I was shocked and appalled by how young the girlfriend of one of my friends in college was (although her family's approval of the pairing apparently cleared up any legal quandries). He wisely waited to tell me until after they'd broken up - her friends started getting their drivers' licenses and suddenly dating a guy almost half her age again didn't seem so cool.

Overrated: Xander's speech to Dawn in "Potential." It's not special. It's not extraordinary. It's just too long. I don't hate the text, but I get antsy watching it.

Underrated: "Primeval." I watched this before all the eps where the Initiative was only three guys sneaking past a bush and Adam was "let me read you this encyclopedia I downloaded from my floppy drive." The first time I saw Adam and the Initiative, he had an army and a messiah complex and they had a huge shiny compound and a doomed last stand. They were both cool. "Primeval" is one of my most-rewatched episodes.

hairloaf bogarting the chicks, IIRC, but then he got punished.

"Man that guy got some major neck in his day"

Sorry, that's going back a ways, but I'm catching up late.

I always thought that B/X was the most logical pairing in the show, but I was happy that it never happened.

Bad Slo-Mo? Buffy's mouse punches during OMWF as Giles sings.

Wasn't that supposed to be crap slo-mo? Buffy was talking about crap 80s films just before they launched into song after all.

I recall him saying at somepoint that the groundwork was laid deliberately for either Willow or Xander, they just hadn't decided which one yet.

I think this is something Joss made up later. It seems to me that these were the factors that lead to lesbian!Willow: 1) SG left the show.
2) They had the idea for BigBad!Willow, and knew they needed to kill her lover for her to get there.
3) AH and AB had good chemistry, so they decided to go with a lesbian relationship rather than a straight one.

I mean, I agree there were moments that could be seen as foreshadowing of her gayness, but there pretty much are for all Jossverse people. If Tara/Willow hadn't happened I don't think we would have expected it, IYKWIM.

If B/X had happened, it would have been in S4. But me? I'm glad it didn't. It's nice to see a platonic relationship on TV.

3) AH and AB had good chemistry, so they decided to go with a lesbian relationship rather than a straight one.

But wasn't AB brought in for the purpose of being Willow's lover?

But wasn't AB brought in for the purpose of being Willow's lover?

No. I think initially, they cast her just to get Willow more into magicks. At any rate, I know they didn't write the chemistry into Hush; I remember reading either Joss or Marti say it surprised them when they saw it on film.

I think this is something Joss made up later.

I don't even think that. I think it's like that game Operator, you play when you're little. One person whispers a message to the next, and the last person tells what he heard, and the first tells what the message really was.

I think what Joss said is they'd contemplated a gay character (he may have even named X or W), but I know I've read/heard him say the kinda gay comments in Dopplegangland were a happy accident.

It seems to me that these were the factors that lead to lesbian!Willow: 1) SG left the show.

2) They had the idea for BigBad!Willow, and knew they needed to kill her lover for her to get there.

3) AH and AB had good chemistry, so they decided to go with a lesbian relationship rather than a straight one.

I mean, I agree there were moments that could be seen as foreshadowing of her gayness, but there pretty much are for all Jossverse people. If Tara/Willow hadn't happened I don't think we would have expected it, IYKWIM.

This all very lines up with anything I've ever read or heard.

Ah, right. So big flukey mcgay fluke then.

And if Xander had turned out to be gay, we'd be pointing to at least two foreshadowing moments.

(1) The line about handling the Oz full monty.

(2) OK, more than a moment, but Larry assuming that Xander was also gay. If you want a specific moment, maybe Larry's line about a tasteful coming-out announcement in "Earshot."

Probably more. But that's all I can come up with off the top of my head.

I think initially, they cast her just to get Willow more into magicks.

She was also supposed to be part-demon, wasn't she?

I think what Joss said is they'd contemplated a gay character (he may have even named X or W), but I know I've read/heard him say the kinda gay comments in Dopplegangland were a happy accident.

That sounds vaguely familiar to me, too.