Buffy the Vampire Slayer || 7x05 || Discussion

I think that was the point. It was so long ago I think it is supposed to be an ancient, Northern European/vaguely Viking language that no longer exists. I believe they made it a made-up language that is some blend of Swedish and Italian.

StephanieB

Great episode, didn't remember she had a singing flashback, hmm i feel like S7 is the one i remember least of, only thing thar irks me some with this episode is that Anya is supposed to be Swedish originally, but as a Swedish person, what ever they talk in that flash back sounds more like a mix of Norweigan mixed with Jibbrish.

Leonard Ledung

There are a lot of people unfortunately who are kind of like Anya. In a way most of her life she has been defined by men -either in her relationships or when wreaking vengeance upon them. There are lots of people who define themselves mostly through who they're with in real life. But the point in this episode is that you can't go on like that forever; it isn't healthy. Anya needs to be comfortable in her own identity and make her own choices (which she's started to do increasingly).

I liked the flashbacks because it shows Anya never was her own person. Everything we know about her character was never really who she was. When she was with Olaf (introduced in triangles) she didn’t care for sex, loved bunnies, and wanted to give things away not for money or services (very anti Anya) - but her whole life was about Olaf. Later, vengeance consumed her identity - and she was pro communism (while in the magic shop she expressed how much she loved capitalism). Oddly, her strangely literal personality we always assumed was from her life as a vengeance demon not knowing how to live as a regular human actually wasn’t because she was a demon for so long but actually predated her life as a demon. Later, just as Olaf and then vengeance consumed her identity, then we see how Xander became her identity- she only considered herself as his Mrs - not herself as a person. We learned A LOT about my favorite btvs character in this episode through flashbacks.

Anthony

lol thanks for this gem of a quote.

that bear over there

I mean we did learn two things from the flashbacks. Firstly, at one point she wasn't scared of rabbits. Secondly, her character has always been this detached human with no real relation to humanity, and one without a clear discernable motivation. Which plagued her after she lost her vengeance demon special purpose, her character then becomes "money is good" without Xander. The song is genius, from the "made up maiden names" to the callback to "I'll never tell." And then the flow into the (fake) death. I'd completely forgotten this episode but my original impression is that season 7 stood on the back end of the season was completely wrong. There have been quality episodes throughout, just ones that I somehow forgot.

Dee Aitch

Personally, I think Buffy was totally holding back cause she really didn't want to kill Anya 'cause look at her record... God, Master, Mayor (pure demon), etc super powerful dudes, and I think without much effort she could've killed Anya but didn't... cause she's conflicted or something... I dunno, that's just some of my thoughts

hannemanart

I agree about the flashbacks. And I think you put into words what I could never quite put my finger on as to why I didn't like them; they just didn't add anything of value to the episode. We already knew the how, and really, I don't care for Anya as Anyanka or Aud having the same personality. There's no real arc for her. It might have actually been more compelling if we learned there was a lot more to her when she was originally human; and over time, becoming a vengeance demon and living for over a thousand years took a toll on her and made her more detached; to say nothing of the persona she assumed when becoming human in The Wish. To see her lose and regain her humanity would have underscored her choice to take back this wish and be willing to sacrifice it all. And, I'm probably in the minority, but I didn't like the song; never have. It's a little catchy and I get the sentiment, but I feel like it lacks the charm of the songs in "Once More with Feeling". I usually skip it whenever possible. There's also something dissonant about seeing Xander fall asleep in a recliner after work. Like, obviously they aren't doing the Scooby thing every night, but it's easy to take for granted whenever we do see Xander that he's probably just put in a full construction work shift, before delving into research. Xander lives this whole other, regular life we take for granted and barely gets acknowledged, unless it's convenient.

Stargazer1682

I just have to say, I'm Norwegian, and listening to Anya and Olaf trying to speak Norwegian/Swedish gets me every time, its hilarious. Haha.

Saga

yep, the exact line from Checkpoint: "Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins, twenty years old. Born on the fourth of July, and don't think there weren't jokes about that my whole life, mister, 'cause there were. "Who's our little patriot?" they'd say, when I was younger, and therefore smaller and shorter than I am now."

Henrik Holst

No they don't know or learned Swedish (what they say is sometimes accurate and sometimes pure gibberish), its quite clear that they are trying to remember lines phonetically if you know Swedish.

Henrik Holst

if i remember correctly she made the extra names up when the council came in season 5 to interview buffy and co before they gave them information on glory.

that bear over there

Something that’s really interesting to me and It didn’t occur to me before is that in the flashback when she’s singing she calls herself “anya Christina Emanuela” but we know that her name originally was just Aud, so did she make up all those names to reinforce her identity?

Marty

It would have been a shame had they done that, not to mention a waste of time for the two actors. I suppose they would have done the same thing in the scene where Olaf is already a troll.

Ron Fehr

i think the line about bunnies in the olaf flashback is super interesting and open to interpretation. she obviously at one point loved bunnies so much that she wanted to share her joy of them with the entire village by giving them away, not for goods or services, but just as a gesture of kindness. the anya we meet in sunnydale hates bunnies. it has always been played for laughs that anya has a fear of bunnies. but what if it isn't really fear as much as disdain for her pre-demon self who did not see the world as purely transactional? like, maybe she 'hates' bunnies now because it reminds her of a time where she was a naive woman who believed her husband when he said he wasnt cheating on her. maybe she sees that former self as being weak or pathetic. so her avoidance of bunnies is really her avoidance of her previous human self.

that bear over there

they talk about this on the dvd commentary. originally emma and abraham were supposed to be dubbed over (purposely badly like old kung fu movies) but both actors learned the actual dialogue for the scene and the director thought they did such a great job making it sound cheesy/funny that they stuck with their real voices instead of dubbing over them.

that bear over there

I enjoyed the flashbacks because it showed more of Anya’s character throughout that time and how she did just pick up the interests of what was going on around her. I also like that we saw that Anya isn’t the way she is because she’s a demon who forgot how to be human which felt assumed, her personality was the same before she became a demon. Very interesting to me! I do think the flashbacks could have given us more.

Giorgia M

Maybe my favourite episode of the season!! I just love it so much and felt like it was Anya’s episode but it also pulled all of the characters stories together in such a cool way. So heartbreaking though but felt needed.

Giorgia M

Congrats to Emma Caufield and Abraham Benrubi for opening the episode speaking Swedish (I think that's what it was). Either they both already knew the language or they had to learn. Whichever it was, they did a good job.

Ron Fehr