I don't need the show to start telling me in big easy words about how Buffy USED TO FIGHT DEMONS and now FIGHTS DORKY PEOPLE.

Well, I liked how the meta was converted into psychobabble.

The only thing that bothered me about "Normal Again" was the asspull of "Oh, back in LA, my parents put me in the looney bin briefly."

Yeah, I really couldn't cope with that, because it makes a whole bunch of interactions between Buffy and Joyce make no sense at all. So I told myself "never happened pre-Dawn!" which just put me back in my "wah! The first four seasons didn't happen like I remember them!" place. Which was off-putting.

The meta I didn't mind so much.

This is also true. Huh. You'd think I was a Libra, arguing both sides this way.

The only thing that bothered me about "Normal Again" was the asspull of "Oh, back in LA, my parents put me in the looney bin briefly."

Oh, god, I had actually blocked that part out. That was so awful.

Yeah, that was dumb. Agreed.

Still, LOVE the episode. Third favorite ep of season 6 (after OMWF and Tabula Rasa). And I LIKE Season 6. A lot.

Katie: The Buffy Animated Series will apparently explore parts of Buffy's high school career in the dawn-memories. Which I think is kinda interesting.

(Do I actually really sit this alone in the "I really like Dawn" corner?)

Katie: The Buffy Animated Series will apparently explore parts of Buffy's high school career in the dawn-memories. Which I think is kinda interesting.

(Do I actually really sit this alone in the "I really like Dawn" corner?)

Well...

Actually, I came to like Dawn just fine. I mean, I would've been happy with more Dawn in S7. I'm just really gut-level bugged by the idea that the first four years of this show never really happened. I know that sounds silly--I feel kind of silly saying it, because of course they never happened, it's a TV show--but... well.

So while I may well watch the Animated Buffy, seeing Dawn injected into Sunnydale High is going to be, er, a little difficult.

The only thing that bothered me about "Normal Again" was the asspull of "Oh, back in LA, my parents put me in the looney bin briefly."

Still say I can hand wave it as being another aspect of the demon's venom.

The Buffy Animated Series will apparently explore parts of Buffy's high school career in the dawn-memories. Which I think is kinda interesting.

They did this but pre-Sunnydale with the regular Buffy comicbook series near the end and it was by far better than the rest of the comic series. In fact, they go back and tell the story about Buffy going into an asylum alluded to in Normal Again and it is pretty good. You get to see Buffy being all smarty-pants funny in a support group for troubled teens.

(Do I actually really sit this alone in the "I really like Dawn" corner?)

I love Dawn. It took me a while, but by the end of S6 I had the big Dawn love. And I will always lament that they didn't focus more on her as they originally planned in S7.

I got my S6 DVDs today and I was in a cloud of Season-6-loving bliss until I put disc 2 in and got a blank screen. Will have to return it tomorrow. Boo.

(Do I actually really sit this alone in the "I really like Dawn" corner?)

Yes. Well, actually, I didn't use to have such a problem with Dawn. On the re-watch, however, I began noticing how bloody fucking annoying she was with the whining and the complaining and the flouncing. Now she grates on me a lot. She has her moments, but they are few.

I noticed a strange connection tonight when watching "Normal Again" and "Primeval" back-to-back (with commentary). Buffy kills the "Normal Again" beastie and Adam in the same way: she punches through their chests and removes their "hearts." And both of these scenarios deal with Buffy reconciling with her friends, choosing to stay together with them. I don't know that it was intentional at all, but I find it interesting.

(Another reason I love "Normal Again" is that it has some really funny lines, like Andrew's "I really think to pull this off we're going to need at least eight other people," the Spike/Xander exchange "You didn't tell me it was a Gl'ark Fghjkwhatever!"/"Cause I can't say--," and Xander's "I altered his reality!")

The Buffy Animated Series will apparently explore parts of Buffy's high school career in the dawn-memories. Which I think is kinda interesting.

I think it'd be interesting to see some Rozencrantz and Guildenstern/The Zeppo-style episodes, with familiar plots from Season 1 or 2 seen from the margins while we follow Dawn on a separate little adventure.

I'm pretty meh on Dawn in general, but she had some great moments. Mostly when she was being snarky rather than whiny. I loved "No one gets me".

Andrew's "I really think to pull this off we're going to need at least eight other people,"

Not enough 'Hee!' in the world.