RE: Re: 'Welcome To The Hellmouth' Discussion

["danspector@xxxxxxxxx" <danspector@xxxxxxxxx>]

Okay, obviously I'm getting behind here, but future notes will be much 
shorter.  I'm only covering WttH in so much detail because it's the first 
ep, and IMO establishes a lot of what's to come.

So, here's my Wiffy thoughts on Act 3:

31) Hi!  Im an enormous slut!

As Buffy prepares to make her Sunnydale debut, she laments the fact 
that she used to be so good at choosing clothes, but now shes lost 
the touch.  She no longer fits into traditional female roles, doesnt know 
how to play the femme to lure the guy in.  Again with the lesbian coding, 
methinks.

32) Never trust a guy you meet in an alley

Buffy turns the tables on her stalker (not you, Spike, thats later!) by 
knocking him to the ground and specifically telling him she doesnt 
need a big macho friend to look out for her.  Angel does a lot of 
smirking to cover the fact that hes very worried, since the slayer is 
supposed to both sense and slay vampires. But it works out well, he 
gets out of the meeting both unstaked, and not yet having to reveal his 
totally girly name.  He gets away with only the embarrassment of having 
worn a black velvet suit and yet not bothered to tuck in his shirt, and she 
gets a cross.  Heck, he even flirts a little.  Wonder what she thinks of 
that?

33)  Welcome to the Bronze

Buffy enters to the tune of a Sprung Monkey song about wanting to find 
a purpose, a reason to believe.  Buffys reason is at the bar, but she 
doesnt see her yet.  

Buffy stumbles around, adrift, once again the misfit Slayer.  She sees a 
guy waving and enthusiastically waves back, only to discover that he 
was waving at&another guy.  Yeah, Sunnydale may not be a haven for 
the brothers, but it seems good with the gays.  And of course Buffy 
would naturally be drawn to gay guys&theyre the best ones for beards, 
yknow.  (See Scott Hope&and, apparently, Angel and Spike [Power 
Play])

34) I need my Willow&

Depressed, Buffy goes desperately seeking a friendly face.  Does she 
look for Cordelia, who *invited* her here, after all?  (And who, we 
shortly see, is there, in a nice, central location by the main stairs.)  
Nope, she comes bounding up to Willow, marking the FOURTH time 
Buffy rejects Cor for Will.

35) You here with someone?

The very first thing Buffy does is check to see if Willows there with a 
guy. (Of course&*g*) Shes then surprised at the thought of Willow and 
Xander dating, and confused that they broke up and Willow seems sad 
(for who in their right mind would drop Willow?).  

Willow straightens her out that theres no danger of a W/X hookup, and 
moves on to what she considers plainly evident, that no one would 
want to date a wallflower like her.  This goes completely over Buffys 
head, as Buffy once again cant understand why Willow wouldnt think 
she was attractive, why theres not an army of guys beating down 
Willows door to date her.  (Well, that U-G-L-Y granny dress Wills 
wearing might have something to do with it, Im just saying&)  Love at 
first sight, I tell ya!

Oh, and while Willows talking about how she doesnt date boys, Buffy 
is wolfing down a bright red maraschino cherry.  Mm, symbolism!

36)  My philosophydo you want to hear my philosophy?

Having taken a moment to dis the entire male gender (about boys not 
being interested in whether a girl can talka bit that will be essentially 
reused in Devon and Ozs conversation in Inca Mummy Girl the next 
season, and thus were pretty much using Buffy in the Oz role here, with 
all that implies), Buffy offers her take on Willow and dating.

Remember how I said Buffy was naturally flirtatious?  Well, sometimes 
its automatic, it has a professional sheen to it.  Like when she smiled 
at Willow at lunch to get her to hang out with her, or when, soon after 
this, shell tease Giles about how skanky it is for him to hang with the 
students.  But sometimes, its more honest.  She starts to act 
knowledgeable and suave around Willow, living up to the inspiring 
image Will already seems to have of herand then she stops herself, 
checking to make sure shes not boring Willow, that Will really wants to 
hear this, as she hurriedly brushes a hair off her face, trying to look 
good.
Then, her confidence restored, she tells Willow that she shouldnt 
worry about guys asking her out (of course&), she should just be 
willing to try new things and seize the moment.  She cant quite come 
out and say Seize ME, Willow! yet, but she doesnt want Willow to be a 
prisoner of some hopeless crush, she wants her to be open to 
whatever romance might come along.  Just altruism, of course.  Yeah, 
surrrrre&

37)   Yeah, I do!

Willow, for her part, is hanging on Buffys every word.  When Buffys 
philosophy turns out to be pretty morbid (Seize the moment&because 
tomorrow you might die!), Willow thinks its nice.

Aww&someones got a cru-ush&

(And, youll note, unlike the boys Willow likes, she has no problems 
talking to Buffy *g*)

38) Ill be back in a minute

Buffy spots Giles, hanging around with the teenagers, and excuses 
herself, saying shell be back in a minute.  Willow once again doesnt 
put any strings on Buffy, telling her she doesnt have to come 
back&and Buffy smiles widely, practically glows and tells Willow shell 
be right back.

40 minutes into the series (1 day into their relationship) and already 
theres no place Buffy would rather be than with her Willow.  (How 
people can say they cant see Wiffy in the early years escapes me.  So 
Willow dates some chick in S4so what?  Its at the beginning that the 
two are so close they seem surgically attached.)

39)  Buffy and Giles, grooving to the sounds.

Buffy goes to see the Watcher, and, well, flirts with him, too.  Teasing 
him about being skanky, about how he needs a personality, smarting 
off about how she already knows about The Harvest, pulling the 
faux-innocent routine as she airily passes off not knowing what thats 
about.

Now, I respect B/G shippage (and even do some myself), but I do think 
this is slightly different from the B/W going on.  As I say, its too 
polished, Buffys just using her feminine skills to control the 
conversation, keep it away from what shes uncomfortable talking 
about.  Its only when Giles throws her off her stride that the flirty talk 
stops&

40) I really didnt like him!

&And now we see what Buffy thinks of Angel.  Although she noted his 
looks (gorgeous, in an annoying kind of way), she automatically 
classed him with Giles (I figured you two were buds) as an old guy 
who bugs her about the slaying stuff.  (Her dislike in the quote above 
seems entirely genuine to me.)  To this point, she has displayed 
exactly *zero* interest in guys, ignoring Xander, Giles, and Angel each 
in turn.  Shes also managed to avoid the subject of her and guys both 
when Xander pressed her about what she likes in a man and when 
she gave Willow advice on guys.  Gee, its almost like she wants to 
avoid the subject of men altogether&

Giles needles Buffy with some sarcasm, noting that he knows about 
the dreams shes been having, and once again gets entirely too close 
to her.

Meanwhile, Jesse is being shot down by Cordelia (who, as mentioned, 
is right there for anyone to find, but Buffy preferred being with Willow).  
Cordy looks much better with her hair down, and shes even displaying 
some cleavage for one of the rare times in S1-2.  (As Sarahs charms 
were often displayed in the early years, CCs were consequently 
usually covered up.  Because SMG is the star and is supposed to be 
the fairest in all the cast.  And while I loves me some Curvy!Buffy, thats 
a fight Smidge is gonna lose if they let Charisma pull out the, ahem, 
big guns.)

41)  Youre like a textbook with arms.  I know this.

Back on the balcony, Buffy is being bored to tears by Giles, keeping up 
her tradition of having no interest in anything a man says.  Giles, 
meanwhile, is keeping up *his* tradition of getting inappropriately close 
to Buffy, as their elbows are rubbing against each other.

Giles tries to teach Buffy about honing her senses, getting in tune with 
her inner Slayer, recognizing vampires instinctively (as Angel hisses 
from off-screen, Hey, dude, stop cramping my action!  See what I do 
when *you* get a girlfriend, cockblocker!), but Buffy prefers to do things 
her way, sensing vampires through outdated fashion sense. 

And then&

42) And the reason is you&

One moment, Buffy is telling Giles that shes done with the slaying, that 
she might kill another vampire one day but shes completely had it with 
the whole One Girl In All The World deal.  She sees Thomas, identifies 
him as a vampire, but makes no move to slay him.  She knows hes 
talking to a girl, but its all an intellectual exercise to her&

&and then&

&and then&

&and then Buffy sees who the girl is, and all the insouciance drains 
right out of her face.  (Oh for the days when Sarah pulled off emotional 
transitions with ease!)  In the early days, Joss said his method for 
involving the audiences emotions was simple:  Put Willow in Peril.  
(PWiP, for short.)  Well, it works just as well on the Slayer as it does on 
the audience.

One second of seeing what might happen to Her Willow (whom shes 
known for about twelve hours, I remind you) and all of Buffys 
anti-slaying resolve, all of her dedication to a fresh start and a normal 
life, that all goes right out the window.  Buffy would rather be anything 
but the Slayer, but PWiP and the choice isnt even a ghost of a choice.  
Into action, instantly.

Giles also has a mini-freakout, twitching in panic as he runs his hand 
over the banister.  This works equally well whether youre shipping him 
with Buffy or Willow:  maybe hes panicking because the girl hes 
known longest is in peril, or maybe its because his Slayer is going into 
battle and hes not sure if shes ready.

(BTW, Im not manipulating this at all, but as a Douglas Adams fan, I 
cant help being amused at which number this seminal moment 
landed on.)

43) God! What is your childhood trauma?

Buffy goes looking for Thomas backstage, but only manages to get her 
hands on Cordelia.  (Not that theres anything wrong with that.)  
Although she knows her faux pas will cost her dearly in her social 
standing (as she tells Giles in the next scene) and while she doesnt 
really know that Thomas is a vampire (she didnt hone, after all), she 
doesnt think about staying and trying to repair things with Cordelia.  In 
fact, she lets Cordy know shes only interested in being with Willow, 
thus making the FIFTH time in the ep shes rejected Cordelia (and 
popularity and the easy route) for Willow (and true love and destiny).

44)  One vampire&or not.

Giles catches up to Buffy and falls victim to premature congratulation.  It 
happens to all of us guys, Rupe&

Buffy tells him that she didnt find Willow and Giles uses that as an 
excuse to inappropriately grab Buffys arm.  (Again, whichever girl you 
want to ship Giles with [if any], you can read his concern for here.)  
Buffy assures him its just one vampire and blows right by Darla, thus 
ensuring Jesses doom and neatly opening up a spot for her in Willow 
and Xanders social circle.  Smooth, Buff, smooth!

Meanwhile, Luke has summoned his boyfriend, The Master, who looks 
tasty in a leather jacket thats a little too current for somebody whos 
been stuck in a cave for 60 years.

More, eventually.

Dan


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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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