In the fourth episode of the second season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Xander falls in love with a mummy. It’s both just as bad and way better than that sounds. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Buffy.
The Official “Inca Mummy Girl” Score Card
- The idea that because Sunnydale High is hosting foreign exchange students, you should go to a museum: -10 points
- The realistic looking mummy: 15 points
- Xander still thinking it’s acceptable to act openly jealous around Buffy anytime she mentions she will be spending any amount of time with a boy: -25 points
- The mummy sucking the life out of Rodney and it being to goddamn creepy: 20 points
- Everyone’s increasingly bizarre behavior about foreign exchange students, as if they’re aliens from another planet: -10 points.
- “Oh, I know this one! ‘Slaying entails certain sacrifices, blah blah bliddy blah, I’m so stuffy, give me a scone.'”: 1,000 points.
- “One day I’m gonna live in a town where evil curses are just generally ruled out without even saying.” 25 points.
- Using braces on a mummy and having it not be the worst thing ever: 5 points.
- Xander immediately hitting on Ampata: -150 points.
- The episode at least having it be mutual and consensual: 50 points.
- Any character thinking that once you see a Latina, you should speak Spanish to them or assume they can’t speak English: -500 points.
- The very first appearance of the bodyguard and its unintentional hilarity: 100 points.
- The fact that no one seemed at all concerned that a man in a blouse hacked at them with a sword and then vanished: 100 points.
- The fact that shit in Sunnydale is so strange that it’s entirely believable that a man in a blouse with a sword is not alarming to the group: 500 points.
- The use of Ampata in a way that does not demonize her actions, but instead paints her as a complicated character who was unjustly sacrificed and just wants to have a real life: 1,000 points.
- Using that same story to parallel the life of Buffy, who is the same age and was forced into a role by other people and is struggling for the same thing: 1,000 points.
- Seth Green: 1,000 points.
- Breaking Willow’s heart onscreen: 0 points, only because I want to award -1,000,000 because I love Willow and how dare you, and because I want to award +1,000,000 for including a story line that forces her to face the fact that she isn’t going to get Xander to fall in love with her.
- “Well, you know, I have a choice. I can spend my life waiting for Xander to go out with every other girl in the world until he notices me, or I can just get on with my life.” “Good for you.” “Well, I didn’t choose yet.” 500 points.
- The idea that to celebrate other cultures, a bunch of white people should dress up as caricatures of those other cultures, fostering stereotypes in the process: -5,000 points.
- The fact that this idea was then executed on television without a single negative voice saying HEY YOU SHOULD REALLY NOT DO THIS AT ALL: -5,000 points.
- Willow choosing to dress in a parka: 50 points.
- The show setting up the idea that Oz things Willow is cute: 2,500 points.
- The entire scene with Xander and Ampata in that dark room, complete with Xander’s first real emotional kiss, and Ampata caring so much about Xander that she refuses to kill him, and all of the sudden feels I got from how well this was filmed and how sad I was that someone who mutually appreciated and liked Xander in the way he felt about her could never be in a relationship with him: 2,500 pointsÂ
- Xander telling Ampata that he would rather die than lose Willow as a friend: 500 points.
- The image of Ampata rapidly turning into a mummy and breaking apart in Xander’s arms: I can’t give this points or take away points because it still creeps me out.
- A visual and textual reference to the Man With No Name trilogy: 100 points.
- The general treatment of race in “Inca Mummy Girl”: -500 points.
- The general treatment of character development in “Inca Mummy Girl”: 260 points.
Final Score: 0 points. I felt good things, I felt bad things, and when you get right down to it, I am so conflicted in my sensations of joy and anger that they cancel one another out.
Xander: My dad tried to sell me to some Armenians once.
Ouch!
The Xander homelife clues so far are:
1 – the possibility of being physically abused by one of his parents ( see his comment to Buffy in Nightmares.)
2 – His mom doesn’t know how to cook. ( see him and Willow joking about it in Out of Mind Out of Sight )
3 – His father tried to sell him to some Armenians. ( see this episode )
V'ir orra erjngpuvat Ohssl naq whfg svavfurq gur frnfba sbhe svanyr…
Vf vg bxnl vs V gubhtug gung Knaqre'f qnq orengvat uvz jnf zber ubeevoyr guna gur Svefg Fynlre grnevat bhg uvf urneg? Rfcrpvnyyl fvapr ur GHEARQ VAGB ure nf fur evccrq vg bhg?
Naq abj V unir gb svtug gur hetr gb znxr n wbxr nobhg Knaqre nyjnlf trggvat uvf urneg oebxra ol tveyf…
What was the comment in Nightmares?
Buffy: I just can't believe a kiddie league coach would do something
like that.
Xander: Well, you obviously haven't played kiddie league. I'm surprised
it wasn't one of the parents.
Seems accurate.
Svefg nccrnenapr bs Wbanguna! WBANGUNA WBANGUNA WBANGUNA! Lbh ornhgvshy crefba, Wbanguna, V ybir lbh fb zhpu!
Oh, and there’s also a plot about a life-sucking mummy and some beautifully written character development for Xander and Willow being adorable and Seth Green’s creepy goatee and who cares because WBANGUNA!
V tbggn pbatenghyngr gung zhzzl’f gnfgr va zra. Be ivpgvzf. Jungrire. Whfg ybbx ng uvz. Ur bbmrf njxjneq, areql znpuvfzb.
Unir lbh frra gur fhecevfvatyl ragregnvavat Flqarl Juvgr? Orpnhfr Qnaal Fgebat vf va vg (ur cynlf gur fb-pnyyrq “qnex areq,” naq vf irel uvynevbhf!
I have not seen that, but now I must. Thank you for that.
BZT V ybir Qnaal Fgebat fb zhpu vg vf evqvphybhf. Rfcrpvnyyl nf Qblyr va Tvyzber Tveyf. Naq gura ur ghearq hc ba Znq Zra naq V jnf nyy BZT WBANGUNA/QBLYR VF VA GUR 60’F ABJ YVSR VF NZNMVAT. V cersre gb vzntvar gung uvf Znq Zra punenpgre vf Wbanguna naq Qblyr’f tenaqsngure naq gur gjb punenpgref ner pbhfvaf. ORPNHFR ZL ZVAQ VF JRVEQ.
rot13 because Wbanguna unfa'g orra anzrq lrg.
I love mixing canons like that. Like how Dana from Sports Night quit her job and moved to Wisteria Lane to become a Desperate Housewife.
This is spoilery, I'm deleting it.
🙁 Sorry.
V jvfu Wbanguna unq orra gur "erqrrzrq" bar va frnfba frira engure guna Naqerj. V qba'g ungr Naqerj ohg V guvax Wbanguna . . . rnearq vg zber? Uvf punenpgre tbg zber nggragvba naq zber qrirybczrag bire gur pbhefr bs gur frevrf. Nygubhtu, V qvq ybir gur fprar va juvpu Ohssl ubyqf Naqerj bire gur Uryyzbhgu naq znxrf uvz pbasebag jung ur qvq gb Wbanguna. V qba'g xabj, V whfg guvax vg jbhyq unir orra na vagrerfgvat qverpgvba gb tb va. Be znlor V'z whfg ovnfrq orpnhfr V ybir gur npgbe va Tvyzber Tveyf.
"Be znlor V'z whfg ovnfrq orpnhfr V ybir gur npgbe va Tvyzber Tveyf."
V xabj, V jnf fb rkpvgrq gung V fubhgrq "Qblyr!" Ur naq Bm ner gur uvtuyvtugf bs guvf rcvfbqr.
V nyjnlf tbg pbashfrq nobhg uvf punenpgre va Tvyzber Tveyf orpnhfr V ybirq Qblyr va Natry naq gb unir nyy gubfr anzrf zvkrq hc… vg'f yvxr Qrna va Tvyzber Tveyf if. Fhcreangheny nyy bire ntnva.
V qba'g jngpu Fhcreangheny, ohg V xabj gung vg'f tbvat gb gnxr n juvyr sbe zr gb abg guvax bs Cnqryrpxv nf gur Qrna va gung fubj jura Znex trgf gb vg.
Lrnu, V nyjnlf jnag gb gryy uvz, "Lbh'er abg Qblyr. Lbh'er Wbanguna."
V qhaab, Wbannguna'f ynfg pbairefngvba jvgu Naqerj fubjrq gung ur'q zngherq fvtavsvpnagyl naq birepbzr gur perrcvat vasrevbevgl pbzcyrk gung unq qevira uvf punenpgre hc gvy gura. V gubhtug vg jnf n gbhpuvat qrabhzrag sbe uvf punenpgre gung znqr uvf qrngu frpbaqf yngre gung zhpu zber gentvp.
Lrnu, Wbanguna'f fgbel jnf qbar. Gurer jnfa'g nalguvat ryfr gurer. Naqerj jnf n jnl orggre pubvpr gb xrrc nebhaq va frnfba frira
V nterr! V zrna, V jnf fb irel fnq jura Wbanguna qvrq, ohg va ergebfcrpg V ernyyl ernyyl rawblrq Naqerj'f punenpgre nep; ur cebonoyl ghearq bhg gb or zl snibevgr bs gur guerr va gur… jnf vg Gevavgl? Vg'f orra njuvyr.
Vg'f Gebvxn.
Lrc. Gung qrngu jnf n Wbff Jurqba Fcrpvny.
V qba'g guvax gurl pbhyq unir qbar jung gurl qvq jvgu Naqerj jvgu Wbanguna, gubhtu. Orpnhfr Wbanguna QVQ tebj, naq V qba'g guvax V pna frr uvz xvyyvat Naqerj orpnhfr Svefg!Jneera gbyq uvz gb. Naqerj vf n zhpu jrnxre crefba ng gung cbvag, naq zhpu zber va Jneera'f guenyy, naq fb zhpu zber gur bar jub'f jvyyvat gb qb gung.
V nterr, V yvxr Wbanguna orggre, ohg gung cneg bs gur cybg jbhyqa'g znxr nal frafr gur bgure jnl nebhaq – Wbanguna nyernql yrnearq gur yrffbaf gung Naqerj arrqf gb yrnea.
Hell yes, Wbanguna love!
Npghnyyl, ur'f va ng yrnfg n pbhcyr bs F1 rcvfbqrf gbb – na rkgen jub qrirybcrq n punenpgre nep bs uvf bja, yvxr Unezbal. Ubj pbby vf gung?
Vf ur? V gubhtug guvf jnf uvf svefg nccrnenapr?
Ab, ur jnf va gur hanverq cvybg naq V guvax ur'f va fbzr bs gur fpubby fubgf va JGGU/GU. Gurl xrcg ba hfvat uvz nf bar bs gur "onpxtebhaq" fghqragf, nf gurl qvq Unezbal, gvyy gurl unq n arrq sbe uvz gb fcrnx – guvf vf gur svefg gvzr ur fcrnxf be unf n anzr, gubhtu.
OZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ OZ OZ OZ. These are my feelings about this episode, essentially. (What, you Spike fans got to have your flails yesterday, I get my Oz flails today!)
Naq bxnl, Jvyybj naq Gnen unir cerggl zhpu gur orfg eryngvbafuvc ba gur fubj, ohg lbh jvyy arire fgbc zr ybivat Jvyybj naq Bm *qenjf urnegf*
(Um… is something up with IntenseDebate?)
V fuvc Bm nyzbfg rkpyhfviryl jvgu zr.
Okay, it's back to normal now, and that was me. Weird.
YEAH THAT WAS SUPER WEIRD.
It's fine now!
Yeah, it was screwed up for a while, but magically fixed itself just after 4 o'clock. It's like intensedebate ~knows~ it would be cruel to be down for us.
I tend to flail about the introduction of both Spike and Oz. No wonder I usually skip the first season and go straight to the second on rewatches!
And I agree with your rot13 comment as well.
V ybir obgu Jvyybj/Bm naq Jvyybj/Gnen. Zbfgyl orpnhfr V ybir Bm naq Gnen (jub vf rnfvyl bar bs zl snibhevgr punenpgref) fb zhpu.
I've had Oz dreams AND Seth Green dreams. I LOVE THIS MAN!
–OZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ OZ OZ OZ. These are my feelings about this episode, essentially. (What, you Spike fans got to have your flails yesterday, I get my Oz flails today!)
This. So very This.
I think the idea of having students research cultures and come up with a respectable matching outfit is kind of a neat idea. And I think the idea of students caricaturizing it due to laziness and lack of research sucks but is somewhat realistic of what would happen, with the few select students that would approach it the way they should.
Also, again, seconding the OZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Some of us Spike fans are also hardcore Oz fans! Bs pbhefr, Jvyybj naq Gnen ner zl zbfg snibevgr pbhcyr rire, ohg V qba'g pner! My perfect imagined world is one where Oz is real and has somehow, magically turned gay and wants to run away with me.
Oh, I love Spike, too I was just more excited for Oz because of reasons 😀 Oh man, we share the same fantasy world. <3OZ<3
It's a pretty awesome fantasy world to live in. I suppose I'm not opposed to sharing Fantasy Oz with you. Do I get extra points for naming my cat after him?
Yeah, my "rewatch" of this episode consisted mainly of fast-forwarding through most of the episode, and only watching the portions where Oz was introduced– even if the scene was only 5 seconds long.
I love Oz and Seth Green will never not be awesome (even/especially in super random roles like Can't Hardly Wait.)
Oh God, Can't Hardly Wait. I don't even know why I saw it (maybe someone else wanted to go?) but I did. It was actually rather enjoyable.
I've seen that movie way too many times.
Why y'all gotta waste my flava? Damn!
I love Oz so very much! Vg znqr zr pbasyvpgrq jura gur Jvyybj/Gnen fgnegrq (naq n ohapu bs zl sevraqf fgnegrq jngpuvat orpnhfr bs vg), orpnhfr ba bar unaq, lnl, yrfovnaf ba zl GI! Ba gur bgure unaq, V zvff Bm!
Mark, I felt a lot like you while rewatching this episode last night. Back when I watched it before, I had never heard of cultural appropriation and probably did a lot of unintentionally racist things. Now that I know more, I found myself cringing a lot during the episode. However, that aside, from a character development standpoint, the episode was REALLY GREAT. I especially loved Willow’s realization that she had a choice when it came to Xander, which I really loved considering so many shows have girls that feel like they need to get the guy AT ANY COST. Maybe it’s because I grew up watching soap operas (why would you let me do that MOM), where getting the guy at any cost is like the ENTIRE point, but I really appreciated not seeing that here.
This is an episode I skipped when re-watching the series with my mom. Boring and stupid, with the only highlight being the introduction of Oz. BECAUSE HE’S AWESOME.
FOREVER UPVOTING OZ.
Bu uv gurer WBANGUNA!
Indeed! Oh my God, V erzrzore erjngpuvat guvf naq V tbg nyy rkpvgrq-yvxr, fubhgvat "WBANGUNA!" ercrngrqyl gb ab bar va cnegvphyne. Ur jnf GURER, gung rneyl juvpu V qvqa'g erzrzore uvz orvat, naq ur unq n YVAR, naq vg'f fb GENTVP rirelguvat orpnhfr ur pbhyq unir qvrq gurer naq V'z fb tynq ur qvqa'g, ohg vg jnf nyy orpnhfr ur gubhtug ur jbhyq unir orra xvffrq ol guvf ubg tvey naq uvf yvsr vf n gentrql. V sernxvat ybir Wbanguna! *synvyf*
… lrnu, V'z n Wbanguna snatvey. Npghnyyl, V cerggl zhpu nz Wbanguna. Jryy, ncneg sebz gur zntvp.
Otherwise… Xander sacrificing himself for Willow (well, sort of anyway) was cute. Oz is Awesome. The there's not much to say.
V ybir uvf anzr va EBG13 – gur Htnaqna rkpunatr fghqrag, creuncf?
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
That is all. Except that Willow in her parka might be the cutest thing ever.
Bm/Frgu Terra Nccerpvngvba Guernq- ur jnf gbgnyyl zl svefg ovt GI pehfu. Ln'yy pna xrrc Fcvxr, V yvxr gurz gval, tvatre naq fjrrg
Ur jnf zl frpbaq Pryroevgl Pehfu (V fnl pryroevgl vafgrnq bs GI orpnhfr vg fgnegrq jvgu fbzr zbivrf V unq frra uvz va). Zl Svefg jnf Wbanguna Oenaqvf, rirel gvzr V jngpurq FrnDhrfg V gbgnyyl vzntvarq zlfrys ba gur fuvc jvgu gurz… V oevat guvf hc orpnhfr bs gur NJRFBZRARFF gung jnf gur rcvfbqr bs FrnDhrfg gung Frgu Terra jnf ba. :oD
OMG I WAS ON THE JONATHAN BRANDIS TRAIN TOO. I never knew Seth Green was in an ep though!
LRF. LRF SBERIRE. V whfg. Bm vf fb ynvq onpx naq fzneg naq shaal naq fjrrg VYUVZ. Naq V qba'g rira pner, ur vf jnl frkvre guna Fcvxr nf sne nf V'z pbaprearq. Orfg ynpbavp jrerjbys *URNEGF*
I love Spike too, but…yeah, Oz!
V znl unir gbgnyyl pbzcnerq zl rk naq V gb Jvyybj/Bm bapr, orpnhfr V onooyr naq ur jnf nyy dhvrg naq fghss…ohg jr ner abg gbtrgure nalzber juvpu vf fnq. Ohg V jbhyq gbgnyyl qngr Bm (be whfg qb Bm), naq ur'q rira or gnyyre guna zr! Fbzrgvzrf gurer vf n cyhf gb orvat fubeg. :Q
She was really adorable
Oh, Xander, I think I facepalmed every time you were on the screen in this episode. At least you managed to be a decent human in the end and pick your best friend over a mummy. Sorry you don't get cookies.
Willow: Well, you know, I have a choice. I can spend my life waiting for Xander to go out with every other girl in the world until he notices me, or I can just get on with my life.
Buffy: Good for you.
Willow: Well, I didn't choose yet.
Man, did I identify with Willow in this scene. I definitely had a Xander of my own in high school and went through this phase. Nyfb, jul ner lbh cynlvat jvgu n sebt, Jvyybj? Lbh'er greevsvrq bs sebtf! Chg vg qbja naq onpx njnl fybjyl!
Uv Bm! Uv Wbanguna!
I agree that there are good and bad things about this episode. "What he lacks in smarts he makes up in lack of smarts" is a great line. And Willow's heartbreak is painful, but I like the way she handles it and encourages Xander to try to make things work with Ampata. And I wish she hadn't left 2 seconds before Oz introduced himself. But parts of it are also highly difficult to sit through.
Nyfb, jul ner lbh cynlvat jvgu n sebt, Jvyybj? Lbh'er greevsvrq bs sebtf! Chg vg qbja naq onpx njnl fybjyl!
LRF! V abgvprq gung gbb ba erjngpu naq unq cerggl zhpu gur fnzr ernpgvba. Fb, jung'f gur snajnax sbe vg, gura? 🙂
(Fbzrbar V jnf jngpuvat jvgu fhttrfgrq gung fvapr vg'f bayl n fghssrq sebt vg fubhyqa'g or n ovt qrny, ohg V bofreirq gung vs cerfragrq jvgu n ynetr fghssrq fcvqre, V jbhyq cebonoyl ernpg nobhg gur fnzr nf vs V jrer cerfragrq jvgu n ynetr erny bar, fb V'z abg fher gur "vg'f snxr" nethzrag ubyqf jngre. Znlor fur qrirybcrq n srne bs sebtf orgjrra guvf rcvfbqr naq JZY?)
V unir ab vqrn. V pnaabg snajnax guvf bar njnl naq zhfg fvzcyl punyx vg hc gb n snvy ba gur jevgre'f orunys. Gurer'f nyfb n fprar yngre ba jurer Naln *qbrfa'g* sernx bhg ol gur zragvba bs ohaavrf gung ohtf zr. Ohg V guvax vg'f va Fhcrefgne naq pna or rkcynvarq ol Wbanguna'f fcryy.
Snakes make me extremely uncomfortable. Stuffed snakes are cute. Spiders are always creepy.
I almost skipped this episode because I don't really like it, there is some great dialogue (as per usual) and it's worth watching just for the Willow/Oz stuff.
Oh man, Xander… you're always attracted the abnormal girls, but I guess it's nice that for once she doesn't want to kill you.
I agree that there are good and bad things about this episode. "What he lacks in smarts he makes up in lack of smarts" is a great line.
Yeah, even the worst episodes still have classic, quotable dialogue!
These are the things that get me through even the worst episodes. There's always something worth watching
THIS. The dialogue is one of the absolute best things about this show and will never ever die.
–Naq V jvfu fur unqa'g yrsg 2 frpbaqf orsber Bm vagebqhprq uvzfrys. Ohg cnegf bs vg ner nyfb uvtuyl qvssvphyg gb fvg guebhtu.
Ba gur bar unaq… lrf. Ohg ba gur bgure unaq… Gur Unyybjrra pnyyonpx gb "Jub vf gung tvey?!" naq gura gur jnl Jvyybj gheaf naq frrf uvz fvggvat ba gur pbhpu va gur Pbzchgre Pbzcnal'f frg hc va Jung'f Zl Yvar… Pnabcr? <3
Bu V gbgnyyl nterr. V nqber gur jnl gurve syvegngvba cynlf bhg va gur fubj. Ohg ~fcbvyref~
V abgvprq gur sebt guvat gbb! Naq gura V jbaqrerq jul fur qvqa'g unir nal sebt fprarf va "Avtugznerf."
Xander's Love Life Mad Libs
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a ___________________.
Using the Monster Name Generator, I have provided some examples.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Primal Fire Centipede.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Leech Toad.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Perfect Torture Octopus.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be an Astral Chaos Herder.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Puking Gorgon.
Oh, but it gets even better with the Humorous Monster Generator:
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Cosmic Doormat Angel.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Psionic Pigeon.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Snail of the Sacred Mountain.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Shrink-wrapped Apocalypse Cow.
Xander dates a woman who turns out to be a Stellar Chalk Zombie of the Lunchbox.
My favorite is the Snail of the Sacred Mountain. It sounds so majestic, but it's really not.
I think you just won the internet.
The Cosmic Doormat Angel one made me both laugh and cringe because I once saw a fanvid shipping Xander/Angel and it was so very, very terrible and hilarious at the same time.
I…thought you were going to say it was a fanvid shipping Xander/Weeping Angels.
:/
May I bow before your awesome hilarity? Because, yeah, yvxr Jvyybj cbvagf bhg va Fbzrguvat Oyhr, Knaqre'f n frevbhf qrzba zntarg.
Now I'm imagining Angel as a cosmic doormat.
Vfa'g gung n grez gung qrfpevorf rirelbar va nal Wbff Jurqba fubj rire?
Isn't he, though?
I love the Puking Gorgon but the best is definitely Shrink-wrapped Apocalypse Cow!
I love this style of reviews: it's lists AND points; cannot go wrong with that.
Xander, please – enough with how you don't want Buffy to interact with any guys who vaguely have the potential to be someone Buffy likes (with the unwritten 'unless it's me'). Even if it weren't skeevy, it's still boring and used way too much in this episode and this is hardly the first time he's expressed this sentiment. Show, please move on with this? Please? I beg you. Doesn't help that once it's a pretty lady clearly Xander must do a complete 180.
The sf/f trope of real-world cultures, past and present, being all mystical and mysterious and used to dress up one-off stories needs to end. With special emphasis on ending cheesy "ethnic" music. And wow the 'dress up as different cultures' party is a bad idea.
The "humor" trope of speaking slowly and with many gestures towards a person who clearly speaks English well also needs to end. Also done with the the "speaking American" joke. And random fake-foreign-language speech.
Also "white trash" as a general term and concept.
Of note to me is that Buffy uses "gypped" in this episode to mean robbed, and obviously that's just one more gripe of jfc this episode, but Angel specifically made a point to use the term Romani in a previous ep so it would seem someone on the writing team is aware? Maybe?
Willow – oh, I hope you do get on with your life and not wait for Xander. Sure I think she could do better, but also because I fucking hate love triangles and her pining while he is with or pines after someone else is something I'm so not interested in watching.
Basically, even past a blah story, I really don't like this episode.
Only redeeming factor is hey look it's Seth Green!
Anyway, random gif.
<img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/np5lli.gif" alt="Buffy saying to Giles 'blah, blah, bitty blah; I'm so stuffy; give me me a scone' and Giles dead-pan remarking 'It's as if you know me.'">
(Do I get points for gif-ing this?)
Damn limiting upvote button only letting me give one point. Have all the metaphorical points I can give.
No. But you win two and a quarter Internets.
Yes, yes you do. <3 I love your comments as usual and then the gif just shoots it into the stratosphere.
Always points for gifs.
And here are the cookies I owe you from your awesome Angel's-hilarious-face gif. I baked, ate, and enjoyed them in your honor.
Ooh, yummy!
Seth Green/hischaracters do tend to appreciate things as they should be appreciated.
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__BgIrAtMG2g/TLeMgKU79LI/AAAAAAAAAgM/JVeI-HFWc-w/s400/seth+green.jpg" />
It's PINKIE PIE! \o/
OH MY GOD wherever he is is where I want to be. PINKY PIE.
*new wallpaper*
I like how Twilight Sparkle is photobombing them.
Seth Green is so great. I love how he does random stuff like appearing in Weird Al videos with a collection of action figures.
I shrieked. Loudly. xD
Hmm, maybe they didn't where "gypped" comes from? 'Cause I sure didn't, up until I read your comment, and then I went "ohhhhh". This is where I'd pledge to never use that word again if it was a word I ever used anyway.
The same thought crossed my mind. It seems obvious once you know, but… I certainly didn't realize it back in 1997, and I'm certain that I used it as a teen, on probably quite a few occasions. Though, the point that they had used the term "Romani" was meant, I think, to imply that the writers possibly were aware enough to also know of "gypped"'s racist origin. Who can say?
I knew to use the term "Romani" like a decade before I knew "gypped" wasn't spelled with a 'j' much less what the origin was. (both of which I learned, specifically, just now from these comments).
Legitimately just realized where "gypped" comes from. Maybe it's because I've never noticed it written anywhere? In my head it's like "jipped," though now that I think about it, that makes no sense. It's not a word I use anymore, but that's just because it fell out of vogue, and i stopped thinking about it. Back in the 90s, I used "gypped" all the time.
^ This exactly.
Best redeeming moment of the episode in a neat little gif. You are my god.
Oh god I totally forgot how Buffy is a scone bigot.
And now I am wondering if she's a jam first or cream first person.
Is it just me who thinks Giles' matter of fact self-deprecation is almost funnier than what Buffy says?
I love the way they play off each other! Some of my favourite scenes in the show so far have been conversations with Buffy and Giles. It's really quite sweet, she's always poking fun at him and he's always nagging her, but they have a nice mentor/student thing going on.
I don't understand what Buffy has against scones 🙁
The love triangle is like…I don't even know. Oz likes Willow likes Xander likes Buffy likes Angel, who actually also likes Buffy but there are issues, and Cordelia also likes Angel. So it's like…the epitome of high school, which is…yeah.
Oh look! Giles and Jenny actually like each other and no one else is crushing on either of them (so far as we know)! Let's all pay attention to the cute couple instead of the high school drama. *nods*
YAY Giles and Jenny ftw. :D:D:D
As with every show I've ever watched I find it's always the couple I'm supposed to care less about that I really love.
Or put simply, I almost always ship beta couples. Heck, even when I was a kid reading Harry Potter, I shipped Lupin/Tonks far more than I cared about any of the main characters. Of course, then they died, which was poo, but that's the risk you take shipping beta. :/
This episode. Uh. I'm going to illustrate some of my reactions via pictures. The cast of Toy Story shall represent my feelings.
Every time Xander opens his mouth in this episode, I had this reaction:
<img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/4jvxy0.gif"/>
The racism in the episode made me look all judgy at the writers, like so:
<img src="http://i39.tinypic.com/33y1i5x.gif"/>
And my overall reaction to the episode in full can best be summed up by Woody here:
<img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/ankgmp.gif"/>
Other stuff:
– How the fuck did they get into the museum at night and take that bit of plate out of there??? WTF?
– About the only thing I actually enjoyed was looking at the actress who portrayed our titular mummy. She is pretty beautiful.
– I love museums and mummy exhibits.
– "Stuffed with a delicious white creamy substance".
<img src="http://i43.tinypic.com/69g9s6.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
– HOLY CULTURAL APPROPRIATION, BATMAN. WHAT THE FUCK. WHO THOUGHT THIS DANCE WAS A GOOD IDEA?
– How the hell is any of this going to be explained to that poor boy's parents, to say nothing of international authorities?
– The dancing montage, OMG JUST STOP. ENOUGH ALREADY.
– Okay, I also laughed at Sven complaining about Cordelia.
– Great job disarming your opponent, Buffy!
– AND THEN THEY USE THE WORD "GYPPED" ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE.
Really, shame on the writers for this awful mess. WHY DOES THIS EXIST.
To end this on a happy note, MARK I HAS A PRESENT FOR YOU. I stopped by your tumblr and saw those awesome Toy Story/Jurassic Park manips, so I opened up Photoshop and slapped this together for you.
<img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/23hnl2r.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
AHHHHH THAT GIF IS DESTROYING ME
can we PLEASE have a Jurassic Park liveblog????
YES, PLEASE! I'm a terrible Jurassic Park fan and have only seen the first one 🙁
That actually makes you a very lucky Jurassic Park fan, because the first one is the only good one, haha. Would that I could unsee the sequels.
YES.
YES!
Also I am dying at that gif.
I can't stop watching it.
I have had it sitting on my DVR for years waiting for a rewatch! YES!
Yes yes yes!
I WOULD LOVE THAT.
I would absolutely do a Jurassic Park liveblog ANY TIME.
Yes Please! I would bring out my video cassette for such an event.
Is gypped derived from gypsy? I didn't know that and I'll have to keep that in mind for the future.
Yep.
Yeah, I had no idea that was where the word came from untill I was like 20 myself, I thought it was spelt with a J. I never used the word, I think I'd only heard it used a handful of times but still ugh I FELT SO GROSS when I found that out.
I had no idea either. I mostly use the work ganked, which is a word my friends in college made up combining grabbed and yanked.
I immediately went and looked up the etymology of 'gyp' upon hearing that and also discovered that "welshing on a debt" is a reference to Welsh people, which, duh, but I think I'd always more associated it with grape juice on the rare occasion I'd actually heard/seen it used.
the other day someone at my job said how awful it was to use the word "jew" in the same way, as in, getting ripped off, and they said "gypped" instead. I was like "uh… that's not BETTER."
I actually had to explain both of those to my mother in the same conversation. She thought both of them were spelled different ways and was pretty mortified when I explained it.
Pushing Daisies gif: 1,000 points.
Curse the fact that I cannot see most gifs on my work computer! (I think tinypic is blocked.)
I shall have to appreciate your comment later.
ETA: Yay I love the gifs! Do I like Emerson or the crossover more…hmm. (And I shall take pride in enabling you!)
The Emerson one I sadly cannot take credit for. But all the rest I made myself! I AM FOREVER GRATEFUL TO YOU FOR ENABLING ME. <3
HOLY CULTURAL APPROPRIATION, BATMAN. WHAT THE FUCK. WHO THOUGHT THIS DANCE WAS A GOOD IDEA?
Principal Snyder?
I meant on the writing staff. I have no doubt that Snyder would see no issue with it.
Except for the mess and the dancing. And the presence of living, breathing, speaking students. LOL.
(i love u Snyder)
I started saying "gypped" in high school based purely on the fact that I thought it sounded cool. I had NO IDEA what it was derived from. I thought it was an innocent variation of "ripped off."
It wasn't until I saw an episode of House wherein the titular character used it in an obvious manner to offend a group of Gypsies and I had my AHA clicking moment and I haven't used it since.
LOL. Dr. Gregory House: A Model For What Not To Do.
That gif has reduced me to tears of laughter. Actual tears.
:D!
The use of an Emerson Cod gif should grant you unlimited up votes!
– Great job disarming your opponent, Buffy!
LOLOLOL I LOVE YOU.
Also, that was always my favorite part of Jurassic Park when I was a kid. I saw it when I was nine, the year it came out, and that joke was HILARIOUS to me.
Can I award -500 points to the WORST MUSEUM EVER? They don't have protection of any kind — environmental or theft/damage prevention — for their priceless exhibits! When one of them is broken, the pieces are just left lying there until Buffy and co. show up to investigate! This physically hurts me. < /archaeologist >
But I would also like to award some points here for SETH GREEN. I love him. And I love that Oz immediately digs Willow.
Hey, it's Sunnydale – the museum guards probably got eaten by vampires.
(Npghnyyl, pbzr gb guvax bs vg…
– rngra ol Qehfvyyn
– sebmra ol gur Gevb
Orvat n zhfrhz rzcyblrr va Fhaalqnyr vf n QNATREBHF wbo.)
They could still have glass cases or something to keep people from breathing bacteria all over the mummy. Seriously, you need to control the shit out of the environment for those things!
I know, right? How convenient that there wasn't any GLASS or ROPES or ANYTHING AT ALL preventing people from just climbing all over the exhibit. And they let teenagers go there?
You also have to love that Sunnydale apparently has a large history museum, despite appearing to be a relatively small town. (Also a full-size zoo!) I mean, this is supposed to be a suburb of Los Angeles, right? I know that theoretically they could be driving to the LA museums or zoo, but… with the way the plot jumps around, it seems much more like all these locations simply exist improbably in a rather small town.
And a second high school. The three girls killed in "Some Assembly Required" went to the one across town.
I don't think it's a suburb of LA because when Buffy spent the summer there Xander and Willow didn't see her at all so I believe there're quite a few miles in between. Also, Cordelia was all fangirly back at the pilot when Buffy said she was from LA.
(I might totally be wrong but that's what I got)
Sunnydale makes no sense.
No, it really doesn't.
Nyfb, zntvpnyyl qvfnccrnevat qbpxf va gvzr sbe gur svanyr.
ahahaha I NEVER EVEN PUT THAT TOGETHER
Naq gur ornpu sebz Tb Svfu/Ohssl If Qenphyn
And a pnfgyr!
naq n pbyyrtr, rira gubhtu vg qbrfa'g trg n FVATYR zragvba hagvy gurl'er nobhg gb urnq bss gb pbyyrtr– ubj pbairavrag!
Gjb pbyyrtrf, npghnyyl! Orpnhfr gur seng oblf va Ercgvyr Obl tb gb Perfgjbbq Pbyyrtr, juvpu vf ABG HP Fhaalqnyr!
YBY V pbzzragrq ba na rneyvre rcvfbqr (Fbzr Nffrzoyl Erdhverq znlor?) ertneqvat gur "Gurer'f abg n ybg bs gbja urer" nobhg nyy gur fghss vg npghnyyl QBRF unir sbe fhpu n "yvggyr" gbja.
AND WHERE WAS THE SECURITY BOTH TIMES THAT GILES WAS IN THERE AT NIGHT? What, does he bribe the guards???
He's part of the secret Museum Appreciation Club where stuffy Exposition Characters can go read ancient tomes and poke around museums as much as they want because Plot.
Breaking Willow’s heart onscreen: 0 points, only because I want to award -1,000,000 because I love Willow and how dare you, and because I want to award 1,000,000 for including a story line that forces her to face the fact that she isn’t going to get Xander to fall in love with her.
Man I forgot about this. And about Willow's line with how she could either move on with her life or just wait for around watching Xander to date every other girl in the world, and that she hadn't decided which one she would do yet.
Also, there's my favourite line of the episode:
"You could have any girl you want. You're lead guitar, Oz. That's currency"
LOLOLOLOLOLOL. What. what is this.
With that out of the way:
Holy crap, there's an episode of this show that I don't like, someone call the newspaper! I mean even the Praying Mantis episode I could find things that I liked in it, so obviously I'm not very hard to please but I hate this. Also apparently it is way easier for me to write loads about sub-medocre episodes than the ones everybody likes, go figure!
I don't know where to start. The inoffensive stuff first:
Poor Aly getting stuck with that weird blue hat for most of the episode. Her braids and suspenders at the very end were super cute though.
Seth Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeen. Too bad about the dated facial hair and his awful band, but whatever. Also your band does not match your singer's leather jacket greaser look at all either WTF? Besides that I mean his whole exchange with the singer was cute. Also I guess someone on the show roots for the Islanders or else the costume dept just like getting more and more avant garde with their wardrobe choices.
Then there's the rest:
Why do the first major non-white characters on this show have to be magical ancient evil killing spirits and Buffy has to fight one of them? Not that this is an issue only confined to this episode: see: The Pack. You can't have actual non-white people on the show yet you can make their super *mysterious* cultures out to kill you all the time? At least in The Pack that white appropriating douche got killed off at the end, here there's no such luck. The parallel between Ampata and Buffy's lives at least had the potential to be interesting, too bad everything about how she was written was so cringeworthy.
Then there's the whole let's celebrate other cultures by dressing up as stereotypes dance that feels oh so relevant these days, but maybe not that unrealistic if I'm being honest.
Then there's Cordelia and Xander being total dicks and condescending, respectively which really is such a drop in the bucket in this episode.
Also Why would you think that cause someone is from anywhere in South America that they would be able to translate Incan languages? Because everyone in North America knows Navajo and Cree? What?
WTF writers: look at your life look at your choices.
PS: YBY Bu unl gurer Wrexnguba.
"Also Why would you think that cause someone is from anywhere in South America that they would be able to translate Incan languages? Because everyone in North America knows Navajo and Cree? What?
WTF writers: look at your life look at your choices. "
Shouldn't that complaint be laid against the characters rather than the writers? The only reason "Ampata" knew an ancient Incan language was because she was actually an ancient Incan princess.. It's not like they had the real Ampata or any other South American student speak those languages. Giles and the others just should have been smarter.
I watched this last night and I'm pretty sure Buffy said (paraphrasing)before she knew who her exchange student was or what country they were from "oh hey my guy's coming tonight and he's from South America, so he can translate." She definitely said the continent not the country and I remembered that cause it was just incredibly weird.
But I mean in either case Buffy's not a real person, the people that write this show are.
There's also the added Did Not Do The Research in that the Incas didn't have, well, writing. If the seal contains pictures, yeah, interpreting the symbolism would still be hard (just look at pre-contact South and Mesoamerican art and try and understand it without knowing a bit about it), but this part of writing is definitely crappily researched and … a mess, in general.
Oh if I wanted to archaeology nitpick about this show I'd be here all day. It gets so bad pretty damn often, I don't even want to get started(but knowing me I prolly will at some point.)
For me, it's more linguistics nitpicking. And that's what the internet's for, isn't it 😀 ?
I'll have to watch it again, but didn't they say something about the seal being from her "region"?
Now you have me trying to think of the non-white characters on this show…
Jr unir Xraqen va frnfba gjb. Xvyyrq ol Qeh. Ze Gevpx jnf rivy inzcver obff thl va gur arkg frnfba jub jnf xvyyrq ol Snvgu. Gura va frnfba sbhe jr unir Sbeerfg, jub jnf Evyrl'f ubg nffubyr sevraq (V jvfu gurl'q syvccrq gur pnfgvat fb gur juvgr npgbe cynlrq uvz naq gura unir gur CBP npgbe cynl Tenunz, orpnhfr gur fubj qvqa'g unir gur orfg genpx erpbeq fb sne jvgu enpr). Qrnq. Byvivn jnf Tvyrf' fubeg yvirq ybir vagrerfg va Frnfba Sbhe. Gnxrf bss orpnhfr fur pna'g qrny jvgu gur ernyvgl bs zbafgref. Fheivirf.
Avxxv naq haanzrq fynlre sebz obkre eroryyvba jrer obgu xvyyrq ol Fcvxr, fubja va frnfba svir. Eban naq Punb-Nua jrer obgu cbgragvny fynlref va frnfba frira naq obgu fheivir gur svanyr.
Xraarql jnf Jvyybj'f ybir vagrerfg va frnfba frira ohg nyfb xvaq bs na hacyrnfnag punenpgre (LZZI). Fheivirf gur svanyr. Ebova jnf nyfb va frnfba frira naq fheivirf gur svanyr. Ur vf cbegenlrq nf n cbgragvny ebznagvp vagrerfg sbe obgu Ohssl naq Snvgu.
(Sbeznggvat gur cnentencuf yvxr guvf fb abg gb fcbvy ol nccrnenaprf ubj zhpu CBP gurer ner naq jura. V znl unir zvffrq fbzrbar–cebonoyl qvq. Qvq jr unir n znwbe CBP punenpgre va frnfba fvk gung V'z zvffvat?)
Gurer'f Wraal naq ure hapyr nf jryy juvpu V jvyy zbfg qrsvavgryl unir n ybg gb fnl nobhg. V'z gnxvat guvf bar rcvfbqr ng n gvzr, vg'f na rnfvre gurzr gb qvfphff gung jnl, ohg V qrsvavgryl guvax gurer'f n cnggrea naq vg'f jbefg va gur rneyvre frnfbaf, ohg abg rkpyhfviryl (frr gur Gunaxftvivat rc va frnfba 4.)
V guvax va gur svany frnfba gur fubj gevrq vg'f uneqrfg gb pnfg zber CBP, ohg hc hagvyy gung cbvag CBP punenpgref jrer qrsvavgryl jnl bhgahzorerq ol gurve zntvpny pbhagrecnegf ba gur fubj, ohg gurer'yy or cyragl bs gvzr gb trg vagb nyy bs gung.
Nf bar fubgf, jr unir gur guerr Funqbj Zra va Trg Vg Qbar (juvpu V whfg enagrq nobhg ng gur fcbvyre oybt orpnhfr jung gur shpx, fubj), naq gur bar-fprar Ghexvfu cbgragvny jub trgf xvyyrq (V qba'g xabj, qbrf 'Ghexvfu' snyy vagb CBP pngrtbel sebz na Nzrevpna CBI?).
ETA: Naq bs pbhefr gurer'f Fvarln, gur Svefg Fynlre.
Also, there's my favourite line of the episode:
"You could have any girl you want. You're lead guitar, Oz. That's currency"
LOLOLOLOLOLOL. What. what is this.
Ahaha. Yes. THIS.
Kind of bizarrely, back when the Bronze messageboard was active I ended up chatting to a girl on there who was dating a guy who was in a band with a kid I went to primary school with who played guitar. And the name of the kid I went to school with was the same as Oz's name even down to the fact that he got called "Oz". Life gets weird when you realise someone you were at school with and remember as being obsessed with Audis has played at the Reading Festival and been on the Warped Tour
I thought Charisma Carpenter was Hispanic?
A quick Wikipedia shows she's French/German/Cherokee/Spanish. Does that count as non-white? Also, note to self: learn how to identify races better, that was embarrasing.
FAR MORE IMPORTANT: CHARISMA CARPENTER GUEST STARRED ON BOY MEETS WORLD. WHAT.
Maybe but her character has a very anglo name and nothing on the show ever suggests that Cordy has any other heritage, which is a shame. Jurernf bgure punenpgre'f urevgntr yvxr Jvyybj orvat Wrjvfu vf bcrayl zragvbarq ba gur fubj.
The two writers that wrote The Pack also wrote this episode. Go figure. Yhpxvyl, gubfr jrer gur bayl gjb rcvfbqrf gurl jebgr.
Yeah, not really regretting not re-watching this episode.
This episode. It, uh, exists?
I'm not surprised this ep doesn't quite make you love it, because… yeah, what is this lol foreign people thing.
I want to award -1,000,000 because I love Willow and how dare you
<3 ! This is good and you should feel good. Poor Willow 🙁
I didn't rewatch this one because, yeah, no, so from what I can remember:
– Twinkies seem gross
– really Buffy, just assume that your Peruvian exchange student happens to be an expert on Incan pictography what
– those costumes what
German dubbing gave this one the title Das Geheimnis der Mumie – 'The Mystery of the Mummy', which, fair enough, I suppose.
Twinkies seem gross
I know right?? When I went on holiday to New York my sister and I spent the entire time trying to find a place that sold Twinkies so we could try one. They were um…pretty foul actually. Not as bad as American chocolate though. URGH.
Gosh, I'm being a xenophobic douche just like this episode aren't I? MOST AMERICAN FOOD IS GREAT I SWEAR. <3
I only was in England for 4 months and I miss the chocolate so much!!!!! It is so, so, so much better!!!!
Edit: I suddenly realized this wasn't clear; I did not miss American chocolate….I was sad to come back to it.
Hey at least you actually tried them before turning into a twinkie bigot. I just judge based solely from their appearances in the media!
And yeah, American chocolate what is this even. Personally, I really really really like Fazer (which is Finnish, though, although most people seem to have a thing for either Swiss or Belgian chocolate).
I think it's to do with the cocoa and cocoa butter content in American chocolate. That and the misleading names. I had an American Milky Way and was SORELY disappointed.
The mainstream chocolate candy bars and such are pretty awful, but there are some companies who make good chocolate in America… right? Right?? SOMEONE BACK ME UP HERE
Also I remember when they used to make ice-cream Milky Way bars. The ones with dark chocolate were like heaven for me. (Maybe they still make them; I have no idea)
Massmarket chocolate is lousyish, but the chocolate shop in town here does the bestest stuff! They've got these things with chocolate and caramel and I don't know what they're called but they're delicious, and they've got these other ones where they can't legally sell you the whole thing because they don't have a liquor license but you add a bit of kahlua or some baileys yourself and they are the best chocolates ever! EVER!
Ghiradelli is good.
But Hershey's and Nestle don't deserve the name
Really? Nestle in the UK is pretty good. Got to be down to the minimum cocoa requirements then :/
Its ok. I'm American and twinkies totally disgust me. D: it makes me feel unamerican but oh well lol.
By the way, who told Xander that the way to impress a pretty foreign exchange student is to cram an entire snack cake into his mouth, then proceed to talk with his mouth full of it?
One more thing I (just) remember(ed):
Willow: Bavarians are cool.
Xander: Okay, no shirts with ruffles, no hats with feathers and definitely no lederhosen. They make my calves look fat.
First of all, yes, Willow, they (and almost we) are, and second of all, I'm glad he didn't do that because I've seen what Americans think lederhosen are and no just no.
I have seen authentic Lederhosen (my German teacher had some) and now I'm curious what "Americans think lederhosen are".
Just google lederhosen. They're not even made from, y'know, leather.
Yeah, this makes me genuinely buttmad.
This episode was kind of a mixed bag for me too on my first run through the series. V’z tynq jr’er fgnegvat gb frr fvtaf bs Knaqre’f tebjgu njnl sebz Frnfba 1 Knaqre naq gbjneqf gur thl jub orpnzr bar bs zl snibevgrf ba n fubj shyy bs njrfbzr punenpgref, ohg vg’f fgvyy bayl n pbhcyr bs onol fgrcf. V fbeg bs fvzhygnarbhfyl ybirq naq ungrq uvz guebhtubhg frnfba 1, naq nf gvzr jrag ba, Jurqba naq pbzcnal funirq njnl nyy gur ungr (Rira jura jr trg gb Uryy’f Oryyf, V’z bar bs gur crbcyr jub guvaxf gung Knaqre jnf ubeevoyl bhg bs punenpgre naq tbg sehfgengrq jvgu gur jevgvat grnz bire vg, ohg yrg’f or ubarfg, frnfbaf 6 naq 7 unq jnl gbb zhpu BBP orunivbe tbvat ba nyy bire gur cynpr. Gurer ner fbzr guvatf gung jbexrq naq fbzr gung qvqa’g. Knaqre qvgpuvat Naln nsgre nyy gung unq pbzr orsber vg znqr ab shpxvat frafr gb zr.).
Also, OZ. <3
Also, you are definitely not even remotely prepared.
Oh, Oz is in this! I remember Oz. I liked Oz.
this one falls near the bottom of the pack (no reference intended) for season 2, but there are still some of things to like about it.
1. buffy: "oh! i know this one! slaying entails certain sacrifices, blah blah bitty blah. i'm so stuffy. give me a scone."
giles: "it's as if you know me."
perfect delivery.
2. vg'f qnavry "bm" bfobhear! bgurejvfr xabja nf zl frpbaq snibevgr ohssl punenpgre, arkg gb (jub ryfr?) fcvxr. zl gjb snibevgr thlf vagebqhprq onpx-gb-onpx. ubj qvq v rire trg fb yhpxl?
3. ok, so the twinkie scene is rather endearing.
4. ESKIMO WILLOW. an indelible image, with her big beautiful eyes peering out of that fluffy hood.
"maybe i should've worn something sexy." hell no, willow! you are the best. you go on with your adorable self.
5. the look on oz's face when he sees eskimo willow…he just lights up! it melts my cold black heart.
6. wbanguna! ur whfg nyyyyyzbfg qvrq va uvf irel svefg rcvfbqr. jung vs, thlf? JUNG VS?
7. i gotta say, speaking on the production side of things, the lighting/ setup of the xander/ ampata kissing scene is glowing and gorgeous and moving. the shadows on their faces, the swelling music. i'm a big fan. and i think i can safely say that this is xander's first kiss. widdle xander's growing up!
8. so, i DO NOT ship xander and buffy (maybe the eensiest bit but not really), but there is definitely some tension being played here. buffy seems ever so slightly jealous when xander picks ampata up. then, in the last scene there is that long pause where they're looking into each other's eyes…there's definitely SOMETHING. i like it. it just adds to the many layers of these characters that i love so damn much.
no reference intended? They were actually written by the same people. Which…explains some things
i didn't even look at who wrote them! i am familiar with many buffy writers, but mostly the ones that stuck around through the majority of the seasons (noxon, fury, petrie, espenson, etc.). i was just writing without thinking and "bottom of the pack" came out. it wasn't until i re-read what i wrote that i noticed it. weird.
I looked it up earlier today trying to figure out who was responsible for this monstrosity. And then things made sense
Clearly Willow doesn't understand sexy. Eskimo Willow is the sexiest thing in this episode. And Oz is clearly on my side here…
It's also some of the best humour – her attempt to look around is wonderful. I'm not quite as convinced by the shurg/sigh joke though.
I completely agree. Willow says, "Maybe I should have worn something sexy," and I'm like, "But you did, Willow! You did!"
Wbanguna nofbyhgryl rkvfgf gb nyzbfg qvr. V guvax va zbfg bs gur rcvfbqrf ur'f va rneyl ba, ur nyzbfg qvrf. Yngre ba, abg nf zhpu…hagvy ur npghnyyl qbrf qvr.
lrc. ur jnf gur "url, yrg'f chg guvf fznyy zna va qnatre orpnhfr ur unf n terng ihyarenoyr snpr" thl sbe gur ybatrfg gvzr.
@ #6: Jryy, yrg'f vzntvar ur qvq qvr, naq gung gur erfg bs gur frevrf jbhyq unir pbagvahrq rknpgyl gur fnzr… vzntvar jung Jneera naq Naqerj pbhyq unir orra qbvat vs Wbanguna jnfa'g gurer gb npghnyyl, lbh xabj, gel gb gnyx ernfba jvgu gurz… vzntvar Ohssl abg svaqvat bhg ubj gb fgbc Jneera… guvatf jbhyq unir tbar n jubyr ybg qvssrerag, gb fnl gur yrnfg. Yrg'f nyy envfr bhe tynffrf gb Wbanguna. Nf Qhzoyrqber jbhyq unir bhg vg, "Vg gnxrf pbhentr gb fgnaq hc gb lbhe rarzvrf, ohg rira zber gb fgnaq hc gb lbhe sevraqf." *jnagf Wbanguna onpx*
nccyvpnoyr dhbgr vf nccyvpnoyr! v ybir jura zl snibevgr snaqbzf pbzr gbtrgure.
naljnl! ungf bss gb wbanguna! v unir fbzr sevraqf gung ner jngpuvat ohssl sbe gur svefg gvzr, naq v tbg gb jngpu "pbairefngvbaf jvgu qrnq crbcyr" jvgu gurz erpragyl. nzl (bar bs fnvq sevraqf) nyzbfg fgnegrq pelvat jura wbanguna qvrq 🙁 fur jnf irel haunccl.
Zr gbb, zna, zr gbb! V jnagrq gb ehfu va naq fnir uvz! Gung jnf frevbhfyl bar bs gur fnqqrfg, abg gb zragvba zbfg cbvagyrff, qrnguf bs gur frevrf! Nyy sbe ab ernfba ng nyy! Naq ybbx, V ybir Naqerj, va snpg V guvax gur bayl ernfba lbh jbhyq rire obgure gb jngpu frnfba 7 vf orpnhfr bs uvz, ohg va gung zbzrag V ungrq uvz. Xvyyvat lbhe orfg sevraq orpnhfr gur tubfg bs jung zvtug or lbhe cflpubgvp ABG-oblsevraq ohg cebonoyl vfa'g, gbyq lbh gb? Naqerj vf boivbhfyl cerggl zrffrq hc naq ur'f abg irel oevtug, ohg fgvyy… Gur guvatf crbcr qb sbe ybir…
(Lrnu, V fuvc Jneera/Naqerj. Fhr zr!)
gur fhogrkg vf fb gurer! naqerj jnf va ybir jvgu jneera ba fbzr yriry, ab qbhog.
Lrf, ur jnf, V'z pregnva. Vg jnf npghnyyl cerggl gentvp, gur jnl ur whfg sbyybjrq Jneera nebhaq yvxr n yvggyr chccl, naq Jneera jnf whfg hfvat uvz nyyg ur gvzr.
Ubjrire, V qb jbaqre jung ur jbhyq unir qbar vs ur unq xabja Naqerj'f srryvatf sbe uvz…Orpnhfr V qba'g guvax ur xarj. Ur jnf gbb penml naq vagb uvzfrys gb abgvpr nalguvat yvxr gung, naq, jryy, vg jnfa'g yvxr ur jnf fbzr znfgre qrqhpre bs bgure crbcyr'f srryvatf rvgure jnl.
I'm looking forward to discussing this in the open once we get there. 🙂
v, crefbanyyl, qba'g guvax jneera jbhyq'ir gnxra vg jryy. jr xabj ur unf bar uryy bs n grzcre!
yes! i'm looking forward to so many things. i've been waiting for mark to get around to buffy for so long that i can hardly believe it's finally happened. ha!
Ok, so last episode it was SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!!!!. And now I’m all OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!
Because, this: The show setting up the idea that Oz things Willow is cute
ABOUT TIME SOMEONE NOTICED. Willow is gorgeous no matter whether someone notices the fact or not (hello, she has Alyson Hannigan’s face and hair), but I love the fact that Oz did. Mainly I just love Willow.
I think it's the really long hair and the bad sweaters.
-Ugh, another title that bothers me. And I dont even mind mummies.
-Growling. Hmm…Werewolf?!
-Though he is also messing with some kind of artifact, evil magician?
-Evil Werewolf Magician!!!!
-I would root for this except that would mean he dies/something bad happens to him at the end as he is new. I want my werewolves to last more then one ep.
-Aww, nevermind, he's kinda sweet (at least to Willow).
-Why yes, try to steal the one artifact that was clearly said to be cursed. And break it.
-I don't know what you are saying no to Giles but you do know she is hitting you right?
-Mmm, scones.
-Not Magician, 🙁 Redshirt.
-“Let's assume South American means Incan.” Sadly saw that coming.
-Oz! I know that name.
-Xander is gonna get almost mummified isn't he?
-Is Cordelia's picture book going to save the day?
-Billy Black!! One werewolf came to the party.
-I apologize for werewolves being in my head today. It is probably because I was watching Twilight: The Musical.
-I apologize for revealing the existence of Twilight: The Musical.
-Awesome hat, Xander!
-That much luggage for two week?
-The mummy was facing the other way in the last shot.
-Yeah Oz, Eskimos are cool.
-Cheese Castle!
-How will Oz find his Cinderella? Did she leave her
harpoonshoe behind?Turns out that I have seen this episode before, but on Smallville. Possibly twice if you count the Amy Adams episode as like this. But I didn't even notice it didn't have any Spike until it was over so I must have like it well enough.
I like how many comments you have about Rodney! Alas, he died far too soon
Jrerjbyirf ner cebonoyl va lbhe urnq orpnhfr jr whfg zrg Bm!
If it's the same Twilight: The Musical that I've seen, the best part is Bella's cactus.
Sounds like it, the cactus is amazing. I also like the Littlest Edward's cameo.
You are clearly not prepared. *rubs hands together gleefully*
That might be the first time anyone has said that to me. 🙂
Now I want to find Twilight: The Musical. TO THE GOOGLE CAVE: AWAY!
If Google fails you:
http://www.twilightthemusical.com/watch.html
Twilight: The Musical? You are right, I didn't want to know about the existence of such a thing. Crap, now I will be thinking about that for the rest of the day till I finally cave and look it up and then I will have to kill myself for watching it.
I hate to be /that/ guy, but doesn't that score come out to 30?
He's rounding by the hundreds 😛
Xander wigging out about Buffy hosting a male foreign exchange student, then doing a 180 when she shows up "in a girl way": -30
I fixed it
Does it? The first time I added it up, it was -30, so I edited it, and apparently I was right the first time? GODDAMN IT
I added it like 40 TIMES to make sure. oh well.
HA! You probably just did what I've done before and over compensated and thought "-30, ill throw a 60 that double, that will do it right!?"
Though personally, i would have created a[n overly] detailed spreadsheet to map the scores. But that's just how I roll (in sixth form i tried to solve most problems by making databases, cos i was learning those in A-level IT!)
You did so really quickly. (Was going to rot13 it too.)
Same here. That was like lightening.
We need some epic poetry a la Tolkien, that includes the line, "The Mods came down like a sudden storm." ^_^
Oh gosh, this episode. That cheesy panflute (or whatever it is; GENERIC 'ETHNIC' MUSIC); Xander's terrible and creepy attempts to immediately speak Spanish; the entire cultural appropriation thing.
But yeah, I… don't hate this episode? In fact, I agree completely with your point allotments? Also, Seth Green!
naq WBANGUNA! V ybir uvz fb zhpu; V guvax V jnf rira zber rkpvgrq gb frr uvz guna gb frr Bm fvzcyl orpnhfr V'q pbzcyrgryl sbetbggra gung ur jnf gur Anzryrff (Nyzbfg-)Ivpgvz bs Zhzzl-Fhpx va guvf rcvfbqr.
Edited to add: Nyfb, jura Knaqre jnf pneivat uvf fgnxr, nyy V pbhyq guvax nobhg jnf gur rkpryyrag pnecragre/pbagenpgbe ur jbhyq fbzrqnl orpbzr. Naq fb ortvaf n ybat uvfgbel bs qbvat enaqbz unaql gnfxf sbe Ohssl!
OOOOOOOZZZZZZZ!!!
Yeah, this episode is bad insofar as race. But it’s not Fear Her in its amount of colossal suckage, right?
That was good for many a giggle. Thank you.
(I want a shrink-wrapped apocalypse cow!)
Huzzah the comments are finally working! Not that I have much to say about this episode anyway.
In fact my thoughts basically boil down to: HAI SETH GREEN! You're kind of randomly introduced but whatever it's Seth Green I don't care.
The actress (whose name I've forgotten to look up) that plays Ampata does such a good job at making the character sympathetic and showing us just how unfair her life is. The moment when she and Buffy are talking and find each others' secret belongings ("Ampata's" clothing and Buffy's Slaying supplies) is one of those nice visual ways of tying the two characters together that this show does so well.
The very first appearance of the bodyguard and its unintentional hilarity:
It took me a few seconds to realise, and I had to stop and check, that the bodygaurd is Billy Black from Twilight! That just made all his scenes really distracting. The actor was good in the little screen time he had but it was still distracting.
I really liked the actress, too. Her name is Ara Celi, and from her IMDB bio it seems she hasn't been in many things. Just All My Children, this episode and a few minor roles. Bqqyl rabhtu, bar bs gur zbivrf fur jnf va vf pnyyrq Tb Svfu.
Random introductions are good, they imply multiple appearances.
Crappy episodes happen. Even Joss is not immune.
I think a lot of it is because the series uses thirty-something writers to recreate high school life. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it really doesn't, and metaphors turn into bad parody.
That draws an interesting comparison with the use of language in Buffy. The writers were smart enough not to try to mimic or borrow teen slang, because they knew it would be outdated by the time it was broadcast (never mind years later, like now). Instead, they invented their own slang, much of which is said to resemble Joss-talk. There's at least one whole book about the use of slang in Buffy…. Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon by Michael Adams
Really, really good book. I wonder where my copy of it got too…
Of course, what they invented has now been completely co-opted by actual teens. Not so much now, but when the show aired? Yeah, it really was.
I’ve one thing to say:
“No, not her. The Eskimo.”
I’M SORRY, ANY OTHER CANDIDATE FOR BEST LINE IN BUFFY IS FALSE AND A LIE.
Znl V abzvangr "pnancr?"
V'q chg zl org ba "cnavpxvat"
Abg rira bgure Bm Terngf?
V abzvangr "Pubpx shyy bs ubbg, whfg n yvggyr ovg bs anaal" :Q
V ybir "Jr nggnpx gur Znlbe jvgu uhzzhf"
V'z n sna bs "Uhu."
Gung bar unf anxrq Frgu Terra gb fhccbeg vg, gbb, so obviously I approve.
Crefbany snibhevgr: "V'q yvxr gb grfg gung gurbel" orpnhfr HAS, TVYRF.
But, but…they're all so good! I cannot choose a favorite line in this show. I am not sure if I can choose a favorite line per episode.
Seth Green gets a thousand points, but his unfortunate goatee does not. Nothing against facial hair! But that look is not working for me.
Also, can mummies have full, luscious heads of hair? Because I was a little taken aback by the lustrous locks Apata was sporting pre-sucking-the-life-out-of-people.
I LIKED THE GOATEE
…i like goatees ok 😛
I like goatees too! Just not that one. 🙁
Yes they can. Well, not usually that Pantene Pro-V, but for all your Egyptian Mummy Hair Needs.
And here's La Doncella, an actual Incan mummy, rocking the braids.
That link is fascinating — thank you for sharing!
I think my favorite part is the disclaimer. 😀
I just scrolled down in anticipation of pictures, and then I was too busy with going "HAIR! WIGS! HAIR!" to be bothered by dead people.
The disclaimer is hilarious! And it makes me wonder what pictures we're missing out on.
Wow, that Incan mummy has some AWESOME hair.
MINUS A MILLION POINTS FOR THE CULTURAL EXCHANGE DANCE AND GENERAL RACISM. I can't believe this idea was pitched AND THEN APPROVED and no one said anything about it. Not a single character went "hey! that's a tad bit racist! And by a tad bit, I mean a whole lot." I am really disappointed.
Not saying "OH HAI RACISM OK" but, well… look at the ethnic makeup of the writing staff and producers that season. Just sayin'
Naq arvgure vf gur rkgerzr ynpx bs CBP va gur ragver sernxva' frevrf hayrff jr'er ybbxvat ng SBERVTA FYNLREF BZT Punb-Nua tveysevraq trg lbhefrys ba gur Vagrearg naq trg n Pnagbarfr Ratyvfu qvpgvbanel fvfgre!
Yeah, this show tends to be rather dreadful on the Racefail front…
I read this as if you were Dumbledore giving Gryffindor house points at the end of Sorcerer's Stone, and then I thought of Matthew Lewis' little baby face and how Neville was a real hero from the very beginning and then I cried.
Inca Mummy Girl. Oh. Yeah. Well.
Problematic as fuck, to say the least, for all of the reason's listed. The entire episode revolves are Xander and his relationship with women which have always been perfect and not at all disgusting.
But the parallels between Ampata and Buffy are legitimately stunning, which I didn't truly appreciate the first time I watched. And Seth Green.
revolves around**
I think Wbanguna needs to win some sort of award for best rot13'd word ever. It's so much fun to say!
It's so easy to recognize, too! We'll always be able to tell what someone is talking about.
I skip this one on the rewatch. I chalk it up to being made in the 90s. Gur arkg bar vfa'g fb terng rvgure, ohg gura jr unir fbzr fgryyne barf. Ha, that last rot word. Anyhow! OZ is about all you can get from this episode.
I really love the fact that Oz genuinely thinks Willow is cute when she looks like, well, Willow (in a costume of course but a Willow-y one). It's so often a trope that a guy falls for a girl who walks into a room looking gorgeous so I love that this is more real.
But other than that, I have no real thoughts on this episode. The race issues are not handled well and I guess the Xander storyline is okay but by this point I had already stopped caring for Xander. V bayl pner nobhg Knaqre jura ur vf qngvat fbzrbar V pner nobhg, naq gura bayl ol nffbpvngvba. Fb abg ybat abj! 🙂
Are you implying that Willow didn't walk into the room looking gorgeous? 😀 PARKAS ARE THE NEW LITTLE BLACK DRESS, ALERT THE FASHION PRESS.
(When I as a kid watching for the first time, I had serious issues believing that someone as pretty as Alyson Hannigan was actually a social outcast; I've long since gotten over it, but still think she's gorgeous~~~)
Of course Willow/Alyson Hannigan is gorgeous! I am not blind, you know 🙂 But it's still lovely that Oz recognises that fact even when others might not notice because of her dress-style. 🙂
Shocking they didn't put her in glasses, the universal method of making pretty girls "common/ugly".
Ugh… this episode. There are a lot of not good things in this episode, but then also some good things. But idk. It’s still not my favorite.
Oh hai! They are at Exhibition Park and, more specifically, the Los Angeles Natural History Museum! My mom used to take my sister and I there a lot when we were little and my parents, sister and I went on a ~family outing~ there a couple of months ago, even though my sister and I are both adults. LOL. It was still fun though. But when I went there was no mystical Incan mummy. Also, what kind of school leaves a field trip without checking that all students are accounted for?
On to the actual plot! Uuuugh. Xander is SO obnoxious n this episode with the way he freaks out over Buffy’s exchange student being a guy. Buffy doesn’t belong to you Xander. WHY ARE YOU SO JEALOUS? Do you think Buffy just ~won’t be able to control herself~ around the exchange student? And is it any of your business even if that WERE true? GDI, STOP POLICING BUFFY’S LOVE LIFE. Oh and then when Ampata is all, “I don’t deserve you” to Xander and he’s all like “OMG THIS IS AWESOME.” I just cannot.
It’s weird that much like in the previous episode focusing on Xander’s love life (“Teacher’s Pet”), a predatory woman is killing men. There is definitely a sexual undertone to Impada’s method of killing since she uses a kiss to kill her victim and drains them of their life force. There’s also the creepy undertone of the pure, virginal girl who is sacrificed to save her people, and this whole thing is about Ampata fighting for her right to life- which in this case comes at the expense of other people’s lives. Anyway, I think the parallels between Buffy and Ampata are fairly well done, and the viewer is allowed to sympathize with Ampata’s reasons for killing. Both were young girls who unfairly had their lives taken from them and they had no choice in the matter.
Poor Willow though. But poor Willow, pining for a guy who will never look at her in that light. But then there’s Oz! He’s interested in her which makes sense because Willow in that parka is ADORABLE. (Nyfb, uv Wbanguna!)
The cultural appropriation in this episode is really uncomfortable though. LET’S DRESS UP AS OTHER CULTURES BECAUSE OTHER CULTURES ARE DEFINED BY THEIR CLOTHING! Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? So yeah, although I appreciate parts Ampata’s story, especially in how it parallels Buffy’s situation, Xander is kind of creepy in a lot of this episode and the “dressing up like other cultures” bit is bad, so it’s kind of a wash and this is an episode I skip on rewatches.
Shallow closing note: Omg, Ampata’s acid wash high-waisted jeans. WHY??? Well technically they belong to Buffy, so my judgment is actually in her direction.
Maybe they are Joyce's jeans? Because they sure looked like mom jeans to me.
"Oh and then when Ampata is all, “I don’t deserve you” to Xander and he’s all like “OMG THIS IS AWESOME.” I just cannot. "
I love that moment. Xander can't believe that a beautiful girl thinks *she* doesn't deserve *him*, his default assumption is that it's the other way round – and doesn't get that she really means it, that she doesn't deserve him because she's a murderer. It makes me feel really sad for her.
"Also, what kind of school leaves a field trip without checking that all students are accounted for?"
I get the impression that for Sunnydale, only one missing student on a field trip is one of the better days.
I was too busy going "aw, she looks adorable in that t-shirt" to notice the jeans actually.
I appreciate the comment about assuming that people from cultures other than white American don't speak English is idiotic. However, in the context of this episode, where the characters know that Ampata just arrived from another country and that all these new faces around school are foreign exchange students only here for two weeks, I can understand people assuming that she wouldn't be a native speaker or couldn't speak English. It's not like they met a South American girl in a store and assumed that. There was a legitimate context!
Other than that, I agree that the episode is generally ok and has some pretty awkward moments, including it's treatment of race and ethnicity!
Yeah but the way Xander says "Your English is 'muy bueno'" after Ampata has clearly been carrying on a perfectly fine conversation with Buffy and Willow is icky.
Pretty much.
Also every foreign exchange student we ever had ever spoke English. So no.
I hosted six exchange students over the years through my high school. One German boy, four German girls and one French boy. The German guy spoke pretty close to idiomatic American English, two of the girls spoke pretty good British English, and the other two spoke decent English but weren't as confident in it as the other three and didn't speak often enough for me to really gauge it (though what they did say was good and probably British since that's what they're taught).
The French boy spoke little to no English. (That was actually a pretty consistent theme for the German vs French students, though not completely universal).
If the student is there as a legitimate exchange student, I think it's reasonable to expect them to speak English, but if they're only staying for a short period of time, between a week and a month, say, I think that's less assured, though I would still say they're more likely to speak passable English than not.
Yeah, besides, all of the ones we see speak at least a bit of English. …Well, okay, we only see one. But Sven does speak English, it's Cordelia who assumes he doesn't!
Ok, I should rewatch the episode!!! Now that you mention that line, it's coming back to me and that was crappy!
But, I have to say that the foreign exchange students that came to my school didn't speak French (as I went to a French school in Montreal). I always thought they were very courageous!!! Spending a year with us when they didn't even speak a word of our language! But, they were all pretty much fluent in French by the time they left! Also, I'm now studying abroad in the US and quite a few of my fellow international students have only a very basic level of English (and I'm being very generous here!!!) Basically, what I am saying, is that not the whole world speaks English!
I'm so tempted to say that School French wouldn't really help much with Quebec French (at least from watching some Quebec French media and one evening I spent with Quebec tourists) 😉
Québec French is French, just with a different accent. Just like English in the US and in the UK. Different accents, but 99% of the words and the grammar is the same! So, it is transferable! You just need to get used to the pronunciation which sometimes varies. (I'm sorry, it's a sensitive subject with me! I've had people with two years of French in high school correct my French, saying: "Oh, but I learned French French", as if I don't speak French!)
No need to apologise, actually, I'm sorry if I sounded condescending/offensive there; I actually love Quebec French*, but the pronunciation is (for me) really difficult to get accostumed to**.
Hence why I said School French, with the level of French I attained in high school, I used to have immense trouble understanding any actual French as it is spoken, even the Hexagonal varieties that are relatively close to the Académie-approved French we learnt.
* Especially its sacrés.
** Especially the merger of some of the nasalised vowels. Votre proposition est intéressante, elle me tente. – Tinte ou tente?
!!! Je comprends mieux maintenant!
Exchange students, who spend an entire year in another country, quite often don't speak the language of their host country. These programs are organized by various organizations and you might end up in any place that is safe to stay at. Even though, there is a variety of second or third foreign languages offered at schools (at least in Germany, where I live), many pupils never become fluent in them or they forget all of it, when they leave school. Partially, because nearly no one is fluent in Latin or ancient Greek today, but also because you never *need* to speak French, Russian or Spanish, if you don't want to. Everything there is, is offered in English as well – faster, easier to find and better to handle.
So – to come back to the exchange students – it is possible, that they *had* french classes back home, but never really studied it very thoroughly. If they had to attend an extracurricular class, it is even worse, because these classes are always full of bored people, who are looking for distraction. (Extra-worse if you don't want to learn a commonly offered language like french, but something exotic like Finnish or Thai…) You can't compare English to Non-English, because the start conditions are so different.
It surprises me, that your fellow students don't speak English. Here are lots of people, who speak close to no German, but all of them are highly fluent in English – even if their German is quite decent, they prefer to speak English. I knew, that second language education in many countries is pretty horrible and ineffective (like copying tapes all day or memorizing entire phrases without learning how you might vary them), and of course I've met many Europeans, who aren't fluent in English – but these people didn't study abroad.
This was actually insanely frustrating when I stayed in Germany a couple times as part of our exchange program in high school. I wanted to practice my German, but everyone there spoke English. I could have tried speaking German back to them I suppose, but when someone is talking to you in English more fluently than you speak German, it feels awkward and forced not to just go with it.
Granted, it didn't help that everyone where I was staying spoke Schwäbisch and I spent my first week there convinced that my German was a million times worse than it actually was. Then I took a trip to Berlin and suddenly everyone was incredibly easy to understand and I was like "Oh."
Please don't use "insanely" on this site.
I know. I realized it was there as soon as I hit submit. :/
Saying something in other person's native tongue is generally considered polite and not "icky". Not that Spanish was Ampata's native tongue but Xander didn't know that.
I didn't mean *what* he said, but the *way* he said it, with increased volume and large hand motions. It was patronizing.
Yes, this. If it was something like "Tu Inglés es muy bueno, quiero que mi español sea tan bueno.", it'd be a whole different thing.
Nice! Those complicated verb tenses are where I always got mixed up.
Ahaha, I just took a stab in the dark about whether to use ser or estar and then hit wiktionary for the subjuntivo form.
Basically, I can fake speaking Spanish on the internet. Real life? Er, dónde está la playa 🙁 ?
I went to a Spanish Immersion school when I was a kid because my parents wanted my sister and me to be bilingual. But then I stopped taking Spanish classes right around the time I was learning the subjunctive, so now I have some amount of "native-speaker intuition" but a horrible grasp on the actual rules of the language.
Immersion school sounds kinda cool, I think.
Rules I can generally deal with (at least for French, where half the rules of the written language don't apply to the spoken lang anyways), but it's vocabulary that's lacking for me (again, with French; my classmates in English tended to use me as an ersatz dictionary >_> ).
From what I've heard, the Spanish subjunctive seems to be more dickish than the French one, though.
I found it to be more socially awkward than patronizing. Dork Xander trying to impress a pretty girl and falling on his face.
That seemed to be how Ampata interpreted it, too
The two don't have to be mutually exclusive. I figure that a lot of Xander's awkwardness comes from his obliviousness, and part of that seems to be not understanding how to strike the right tone when trying to impress, personally.
Rot13'd for some Xander talk
Vg'f guvf rcvfbqr gung fbeg bs erzvaqf zr nobhg gur qvfphffvbaf jurer Wbff naq perj unqa'g qrpvqrq vavgvnyyl juvpu punenpgre gb unir rkcyber gurve frkhnyvgl riraghnyyl, orgjrra Knaqre naq Jvyybj. Jrer gurl fgvyy cynlvat jvgu gur vqrn be gel gb sberfunqbj cbgragvny guvatf va frnfba 2? Ng guvf cbvag V xvaq bs jbaqre jung vg jbhyq unir orra yvxr vs Knaqre unq orra erirnyrq nf Tnl (be Ov, engure) va gur yngre frnfbaf. Gubhtu V crefbanyyl guvax Jvyybj jnf gur orfg qrpvfvba naq fgebatre npgerff sbe gur fgbelyvar, vg jbhyq unir nqqrq na vagrerfgvat arj ynlre gb Knaqre'f GELVAT GBB UNEQ npgvbaf jvgu Ohssl, uvf greevgbevny srryvatf, naq uvf trareny ernpgvba gb Nal Bgure Thl.
Also, this is 3/3 Xander-centric episodes I did not enjoy. Try harder, Buffy writing team. :/
I wonder what happened to the real Ampata's family who, you know, had their son go off to Sunnydale to never return. EDIT! Not only that, what are they going to tell Buffy's mother? THE EXCHANGE STUDENT DISAPPEARED.
Va n ybg bs jnlf, V guvax gung fgbelyvar-jvfr, Knaqre jbhyq'ir znqr zber frafr, rfcrpvnyyl vs gurl jrag qbja gur "ab, qrsvavgryl tnl, abg ovfrkhny ng nyy" ebhgr yvxr gurl qvq jvgu Jvyybj. Ohg ba gur bgure unaq, vs gurl unq, lbh jbhyq'ir tbggra gur "bayl tnl zra pna or whfg sevraqf jvgu tveyf" fgrerbglcrf naq nyfb Wbff frrzf xvaq bs greevsvrq bs tnl znyr frkhnyvgl. Lbh pna'g jva.
V frrz gb erpnyy ernqvat va na vagreivrj fbzrjurer gung gurl qrpvqrq gb unir Jvyybj rkcyber ure frkhnyvgl vafgrnq bs Knaqre ynetryl qhr gb n qrfver gb xrrc n fgebatyl srznyr-gvygrq pnfg–orpnhfr crbcyr ner ARIRE FVATYR SBE YBAT va guvf fubj, tnl/ov Jvyybj = 3 srznyr pnfg zrzoref, 1 znyr [Jvyybj/Gnen; Knaqre/Naln]; juvyr tnl/ov Knaqre jbhyq yrnq gb 3 znyr pnfg zrzoref naq 1 srznyr.
Vagrerfgvat cbvag nobhg Wbff naq znyr-znyr frkhnyvgl ol gur jnl; V jnf nyjnlf xvaq bs vexrq gung rira jura gurl jrer urnivyl uvagvat ng Naqerj'f pybfrgrq angher, gurl arire ernyyl jrag naljurer jvgu vg. Gb zl haqrefgnaqvat, gurl fgvyy unira'g, rira va gur pbzvpf? Vf gung evtug? (V unira'g ernq gurz).
i totally agree with you there.
Nyfb vg jbhyq unir tvira Knaqre punenpgre gvzr vafgrnq bs jnfgvat Avpx Oeraqba gur ynfg 4 lrnef naq bireybnqvat Jvyybj jvgu nggevohgrf: Fhcre Unpxre, Fhcre Jvgpu, Grzc Fhcre Ivyynva, Naq Fhcre Yrfovna gb gur cbvag jurer cerivbhf yrtvgvzngr znyr nggenpgvbaf jrer vtaberq vafgrnq bs whfg znxvat ure Ov. Cbbe thl jnf na bevtvany zrzore bs gur pnfg naq uvf znva wbo jnf gb napube Wbff' arj crg punenpgre gb gur fubj, va snpg vgf fbzr fhecevfr gurl qvqa'g ghea uvz tnl va frnfba 7 naq yngpu Wbff' arj gbl Naqerj ba uvz. Ohg gura ntnva V guvax v ernq fbzrjurer gung nppbeqvat gb Wbff, Naqerj vf abg Tnl. Ab bar ba gur arg frrzrq gb ol gung cvrpr bs jbeq bs tbq gubhtu gunaxshyyl.
Npghnyyl ubj znal znyr Tnl punenpgref ner gurer ba gur fubj? gurer vf Yneel jub trgf xvyyrq ol n tvnag fanxr (avpr cunyyvp vzntrel gurer Wbff!) naq Fpbgg Ubcr jub pnzr bhg bss fperra ohg gura jnf nyfb znqr vagb na bss fperra zrtn qvpx pnyyvat rirel tvey va uvf snvyrq urgreb eryngvbafuvcf yrfovnaf!
Fnzr jvgu Qbyyubhfr, V qba'g guvax gurer vf n yrtvg (znyr) tnl punenpgre va vg qhevat gur gjb frnfbaf, gur bayl ersreraprf bss unaq ner, Ivpgbe/Gbal chyyvat bhg n gubat va gur jneqebor naq ybbxvat cregheorq naq Qe Fnhaqref fnlvat ubj "fnq" vg vf gung gurl trg fb znal fnzr frk ratntrzragf, n yvar gung gevrf gb or nyy vapyhfvir nobhg ubj gurfr tnl phfgbzref pnag or gurzfryirf jvgu ERNY crbcyr, ohg snyyf syng jura lbh erzrzore bar bs gur znva gurzrf bs gur fubj naq ratntrzrag zvffvbaf ner urgreb frk naq eryngvbafuvcf juvpu nccneragyl nera'g ivrjrq nf fnq ol gur qbpgbe! Bu naq gurer vf nyfb gur gvzr Ivpgbe nppvqragnyyl trgf n srznyr vzcevag va uvf oenva naq qnaprf nyy tveyl va n obeqreyvar pnzc tnl fgrerbglcr. Vafgrnq bs whfg orvat jevggra srznyr yvxr gur punenpgre jnf va Rpub'f obql, gur srzvavar punenpgrevfgvpf ner chfurq gb 11 sbe n shaal "zna abg npgvat znfphyvar! vgf uvynevbhf!" wbxr. Bu ohg Yrfovna synfuonpx jvgu Juvfxl naq Rpub vf gerngrq nf fnhpl sha.
Ohg gura ntnva. bire gvzr orgjrra nyy gur jurqba fghss V'ir jngpurq naq ernq (abg nyy bs vg, v fgvyy arrq gb jngpu nyy bs sversyl, nf V'ir bayl frra gur svyz naq Nevry va shyy, nyfb abg jngpurq qe ubeevoyr) V unir abgvprq n cnggrea gung qvfnccbvagf zr va uvf cebsrffrq srzvavfz, vg whfg pbzrf bss nf snxr. Vgf n;zbfg yvxr n sbez bs srgvfuvfngvba bs fgebat jbzra, ur jevgrf vg pbf ur YVXRF gur vafgrnq bs jevgvat gurz gb or shyy punenpgref. Gura ntnva ur nyfb qbrf yvxr gb gbegher nyy punenpgref fb gung jura lbh pbzovar gur gjb whfg orpbzrf perrcl. Guvat vf vgf abg whfg bar guvat fb V pnag guvax bs rknzcyrf bss gur gbc bs zl urnq gb cebir gur cbvag (cyhf gverq naq unira'g jngpurq nyy gurfr cebtenzf va n juvyr) whfg zber bs n qnjavat ernyvfngvba sbe zr.
"Ohg gura ntnva V guvax v ernq fbzrjurer gung nppbeqvat gb Wbff, Naqerj vf abg Tnl."
Vagrerfgvat. V ernq rknpgyl gur bccbfvgr. Gung Naqerj vf fhccbfrq gb or tnl naq gung Wbff jnf naablrq ol uvf ynfg nccrnenapr va "Gur Tvey va Dhrfgvba" jvgu gur 3 srznyr fhcre zbqryf orpnhfr vg jrag ntnvafg uvf ivfvba bs Naqerj.
Uzzz vagrerfgvat V fjrne V ernq *fbzrbar* onfvpnyyl fgngr gung ur jnf abg tnl, ohg zber frkhny pbbxvr qbhtu (gb obeebj n zrgncube yby) va fcvgr bs npghny fhogrkg gb gur pbagenel vaqvpngvat ubzbfrkhnyvgl. Ohg hcba qbvat n yvggyr rkgen erfrnepu vg frrzf ng yrnfg ng fbzr-cbvag Wbff unf fnvq Naqerj jnf tnl, jurgure ur onpxgenpxrq yngre be vg jnf fbzrbar ryfr jub fnvq vg V nz abg fher (Vg jbhyq gnxr ernqvat guebhtu n 150 cntr guernq sbe gur pbzvpf ba GJbC gb cebonoyl svaq gur yvax fvapr gung vf jurer V guvax V ernq vg)
Ba gur bgure unaq sebz zl erfrnepu gelvat gb svaq gur gehgu V jnf npghnyyl qvfgheorq ol Wbff' pnfgvat ernfbaf (uggc://ra.jvxvcrqvn.bet/jvxv/Naqerj_Jryyf#Frkhnyvgl)
"Gbz unf n ovg bs n srl guvat tbvat ba va uvf crefban gung, lbh xabj, lbh pna'g ernyyl qral. Jura V svefg ybbxrq ng uvf nhqvgvba gncr, V fnvq 'BX, ur, hu, ur frrzf xvaqn tnl. Qb jr jnag gb znxr gung qrpvfvba [nobhg gur punenpgre]? Gurer'f ab ernfba jul ur pbhyqa'g or, fb, terng, yrg'f cvpx gur shaavrfg npgbe.' […] Gur punenpgre orpnzr irel punezvat va uvf pbzcyrgr ynpx bs njnerarff nobhg, nzbat bgure guvatf, uvf bja frkhnyvgl."
Gur snpg gung gurl whqtrq Yrax yvxr gung onfrq whfg ba uvf nhqvgvba gncr ohtf zr, ohg gura gur qrpvfvba gb znxr gur punenpgre tnl naq gung gurl arrqrq gur shaavrfg npgbe gb or pnfg sbe gung orpnhfr fbzrubj tnl zra ner nhgbzngvpnyyl shaal sbe fbzr ernfba… whfg znxrf zr obvy. Abg gur zragvba gung gurl arire unir vg shyyl fgngrq va fubj vf irel naablvat pbf gurl erqhpr vg gb gur naablvat "bu ybbx vfa'g ur tnl! gung'f uvynevbhf!" wbxr
I love what this comment chooses to be.
Naq lrnu, Wbff snyyf vagb n cerggl fgrerbglcvpny Fgenvtug Pvf Thl cnggrea jura vg pbzrf gb dhrre jbzra i dhrre zra.
"ur jevgrf vg pbf ur YVXRF gur vafgrnq bs jevgvat gurz gb or shyy punenpgref"
GUVF VF ZL OVTTRFG CEBOYRZ JVGU JURQBA, ubyl fuvg. Ohssl nf n punenpgre vf snveyl oevyyvnag naq ahnaprq (gubhtu jung ur pbzrf gb qb jvgu ure vf yrff fb VZB), ohg va trareny, ur qbrfa'g jevgr jbzra gung ner fgebat fb zhpu nf ur jevgrf Fgebat Jbzra (Bzt Ybbx Fur'f Fb Onqnff Vfa'g Vg Ubg Thlf) va zl bcvavba.
Ur'f tbvat gb UNGR "Cnatf" jura ur trgf gb Frnfba 4.
This episode is so strange, and silly, and it has some seriously problematic treatment of race. I mostly skip it on re-watches. Here, have a small list of things I actually do like about Inca Mummy Girl:
1. Oz. Oz, recognizing Willow's awesomeness from the start. I love you, Oz.
2. Buffy's "I'm so stuffy, give me a scone." Hee hee.
3. The bonding moment between Buffy and Xander at the end. Aw.
…yeah, that's pretty much it. Even when this show isn't great, it has good moments, but still. I wish episodes like this didn't happen.
Oh I love that bonding moment at the end! And don't they kind of make faces right before the credits roll, like, "Yeesh, that got heavy for a minute!" (As I assume two teenagers would do if they suddenly talked seriously about their emotions.)
Yeah, I like how they stare at each other for a second and their faces kind of fall. It's a nice moment of acting from the pair of them, because you can interpret that pause in a number of ways. After all, they've just acknowledged that there are unrequited feelings between them (Xander's "Present company excluded, I have the worst taste in women.."). Is there some regret there? Or is it, as you say, a recognition of the seriousness of the moment, a kind of teenage, "Whew we talked it out, let's go do something less angsty now." Who knows? I enjoy ambiguity.
I will just let this speak for me (In the Heights stans unite):
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/CHYLw.jpg">
Glorious.
Aw, I like the second one. The third one can DIAF though.
I've heard ok things about the second one and that the third one is so bad it's good. Or it could just be BAD.
I like some so bad it's good films but no, it's just bad. Really, really not the fun kind bad.
Is that the one where someone hallucinates a velociraptor on an airplane? I have no idea if any part of what I wrote is in the movie, but I've heard something like that happens and it just sounds WEIRD o_O
The second one is all right, but I loved the book, and it shares exactly ONE SCENE with that book. And there was so much cool shit in the book! WHY WOULDN'T YOU PUT CHAMELEON DINOSAURS IN THE MOVIE??
THERE WERE CHAMELEON DINOSAURS!!!!
I think I may need to track this book down.
I've also only read the first book! I'M A TERRIBLE FAN IN ALL THE WAYS!! 🙁
Why does the movie only share ONE scene with the book? Why would they cut out chameleon dinosaurs? None of these things make sense.
Hah, personally I enjoyed the movie more than the book. The movie wasn't the Best Thing Ever, but it was fun and the plot made sense, which is more than I can say for the book.
Ampata – third person of color that I remember who dies in the series. First was the bouncer, second was the teacher in School Hard.
Everything in this episode regarding culture is wrong and horrible. The one unbelievable thing that stands out is Giles thinks Ampata can translate ancient Incan pictograms? Bad enough to have Buffy suggest it, but she's supposed to be very dumb about certain things. But Giles? I guess because I'm Puerto Rican I can decipher Arawak symbols, and Egyptian hieroglyphics.
I actually didn't mind Xander at all except for the jealousy again. For one thing, this time he wasn't so eager to ditch Willow or treat her like second best. He was still intending to go with her to the dance. And he was at least assertive about his interest in Ampata, and goofily fun. I felt bad that his one romantic relationship turned out so crappily. Then the terrible ending music took it all away.
I'm happy with Oz.
Also seeing that Cordelia is randomly hanging around them without her posse, even if it's just to be mean. In a shallow note, I don't like how her hair seems to be lightening. I prefer it black.
Don't forget to count Ampata's bodyguard, so she's actually number four.
Charisma Carpenter actually decided to go blonder at one point, and someone (Joss?) told her no, you can't look like Buffy, you have to stay dark. So she went back to dark. I prefer her dark as well – it works better with her coloring.
Naq gura jr trg ure rkgraqrq oybaq cunfr ba Natry naq V xvaqn unir gb fnl gung jnf gur jbefg unve rire.
Lrnu, vg xvaq bs vf.
"Gur tbireazrag tnir zr onq unve!"
I meant the real Ampata. I always felt sorry for this guy. The imposter Ampata would then make the fifth.
Oh, yeah. So five so far. *shakes head* And we may be forgetting some, too.
V guvax gurl pnyy gurzfryirf gur Gevb? VQX. Nyy V xabj vf gung V ybirq Naqerj va frnfba 7. "Fgbelgryyre" vf bar bs zl snibevgr frnfba 7 rcvfbqrf naq ur'f cerggl snohybhf nf n "thrfg-ntr" va gur Ohssl urnq dhnegref.
V gubhtug vg jnf zber njshy, gbb. Cbbe Knaqre. Ur arire ernyyl unq n tbbq sngure-svther. Tvyrf arire frrzrq vagrerfgrq naq Knaqre qbrf pbzzrag nobhg jnagvat gb unir Tvyrf nf n sngure svther ohg univat gb zbir ba va Erfgyrff.
It’s hard to remember that Seth Green was pretty much unknown at this time. The first Austin Powers film had been released that summer, but it wasn’t a big hit in the theater. And now he’s the show’s equivalent of Harrison Ford in Star Wars, the one actor where you don’t immediately think of Buffy when you hear his name. Well, maybe Alyson Hannigan has that now, thanks to How I Met Your Mother.
And Tony Head!
And Boreanaz with Bones? Actually I haven't watched any of the later shows where these guys appear, save the period when I followed Robot Chicken.
I never much liked this episode, it has just this fillery feel to it.
However I tryed to find some positve things in this re-watch:
-Xander beeing loved back by a girl; I know he gets a lot of (sometimes deserved) fan dislike,
but after "We are doomed" I pretty much wanted happy relationships for all Slayeretts.
This one didn't end happy (whfg yvxr aba bs gur Ohssliref ernygvbafuvcf jvyy ) but it was at least a litte boost for his self-esteem.
-Sven the complete troll, who let Cordy ramble on without informing her that he did in fact speak English
– Willow the eskimo, she is simply the cutest thing ever
-Xander's love for Willow, I can't say ho much I love their freindship (naq bu vg vf fb jbaqreshy gung Knaqre'f ybir sbe Jvyy arire jniref, vg jvyy fnir gur jbeyq fbzr qnl!)
– mummys that are not as Willow says "in white badages", because yes, there are mummys around the world, not all of them are pretty
-BM naq Qvatbf ngr zl onol! Gur jbaqreshy ba-fubj onaq naq gur jrerjbys jub ybirf tveyf va jrveq pbfghzrf.
-Wbanguna! V unir gb cnl zber nggnagvba gb uvz guvf gvzr nebhaq, V nyjnlf frrz gb zvff gur yvggyr Ehaavat Tnt.
So all in all, not the best episode, but I've seen worse. Naq jr jvyy frr jbefr. Gur arkg rcvfbqr sbe rknzcyr.
I always wondered how Sven and Cordelia worked. There should be fic to fill it in. Maybe she never let him get a word in, or he's just very awkward?
Xander gets a lot of fan hate? 🙁 He's one of my favorite characters, haha. Though to be fair, I love EVERYONE in this show's core cast.
Xander gets a lot of fan hate. You can go look at some of the comments to earlier entries around here to see some of it.
On the other hand, Xander also gets a lot of fan love. There's the "Xander can do no wrong!" people and the "Xander can do no right!" people. IMO? Xander is human. He's not always right, but he's not always wrong either.
I honestly love everybody, including the people I love to hate (Snyder is an awesome character, though a complete asshole who I would abhor as my principal). Out of characters who appear more than once (one-shot characters don't quite count – we never really get a chance to know them), I can only think of one who I dislike as a character (Nqnz), and that's because he outright bores me. Everyone else is interesting enough to be, well, interesting.
Yeah, race and culture in this episode, I don't even know. How did they think this was a good idea?
"Ampata, you're from South America; you must speak South American."
On the other hand, the dress up as caricatures and stereotypes party did seem like something high schoolers would come up with. Especially in strangely-white-for-southern-California Sunnydale.
That reminds me that I posted a link yesterday, which is more relevant today: http://meloukhia.net/2010/12/feminism_and_joss_wh…
I should have posted it earlier.
And a bus depot, or whatever it was called.
V jnf nobhg gb fnl "Jryy, ng yrnfg gurl qba'g gel guvf ntnva," ohg gura V erzrzorerq Cnatf.
Ng yrnfg jr pna ybbx sbejneq gb … bu, jnvg, Ercgvyr Obl vf arkg? Qnza, pna vg whfg or Sevqnl nyernql?
Bah, my wonderfully witty and insightful comment has disappeared 🙁
I see it! It's still on page one.
Well, you've exposed my "witty and insightful" lie … but why can't *I* see it lol???
I really loved the last scene between Xander and Buffy. I find them more adorable and interesting than Buffy/Angel and Xander/Willow. Their scenes together are filled with fun and lovely tension. Too bad Buffy isn't in love with him, I'd have shipped them like no body's business.
I seriously debated not watching this episode. MOSTLY BECAUSE I CAN NOT KEEP UP WITH TWO BLOGS. MARK YOU ARE KILLING ME. I'm officially a week behind on Markreads.
But I did and now I'm filled with only happy feelings about Oz. You didn't give Oz enough points. Also Cordelia/Sven need some pointage (both positive and negative). Oz's band in general should get "90s hilarity" points.
Ur vf cebonoyl bar bs gur srj punenpgref jub svyy zr jvgu bayl unccl srryvatf… V zrna n ovg bs fnqsnpr srryvatf gbjneq gur raq ohg… trarenyyl cerggl qnea unccl srryvatf.
<3 I love you all, so glad you're enjoying the gif.
So my first tire-screechy thought upon rewatching this episode (aside from the face-palminess of Xander assuming Ampata doesn't speak English) was this: Someone at Sunnydale High, possibly Snyder, thought it would be a good idea to welcome all the foreign exchange students at a dance in which the (mostly white) students dress up as cultural stereotypes.
<img src="http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab351/Mad_icons/fozziefacepalm.gif" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
And then Xander shows up in a sombrero
<img src="http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab351/Mad_icons/gottobekidding.gif" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
Things I did like:
1.) Touching important shit in a museum will GET YOU KILLED. YES! Oh if only this was true for all the people who touch the freaking Roman sculpture at my state's art museum. And the people who try to walk off with stuff. I wish they could set up some mummified asshole in a glass case with a sign reading 'TOUCH IT AND DIE".
2.) Willow being adorable as always, and that parka. Also the fact that Oz also finds it cute.
3.) The way they avoided making Ampata a clearly good or clearly evil character, and drew parallels between her and Buffy.
4.) The absurdity of Puffy Shirt Guy.
But seriously writers, CHECK YOUR SHIT. This is one of those things I remember being okay, rewatch, and go "HOLY STEREOTYPES BATMAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING".
I love this whole comment and everything in it. <3
Oh, well coming from you I consider that to be very high praise, so thank you. 🙂
So much word on the no touching. It's basic common sense. Just leave. It. Alone.
In fairness, Xander was dress as Clint Eastwood rather than a Mexican.
Actually Xander said he meant to dress as someone from Leone, in Italy. I looked it up just now and I'm not sure which Leone he means, but it's real. http://sicilia.indettaglio.it/eng/comuni/me/capri… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capri_Leone http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g675638-San_Le…
Also, Cordelia dressed in a stereotypical Hawaii outfit, and Hawaii was an independent nation until the 1890s. That's kind of clever of her.
Yes, Xander was referencing Sergio Leone, director of most of Clint Eastwood's early "spaghetti" westerns. He was being a lazy high school boy and dressing like Clint Eastwood. Possibly because he didn't know any better fvapr ur'f arire orra gur oevtugrfg Penlbyn naq ur unf penccl cneragf jub arire yvsgrq n svatre gb uryc uvz evfr nobir gung.
Oh, I thought he was being clever, because there are real places in Italy called Leone. I miss many pop culture references.
"Tire-screechy" is a perfect way to put it.
Another thing I've always wondered about is, how long are those foreign exchange students supposed to be in Sunnydale?
I mean, I don't know about you, but if I'm going to have to spend half a day on an airplane to get somewhere, then I want to be assured that I'll spend at least a few weeks, if not a month or more in said place.
They spend two weeks. Which isn't unheard of. When I was in high school I was in a program that sent me to Mexico for ten days. I did it over Spring Break, so I wouldn't miss any of my school, but I still got a small experience living with a Mexican family and attending a Mexican school.
I also don't have much problem flying all day to spend a weekend somewhere. Like, say, traveling from DC to San Francisco for a friend's wedding. It's not the best situtation, but it's not the end of the world
maybe I'm just not used to flying. Spending one hour in a plane on the way to stay with my sister stresses me out enough as it is. (though I do admit that I tend to add at least three hours to that in regards to getting to the airport and being there early)
(still better than taking the train through the tunnel and then from London to Southampton…)
Ah, yeah, I've had one-hour and even 1.5 hour flights as part of a commute before (and once after) an 8 hour day of work. Flying is definitely something I'm used to.
I did a 13-hour-flight from Munich to LA for a two weeks stay with an American family (and about three days of high school visiting, the rest was ~cultural~ tours). Our teachers were crafty/assertive/persuasive enough though and managed to add five days at a youth hostel in San Francisco, too, but yeah, on the whole, it's definitely possible to do this kind of short exchange.
Last night I was watching this episode on my laptop while my sister was watching this week's How I Met Your Mother on the tv in the same room. I hear Alyson Hannigan and I WAS SO CONFUSED because she wasn't even in the Buffy scene I was watching and… it took me way too long to figure out what was happening…
And for anyone who cares "Puzzles" was pretty darn brilliant…
DID THEY FINALLY OPEN A BAR CALLED PUZZLES
Erm… I don't want to say anything for fear of spoiling. JUST GO WATCH IT.
I disagree with everyone here on the treatment of ethnicity. I thought it was intentionally poking fun at the silly assumptions our heroes were making about other cultures. It's not just the most obvious ones, like Cordelia's treatment of Sven and her assumption that he doesn't speak English (I liked the 'twist' in this one), or way Xander first addresses 'Ampata' (which was a bit OTT, I agree), but also the dance (it's probably Snyder's idea just like the puppet show and the teacher/parent night and every other atrocity in the school, so of course it's cringeworthy, what do you expect?), Xander's stereotypical expectation about "Latin lover", and the way that everyone treats 'Ampata'. It's hilarious that Giles and Buffy expect her to know an ancient Incan language just because she's from Peru – but the joke is that she only knows the language because she's an ancient Incan princess. And nobody is surprised when she's being so overwhelmed by the life around her and talks about how awful her life back home is, and how little space she had – because they see her as a stereotypical person from the "third world" and expect her to be overwhelmed by how wonderful USA is…. While in fact, she's talking like that because she used to be a mummy stuffed in a coffin and literally had no life and no space. It does make our heroes look a bit stupid, but if they didn't have prejudices and stereotypical assumptions about people from other countries, they would've much sooner realized something was up with 'Ampata'.
and how little space she had – because they see her as a stereotypical person from the "third world" and expect her to be overwhelmed by how wonderful USA is…. While in fact, she's talking like that because she used to be a mummy stuffed in a coffin and literally had no life and no space.
What's kind of horrifying about that is that it strongly implies she was actually conscious in her coffin for five centuries. I don't know if there's a good fanwank around it (because it would be less nightmare fuelish to think that she woke up only when the plate was broken), but a lot of the things she says definitely hint at that idea that she knew more about her situation for a long time.
No, she also knows the major cities she went to and learned English by listening to museum-goers. She was definitely conscious in that coffin. Makes her a bit more sympathetic (and her ending a little less horrible, since it seems like she actually dies and gets some peace)
This scorecard is pretty much exactly how I feel about this episode. It is both a great episode and a terrible episode at the same time.
Yeah, I have mixed feelings on this episode. Obviously all the race and general ignorance issues when it comes to Not Americans – the freaking out over ~*~exchange students omg~*~ is really bizarre to me, though I think my personal favorite moment of silliness is actually when Giles just expects that Ampata could translate the disc. Like. You're from the same area-space-thing! Obviously you would speak the language of this particular, centuries-old civilization, despite that only a small minority of people in your country actually speak the language that was derived over time from the language this civilization used and… yes. That just struck me as odd. She could have certainly been from an indigenous group in what was the unnamed country she was from who happened to also have the knowledge to be helpful with that, or otherwise had that knowledge, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me to just assume that. (Given that the story was based off an actual mummy found in Peru, I assumed we were supposed to infer that the other characters at least thought she was Peruvian.)
On the other hand, I did appreciate the implications Amapta's story itself had in terms of this notion of a woman being robbed of her choices and put in a specific position because of some perceived or real overwhelming social need. Buffy compared it to finding out about the prophecy, but the bottom line is, it also implicates just her being the Slayer. She didn't get to choose to be the Slayer, and in many ways it diminishes a lot of options she would otherwise have. It's a rather gendered way of viewing her position in the story and Buffy as a heroic figure, both in problematic and I think to an extent somewhat beneficial ways. Problematically, it undermines Buffy's agency and makes her the target of a form of social pressure; on the other hand, I also know that this feeling of being forced into a particular role due to some real or constructed social need was something I deeply related to, and I think it's very likely I wouldn't have felt the same way if Buffy's life were represented as if she were in a gender equitable world. But if you're going to deal in a construct that is inherently unequal or problematic, then you have to call it what it is, which is something that I think this episode actually does rather pointedly, and therefore I do have to have some respect for it.
Naq bs pbhefr, yngre ba jr svaq bhg gung vg jnf onfvpnyyl gur fnzr jvgu gur Fynlre orvat perngrq ol n Tebhc Bs Zra Pncghevat N Tvey Naq Sbepvat Ure Gb Gnxr Ba Guvf Ebyr, fb… lrnu.
I hate that bit. (Your rot-13'd part)
But I love this comment.
OZ OZ OZ OZ OZ OZ OZ OZ OZ OZ OZ
Yeah, pretty much my only thoughts on this episode besides "UGH COULD YOU BE ANY MORE RACIST?!"
OZZZZZ! BECAUSE HE LIKES WILLOW BECAUSE OF HER ADORKABLE ESKIMO OUTFIT.
Yeeeeeeeeeeah. Not the best episode out there, for sure. I definitely have issues with the way Xander treats a male foreign exchange student staying with Buffy versus the way he acts when she turns out to be female. I do, however, like that he's willing to give that up for Willow, even if he's not in love with her. I don't know. The whole thing is…screwy.
Other winning things: Sven. I love his conversation about how Cordelia treats him, because it's hilariously awesome.
The parka! And the fact that that's what Oz likes! Every other costume is totally stereotyping, though, and it's clear that Willow is the only one who really tried for authenticity, other than Ampata…who is probably wearing the actual clothing she was buried in, which is both creepy and a question of how does it look that good? Does it get restored when she does?
Also, agreed on the Ampata story. She's evil, but at the same time, she's not. I feel bad that she was sacrificed for the good of the community, without giving a single thought to what SHE wanted out of life. At the same time, she kills people to get that life. :/
And moving on to some rot13!
Pbagvahvgl vffhrf gvzr!
Nalbar ryfr abgvpr gung Jvyybj vf cynlvat jvgu n fghssrq sebt va gung fprar ng gur yvoenel? (Gur bar jurer fur fnlf fur pna jnvg sbe Knaqre be abg.) Gurer tbrf gur sebt srne! Zl thrff vf gung gung jnfa'g rfgnoyvfurq lrg – nalbar unir nal vqrn jura vg JNF rfgnoyvfurq?
V guvax gurl qb trarenyyl trg orggre jvgu pbagvahvgl nf gur fubj tbrf ba, naq rfgnoyvfu zbfg bs vg ol gur raq bs frnfba 2, vvep. Ng yrnfg, gur Qneyn/Natry/Qehfvyyn/Fcvxr pbagvahvgl vf zber jbexrq bhg – orpnhfr gurl tvir gur 1753 naq 1860 qngrf va gur synfuonpxf qhevat Orpbzvat. Ohg ng guvf cbvag gurl frrz gb fgvyy or rfgnoyvfuvat gung – jvgu Natry orvat 240/241 naq Fcvxr orvat oneryl bire 200.
Nyfb: va V Ebobg, Lbh Wnar, Ohssl'f cebsvyr yvfgf ure oveguqnl nf…fbzrgvzr va Bpgbore. V jbhyq unir gb ybbx vg hc gb or pregnva, ohg V guvax vg jnf nebhaq Bpgbore 25gu? V'z thrffvat gurl gubhtug nobhg qbvat fbzrguvat gura naq ernyvmrq gurl jnagrq gb qb n Unyybjrra rcvfbqr vafgrnq…naq gura unq gur Fhecevfr/Vaabprapr vqrn.
Vagrerfgvat gb frr gurfr guvatf gubhtu, vfa'g vg?
V abgvprq gur sebt guvat evtug bss gur ong! V guvax vg'f zragvbarq va Jung'f Zl Yvar, jura fur sryy nfyrrc erfrnepuvat gur Beqre bs Gnenxn va gur yvoenel naq Tvyrf jnxrf ure hc.
Naq lrnu, vg'f vagrerfgvat gb frr nyy gur pbagvahvgl bqqvgvrf gung gur fubj unq rneyl ba.
vg vf! v whfg tbbtyrq "v unir sebt srne" naq gurer vg jnf! vg'f va "jung'f zl yvar, cg. 1". bu, vagrearg, lbh unir nyy gur guvatf.
Lrnu, vg jnf zl svefg gubhtug! "Gung'f n fghssrq sebt! Jul vf Jvyybj cynlvat jvgu n fghssrq sebt?"
Bs pbhefr, Znex (naq gur bgure havavgvngrq :C) cebonoyl whfg fnj vg nf Jvyybj cynlvat jvgu n phgr fghssrq gbl.
v pna frr jvyybj qbvat gur "v unir sebt srne" yvar va zl urnq, ohg v pna'g erzrzore juvpu rcvfbqr vg'f sebz. nyfb, v pna'g erzrzore vg rire orvat oebhtug hc ntnva. gung jnf fhpu n phgr fprar, gubhtu, jvgu tvyrf jnxvat ure hc naq ure nfxvat jul ur jnf va ure orqebbz. naljnl, v guvax vg'f gbjneq gur raq bs frnfba 2. vg'f qrsvavgryl frnfba 2. jvyybj unf ure ybat unve.
v unir bsgra jnagrq gb fvg qbja, jngpu nyy gur synfuonpxf va ohssl naq natry, naq znxr abgrf ba gurz, whfg fb v pbhyq fgevat gurz nyy gbtrgure naq znxr BAR OVT GVZRYVAR sbe fcvxr/ natry/ qneyn/ qehfvyyn, ohg gung jvyy gnxr fb zhpu rssbeg naq gvzr. v'z fher v'yy qb vg fbzr qnl, vs fbzrbar unfa'g orng zr gb vg (va snpg, jung nz v gnyxvat n obhg? guvf snaqbz? v'z fher fbzrbar unf qbar vg).
va "v, ebobg…lbh, wnar" gurl npghnyyl fubj gjb qvssrerag ovegu qngrf sbe ohssl va gur fnzr fprar. qvssrerag lrnef, rira.
Natry/Qneyn Gvzryvar.
Fcvxr/Natry Gvzryvar.
Fcvxr Gvzryvar.
Snatrq Sbhe Gvzryvar.
you, sir, deserve a cookie. or another pastry of your choosing.
ZOMG! I forgot all about snatrqsbhe.pbz! It was one of my favorite sites back in the day.
Vf vg gjb oveguqngrf? Gur frpbaq gvzr vg synfurf ol fb dhvpxyl, V oneryl unir gvzr gb ybbx. V whfg qvfgvapgyl erzrzore gung vg JNFA'G Wnahnel Avargrragu, 1980.
v hfrq gur cnhfr ohggba orpnhfr guvf vf jung v qb jvgu zl fcner gvzr 🙂 v sbetrg jung gurl jrer, fcrpvsvpnyyl, ohg v guvax bar jnf 1979 naq bar jnf 1980, naq arvgure bs gurz jrer gur ovegu qngr ohssl raqrq hc jvgu.
…Vfa'g gung jung fcner gvzr vf sbe?
Gur 1979 qngr znxrf ab frafr. Vg'f rfgnoyvfurq gung Ohssl vf fvkgrra va Jrypbzr gb gur Uryyzbhgu, naq vg'f rfgnoyvfurq gung fur'f fgvyy fvkgrra va Cebcurpl Tvey. Fb, nffhzvat gung gung pbiref Znepu-Whar 1997 (gur nvevat qngrf), Ohssl'f cbffvoyr oveguqngrf enatr sebz zvq-Whar 1980 gb yngr-Sroehnel 1981. Nf fur'f n fbcubzber ng gung cbvag, V'z eryhpgnag gb nterr jvgu gur Whar-Nhthfg 1980 qngrf, nf fur'q or n ovg byq gb or n fbcubzber (fur'q unir unq gb fgneg xvaqretnegra ng fvk, abg svir) hayrff fur jnf uryq onpx, juvpu nf sne nf jr xabj fur jnfa'g. Fb gung ernyyl yrnirf Frcgrzore 1980-Sroehnel 1981. 1979? Qbrf abg svg vagb gung ng nyy, hayrff fbzrbar tbg gurve zngu ernyyl ernyyl jebat.
Jung NER gur rknpg qngrf tvira va V Ebobg, Lbh Wnar? V'z phevbhf abj, ohg V'z ng jbex fb V pna'g purpx zl QIQf. *unyb*
qnatvg! v qba'g unir gur vagrearg ng ubzr. V XABJ. v zrnag gb purpx gur QIQ ynfg avtug, ohg v tbg pnhtug hc ernqvat nzrevpna tbqf.
ohg lrnu, v gubhtug gur fnzr guvat jura v fnj gur rneyvre qngr, gung vg jbhyq znxr ohssl byqre guna fur jnf. gung'f whfg fybccl. vs gurl ner gnxvat gur gvzr gb chg vg ba fperra, gurer fubhyq or fbzr pner gnxra jvgu vg. v'z cerggl nolfzny ng zngu, ohg abg GUNG onq. un.
vs lbh unira'g purpxrq vg nyernql, v jvyy qb gung gbavtug orpnhfr v jvyy arire or noyr gb erfg hagvy v xabj abj!
10/24/80 and 5/6/79
i feel much better now.
Ahhhh. Lrnu, gur 1979 qngr vf whfg…fybccl. 1980 vf ng yrnfg jvguva gur ybtvpny ernyz, ohg 1979…fur'q or 17 ng gur ortvaavat bs gur frnfba naq 18 ng gur raq, juvpu…ab. Whfg ab.
Actually the most burning issue of continuity in this episode was Ampata saying she had no lipstick after using it in the bathroom (before killing the "bodyguard").
Oh, there are definitely minor continuity issues in a number of episodes (there's at least one I didn't notice til a fanfic pointed it out, but now I can't not notice it), ohg V jnf ybbxvat zber ng gur ovt cvpgher pbagvahvgl vffhrf – gur zlgubybtl barf. Bs pbhefr, gurl'er fgvyy orggre guna fbzr nhgubef V'ir ernq/GI fubjf V'ir frra, ohg gurer ner qrsvavgryl punatrf znqr.
I swear these reviews were posted around 6pm gmt and now its been really later for past 2 days 🙁
Another episode from my childhood I can remember cos the mummy freaked me out. Sucking the life out of you = BIG NO, THANK YOU! Although it was good that they at least acknowledged that it wasn't really her fault and it is sad she had to go through that when she should have had a normal life. 🙁
On plus side, OZ HI OZ YOU ARE AMAZING. that is all.
The posts used to always go up at 9pm GMT but Mark had to shift the time earlier due to server problems. Now that it's fixed he's put it back to it's normal time.
"The idea that to celebrate other cultures, a bunch of white people should dress up as caricatures of those other cultures, fostering stereotypes in the process: -5,000 points."
Sadly, this is actually pretty realistic of what happens at some predomently white schools. In my own school days I remember going to "Native American Camp" at a local park where we made "real" Native American crafts. Oh, there wasn't any actual Native Americans there. All run by white people.
Then there was the English teacher who though it was a great idea to have her students write their own slave narratives. I'm sure the one black student at our school was grateful he wasn't in her class.
And I remember the story from one of my education classes about the school that wanted to be more inclusive about the winter holidays. So the set up a second tree and decorated it with Stars of David and Menorahs. Then they invited a rabbi from a neighboring town to bless the tree. He turned them down and informed that Haunkah was not simply a Jewish version of Chirstmas.
I remember similar things from my predominantly white community. Ew.
Although I will say I can totally see HOW those things happen. Almost like overcompensating. It's icky if white teachers and community leaders etc. try to "assume" or portray another culture as if they know what they're talking about (and marginalize or make a mockery of that culture in the process). No doubt. But the people who try to 'whitewash' history or ignore/gloss over the gravity of things like slavery and the holocaust, etc. are also icky. I'm sure the teacher who asked students to write the slave narratives thought that she was encouraging awareness about something bad that happened in history, why it was so bad, and why it should never happen again. She just went about it in a really bass-ackwards and inappropriate way by assuming that white students could or should step into those shoes.
I know. When I did my student teaching, I ended up teaching The Education of Little Tree (mostly I believe because my supervising teacher didn't want to). Horrible racist implications with the novel aside, I found myself having to educate 8th graders on the Cherokee. It's a hard tight rope to walk.
Oh my god at the 'Jewish version of Christmas' thing, I see that SO MUCH and it just makes me go 'bwuh' every time.
Oz is awesome. But Spike>Oz. Vs bayl orpnhfr uvf nep ynfgrq fb zhpu ybatre naq unq fb zhpu pbzcyrkvgl.
I feel like Xander's loyalty and friendship with Willow deserves a million points. But that's just me. I think that's part of why I feel so compelled to defend him even when he's being a jerk – because it feels like that kind of fierce loyalty is such a rare quality to have, and is so precious when you find it. Even a few episodes ago in 'When She Was Bad', he may still love Buffy but he makes it VERY clear that if Buffy's actions made something happen to Willow, Xander would kill her (which yes, was probably/hopefully an exaggeration made out of anger, but I think it expresses the depth of his friendship with Willow pretty clearly).
I am personally kind of a sucker for that kind of loyalty, juvpu vf nyfb cneg bs jul V nofbyhgryl YBIR Fcvxr rira va yngre frnfbaf. I have known too many fickle friends in my life, so I'm more willing, I think, to forgive the flaws of the ones who demonstrate that kind of thing.
Loyalty is definitely Xander's best trait.
Loyalty and bravery! Xander is such a Gryffindor. 😉
I never thought about that, but YES Xander is most definitely a Gryffindor!
It really does take quite a lot of bravery to throw yourself into dangerous situations, even when you are scared (which Xander usually seems to be), especially when you don't have any superpowers.
I feel like some people would be tempted to put Xander in Hufflepuff given his "sidekick" status (and don't get me started on how annoying THAT particular HP trope is), but I don't think he fits the hard working diligence that characterizes the Hufflepuffs. Brave, sometimes to the point of foolishness – that's our Xander. And that makes him Gryffindor all the way.
Agreed!
N terng rknzcyr bs ubj ur'f ABG n Uhssyrchss – Onq Rttf. Jura ur uneq obvyf uvf rtt engure guna unir gb qb gur nffvtazrag yrtvgvzngryl. Ur qbrf unir n fgernx bs gur ynml 😉
I agree that Xander has generally been a good friend to Willow so far, regardless of how problematic his relationship is with Buffy. In my personal interpretation of the events, I honestly think he is aware that Willow has romantic feelings towards him but he tries to repress and ignore that knowledge because he doesn't know how to deal with it. He handles that… at times badly and at times pretty well. I don't think he can be blamed for not feeling the same for her any more than Buffy can be blamed for not wanting to be with Xander romantically. The basic fact that he doesn't have sexual interest in Willow but is instead attracted to someone else in this episode does not reflect negatively on him at all. It certainly does not diminish their friendship or his loyalty.
My personal version is similar, though not exactly the same as yours. I think he partly tries to repress and ignore, but another part of him does things like practice asking out Buffy in front of Willow BECAUSE he knows deep down that Willow likes him. Some part of him maybe thinks that if he only makes it more clear how he is interested in other girls that Willow will give up her crush.
Which is, of course, a horrifically terrible way to handle things, but one borne out of good intentions nonetheless.
But that's my own take on it.
I love what this comment chooses to be. Xander is one of my favorites, and to me he comes across as the emotional core of the team. Since he onfvpnyyl raqf hc gur bayl crefba gung vfa’g fhcre-cbjrerq be fhcreanghenyyl hfrshy va fbzr jnl, uvf angher nf n yblny sevraq pnhfrf uvz gb qrsnhyg gb n cbfvgvba nf gur ‘urneg’, gur bar ubyqvat rirelobql gbtrgure. Va n jnl, V svaq uvf ebyr gb or fvzvyne gb gur bar Xnlyrr cynlf va Sversyl. I can’t say I even begrudge him the way he feels about Buffy, because I know where he’s coming from. I was once a lovesick-and-strangely-entitled-without-justification teenager myself, and as annoying as it can be to watch him be all possessive of her when he’s in that mode, I GET it. Acting on those feelings is problematic, but it’s a flaw I manage to find endearing anyway. V svaq uvf qrirybczrag guebhtubhg gur frevrf gb or jryy-unaqyrq sbe gur zbfg cneg.
Rot13'd last sentence for expectation spoilers.
Yeah, I've never liked this episode. I actually was surprised it was as good as it was on rewatch, because I think of it as one of the TERRIBLE episodes. But really the only thing that I really like in the episode was Willow deciding Eskimo was the best costume ever, and the introduction of Oz and his reaction to Willow.
I had the same reaction on this viewing in regards to someone thinking it was a great idea for white people to dress up as stereotypical versions of other cultures. Just…how did that happen?
Although now that I think of it I remember having to dress up as OUR OWN ethnic heritage in elementary school and having to dress like the Swiss Miss Girl because my name is Swiss.
Also, was it incredibly obvious to anyone else that the "cursed seal" was just a dinner plate that the prop folks had painted? It's the white ceramic and the rim on the underside that give it away. It should not have been difficult to come up with something that looked a little more authentically ancient. < /archaeologist >
After IMDB-ing this episode because of Gil Birmingham (Gil, I'm sorry you had to be in Twilight), I learned that the actress playing Ampata is from my hometown 🙂
You've pretty much hit my scoring on this episode. There are some really problematic flaws here. But on the other hand there are some nice Willow moments. Plus OZ!
I really appreciate that the first time we see a guy "notice" Willow it's because she's neat and seems interesting, instead of her in a skimpy outfit from a "make over".
I love that our Monster of the Week can be someone that Buffy empathizes with, someone whose motives are understandable and sympathetic and have meaning even if it's part of Buffy's duty to stop them. That's what saves the episode for me. It really frustrates me and leaves me dissatisfied when supernatural-themed shows draw this line between humans & everyone else and write off even thinking of other creatures as 'people', writing them of as Evil or portraying them as inherently less worthy of life and liberty.
It's one thing when their interests are opposed to the protagonists, so of course they are fought and defeated, but I don't like it when the narrative itself takes the simplistic view of us vs them where 'them' are one-dimensional and easily dismissed caricatures. Sci-fi and fantasy makes me bored & sad when I feel like it's really just escapist entertainment where you Other and simplistically vilify a created species/culture in order to take the ambiguity out of cultural conflict, death, and war that would have been there if this was OUR world with OUR different types of people. I want it to make things less safe, not more. Sci-fi and fantasy are great ways to explore psychology, social justice, multiculturalism, gender issues, racism, ethnocentrism.. so deciding to instead take our reality and just dumb it down, giving your audience a nice, comfortable holy war in which your characters are unquestionably righteous… That's kind of missing the point, in my opinion.
And in this episode they got things right, despite all the skeevy race&culture issues.
V ernyyl nccerpvngr gung gur svefg gvzr jr frr n thl "abgvpr" Jvyybj vg'f orpnhfr fur'f arng naq frrzf vagrerfgvat, vafgrnq bs ure va n fxvzcl bhgsvg sebz n "znxr bire".
Bs pbhefr gur frpbaq gvzr ur abgvprf Jvyybj vg'f jura fur'f jrnevat n fxvzcl bhgsvg sebz n znxrbire. Ohg V guvax ur ernpgf zber gb ure pbasvqrapr va gung fprar
Not in the same league as "School Hard", perhaps, but a good episode. I was a teacher for 34 years (OK, admittedly in England, not California, but still…) and was involved in a lot of school exchanges. We *always* took them to museums, and the return visits were always taken to museums. Teachers are desperate to find "educationally meaningful" things to do which gets the entire mob out of school, because normal lessons sure as hell don't work.
That makes it +10 on your scale.
Then there's the Spanish to a Latina thing. If she is actually from Peru, isn't that OK? Polite, even?
Sorry – Spanish is not in any way a race thing over here in Europe; they are just people who get a bit more sun than us and have fabulous beaches.
Anyway, OZ and Eskimo!Willow – so adorable, both of them.
And Ampata is strongly hinted to be a Slayer – deepening the mythology all the time.
"And Ampata is strongly hinted to be a Slayer – deepening the mythology all the time."
…Huh, I never thought of it that way. But she's not fighting demons, is she? She's just…sacrificed. So I don't know that it's an explicit Slayer connection so much as a "chosen to do something that sucks and that you don't want to" connection.
It's this bit:
"Ampata: They told her that she was the only one. That only she could defend her people from the nether world. Out of all the girls in her generation… …she was the only one…
BUFFY: …chosen.
Ampata: Do you know the story?
BUFFY: It's fairly familiar.
Ampata: She was sixteen, like us. She was offered as a sacrifice and went to her death. Who knows what she had to give up to fulfill her duty to others? What chance at love? "
You really can't get much closer than that to saying she's a Slayer.
I agree that it sounds familiar, but what we know of Slayers is that they're fighters – "one born with the strength and skill to stop the vampires". Yes, Buffy was prophesied to die, but it was ambiguous as to whether or not the Master would die as well – as she said "maybe I'll take him with me." But it doesn't sound like Ampata had that sort of strength, so I'm not sure that she actually was a Slayer. I think it could be read that way, but it could also be ambiguous enough that she's not necessarily.
Yeah, it's a BIG race thing here in the US. Especially because of the whole immigration thing with Mexico. People talk about Mexicans "stealing our jobs" and how we should "build a fence" to keep them out–like there aren't enough of them dying in the desert right now–and that prejudice can bleed over into anyone who is Latin@ and/or speaks Spanish. It's only getting worse, too.
Ugh. I'd read about that law. South African-style apartheid rears its ugly head.
A Texan friend of mine assumed racism was at the heart of the BBC paying more attention to the Irish crisis than the Greeks. Really not so. We have racism enough here, Ghod knows (Stephen Lawrence, for example http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13441122) but not against Mediterranean folks – and the Spanish are part of that group. For me, assuming a girl from Peru speaks Spanish just makes sense – she's an exchange student, after all, not a Californian with South American forebears.
Heck, the only anti-Spanish thing we have going in England is a delayed grudge over the Armada and Philip of Spain. Both back in the 1580s! It explained why that never seemed an issue to me in this episode, though the whole international thing showed the school and students being crass. I'm still not entirely sure whether it's Whedon and team or Sunnydale High who are guilty of racefail.
I'd say it's definitely Whedon and co. You can depict racism without endorsing it, but there's nothing to suggest Whedon and co are doing anything but endorsing it in the episode; the party is clearly just supposed to be a fun dress-up party.
Zhgnag Rarzl qb frrz gb unir orra dhvgr oyvaq gb gur vzcyvpngvbaf bs enpr onpx va gur 90f, V nterr. V fhccbfr bar unf gb ybbx ng vg va gur pbagrkg bs n jbeyq (GI fubj-znxvat) va juvpu oynpx crbcyr jrer va fubjf sbe oynpx ivrjref naq juvgr crbcyr jrer va fubjf sbe juvgr ivrjref.
Ng yrnfg Ze Gevpx znxrf n pbzzrag nobhg gur rrevr juvgrarff bs Fhaalqnyr. V svaq gur cerqbzvanagyl juvg YN bs Natry rira bqqre, gubhtu. Cerfhznoyl crbcyr jrer whfg yrff yvxryl gb abgvpr fhpu vffhrf va Ubyyljbbq onpx gura?
Vg'f vagrerfgvat gb zr orpnhfr Ohssl fgnegrq ba gur JO, juvpu nf V erpnyy jnf n punaary jvgu frireny fubjf srnghevat cevznevyl oynpx crbcyr naq jevggra sbe oynpx ivrjref. Ohg gura ntnva gurl nyfb unq Qnjfba'f Perrx.
Zl vzcerffvba vf onfrq ba jungrire jnf vzcbegrq gb Oevgnva – n ybg bs HF cevzrgvzr fubjf ner gur sbqqre bs bhe qnlgvzr GI. Ng gur gvzr vg frrzrq nf vs HF fubjf unq rvgure na nyy-juvgr pnfg be na nyy-oynpx pnfg. Arire zvkrq. Vg arire bppheerq gb hf ng gur gvzr gung Pnyvsbeavn jnf zhpu zber zvkrq guna jnf cerfragrq, orpnhfr gur frtertngvba ba GI jnf fb nofbyhgr.
OZZZZ. See we had our Spike freak out yesterday, and today it is Oz. You will love them both muchly. I actually knew nothing about Seth Green before I saw him on this show, and I became a fan of his entirely because of it.
Lbh xabj, V ybir Bm, V ybir uvz zber univat erpragyl erjngpurq gur svefg gjb frnfbaf. Ohg jvgu nyy gur erfcbafrf gb Bm va gur pbzzragf V'ir orra jbaqrevat vs qbvat fb vfa'g frevbhfyl fcbvyvat Znex. Orpnhfr vg tvirf uvz rkcrpgngvba fcbvyref nobhg ubj njrfbzr Bm vf tbvat gb or.
V jbeevrq gur fnzr ynfg rc, ohg ng yrnfg gura Znex ng yrnfg unq nyernql urneq Fcvxr'f anzr orsber.
fnzr gubhtugf. v ebg13'q zl bm ybir.
My reaction to this episode was basically "SETH GREEEEEEEEN!… oh and other stuff yawn". Definitely not one of my favorites. I love Oz though! He's definitely in my top 5 favorite characters list. Which is getting pretty crowded, now that I think about it… let's see….
1. Xander
2. Willow
3. Oz
4. Cordy
5. Spike
Natry hfrq gb or va gurer, hagvy V tbg gb frnfba guerr naq gura V jnf whfg yvxr FGBC JVGU GUR QENZN NYERNQL. Gura Bm gbbx uvf cynpr.
If it isn't obvious, I don't have much to say about this episode…
Great, now I’m tempted to count if the points add up to 0.
Qnvyl Qnja Guernq!
Ohssl gbgnyyl onaarq Qnja sebz zhzzvrf. Naq cbffvoyl Creh. (Gubhtu, xabjvat Ohssl, fur znl unir onaarq ure sebz, yvxr, Rphnqbe, hagvy Qnja cbvagrq bhg gung gur zhzzl ng gur zhfrhz jnf sebz Creh naq vg jnf pbby naljnl.)
Unun, arj crefbany pnaba. Fur cebonoyl gevrq rkcnaqvat gur ona gb nyy zhfrhzf, nf jryy, juvpu jbhyq naabl Qnja, nf fur'f zhpu zber bs n Jvyybj-l fpubby naq xabjyrqtr-bevragrq glcr, jurernf Ohssl vf Cbvagl Fgvpx Tvey.
V org Qnja jbhyq or ernyyl vagrerfgrq va Nzcngn jura fur neevirq. Cerggl byqre zlfgrevbhf pbby tvey! Fur gbgnyyl sbyybjrq ure nebhaq naq gevrq ernqvat hc ba Crehivna phygher fb fur'q frrz rqhpngrq naq fzneg. Cebonoyl ng bar cbvag fur gbyq Ohssl fur jvfurq Nzcngn jnf ure byqre fvfgre vafgrnq (abg va n greevoyl phggvat naq zrna jnl, whfg va na rknfcrengrq-lbhatre-fvfgre jnl, gb naabl Ohssl).
Bs pbhefr fur qvq. Naq Nzcngn npghnyyl yvfgrarq gb ure, orpnhfr bs pbhefr fur'f vagrerfgrq va yrneavat rirelguvat nobhg zbqrea yvsr, fb Qnja jnf noyr gb gryy ure nyy nobhg urefrys jvgubhg orvat oehfurq bss, gur jnl Ohssl jbhyq oehfu ure bss. Fb boivbhfyl Qnja jbhyq jnag gb fcraq zber gvzr jvgu ure.
Nyy bs gurfr? Cresrpg.
This is an episode that I usually skip during re-watching marathons. This time is no different. I've skipped it so often that I had completely forgotten it introduced Oz. I might have to rethink my skipping policy, and watch it again for this reason alone! Warning: If Oz mysteriously disappears from any future viewings of this episode, it is because I have kidnapped him and forced him into a non-governmentally sanctioned marriage with me.
So I don’t have much to say about it this episode. It was good. A little sad, a little creepy and a little…forgettable I guess? I'm not really loving the Xander centric stuff TBH. Only a few things really jumped out at me:
– That guy who was checking out Willow. I think his friend called him Oz? Unless that’s a nickname or something. But anyway, since that whole subplot (if it can be called that) wasn’t wrapped up in this episode I feel like it’ll become more important later on. I’m actually totally on board with Willow dating someone else, especially since Xander seems to go for girls based solely on looks and Willow can really do better. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t HATE Xander, but I’m intrigued by the idea that this guy likes Willow because she’s not afraid to be different, not in spite of it. Also, if she does hook up with someone else, it will be another of my predictions confirmed! I’m really racing through them at the moment! Must make more next season!
– Giles gets knocked unconscious a whole lot. I know there’s someone on here keeping count but I mean…even I’M starting to notice and I’m pretty new to the show. Could he just through one episode without being taken out by the monster of the week? The guy’s gonna end up with brain damage! He’s like the Worf of Buffy.
– No Spike boooooo. I know he can’t be in every episode but I’m really excited to see what he does next.
WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP SAYING 'WBANGUNA'??
WHAT DOES IT MEAN IN ROT13???
It's clearly something important.
Well to be fair, it's a pretty fun word to say if you pronounce it out loud. WBANGUNA. WBANGUNA. WBANGUNA.
I was actually saying it during the episode because I mentally worked out the rot13 while watching in preparation to make "WBANGUNA!" my first comment.
Then I forgot to do that.
A laguna with a WBAN, ;P
I KNOW! ITS SO FRUSTRATING!
And I have to avoid looking at it to long or else my brain will translate it for me.
😀 😀 😀 I LOVE WBANGUNA
…There are people who DON'T love WBANGUNA?
If there are, they are not commenting on this post!
I'm someone whose seen all seven seasons and I almost didn't want to rot13 it just because it sounded so cool. Especially the people saying it with an exclamation mark afterwards. WBANGUNA!
It means, "Don't eat the chili."
Sunil, you win the thread. Have a cookie.
GABRIEL KNIGHT FOREVER!
One more thing about the exchange – apparently it's international with people from many different countries. Is that, like, a ~thing~ that actually exists? Because afaik, exchanges are usually between two specific schools, to, y'know, fuck shit less up (also, none of them come with guardians (mummy bodyguards don't count) of some sort, I doubt any actual school would let that happen).
Unless I'm misunderstanding your comment, that's definitely a real thing. My high school has exchange students from every continent (except Australia, I think), and they stay with host families for the year while they study here.
Yeah, I know it's that way with year-long exchanges, but this ep has the type that's more of an extended field trip, so it seems kinda weird to me.
HELLO OZ! Love you FOREVER!
I think that this episode wouldn’t have been such a let down if it didn’t follow School Hard. After the introduction to Spike and Drucilla everything else just seems dull.
I guess it makes sense; James Marsters and Juliet Landau are the only classically trained theater actors on the show and they just have that energy that draws you to them as well as the fact that they had their characters figured out completely from the get-go.
Aside from Anthony Stewart Head, you mean?
Eh, this episode was… eh.
Though I did have this reaction: SETH GREEN!! Is he a recurring character?! (Don't answer that.) I really hope so!
I have read Mark's Blog before, and never commented. However, this is the first time that I decided to watch something along with Mark because I always wanted to watch Buffy. Thanks to pop-culture osmosis, I probably know more, but I will be careful. I do not regret watching it now that it is in the second season. Now, I want to watch episodes ahead of time.
This episode, what a sub-par follow-up to the introduction of Spike. I liked very little about the "Inca Mummy Girl." I liked Seth Green's character, and his adorable crush on Willow. Willow is just cute. Who could deny that? And the Incan Princess as a character is interesting to me. I empathize with her, easily. I like her character, just not the myth surrounding her character.
The execution was so horrible.
What has been said about the cringe-worthiness of this episode, has been said.
Giles, your are an awesome character, adorable, nerdy, and a good mentor, so I will blame the writer's for this research failure instead of you. However, if you wanted help deciphering the ancient Incan written language, the first thing you should have looked up was that the Incan do NOT have a recorded written language, OR if they did, it has been lost to the times. Incan recorded information with khipu (knot tying), and the art of deciphering khipu has been lost. However, we still have khipu knots with different colored threads and intricate knot work that confuses modern day scholars. It is much cooler than a boring plate!
I think they were going for Classical Mayan glyphs, but that has a whole other set of problems.
Just watching every scene of the "archeological club" trying to decipher Incan writing is painful. Especially since it was unfair that I did not have an archeological club. So unfair.
I absolutely agree that khipu are fascinating and cool. I was just reading about them a couple days ago. And on a completely shallow note, they're pretty to look at.
The Mayan writing system had just begun to be deciphered at the time that episode was aired, right? Probably not ressources that even Giles would've had at hand back then.
1982. So the information was around for a while before Buffy. I do not know how available it was, but for many years, it was considered a lost language.
Khipo is so fascinating, and I think it is pretty to look at too. After posting, I googled pictures!
Loss of ancient languages/knowledge of their scripts weirdly gets to me, ngl (though obviously it's not as saddening as the current rate of language loss 😐 ). I want to know all the things about Linear A, or Etruscan!
There are definitely worse things you could spend your time googling!
Cute episode but honestly a throwaway ep. I have no real feelings on the matter except for this: OZ IS HERE! Yeah, I love Oz, sorry.
Never apologise for loving Oz!
This is one of my least favourite episodes in the show as far as I've seen, to be honest. Some of it is sweet, some of it is funny, and the scone line is in my top five. But- why do they assume she would be able to read the ancient script (because it was, right, I wasn't missing something?) because she comes from SOMEWHERE in South America? What the fuck was that dress-up party? Why does nothing in this episode actually make sense when you look at it long enough?!
In general, the whole thing just feels like it has a blistering lack of self-awareness, which just feels so out of place on a show like Buffy.
Bs pbhefr, Ohssl fhpxf ng guvf va trareny gou. Frr nyfb: Xraqen'f fprar jurer Ohssl zbpxf ure npprag.
On the plus side, Seth Green, who will forever be Joker from Mass Effect to me. So: yay!
Well, they are a bit unclear on whether it's a script (which the Incas did not have), or if it's pictures that they need to interpret. Either way, the assumption that Ampata can help them with translation / interpretation there is, uh, non-logical at best.
Abg gb zragvba gur ovg va Erfgyrff jurer fur gryyf gur Svefg Fynlre gung ure unvefglyr jbhyqa'g or bssvpr nccebcevngr. NHTU.
Htu htu htu, JUNG. Gung vf fb OYNGNAG. Ubj pna fbzrbar ybbx ng fghss yvxr gung naq abg tb, 'bxnl, gung'f enpvfg'?!
Bxnl, V'z cbfgvat guvf urer vafgrnq bs ba gur Fureybpx cbfg fb gung ur qbrfa'g cvrpr vg gbtrgure gung uvf pbzzragf ba frkhnyvgl jbhyq fhesnpr ntnva va Ohssl.
Onfvpnyyl, uvf pbzzragf ba Verar'f frkhnyvgl ner whfg nabgure ernfba gung V nz FB SHPXVAT NAKVBHF sbe uvz gb trg gb Gnen va gur sbhegu frnfba bs Ohssl.
Most shows have some failed episodes, at least Buffy fails with over the top silliness, and Willow in a parka.
Well said. Agree 100%.
Final Score: 0 points. I felt good things, I felt bad things, and when you get right down to it, I am so conflicted in my sensations of joy and anger that they cancel one another out.
So…basically you had many many feelings?
I <3 Oz. So much. And Seth Green was in the X-Files 😀
Re: the dance, As much as it might not be the most aware and respectful thing for the writers to do, it doesn't seem remotely unbelievable to me that something like that would realistically happen in a hs setting like that.
My hs (in california, probably pretty close to where Sunnydale would be) didn't do a dance like that, but we did do themed dress up days for homecoming week. There was at least one or two of those days during my four years there where that theme was 'multi-cultural' or something like that. Doesn't make it right, just makes it realistic, imo.
Yep. And then there are things like this.
Diversity Week Menu
… wat
Like, all of it.
WAT
"Japanese mix vegtable" is under "Mediterranean." I'm so confused.
Yeah. Just. Yeah.
And 'Italian' and 'Mediterranean' are separate. Uh, have you checked a map lately u guise
Though the Friday bit… srsly… that is trolling, right. RIGHT
You just… keep hoping that.
Yes, Italy is on the Mediterranean, but so are plenty of other countries. "Mediterranean" food is different from Italian food. It is a well-established descriptor for a particular cuisine, so I see no geographical issues with the menu in that respect.
Why there are fish sticks in Mediterranean food, I don't know. Fish sticks and hummus? Is this like fish sticks and custard?
Well, come on, everybody likes putting fish sticks in their mouths. No matter what culture they come from.
France is on the mediterranean too, but usually that word is used to refer to arabic (in the US that usually means Lebanese) food without having to say where it's actually from. And occasionally lumped in with Greece as well, but I think that's more because there's some overlap in dishes. I mean it's not like you'd usually see Spanish or Bosnian food at 'mediterranean' places.
I'm not totally sure if that helps or what we're arguing but I thought I'd throw that in there.
Our dining hall in college definitely served Friday's option every February to "kick off black history month". And it was always a really awkward day because there weren't any other options and eating the food was just profoundly uncomfortable.
Not sure if this is considered spoilery, so I'll rot13 it just in case, but VZQO yvfgf Frgu Terra nf na haperqvgrq inzcver va gur Ohssl zbivr! Tenagrq, V unir bayl jngpurq gur zbivr n srj gvzrf, ohg V unq ab vqrn– naq V nz n uhtr Ohssl (gur frevrf/pbzvpf) areq jub hfhnyyl xrrcf genpx bs fhpu vzcbegnag vasbezngvba! Fbeel vs guvf vf pbzzba xabjyrqtr be vs fbzrbar ryfr nyernql zragvbarq vg naq V zvffrq vg. I was pleasantly surprised.
Uvf fprar jnf phg bhg bs gur svyz. Fb, lrf, ur jnf gurer, ohg lbh pna'g svaq uvz va gur zbivr naljurer.
Ora Nsyrpx vf va vg, haperqvgrq. Naq Uvynel Fjnax vf va vg.
Lrnu, V xarj nobhg Ora Nsyrpx naq Uvyynel Fjnax. Thrff V qvqa'g xabj nobhg Frgu Terra orpnhfr ur jnfa'g npghnyyl VA gur zbivr. Tbbq gb xabj. Abj V qba'g arrq gb jngpu vg ntnva, vafcrpgvat rirel fprar =)
You're scoring is a bit off:
Willow in a parka: 1,000,000,000 points.
"Who is that girl?"
Oh, Oz.
Maybe I missed something, but I got -70 points.
So y'all know I work at a library, yeah? The other day the teen librarian handed me a Buffy comic to see if I wanted to take it home. Apparently she was weeding out books that don't get circulated much anymore from the teen section and she knew I was a Buffy fan. I was like YAY FREE COMIC, but also kind of sad because the era of Buffy is coming to an end. I wonder if any teenagers nowadays watch it. I'm delighted by the 90s-ness of the first couple seasons because I lived through that era, but eventually (or maybe it's already happened) teens are probably just going to think it's embarrassingly outdated.
Anyway, Inca Mummy Girl.
This episode isn't the best ever, and WHOA does it have some problems with the whole "cultural exchange" deal, but the Mummy stuff is the same kind of cheesy fun we had with season one. And there are some funny bits.
"What he lacks in smarts, he makes up in lack-of-smarts." "You just don't like him because of that time he beat you up every day for five years." See, good dialogue in this ep!
Also, Rodney has the most 90s hair I've ever seen on this show, and that's saying a lot.
More Xander being creepily overprotective/possessive of Buffy. Ugh.
Poor Willow, overhearing Xander talk about how she's just a friend. 🙁
Yeah Buffy, everyone from South America speaks the same language… and it's a dead Incan language? What.
I love the little shot of Ampata bouncing on the bed, testing it out. She's been dead for ages. It's hard to be sympathetic when someone's sucking the life force out of everyone, but that little moment makes her more human.
OZ! Seth Green is such a cutie!
Sooo… they can't say "Twinkie" on this show?
I do like Ampata laughing and having fun with Xander. He's such a dork, but she really does seem to like him; she's not just using him for his life force or whatever. She wants a Normal Life, just like Buffy, and Xander is a Normal Teenage Guy, and she likes that.
Hey! It's That Guy: Gil Birmingham, credited only as "Peruvian Man," has a long career of playing The Native American Guy in things. He's Jacob's dad Billy Black in the Twilight movies, he was on The Mentalist (Shoshone souvenir shop owner), Castle (another episode about a mummy curse actually), Veronica Mars (shady casino owner), etc. I like the actor, if not the stereotypical roles he gets to play–that's the writers' fault.
Ah, the Cultural Appropriation Dance, where everyone dresses from a different culture and that's not problematic at all! I do like Xander's idea of going as someone from a spaghetti western though.
This is the first time we get a band made up of actual students.
Willow does look adorable, but she must be SWELTERING in that costume.
😀 😀 😀 Oz likes Willow even though she's not dressed sexily, I LOVE IT.
[BZT VG'F WBANGUNA!]
"Next time you should probably say 'shrug'." "Sigh."
"Is Cordelia even from this country?"
Xander comes to Willow's rescue! But then he has to deal with the fact that he fell for another supernatural being.
"She was gypped." BUFFY! Just because this is Cultural Appropriation Episode doesn't mean you can say that. :/
Willow does look adorable, but she must be SWELTERING in that costume.
My thoughts exactly. Whenever I enter a bar/club, I'm all goodbye jacket! and if I went to a different kind of establishment it'd probably be goodbye trousers! as well.
And probably poor AH, too 🙁
FWIW, the Buffy comics are by far the best selling thing Dark Horse has.
What book was it?
Well, that's good to know!
It's A Stake to the Heart, a prequel story.
Oh, Trevor. I pine for you.
Ooh this is so sad!
Good book. Fabian Nicieza's whole "Year One" run from the last year or so of the book (#51-#63 in total) are probably the high point for the original Buffy comic series. Although, if anyone is like Mark and watching for the first time, DO NOT READ THEM YET, because, wow major spoilers.
Yes! I was just going to comment to say 'Errrr, anyone notice that the bloused-bodyguard was Billy Black?' 🙂
I felt good things, I felt bad things, and when you get right down to it, I am so conflicted in my sensations of joy and anger that they cancel one another out.
Were the good things and the bad things in piles? 😛
I pretty much agree with everyone's comments. The only good thing about this episode is Oz. I love how he is attracted to Willow because she's in dressed in a big Eskimo costume. It's so perfect. (:
Rira va rcvfbqrf V qba'g yvxr n jubyr ybg be pner sbe ng nyy, gurer'f nyjnlf fbzr tbbq ovgf juvpu vf jul V ybir gur fubj. Gur jubyr cnenyryy gb Ohssl fnirf guvf rcvfbqr n jubyr ybg.
Fnzr guvat ubyqf sbe Ercgvyr Obl pbzvat hc arkg, nygubhtu va gung vg'f zber jrr dhbgrf.
"Bar qnl V'yy unir zbarl, cerfgvtr, cbjre… naq ba gung qnl gurl'yy fgvyy unir zber"
Fvqrone:
Juvyr zvyqyl nccebcevngr va guvf rcvfbqr, V'z abg ragveryl fher vg vfa'g n fcbvyre va gur ibyhzr vg'f orra qbar va. Vg xvaqn vaqvpngrf gung gurl qb fbzrguvat jbegu thfuvat bire ng gur guvf cbvag naq cnegvphyneyl ng guvf cbvag Wbanguna vf whfg na rkgen.
Whilst the nature of the dance and the way people behave is without doubt inherently wrong, I have a rather sad suspicion that they are, indeed, accurate to what a High School actually would do…
Especially if you consider the timeline. I think schools today would be slightly less likely to do something like that, but back in the 90's the whole idea that we needed to stop whitewashing history and start recognizing other cultures was a bit newer. I remember similar types of things when I was in school (which was approximately the same time as in the show). Is cultural appropriation a step up from whitewashing?
I'm not convinced it's entirely Sunnydale High, though Snyder is quite crass enough to do that sort of thing even now. (Tvnag Znlbe-fanxrf ner abg n jubyyl onq guvat.) I think it just didn't seem as problematic in Hollywood in the late 90s. Is it anachronistic of us to see it as fail? Back then, shows for white folks had white actors and there were shows for black folks with nary a white face – like two different worlds. I remember my kids asking me if that was what America was like back then – they both went to multicultural schools where such things were noticed.
I think you bring up an excellent point about anachronistic fail. I think pointing out the fail is a good thing, but I also think it's important to understand the environment it existed in. If we judge yesterday's material by today's better standards, 99% of that material is going to fail.
To use a more stark example, even people who were anti-slavery during the civil war were usually extremely racist by today's standards. Obviously they were WRONG in their racist attitudes, and we should discuss that at length. But should we judge them as being as horrible as we would someone who holds those racist views today?
I think if Whedon & co failed here (and I think it's pretty clear that they did) it is more likely that they failed out of ignorance than out of malice.
Fair For Its Day seems to be what you're talking about here. Though I wouldn't say this episode is LESS racist than the average 90s TV show, so it might be more of a case of Values Dissonance.
Ah yes. Racist stereotypes abound. xD But let me go over what I DO like about this episode
– How Oz's bandmate is like "Dude what is wrong with you for not picking up like 1,000 girls a night" and Oz is like "That's not how I roll" and how he looks right past the 'hot exchange student' and sees Willow (what little of her is visible xD) and just KNOWS that she is amazing YESSSSSSSSSSS do love <3
– Cordelia's exchange student (Sven?) complaining about her and doubting whether she is "even from this country" XD lmao
– Xander's romance with Ampata was actually really touching and sad. Because she totally felt the same way about him and was desperate to be with him but got dealt a REALLY shitty hand in life… afterlife… you know what I mean.
– Loved the parallels between Buffy and Ampata as well. Again, it's just infinite sad that things with Ampata had to turn out the way they did D:
Anyway, if I carry on I'll just end up repeating all the 'good' points you mentioned in your original post. So yeah, there was stuff to like, but a shame about the rest. :/
That part with Sven really grated on my nerves. Because I am Swedish. First of all, Sven is NOT a very common name, particularly not in this generation. I know a whole of ONE person called Sven, and he's a lot older than me. It's not common. I guess they chose the most Swedish-sounding name they could come up, like Inga or Greta or Ulla (which, by the way, no one names their daughters anymore!). Secondly, most Swedes speak English fluently. We do have a bit of an accent, but we are actually known throughout Europe for being very good at English. Mostly that is because we don't dub the movies here, and also because we start learning English in second grade of school… Of course, it turns out Sven was very good at English, so I guess that part was a bit playing with stereotypes, but still. Bonus points however, for actually having a Swedish actor playing him (or at least someone with roots in Sweden, judging by his name).