Also wrote:

"The various magics that create the parallel worlds retroactively rewrite reality. The term "rewrite" is deliberate, ... "rewriting" is precisely what the writers of the series did at the beginning of season five. ...

"The few people who know the "truth" in each of these alternate realities represent a minority view. Those who deny Dawn's reality are literally insane. ..."

Also wrote:

"In a nutshell, I'm going to say that while the creators of Buffy are presenting Willow as a witch/Wiccan(n), they are, alas, wrong."

Power In Becoming -- in Seven Seasons of Buffy

Also wrote:

" ... Willow on the other hand has not been treading the initiatory path while she's been learning how to do magic."

Also wrote:

"So who's out there who might be a fit lifemate for the Slayer, the Chosen One?

"First Off, I think we can immediately eliminate any ordinary, untrained human being. Those around Buffy are inevitably going to encounter the creatures of the night -- demons, vampires, evil gods, the entire panoply. ... But wait you may say -- what about Xander himself? He's somehow managed to survive seven years facing the darkness; he clearly has something going for him. ...."

Read "The Dragon and the Lorelei" in

"While it is safe to say that actual love is not a factor in their relationship, the longer that Buffy and Spike continue their lust affair, the more psychologically damaged by it they become. The complexity of their relationship is more than hunter and hunted, domination and seduction. Spike is continually tortured by his obsession and is particularly dangerous because he is ... according to Whedon, "...really a part of Buffy's life, not just external. Something emotional that she couldn't just physically fight. ..."

Also wrote:

"Watching Buffy is an education in how to write romance. ...

"...the most interesting sex-as-pain-and-death relationship in this series is Buffy and Spike. ... They're miming death over and over again, practicing the moment they both assume they're hurtling toward, the moment they fulfill their roles as Vampire Slayer and Slayer Assassin. That erotic risk coupled with their repeated demonstrations of unconditional love makes their twisted relationship one of the most powerful ever written ... Whedon's greatest love story doesn't stop there. He takes it down another layer, to the metaphor that fuels the series and raises the romances of Buffy to the level of myth ...

"... The continued insistence throughout season six that this relationship [Ed.:Buffy and Spike] is wrong, unhealthy, symbolic of something evil and immoral is not only inexplicable but annoying ..."

Also wrote:

"From the very first episode of the series to the final story, on the most consistent, fundamental level, Buffy has been about relationships— how to create them, and how to sustain them once you have them. Not just any relationship, either, but the kind that is strong enough and deep enough to provide answers to life’s ultimate questions (why am I here? where am I headed? what does it all mean?). ..."

" ...This brings us to a crucial question. Why does the Willow-Tara pairing succeed when all other relationships in the Buffyverse fail? ..."

" ... Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn’t about killing monsters. Buffy is about the search for meaning in life. Again and again, that meaning is found in reliable, balanced, loving partnerships between individuals. Saving the world is all well and good, but any accomplishment is hollow without someone to share it with at the end of the day. ..."

Also wrote:

"... Joss Whedon has been writing a perfect example of a new genre I call 'Intimate Adventure'--where the real adventure demanding courage is on the field of relationships, not action. Note that the 'action' in Buffy is routine, repetitive, and unoriginal—face the monster, get beaten to a pulp, vanquish or kill the monster. But each season there are new relationships, new emotional complexities, and new challenges to emotional courage. ..."

Also wrote:

" ... There is a pattern repeated time and again in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: if someone is a member of Buffy's family, then it doesn't matter how far into the dark side that person treads it is always possible to be forgiven and restored to the family. Only people outside the family do not have that option. ... "

Also wrote:

" ...That intrinsic conflict was the underlying reason Riley felt that Buffy didn't love him—he didn't have the intense bond that Buffy had with her prey, and in time came to resent the lack of it, to be jealous of the profoundly intimate predator/prey relationship he would never be able to share. ..."

" ... From the inception of Slayerdom, the Slayer has been a hunter: in other words, a predator. Buffy may be uncomfortable with the primitive First Slayer,but she is aware that they are linked in purpose, and that predation is crucial to the mission.

"Giles's neutrality as Watcher makes it clear that he is not a competing predator..."

Also wrote:

"IF YOU'VE WATCHED as many episodes of Buffy as I have, you've probably noticed an interesting phenomenon. ...

"The monsters are all ugly. The good guys are all pretty. Oh, I've had moments of disgruntlement with the Buffyverse. ..."

Also wrote:

... "Television networks censor and pressure in service to their financial needs and corporate ends, not the artistic needs of an individual show or the wishes of its fans. For example, the much-anticipated kiss between Willow and Tara had to wait until another show on the WB, Dawson's Creek, showed a kiss between Jack (Kerr Smith) and Ethan (Adam Kaufman, who also played Parker that same season on Buffy). This quick peck was a television landmark, a gay kiss in a teen show, but the WB chose to give it to another show—not because it was necessarily better for Dawson's than it was for Buffy, but because it was better for the network. It would be another season before a lengthier gay kiss on Dawson's and the even longer and more comforting kiss between Tara and Willow in "The Body" in season five. ..."

"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is thinking man's eye candy. Thinking woman's dramedy. Prime-time soap opera for Trekkies. Strokevision for loner Lovecraft buffs. Textually rich, emotionally dense, psychologically juicy, it's as layered and complex as Twin Peaks without ... "

"Tara's animal grace is also part and parcel of her witchiness. She and Willow merged so well magically because they complement each other: Willow is enamored of books and spells and power and rare magic items, but Tara is of a more earthy stamp ..."

" ... Willow's need for approval and Tara's need for unconditional love allowed their supernova trajectory its singular, incendiary thrust toward its triumphant but tragic end; like all witches who burn, martyred by flames, they move on to a place where their gods are ... "

... "Willow supplies Tara with the confidence of belonging to a peer group, thus allowing her to avoid tackling her shyness. Tara supplies Willow with magical power to augment her intellectual power, so Willow can repeat the unsuccessful coping strategy of her childhood, using her intellectual power to gain acceptance. This time she substitutes magical power for intellectual power, ..."