I didn't mind the axe. I did mind the seemingly pointless and content free Sister Galadriel Natter Guardian. A weapon I can buy -- a whole guild/organization/girl scout troop/whatev dedicated to looking after the slayers that haven't done jack in 7 seasons and don't have any actual advice to give before they get their neck snapped? NSM.

A-yup.

And, if the Slayers were created by the Shadow Men who became the Watchers, but the Order of Annoying Exposition Talky Meat Redshirts came FIRST, how did the FREAKING ORDER KNOW WHEN WHO HOW WHERE WHAT AND WHY? If the "Last Pure Demon" was slaughtered there, WHAT ABOUT THE EVIDENCE OF PREVIOUS ASCENDY THINGYS, LEADING TO THE VULCAN SLAUGHTHER??? Hmm, hmm????

ARGH!

Sister Galadriel Natter Guardian was the ass pull, not the axe. For the love of Mike, someone shoulda handed them a CONTINUITY BIBLE.

don't know if these were posted earlier

I think someone posted them a couple of years ago (what?! you don't remember?!).

Definitely worth the repost!

They had plenty of time (starting with Nikki's startling bag) to imply that there's a whole web of things that the Watchers never knew about the Slayers. But the shadowmen sort of came off as if they were the only secret -- but this mystery could have been tied into the unexplored insistences of darkness from both Drac and Spike.

It's like ... mystery shadow men? Okay. That's cool. Huh? An axe? Who knew? Glad we cleared that up. Oh, look a wise woman. That's just too neat. And now she's gone.

And we still have an amulet to go.

I agree about the useless Middle-Earth Mother. Now, I could buy that since she's not exactly of a race of immortals, she's going to be cautious. And maybe there is a history of persecuation by the CoW. But why would she wait seven years? If this weapon is meant to be used by the slayer, why not make sure she gets it as soon as she starts fighting stuff on the hellmouth? And it also seems weird that the CoW could have rendered them so powerless for so long. They could have just dumped cyanide in the tea and dumped some flesh-eating bacteria in the tweed. And if this woman is so weak that even Caleb can easily snap her neck, wouldn't she have found some other way of talking to Buffy, or at least been careful to keep her back to the wall?

Eeeee! It's the CARROT TOP EVIL TWIN PICTURES!!!

I can't stop laughing at them. Someone I knew with hair like that (and from the same generation) used said hair to sneak 27 joints into a Led Zeppelin concert. Apropos of nothing at all.

Me, too. Because we first saw it in the Tales of the Slayers TPB, right? And then Fray #7, which I strongly suspect was delayed to be in synch with Buffy.

A quick comment - it actually showed up in Fray #6, which was published on March 27, 2002. The Tales of the Slayers has a publishing date of February 20, 2002. Joss has been thinking about the Axe for quite some time (although why he calls it a scythe I have absolutely no idea).

If the "Last Pure Demon" was slaughtered there, WHAT ABOUT THE EVIDENCE OF PREVIOUS ASCENDY THINGYS, LEADING TO THE VULCAN SLAUGHTHER??? Hmm, hmm????

I took that to mean the last of the "original" pure demons that walked the earth. I think it's fair to exclude the sequels (Son of the LastPureDemon? Abbot and Costello meet the LastPureDemon?)

Maybe the amulet will have a replacement eye in it for Xander. Or it could kill Dawn. Or maybe it just coordinates with all of Angel's outfits. Lilah never said exactly what it was for.

I can't stop laughing at them. Someone I knew with hair like that (and from the same generation) used said hair to sneak 27 joints into a Led Zeppelin concert. Apropos of nothing at all.

Were his initials JAMES MARSTERS?

amyth called the carrot-top thing, too.

re; the axe, you can see it in Fray#2 or #3 in silhouette when Mel is getting the backstory on slayers, specifically the last previous slayer in the 21st century.

t smiles sincerely and nonthreateningly at Teppy

gotta go! amyth and i are going to see darth's latest production tonight.

I agree that the Guardian talky meat woman was kind of an asspull. The fact that they would bother with her/them at this point, plus the promos, makes me wonder if ME doesn't mean to use them in the "what happens next" segment of the last episode.