Because I'm curious - The Buffy Fandom Character Wars Poll

[shadowkat]

I got curious about this while reading a post on the internet...don't ask which one.
Weird things inspire me. Anyhoo...I left out the obvious ones, because let's face it we already know who prefers Xander to Spike, Buffy to Spike, and Spike to Angel - we've argued those to death. Really. Who cares?? But these are harder choices because in a lot of these cases, people dearly love both characters. I'm making you pick one. Roll the dice. Which one at this particular point in time do you prefer? [ETA: DO NOT OVERTHINK THIS PEOPLE. BY PREFER - I mean which character you liked or enjoyed watching on the show better as a fictional character in the series. Not who you think is the better human being, more morally upstanding, or prefer as a role model for the kiddies or to hang with or be your best bud. This is a fictional character fandom poll not who I want to be friends with or marry poll.]

Don't worry, you're not being held to it. You can change your mind next week or tomorrow as the case may be. I certainly will. Polls are anything but definitive.

I do hope more than 10 people respond or I'll look like an idiot. ;-)

[Poll #1850464]

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Which was why I picked Anya over Cordy.

I'm guessing certain writers who shall remain nameless had it in for that character, not helped by certain other writers who shall equally remain nameless who adored the character and wished to elevate her to saint-hood. Both did the character a great injustice.

Want to talk about character wars? I think the writers on these shows definitely had their own private little character wars.

[sophist.livejournal.com]

They definitely did. On the S4 commentary, Doug Petrie expressly says there were writers favoring Riley and those favoring Angel. I'm sure that's true for others as well.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

They also had writers who favored Angel over Spike. Fury and DeKnight fought over who should win the battle in Destiny.

You can almost tell where each writer fell on the commentaries. Except Whedon.
I could never tell with Whedon most of the time. With one or two possible exceptions (which may have been actor related), he was very good at keeping his views close to his chest.

Although he did come forward in an interview recently and list the characters he preferred and the one's he didn't, which sort of explains Angel the Series and his odd relationship with Greenwalt.

[sophist.livejournal.com]

I think Whedon definitely had favorites among the actors. He clearly loved AH and Tom Lenk. Probably others as well.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It's hard to know who were his favorites while filming and who weren't.
I know who are now. But it's ten years later. Now doesn't really tell us much.

I'm guessing it changed. There's so many contradictory stories.

[sophist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we can tell by who he uses. But some of the commentaries contain glowing statements about particular actors, including Hannigan and Lenk. In contrast, he never says much good about SMG.