29 Day - Whedon Meme

[shadowkat]

Where I blatantly take the Star Trek meme on my flist and turn it into a meme for the tv shows and a series that I was "ahem" far more of an insane fan of and actually own and can remember. We'll see if it works. [I don't remember most of STAR TREK, I'll do some of the questions in a separate meme.]


1 - Which Whedon series is your favorite?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

For me, it's the richest and cleverest. Whedon is less preachy, and more honest. There's an innocence to it...that is lacking from his later works, a joy and a sense of fun. In many ways it is the lightest and funniest of his series, with the best sense of humor. I can always finds moments that make me cackle aloud.

2 - Who is your favorite character?

Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Any questions?

Angel the Series? Wesley, although for a bit it was Doyle.
Dollhouse? Adelle - who had a spiderish charm
Firefly? Wash - always made me laugh, Jayne was a close second, and I adore Zoe.
Doctor Horrible? Doctor Horrible.

3 - Who is your least favorite character?

Hmm...ponders. This is actually a hard question.

Buffy? Robin Wood
Angel? Groo - that guy from Pylea
Firefly? (too many to choose) Malcolm Reynolds and Inara (tie) or Kaylee and Simon Tam (eeney meany miny moe..)...also River...sigh, which may explain why I'm not a big fan of Firefly?
Doctor Horrible: Felicia Day's character
Dollhouse: Echo and the guy who was her love interest and whose name I keep forgetting (Hmmm, this may explain why I didn't like Dollhouse that much. All about the characters.)


4 - What was the first Whedon series you watched?

Buffy.

5 - What was the first episode/movie you watched?

Buffy. I actually saw the original film Buffy in the movie theater.


6 - Your favorite canon pairing? (Canon being the series and the movies.)

* Buffy: Buffy/Spike, also liked Dawn/Spike...but no, not in that way.
* Angel: Angel/Spike and Angel/Darla, also Lilah/Wes (sort of a three way tie)
* Firefly: Wash/Zoe.
* Dollhouse: Adelle/Topher and Topher/(AMy Acker's character) found both to be beyond fascinating and yes they were sort of canon.
*Doctor Horrible? Can't think of one.


7 - Your favorite non-canon pairing?
*Buffy: Faith/Buffy, also have a fondness for Xander/Spike
*Angel: Illyria/Spike...which I don't think was ever canon (except maybe in Brian Lynche's comics...which may explain why I liked those comics). Also liked Connor/Spike...but no, not in that way, ewww... and definitely not canon.
*Dollhouse: I can't think of one...(which again explains why this show never took off for me.)
* Firefly: Wash/Jayne - no not in that way. Also Kaylee/Jayne.


8 - Your favorite actor/actress? (Not the same as character.)
* Buffy: James Marsters and Anthony Stewart Head (tie)
* Angel: Alexis Denisof/Julie Benze (have you seen her recent work - she's phenomenal) and Amy Acker as a close second.
* Firefly: Alan Tudyke/Gina Torres
* Dollhouse: Olivia Williams or Amy Acker/the actor who played the Russian Doll and whoever played Topher.
*Doctor Horrible: Neil Patrick Harris - who really is the best thing about it.

9 - What's your favorite episode?

[And this is why I'm not doing the Star Trek meme - I don't know the names of the episodes.]

*Buffy - Once More With Feeling, I know, I know...predictable. Musical geek extreme.
Plus we get Buffy and Spike kissing. Spike singing. Giles singing. What's not to like?
Runner's up include Fool For Love, Beneath You, HUSH, and Who are You?
*Angel - Destiny - S5. Yes, I love Smile Time -it's hilarious. But everything about Destiney was great. It's the episode for the Angel/Spike relationship. Close third?
Darla.
*Firefly - Objects in Space (Whedon channels Camus and various other existentialists)...and Serenity (not the film, the episode - which shows how they all met), those are my favorites. (Only two episodes I remember clearly or even the name of.)
*Dollhouse: Man on the Street (the folklore episode), and Spy in the House of Love. (They are the only two that I remember the names of, oddly enough).

10 - What's your favorite species (includes witches)?

Vampires. Favorite Vampire? Spike and Drusilla.

11 - What's your least favorite species?
Err... this is hard to do for Whedon.

Snake Demons...they got really old.

12 - What's your favorite funny moment?

Buffy: in the episode HIM - the fight between Spike and Buffy over the rocket launcher outside of Principal Wood's office - she's planning on blowing up Wood, Spike is struggling to stop her. One of the best bits of absurdist physical comedy on that show.
Angel: Tie between Spike/Puppet Angel fight in Smile Time and Spike/Angel verbal battle over who saved the world the most in Girl with the Question.
Dollhouse: Were there any? I can't remember any. Again explains why the show didn't take off for me.
Firefly: Wash playing with the toy dinosaurs on the deck of Serenity. But not that many. And I think the episode was "Serenity".

13 - What's your favorite dramatic moment?

Buffy: A traumatized and crazed Spike in the church with Buffy in Beneath You, when he explains why he sought a soul. That sequence defined the series for me - how gray it all was.
Angel: Darla staking herself in Lullaby to save her son tied with Darla telling Angel after he's killed his father...why he'll always be haunted by him in the episode Dear Boy. The two most defining moments in the series for me.
Firefly: I'm at a loss...maybe the scene in Out of Gas where Mal talks them into taking him over WASH? I can't remember.
Dollhouse: Amy Acker's character forcing Topher to face what he did to her.

14 - What's your favorite Whedon quote?

I don't know. So many...

From Buffy:
* Spike's speech in Lover's Walk - "You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood...blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."
* Buffy: If it's the Apocalypse? Beep Me.
* Willow: Love makes you do the wacky.
* Giles:Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.

I am bad at remembering quotes, this would take me all day and I'm hungry and want to make lunch.


15 - How did you get into your favorite Whedon's shows?

I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer to see Anthony Stewart Head and I like fantasy/horror. I ended up falling in love with the characters.


16 - Are you involved with Whedon fandom?

Define involved? I've been heavily involved with the online fandom. Written reviews. Railed at the writer. Read all the interviews. Wrote fanfic. Read fanfic. 75% of the people who read this journal probably found me through that fandom.

But I don't own any fandom items and have never been to a con. A few fan-discussion area meetups, but nothing that required travel.

17 - Have you read any of the books? If so, which ones?

Scanned a few of the novelizations - they tend to be pretty juvenile and poorly written, so never bothered to buy them. The unpublished fanfic however is really good.
I've read some not all of the comics. Brian Lynche's Angel and Spike comics, a few others from IDW, S8 of Buffy from Dark Horse, and previewed some of the S9 (not my cup of tea...really don't like them.) Also read the Firefly comic book series - Those They Left Behind. Outside of fanfic, this works better on tv for me. I don't believe Whedon is good at comic books, it's not his forte.

18 - If you could be any species in the Whedon universe, what would you be?
Human. And possibly a witch...as long as the comic books aren't considered part of it.

19 - What do you think of the idea of a Buffy movie/reboot?

After much thought? Okay not that much. Go for it. Buffy has jumped outside of Whedon's realm. Why not allow other writers to play? Like other's have played with Star Trek and BattleStar Galatica and Sherlock Holmes. (They did ask Whedon to write and direct, but he backed off...so someone else should get a shot.)

20 - Of the minor characters (one shots, not the recurring ones) who’s your favorite?

*Buffy:The Vamp Psychologist in the Buffy S7 episode Conversations with Dead People whose name I forget. I found him oddly entertaining. A very nice twist on Ford from S2 Lie to Me.

* Angel: I can't think of anyone who wasn't recurring.
*Dollhouse: Ditto
*Firefly: Ditto


21 - Which Whedonverse food would you want to try at least once?

Gile's special brand of Scotch which Anya and Spike get drunk on in Entropy, and Giles always seems to have somewhere. And Spike's onion rings - which I can't have damn it.

22 - Which Whedon world would you want to visit at least once?

I don't think there is one. The man wrote nasty world's. Maybe Firefly?


23 - Is there anything you'd want to change about your favorite Whedon series? Why?

[Besides forbidding Whedon from writing comic books? LOL! I'd discuss the comics but that would take all day and you've heard it already, so what's the point.]

* Buffy - I'd change how they filmed and wrote the attempted rape sequence in Seeing Red and the location of it. I'd also change Willow's power arc, get rid of the magic is crack mislead and make it more about power.
* Angel - I'd change the Cordelia Arc in S3-S5. Get rid of the whole pregnancy storyline.
* Dollhouse - get rid of Sierra's rape storyline about the wealthy guy who makes her insane and wipes her brain turns her into a doll, just so she can have sex with him.
(Eww.) I'd also clarify a few bits and make the end-game less chaotic.
*Firefly - kill off Simon Tam in the film instead of WASH. Also get rid of all of the cheesy Western television series cliches - "corsets and long dresses in space? Seriously, Joss. Geisha outfits?" And the horse and buggy? Ugh.

24 - Is there anything about Whedonverse that has disappointed you?
See above. Oh, and the comics...sigh, the comics disappointed me the most. Particularly the fact that we never see Buffy's reaction when she discovers Spike is still alive or get a resolution to that. So much of the interesting stuff happens off-screen, while things I know and am bored by continue to happen on-screen. Annoys the hell out of me. We know Xander had a thing for Buffy. We know Riley and Sam are great together. Come on.

25 - How has Whedonverse changed you?

Fandom. I got involved with an online fandom for the first time in my life and wrote about it. That changed me. And finally, publicly embraced and accepted my inner geek.

26 - Lots of Whedon Clones out there. Which do you dig?

The Vamp Diaries is currently entertaining me, although hardly that close to the original. Veronica Mars probably came closest. And Being Human took the Angel story line to the next level.


27 - What would you cross over with Whedonverse?

Not really into cross-overs. Even within the Whedonverse. But maybe The X-men.


28 - Your favourite friendship in Whedonverse?

Buffy: Willow/Buffy
Angel: Wes/Angel
Firefly: Mal/Wash
Dollhouse: Adelle/Topher

29 - If you could tell Joss Whedon one thing, Buffy related or not, what would it be?
Interesting question. I'm pissed at the writer at the moment, so it probably would be, please stop writing The VERY SPECIAL BLOSSUM EPISODE! Thank you.

But seriously? It would be to thank him for writing such amazingly rich characters that play with my imagination.