When I picture someone beating a dead horse, the horse is hooked up to a cart. I don't know if this is just my brain or if there was a story to go with the cliche or what.

Sometimes, there is a stream just beyond the horse, which the person doing the beating will not be able to lead the horse to, nor make it drink from.

I don't think I'm gonna be able to decide the which was more important to Buffy question.

I think it depends on whether you're saying, "Not to beat a dead horse here, but..." or whether you have to be told that's what you're doing.

And for some reason, I always interpreted "beat" as in "to death." As in you'd already beaten the horse to death, but just kept wailing on it anyway.

Hmmmm. I think Xander was more important *to* Buffy, because he was completely normal. No demon blood, no witchy power, No arcane knowledge, no nothing. A normal, regular guy who could live the life she was supposed to want, but who also chose to fight the darkness. Sort of like how Buffy was a symbol to Angel - I think Xander was that symbol to Buffy, if she had bothered to think in symbols at all (not saying she was dumb, just saying girl had an uber-straightforward way of thinking).

Well, Jessica, you don't just randomly awlk up to a horse-corpse and start beating it. I imagine there's a reason the horse is dead.

Although, ita's mention of riding crops makes me wonder -- what are we beating this horse with that it's dead? I mean, a riding crop is like a flyswatter -- not really painful, and really not able to cause damage. And if you're beating your horse with a sledgehammer, I really hope you got off it first, because I think you'd hit yourself with the hammer.

ita's mention of riding crops makes me wonder -- what are we beating this horse with that it's dead?

Your vision isn't like mine -- my impression is that you work the horse to death, but keep beating it in order to (unsuccessfully, naturally) get it to keep going.

And if you're beating your horse with a sledgehammer, I really hope you got off it first, because I think you'd hit yourself with the hammer.

Is there a cheetah? Does it have a knife?

Good question, Perkins. I'd say Willow because she was the closer friend (the crush always being a small barrier between X and B), although Xander and Willow are probably the closest friendship.

Well, Jessica, you don't just randomly awlk up to a horse-corpse and start beating it. I imagine there's a reason the horse is dead.

Maybe you don't....

No, that's a good point. Obviously I'd never given it much logical thought before.

And I pick Xander. I don't know why.

my impression is that you work the horse to death, but keep beating it in order to (unsuccessfully, naturally) get it to keep going.

Mine, too.

I think Xander was important to buffy because of his normality and all that that meant to her. I also think that WIllow was important because she went dark and came back. I"m having trouble pinning down why I think that was so important, so maybe that means more to me than to Buffy...

Is there a cheetah? Does it have a knife?

Heh, and I was just thinking that Nutty wouldn't be beating a dead horse, she'd be jumping up and down on it on a squash court.

Random related aside - anybody see the commercial (I think it's for a soda) where a woman catches up to and passes a cheetah going full tilt? My thought when watching it was "Watch out! Nutty's comin' to getcha."

my impression is that you work the horse to death, but keep beating it in order to (unsuccessfully, naturally) get it to keep going.

That is logical. Although it doesn't really answer the question as to whether you know the horse is dead or not. Alas, ambiguity.

We are like an autistic linguists convention, aren't we?