(no subject)

[doyle]

- this was the first thing Ultimate Drew wrote for TV, ever? Wow.

- he's such a fanboy. He points out all the stuff like Xander's Lie and the amulet from Something Blue, and David Solomon says that he was on every episode and doesn't know all that stuff.

- The First was supposed to appear to Anya as Halfrek in CWDP but Kali Rocha wasn't available.

- Anya's name and backstory came about because when Drew G was doing research for the episode he found a Viking King called Olaf whose wife, Aud, was known for her 'strange sense of humour and ability with money'.



CWPD

- Jane Espenson is adorable. As are Tom Lenk and Danny Strong.

- Jane loooves Jonathan. I think it's Drew Goddard who snarkily says "you could go in and pitch an episode about Spike and Jane'd be like, ooh! Can Danny play Spike's mom?"

- I shall maturely say nyah to the person on my friends-list or on BAPS (can't remember which) who said Tom was lying about making up some of his own lines. (Also Jane tells a story about watching TV with Tom in a hotel room in Britain and him getting too tense to watch a gameshow - "ohh, I can't watch these things, I get too nervous for the people. It's why I don't like ice-skating." - which is a line she wanted to use for Andrew)

- Xander wasn't in this episode because he's 'never known anyone who died'. Uh... Jesse? Larry? Snyder, which would fit with Restless?

- the actress who plays Cassie is apparently identical to Rebecca Rand-Kirshner, who created the character. Thinking about Help, Cassie's the definition of a Mary Sue, isn't she? Tragic background (she knows she's going to die), mystical powers. Plus she becomes best friends with Dawn, Buffy's obsessed with saving her, she uses her next-to-dying breath to encourage the Spuffy and her actual dying breath to give Buffy a morale boost, and everybody sits around weeping over her death. And yet I still like her a lot. Hm.

- Jane says yes, Joyce was The First, and that yes, the First can appear in more than one place at a time. Which I guess we saw in Bring on the Night when it was masquerading as a potential and appearing to Spike. Shame it didn't think to exploit this omnipresence a bit more considering that confusing your enemies might be a good idea (I have issues with the source of all evil being dumb as a rock, tactically speaking).

- the writers had next to no outline for this episode beyond "Buffy and Holden scene. Dawn scene." They had three days to write it and were majorly stressed. So Jane took off to Vegas. I want to be her when I grow up.

Comments

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Well, as things went, things seemed to be tightening. First season, the evil was all external, some mad thing. Second season, the evil was a former lover. Third, the evil was her city government. Fourth is not worth speaking about. Fifth, evil attacking and going after her family. Sixth, the evil turns out to be her dearest friend. Conflict with self would've been perfect, and there was still room for her to be in conflict with herself.

But then again, the argument isn't with you, it's with Whedon and a writing staff that's been off the job for a year.

[metalphoenix.livejournal.com]

That, is a very powerful point. And the more I think about it, the more I wish they had done something along the lines of Buffy fighting the First as herself.

There were points were she was conflicting with herself, I think, moreso than the woman power thing. Buffy has always been about women being powerful, but near the end, it got more and more about her, as a person. There were random episodes, random scenes where parts of her thoughts came out, but the further along in the series it went, the further along her problems with herself developed.

In season 7, she was always bringing the problems on herself, to the point where it pissed off the potentials. The conversation with Faith showed how much responsibility she had on herself. And in CWDP she talked to Holden and told him how she felt inferior and superior to her friends at once.

All of that adds up, for me, personal conflict, and would have been summed up beautifully with her fighting the First as Buffy. If they had a scene where instead of her fighting some random uber-vamp, she had turned to the First when it was goading her and began fighting with her instead... and then Spike doing his thing..

That would have been amazing.

[metalphoenix.livejournal.com]

Erm.. just thought of a loophole for that. The First isn't corporeal. Eh.

Well, they could of had it be that the more uber-vamps that came to fight, the more coporeal the First became?

>_< Or I could just shut up.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Incorporeal or not, it would've worked better than the First just vanishing never to be seen again as soon as Buffy says "get out of my face" *g*