No half measures

[cactuswatcher]

First off, from this morning's entertainment column by local reporter Scott Craven in the Arizona Republic, in a story about TV show fads that have died and should soon die:

"Current Icon that will never go bad -The undead (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) Here's another that will stand the test of time. Pop culture will always have room for bloodsucking fiends, even those who may not be undead."


It occured to me when I woke up this morning that Illyria might be what happens when you pump too much demon essence into a slayer. The ancients offered Buffy more power in season seven. Its easy to understand that this is where that could lead to; the girl becomes more and more lost in the demon.

The episode had at least one really sad continuity flub. Back in the good old days W&H was 'only a little higher than vampires.' Um Illyria, honey, you're been dead millions of years. There were no humans back then, and according to cannon, vampires are a human-demon hybrid.. Yeah, the ultimate 'sire' may have been around back then, but in its pure form, not as 'vampires.'

So what's the story with Illyria now? Is she really going to play nice, or is she just going to use Wes like Evil Cordy used Connor to get her way in a new world? The season seems to be about bad choices, so for now I'd have to guess the latter. Wes is unwittingly going to replace the high priest he killed?. Could be. He certainly seems to have acquired a violent streak that Illyria might find useful.

Comments

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

The episode had at least one really sad continuity flub. Back in the good old days W&H was 'only a little higher than vampires.' Um Illyria, honey, you're been dead millions of years. There were no humans back then, and according to cannon, vampires are a human-demon hybrid.. Yeah, the ultimate 'sire' may have been around back then, but in its pure form, not as 'vampires.'

Do we know for sure though that there were no humans at Illyria's time? After all, she knew what they were when she saw them, in the very first scene with Wes, and called Spike and Angel "half-breeds" later. All that is known about the Old Times seems to be sketchy and vague, like any creation myth. So perhaps it wasn't the last demon to leave our dimension to bite a human and begin the race of vampires. But I don't think that necessarily makes it a real continuity issue. I doubt the word "vampire" was around when she was around, but she learned it since arriving back. As evidenced by the fact that she changes from calling them "half-breeds" to "vampires".

Actually it is clearly a continuity issue

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

It was made abundantly clear in episode 15 that Illyria was not from the bitter end of the era of Demons. You have to fill in the details from real-world evolution. There were hominids millions of years ago, but no humans. You could make a case there were Turok-han. But pratically the first thing Giles tells Buffy in BtVS is that vampires were created as the demons left this reality.

Illyria clearly is drawing on some of Fred's memories. She understands too much about what is going on around her to simply be able to understand it from her vast intellect.

I should say...

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

... that as could well be over a period of millenia, but certainly not the millions of years stretching back to Illyria's times.