Best Present Ever
I have a confession.
I love how many people have commented on the header image of Buffy and Faith!
Poor John, always having to clarify that it’s mine and not his. I have no idea if you were ever into Buffy, John, or, for that matter, even like Whedon’s work but you should totally find a way to work Buffy into your images from this point forward! (I kid, I kid! Sorta.)
To think, I almost didn’t include it. It’s a photo I took at Comic-Con one year but, because of the way it had to be cropped, that’s not obvious. It kinda looks like a scan of the artwork itself, no? I didn’t want it to look like I was taking credit for the art so I was hesitant about using it. But in the end I wanted the Buffy/Comic-Con aspect of my life represented so I sent it along figuring John would say something if he didn’t feel comfortable with it.
And since it is the one picture everyone seems to notice, it seems like a nice place to end.
I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the very beginning. It was early 1997 and I was living on my own for the first time, in a strange city and miles from any one I knew. Buffy was right up my alley in many ways but mostly because here was a TV character going through a similar situation (moving to a new place, not knowing anyone). I ate it up.
For a long time, my Buffy affair was just between me and my TV. And despite my time online (I was an mIRC junkie in my early college years) it wasn’t until near the very end of the show’s run that
I really got into the BtVS fandom. I was much more involved in that for most of Angel’s run. But it was what planted the seeds for the TV blogging that was to come. In a way, it’s ultimately responsible for almost all of the online friends who are now good friends offline. Especially Just Jody from Canada who has become one of the people I treasure most in life.
If you want to know why I’m so addicted to the Internet and blogging and Twitter, that’s why. Because it connects me to all of you. This opportunity for friendships I might otherwise never had is invaluable. And it may be giving one TV show too much credit to say it’s the reason I’m the person I am today but it is what initially drew me out of my shell and compelled me to seek out like minded souls. So, yeah, she kinda holds a special place in my heart.
Besides, the reason Buffy became The Slayer instead of just another slayer in a line of slayers is thanks to the people in her life, the connections she was able to make and the relationships she forged. You could say it’s a lesson I’ve taken to heart.
“Okay, we stick together, then everything should be fine. Everybody ready? Let’s do this.”
And now that I’ve let my innermost crazy fangirl show, how about some favorite quotes? Although, let’s be honest, Buffy fans know there’s no way to narrow it down to just a few. I’m just gonna randomly select a few of mine and you give me some of yours in the comments, ok?
- “To read makes our speaking English good.” (Xander, 1×08)
- “I mock you with my monkey pants!” (Oz, 2×10)
- “Sometimes when I’m sitting in class… You know, I’m not thinking about class, ’cause that would never happen. I think about kissing you. And it’s like everything stops. It’s like, it’s like freeze frame. Willow kissage.” (Oz, 2×14)
- “Bottom line is, even if you see ‘em coming, you’re not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can’t help that. It’s what you do afterwards that counts. That’s when you find out who you are.” (Whistler, 2×21)
- “…and hootenanny, well, it’s chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny.” (Oz, 3×01)
- “You know what? I was wrong. You are an idiot. My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it’s not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they’re too busy with their own. The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone. If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It’s not. It’s deafening.” (Buffy, 3×18)
- “Big overture. Little show.” (Xander, 4×04)
- “That’s insane troll logic.” (Xander, 5×11)
- “Thank god we’re hot chicks with superpowers.” (Faith, 7×21)

Pauline on 09 Feb 2010 at 10:06 am #
Hey Rae…
I knew there was a reason I liked you!
I too belonged to an online buffy community that has since morphed into a Lost community. I met some amazing people two who’ve come out to CA from back east to visit me. And one whom I talk to on the phone every week. And the show… well, it was groundbreaking, Hilarious, Touching and exciting. What more could one ask for.
Here are my quotes. I have so many favorites but I chose to focus on my love for the Nerd Trio who were brilliantly written as both dastardly and sympathetic… both genius and blundering. They were complex and by some, underrated I think. I prefer them as the Big Bad over several other seasons… (um, The First anyone?)
Andrew: I just hope she solves it faster than Data did on the ep of TNG where the Enterprise kept blowing up.
Warren Meers: Or-or Mulder, in that X-Files where the bank kept exploding.
Andrew: Scully wants me so bad.
Andrew: Timothy Dalton should get an Oscar and beat Sean Connery over the head with it!
Jonathan: I really miss it. Time goes by and everything drops away. All the cruelty, all the pain, all the humiliation, it all washes away. I miss my friends. I miss my enemies. I miss the people I talked to every day. I miss the people who never knew I existed. I miss ‘em all. I wanna talk to them, you know? I wanna find out how they’re doing. I-I wanna know what’s going on in their lives.
Andrew: You know what? They don’t wanna talk to you. All those people you just mentioned, not one of them is sitting around going, “I wonder what Jonathan’s up to right now.” Not one of them cares about you.
Jonathan: Well, I still care about them. That’s why I’m here.
Jonathan: Desde abajo te devora.
Andrew: “It eats you, starting with your bottom.”
Jonathan: Gonna make it right.
Andrew: We’re outlaws with hearts of gold.
Jeans on 09 Feb 2010 at 11:18 am #
omg omg omg I love that you devoted a whole post to Buffy. I am BEYOND excited. I am sort of crazily bouncing up and down in my office chair right now. Your fave quotes should get together with my favorite quotes and sit a spell.
Think you can come up with a list of 10 favorite episodes? (I love asking BtVS fans that question.)
I was with Buffy since the beginning too. I like to say that X-Files was really what started fandom with me but Buffy was really where it became a Real Thing. The weirdest thing is that for the majority of Buffy’s lifespan, I really wasn’t all that active on the internet. Pft, blogs? So in a way, via organizedfangirling and my own tumblr, I feel like I frequently launch into these huge long speeches/pic spams of Whedonverse to make up for lost time in a way. Haha.
Oz’s lines make up a lot of my favorites. Trying to organize some sort of list of favorites is too much for me right now. I’ll be back.
Jody on 09 Feb 2010 at 2:22 pm #
I approve of this post!! (Except for maybe that picture!)
I treasure Buffy for so many reasons… the hours of entertainment (that lead into many more hours with Angel, Firefly, Dr. H & Dollhouse), the characters I STILL love, the laughter and the tears, for bringing me to the online world, and most of all for bringing me YOU (Rae)!
My favorite quotes are often the one liners, but here’s a few:
Buffy: Sure. We saved the world, I say we party. I mean, I got all pretty.
Buffy: I’ll be OK. OK, or better. It’s like my guarantee.
Xander: A slayer, huh? I knew this ‘I’m the only one. I’m the only one’ thing was just an attention-getter!
Xander: Can I be blind, too?
Willow: Bored now.
Willow: Resolve face.
Angel: Well, I guess that qualifies as happy to see me.
Angel: You know, I started it. The whole having a soul. Before it was all the cool new thing.
Catherine on 09 Feb 2010 at 5:51 pm #
I guess I outed myself as a fan of “Buffy” on your first posting here, Rae, didn’t I? So thanks for this extra post about the show. Still love it!
Of course I am a fan of the whole Whedonverse, even “Dollhouse” was pretty damn good in season 2.
@John: You should at least know “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”! I mean, you are preparing a web series (at least that’s what I have understood), so this one was groundbreaking two years ago!
Unfortunately I can’t give any favorite quotes of the show here. Might be because I only watched in German, yet. Shame on me…
But every now and then one of the songs from the musical episode is stuck in my head. Don’t know why..
Kyle on 09 Feb 2010 at 6:05 pm #
I love this show! I started watching Buffy late–I think around the 3rd-4th season–but at the same time I was watching the the new episodes, I was quickly catching up via my twin brother’s video tapes (remember those?). I remember Buffy was one of the first things I ever recorded on my original TiVo.
I think I started regularly watching Angel with season 3–before that I pretty much just watched the crossover episodes.
I was recently motivated by your cohort Jason “The TV Aholic”‘s plan to watch all of Buffy/Angel that I had started to do the same. I am now through Buffy 6×08 and Angel 3×08–I forgot just how great Buffy is! Some of my favorites episodes are “Halloween”, “Hush” and “Tabula Rasa”. The “Once More With Feeling” songs have continued to bounce around in my head for the past few days.
Rose on 09 Feb 2010 at 9:54 pm #
Wae Wee, WTfooey are you talking about! I have never seen Buffy aka BtVS, but I thought I was your best present ever!!
John Cabrera on 10 Feb 2010 at 1:47 am #
One of the things I love about this post is how it kind of feels like I’m hosting a birthday party at the site here for you. Or maybe not hosting it, but it’s being throw at my place. And it’s cool how some of your friends from other parts of the web are popping by to celebrate.
I’m not a Buffy guy. I could see myself getting into the show, but back when it started, my head wasn’t really in serialized television. I love Whedon’s writing. And yes, Catherine, I’m a big fan of Dr. Horrible, for all the reasons you brought up. I also really fell in love with his writing while reading Astonishing… which reminded me so much of what I loved about my jr. high and high school years of collecting x-men.
Anyway, I hope you had a great birthday Rae! Glad I could be a part of the celebration in a sense.
Rae on 10 Feb 2010 at 5:56 am #
@Rose: Well, unless Mom was predicting she’d eventually have me and therefore just preemptively had you as a present to me, I’m not sure you count as a present. You can be the best thing in my life (but don’t tell Carol, Rita, or Mary I said that) without being the best present ever.
Erik on 10 Feb 2010 at 11:47 am #
RAE: Great post. Anya hasn’t gotten any love in this comment thread, I would say pretty much every line of hers is my favorite. (Hello, “his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe.”) And I’m totally a Spike-shipper.
JOHN: You have seriously missed out and it’s actually really exciting and makes me totally jealous because the whole series is out there waiting to be consumed by you. Find about a hundred hours and watch it! You will love it. You really, really will. I’m probably gonna get flack for saying this, but I don’t think the first season is very good (lots of good moments, but the show’s still finding its way and isn’t a cohesive whole yet). But once you get through season 1, the 2nd and 3rd seasons are so wonderful. Funny, sad, awesome.
John Cabrera on 10 Feb 2010 at 5:09 pm #
Okay, I’m putting Buffy S1 in my Netflix Queue. I feel like I need to join the love.
Rae on 10 Feb 2010 at 6:06 pm #
@Pauline: You may be the first person I’ve heard who prefers the Nerd Trio as the Big Bad! I liked them a lot more than others but the Mayor is my fave BB. I love all those quotes though. “We’re outlaws with hearts of gold.” Kills me!
Rae on 10 Feb 2010 at 6:14 pm #
@Jeans: Ha! I knew you’d like it!
Oooh… ok, umm.
I’m not ranking them so ignore the numbers but here’s my list:
1. Hush
2. Something Blue
3. Anne
4. Checkpoint ?
5. Becoming Part 1 & 2
6. Graduation Part 1 & 2
7. The Wish
8. The Gift
9. Once More With Feeling
10. Showtime
Yeah, yeah, I totally cheated with those Parts 1 & 2. And, grrrr!, I just realized Innocence and The Body are missing. And The Zeppo. And Doppelgangland!! UGH.You’re torturing me, Jeans.
I’m right there with you with Oz lines. I forced myself to pick a few others because I kept thinking of things Oz had said. Ha.
Rae on 10 Feb 2010 at 6:16 pm #
(Ignore that question mark… I was trying to indicate an episode I’d switch out for another but then I remembered Buffy confronting the Council again and I had to leave it there.)
Rae on 10 Feb 2010 at 6:20 pm #
@Jody: Hahaha. Sorry. I was gonna use our photo from Epcot but we’re wearing our Whedon shirts in that one!
And, you are totally CM. I had Xander’s blind comment and both of Willow’s two word quotes on my list and then changed them. (Also, I was totally gonna use “Resolve Face” as a subject for my Resolve post there and then didn’t.)
@Catherine: Yes, you did! But I love it. I’m also a fan of the entire Whendonverse. Just ask Jody, I’ve got 3 copies of Serenity and I can’t even tell you why I felt the need to have them all.
The songs are addicted, that’s why! I had to resist using those as my quotes.
Rae on 10 Feb 2010 at 6:25 pm #
@Kyle: Hey, that’s how Jody watched it too! We were just talking about that when she was here a couple weekends ago.
What’d you think of the early Angel episodes now that you’ve gone back and watched those? I still have a bunch in early S2 I don’t really care for but my enjoyment of S1 is so much stronger now than it was when I watched it live.
Oh, crap, “Halloween” totally belongs on my list of faves! I do love “Tabula Rasa” too… especially when they open the door and we see everyone’s screaming faces.
Rae on 10 Feb 2010 at 6:34 pm #
@John: I have to admit, I’m impressed… of the birthday gatherings I had this year, yours was the only one that managed to attract a member of my family. (I actually wondered how the heck she found the post until you reblogged my Tumblr link to it and I remembered I sent her the link to my Tumblr post about her yesterday. Mystery solved!)
I bet you’d zoom through the show. As Erik says, S1 is not the strongest but it’s short so you get through it pretty quickly on DVD and it does set up stuff that continues to come up all the way through season 7.
I actually think you might like Angel even more than Buffy. But watch both so you get the crossover references and jokes.
I did, by the way. Have a great birthday that is. Thanks for helping making it that way!
Rae on 10 Feb 2010 at 6:46 pm #
@Erik: Thanks! Haha. Here’s the funny thing, that Anya line was on my list but then I kept wanting to more of the song so I nixed it. But here are some of my favorite Anya quotes just to make it up to you:
“I can’t stop thinking about you. Sometimes in my dreams, you’re all naked.”
“I like you. You’re funny, and you’re nicely shaped. And frankly, it’s ludicrous to have these interlocking bodies and not… interlock. Please remove your clothing now.”
“It’s a ritual sacrifice, with pie.”
“Yes, we’ve enjoyed spanking.”
“It’s possible that he’s in the land of perpetual Wednesday … or the crazy melty land … or, you know, the world without shrimp.”
I’m pretty indifferent about the various relationships on Buffy. As in, I like them all not just one.
Jeans on 11 Feb 2010 at 1:43 pm #
Haha, because I spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about this, and because this has been a list sitting in my drafts folder for organizedfangirling for MONTHS, I already have a Top 10 list ready to go!
10. Restless
9. Ted
8. The Prom
7. Graduation, Parts I & II
6. The Gift
5. Hush
4. Innocence
3. Becoming, Parts I & II
2. OMWF
1. The Body
But the second half of this list gets swapped with other episodes that I remember I love for random reasons and the order gets switched up a bit. But this is a fair snapshot of my fave eps.
Buffy was on MTV yesterday morning – which bewildered and thrilled me. It was the best Snow Day ever! And it was Doppelgangland! And I lol’ed pretty hard when Real Willow said, “I think I’m kinda gay,” about VampWillow. So that’s up there on the list of favorite lines. And allow me to direct you to this for another favorite line/speech/scene/moment. Haha.
http://adnauseam.tumblr.com/post/80009944/god-i-miss-buffy
dumptruckmolly on 13 Feb 2010 at 5:19 pm #
I love Buffy! I’m so happy to see this on here!
Some of my absolute favorite episodes are:
Innocence
Passion
I Only Have Eyes For You
Becoming, Part Two
The Prom
Family
Fool for Love
The Gift
Bargaining
Once More, With Feeling (obviously)
Seeing Red
Villains
Two to Go
Grave
Selfless
Conversations with Dead People
Storyteller
Lies My Parents Told Me
Dirty Girls
Touched
End of Days
Chosen
The Body is an amazing episode, but it’s too painful for me to rewatch as much as I’ve rewatched the rest of the series!
I can’t really think of quotes. But one of my favorite things is the way Buffy never understands what Giles is saying and always has a funny way of repeating what he’s said.
Buffy and Angel are two of my all time favorite shows, though sometimes I will say that LOST is the greatest show ever made. But, nothing can ever compare to the beauty and pure awesome that is the Buffy-verse!