Oh, man. Has it really been 20 years since Welcome to the Hellmouth, when a teaser twist that even M. Night couldn't see coming showing up within the first couple of minutes? I remember it still. The wonderful innocent Julie Benz enters a school with a nefarious-minded high school boy. We've seen this before. The boy is going to do something? Or is there some monster lurking in the school? What is going to happen? Then BAM WAIT WHAT the innocent schoolgirl's face contorts and- Holy Frijoles! She's a vampire! Cue Nerfherder credits!
I (forums user wajeremy) had an unabashed love of Buffy for a great many years. I came a couple of years late to the party, joining in Season 3, but very quickly tracking back once DVD box sets became a thing. I bought them all and have probably watched all seven seasons at least ten times... sometimes rewatching specific episodes with that guarantee of awesome - Written and Directed by Joss Whedon. I'd hang out on the Whedonesque blog afterwards, analyzing, laughing at the haters (or agreeing with them - "shut up Shut Up SHUT UP!!!" - no YOU shut up Dawn, you Wesley Crusher for the Whedonites!). I can sing the entirety of "Once More With Feeling" from memory and tend to do so whenever I spill mustard on my shirt. It must be horrible to be my dry cleaner.
When I heard it was going to be Buffy's 20th anniversary, I begged the lovely Woot writers to let me have a moment with my fellow Buffy fans on here, just to reflect, reminisce, and remember all the things that made Buffy so amazing. An empowering female lead, now the canonical example of how to write stories with female leads for every film and tv course since. A wonderful ensemble cast. Amazing character development and arcs, and just some ridiculously clever and hilarious writing that spans the series (Jane Espenson's Band Candy, and then in a later episode "Oh, when I had psychic power I heard my mother think that you were like a stevedore during sex. Do you want me to continue? What's a stevedore?" - I almost cried laughing!)
It also had some amazing feats of clever TV in general, such as Hush where there is not a single line of dialogue for almost the entire episode or Once More With Feeling which set the standard for fun musical TV or The Body which studied grief better than many 3 hour movies (yes, I cried) or Restless which was Legion before we had Legion (how great is that show though?)
Anyway, I'll be hanging out in the forum below from 3-5pm PST today, March 10th to chat about Buffy (and Angel!). If you want to gush, talk about Spike and Dru, complain about how season 6 was basically porn, or convince our CEO we really need a whedon.woot.com, join me here this afternoon! And to get you started, here are two quick trivia quizzes I made up from my own brainstuff. Don't scroogle answers unless you just want to cheat yourself! No prizes except your own awesome Buffycred.
QUIZ ONE: The Willow Quiz
Are you an awesome Buffy friend? Grip this quick trivia by the M glottal stop and show the world how to save itself!
- Wait, who is Ben again? Sorry. I love that whole scene.
- By California law, what does Xander have to share after marriage?
- What phrase does Spike need to use the word "effulgent" to rhyme with?
- What does Xander explicitly call out as a turn-on? There's actually only one thing he mentions explicitly in all 7 seasons!
- Which actress also danced with Prince?
QUIZ TWO: The Chosen One Quiz
This one is only for those keen to slay the super obscure. Are you chosen? This one's about all these people below and why they're connected to our slayer.
- What was the sweet connection with a particularly Rouge One British comedy?
- Can you take the link between Buffy and a particularly outlandish 80s hard rock band?
- Who was the particularly fishy flashy legend that got caught up to the gills in the first season?
- Most likely to have given Buffy a burger rather than beer?
- Name the Aussie musician who bronzed while dead people talked.