My problem with Anya's speech(and this is something that came up after thinking about it a bit) is that she comes off as being 4 years old emotionally. Makes her relationship with Xander just a little more squicky to me.(Your Issues May Vary)

Cindy, you're not alone. The fruit-punch speech always rang a little hollow to me.

Anya's speech was the only part of "The Body" that I found affecting. But even the first time it aired I thought, "But...Anya should be the most familiar with death. And the least familiar with Joyce. No part of this makes sense."

But then, I do mean great disrespect to "The Body."

I never liked the way they wrote Anya as more and more of a Star-Trek alien over the years, given that she seemed pretty familiar with human customs back when she was a demon. But since she was at least funny, I can understand how it happened.

I never liked the way they wrote Anya as more and more of a Star-Trek alien over the years, given that she seemed pretty familiar with human customs back when she was a demon.

This was a huge beef for me. I just watched The Wish yesterday, and it's striking how comfortable and not-stiff Anya is with the other kids.

That said, the fruit punch speech hit me hard. I think it would have been affecting to me no matter who said it, truthfully, but in Anya's case I think it worked because they *had* made her so distant from human emotion, and EC's delivery really drove home the element of being caught by surprise.

It seemeed to me that Joss was the only person who could write Anya. Everybody else made her a one-note wonder; Joss made you think there was an actual character there. This was frequently true of Dawn as well.

"But...Anya should be the most familiar with death. And the least familiar with Joyce. No part of this makes sense."

This is true, but the death that she was familiar with was never anyone she cared about. It was all work-related, whereas she's probably developed at least a passing affection for Joyce.

This was a huge beef for me. I just watched The Wish yesterday, and it's striking how comfortable and not-stiff Anya is with the other kids.

My theory on Anya is that she was not necessarily intended to be later inserted into Cordelia's tactless truth-teller slot for s.4, and so her characterization was retarded from s.3.

she's probably developed at least a passing affection for Joyce.

Like I said, I don't believe that, either, but the first half of the speech is about not comprehending death, period. It would make marginally more sense if she was saying something like "I knew it hurt to die, but I didn't know it hurt to lose someone, too." I could have bought that, and the point would have been the same.

What Amy said, really -- I think it would have been affecting from anyone, but having a normally stoic character break down made it more so. But the emotion comes at the expense of the character.

See - I see the first half of the speech as not comprehending natural death, death that wasn't a direct result of a bad thing the deceased did. The death she dealt was by her hand and was justified (in her mind) - it wasn't random and awful in that randomosity.

YFruitPunchSpeechMV, however.

And again, I think she gets it intellectually. It's the emotional reaction that's blindsiding her - she always acts rationally, she expects others to do the same, and here she is feeling irrational and watching others be the same.