10 Things That Made No Sense in the Buffyverse.

[fenderlove]

This is a list strictly limited to BtVS of things that made absolutely no sense to me on the show (so there's no S8 stuff... that would be a whole other longer list).



Things That Just Didn't Make Sense.
1. Why did Joyce not file a missing person's report when Buffy ran away at the end of Season Two? I do not remember this being covered on the show. Speaking of, did Buffy actually complete her Junior year of school? She missed the tail end of it, and her grades were always spoken of to be subpar, so we assume that she does because she graduates on schedule, but it really doesn't make a lot of sense except that Giles threatens Synder to let her back in school and ergo could have forced him to let her move ahead to the correct grade, but still...

2. After Joyce's death in Season Five, why wasn't Buffy receiving child support for Dawn from Hank Summers? He would have been paying child support for both of his daughters up until 1999 when Buffy turned 18, but he would have been still making payments for Dawn. I know there's a theory going about that Hank has no idea who Dawn is, but that would have been suspicious if the monks' spell was never found out and Hank was only sending birthday and Christmas cards to Buffy and not Dawn.

3. The first surgery to remove Spike's chip is just not right. If Polite Dissent has taught me anything, it's that how that Initiative doctor went about it is not right. He didn't shave the hair off where he was going to make his incisions into Spike's skull or anything. I would also think that if you were operating on the back of someone's head (where Spike's chip is show to be) why would you have them lay down to do exploratory surgery on their brain anyway? Don't they normally have people sit up for that kind of surgery, bolted into one of those collars to keep their heads still?

4. Why did the DHS investigation into Buffy's guardianship of Dawn stop? Just because a social worker is taken off a case (if that is what happened to Mrs. Kruegler in "Gone"), the investigation does not stop. They would get someone new on the case and continue the investigation. "Gone" is an episode that really irks my mother, who worked for the Department of Children's Services for over fifteen years. She has a lot of strongly worded things to say about it and why it's very wrong. XD Mrs. Kruegler asked hardly any questions while in Buffy's house. If a social worker has a suspicion that they have come across a huge bag of drugs that the person being investigated calls "magic weed," the police are going to be called. The suspicious looking contents of the bag will be confiscated to be tested, and Buffy would be asked to submit to a drug screening, and Dawn would have been either taken to a relative or put into temporary state custody (whatever California guidelines are for such a situation). No one would leave a child in a situation where they think that there are drugs involved like that. If Buffy tests clean and the "magic weed" isn't found to be a drug, then Dawn would have been returned. Also, Mrs. Kruegler asked no questions about the people living in Buffy's house. The fact that guests are in the home is not an issue, but if someone is living in the home, the social worker should be asking for all their information, want to talk to them herself/himself, and find out if they have any criminal records and such. Also, did Buffy care that by trying to destroy Mrs. Kruegler's career by calling into question her sanity how much money that was going to cost the state to possibly re-investigate all of her cases? That Buffy might be jeopardizing the safety of children in the system? I guess she was too happy whistling her invisible ass into Spike's bed to actually use her brain and think for a moment about her fucking actions. It's one of those moments where I dislike Buffy very, very much. "But, Fender," some people cry out, "you're not supposed to think about those things!" Tough!

5. Going back to the above, why didn't Hank Summers just turn guardianship of Dawn over to Buffy? If they had gone through the courts, he could have signed guardianship over to his adult daughter, and there would have been no reason for DHS to be involved or to investigate. Also, DHS would have done a background check on Buffy before continuing to allow her to keep Dawn. That means that all the 911 calls from the Summers' house, all the police reports where Buffy's name comes up (like in several investigations for MURDER), and possibly even her stay in a mental institution would come up. They would not leave a child in her custody. However, if Hank signed over his guardianship, in most cases, they wouldn't do the background check, and Buffy could keep Dawn without DHS ever having to be involved... yet they were... and yet no one did a background check... *head-desk*

5. Vampires have no breath... yet they talk and smoke cigarettes. We see vampires sighing, taking sharp intakes of breath, yelling, gulping... Either Joss Whedon doesn't understand how respiration works or... Well, that's it... Vampires would be like walking oxygen tanks. They take in oxygen and exhale oxygen unlike us pitiful humans who turn oxygen into CO2 when exhaling. If Angelus can smoke a cigarette, then Angel would have been able to give Buffy CPR in "Prophecy Girl" unless... he wanted the prophecy about a Slayer dying at the Master's hands to be true so he thought that Buffy had to die...

6. The Slayer spell in Chosen as Buffy & Co's only recourse of action. I'm not trying to say that Buffy made the wrong or right choice or that another choice would have been better, BUT the whole show is predicated upon only never being only; there is always, always another way, but I'm not even going to get into this one because it would be its own post.

7. Vampire physics including but not limited to- various reflections of vampires throughout the show. I know these are gaffs, and sometimes they're not that noticeable, but Spike's clear very obvious reflection in "Him" actually had me wanting him to turn to the window and say, "HOLY SHIT! I can see myself!" You can't use telepathy on vampires... only that's the only way Betta George can communicate so are vampires able to hear telepathic communications but not send them? I'm fairly certain that Spike does talk to George through thought alone on a few occasions (okay, that was a comic-related one, but still). What constitutes a public building where vampires don't need an invitation and what doesn't? Obviously, stores want people to come in, but Ms. Calendar seems surprised that Angelus can get into the school under the guise of "seeking knowledge" per the school's slogan ("Enter all those that seek knowledge" or something like that), and in "Lie to Me" we see two vampires on school grounds and you could argue that they were seeking knowledge (the knowledge in one of Giles's books). However, Spike and his whole crew of vampires attack the school, and I doubt they were seeking the book-larnin'. And some newer crypts would be considered private property as the plots are owned and maintained by a relative or trust. Also, Dracula has magical Dracula-physics that only apply to him... or he's just too superstitious to realize that he doesn't actually need his special dirt to cross open bodies of water.

8. Spike's grave. Does he have one? He tells Buffy that he had to crawl out of his own coffin in S6, but in LMPTM in S7 we learn that Drusilla, unlike Darla did with Liam, did not leave William to be found and buried by his family. Anne still believed her son to still be alive after he'd been missing for several days. So, that leaves the question if Spike was buried at all? There's a few possibilities. Did he just say that he was buried to make Buffy feel less alone in what she had gone through? Or, did Drusilla bury him herself? On A:ts, Drusilla buries Darla after she re-sired her in a shroud in a greenhouse planter. Could she have buried William in a coffin or coffin-like box so that he could rise?

9. Does everyone in the Buffyverse have at least one awful parent or have the perception that their parents are awful? Fred is the exception 'cause her parents are AWESOME and I would totally watch a sitcom about Roger and Trish Burkle. (Weird side note: What's with all the re-namings in these shows? Spike and Angel basically have the same name, William and Liam. Fred and Wesley's fathers are both named Roger. Anne, Spike's mother's name, is also Buffy's middle name and consequently the name Lily/Chantarelle takes are her own (a weird side note within a side note: in the shooting script, Spike's mother's name was Constance, which I think goes nicely with "William" since it means resolute protector) (another weird side note: in the original shooting script for Hell's Bells, Xander and Anya's kids were named Sarah and David XD )).

10. Fluctuating power levels! How strong are everyone's powers? It's hard to tell. Spike can't lift Olaf the Troll God's Enchanted Hammer, and Buffy can, but Spike can stand his own with Illyria one-on-one... I guess that was after she lost some of her powers... Angel has super-duper-superman strength... except, of course, when there's an itsy bitsy padlock on the door like in What's My Line, Part 1. How strong Willow's magicks are exactly is completely up-in-the-air throughout the later seasons as are Giles's. Buffy's healing powers are also all over the map- stab to the gut can still run pretty quickly though she does pass out eventually and is even still conscious after nearly being beaten to death by a TurokHan, but bruise her side/back area and she's completely incapacitated. There are several scenes in which Buffy is seen wearing little bandaids on her fingers and hands in random scenes; these are for SMG's safety and her non-Slayer healing abilities. Slayers should not need bandaids for paper-cut-sized wounds when they can survive massive internal injuries without going to the hospital. Make up your damn minds, writers!

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

* How did Willow get back into Sunny-U mid-semester in Season 7? We're told she didn't finish the previous semester but the next semester she's walking up to a professor asking to be let back into her class... at somewhere around episode 6. The new semester had started, and if she wanted back into school, shouldn't she have been speaking to the registrar not a professor?

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

That is a very excellent question. I totally never thought about that. Of course, I did wonder about Buffy not getting back into UC-Sunnydale; I know it's because they told her that she didn't send the forms in on time, but if she had bothered to go to the registrar and explained that her mother had passed away, I think they might have let her in anyway since her grades before she had to drop out were fairly good from what it sounded like. On that note, how was Buffy going to be able to pay for school? I don't think Buffy would qualify for financial aid from the FAFSA (she would have to include her mother's tax information even past the age of 18 because she was still a dependent with no income... that's what I had to do anyway... but I don't think she would have qualified for it after her mom passed away because Buffy had no income).

Speaking of income, why did Buffy have to work in the DMP? Like, if she was so fixated on "not going through a lengthy training process" (which my friends who work in fast food would beg to differ on that), why couldn't she got to Wendy's or some place that had a respectable uniform? She could work in a retail store. I didn't have to go through any training when I worked at the toy store nor did I have to wear a cow-chicken hat. Oh, but Buffy had to have that... so her self-esteem could drown in its own tears.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

I just assumed she's already spoken to the Registrar and now needed permission from various professors to take their classes after class had started but before the add/drop period was over. I work in administration at a grad school and that scene raised no red flags for me.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

why wasn't Buffy receiving child support for Dawn from Hank Summers?
For that matter, did Joyce receive any for Buffy? I mean they said he was living in Spain but still...

The first surgery to remove Spike's chip is just not right
Well, of course he didn't really remove anything did he. But surely Spike and Harmony should have picked up on what you said.

Why did the DHS investigation into Buffy's guardianship of Dawn stop? Just because a social worker is taken off a case (if that is what happened to Mrs. Kruegler in "Gone"), the investigation does not stop
I guess we're supposed to assume that the second visit was perfect "rolls eyes".

Vampires have no breath... yet they talk and smoke cigarettes. We see vampires sighing, taking sharp intakes of breath, yelling, gulping...
Well... for that matter... what about bleeding, erections, eating food...

There's a few possibilities. Did he just say that he was buried to make Buffy feel less alone in what she had gone through? Or, did Drusilla bury him herself? On A:ts, Drusilla buries Darla after she re-sired her in a shroud in a greenhouse planter. Could she have buried William in a coffin or coffin-like box so that he could rise?

I think in the Buffyverse you have to be in some kind of dirt but not necessarily deep in the ground. So maybe she just dug a hole in the stable and covered him up or something along those lines.

What's with all the re-namings in these shows? Spike and Angel basically have the same name, William and Liam. Fred and Wesley's fathers are both named Roger. Anne, Spike's mother's name, is also Buffy's middle name and consequently the name Lily/Chantarelle takes are her own (a weird side note within a side note: in the shooting script, Spike's mother's name was Constance, which I think goes nicely with "William" since it means resolute protector) (another weird side note: in the original shooting script for Hell's Bells, Xander and Anya's kids were named Sarah and David XD )).

Yeah, I've noticed that.

Fluctuating power levels! How strong are everyone's powers?
Remember! Captain Logic is not steering the tugboat on any of the above.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I always imagined that Joyce must have been receiving some big fat child support checks for Buffy to have the kind of fancy clothes and stuff that she had on Joyce's art-gallery-owner-in-a-small-town salary, but there was never any proof of that.

Well... for that matter... what about bleeding, erections, eating food...
James Marsters thinks that BtVS vampires actually go to the loo even though it makes no sense that they have any biological functions. Crying, sweating, etc. makes no sense. I used to think that maybe when Spike eats food it just sits in his stomach and rots until it's gone, but that doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, when we see Angel's organs when Gwen shocks him he's all dried out and shrivel-y on the inside, so if all vampires are like that, how can they eat at all without secretions to force food down the esophagus? Oh, logic is so far away! XD

Where is Captain Logic when you need him? XD

[rahirah]

No, that vampire in the morgue in "The Body" was never buried, and it rose just fine. But having seen that Dru was a traditionalist with Darlaq, I don't see why she might not have done the same with William.

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

A. With you on all the above, and then too . . .

B. Willing suspension of disbelief, occasionally common sense, and various of one's physical senses.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

As I often like to say, I have suspended all of my disbelief for the vampires, zombies, werewolves, Slayers, ghosts, and zombie-ghosts, so I need everything else to be grounded in some sense of reality or my brain will not allow me to watch without being overcome with thoughts of "what the hell was that?!" LOL.

[whichclothes.livejournal.com]

Okay, and as to number 5, I'm willing to accept that vampires *can* breathe if they want to (although then wouldn't Angel have given Buffy CPR?). But what the hell was the deal in S7 when The First has the Turok-han half-drown Spike? Really, couldn't they have come up with a better torture that actually made sense?

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

(although then wouldn't Angel have given Buffy CPR?)
That's why it doesn't make sense. I mean, I have to wonder if he realizes he's using breath to speak the words "I have no breath." Kinda like Spike's "People don't generally use their tongues to say hello... Well... I guess they do but-" Shadowcat67 brought up the fact that maybe Angel thought that the prophecy had to come true with Buffy dying and that's why he didn't want to do CPR, but maybe he was just genuinely confused about being able to help her, like he honestly thought that his breath couldn't help her 'cause he's dead?

But what the hell was the deal in S7 when The First has the Turok-han half-drown Spike?
I just thought that it did that to do something that wouldn't kill him but hurt like a bastard, but you'd think if Spike obviously didn't have to breathe, he just wouldn't breathe through his nose or keep his mouth open. Poor James though.

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

Let's face it. Logic and common sense have flown out the window on this show.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I know this... or least I feel like I should know this... and yet these things will not stop needling my brain. XD

[dorians-kitten.livejournal.com]

LOL-Here is my question. During the season seven episode First Date, Buffy is getting dressed for her maybedate! with Principal Wood and runs into Spike. They have a cute/awkward/painful moment (while she is wearing only a camisole) that I appreciated watching. Here's the thing...why was Spike upstairs to begin with?
I personally have never thought that vamps use the bathroom, but even if that was the reason we know that Anya was in the bathroom with Buffy, so....

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Maybe he was just looking for an empty room to have a wank in? XD Or maybe he was just hoping to get a shower in the other bathroom?

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

LOL!!! You're right! But it gave me a bunny, Spike must have been there to talk to Dawn. :)

[norwie2010.livejournal.com]

Since You ask so nicely, i'll answer all Your questions so You can rest. ;)

1. Why did Joyce not file...

Well, she did! We just weren't told. Because it is not substantial. A missing person's report will do nothing if the missing person is hiding out in LA (or Bogota, or Berlin, or Athens,...).

Speaking of, did Buffy actually...

Well, she took a test. And, as alwys, her intelligence - which is quite a bit above what her grades suggest - sees her through. Pfft. Ye of little faith.

2. After Joyce's death in Season Five, why wasn't Buffy receiving...

Well, we don't know, perhaps she (her mother) received child support. Most probably not because Hank Summers decided to be an asshole about it. And, well, that's all that is to say about that. He's not paying, he's not even in the country. Being right and getting it are two pairs of shoes.

3. The first surgery to remove...

Well, since the doctor didn't do anything to begin with, it doesn't matter one way or the other if anything he acted out makes sense or not. And Harmony or Spike catching up on that? Hehe, You be kidding.

4. Why did the DHS investigation....

Buffy stole/destroyed the files in that episode. While that may only delay the inevitable, we can safely assume that a second questioning was done after "Grave", and went a lot better. As to Your sidetracking questions (on procedure, etc) - we don't know how things were handled in Sunnydale - but from the picture of incompetence we get from the Sunnydale PD we can assume that this carries over to other institutions as well. As to Your pity towards Mrs Krueger as well as the tax money - all i have to say is that i worked in youth care once, and half the people there deserve to loose their jobs on the spot (while the other half deserves to get paid double the amount of what thy actually get). Mrs. Krueger is in the first category, obviously. Tax money? Is cheap. The waste and corruption is huge - a reexamining of some child care cases in a small town are not even a drop in the bucket. And, in case of Mrs Krueger, possibly a blessing to the people behind her cases.

5. Going back to the above...

We covered that already. Hank Summers is in Spain, giving a fuck about his ex-family. Some paper work must have been filled, though, since Buffy is the legal guardian of Dawn. DHS is called to investigate on bequest of Dawn's school. They put (incompetent) Mrs. Krueger on the case. The rest is history.

5. Vampires have no breath...

Two possible answers: 1. As You already said, Angel believes in prophecy. he cannot save Buffy because he thinks she cannot be saved - it was written. No matter what the realitiy is, or logic dictates, the mind only sees what it wants to see. Second possible answer: Vamipres are magical beings, incarnations of death. So, no matter what, they cannot give life (they can smoke, but not CPR; they can have sex, but not procreate, etcpp.).

(con't)

[norwie2010.livejournal.com]

(con't)

6. The Slayer spell in Chosen...

Uh uh, bad Fender. Of course, there are a multitude of possibilities (like doing nothing, putting faith in magical amulets, stealing a

nuclear warhead, ...). It doesn't matter. THIS is what ALL the potentials on the scene decided to do (not Buffy alone), believing they

were the only surviving potentials afer the First's girl-hunt. But i know how You feel about the spell, so i won't be able to answer Your

question in a satisfactory way anyways.

7. Vampire physics including...

Well, vampires are shown more or less consistent - all vampires are able to enter school at all times. Ms Calendar is obviously not very

well versed in vampire lore. A reflection here or there may be a mistake on the set - every TV show or film has these. And Dracula?

Well, he IS a unique snowflake - so of course he gets an extra set of laws.

8. Spike's grave.

Well, since we know (via AtS) that Drusilla buries her children in the ground it is safe to assume that she did the same with Spike.

9. Does everyone in the Buffyverse...

We are talking teenagers as protagonists here - i'm pretty sure a lot of teenager think at one time or another that their parents are

awful. But, i'll make a list: Cordelia's parents seem quite normal. Harmony's parents seem quite normal. Oz parent's seem quite

normal. Buffy's parents seem quite normal (Buffy has daddy issues, sure. Doesn't mean that her parents are actually evil.). Willow's

parents seem quite normal (Willow does FEEL neglected. Doesn't say a thing about her mother). Anya doesn't have parents. Giles

doesn't have problems with his parents (apart from teenage rebellion). Spike has a loving mother. Angel-as-Liam is an asshole - who

knows what his parents were like?

Awful parents? Xander, Tara, Wesley.

10. Fluctuating power levels!

This is not D&D. "Power levels" in actual humans fluctuate quite a bit with illness, confidence, experience, etc. factoring into this.

So there! I laid all Your questions to rest - so You can rest better at night!
(As You well know, i'm playing devil's advocate here. Tongue in cheek. ;-))

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Here on a rec!

#5 has bugged from the first time I watched. Room air is about 21% oxygen, and expired air from the average person is something like 12% O2. So when Xander gives her mouth to mouth she does get some O2; but it would have been so much more effective from Angel, who presumably would exhale 21% O2. I can argue that Angel doesn't know this, but it still annoys me.

[gillo]

Here via Petzi!

I think Dru buried William in the stable - or possibly Angelus did to avoid a local hue and cry.

As for the breath, my personal theory is that they still have functioning diaphragms, as all other muscles seem to function. So they can pull air in and force it out - but possibly not as forcefully as CPR requires. Most vampires don't eat because food has very little taste for them (As in IWRY Angel) but can if they wish - and the food travels through the system because peristalsis is muscular, but digestion as such doesn't take place. (Same with drink.) Spike is an unusual vampire in his taste for strong flavours as he is in so many other ways.

Reflections - mistakes on set. Like the occasional continuity booboo which can have Buffy producing a stake from a pocket which doesn't exist. Not all such things can be fanwanked away, though an astonishing number can if you really put your mind to it!

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I think Dru buried William in the stable
Awwwww, Spike was born in a manger! I love that. :D

Oh, I could probably explain away all those things listed above in a completely non-applicable-in-the-real-world sort of way, but I realize that maybe I'm just too grounded in realism for sci-fi. I fail. XD

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

I always hated the whole money issue in S6. It was unrealistic how Buffy was able to keep the house by working at the Doublemeet Palace, unless Giles gave her loads of money.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I always wanted to do a music video for Buffy to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl"- " You can rely on the old man's money. It's a bitch, girl, but it's gone too far. Cause you know it don't matter anyway." Buffy's "fashionable yet affordable" line is never going to cut it with me! :D

I always wondered if Tara and Willow were helping out with the bills. I mean, I assume that they would because they're decent people, but... it just seemed like of moochy. At least Spike tried to help out by getting money... in a really stupid, horrible way, but points for his effort. XD

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

A lot of the medical stuff is totally bogus. I have an M.D. friend who always throws a fit during Fool For Love when Joyce says she's packing a bag for a CAT scan. CAT scans do not require a hospital stay. They are non-invasive outpatient procedures that take minutes. Either she was lying to Buffy, or the writers were just trying for extra drama in a stupid way. The "operation" Spike gets always cracks me up, though. It's the cheesiest moment on a show stuffed with cheese, IMO. It's like watching Soapdish where they decide to do climactic emergency surgery in a restaurant with a tea strainer for anesthetic. Comedy gold.

Re: Hank Summers and his many failings. I always assumed he was a deadbeat dad, and took it so far that he skipped the country rather than pay child support. It wouldn't leave Joyce — and especially Buffy — a lot of options. They can't have his wages garnished if he's not working in the country. Grrr. Yes: bad daddy.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

They could have garnished his wages if he's still working for an American company abroad, I believe, but we just don't know anything about him really besides the fact that he sucked. XD

I can't think too hard about the medical stuff. Polite Dissent (linked above) does reviews for medical procedures in comics, TV, and movies, and it's just hilarious how wrong things can be. I think I should be impressed that Spike only needed a local anesthetic for someone cutting through his skin and bone and yet it takes uber-morphine to dull his pain in Damages as well as elephant tranqs to knock out Harmony. XD

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

1. Well, Buffy was kind of wanted for murder at the time, so the police were already looking for her. It may have been redundant. (Or, like somebody else said, she did, and it wasn't shown.) As for Buffy's schooling, there's mention of her making up exams at the beginning of S3, isn't there?

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

See, I was wondering if I fan-imagined that or if it was real. I think S3 is probably the season I paid the least studious attention to. XD

[kidcyclone.livejournal.com]

Of course Spike was buried after he was turned! Only I think he was buried in the back garden. I like to imagine Angelus, Darla and Dru having a little picnic while they waited for him to rise and claw his way out.

As for Dracula, he actually does have his own super-special magic. He can turn into mist, etc. And you know if Angelus could turn into mist you'd have heard about it.

I never understood why anybody would think vamps couldn't get into a school. Why wouldn't they? It's not like it's a boarding school, which you could argue counted as a dwelling. Or was there supposed to be some magical warding on the school specifically to keep out vampires and demons? In Sunnydale that actually wouldn't be such a bad idea, although it generally seems like that would require a level of foresight not possessed by anybody but Giles...

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I figured that public/municipal buildings were places vamps could go, but Jenny Calendar seems terribly surprised that Angelus got into the school building?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

You know, I used to shrug these things off with a quick well, it's a tv show and they have to write these really really fast and don't always keep track of everything, rough draft, etc...then, well, I read the Buffy comics. Now,
I think Whedon just sucks at plot details.

I was only able to fanwank was one and eight...ie. Joyce didn't file a missing persons report, because Giles talked her out of it - pointing out that they didn't need any additional problems with the police and well they didn't know what Buffy might do. (Let's face it she was chased by the cops once already.) Let her come back on her own, or better yet, let him find her. This explains why Joyce is furious with Giles and also their bonding in S3. And for why Spike clawed his way out of his own grave? Dru was into that sort of thing. She put Darla into the ground and sat over her until she clawed her way up. I'm guessing she put Spike into a coffin then waited for him to claw his way out. Her idea of the birthing mechanism. That would be so Dru.

As for why everyone has bad parents? I've fanwanked that as Joss' metaphor for God. For an atheist, this man is seriously pissed at God. You'd think if you didn't believe in God, you wouldn't be pissed at God, right? (shrugs)

On the DHS thing? I've got nothing. You're right that makes no sense.
It bugged me when I was watching S6, all the way through I kept thinking, uh, why aren't they just assigning someone new to the case? (Moral don't write what you know nothing about, or at the very least research it first.)

And on # two? Hank Summers has been rewritten from an understandably confused and somewhat absent father who Buffy actually visited and did supply child support, to a dead-beat Dad that ran off with his Secretary in S5 and S6. Making me wonder if the writers ever watch their own series? I'm guessing not.

As for the names? I was wondering that too. What is with all the Williams?
Seriously. There's a Billy in Nightmares, a Billy in Angel Season 3,
Liam (Angel) and William (Spike). And they are all villains at some point.
Does Joss have a beef with that name? Or does he just suck at coming up with names? If the later, I can relate. Also using Buffy's middle name as Spike's mother's name was too obvious - I think they realized it and took it out of the show at the last minute. Thank ghod.

And you are right about the super-human strength. Spike's varies. He's shown as barely able to defeat a demon or leap in Buffy. But in Angel - he's well Super-Spike! Same deal with Angel. Did they make them weaker on Buffy, because of Buffy?

And why is it that Angel can see in the dark, but Spike can't?

Consistency? There is none. Detail-oriented - these writer's aren't, and I'd blame it on the speed of tv, but then I read the comics. No excuses there.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I remember reading a fic one time where Drusilla finds a real human baby to play with (this does not end well), but she names it "William" and Spike says something like, "At first, I was flattered, but then I remembered that Angel's name is Liam, and her uncle's name was Bill... She told me once that she named all the stars, and they were probably ALL named William." And I love the shooting script for LMPTM where Drusilla wants William to have a moniker- "Either Bill or Willy or Lucien, the Prince of Lies." XD I do wish that they had gone with Constance as Spike's mother's name because it would have linked more to HIS name rather than Buffy's. Of course, they picked an actress to play Anne that they thought looked like an older SMG, made her hair have the same sort of strawberry-blonde golden hue in streaks (after she's turned) that resembled the color of Buffy's hair after she was brought back to life in S6, but I think Caroline Lagerfelt actually resembles JM a little and they made the curls in the front of her wig mimicked William's in FFL (too bad they couldn't find the William wig for JM from FFL to go with it).

There's another thing! Spike's hair! If you place the flashbacks in order, William is brunette with shaggy straightish hair with very unflattering muttonchop sideburns in the early afternoon before he was turned, adorable curly-haired honey-golden-blonde when he was turned, back to the brunette when he came home as a vampire, lighter brunette with a better cut and no sideburns when he meets Angelus, by later 1880 his hair was dirty blondish with a Leonardo diCaprio cut, back to the lighter brunette in 1894, and finally long mousy blonde with the curls in front in 1900. His hair is impossibly complicated. XD

And why is it that Angel can see in the dark, but Spike can't?
I always figured that Jossverse vampires were more like Anne Rice vampires than Joss wants to admit- that they each have a "dark gift" that is unique, kinda like that Angel has a photographic memory and Spike has a super-sniffer sense of smell. Of course, that's probably not as true; it's probably just that they are inconsistencies in writing due to each vampire having a power that is necessary to whatever scene they are in. I also wondered why did Dalton (Spike's minion in early S2) need to wear glasses when most vampires have good eyesight. Of course, on the eyesight thing, Spike squints to read Giles's handwriting, which can be interpreted as he was telling the truth about Giles's teeny handwriting or he was covering for the fact that he still needs his own reading classes.

[shakensilence.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything.

I used to contract through Children, Youth and Families which is what they call child protective services around here and that whole bit always annoys me. I mean really drives me batty. Though I have met caseworkers that were either so lazy they wouldn't do the work or were just that stupid.

I have another one for you... when a vamp gets staked what happens to the stake? Sometimes it's still there other times it dusts with the vamp. This seems to only be a problem when the person lets go of the stake. Still the chances are 50/50.

And why can't you see the clothes that the vampire is wearing in the mirror? Is it an aura thing? Once the clothes are on the vampire those can't be reflected either? That isn't an inconsistency on the show just something that never made sense to me.

Ah... I love Joss... but I don't think he thinks about the details all that much.

Like Buffy has a bitch of a time beating the Turok Han (sp?) but when all the girls are slayers they have no trouble whatsoever.

I think Joss talks about that in a commentary or something... I vaguely remember but didn't like the fact that it is never really explained just brushed over for the sake of story.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

With the stake, I always thought that if you let it go and left it inside the vamp it dusted, but if you pulled it out, it was still there. I never paid too close attention to it though, so I can imagine they forgot what they were supposed to do with it. In one of my old fanfics, I had a Slayer character who had high heels that had wooden stilettos, and one time she slayed a vamp and the wooden heel of her shoe disappeared with the vamp dusting. She had to limp around with only one heel. XD

For the Turok Han, I believe the "official explanation" Joss went with was that the first Turok Han that Buffy faced was literally the first vampire and therefore insanely powerful, but that all the other Turok Hans were therefore less powerful. Still didn't make much sense. XD