20 Reasons Buffy the Vampire Slayer Endures – #BuffySlays20

Almost five years ago, our baby website decided to expand from its usual fare (the terrible books we read as children) to cover a TV show. At the insistence of my friends, I'd watched the pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer even before the founding of the blog. In fact, "Childhood Trauma" was the first name of this blog, thanks to the classic line in the pilot. When it came time to pick a show to cover here, it seemed natural to start with Buffy.

#snarkathon – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I first suggested that we cover the original Buffy movie way back in August 2012, not long after we started covering Buffy. Somehow, it ended up as a "this would be a good way to finish things" idea, and then with the birth of #snarkathon in December it became a "watch it alone-together with the Traumateers" thing. Aww.
Anyway, let's get to the movie, shall we?
We open in Dark Ages Europe, where we're given approximately two seconds of Slayer backstory - one girl in all the world, yada yada yada, she has a creepy birthmark on her chest known as "The Mark of the Coven".

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Worst of (Lorraine)

Seriously, guys, ranking this is such hard work. So is recording yourself on video and then looking back at your own face for too long while you edit and realizing your hair is kind of doing something funny in the back.
ANYWAY. It's my turn to squee about the end. I realize we've been doing that now for a solid two weeks, but THE END YOU GUYS. It's crazy.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Best Of (Sweeney)

Now this is actually it, for me at least. It's weird to think that this is the last time - in the foreseeable future - that I will be starting a Buffy post. I know I've gotten to about five rounds of THE END! nostalgia, but now it's actually it. As such, this video is basically about how this show gives me all the feelings. It's where we first declared our allegiance to Team Feels and that's something of a subtitle to this video. "Fucking Brilliant, or TEAM FEELS FOREVER."
Again, thank you all for watching and commenting this show with us. It has been a lot of fun and you all helped make that the case. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Worst Of (Sweeney)

So this is it. THE END. Except the PARTY'S NOT OVER! Because we have to rank some stuff and delay feelings because AAAH WE FINISHED A THING. Coherent sentences. Like Kirsti, I wrote a whole other thing on my personal blog about my many complicated feelings about the end of blogging this show. Blogging about blogging.
As for the list. Rankings are always so stressful for me because the things that I like and dislike about each episode isn't uniform. There are things that make me hate one episode but which I overlook in another.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Best Of (Kirsti)

This morning we talked about the ten episodes that I thought should be buried at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, never to be seen again. For something a little more positive, let's talk about my ten best episodes. It's a list that's changed dramatically over the course of this project, and if you guys want to see what my pre-Snark Squad list would have looked like, just let me know and I'll put it down in the comments.
Also, y'all should be impressed with my editing skills because when I finished filming, I had 25 minutes worth of footage of me rambling vaguely about how wonderful these episodes are. I mean, a decent chunk of it was bloopers. But still - 25 minutes worth of footage down to 4 minutes? I HAS WIKKID SKILLZ. Ahem.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Worst Of (Kirsti)

Well. Here we are, six hundred and twelve (according to the internet) days after our first Buffy post went up. Finishing this project is definitely a bittersweet experience, because it's been SO MUCH FUN, but it's also been an epic trip down the Everything Sucks And I Hate This Highway on the struggle bus. Which, now that I think about it, is probably the same highway that the Scoobies were on when they piled into a Winnebago and left town at the end of season 5...
ANYWAY. I had more thoughts on the subject of finishing Buffy than I can possibly convey, and if you feel the need, you can go and read a lot of them HERE because it seemed like a more appropriate place to dump all of my thoughts.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Seasons Ranking

We figured we'd give this its own post, mostly so you all could also rank with us in the comments.
I feel like I'm going to put this order up, wake up tomorrow and feel differently. Seasons are made up of so many moving parts, that ranking this way is difficult. I think I'm stalling now. OKAY. OKAY. Here we go:
  1. Season 5 - When season 5 took first place in my eyes, it surprised me.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer S07 E22 – The end

Holy shit balls, you guys. We made it. Episode 144. It's been a long time coming - I mean, we started this whole crazy trip at the start of July 2012 - and I think the three of us have been anticipating this moment for months now. And now that it's here, I don't quite know how to deal with it. Sure, we haven't always loved the show, and sometimes recapping it twice a week has been indescribably painful. But I'm not sure how to adjust to life without Buffy recaps. Seriously - I wrote S07 E22 up there in the title and immediately teared up.
Sweeney: There's going to be a lot of that. It's been a long road and it's surreal to be here. MANY FEELS.
Lorraine: Just chiming in to say, "YEP." Perhaps I wasn't as ready to say goodbye as I thought I would be. For that reason, I should also warn you that things get very capslock-y and SQUEE-y in the recap below. I'm not even sorry that I'm not sorry. No apologies; feels abound.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer S07 E21 – Callback Feels

This episode title is a liar because there's one more episode! It's JUST BEFORE the end. Silly title. This episode begins immediately where we left off. Faith tells everyone to get down and the bomb blows. Buffy eyes her prize as Priest-ion comes downstairs, gloating about how she can't pry it from solid rock and she easily lifts it up. It's a nice callback to the time it was assumed that the troll hammer couldn't be wielded and Buffy lifted it all NBD. Wolf howl.
Kirsti: Buffy's insta-pull and Priest-ion's face made me giggle.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer S07 E20 – End of times sexy times.

Inside the Summers' home, it's somewhat clear that whatever happened at the end of the last episode, it wasn't well thought out. All the Potentials, Giles, Willow, Faith, Xander, Anya and Principal Wood are having a disorganized discussion about how to have organized discussions. Kennedy is pretty much just excited about having more of a say.
Faith keeps trying to calm everyone down. Amanda goes on and on about parliamentary procedure. During this, Giles tries to assure Dawn that what they did was for the best. Dawn says it doesn't feel that way. Finally, Faith tells everyone that they need to chill out and get some sleep. Kennedy wonders if they have time to waste and Faith basically answers, "things suck so let's sleep." I support this plan. It's pretty much the best one we've heard this season.