The Mayor isn't my favourite Buffy Big Bad, but he is one of my favourite Big Bads ever. I'm not entirely sure why those two lists don't have to line up. I prefer S2 Spike as an antagonist, because of his relationship with Angel and growing relationship with Buffy, as well as the ever-present Dru delight.
But I think the Mayor stands out among antagonists as a whole. He's complicated, layered, and unremittingly concerned with evil. But that doesn't mean he can't be
nice.
And I don't see that much on other shows. So Spike does more Buffy-specific things for me, but the Mayor breaks a bigger mould, and I give him major points for that.
Just that scene in GD part 2 when his hate and grief over Faith at the hospital... and earlier when he's telling himself that "she's gonna be all right."
Also when Giles stabs him with the foil: "Ok, WHOA!!"
I just love his complex chatacterization, his twisted dysfunctional father love for Faith, his mercilessness and goofiness. And Harry Groener is amazing.
I just love his complex chatacterization, his twisted dysfunctional father love for Faith, his mercilessness and goofiness.
This. All of this. I think the first time I watched S3, it was on bootleg tapes from someone on the internet, so I was watching as fast as possible because I just wanted to see it all. And I think the first time through I missed a lot of the Mayor's menace -- certainly his obvious moments stood out ("That's quite a spunky girl you've raised there...I'm going to EAT her."), but there's a lot of subtle menace going on even when he's not being actively menacing.
And his relationship with Faith is so awesome.
The Mayor is definitely my favorite, which is why season three is my favorite. Also because it's more solid overall, on an episode-by-episode basis, than season two.
Mark's "School Hard" review. Oh, he is so unprepared.
Bizarrely, no mention of Drusilla at all, and his warning against "crazy" is about Spike.
Reason to read the comments, though: someone described Drusilla as evil Luna Lovegood. PERFECT.
Okay, having just read that, I'm not sure I could take this level of enthusiasm and ass capping on a regular basis. Power to him for falling under the spell, though.
There's yet much realer for shit to get.
He is so not ready.
Although right now I'm more curious about how he's going to handle the discussion of Dru and the fact that she is mentally unstable and insane. I know this was discussed before. I'm not reading the comments and I'm not so much interested in how the comments will be moderated but how Mark will describe Dru.
