Post by stargazer1682 on Jun 17, 2020 3:25:24 GMT
I don’t think I’ve ever truly understand the concept of cheerleading. I mean, understand the inherent concept of attractive women in dressed in short skirts, jumping around, but for starters, applying this premise to high school age students is creepy for anyone not in high school. Watching this episode, it helps knowing that most of these so-called high school students who are trying out for the Sunnydale High cheer team are probably pushing 30, but it’s still creepy if you think about it.
Sure, there are college cheerleading teams and of course the professional cheerleaders for football, I think basketball. Oddly enough, not baseball, which can be so boring, it could probably stand to be livened up a little; the occasional mascot jumping around notwithstanding. But on the whole, I just don’t get the core concept of “cheer leading” – pumping up spectators; and I guess I chalk that up to my complete indifference to any type of spectator sport. I can’t say I ever had much school spirit; like, I didn’t actively want them to lose (except when they went to state during a play I was directing and all of the students wanted to ditch rehearsal so they could go watch the game…). I’m otherwise happy to hear any “home team” won, but otherwise I don’t give a shit.
Some sports I don’t mind so much, but more so playing them; like the occasional pick-up game or basketball or baseball; and generally when it’s more casual and the teams are lopsided and no one is paying close attention to the score. The more competitive it is, the less I enjoy it; and sitting watching someone else play is boring. Which I guess someone, somewhere must have realized, thus we have cheerleaders to distract people from how boring the game is to watch; and how uncomfortable bleachers are to sit on.
Despite all of that, I do get that there are people for him this is important and they take it very seriously. I’m fairly certain the cheer team at my school didn’t take it as seriously as the students at Sunnydale High, but I know it’s not necessarily that far off from other schools, then or now.
And don’t get me wrong, I also understand that cheerleaders can put in a lot of work and move in ways that if I ever managed to achieve would strictly because I fell and hurt myself and would probably need medical assistance afterwards. I just don’t get cheerleading as an institution and think the level of competitiveness can go over the top; which I could say about most athletics.
Bahahah – how have I never noticed Buffy peaking in the box with the fertility statue and saying, “Jeepers,” ostensibly in response to it being anatomically correct?
Also, and this wondered before, why does Joyce always have crates of stuff from the gallery at her house? Does the gallery not have any storage space for this stuff? And she’s opening stuff in her dinning room; doesn’t she then have to seal it back up to haul to the gallery?
Are we sure Joyce wasn’t secretly a smuggler? It would explain how she managed to get the house fixed up any time it got trashed by a monster of the week.
This is probably my ignorance, on account of my indifference to sports or cheerleading, but would being an alternate really be on par with not making the cut at all? If they’re back-ups, doesn’t that mean they still need to attend practice and learn the routines, so they can fill in at a moment’s notice? I mean, I’m more of a theatre nerd, so my main point of reference would be an understudy; and yeah, it can suck being an understudy by virtue of the fact that you can put in a good portion of work on a part you may never get to play. Which is why, as a director, I try to avoid casting understudies, because it seems like a raw deal. I even had to fill in for a person at rehearsals for two weeks, while the person actually in that role was on vacation; I sincerely doubt I’d ever agree to do that again, but not because it felt like the equivalent of not making the cut. Just the opposite. It was a tremendous pain in the ass, because not only did I have to worry about doing my part during rehearsals, but someone’s else part; and all of my scenes were with the guy I was filling in for, which meant I spent a great deal of those rehearsals talking to myself and not doing as good of job learning my own part as I normally would have. And there was a virtually zero chance that I might even take on that other role; and the role I had was pretty shitty, so I came away from that production kind of wishing I hadn’t been cast at all. I felt more productive backstage helping work a pulley to raise and lower a curtain for certain scenes.
It’s been so long since the first time I watched this show; and most of the first couple of seasons I didn’t catch until I had already seen later episode, so I can’t recall if there was ever any doubt that it was “Amy” or who the witch was supposed to be the first time watching this. I’m fairly certain I had missed everything to do with Amy, so her story might be the only one I actually saw in chronological order. The ultimate switch of Amy and her mom is clever. I could see there being some brief suspicion on Cordelia, right up until the curse was cast on her; and that conjures the image, so to speak, of some alternate version of the show where it was Cordelia and she took up witchcraft – which might have been an interesting direction for her. Not that I have any issue (mostly) with how the character was actually developed; Cordelia and Angel’s romantic story aside. What was their ship even called? Congel? Andelia?
I’m not saying Joyce is definitely a smuggler, and even if she were, she wouldn’t necessarily be a drug smuggler, but if she was, she would definitely be worried that Buffy got into one of her shipments when she came downstairs with so much energy and bounce.
One of the things that bugs about this scene is Buffy casually mentioning then glossing over that she’s a vampire slayer, which Joyce partly acknowledges; and it’s not because it happens, but because it reminds me Normal Again and how incongruent the retcon was, where Buffy says she actually told her parents when she first found out she was the Slayer and they had her committed for a couple of weeks. This statement should have done more than just puzzle Joyce and have her ask if Buffy was feeling well; her response should be, “Oh no, it’s happening again.”
You know, this is the first episode that demonstrates Giles’ understanding and practice of magic; he performs the reversal spell so deftly, as he does with other spells later. Yet,
Eyghon aside, they kind of downplay this side of his character to where you kind of take it for granted that he’s kind of a sorcerer.
Even though it’s not the first time paying attention to Joyce and Buffy’s discussion at the end of the episode, where Joyce says she can’t understand what it’s like for Buffy to be 16, because she’s not 16; and Buffy asks if she’d want to be 16 again – I know I’ve watched/listened to this scenes many times before, but this is the first time it’s made me think about the implications two years later, when the enchanted band candy does make Joyce a teenager again. And it’s one of those things where you can’t help but wonder, with Joss being Joss, if might have had some iteration of that story in mind at that time; or if it’s just a happy coincidence. Even if it was just a coincidence, it’s a happy one, since it did in fact remind Joyce what it was like being a teenager; and help her understand Buffy better.
You know, I like Amy; and I even kind of like her as a periodic antagonist later in the series, but I kind of like her more in this episode as a friend and ally to the Scoobies. I also feel like her later practicing magic and having a vindictive streak is incongruent with the real Amy we see at the end of this episode. Granted, it’s not impossible for that Amy to make some bad decisions and turn out that way, but it arguably seems more like at some point her mom managed to swap bodies again and it was really Catherine, by season 6 for sure and quite possibly before that; perhaps even as far back as her return appearance in season 2 when Xander catches her using magic. Catherine had no problems faking being Amy and should she manage to switch places again, and if she were smart, she’d reign herself in, at least around Buffy and the others so as not to make them suspect or interfere.
On the flip side of that, I kind of feel like throughout this episode they were trying to suggest that Amy was sometimes actually Amy; where she appears to be legitimately surprised and even horrified when some of the curses happen. But this is somewhat refuted by the way that Catherine, as Amy, knew when Buffy spilled the potion on her, outing her as a witch. But there’s also a sense of familiarity between the real Amy and Buffy at the end of the episode that almost seems like it’s meant to be an extension of their earlier interaction at the start of the episode; even though by all accounts it was Catherine. It’s plausible that the switch occurred somewhere in between when the episode started and when Catherine/Amy comes home and makes the real Amy do her homework, but we’re not really given any indication of this; and I’m probably reading too much into it.
I would add that, I think they waited too long to de-rat Amy later on in the series. While it served the immediate purpose at the time of providing Willow with a magical playmate who could enable Willow’s abuse of magic, I feel like the Amy they brought back is a few deviations different from the Amy that turned herself into a rat in season 3. While powerful in season 3, she appears to be much more advanced for someone who hadn’t practiced magic in three years; and conveniently already has connections with someone like Rack. No doubt high school students with connections to shady drug dealers, but everything about Amy after she comes back, from the level of magic she uses by that point, Rack and the mentality, short of it really being Catherine in Amy’s body again, doesn’t seem like it meshes with the 17 or 18 year old we saw before that.
Sure, there are college cheerleading teams and of course the professional cheerleaders for football, I think basketball. Oddly enough, not baseball, which can be so boring, it could probably stand to be livened up a little; the occasional mascot jumping around notwithstanding. But on the whole, I just don’t get the core concept of “cheer leading” – pumping up spectators; and I guess I chalk that up to my complete indifference to any type of spectator sport. I can’t say I ever had much school spirit; like, I didn’t actively want them to lose (except when they went to state during a play I was directing and all of the students wanted to ditch rehearsal so they could go watch the game…). I’m otherwise happy to hear any “home team” won, but otherwise I don’t give a shit.
Some sports I don’t mind so much, but more so playing them; like the occasional pick-up game or basketball or baseball; and generally when it’s more casual and the teams are lopsided and no one is paying close attention to the score. The more competitive it is, the less I enjoy it; and sitting watching someone else play is boring. Which I guess someone, somewhere must have realized, thus we have cheerleaders to distract people from how boring the game is to watch; and how uncomfortable bleachers are to sit on.
Despite all of that, I do get that there are people for him this is important and they take it very seriously. I’m fairly certain the cheer team at my school didn’t take it as seriously as the students at Sunnydale High, but I know it’s not necessarily that far off from other schools, then or now.
And don’t get me wrong, I also understand that cheerleaders can put in a lot of work and move in ways that if I ever managed to achieve would strictly because I fell and hurt myself and would probably need medical assistance afterwards. I just don’t get cheerleading as an institution and think the level of competitiveness can go over the top; which I could say about most athletics.
Bahahah – how have I never noticed Buffy peaking in the box with the fertility statue and saying, “Jeepers,” ostensibly in response to it being anatomically correct?
Also, and this wondered before, why does Joyce always have crates of stuff from the gallery at her house? Does the gallery not have any storage space for this stuff? And she’s opening stuff in her dinning room; doesn’t she then have to seal it back up to haul to the gallery?
Are we sure Joyce wasn’t secretly a smuggler? It would explain how she managed to get the house fixed up any time it got trashed by a monster of the week.
This is probably my ignorance, on account of my indifference to sports or cheerleading, but would being an alternate really be on par with not making the cut at all? If they’re back-ups, doesn’t that mean they still need to attend practice and learn the routines, so they can fill in at a moment’s notice? I mean, I’m more of a theatre nerd, so my main point of reference would be an understudy; and yeah, it can suck being an understudy by virtue of the fact that you can put in a good portion of work on a part you may never get to play. Which is why, as a director, I try to avoid casting understudies, because it seems like a raw deal. I even had to fill in for a person at rehearsals for two weeks, while the person actually in that role was on vacation; I sincerely doubt I’d ever agree to do that again, but not because it felt like the equivalent of not making the cut. Just the opposite. It was a tremendous pain in the ass, because not only did I have to worry about doing my part during rehearsals, but someone’s else part; and all of my scenes were with the guy I was filling in for, which meant I spent a great deal of those rehearsals talking to myself and not doing as good of job learning my own part as I normally would have. And there was a virtually zero chance that I might even take on that other role; and the role I had was pretty shitty, so I came away from that production kind of wishing I hadn’t been cast at all. I felt more productive backstage helping work a pulley to raise and lower a curtain for certain scenes.
It’s been so long since the first time I watched this show; and most of the first couple of seasons I didn’t catch until I had already seen later episode, so I can’t recall if there was ever any doubt that it was “Amy” or who the witch was supposed to be the first time watching this. I’m fairly certain I had missed everything to do with Amy, so her story might be the only one I actually saw in chronological order. The ultimate switch of Amy and her mom is clever. I could see there being some brief suspicion on Cordelia, right up until the curse was cast on her; and that conjures the image, so to speak, of some alternate version of the show where it was Cordelia and she took up witchcraft – which might have been an interesting direction for her. Not that I have any issue (mostly) with how the character was actually developed; Cordelia and Angel’s romantic story aside. What was their ship even called? Congel? Andelia?
I’m not saying Joyce is definitely a smuggler, and even if she were, she wouldn’t necessarily be a drug smuggler, but if she was, she would definitely be worried that Buffy got into one of her shipments when she came downstairs with so much energy and bounce.
One of the things that bugs about this scene is Buffy casually mentioning then glossing over that she’s a vampire slayer, which Joyce partly acknowledges; and it’s not because it happens, but because it reminds me Normal Again and how incongruent the retcon was, where Buffy says she actually told her parents when she first found out she was the Slayer and they had her committed for a couple of weeks. This statement should have done more than just puzzle Joyce and have her ask if Buffy was feeling well; her response should be, “Oh no, it’s happening again.”
You know, this is the first episode that demonstrates Giles’ understanding and practice of magic; he performs the reversal spell so deftly, as he does with other spells later. Yet,
Eyghon aside, they kind of downplay this side of his character to where you kind of take it for granted that he’s kind of a sorcerer.
Even though it’s not the first time paying attention to Joyce and Buffy’s discussion at the end of the episode, where Joyce says she can’t understand what it’s like for Buffy to be 16, because she’s not 16; and Buffy asks if she’d want to be 16 again – I know I’ve watched/listened to this scenes many times before, but this is the first time it’s made me think about the implications two years later, when the enchanted band candy does make Joyce a teenager again. And it’s one of those things where you can’t help but wonder, with Joss being Joss, if might have had some iteration of that story in mind at that time; or if it’s just a happy coincidence. Even if it was just a coincidence, it’s a happy one, since it did in fact remind Joyce what it was like being a teenager; and help her understand Buffy better.
You know, I like Amy; and I even kind of like her as a periodic antagonist later in the series, but I kind of like her more in this episode as a friend and ally to the Scoobies. I also feel like her later practicing magic and having a vindictive streak is incongruent with the real Amy we see at the end of this episode. Granted, it’s not impossible for that Amy to make some bad decisions and turn out that way, but it arguably seems more like at some point her mom managed to swap bodies again and it was really Catherine, by season 6 for sure and quite possibly before that; perhaps even as far back as her return appearance in season 2 when Xander catches her using magic. Catherine had no problems faking being Amy and should she manage to switch places again, and if she were smart, she’d reign herself in, at least around Buffy and the others so as not to make them suspect or interfere.
On the flip side of that, I kind of feel like throughout this episode they were trying to suggest that Amy was sometimes actually Amy; where she appears to be legitimately surprised and even horrified when some of the curses happen. But this is somewhat refuted by the way that Catherine, as Amy, knew when Buffy spilled the potion on her, outing her as a witch. But there’s also a sense of familiarity between the real Amy and Buffy at the end of the episode that almost seems like it’s meant to be an extension of their earlier interaction at the start of the episode; even though by all accounts it was Catherine. It’s plausible that the switch occurred somewhere in between when the episode started and when Catherine/Amy comes home and makes the real Amy do her homework, but we’re not really given any indication of this; and I’m probably reading too much into it.
I would add that, I think they waited too long to de-rat Amy later on in the series. While it served the immediate purpose at the time of providing Willow with a magical playmate who could enable Willow’s abuse of magic, I feel like the Amy they brought back is a few deviations different from the Amy that turned herself into a rat in season 3. While powerful in season 3, she appears to be much more advanced for someone who hadn’t practiced magic in three years; and conveniently already has connections with someone like Rack. No doubt high school students with connections to shady drug dealers, but everything about Amy after she comes back, from the level of magic she uses by that point, Rack and the mentality, short of it really being Catherine in Amy’s body again, doesn’t seem like it meshes with the 17 or 18 year old we saw before that.