Cranky Buffyverse Villian Poll

[shadowkat]

In a crappy mood. The weather mocks me with its beauty. So a poll about villianous acts in the Buffyverse. The worst ones. The best villians. The lamest villians. And villianous or indefensible acts by favorite characters or what we think are indefensible acts, everyone's mileage varies on this, I'm certain. Actually the biggest flamewars online have been over the indefensible acts of popular characters and whether they are redeemed. I'm curious to see where the vast majority of the Buffy lj fandom that happens to read or occassionally read my journal falls on this point. Course the fear of doing polls is no one will respond, memes are easier in that regard. The other problem with polls is you can't edit after posting and there are just so many ticky boxes. So if not on the list, provide a comment. But remember to
be respectful of other's views, particular those that make you scratch your head and go, huh?

[Poll #1488559]

Comments

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Ah, more people are participating in the poll than are commenting...
it is hard for me to pick favorites because I loved a lot of the villains:
it is funny, even though Season 4 is my favorite season, I think Adam is lame... but Adam is only the monster/creation... really what needed to be defeated was The Initiative: the Government/Military thinking they could use demons as weapons. They can never control any weapons they make.

It is equally hard to pick the lamest, many of the villains were kind of formulaic ... but I just wouldn't focus on them so long as they didn't get too much screen time (Glory was just given too much screen time IMO).

The worst action is also highly debatable, so I went for the one (the only one) that still makes me cry every time... and Giles finding Jenny in his apt always kills me.

Personally I think everyone is always redeemable, but of course the Watchers Council never even considered themselves at fault! Poor Wesley was their man, and unredeemed on BtVS, but he did grow (to have all new problems) on Ats.

Anyway, thanks for this... it is so fun to get back to thinking about all of this!

[shapinglight]

I ticked 'other' for the final question because you didn't mention Andrew and he's the one in whose redemption story I don't believe.

Also, I chose Faith killing the volcanologist for worst act ever, but that's only because there was no ticky box for anything Warren did. I think that Warren's attempted rape and murder of Katrina is actually the worst thing ever and only picked what Faith did because it was premeditated murder by a character with a soul.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I drank too much wine tonight at the restaurant but I took your poll nonetheless.

My favourite villain was Thre Mayor so I chose him but Caleb might have been the best in terms of female empowerment. He was the ultimate villain and made a lot of sense for the last season.

Giles drugging Buffy was really painful to watch.

As for the most satisfying redemptive arc it's Spike's of course. I do think that his not giving up Dawn was a key moment (pun intended)in his redemption journey.

And I'm not convinced by Willow's.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I really thought Andrew was the lamest villain. Lame before during and after he was a villain.

The Annointed One was the biggest mistake as a villain. As if Buffy was going to stake a little kid vampire. Willow and Cordelia were a mistakes as serious villains also, but not for story reasons.

[louise39.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking that Willow with a mind and soul had the most reprehensible act - skinning Warren and almost destroying the world [beating Faith out with that double header] and the least redemptive arc. [What, she got a trip to England and a short visit from a demon]

In my mind, Spike won the redemption sweepstakes with the most redemptive act and the best redemptive arc.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Doing the poll was interesting, because I was forced to admit that it was the intimate, personal, and cruel acts that I found most villainous. Angelus' tableau for Giles, Willow's rape of Tara (and the others), and Warren's runaway greed and misogyny all bother me more than world-endage scenarios. Hurting friends and acquaintances is more real to me, I guess. Likewise, unsouled Spike withstanding torture (with quips, even!) to protect Dawn seems more (or equally) heroic than ultimate sacrifice to save the world. I can certainly see why other people would reach different conclusions, but it's the little things that seem to effect me most. Cool poll.

P.S. Does the Watcher's Council really count as a "popular character"? I never liked 'em. They always seemed like Buffy's secondary nemesis to me.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I voted Caleb, but the First is my lamest villain.

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

There're some hard choices in several parts of the poll. For the lamest vilain, the annoying one was a good candidate: he wasn't developped at all.

Choosing amongst the worst acts wasn't easy either because they are very difficult to compare. And I couldn't make a choice for the following part: in terms of fiction, I'm not sure there's really something you can't come back from: had it been skilfully done, I suppose, even a redemption arc for Warren could have been possible.

The most redemptive act wasn't an easy choice either: so many criteria there: is it in each character's story, in the whole show? Some of these acts I do not even see as redemptive at all, in the sense they aren't related to any specific wrong or crime done by the character (For example, Xander saving Willow)

a lame 'most unforgivable' choice, but symptomatic of larger issues

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

I picked Xander's actions in OMWF as 'most unforgivable act by a popular character' only because it seemed to represent what was (for me) the most troublesome part of Xander's character: the fact that he seemed to be held much less accountable than everyone else, while simultaneously being extremely judgmental of others' failings.

I'm still steamed about that lie he told Buffy in "Becoming, pt. 2" (Willow says 'kick his ass'), since he never had to answer for it or for the devastating consequences it helped create for Buffy (whom he then proceeded to punish when she returned in season 3), and the fact that he summoned the song-and-dance demon in OMWF (and thus inadvertently caused the deaths of a number of random Sunnydale citizens) but a) didn't seem to be in any hurry to 'fess up to it, even when it became clear that Dawn was taking the rap for his actions, and b) never had to suffer any consequences or blame for that choice . . . well, that's just a very telling symptom (it seems to me) of the larger illness.

I can't decide whether Xander seemingly got off relatively scot-free for his destructive choices because he was the Joss-stand-in character and got special 'most-favored' treatment, OR because the writers held him to be weaker than everybody else on the show and thus his bad choices were seen as 'only to be expected' from someone like him. Either way, it doesn't strike me as particularly healthy.

[hazel75.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I would actually have liked to have chosen the First as lamest villain ever. It just talked and talked and talked. And the whole thing with Giles in S7 (is it Giles or is it the First? He hasn't touched anything/body in a billion episodes) sucked so much.

And it's not so much that I don't think Willow was redeemed. It's more that I was dissatisfied with how her arc was resolved with the whole magic addiction, etc. Since she failed to recognize what was really wrong, I'm not sure what she learned.