Buffy the Vampire Slayer 3x09 "The Wish" Full Reaction

I was kidding when I made that comment by throwing accusations for the hell of it :P

Liam Catterson

"Anya's a demon." LIAM! Stop freaking me out! You saw her for .02 seconds! How did you even... Don't DO that! LOL This is one of my favorite episodes, and I'm so glad you had fun with it.

Raven Dark

my theory which I adopted from other comments - the AU, hardened Buffy we see is alone. No friends, no mother, nothing... Can you really see Joyce letting her act and dress this way if she was still in the picture?? This Buffy also seems like Faith and Kendra combined, minus our usual Buffy. Hard, cold, defensive, controlled... How she talks is more like Faith, how she dresses is more like Kendra... It's such a good episode. I love it. I wish it could have been a double feature, so we could see more of that world, or maybe some flashes of how things happened. I also wish that we could have gotten Spike, Dru and Darla in this episode! But I suppose if Spike and Dru were here, Angel would be dead already because Spike would have killed him to cure Drusilla lol.

Holi117

Finally gave in and traded another Patreon to get your extended reactions. This is an awesome episode, but I get the whole, "Oh, I don't like this...!" I actually never thought of Dru with Vamp!Willow. I thought of Bellatrix Lestrange. (Well, at least after I met Bella.)

FernWithy

I love this episode -- it's either in my top ten or very near. I love AU episodes, and it's heartbreaking to see how jaded and joyless (and ultimately weaker) Buffy would be if she didn't have her friends. I loved the parallel of Giles being happy to get Watcher-y again to Giles remembering his Watcher training in "Band Candy." And the prophecy still coming true in this AU, with Angel as the “unknown” figure to lead Buffy to the Master and her death (and his) is high tragedy.

Rachael

Willow has also lived a life of neglect from her parents and Xander (romantically), in addition to being bullied by Mean Girls, Cordelia and Harmony, which can result in buried resentment and anger. She never had a romantic relationship until Oz, or a close female friendship until Buffy. Willow’s emotional and social development is way behind her intellectual development, and it’s been reflected in her childish clothing and little girl voice (which was really disturbing as a vampire). As Willow ages and gets more confident, she doesn’t quite know how to handle her emotions and self-control, and she’s possessive, which I find somewhat interesting because those are often "traditional male"-coded characteristics.

Rachael

Patreon has been acting up on my end too. I made a comment to someone and that didn't appear after clicking Enter. Jenny's return didn't hit me until like days after because it did hit me so yusss. Tjough we cannot change the past sadly, it was just a brief moment at that time that made me curious.

Liam Catterson

I did not grow up with Classic Doctor Who but during my time as a Whovian, I have managed to check out a lot of Classic content as well as the extended content in the name of Big Finish :)

Liam Catterson

My theory about Willow is that for a long time, she didn't have very much agency in her life. She was hung up on Xander for a long time, and was still plagued by insecurity and anxieties even as her relationship with Oz developed. Season 3 Willow has a lot more authority (pretty sure she's an adult now) and I think magic is just a part of that. It's one of the ways that she's now able to impact the world. She never had a choice in being with Xander before, and when she finally did have the choice, she made the wrong one. The Willow we saw in s1 and most of s2 was more passive and childlike, and didn't have as many opportunities to make mistakes. But growing up is always going to change that.

KT

'sigh' I don't know why but my entire comment from a few hours earlier was erased :-( I completely loved your expresions and shocks throughout the whole episode lol :-D About Jenny, I don't know if you remember, but in season 1 she only came in episode 8, that was after Buffy and Angel's kiss, because the gypsies sensed that Angel's soul was a little less burdened with guilt and they wanted to prevent from happening again. Since in this alternate reality the kiss never happened, she would have no reason to come to sunnydale. Hope that clears it for you :-) Trivia: 1.) Two lines were cut from Giles' conversation with Anyanka: (Giles: "Cordelia Chase, what did she wish for?") (Anyanka: "I had no idea her wish would be so exciting. Brave new world. I hope she likes it.") Giles: "She's dead." Anyanka: "It happens." 2.) When the Master sits down at the Bronze and asks for news from Xander, he says: "Now, what news on the Rialto?" This is a quote from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, at least the third time this play has been mentioned on Buffy. 3.) Four Buffy the Vampire Slayer action figures were produced based on Willow, Anyanka, Xander, and Cordelia in this episode.

I wonder if you've ever watched the original Doctor Who Liam? I grew up on the Tom Baker version of the Doctor (much older than you!), and much later in life (at about 25 or so) I got a chance to watch the entire series from the beginning (they played them all on ABC TV in Australia - this was before you could just watch stuff on the internet easily). I kind of thought the older ones would be pretty boring, as they started i the 1960s, but they surprised me with how good they were. Even though they are so dated now, the show is a really great show right from day one (although I'll be honest, I don't watch the modern version of the show). Anyway, just wondered if you'd seen the earlier ones, you might enjoy them since you are such a fan. They are quite different though!

Dentarthurdent