), otherwise most of that year is made up of standalones and adjusting to college life. That arc is even wrapped up before the finale, so that Restless can concentrate more on the characters inner thoughts.

And yeah I can understand why season 2 is so popular when it does hit such high points with its central arc, but there are just too many crappy episodes that year for me to overlook. I'm fine with 2 or 3 poorly-done filler episodes in a 22 episode season, but Some Assembly Required, Inca Mummy Girl, Reptile Boy, Bad Eggs, and Go Fish were ALL pretty bad, and that just brings down the season average for me a lot

And agreed on Cordelia, she was fun on Buffy and had some good snarky lines, but she didn't become a favourite of mine until seasons 1 and 2 of Angel

Marcy Ross was a favourite one-off villain for me as well, I always pick out that one as one of my favourites from season 1 :)

And yeah I can see people's point that Restless wasn't so great as an actual finale, something like The Gift is probably better for tying everything up, whereas Restless was obviously setting up a lot for the following season

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

My favorite seasons of Buffy were, 1,3 and 4, in no definite order. 1 and 4 are way underrated. The Glory storyline ruined season 5. 7 was awful.

Buffy being close to tied with Willow for best Scooby is an outrage. Buffy is a great character. Willow is an annoying piece of shit.

Dawn should be on the top of the list for best secondary female character. MT was spectacular in the role. I can't stand Anya and Faith and it bewilders me that anyone can.

Spike was one of the best characters on the show.

Warren is underrated, because Adam Busch was really good in the role. Andrew is overrated, not underrated. He's unbearable.

Drusilla is great. Joyce was a pain in the butt -overrated, not underrated.

Dawn was great and Snyder was great. My least favorites are Anya, Willow, Andrew, Xander, Glory and Faith, in no particular order.

Spike's song to Buffy in the graveyard was my favorite out of OMWF.

["Dark Willow, Glorificus, Angelus, The First Evil, Mayor Richard Wilkins, Spike and Drusilla, The Master, Caleb, and Adam."]

That gets me angry. Glory was unbearable. The First Evil was total fail and really annoying, incredibly lame too. Whereas the Master and and Adam were great. The Mayor was very good.

Dracula was dreadful. The Gentlemen were a work of art and Vampire Willow was the only time Willow was good.

Spuffy had the most feeling of any ship. B/A was bollocks. Willow/Tara was crippled by the fact that Willow was one of the most annoying characters on the show.

Buffy/Spike over all other Buffy ships.

Joyce's death didn't affect me and I was annoyed at how the show flogged it. I never felt for that character and I never believed her as Buffy's mom. I guess the death that affected me most was Tara. She wasn't coming back and her death was a waste of a great character just to give Willow motivation. Woman in the fridge trope.

There's way better quotes than that list. Some of Snyder's early lines, for example.

Becoming Part 2 is the best finale. The Gift was disappointing. Chosen was awful beyond belief -my most hated episode. Graduation Day was great. Prophecy Girl was great. Restless was interesting, but didn't really work all that well.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

1 and 4 are way underrated. The Glory storyline ruined season 5.

Yeah I enjoyed seasons 1 and 4 a lot more than I remembered on my last rewatch, I think that both seasons are pretty strong for the characters, even if viewers mostly don't care for the actual arc of season 4.

Dracula was dreadful.

Yeah I was disappointed that the performance was so campy and overdone, it felt more like something from the Buffy movie where they made a joke of the vampires, as opposed to the series where Joss talked about wanting the villains to come across as real threats.

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

I loved the arc of Season 4. Adam was terrific. There's so much more to the character than most people get.

The guy who played Dracula (if I remember rightly, his name is Rudolf Martin), I've seen him in a number of other roles and every single time he makes his character come off like a total poser. In some cases his character is meant to be one, but he takes it to the limit. As an actor, he's a poser-specialist. His Dracula was SO annoying. I hate that episode and I hated seeing Buffy subjected to Dracula's influence the way she was.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I liked the Initiative arc more early on when it involved Professor Walsh, but I must admit that I wasn't a huge fan of Adam, he was just never a very interesting villain to me

And I haven't seen the Dracula actor in anything else, but his performance on Buffy definitely comes across as really put on and posery (if that's a word *g*). Maybe it was bad direction as well, but it came across to me like he hadn't seen any of Buffy before and really didn't understand how to pitch his performance appropriately, he seemed to believe that his character was meant to come across as a ridiculous joke and to play up the camp? But then eh maybe that's what the writer and director were going for, they were sending up the Dracula movies quite a bit in that episode

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

Someday I'll give you my Adam lecture. I remember posting a long in-depth analysis on FF once.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I'll look out for that ;)

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

["And I haven't seen the Dracula actor in anything else, but his performance on Buffy definitely comes across as really put on and posery (if that's a word *g*). Maybe it was bad direction as well, but it came across to me like he hadn't seen any of Buffy before and really didn't understand how to pitch his performance appropriately, he seemed to believe that his character was meant to come across as a ridiculous joke and to play up the camp? But then eh maybe that's what the writer and director were going for, they were sending up the Dracula movies quite a bit in that episode"]

I think that might have what they were going for, but it was in pooor taste, because it was annoying rather than amusing.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Well with the Buffy movie Joss talked afterwards about not wanting the villains to be complete jokes because that takes you out of the story, and I think that's what happened with the Dracula episode when they were more interested in sending up the movies, rather than creating a fully-realised character that worked in the Buffyverse

[apeygirl.livejournal.com]

I got strangely giddy when I was in agreement with the top spot for about 80%. It kind of makes me want a third rewatch.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Hee yeah, most of the answers are more or less in line with my preferences