Re: OT: Re: Spike and Birthdays

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Kristjan,

There's nothing specific about the day in the "A New Man" transcript,
but I'm just extrapolating from previous evidence on the subject.
Namely:

Buffy, astrologically, is "Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius."
["Doomed"] Meaning her birthday is January 20th or 21st.

"Surprise" and "Innocence" took place over a 4 day span

All four days were school days, so it was either Monday-Thursday or
Tuesday-Friday.

Buffy's birthday was on the second day. For the relevant week in 1998,
that makes it either Tuesday, January 20th or Wednesday, January 21st
(neatly confirming the "cusp" remark above)

At the end of "Innocence", Joyce talks about her and Buffy's mall trip
on "Saturday". If this was Friday, I think she'd say "tomorrow", so I
feel it was Thursday, and Buffy's birthday was on Tuesday, the 20th.

Skip ahead two years, and January 20th falls on a Thursday. This hooks
in nicely with "A New Man", because Walsh is in her office on the next
day (Friday), but the day after that, when Giles goes demony, there's no
mention of school, which fits with Saturday.  

However, we run into problems in Seasons 5-6. Due to 2000 having been a
Leap Year, January 20th, 2001 is a Saturday, but Dawn has school both on
the day of the party in "Blood Ties" and the day after. She also is at
school on the day of Buffy's party in "Older And Far Away", despite the
fact that it should be a Sunday.

Now, basically, the writers haven't kept track of this, and thus we have
a problem. Buffy's birthday has been a school day for five straight
years, which is impossible, since with a Leap Year in the mix your
birthday has to fall across six days in a five-year span, and there are
only five school days.

So since the astrology in "Doomed" ties neatly in with the
"Surprise"/"Innocence" chronology (and seems to indicate that at that
time, the writers had a definite idea that her birthday was January
20th), let me run with that and make a lame attempt to fanwank out of
the problems of the last two years.

For "Blood Ties", let's pretend that Dawn had a special Saturday lab
(like the one seen in "The Dark Age") and that, contrary to the script,
it wasn't the very next day when Joyce told Dawn she was missing school
(Dawn sat in bed crying all Sunday, let's say).

For "Older And Far Away", the shooting script tells us it was Spike who
alerted Buffy to the Sword Demon's presence (not that he actually helped
her fight it, or anything...). Let's pretend Spike's demon contacts had
actually foretold the Sword Demon's rising, and so Buffy had cleared her
calendar for the 20th, and pushed her party back to Monday, the 21st.

Ahh, nothing like a good fanwank :)

On the other questions. I've covered Buffy's birthday. Joyce appears to
die some time in early February or so, because "Crush" follows closely
on "Blood Ties", with Willow still being woozy from the teleport
spell--

--Tara goes, "Honey, I've told you six thousand times, no more teleport
spells for you", but Willow completely ignores her, keeps her eyes on
Buffy and tells her that she has to help, no matter what the cost. Ah,
love. (Plus, didn't Buffy look jealous watching them dance? And I love
Spike's line as he comes up, "bleeding crime, that's what it is", which
pretty much echoes Buffy's thoughts as she watches some interloper being
happy with her Willow.)

Okay, drifting. I'm back--

--and then "I Was Made to Love You" is pretty soon after "Crush", since
Spike is making his first attempt to explain his tying up Buffy to the
Scoobs in the latter episode. So, I'd say Joyce goes in February, which
fits with the heavy coats at her funeral in "Forever".

Buffy probably dies in early May. She was dead for 147 days [Spike,
"After Life"] which fits fairly well with the May-October gap (133 days,
by my count) in the airing of episodes. Of course, "Bargaining" doesn't
have to be in October, but we know Dawn's school has been back in
session long enough for the kids to have done that big project and for
it to be Parent-Teacher Day, so the earliest Buffy comes back would be
mid-September, so her death was in April, if not May.

Haven't heard Dawn's middle name yet.

And Joss said their was no new slayer this time. According to him, it's
like royal succession, the line going Buffy-Kendra-Faith-?, so we won't
see the next one until Faith goes.

Hope this helps. (See, Mad-hamlet, discussion does promote writing.
Besides, when it was just "shut up and write", there seemed to be a
litle too much shutting up and...shutting up going on.)

Erm, Kristjan, you are writing something for US, right? Because we love
the F/C series you've got going, but a little B/W makes for a lovely
variation :) ***puppy-dog eyes***

Dan

Not actually sure if he can pull off puppy-dog eyes, but willing to try.

PS--Willow's middle name is "Danielle" (it was in the script for "Bad
Girls', but got trimmed for airtime).