Was anybody else's favorite character...

[assydingo]

Buffy? It seems a lot of people like Willow, Xander, etc. more than her and I can understand why but Buffy remains my favorite.

1. Emotional. While at times overdone it never seriously bothered me. Mostly because she was going through difficult things and SMG's fantastic acting.

2. Stupid. By that I mean very generally, like she's made a lot of bad choices or doesn't do the intelligent thing. I'd argue that the intelligent thing isn't always the most human thing. She obviously shouldn't have been with Spike but she needed somebody, even if it wasn't love (as is exceedingly apparent when in the last episode of season 7 she kisses Angel like they never ended it).

3. Her appearance. A lot say she became ugly or her breasts were too small and so forth. I agree that Buffy was cute in early seasons and not so much later but her changes don't distract me from the character.

That's the main reasons I see people not liking Buffy. My main reasons for liking Buffy are...

- She's incredibly strong as a person
- I agree with most of her choices
- Flaws, in someway her unlikable traits make her more real to me than Xander/Willow, who at times seem somewhat perfect

[Enisy]

Are you kidding? Buffy always tops the character polls, along with Angel and Spike.

[prayer]

No my favourite is not Buffy. I find her most of the time very annoying. My fav is probbably always going to be Angel. :heart:

[Nina]

I think that Buffy is less popular since season 6 ... but she still has many fans. Like Enisy already said, she is still one of the big favourites.

Buffy was my favourite character in season 1-3, after that Angel became my favourite. Right now she is around place 4/5/6 on my list.


I do have to say that I almost never saw people use the complaints you wrote ... if somebody doesn't like a girl because she has no big boobs, I won't take that person serious in the first place. But to use that argument against Buffy and have Willow as your favourite character is just stupid. BtVS is full of women I would like to feed a hamburger ... on the other side, the small boob argument is always better than the 'Angel is a pedo bear' argument.

[Revan]

The main reason people do not like Buffy is because she gets away with stuff no one else does. She was one of my favorite characters but because she gets away with things it makes people not like her.

I like her just not as much as the rest

[doubleshiny]

Often the lead character is not the one that people identify with the most because they're in the spotlight and don't have as many 'human' attributes because they have to be the hero.

I think Buffy's a great character but when asked I often forget about her, she's the focus of the show so it's difficult to think of her as 'like me' for the viewer.

[Matt]

I really loved the character of Buffy, even more now in season 8, but I don't get why everybody stopped liking her in season 6, if anything it made me like her more, okay, maybe not all of the Spike stuff, but I think since she died the second time she's a stronger character and the only reason people don't like her is because they don't see the justification behind some of her actions.

I may not have always liked her, but re-watching the show and reading the comics I think she is a brilliant character, she was always my favourite of the Core 4 anyway.

[assydingo]

Angel is a pedophile? Never heard that one. Buffy and Angel are almost entirely kid-less shows so I'm not sure how that's possible.

What did she get away with?

[Sosa lola]

Buffy is my favorite female character for the reasons you've mentioned. But I have to comment on one thing... Xander and Willow are nowhere near perfect and that's why they're popular. ;)

Are you kidding? Buffy always tops the character polls, along with Angel and Spike.

Depends on the place of the poll. Sometimes Willow is the most popular character. Sometimes Spike. Sometimes Buffy. Sometimes Xander. Usually I see Spike in the top, but I have seen Xander and Willow above Buffy more often than I've seen Buffy above them.

[Matt]

Angel is a pedophile? Never heard that one. Buffy and Angel are almost entirely kid-less shows so I'm not sure how that's possible.

Angel is in a way that he fell in love with Buffy before she was old enough and considering the age-gap, but not technically because they never had sex until Buffy was legal... well she was legal in the UK anyway, I'm not sure what the legal age to have sex is in California.

Just to add to my previous post if I had to rank the core 4 in order of who I liked the most I'd say -

1. Buffy.
2. Willow.
3. Xander.
4. Giles.

[spuffy4life]

I'd have to say:
1. Buffy
2. Faith
3 Willow
4. Xander (got nothing against him)
5. Giles


Joss

[Enisy]

If I had to rank the Core Four...

1) Buffy
2) Giles
3) Xander
4) Willow

[spuffy4life]

Oh, were we only supposed to do four.....ooopsy *blushes*


Joss

[vampmogs]

Buffy is my favourite character but I agree with you that there seems to be a lot of people who don't enjoy her, especially since season six onwards. Season six and seven seemed to hurt her character a lot, it'll be interesting to see if season eight is able to turn that around and give her a big fall like they did with Angel in Ats season two.

I think characters like Buffy or Angel are often not fan favourites in comparison to others because they have the huge tasks of being in the spotlight. With that comes a lot of mistakes and falls, and they aren't the kind of characters that can just show up, make a snarky quip be hilarious then remove themselves from the scene unscathed. Which is probably why characters like Cordy, Anya and Spike had such massive fanbases back in the day but why characters such as Cordy and Spike have become less popular when they eventually got a story and became more flawed.

It’s all about the spotlight, the more you get the more eventually you’re gonna start pissing people off. Personally I enjoy characters like Buffy and Angel more.

The most common complaints I hear about Buffy are that she's either annoying, bitchy, things she's better than everyone else, mean to her friends ect.

[Sosa lola]

My rank would be:

1- Xander
2- Buffy
3- Giles
4- Willow

But that's with teh core four only, if I'm gonna add the other characters, I'm not so sure where I'd rank Willow :D I don't hate her, but I love other characters more. Actually I hate no character, it's a waste of time.

[Wolfie Gilmore]

Angel is a pedophile? Never heard that one. Buffy and Angel are almost entirely kid-less shows so I'm not sure how that's possible.



It’s because he fell in love with her when she was 15 (that scene at Hemery in flashback where she’s sucking a lollypop, and he says at one point that he already liked her then). Plus, he’s like hundreds of years older than her. Dirty old man.

Though I think Buffy at 15, probably more mature than Angel in his rat-eating phase.

My favourites change all the time. Buffy (except in season 7 when she’s too military) is definitely up there, along with Willow, Giles, Spike and David Nabbit. Awww, David Nabbit. Give him his own show! Or at least have him turn up as a mystery patron in season 8 pls?

[Nina]

I would watch David Nabbit's show ... :heart: The guy needs to make a come back, can't he join Angel's team? That team needs some new geeks.


My core 4 rank is;

1. Xander
2. Buffy
----
3. Giles
4. Willow

Xander & Buffy are high on my favourite list, Giles & Willow not so much. Especially Willow isn't.

[Wolfie Gilmore]

I would watch David Nabbit's show ... :heart: The guy needs to make a come back, can't he join Angel's team? That team needs some new geeks.

Maybe he can rescue them from Hell in his company helicopter? He could land on a hell-ipad.

(sorry)

[Rowan Hawthorn]

Willow has always been my favorite, from Day One, but that doesn't mean I dislike any of the others in the core group. Liking one (or more) better than the others doesn't necessarily equal to not liking the others at all - it's not an either/or situation.

[vampmogs]

Willow has always been my favorite, from Day One, but that doesn't mean I dislike any of the others in the core group. Liking one (or more) better than the others doesn't necessarily equal to not liking the others at all - it's not an either/or situation.

Exactly! Which is why all the "You're a (insert character) hater!" accusations are such nonsense most of the time. We all have our favourites but it doesn't mean you *hate* another character if you don't like them as much.

I can never decide who I like more out of Willow and Xander. Xander's more relatable sometimes and Willow can make some really, really sucky choices but then you get scenes like her comforting Buffy in 'Wolves At The Gate' or of her excitement to see Xander, or in general just showing up and being, as Xander puts it, "the indescribable Miss Rosenberg!" and I just love her. I prefer her in earlier seasons though, especially before she became so darn cheesy with her partners.. “Tara, baby” “Kendoll?” Yeeks… :lol:

[Rowan Hawthorn]

I can never decide who I like more out of Willow and Xander. Xander's more relatable sometimes and Willow can make some really, really sucky choices but then you get scenes like her comforting Buffy in 'Wolves At The Gate' or of her excitement to see Xander, or in general just showing up and being, as Xander puts it, "the indescribable Miss Rosenberg!" and I just love her. I prefer her in earlier seasons though, especially before she became so darn cheesy with her partners.. “Tara, baby” “Kendoll?” Yeeks… :lol:

Mmmmmmyyyeeeeeaaah, Willow can get a little corny sometimes. I kinda get a kick out of it, though. Especially since she's this incredibly powerful, dangerous woman who's done a lot of growing up over the past few years - and yet, inside, she's still the same old Willow in many ways.

[assydingo]

Well about that... Angel might be older but technically he came from a time where 15 was old enough to be married. So it works both ways. I also don't think age is applicable to vampires in the same way it is human. If you feel and look like you're 20 but you're actually 100 it's much different than looking and feeling AND being 100.

I never thought Buffy changed all that much. The times changed and it forced her new to make hard choices but she's mostly the same person.

The whole main four are great to me. However Xander got less and less of a role on the show which sucked.

[vampmogs]

Well about that... Angel might be older but technically he came from a time where 15 was old enough to be married. So it works both ways. I also don't think age is applicable to vampires in the same way it is human. If you feel and look like you're 20 but you're actually 100 it's much different than looking and feeling AND being 100.

We were having this discussion over in the Buffy/Angel thread and most of pretty much concluded that Angel has never, and probably will never be, a product of society. He's always been an outsider in that regard. Unlike everyone else at the time during the 1950’s he didn't give a damn about Judy's skin colour, nor did he care about WWII, there's no reason to think he should care what as society we deem as an appropriate age to fall in love with someone.

There’s no “dirty old man vibe.” He wasn’t sitting their perving on her, he intentionally kept his distance so they wouldn’t get close and they didn’t begin dating until she was sixteen anyway, which is the legal age in my country.

For people to label him a "dirty old man" is a real slap in the face to the good person the Angel character is. It's clear he's not a dirty old man, never has been.

[assydingo]

I wouldn't really care if she was younger and he was older. He always treated her good and that's the only thing I really care about. Ok, if she was younger they probably shouldn't be having sex but... you know what I mean. Maybe lol.

Angel was a gentlemen definetly. Only bad thing about him relationship wise was his post-Buffy interests never went anywhere. Of course that's because of who he is and how difficult that makes things... but still. Even with Cordelia it never felt convincing. That's cause they killed her character off right before they were going to talk it over though.

[HannahKen]

My Rank Would Be
1-Willow
2-Xander
3-Dawn
4- THEN Buffy
andd she would be farther down if i could say the potentials and the evil trio

[Bloodsucker]

Where I come from, the legal age of consent is 14. So I never saw any problem even at the very start of the Buffy/Angel relationship (which is a very innocent start, anyway, Angel never takes advantage of her). Nothing to do with pedophily AT ALL.

Being male, I logically identify with male characters *points to av*, but that doesn't mean I can't like female characters, and among the females Buffy is my favourite.

[OkinawanSteel]

For me, apart from seasons 6 and 7 where my like of the character actually did decrease, I love Buffy, but I think I take the character for granted. I think that the fact that Buffy is the main character might work against her. Beyond the fact that as the main character we see so much of her, and you know what they say about familiarity, it's also the fact that as the main character she has to be pretty stable and grounded. Other characters don't have the same constraints, so you can have many characters that can have eccentric behaviour, do extreme things and just about anything else you want. All of which is more attention grabbing than the more normal, relatable main character. It might seem like a bit of a bit of a strange comparison, but take 'Ugly Betty' for example. I love Betty, she's the heart of the show, but if you asked me who my favourite character was, I'd surely say Wilhelmina, Amanda, Marc etc. before Betty. Those sort of characters make more of an impression on me. Betty I take for granted. Just like early seasons Buffy.


I can never decide who I like more out of Willow and Xander.

I've always had a bit of a weird relationship with those two. I like them both. Xander, I have a pretty much consistent like of all the way through, my feelings on him stayed very steady and rarely ever wavered. Willow, my feelings fluctuated quite a bit. There were times when I didn't really like her much, but the times I did, for some reason, I liked her more than Xander. If I rank them, I can't decide whether that means I should put Willow ahead of Xander, or whether all my feelings taken into account should lead to them ending up about even.

[Dark Ages]

Buffy is not my cup of tea. She's cool sometimes but other times she rubs me the wrong way and I dont like her. I have to say in the 5th seasn she was the biggest bitch ever. I would say the seventh season, but she had to train the girls and that could be stressfull... But no I really didnt like Buffy. She was okay.

[Bloodsucker]

Just out of interest, why do you think she was the biggest bitch ever in Season 5? Because she didn't want to be with Spike? That's the only one she truly was bitchy to, in my opinion, but I can understand why - he spends a long time trying to kill her and then being a jerk with her friends when they help him, and suddenly he loves her? Not exactly helpful when one wants to start something with a girl... Or were you referring to something else?

[doubleshiny]

I think that Spike's attraction for Buffy comes from strength and respect. He respects the fact that she's a warrior who could kick his ass, but part of that is that he's always testing her. In Spike's twisted way that was like flirting!

[eveee]

buffy is my favourite. always has been always will be. spike and angel in equal second mate. (:

[Bloodsucker]

I think that Spike's attraction for Buffy comes from strength and respect. He respects the fact that she's a warrior who could kick his ass, but part of that is that he's always testing her. In Spike's twisted way that was like flirting!

Totally seconded. I agree with him that strong women are hot, even if they're enemies :eviltail: and actually managing to bed your enemy, now that would be something :D :eviltail: and this whole wanting her grows into a kind of obsession.

[sueworld]

Out of the main cast my fav has to be Giles, with Xander a close second. :D

[Kiera]

Not going by the hottie factor that generally sways my decision to Angel, Spike or Drusilla, I always found Buffy to be more of a favorite for me when I could relate to what she was going through. I'm weird like that, I suppose, but there were times when I couldn't stand her and times where I loved her and sympathized with her so well the episode or scene made me burst into tears because I felt so bad for her.