I apparently like "Anne" a lot more than fandom does - and in fact I might even love it (1/?))

[red_satin_doll]

The first time I watched "Anne" a few months back (which I apparently enjoy more than the general fandom does?  With possible exception o norwie2010, I dare say) I remember seeing a blink-and-you'll miss it image of Buffy with a hammer and sickle and thought "Did I just see what I thought I saw

Comments

[readerjane]

That image makes me think of River Tam.

Or River reminds me of Buffy. Either way.

[red_satin_doll]

I think I know which image you're talking about. Joss has a thing for slender young women who are fierce but damaged warriors, doesn't he?

[rebcake]

I am vastly amused that the sickle-thing is called a "hunga munga". It is very cool indeed. I do like "Anne", though it suffers from lack of Spike. ;-) The Chantarelle/Lily/Anne character is interesting to me, and she appears now and then in a meaningful way in "Angel", which always makes me happy.

The guy who plays Ken appears in other Whedon projects, and he embodies the banality of evil almost too well!

[red_satin_doll]

I didn't know what that thing was called; I know it's really not a sickle or scythe - then again, the Slayer scythe is not really a scythe, either - but the reference to the communist symbol is still pretty cool. And Buffy with an axe is always a good thing.

I do like "Anne", though it suffers from lack of Spike.

Agree to disagree? When I was first watching the show I bemoaned the disappearance of Spike, NOT because I shipped them in any way, but because he was a terrific character. I had thought he'd be the Big Bad of S2; so when he came back as a bit of a heartbroken woobie in Lover's Walk I was sort of disappointed. It all paid rich dividends in the end, but I didn't know that yet.

But in terms of "Anne", his presence for me would have been inappropriate; this is very much about Buffy's trauma re: Angel, and she needs to climb out of that Hell on her own, I think.

The guy who plays Ken appears in other Whedon projects, and he embodies the banality of evil almost too well!YES! In the scene where he first interacts with Buffy

[eilowyn]

People don't like Anne? I always thought it was one of the better season openers, though the Bangel of it all makes me gag (and as Reb says, no Spike is to its detriment!) But if you think about it, the episode also is a statement of where the show is at that point: it's before things get complicated and messy, before the moral grayness of the later seasons. At that point in the series Buffy's confidence isn't broken by abandonment issues, so she can look danger in the eye and say "I am Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Later on things will be harder, it will take effort for her to make that kind of self-identification, but at the beginning of season 3 things are still black and white, Buffy is still the bearer of absolutes. This is something that goes away as the series continues (again, abandonment issues tear our girl apart, thank you very much, Angel and Riley!), but for now it's something that she can state without question. She is the vampire slayer. The end.

[red_satin_doll]

I recall reading negative opinions of it on the ATV Club threads (although maybe I'm confusing it with "when she was bad"? But I don't get the sense of Anne being loved in that corner of fandom, although S3 was generally considered the best season (aka, the "we love the early seasons and everything else was shit" faction.)

But if you think about it, the episode also is a statement of where the show is at that point: it's before things get complicated and messy, before the moral grayness of the later seasons. At that point in the series Buffy's confidence isn't broken by abandonment issues, so she can look danger in the eye and say "I am Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

*nods* I've also read comments that AtS was morally greyer than BtVS but they are very different shows; Buffy is a coming-of-age story, and AtS gets to build on the back of that.

In terms of being broken, she's very close, closer than I was aware of at the time. She's utterly distraught when Angel returns in Beauty and the Beasts.

(again, abandonment issues tear

[zanthinegirl]

Anne is one of those episodes that's had to grow on me a bit. Good call of the hammer & sickle though!

[red_satin_doll]

Thanks! That just jumped out at me when I first saw it - and rewatching, it's one of those things yoiu could miss because the action is so intense and frenetic. (Really a wonderfully staged fight scene IMO.)

I don't think I really appreciated it either, until recently. I love the fact that so much about the show depends on the way the entire story works as a seven-season unit, the callbacks and foreshadowings. So many layers.

I may end up doing an S3 rewatch because I may have underestimated it? I know the season itself is highly thought of in certain quarters of general fandom (usually the ones who prefer the earlier seasons). Although calling it "the best" is a bit of a stretch for me, though I may change my mind. And the angst, the angst - anytime SMG cries I lose it.

[norwie2010]

Ha! *love*

"Anne" is a truly great episode and it is a shame that it's twin "Graduation Day" is comparatively weak in it's metaphor. Whether Whedon meant to "propagate" communism or not - "Anne" depicts extermination through labor in frightening detail. From the name "Anne" (Frank) to identification through a tattoo on the forearm(!) to symbolism depicting the one force which destroyed the European death camp system (there were over 1000 concentration camps all over Europe with 13 to 17 million murdered to fill the bank accounts of the owners of the industry).

[red_satin_doll]

"Anne" is a truly great episode and it is a shame that it's twin "Graduation Day" is comparatively weak in it's metaphor. There is the aspect of summoning the troops, an army of the people (students untrained in battle or warfare - although the aspect of sending other students to her death when Buffy herself said in S1 "I don't want to die" is a bit dodgy IMO. Even if it resulted in VampHarmony.) I think the presence of Angel, and Buffy's focus on saving him (nearly leading to her own death) is detrimental, in that it pulls a lot of focus - and the romance is long past dead, anyway. (Bored now.) The show has to give the two of them some sort of closure (Angelus drinking from Buffy - and her sacrificing herself to him in that way - is both erotic and extremely disturbing. Fortunately Buffy comes around to the other side in S7, when she tells Dawn in "Him", "No man is worth your life", and Spike sacrifices his own for her in Chosen. So, yay