Buffyverse Stats - Year Six

BUFFYVERSE STATS

TOP 40 CHARACTER LIST:

Once AGAIN, I'm wasting my semi-valuable time (and hopefully yours) to bring you the latest update in my attempt to catalogue the most significant characters in the BUFFYVERSE. Previous CUMULATIVE updates covered the first, second and third years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After that, the task became more complicated as Buffy's fourth season aired simultaneously (day and date, literally) with the first season of Angel. So the Year Four update included Buffy S4 & Angel S1. Year Five covered Buffy S5 & Angel S2. This update, Year Six, covers Buffy S6 & Angel S3.

As you may recall, I've tried to inform this subjective task with an objective formula. I tried, as much as possible, not to allow my knowledge of future events to influence the current standings. Still, I won't deny that subjectives have played a role. It's hard not to take extra notice of a character you know is going to be important later. And ties were broken based entirely on subjective criteria.

The idea behind a cumulative tally is to mimic the original experience of following the Buffyverse. It's a horse race. Some of the winners and losers are decidedly predictable. Others are a bit surprising - surprising enough that it's become absolutely clear that my system must be flawed. I've since dreamed up a new system, but it's too late to implement it. Someday, LONG after I've finished this first survey (but ONLY if I prove truly insane), I might just start over and see what the results are with OBJECTIVE SYSTEM 2.0. But for now - assuming you haven't nodded off - you're stuck with System One.

I have a list of ALL the characters that have appeared in both series up to this point. It's so long (including everything from leads to ridiculously minor characters) that I haven't even bothered to count how many there are. But my list of MOST significant currently tops out at 202 characters.

But I think listing the top 40 is both pleasantly traditional… and plenty. Or largely. I just want to note a few characters introduced (or revisited) in this set of episodes, who haven't yet or never will make the top 40, but whom I believe are memorable enough to merit honorable mention.

Starting with…

[SPOILERS]

#197 - The Prima Ballerina. Summer Glau, later of FIREFLY & SERENITY, plays a dancer trapped performing the same ballet forever until Angel and Co. save her.

#196 - The Girl in the White Room. At Wolfram & Hart. A creepy, vicious little god-girl.

#191 - Lady with a Baby, a.k.a. Mother #2. Same actress played a mom with a kid on Buffy and then later played a mom with a kid on Angel - who's secretly working for Wolfram & Hart. No guarantee that these two roles on two separate shows are actually intended to be the same character. But I like to think so.

#175 - Arney. Lorne's Demon contractor, who betrays the Angel gang to Holtz.

#167, #168, #169 - Fury #1, Fury #2, Fury #3. Very funny trio, who defy their names by being REALLY into their former sex partner Angel.

#166 - Sunny. Connor's first friend - a junkie who doesn't survive long - after he arrives back on Earth.

#165 - Doctor. In Buffy's vision of being in an asylum, this was the Psychiatrist, who tried to convince her that her entire life in Sunnydale was psychosis.

#163, #164 - Josh and Sara Harris. Xander and Anya's two kids in the false vision of the future presented to Xander at the couple's aborted wedding.

#160, #161 - Mr. & Mrs. Burkle. Fred's parents.

#154, #155 - Caroline & Sarah Holtz - Victims of Angelus & Darla that send Holtz on his centuries long quest for vengeance.

#144 - Sweet. The tap-dancing Demon that brought us BUFFY: THE MUSICAL! "Once More With Feeling…"

#130 - Doris Kroeger. The woman from Child Services, who tried to take Dawn away from Buffy.

#118 - Cave Demon. The guy who gave back Spike's soul.

#117 - Billy Blim, a.k.a. Young Man. The guy that Angel saved from a burning hell to protect Cordelia's visions from killing her. He returns later as a guy who can bring out "primal misogyny" in men. Lilah kills him.

#113, #192 - Razor and Mag. Biker Demons who appear in the opening two-parters where Buffy comes back to life.

#108, #174 - Lorraine Ross & Gina. Buffy's boss and fellow employee at the Double Meat Palace, who each appear in a couple episode.

#102 - Sandy. Sandy first appeared when the Vamp-Willow came to our universe. She was a victim that Vamp-Willow bit. Then two seasons later, she resurfaces as a vampire, whom Riley allows to feed on him. Riley then stakes her. Again, I love that they used someone with continuity for Riley.

#99, #131, #162 - Tony, Rory & Jessica Harris. Xander's Dad, Uncle & Mom, i.e. the horrible family that convinced Xander - more than the misleading vision, that he wasn't ready for marriage with Anya. Personally, I never bought this.

#75 - Clem, a.k.a. Clemmet, a.k.a. Loose-Skinned Demon. With Merl dead over on Angel, we meet a newer, sweeter sympathetic Demon. Gotta love Clem.

#70 - Rack. Willow's magic pusher.

#69 - Skip. Originally Billy Blim's hell-guard. Later Cordelia's spirit guide. I really liked Skip and have to admit I was pretty bummed when in Season Four of Angel he turns out to have been a villain all along.

#55 - Halfrek… and Cecily Addams? Halfrek is Anya's best friend, a fellow vengeance demon. But the same actress also played Spike's first love Cecily. And when Halfrek first spots Spike, she recognizes him, so…

#45, 46 - Justine Cooper and Sahjahn. The demon who brought Holtz to the present, and the obsessed woman who fell in love with Holtz because he gave her purpose.

#41 - Connor/Steven. Angel's son. He'll crack the top 40 next season.

And before we start, a fond Top 40 farewell to Willy the Snitch (now at #51), Mr. Trick (#49), Jinx (#47), Holland Manners (#44), Amy (#43) and Adam (#42).

AND NOW THE TOP 40
Abbreviations for previous rankings…
Y1 - Buffy Season 1.
Y2 - Buffy Season 2.
Y3 - Buffy Season 3.
Y4 - Buffy Season 4/Angel Season 1.
Y5 - Buffy Season 5/Angel Season 2.
NR - Not Ranked that year.

#40 - The Master. Y5: 34. Y4: 27. Y3: 16. Y2: 13. Y1: 8. Buffy's first Big Bad from an abbreviated first season just barely holds on to the Top 40, falling 6 rankings. And it's not at all a given that he'll hold on after next season. After all, Adam has already fallen OUT of the top 40. Adam may not have been the best of Buffy's Big Bads, but I'm still stunned that he fell out of the Top 40. (Particularly given some of the less interesting characters that ARE holding on.)

#39 - The Groosalugg. Y5: 81. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Groo, the half-demon from Lorne's dimension, who fell hard for Cordelia, jumps up 42 rankings, as he joins the Angel team for half a season… before gallantly riding off into the sunset so that Cordelia and Angel can (not) hook up.

#38 - Gavin Park. Y5: 128. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Gavin, in his second season as Lilah's post-Lindsey foil at Wolfram & Hart, leaps up a WHOPPING 90 positions. I really liked Gavin, but in hindsight I really should give credit for that to Daniel Dae Kim (now playing a totally different character on LOST), because other than functioning as a FOIL, he never really has any juice of his own. But he sure appears a lot.

#37 - Andrew Wells. Y5: NR. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Andrew, the definite third wheel of the Season's Evil Trio (no, not Brooklyn, Lexikngton & Broadway) is #37 with a bullet, entering the Top 40 in his first season. He's very funny… and he becomes a near regular next season, so he's only just getting started.

#36 - Warren Meers. Y5: 82. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Warren, who emerges as the only non-banality of evil member of the Evil Trio, jumps 46 rankings. Murderer of Katrina and Tara. Creator of Dark Willow. He winds up skinned.

#35 - Forrest Gates. Y5: 32. Y4: 21. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Riley's ex-best buddy falls three rankings. Still twice-dead, he's one of the characters that I can't believe is still holding onto a Top 40 spot. I mean Adam's fallen off, but this guy holds on… based on having a lot of screen time.

#34 - Glory. Y5: 30. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Year Five's big bad drops 4 rankings. Any big bad deserves the Top 40 in my opinion. Hope she holds on.

#33 - Mayor Richard Wilkins III. Y5: 29. Y4: 19. Y3: 14. Y2: 40. Y1: NR. The Mayor also loses 4 rankings. This guy damn well better hold on.

#32 - Graham Miller. Y5: 28. Y4: 22. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Riley Finn's second best friend falls four rankings. Like Forrest, another one that I can't imagine why he's still in the Top 40.

#31 - Maggie Walsh. Y5: 27. Y4: 18. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. And Maggie, the holding place for Adam (who actually had more screen time) falls four rankings herself. Still feels like she's too high up to me, but at least I buy her being in the Top 40. But her placement above Adam, Glory, the Master, and the Mayor is one of the things that points up a flaw in the current system.

#30 - Ben. Y5: 26. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Year Five's big bad's alter ego for Glory also drops four places. And here again, a flaw is pointed up. Ben ahead of Glory? And still in the Top 30? Really? Like Maggie ahead of Adam, it's about screen time, not actual character significance or OOMPH.

#29 - Jenny Calendar. Y5: 25. Y4: 17. Y3: 13. Y2: 11. Y1: 15. Jenny also falls four rankings. (Who are the four guys who pushed everyone back, huh?) Says something about Jenny's original significance that a non-regular like her is holding on for so long.

#28 - Harmony Kendall. Y5: 23. Y4: 25. Y3: 20. Y2: 26. Y1: 18. Harmony keeps bouncing back and forth, falling five (not four) rankings this year to her lowest ranking yet. Of course, this is the first year that Harmony doesn't actually appear at all.

#27 - Kate Lockley. Y5: 22. Y4: 23. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Angel's cop friend doesn't appear this season at all… and I hate to say isn't particularly missed. She falls five rankings. (Five being the new four.)

#26 - Lindsey McDonald. Y5: 21. Y4: 29. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Lindsey has hit the road, and having also been absent all season, falls five rankings too.

#25 - Daniel Holtz. Y5: NR. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Captain Holtz, Angel's Big Bad for the Season (or surrogate, if you're counting Connor as the finale's final big bad) is #25 with a bullet. He's deadly and great and played by my buddy Keith Szaribajka (who played Psycho for me on MAX STEEL).

#24 - Jonathan Levinson. Y5: 33. Y4: 24. Y3: 17. Y2: 19. Y1: NR. Jonathan, the LEAST evil of the EVIL Trio, picks up the same nine rankings he lost in Year Five (when he had zero appearances). He's always welcome.

#23 - Francis Doyle. Y5: 20. Y4: 15. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Doyle falls three ranks (three, really?) and out of the top twenty.

#22 - Lilah Morgan. Y5: 31. Y4: 31. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Lilah climbs nine positions. She has some really great moments this season - and really seems to come into her own with Wesley at Season's end. But the promise of the previous season, that she would be IN CHARGE doesn't materialize as she gets a new boss.

#21 - Principal Snyder. Y5: 18. Y4: 12. Y3: 9. Y2: 10. Y1: 12. Snyder falls three ranks, dropping out of the Top 20.

#20 - Faith. Y5: 17. Y4: 13. Y3: 10. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Faith loses three rankings and doesn't appear all season. Though she holds on to the Top 20.

#19 - Drusilla. Y5: 16. Y4: 16. Y3: 11. Y2: 8. Dru doesn't appear this season and falls three rankings her own self.

#18 - Darla. Y5: 19. Y4: 28. Y3: 23. Y2: 23. Y1: 11. Darla jumps up only one ranking for her half-season on Angel. She has one of the best death scenes EVER. EVER.

#17 - Lorne, the Host. Y5: 24. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Lorne becomes a de facto Angel regular and jumps up seven rankings to enter the Top 20.

#16 - Winifred "Fred" Burkle. Y5: 50. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Fred leaps up 34 positions to reach the Top 20. Being a new regular gives you a boost, huh?

#15 - Riley Finn. Y5: 12. Y4: 11. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Riley makes his last appearance (as a married man no less) but still falls three rankings.

#14 - Joyce Summers. Y5: 11. Y4: 9. Y3: 8. Y2: 7. Y1: 7. Joyce appears in Buffy's Madhouse Vision, but misses out on the rest of the season, falling three slots.

THIS IS WHERE I LEFT OFF, DUDE.

#13 - Tara Maclay. Y5: 15. Y4: 20. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Tara moves up two rankings, but she'll probably peek at unlucky #13. I can't belive that I haven't seen Amber Benson in a hundred things since Buffy. She is so missed.

#12 - Daniel "Oz" Osbourne. Y5: 9. Y4: 7. Y3: 7. Y2: 12. Y1: NR. Well, Oz falls three rankings, dropping out of the Top Ten. Two years of non-appearance'll do that to ya.

#11 - Dawn Summers. Y5: 14. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Dawn, on the other hand, moves up three rankings, trading places with mom Joyce.

#10 - Charles Gunn. Y5: 13. Y4: 37. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Gunn climbs 3 ranks to crack the Top 10.

#9 - Anya Kristina Emanuella Jenkins. Y5: 10. Y4: 14. Y3: 22. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Anya continues her steady climb. Only one ranking this year, but within the Top 10, that's still impressive.

#8 - Wesley Wyndam-Price. Y5: 8. Y4: 10. Y3: 15. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Wesley stalls at a still impressive #8, as he begins his turn toward the darker Wesley.

#7 - Spike. Y5: 7. Y4: 8. Y3: 12. Y2: 9. Y1: NR. And Spike likewise stalls, maintaining at #7. And there's a HUGE gap between him and #6.

#6 - Willow Rosenberg. Y5: 6. Y4: 6. Y3: 4. Y2: 4. Y1: 4. Willow stays at #6. Again, her being this far below Xander absolutely demonstrates that the system is flawed, particularly when this was Willow's turn to be the Big Bad. It just doesn't make sense.

#5 - Rupert Giles. Y5: 3. Y4: 3. Y3: 2. Y2: 2. Y1: 2. Giles falls two rankings, but manages to just barely hold onto the Top 5, despite missing much of the season. Willow's hot on his trail though, which seems right.

#4 - Cordelia Chase. Y5: 5. Y4: 4. Y3: 5. Y2: 5. Y1: 5. Cordelia moves back up one ranking into the #4 slot by passing Giles.

#3 - Angel. Y5: 4. Y4: 5. Y3: 6. Y2: 6. Y1: 6. Angel moves up one ranking also by passing Giles. Is Xander next?

#2 - Xander Harris. Y5: 2. Y4: 2. Y3: 3. Y2: 3. Y1: 3. Xander maintains his #2 ranking for now. Since he just saved the world from Dark Willow, maybe he's earned it.

#1 - Buffy Anne Summers. Y5: 1. Y4: 1. Y3: 1. Y2: 1. Y1: 1. Duh.

Tough Love

I've been informed that the Season Two Volume One Gargoyles DVD has not sold as many units as the Season One Gargoyles DVD did. That's not particularly surprising, since it has a higher price point. But let's be honest, the lower sales are putting the release of Season Two Volume Two at risk.

To be clear, I'm not asking anyone to spend money they don't have and/or need for things like food, shelter, education, etc. But if you've just been lazy and have been putting off buying the darn thing... well, pal, help us all out by ponying up sooner than later.

And ALL OF YOU -- PLEASE DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO SPREAD THE WORD!!!!

It is NOT a given that Season Two Volume Two will come out!

Chapter  LX : "Turf"

Time to ramble...

Chapter  LX : "Turf"
Story Editor: Gary Sperling
Writers: Marty Isenberg & Robert N. Skir
Director: Dennis Woodyard

ANGIE
The one word title is, as usual, one of mine, referring of course to the Turf War over Manhattan between Brod & Dracon, and the "Turf War" over "Angie" between Brooklyn, Lexington & Broadway.

We were careful NOT to have Broadway call her Angie here. He used it first, in a previous episode, but by now has already grokked that she doesn't like it.

There's some fun stuff with the Trio acting like goofballs here. Brooklyn is particularly transparent.

Lex: "He's doing it again..."

There's also some awkward audio moments. Reused dialogue. (Brooklyn's "Heys") Arguments between the three of them that don't quite have the right snap. Oh, well...

But I think the ending is nice. Her "Slow down" is kinda lovely. The kisses are corny, but I think they work. And I love the reaction to her having "Fifteen Rookery Sisters back on Avalon"... (most of which she must know are spoken for by her many rookery brothers)... Brooklyn: "When do we get our world tour?"

ALL THE BUMS
In a way, this was fun for us, allowing us to gather many of our gangster characters together in one episode: Dracon and Brod of course, but also Glasses, Danforth and Pal Joey.

I do enjoy Brod. He has some great lines...

--"That was my favorite restaurant." In the middle of a turf war, and he's bummed about the food.

--And after Glasses speech tips Brod off to his NEW goal, i.e. breaking INTO jail... I love how Clancy reads, "Time to cut off the head!" (By the way, I always liked the audacity of Brod. Most people try to break OUT of jail. He breaks in.)

--When Brod says "Easy as shooting fish in barrel." I wanted the line to be "Easy as shooting Moose and Squirrel". But I was overruled. No one appreciates a good Boris Badinov reference.

--It was fun to see Brod & Dracon trying to classify the Gargs. "Bats." "Reptiles." They can't even agree on what they're fighting. Notice, no one said "Gargates".

I also like Jack Danforth a lot. Ed's great in that role. I loved Danforth in "Revelations". So I brought him back here and gave him to Brod to try to balance the character scale a bit. We tried to give Jack the word "Bum" to say as often as possible, e.g. "The Bum's in Cell Block D".

And it was fun to see the Guards punish Brod & Dracon by making them share a cell. Fun to see all dem bums jailed there.

SALLI
We used animation conventions here to try to fool the audience or at least to keep them off-balance. Because often the same actor plays multiple rolls, the mere fact that Salli Richardson was voicing Salli didn't guarantee that Salli and Elisa were the same person. (After all, Coldstone and Taurus aren't the same person. They're not even related. I PROMISE.) Plus models of humans can often be very similar. So the blonde Salli might or might not be Elisa as well. I figured some percentage of our audience would know. Some would miss it completely. Most would just be unsure... and that feeling of uncertainty was what I was counting on. Erin recognized Salli's voice as being the same as Elisa's. But neither her nor Benny were sure if it was really her or not until she took off the wig. When we had her sneak up to the Tower, they were pretty confident... and yet, and yet... I did like the garg's reactions after the fact. All sure. (To be fair, they were looking at a stranger from a distance.)

And by the way, I also liked that Salli's name is (coincidentally) nearly an acronym for Elisa. Maybe we should have spelled it "Salie".

Of course, Elisa looks damn good as a blonde. As always, it's nice to see her in different costumes.

Salli nearly gets the blame for the raid at the chop shop. She saves herself, probably literally, by mock accusing herself. Humor. Everyone's weapon of last resort.

It was also nice to see Elisa in the big sister (or young step-mother) role to Angela. I almost wish we had the time to play that more here.

Now, the question has been raised how Elisa got back on the force again, without getting in trouble after the World Tour. Here's a good part of the answer. She was needed. It's not that Chavez wasn't pissed about the disappearance. But the fact was that Chavez needed an unfamiliar face to infiltrate Brod's organization. Elisa's protracted absense wound up being useful. So Elisa gets in on a major undercover assignment that results in multiple high-profile arrests... and she's back in the fold.

It was also kind of fun to put Elisa in the uncomfortable position of having to protect Dracon.

AH, THE NINETIES...
Payphones. Salli looks wistfully at a payphone. Not that a cellphone would have helped her all that much with Brod watching her every move. But still...

Also, it seems that back in the 90s, a particle-beam weapon could shoot through the metal ceiling of a train... but NOT through seats on the same train. My wife gleefully pointed this out to me.

Anyway, that's my ramble. Where's yours...?

TURF OUTLINE NOTES

In preparation for my next ramble, here are my notes on the outline for Turf... written after story editor Gary Sperling turned in the episode's outline but before work began on the script itself.

You'll notice that I didn't finish my beat outline. Didn't have time. But I got the ball rolling, and Gary was so good, he didn't need me to do the rest...

WEISMAN 5-16-95

Notes on "Turf" Outline...

ANGELA
She can't be a cypher. Nor can she be naive of the Trio's attentions for very long. She can miss it for a beat, then be flattered at first. Then annoyed at their presumptions. We can play the whole range, except non-responsiveness. Also, we'd like to make her fun in her own right. New York (and even the modern world) are still very new to her. Situational excitement can distract her from the Trio's antics. But lets try and get a sense of who she is outside of the context of her parentage.

Also, I feel that we need to know who Angela will wind up with in the long run (assuming there ever is a long run). Gary Sperling and I discussed it, and came to a semi-consensus that Angela and Broadway would make a nice couple. This should NOT be objectively reflected in this episode, and Broadway can make just as big an idiot of himself as Lex and Brooklyn, but if we keep it subtle, I wouldn't mind if viewers were able to look back to this episode and say, "you know, it really started here."

BROADWAY
Independent of his romantic prospects, his appetite seemed overwhelming here. No arguments that he likes to eat. And I have no problems depicting him eating, but I don't want his appetite to ever overwhelm his common sense. No hunting for jalapeños when he's on a covert mission. Food does not become a priority when Elisa or the gargoyles' lives are at stake. And per Gary Krisel, we don't even want him to be talking self-consciously about food. It's a background element to his personality, not a defining element. He's imaginative. He likes to roll play. To have a good time. He likes pop culture. He's a fierce warrior. He's sensitive. Kind to animals. Protective. And, yes, he likes to eat.

CORRUPTION
I'd love at some point (that's that elusive long run mentioned above) to do a story about corruption. But I don't want to depict casual corruption in a story that doesn't have room to deal with it. Xanatos was in prison in "Thrill of the Hunt" and "Enter Macbeth" and got no massive privileges, except maybe a private cell. He ate prison food in the common room, etc. And he was in for a considerably lesser charge and has considerably more wealth at his disposal than Tony. So I don't want to see Dracon bribing guards or living the high life. Again, if our story was about that I wouldn't hesitate. But it's not. So prison is tough and cold and unpleasant. Dracon can have a private cell, a privilege he loses in the epilogue, and he is still running things via communication with Glasses. But he ain't having fun.

ELISA/SALLI
When the story opens, she's already in with Brod. In fact from her point of view, the first scene was designed to be the end of her undercover operation. She leads Brod to hit one of Dracon's illegal operations and the cops bust both sides. The plan is screwed up when she is knocked out before the cops arrive. She comes to later and has to improvise from that point on.

BROD
Brod's not a secret. This is an open turf war between two gangsters. Everyone, Dracon, Glasses, the cops, etc., know who the combatants are. The dilemma for the cops is that they cannot afford to let either side win. The winner would become too powerful. Putting Dracon away is embarrassing evidence of that. His operation is still in place. Elisa and the cops want to take the opportunity that the turf war presents to decimate the operations of both sides.

BEAT SHEET
ACT ONE
1. Some Dracon operation is raided by rival gangsters led by Brod. Brod's second-in-command is a woman (Elisa/Salli). Brod's men have the drop on Glasses and company, but "Salli" is knocked unconscious in the first early struggle. Suddenly, the raid is raided by the cops led by Chavez and Bluestone. (Morgan can be there too, but Elisa is conspicuously absent.) The cops nail henchmen on both sides, but Glasses and Joey escape (probably via some escape route that was in place for just this kind of police raid). Brod also escapes with the unconscious Salli, maybe to some extent because the cops don't want to fire on "Salli". (Though obviously, we don't want to reveal that here.)

2. In the hovercraft, Salli comes to. What happened? Brod explains that her plan to get the drop on Dracon's lieutenants worked -- until the cops showed up. Brod is generally suspicious, though not paranoid. The cops may have stumbled onto this thing on their own. Or one of Dracon's men might have betrayed the operation, and the Brod raid was just a case of bad timing, an unlucky coincidence. But Brod does not like coincidences. It's very possible that one of his people snitched. He still basically trusts Salli. (The fact that she got knocked out probably doesn't hurt her credibility.) But he doesn't trust anyone 100%. So for the time being, he's not letting anyone out of his sight.

3. Glasses visits Dracon in prison. Dracon orders a counterstrike against one of Brod's new operations.

4.

Chapter LIX: "Vendettas"

Time to ramble...

Chapter  LIX : "Vendettas"
Story Editor: Cary Bates
Writer: Cary Bates
Director: Bob Kline
Voice Director: Greg Weisman

I don't usually list the voice director for each episode, because it's ALWAYS the same name: i.e. the incomparable Jamie Thomason. Out of 78 Gargoyles and Goliath Chronicles episodes, Jamie directed 77 -- and did a damn fine job on each and every one. This is the only episode I directed. I'd been sitting on Jamie's left hand (not literally, you sickos) throughout the first 58 episodes, and I wanted to take a shot at directing myself. I had done a few pick-up sessions here and there, mostly long distance phone patches with Keith David (who was starring in SEVEN GUITARS on Broadway). But I had never directed an entire episode. So I chose one with a small cast of people I knew very well and who knew me and would cut me some slack... FINDING an episode of Gargoyles with a small cast was no easy task, by the way. I tend toward casts of thousands. (I really drove the WITCH folks crazy this past year.) But Vendettas was perfect. Only five actors: Keith David (as Goliath), Edward Asner (as Hudson), Jeff Bennett (as Vinnie), Clancy Brown (as Wolf & Hakon) and Jim Cummings (as Mr. Acme & the Construction Worker). They were a great group, who made popping my voice directing cherry a pleasure.

In any case, I have a particular fondness for "Vendettas" for this reason. I don't think we got the animation to support the comedy. We didn't get the snappy timing. It's all pretty turgid. But I still think it's a fun story... with a great little cast.

ORIGINS
The title is mine. Originally, back when "Hunter's Moon" was scheduled to be a separate Direct to Video and NOT part of our 52 episode second season order, the ideas in Vendettas were part of two separate springboards. The Wolf/Hakon villain team-up was going to be story edited by Cary Bates. The Vinnie/Pie stuff was going to be story edited by Brynne Chandler Reaves. When Hunter's Moon became our ending three parter, we had to lose three episodes that we were planning to do. One way NOT to lose anything was to combine these two thematically similar stories. Allow the comedy and action to play as counterpoint to each other. It was a great theory. But as I said above, I don't think we had the animation to support the slapstick, and so the comedy falls flat and just winds up undercutting the drama... making this arguably one of our weaker eps. Which doesn't mean I don't still like it a lot. A LOT. Cuz I do. (So depending on your point of view, Brynne either was out of luck or dodged a bullet when I pulled her Vinnie story away from her and combined it with Cary's Hakon/Wolf story. [Brynne was busy on the Gathering two-parter and on Reckoning, so she had plenty to do even without this.])

I think Jeff's performance as Vinnie -- another inspiration for the episode -- is hilarious. And the interaction between Clancy as Wolf and Clancy as Hakon is also terrific. (There's very little difference in the characters voices... just in the performance. Clancy's previous performances in these roles was, of course, another inspiration for the story idea. It came to me one day that Wolf was Hakon's descendant BECAUSE of the voice actor connection. But also because it just felt right.) Plus the normally stellar work of Ed & Keith. I'm not focusing on the voice actors because I directed them, but probably in spite of that fact. They were so great, that even my tyro effort couldn't make them bad.

AXE VS. MACE
Of course, it bothers me to no end that one of the biggest blunders in the series is right here in this ep. The whole haunted battle-axe idea is great. Except that it should absolutely have been a HAUNTED MACE. It should be the Mace that Hakon used to massacre Gargoyles back in "AWAKENING, PART ONE". We should have reestablished that in "SHADOWS OF THE PAST" and used the mace here. Instead we use an axe, which has no resonance for the series. It still drives me nuts. Though it does give us one good line of dialogue: "Tonight is battle-axe night!" I don't know why I like that line so much. Again, I'm sure it's mostly Clancy's reading. But it's still fun.

MR. CARTER & MR. ACME
Of course, the name Carter was chosen (and we had Jim say "Carter" clearly as Acme so that we were legally protected) specifically because it would sound, with Vinnie's dialect, like he was saying "Mr. Kotter". This of course, because Vinnie sounded like Vinnie Barbarino (a.k.a. John Travolta) from the ancient sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter". Mr. Acme's name is of course a tribute to all the wacko-gadgets that the ol' Warner Bros. Coyote got from the Acme company. Vinnie in this episode is our Coyote. (Wile E. as opposed to the Trickster or the robot or Xanatos... although when you think about it, who's to say that the spirit of the trickster isn't present in all of the above.)

Of course (and yes, I realize, I'm saying of course a lot... all of this stuff seems kinda obvious to me... which does beg the question "Why are you writing about it then?" but I guess the answer is, cuz maybe it's not THAT obvious), the idea behind Mr. C. was that the audience would view Vinnie as a comic but real threat. You were supposed to think the gun was a gun. Vinnie threatens Mr. Acme with it. Threatens to "cream" him. But I tend to doubt on your first viewing that "cream" tipped you off to the nature of his ammunition.

There's some nice parallelism with Vinnie talking to Mr. C and Wolf talking to his axe. Of course, Wolf's axe is possessed, and Vinnie's just kooky. But we liked it.

SLUGFEST
Sometimes it's fun just to have an old-fashioned slugfest. Let Goliath and Hudson duke it out with Wolf/Hakon. Not every story has to have three hundred twists and turns. If they did, even that would get old. Sometimes you just want (as a creator, at least) a little satisfying ultra-violence. Even the characters agree sometimes. After the first skirmish, Hudson says: "I enjoyed that." Goliath not so much: "I'm glad SOMEBODY did."

There's a semi-funny double beat that can be hard to catch where Goliath cocks his fist to hit Wolf and accidentally smacks Hudson in the face. Later he NEARLY does it again. I really like that stuff. But I'm not sure the animation pulled it off.

BEING VINNIE
The idea behind Vinnie as he developed over time to this point, was the idea of the shmoe. The guy who just keeps getting nailed by life. Life, in this case, being the gargoyles. They aren't aware of his existence, but they keep trashing him. Vinnie's narration is a riot to me. I love the shock in his voice after Lex takes his bike: "Can you believe it? He didn't know the first thing about motorcycles!"

"Can you believe it?" became Vinnie's catchphrase. Also "Uh oh."

In order to make Vinnie play, we actually had to visually "recast" the guy with the big nose from "Awakening, Part Four". I mean that guy had a REALLY big nose. He looked like Mr. Darling from 101 Dalmations. But I did like the contrast between the two versions of that scene. In Awakening, when Goliath grabs "Vinnie" he pulls him off screen and we hear an off screen BANG. And then "Vinnie" collapses unconscious. The implication being that Goliath knocked "Vinnie" out. Now in Vendettas, it's not off screen. And we see that Goliath BANGED his fist against the bulkhead, and Vinnie... fainted. Yet in his narration, Vinnie is always the hero.

Vinnie's true origins of course are in joke voices that Jeff did off the microphone. But when we had a security guard in "CAGES" that needed to be a bit dim, we had Jeff use the Barbarino voice. Then we ret-conned Vinnie back into the guy with the motorcycle and Big-Nose. There's also a scene with Vinnie that wound up being cut from the script for time from "Hunter's Moon". Remember when Goliath pulls the metal hatch off the Hunters' airship, so that he and Brooklyn and Lex can infiltrate. There was a follow-up scene where Vinnie's walking down the street and the metal hatch comes crashing down -- and nearly brains him. This was just going to be another example of Vinnie's "luck".

And it's just perfect here when after taking the pie, Goliath is asked by Hudson who Vinnie is, and Goliath answers, "I haven't the slightest idea." The gargoyles have no idea how they are changing life in Manhattan... not just by the big battles they win (ala Wolf/Hakon) but in many small ways. Most of these things are good. (Look at Mr. Jaffe, for example.) But they can't all be good. And the gargs can't possibly be aware of all the connections they are making. (BUT I TRIED TO BE.)

Of course, I later used Vinnie in "The Journey" (my one episode of Goliath Chronicles, my farewell episode). Vinnie at the end becomes something of a stand in for me, myself. At that point I knew I was moving to DreamWorks just as Vinnie was moving to Japan. But I also couldn't resist giving Vinnie the opportunity to grow and even be mildly heroic. We tried on Gargoyles to let all our characters grow, even someone as goofy as Vinnie. And seriously, anyone who would chose revenge by pie can't be all bad, right? Or even all stupid. There's something sophisticated in creating a gun that looks threatening... to the idea that you are letting your enemy know that you could have killed him. But instead you chose to hit him with a pie. I'm not recommending this in real life. But it's a bit more advanced than straight out revenge OR straight out pie-throwing.

MISC.
"Since when do Werewolves fly?" It was fun to give a Hakon-possessed Wolf some ghost powers. This may not have been as effective as "Shadows..." but I think we had some play with it.

Hudson gets his "Jalapeña" here.

Wolf to Hakon: "Dream on, Casper!"

Hudson to Hakon: "Hakon Clan-Slaughterer!" I wish we had made more of this. (And again, I think the mace would have helped.) The idea is there, but I would have liked to push it more. Hudson was one of the clan's rookery fathers and grandfathers. He lost a lot -- A LOT -- of gargs he cared about. To Hudson, Hakon is the ultimate evil. I do like his line: "Get an afterlife!" But I do wish we had played this more. The idea was to comment on the foolishness of vendettas, vengeance, revenge, which is -- as a certain DX once said -- a sucker's game. And yet, I would have liked to see Hudson actually taking revenge here. Not just defeat an enemy, but take revenge. Although it seems contradictory, I think it would have helped to illustrate the point. Hakon sought revenge and wound up a victim of it. The cycle continues. This is all mostly there, but I would have liked to play the drama more.

PIE
"And now it's time to take my sweet revenge." And boom, the goofball whom we have been trashing for an entire episode gets the clean kill shot that neither Hakon nor Wolf could achieve. Only he doesn't fire a bullet (or cannon shot or whatever). Rather he fires a pie. The idea of the pie was Brynne's. I seem to recall that she got that off a Superman story she saw or read once. The choice of BANANA CREAM was mine.

That choice was a direct result of a pie memo I wrote to the original staff of Bonkers (including Duane Capizzi and Ralph Sanchez) on what makes a funny pie. We decided on that show (for a character named Gloomy the Clown) that cream pies were funnier than fruit pies (something Gloomy had trouble grokking). And we decided that the funniest possible pie was Banana Cream. So that had to be Vinnie's choice.

Anyway, that's my ramble. Where's yours...?

Chapter LVIII: "The Gathering, Part Two"

Time to ramble...

Chapter  LVIII : "The Gathering, Part Two"
Story Editor: Brynne Chandler Reaves and Gary Sperling
Story: Lydia Marano
Teleplay: Lydia Marano and Gary Sperling
Director: Bob Kline

ARE WE GATHERING OR AREN'T WE?
My initial reluctance toward calling this two-parter "The Gathering" revolved around the fact that we weren't actually showing much of the Gathering on Avalon. Basically one extended scene at the beginning of Part One. And then nothing. Nothing in part two at all.

But ultimately, I came to view "gathering" as a more metaphorical concept. Certainly, a lot of folk gather in this puppy even after we leave Avalon. Xanatos, Alex, Fox, Petros, Titania, Oberon, Puck/Owen, Renard, Vogel, Fortress-Two, Cybots, Iron Clan Robots, Goliath, Hudson, Angela, Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington... etc. We're "all in" here.

The Gargoyle clan regathers. The extended (more extended than we knew) Xanatos family gathers. They form the start of a real alliance, laying the seeds for Hunter's Moon.

And, hey, if we hadn't called the eps "The Gathering", what would we call our annual convention now?

PARENTING
Goliath has clearly learned the lesson Diane Maza sought to teach him in "Mark of the Panther". He not only has no qualms about viewing Angela as his daughter, he
also has come to regard the bond between parent and child as sacred.

David has also learned a lesson or two. Not that he EVER would have let Oberon just take something (anything) that belonged to him, but you get the sense that in discovering in "Eye of the Beholder" that he really did LOVE Fox, he learned that he could love. And that his defense of his son here isn't just defending his property but, as Petros puts it, standing up for his family. That's what Petros is responding to here when he praises his son.

(And you got to admit that for a normal fisherman, Petros handles a lot of weird crap with surprising equanimity.)

Renard has likewise remembered what matters most to him. Not repairing his body or his company, but his family. He may not approve of his daughter and son-in-law, but he sure isn't going to let anyone take his grandson from them. He's a bit defeatist at the end. Maybe a tad self-involved, but being terminal, he may not want his final legacy to be failure. I thought it was nice to see Vogel buck him up some. (Though it was also fun to hear Vogel's flat sycophantic "You're a genius, sir." earlier.)

IRON
I liked the Iron Clan Robots. I wish it was clearer that they were scaled larger than the old Steel Clan. There supposed to be about 20 feet tall. But I'm not sure we ever see them beside anything that defines their height.

Benny suggested that they put the baby in an iron ball. The idea is so simple and brilliant, that I'm embarrassed that I never thought of it. But then, ahem, neither Owen nor David thought of it either, right? So why blame the writing staff, huh?

In general, I feel like we played a little too fast and loose with iron here. Presumably, Petros' harpoon was made of iron. If Oberon can be disabled by the ringing of an iron bell, you'd think an iron harpoon through the chest would have killed him. I guess he's just THAT powerful. It hurt bad, drained him horribly. But ultimately someone would have had to finish him in some way. NOW where is that bell?

Actually, there are moments of weak animation here that almost had me thinking of a whole 'nother way to defeat giant Obie. Moments that seemed cartoony enough so that the solution seemed to be for one of the gargs to fly into Oberon's ear, so that we could see him through the windows of Oberon's open eyes breaking stuff in there.

THE RULES ACCORDING TO OBERON
Oberon: "My decrees are mine to interpret."
Oberon: "Oberon does not compromise. Oberon commands!"

Eh, six of one, half dozen of the other.

He's promised that he won't use magic against Goliath's clan. But he interprets that loosely. He won't turn them into glass statues or zap 'em with a magic bolt. But he feels free to attack them physically with his hair. Or sic magically animated statues on 'em. (Liked those industrial age "gargs", btw.)

Of course those Industrial gargs wind up destroying themselves. Brooklyn says, "It's incredible how often that move works." Which is him covering for us the writers knowledge that we kept falling back on that same solution over and over.

And, hey, what's the deal inside Oberon's cape? Actually, I really like that. It's a nice weird, spooky cool moment to remind us how other-worldly Oberon really is.

XANATOS
You'll notice at the beginning of the episode that Xanatos still feels the need to come up with a cynical excuse for saving Broadway's life. He can't yet simply view him as an ally (let alone friend or fellow), but still as a resource that shouldn't be wasted. I love Jonathan's reading there. The cynicism rings so hollow. He's already going through changes.

By the end of the episode, he'll truly regard the Goliath and the clan in a new light.

"HERE'S PUCK!"
So... honestly? How many of you were surprised? If not by the revelation itself, then by the details, as he tells his history to Oberon. (With "visual aids," no less.)

What we tried to do was let all thoughts of Owen AND Puck fall from your head by this time. There are a couple clues to their dual identity in episodes like "City of Stone, Part One" and "The Mirror", and I felt like there were a TON of hints in "The Gathering, Part One". But in Part Two, we tried to keep even the mention of the two characters to a minimum. So that the audience wouldn't be focused on THAT mystery and we stood a chance of at least catching everyone off guard.

I love X's line: "Owen has all sorts of hidden talents."

I also love Puck's, "I'm on a roll." This is delivered into camera. I always wanted Puck to be the one character in our series who could and would break the fourth wall. But I always met resistance from Frank and Dennis. But this ep was directed by Bob Kline, who tossed me a bone, I guess.

Puck had never played the roll of straight man. I loved that idea. That he would out Vogel Vogel. Of course, when Vogel was first introduced, many fans, as expected, were highly critical of the character. Saying he was just an Owen rip-off. It was great to turn the tables. It made us all feel so clever, as Owen is in fact a Vogel rip-off.

Puck has a bunch of great lines, some of which are probably only great because Brent delivers them so brilliantly...

"Sweet kids, but boring."

"One wish from the Puck or a lifetime of service from Owen"

"He chose Owen". Brent's reading there almost breaks your heart. As Oberon says, it's clear that Puck was impressed by X's choice. In fact, he's clearly touched by Xanatos' choice, by his loyalty. He extends a loyalty back to X that he's never, I think, felt before. As with Titania, it's Oberon's punishment backfiring on him. He sent the Children out into the world to learn humility. To learn to be ... "humane". Oberon himself did NOT learn. But many of his subjects did, and the results don't always please Lord O. Puck is loyal to Oberon because he has to be. But he's loyal to David because he wants to be. Guess which loyalty ultimately wins out?

"You hurt him with that one. Do it again." (LOVE THAT.)

"I've got a sunny disposition, and I'm always kind to animals."

It's also nice to see Puck's demeanor and Owen's side by side. Puck is horrified by his permanent banishment from Avalon. (An elegantly appropriate punishment if I do say so myself.) But Owen takes it in stride, as Owen takes everything in stride, right down to and including a stone fist. (Which is another vindication thing for me. Many people seemed willing to crucify us after "The Price" for the cavalier way that the writing staff and Xanatos allowed Owen to get that fist. But now that they knew that Owen is Puck, and that Xanatos (and the writing staff) knew it all the time, it all makes a bit more sense.)

ODDS & ENDINGS
Talk about elegant though, how about Titania's manipulations... assuming you believe her when she takes credit for everything. Do you believe her?

And no, I'm not going to tell you what she whispered to Fox. At this point, I'm quite convinced that the answer would be anti-climactic. Better left to your own imagination.

Oberon gives us the "Midsummer Night's Dream" reference. I like that.

I also like the last exchange between Xanatos and Goliath, starting with:
X: "Wait!"
G: "What?!"
So suspicious our G, huh?

And I like Goliath's line, "The future is not written yet." And it isn't. Not from their point of view. There's still free will. But certainly, Goliath hasn't forgotten the recent vision that was "Future Tense".

Is it here that Broadway calls Angela "Angie" for the first and last time?

Chapter LVII: "The Gathering, Part One"

Time to ramble...

Chapter  LVI : "The Gathering, Part One"
Story Editor: Brynne Chandler Reaves
Writers: Lydia Marano
Director: Bob Kline

CAVEAT
This episode is/was so jam-packed with stuff that I literally couldn't take notes fast enough. I'm bound to have missed a ton of stuff that I might have wished to comment on. So this ramble is going to be far from comprehensive. Also, all quotes are approximate.

ORIGINS
My original title for the episode was "Reunions". Finally, I think we all agreed that it should become "The Gathering". Originally, believe it or not, this was going to be a one-parter, with "The Reckoning" (then called "Endgame") as a two-parter. We realized that the Gathering was too jam-packed to fit in one part, and made the switch.

WATCHING WITH MY FAMILY
I think generally you'll see fewer comments from my family in the next few rambles. Having become too aware that I was writing down their responses, they started to play to THAT. And thus their responses have become, I think, less authentic and more designed to make good copy. Ah, well...

I will say that wife and kids have taken to calling out "And we live again!" along with Keith over the opening titles. They find it very amusing. :P

THE GATHERING
Sometimes you do just wish there were more hours in the day. Time to figure out who besides the usual suspects (Grandmother, Raven, Anansi, Coyote, Odin, Anubis, etc.) should have been there. Instead, we get some random designs. (Perhaps even some reuse from New Olympians where I had a similar problem?) Still it did give us Nought. So I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

I hate seeing Anubis laughing.

Note that Titania's mirror was broken in "The Mirror" but that Oberon clearly has his own mirror. A matching set. A wedding gift perhaps?

Love the Weird Sisters as Oberon's storm troopers.

Wish we had done more with Puck's flute. Oh, well. Someday.

Love Oberon's treatment of Banshee. "Anything to say?" he asks when she's frozen. And he won't take the magic-gag off until he can hear her be humble. Guy is tough to please.

MEET THE NEW KID
Alexander is born and intro'd to all his eclectic genre-spanning grandfolk. Here's where I thought we were perhaps being too obvious about Owen's secret. But I do love Vogel's reaction to being "accused" of being related to Owen. And I like Owen's reaction to the news of Anastasia's remarriage.

"Alexander Fox Xanatos". A little bit of mom. A little bit of dad. A little bit of world conqueror. A chilling reminder in middle name and hair color of the events of "Future Tense". We expect great things from this kid...

OBERON'S HUNT
The Jogger does our now standard bit where he blames something recently ingested to explain the "hallucinations".

Oberon obviously saw Star Wars. Maybe he thought "Obi Wan" was some kind of tribute to "Oberon".

Like seeing the Eyrie Nightwatchman again. Haven't seen him since "Awakening", I think.

I love the exchange between Oberon and Titania. Mortal jealousy over something as "mild" as an "illegitimate child" is beyond these two. Oberon is amused that Fox is Titania's daughter. (Of course, for S&P reasons, we had to make it very clear that Oberon and Titania were divorced and that Fox was born when Anastasia was married to Renard.) Some good lines here too:

O: "What is exactly is going on?"

T: "I'm gathering even now."

O: "Titania, what have you been up to?"

I like Anastasia's de-glamouring into Titania. It's as if Oberon's magic gives her a physical/sexual thrill. This plays into her relative descriptions of her two husbands. Halcyon proved to rigid for her tastes. Only Oberon can hold her interest. For an immortal, the one thing that she absolutely needs is variety. Only Oberon possesses that kind of infinite variety. He may not be perfect, but for Titania no one else compares.

Oberon's rationale for leaving Fox alone (as she's turned out human), but taking Alex away (as he has the potential to be one of the Children) makes perfect sense to me. Especially when you consider that he's interpreting his own laws.

I also love Oberon's version of not being heartless. "Hey, kids, come on. I'll give you one whole hour with your new born son before taking him away forever, 'kay?" (I told you all quotes were approximate.)

REUNIONS
I dig Travis Marshall, who never resists an opportunity to point out who Xanatos and Fox really are.

Note BWay's response to seeing Elisa again. Note also the Trio's response to Angela. Broadway calls her "Angie" here. And the stuff with the chocolates is classic, I think.

I also love Hudson's line: "We're not the last. We're not alone." That, more than anything else was the main point of the World Tour. It isn't hopeless for the Gargoyles species.

PREPPING FOR WAR
Owen's abandonment is fascinating to me. There was still a piece of me here that felt like we had given his identity away earlier. But if not, this scene is so amazingly confounding. For the first time, Owen seems more in control of the situation than Xanatos. But also for the first time, Owen actually seems frightened. Then he abandons his post in David's greatest time of need. I am curious how many of you figured out either here or earlier that Owen was Puck. And if not, what did you think of this scene.

ELISA & GOLIATH
Elisa: "There's no place like home." And there's no place I won't stick a Wizard of Oz reference when given the chance.

G's basically making (or ready to make) his declaration of love right here on Elisa's terrace. But she stops him. She still views their love as impossible (the species thing). Watching it now, I'm reminded of "Tears in the Rain" that beautiful BLADE RUNNER moment. But I can't remember if we were consciously inspired by that or not.

REVELATION
Given all that gets revealed in this ep, this may seem minor, but it was very important to me. Avalon did not RELEASE the foursome from their quest. Avalon brought them where they needed to be, i.e. Manhattan because of this Alex conflict. After that, in essence, you have to assume that Goliath, et al, abandoned Avalon's quest. Not the other way around.

CLIFFHANGER
Some fun stuff with Morgan here. But I love the notion of Oberon putting the city to sleep. Summons back a bit of CITY OF STONE of course. But how can you do Oberon and not at some point give everyone a midsummer night's dream? Especially Brendan & Margot. (Who are making a comeback soon, trust me.)

Elisa and Travis are fun to see too.

And finally, KING KONG OBERON. Hey, Peter Jackson's not the only one who found early inspiration with the big ape.

Anyway, that's my ramble. Where's yours?

BACK IN BUSINESS... briefly

Happy New Year!

Gorebash, Todd and I are briefly opening the submit function here at ASK GREG. I plan on posting some ramblings soon on "The Gathering, Part One" and "The Gathering, Part Two" and "Vendettas". And I'd love to get your rambles on those episodes as well.

More than that, I'd like to get your response to the new DVD that came out last month.

I also don't mind getting a few legit new questions, but PLEASE... be reasonable. As of now, I'm still nearly two years behind in answering questions. Gore is planning a major retrofit of the site, but until then, it doesn't help to flood ASK GREG with questions that have already been answered or that could be answered much more rapidly in the comment room.

We'll be closing the submit function down at the end of January, 2006. (I don't want to get too much further behind.)

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you about that DVD,

Greg

BUFFYVERSE STATS - Year Five

BUFFYVERSE STATS - Year Five

TOP 40 CHARACTER LIST:

Once AGAIN, I'm wasting my semi-valuable time (and hopefully yours) to bring you the latest update in my attempt to catalogue the most significant characters in the BUFFYVERSE. Previous CUMULATIVE updates covered the first, second and third years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After that, the task became more complicated as Buffy's fourth season aired simultaneously (day and date, literally) with the first season of Angel. So the Year Four update included Buffy S4 & Angel S1. This update covers year five, i.e. Buffy S5 & Angel S2.

As you may recall, I've tried to inform this subjective task with an objective formula. I tried, as much as possible, not to allow my knowledge of future events to influence the current standings. Still, I won't deny that subjectives have played a role. It's hard not to take extra notice of a character you know is going to be important later. And ties were broken based entirely on subjective criteria.

The idea behind a cumulative tally is to mimic the original experience of following the Buffyverse. It's a horse race. Some of the winners and losers are decidedly predictable. Others are a bit surprising - surprising enough that it's become absolutely clear that my system must be flawed. I've since dreamed up a new system, but it's too late to implement it. Someday, LONG after I've finished this first survey (but ONLY if I prove truly insane), I might just start over and see what the results are with OBJECTIVE SYSTEM 2.0. But for now - assuming you haven't nodded off - you're stuck with System One.

I have a list of ALL the characters that have appeared in both series up to this point. It's so long (including everything from leads to ridiculously minor characters) that I haven't even bothered to count how many there are. But my list of MOST significant currently tops out at 166 characters.

But I think listing the top 40 is both pleasantly traditional… and plenty. Or largely. I just want to note a few characters introduced (or revisited) in this set of episodes, who haven't yet or never will make the top 40, but whom I believe are memorable enough to merit honorable mention.

Starting with…

#159, 160 - Nikki the Subway Slayer, The Chinese Slayer. The two Slayers that Spike killed.

#142 - Aggie. An aura-reader friend of Lorne's, played by the same actress, who played a character named Aura in episode #1. The oddness of this struck me.

#140 - The Valet a.k.a. Jeeves. A gatekeeper, who nearly gave Darla a third chance at life. He interested me.

#129 - Olaf the Troll. Anya's ex-boyfriend. His hammer was almost more important than he was. But I liked him.

#127 - Gypsy Man. The guy who cursed Angelus into Angel. Appeared in two separate flashback episodes.

#126 - Monk. The guy who turned the Key into Dawn. He had a lovely death scene.

#125 - Dracula. Want to make the point that Anton Martin, who played Dracula, used to be on the soap All My Children. He and Sarah Michelle Gellar played lovers on that show. (Michelle Trachtenberg is also an AMC alum.)

#122 - The Primitive, i.e. the First Slayer.

#115, 116, 151 - Francine Sharpe, Stephanie Sharp and The Skilosh Demon. Mother and daughter and the Demon that killed them after Angel Investigations cured young Stephanie of her third eye. Appeared in multiple episodes.

#112 - Bethany. A telekinetic that Angel saved from Wolfram & Heart and her abusive father.

#102 - Sandy. Sandy first appeared when the Vamp-Willow came to our universe. She was a victim that Vamp-Willow bit. Then two seasons later, she resurfaces as a vampire, whom Riley allows to feed on him. Riley then stakes her. Again, I love that they used someone with continuity for Riley.

#98 - Judy Kovacs. The woman in the fifties at the hotel that appealed to Angel for help and then sacrificed him to the mob and then wound up feeding a demon for fifty years.

#92 - Major Ellis. Riley's new C.O., who takes him away from Buffy.

#91, 105 - Vardell, George. Gunn's boys. Both appear in a couple episodes. Then George gets killed, and Vardell gives Gunn guilt for leaving the hood behind to join Angel's team.

#88 - Danver. Bookstore owner. Two different actors played this character across fifty years and two different episodes. Played a major/minor role in Angel's redemption.

#83 - Merl. Angel's comic informant.

#82, 131, 135 - Warren Meers, Buffybot, April. Robot builder and his creations. Lots of fun. And who new Warren would turn out to be Warren?

#76, 101, 107, 108, 149 - Crazy #1, Orlando, Crazy #2, Crazy #3, Older Nightwatchman. Victims of Glory that appeared in multiple episodes. As always, I give extra credit whenever the series reuses characters instead of creating new ones. Orlando was a Knight of Byzantium.

#75, 128 - Nathan Reed, Gavin Park. New Wolfram&Heart lawyers. Nathan is a place holding upper management type, who takes over after Holland Manners dies. (The second place-holder after a one-shot appearance by Nicholas Surovy, another AMC alum.) Gavin will wind up being Lilah's new foil now that Lindsey has left town.

#74 - Dr. Kriegel. Joyce's doctor.

#65, 66, 106 - Dreg, Murk, Gronx. Multiple recurring scabby demon servants of Glory. Across the season, each of these minions become prominent for a few eps and then vanish to be replaced by another for no particular reason that I could see. Why they didn't pick one and stick with him or her is beyond me.

#53 - Anne Steel. Anne, played by the same actress, is clearly the same character who originally went by the name Chanterelle and later Lily on Buffy. She then took Buffy's (middle) name Anne and recreated herself as an advocate for teen runaways on Angel. They don't reference the Buffy stuff, but it's clear. Nice to see a character grow from being a dumb vampire wannabe to being a strong woman who helps others.

#50, 70, 71, 81, 86, 147, 148, 153, 154, 155 - Fred, Landoc, Head Priest Psyalas, Groosalugg, Lorne's Mother, Constable Narwak, Numfar, Priest #1/Barshan, the Rebel Leader, Rebel #1. Inhabitants of Pylea that appeared in the multiple Pylean episodes that ended Angel's sophomore season. Fred, of course, became Fred. It's fairly clear in hindsight that Joss and company had planned from her first appearance on making her a regular for Season Three. Landoc is Lorne's warrior cousin. Psyalas is the main baddie. Groo is Cordy's surprising love interest. Lorne's mom, played by a male actor is pretty funny. But Numfar, a cousin of Lorne's, is hilarious. The moreso because he is played by a dancing Joss Whedon.

#48 - Virginia Bryce. Wesley's girlfriend for a number of episodes.

#44 - Doc. Played by Joel Grey, he's the most direct cause of Buffy's death.

And before we start, a fond Top 40 farewell to Larry (#47), Principal Flutie (#46), Ethan Rayne (#45), Percy (#43), Parker (#42) and the Annointed One (#41).

AND NOW THE TOP 40
Abbreviations for previous rankings…
Y1 - Buffy Season 1.
Y2 - Buffy Season 2.
Y3 - Buffy Season 3.
Y4 - Buffy Season 4/Angel Season 5.
NR - Not Ranked that year.

#40 - Mr. Trick. Y4: 33. Y3: 18. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. The Mayor's #2 man drops 7 rankings, but just manages to stay in the top 40. Don't look for him to be here after Y6 ends.

#39 - Willy the Snitch. Y4: 30. Y3: 21. Y2: 24. Y1: NR. Willy falls another nine rankings, as his bar appears without him. At least he's mentioned.

#38 - Amy. Y4: 32. Y3: 27. Y2: 23. Y1: 17. I can't remember seeing the rat this season, though she does get mentioned. She only falls six rankings.

#37 - Jinx. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. #37 with a bullet, Jinx is another of Glory's scabby minions, the one that appears in the most episodes. If they hadn't kept switching minions, i.e. if you added Jinx's appearances to those of Dreg, Murk and Gronx (or even just Dreg's), Jinx might easily have been in the top twenty.

#36 - Holland Manners. Y4: 61. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Holland leaps up 25 rankings to join the top 40. He continued to make a couple of appearances even after Darla ate him. But as the first and best of W&H's upper management types, he's pretty memorable.

#35 - Adam. Y4: 26. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Adam, last year's big bad, falls nine rankings.

#34 - The Master. Y4: 27. Y3: 16. Y2: 13. Y1: 8. Buffy's first Big Bad appeared in an Angel flashback that seemed to contradict the Master's nostalgia for Angel in the first season of Buffy. Nevertheless, this flashback allows him to fall only seven rankings, justly lifting him above Adam again.

#33 - Jonathan. Y4: 24. Y3: 17. Y2: 19. Y1: NR. Jonathan, who didn't appear at all this season, drops nine rankings, but he's poised for a comeback.

#32 - Forrest. Y4: 21. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Riley's ex-best buddy falls eleven rankings.

#31 - Lilah Morgan. Y4: 31. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Lilah maintains the exact same rank a year later.

#30 - Glory. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Year Five's big bad is #30 with a bullet. I know Glory isn't anyone's favorite. But I thought she was fun.

#29 - The Mayor. Y4: 19. Y3: 14. Y2: 40. Y1: NR. The Mayor loses 10 rankings. Probably the best of the big bads - unless you count Angelus. But it's inevitable with two series to see even major players like him start to fade when they're not appearing over multiple seasons.

#28 - Graham. Y4: 22. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Riley Finn's second best friend falls only six rankings, thanks to a couple more appearances this season.

#27 - Maggie Walsh. Y4: 18. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Maggie falls nine rankings, and yet still seems WAY too high up to me. Her top thirty placement above Adam, Glory, the Master, and the Mayor is one of the things that points up a flaw in the system.

#26 - Ben. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Year Five's big bad's alter ego is #26 with a bullet. And here again, a flaw is pointed up. Granted, Ben actually has more screen time than Glory, as he was ALSO part of the Joyce hospital subplot, but it's still stunning.

#25 - Jenny Calendar. Y4: 17. Y3: 13. Y2: 11. Y1: 15. Jenny falls eight rankings, as memory of her begins to fade…

#24 - Lorne, the Host. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Lorne is #24 with a bullet. So much fun. It's amazing it'll take seasons more before he officially becomes a regular.

#23 - Harmony. Y4: 25. Y3: 20. Y2: 26. Y1: 18. Harmony keeps bouncing back and forth, climbing two rankings this year with multiple funny Buffy appearances and one funny Angel that reunited her with Cordelia.

#22 - Kate Lockley. Y4: 23. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Angel's cop friend loses her badge and basically exits the series after a redemptive suicide attempt, but at least she's up one ranking. But she'll peak at 22.

#21 - Lindsey McDonald. Y4: 29. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. On the strength of his relationship with Darla, Lindsey climbs eight ranks before hitting the road in his pick-up. He'll be back in Year Eight.

#20 - Francis Doyle. Y4: 15. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Doyle falls five ranks, but stays in the top twenty - as any regular should.

#19 - Darla. Y4: 28. Y3: 23. Y2: 23. Y1: 11. Darla shoots up nine rankings. Amazing what a couple of resurrections'll do for ya.

#18 - Principal Snyder. Y4: 12. Y3: 9. Y2: 10. Y1: 12. Snyder falls six ranks.

#17 - Faith. Y4: 13. Y3: 10. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Faith loses four rankings, with only a brief prison appearance in the first episode of Angel. After that, I guess Angel loses interest in her.

#16 - Drusilla. Y4: 16. Y3: 11. Y2: 8. Dru maintains the same rank, as she re-sires Darla.

#15 - Tara. Y4: 20. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Tara and Doyle switch places on the chart, as Tara rises five ranks. I'm a Tara fan.

#14 - Dawn Summers. Y4: NR. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Talk about bullets… Dawn "The Key" Summers enters the rankings at #14. Impressive.

#13 - Charles Gunn. Y4: 37. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Gunn climbs 24 ranks to land within the Baker's Dozen of top characters.

#12 - Riley Finn. Y4: 11. Y3: NR. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Riley leaves the show halfway through the season, resulting in a slight drop off of one ranking. But it's qall downhill from here, pal.

#11 - Joyce. Y4: 9. Y3: 8. Y2: 7. Y1: 7. Joyce's powerful farewell season still has her falling two rankings and out of the top ten for the first time.

#10 - Anya. Y4: 14. Y3: 22. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Anya moves up four more ranks as she finally becomes a regular and joins the top ten.

#9 - Oz. Y4: 7. Y3: 7. Y2: 12. Y1: NR. Well, Oz finally starts to dip, falling two ranks.

#8 - Wesley. Y4: 10. Y3: 15. Y2: NR. Y1: NR. Wesley continues his upward mobility, climbing two rungs.

#7 - Spike. Y4: 8. Y3: 12. Y2: 9. Y1: NR. Spike jumps 1 ranking. That may not seem like much but within the top ten, the competition is damn tough. Of course, the current distance between him and #6 is immense. So he may have peaked here.

#6 - Willow. Y4: 6. Y3: 4. Y2: 4. Y1: 4. Willow stays at #6. Again, her being this far below Xander absolutely demonstrates that the system is flawed.

#5 - Cordelia. Y4: 4. Y3: 5. Y2: 5. Y1: 5. Cordelia actually falls one ranking as her boss Angel moves up.

#4 - Angel. Y4: 5. Y3: 6. Y2: 6. Y1: 6. Angel's moving up… Giles better watch his back.

#3 - Giles. Y4: 3. Y3: 2. Y2: 2. Y1: 2. Giles maintains his #3 slot.

#2 - Xander. Y4: 2. Y3: 3. Y2: 3. Y1: 3. Xander maintains his #2 ranking.

#1 - Buffy. Y4: 1. Y3: 1. Y2: 1. Y1: 1. Duh.

TOMORROW!

December 6th, 2005 is a day that will live in famy!

VOLUME ONE of the SECOND SEASON of GARGOYLES is available on DVD. If you're buying a copy, particularly if you plan to buy from AMAZON.COM, tomorrow is a GREAT DAY to make your purchase! The more sales we can get on DAY ONE, the better. It's like free marketing!!!

And even if you don't have the money... PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!!!

This three disk set includes 26 uncut episodes...

LEADER OF THE PACK
METAMORPHOSIS
LEGION
A LIGHTHOUSE IN THE SEA OF TIME
THE MIRROR
SILVER FALCON
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
VOWS
CITY OF STONE, PART ONE*
CITY OF STONE, PART TWO*
CITY OF STONE, PART THREE*
CITY OF STONE, PART FOUR*
HIGH NOON
OUTFOXED
REVELATIONS
DOUBLE JEOPARDY
UPGRADE
PROTECTION
THE CAGE
THE PRICE
AVALON, PART ONE
AVALON, PART TWO
AVALON, PART THREE
SHADOWS OF THE PAST
HERITAGE
KINGDOM

These episodes introduce Angela and the Avalon Clan, Thailog, Puck, Halcyon Renard, the Uprgraded Pack and the Illuminati. Depth and history are added to Xanatos, Fox, Demona and Macbeth. There's action, comedy, romance, history, Shakespeare and more...

The disks include a commentary track by myself, Frank Paur and Michael Reaves on all four parts of City of Stone. Plus a mini-documentary about making Season Two that includes myself, Frank, Michael, Thom "Lexington" Adcox, Jeff "Brooklyn" Bennett, Bill "Broadway" Faggerbakke, Brigitte "Angela" Bako and Edward "Hudson" Asner. AND I introduce every episode, hopefully without too much embarrassment!

So buy a set! Give it as a holiday gift to friends and loved ones! And SPREAD THE WORD!!!!

Thanks,

Greg Weisman