Frank, don't make me laugh tea out my nose. Esp. as it's mixed with OJ, and would hurt.

Thessaly and I are watching through, and did "Becoming" the other night. Thessaly took to shouting "SMITE HIM! SMITE HIM!" at Xander on the screen.

Poor Xander!

Does the eventual eye loss make her feel better?

What Xander did was really and truly wrong, and I love him for it.

He did it with perfect motives--a mix of jealousy (of B/A), anger (Ms. Calendar's death and all the Angelusy horror between Surprise and Becoming, the first part of which saw Kendra die trying to defend them all), fear (ditto), and love (seeing Willow so injured). It was also true to his first mission statement in TH: I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good.

It was the Xanderest thing ever (except for maybe the Love Spell combined with the refusing to take advantage of it in BB&B).

It was the Xanderest thing ever (except for maybe the Love Spell combined with the refusing to take advantage of it in BB&B).

I think that the Xanderest thing ever is "Calvary's here! Calvary is scared guy with a rock, but he's here!" *sob*

misses Xander sooooo much

::doesn't miss Xander at all::

::has never forgiven Xander for big lie, never will::

::pats Buffy and sets her back on the shelf, refuses to see the similarity between self and Drusilla::

::pats Buffy and sets her back on the shelf, refuses to see the similarity between self and Drusilla::

Heh. Considering my usual reaction to pretty people is "Oooh! I want to keep them and put them in a pretty birdcage and play dress-up with them!", I try not to think too hard about any similarities between me and Drusilla. At least I haven't started talking about burning baby fishes around people's heads. Yet.

At least I have started talking about burning baby fishes around people's heads. Yet.

Your slip is showing, Dr. Freud...

I really can't wait for the W&P to get to S7 -- rewatching it all in a gulp last month without the stupid aeon-long hiatuses in between every episode, it came across as much more Xanderly than on the first viewing. Even the middle and later episodes full of speeches and Potentials and trying to cram massive amounts of plot into the little time remaining had lots of small Xander grace notes.

Actually, S7 in general went way, way up in my estimation on an all-at-once rewatch. So much more balanced. There wasn't anywhere near as much Potential plot-hogging or tedious speechifying as I remembered; the season-long character arcs, especially for Xander but really for everyone, felt much clearer; it didn't feel so much All About Spike; the two or three light fluffy standalones were much more enjoyable when they weren't coming on the heels of a month of no episodes at all and immediately followed by another month of nothing. IMO, the craxy airing schedule did a massive disservice to S7; I'm all bouncy and eager to see what everyone else thinks.

Your slip is showing, Dr. Freud...

Hush! Nothing to see here, move along ...

Actually, S7 in general went way, way up in my estimation on an all-at-once rewatch. So much more balanced. There wasn't anywhere near as much Potential plot-hogging or tedious speechifying as I remembered; the season-long character arcs, especially for Xander but really for everyone, felt much clearer; it didn't feel so much All About Spike; the two or three light fluffy standalones were much more enjoyable when they weren't coming on the heels of a month of no episodes at all and immediately followed by another month of nothing. IMO, the craxy airing schedule did a massive disservice to S7; I'm all bouncy and eager to see what everyone else thinks.

Ooh. This is the first thing that, selected eps aside, has made me really want to get around to watching my season 7 DVDs. I suspected the above might be the case, but had too much other stuff on my plate to make the time to find out. Does the pod!Giles stuff seem less pod-y?

Also, have you watched season 6 in one big go? I'm curious if that plays better as well, as I recall the scheduling was similar.