Halfway through Season #7, which I like a helluva lot more than season 6, and tghere are several questions that have not been addressed adequately by the series:
1.) Other than Warren and those two Germans, why doesn’t someone just shoot Buffy? Or poison her? Or something other than hand-to-hand?
2.) Which also makes me wonder- why do all undead know martial arts?
3.) Has it ever been addressed (other than brief references in seasons 2&3) how the general population of Sunnydale is oblivious. to the mayhem going on around them?
4.) If you walk in a dark alley in Sunnydale, you get attacked. Have they ever considered street lights?
5.) Did Joss Whedon have a series of bad relationships? Why is the ‘love that can not be had’ such a recurring theme in EVERY series he creates?
6.) Why are there never investigations into the thousands of murders that take place? And why, other than Mrs. Summers, are there never any funerals? And why don’t they just cremate people, since they know they are going to come back undead?
I am sure there is more, but that is it for now.
iocaste
Well, I admit that a lot of the questions are unanswered, but I think the early seasons explained that the rest of Sunnydale didn’t catch on because they just sort of blocked it out — so, they always managed to misremember things, because it wasn’t what they expected to see.
Not all that convincing — especially as in later episodes people seemed to be more aware — but what did you expect?
I hope you’re watching Angel along with your Buffy. It’s not ss good, but it’s still good and some stories overlap.
John Cole
Yes- I am watching Angel. It is, in many ways, a very good show in its own right- and it is in widescreen, something that Buffy is not…
scs
I think you all should get over your Buffy deification and look around for some real women in your life, who maybe aren’t anorexic and can’t kick undead butt but at least are local.
Geoduck
In the early seasons, the Mayor’s office was evidently keeping a lid on things while he planned his Ascension.
One thing that amuses me about the Sunnydale police is that, come literal hell or high water, they enforce the parking regulations.
As for the whole relationship thing, you have to remember that in later seasons, Whedon had pulled back somewhat while he worked on other projects, and Marti Noxon was running things. Sadly, Ms. Noxon Has Issues when it comes to sexual relationships.
M. Scott Eiland
1.) Other than Warren and those two Germans, why doesn’t someone just shoot Buffy? Or poison her? Or something other than hand-to-hand?
Pride, mostly, is my guess. Plus the fact that most of Buffy’s opponents are either monsters or have monsters working for them. Darla wasn’t a great fighter (until later, anyway), so she had no compunctions about using guns. The Germans used guns as a matter of course (as did the one Order of Taraka assassin–the female cop–who went after Buffy just before the Judge came to town). Plus–the other people who shot at Buffy missed, so it’s not as if pulling a piece out was a surefire way of killing her.
2.) Which also makes me wonder- why do all undead know martial arts?
If they didn’t, vampires would be really easy to kill–stabbing a human being in the chest isn’t *that* hard even for other normal humans–and for Buffy it would be no challenge at all. It can be explained by saying that the demon possessing the corpse passes on the skills.
3.) Has it ever been addressed (other than brief references in seasons 2&3) how the general population of Sunnydale is oblivious. to the mayhem going on around them?
Mostly hand-waving–Giles suggested that it was just the tendency of people to repress or ignore things they couldn’t explain after the events of the series opening two part episode, and the Mayor was actively covering up a lot of stuff, too. Not to mention–as Snyder put it–“The Sunnydale Police are deeply stupid.”
Russ
1) Ever since she got her hands on those Wonder Woman bracelets….
2) Because it’s better than mastering Trivial Pursuit.
3) Years of reliance on a halucinogen-spiked water supply has obviously had the effect of making everyone automatically disbelieve what they see.
4) They used to use candles, but the bees quit making wax due to harsh work conditions.
5) He’s a geek. I mean, come on, look at the shows he’s created. The ‘love that can not be had’ theme is one that should be familiar to all geeks.
6) a) Sheriff: Rosco P. Coltrane. b) Efficient scavengers. c) Undead ashes cause lung cancer.
And to answer the unasked question: no, I have never seen a single episode of Buffy… but I do own the Firefly DVDs.
Cyrus
1) If the writers ever gave an explanation more credible than “when you’re a 500-year-old demon, you get so old-fashioned that guns are too modern for you,” I don’t know what it is. That doesn’t explain all the vampires who were made after guns became common, obviously. But on the other hand, most new vampires we saw, like Harmony, were so stupid and egotistical they wouldn’t think of using a gun and wouldn’t admit they needed to even if they did think of it.
2) I guess they’re so much stronger and faster than humans, they don’t need to be taught.
3) In addition to the references in Season 2 and 3, there was also the Initiative in Season 4 (and for all we know, years before that and years after) which would have had to cover up demon activity to some extent to keep themselves secret. And more generally, I seem to remember references to Sunnydale having a bad reputation, but nothing specifically occult. I think that woman whose ex-boyfriend Anya turned into a giant worm in Season 7 said she’d heard Sunnydale was X-Files town or something, for example.
4) Ummm… they were severely underfunded by Mayor Wilkins in all his terms in office? Best I’ve got.
5) Hey, count your blessings. At least Buffy and Angel were more interesting than Ross and Rachel.
6) I’ve seen at least two funerals on the show: one girl who they thought had been killed by Oz soon after he became a werewolf (I think we only saw her in the funeral parlor, but still), and some people in the background during Spike’s musical number in “Once More with Feeling.” Less than you’d expect given the body count, but all shows are like that.
7) Good God, I’m a geek.
M. Scott Eiland
A funeral in the background was used as a “gotcha!” device just after Cordelia suffered her impaling via rebar in “Lovers Walk,” just before Buffy and Willow walked into view and revealed that Cordelia had survived. Yes, Joss is an evil bastard.
Richard Bottoms
Want to know who likely gets the Shansu? Check out the commentary on Angel Season 5 episode ‘Destiny’.
Shawn
Not being a big TV watcher, I had never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer until it was in Season five. I was home sick one day, watched one rerun episode and was hooked. I love the humor and dialogue, so seasons 6 and 7 were a bit of a disappointment to me. Very dark and very little humor, and Buffy looked ill, unhappy and anorexic.
As for your questions, I can answer number 5. The Romeo and Juliet theme (star crossed lovers) is in almost every tv series. It’s a common plot device to keep viewers interested. People like the courtship and the chase. Once the chase is over, viewers lose interest so the relationship has to end, usually badly. Movie main character romances can have happy endings but tv series main character romances rarely do. Think of Jack Bauer in 24. Poor slob can’t keep a girl to save his life.
Harley
Scott, almost forgot about the funeral gotcha. A great, funny moment. And yeah, he’s evil.
Seasons Six and Seven were undercut by the Less Joss, More Marni problem. This worked out okay for fans of Firefly. Not so much for fans of Buffy.
And yeah, some disagreed and felt it was unfair to Ms. Noxon. At least until they sat thru a couple eps of Point Pleasant.
physics geek
1) Because no one believes that a skinny little 5 foot nothing girl can whip their ass, even after watching her take out 100 monsters/men in front of them
2) Because they’d look silly doing the cha-cha. Seriously though, I try not to think about this one too much.
3) People in general ignore and forget things that don’t fit into their myopic worldview. Since monsters can’t exist, obviously they don’t. Ditto for the monster created mayhem.
4) I don’t understand why anyone would walk into dark alleys at night. I stay out of them in my city and, as far as I know, there aren’t any vampires roaming around.
5) Whedon didn’t invent the star-crossed lovers theme, but he’s certainly uses it like he did. Sort of like his on series secret sauce. Got a little tedious with the 4th repetition.
6) The Sunnydale powers that be are corrupt.
Apparently Whedon considers funerals boring.
People don’t believe in vampires; ergo, cremation is not necessary. See also #3
physics geek
1) Because no one believes that a skinny little 5 foot nothing girl can whip their ass, even after watching her take out 100 monsters/men in front of them
2) Because they’d look silly doing the cha-cha. Seriously though, I try not to think about this one too much.
3) People in general ignore and forget things that don’t fit into their myopic worldview. Since monsters can’t exist, obviously they don’t. Ditto for the monster created mayhem.
4) I don’t understand why anyone would walk into dark alleys at night. I stay out of them in my city and, as far as I know, there aren’t any vampires roaming around.
5) Whedon didn’t invent the star-crossed lovers theme, but he’s certainly uses it like he did. Sort of like his on series secret sauce. Got a little tedious with the 4th repetition.
6) The Sunnydale powers that be are corrupt.
Apparently Whedon considers funerals boring.
People don’t believe in vampires; ergo, cremation is not necessary. See also #3
NYCmoderate
I have an answer only to #3, which is this: check your Hitchhiker’s Guide, page 334 in the version youlinked to last week. *ahem*
“An S.E.P.,” he said, “is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what S.E.P. means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out; it’s like a blind spot…”