Friday, September 4, 2009

September Silliness - The Buffy Episode Tournament (Round 1a)

FYI VOTING IS CLOSED FOR THIS ROUND

Ok, here it is kids! What's it gonna be, what's it gonna be? Which Buffy episode is the fan favorite? Which makes us scream "Joss!" at the TV more than any other? By the end of the month, we'll know.


This is a massive tournament with 128 randomly paired episodes fighting for the title. This time around we have a new polling system so everyone can see what's winning without waiting for our tally. Round 1 is broken into 4 regions with 16 matches in each. Let the games begin!


Voting for this part ends Sunday at 11:59 pm EST at which point Round 1b will begin.

By the way, if you need a refresher, click here for the full list of episodes and their descriptions.


Region 1: Sunnydale
Location: The Bronze








































If your curious to see the entire bracket of Round 1, click here to enlarge:



24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why are these things always so much harder than I think they're going to be?

crystalsinger said...

Some of these are like choosing which is your favourite child... :-/

Aerliss said...

Since breaking a rib I've been working my way through the show again... this has reminded me of some the great eps I've not seen in YEARS. Can't wait.

Tara said...

These are tough and it's only round 1! Some of my initial thoughts:

Sad about "Weight of the World"...I love that ep but I'm sure "The Wish" will beat it's ass. Also shame about "Fear, Itself" but it doesn't stand a chance against what I consider one of the most perfect moments in TV, "The Gift."

On the other hand, "Teacher's Pet" vs. "As You Were" is such a joke! Both of those eps are rather stinky!

Michelle said...

That was fun. Some of those were really easy.

Here's a couple of comments:

"Restless" because it's amazing both in dialogue and visuals, plus "Seeing Red" has not one thing good about it.

"Hell's Bell's" over "The Witch" was a no-brainer.

I'm sad about "Weight of the World" and "The Wish". Both quality episodes, but in the end I went with the latter.

This is how much I dislike Riley: I picked "Teacher's Pet" in this tournament.

Bitsy said...

Do i get to make notes too? No? Awe. I'm doin' it anyway wahoo!

Restless all the way because Seeing Red is for rape fantasists only (aka not me)

I will vote for almost anything that is not Normal Again due to it's ending (she's actually just delusional, viewers, so you've just wasted the last six years watching this show!) Fail.

I LOVE the Witch. I don't care what anyone says. Mach, macho man... oh juice! The end.

I hate Go Fish but love the picture of Willow and Buffy checking out the Xander package.

Out of My Mind is the beginning fo the Spike and Buffy 4-evar nonsense so... no, thank you.

I happen to like As You Were because we get to see that even Riley knows how far Buffy has fallen. You know I'm right.

Awe, John Ritter. You can come knock on my door any day, buddy.

Poor Fear Itself. We hardly knew ye.

Reptile Boy features Xander in a ginormous bra and blonde wig. need I say more?

I'm Buffy. You can't do that because it's wrong!

Tara said...

oh here we go....

Michael (mbatz) said...

I'm bummed about Fear Itself too....The Halloween eps were 3 of my fav...yeah, even the season 6 one.

Dalton said...

Just cast my votes, folks. There were some total toughies here. For those of you who can't always remember the titles (like me), but know the episode, Wiki the episode name. Nice summary of each episode that will jog your memory.
Fear, Itself was soooooooooo cool. Hate to see it eliminated so soon. I'm with Bitsy on Go Fish. Loved when Buff, Will, and Cord checked out Xander. I loved Witches. Had to honor Jack Tripper via Ted. Great episode. The Wish is one of my all-time favorites. What can I say, The Dark Age always struck a nerve (definitely in the minority there).
This is so cool....

Dalton said...

P.S.-Honestly, I LOVE As You Were. We all have experience with menial labor, and it's a monumental testament to Buffy's overall character that, in order to provide for her sister, she'd go that route. There's gargantuan amounts of courage and humility under Buffy's Doublemeat Palace uniform, people. Lots of humanity there, folks. She hasn't fallen, but risen to glorious new heights. I get teary just thinking about it. Yet another reason I have a "WWBD" bumper sticker on the back of my car....

Anonymous said...

Wow, Normal Again is doing better than No Place Like Home? That's shocking, partly because I know how much some people hate Normal Again, and also because No Place Like Home is such a great episode.

Kaaren said...

Man, some were hard, but that was fun.

Michelle said...

I can't believe "Seeing Red" is gaining on "Restless". It's unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

As far as the entire tournament bracket goes, where is "Dead Things"!? Don't tell me that you have "Beer Bad" but no "Dead Things"!

Tara said...

Re: Dalton - You're right, we were all just discussing how we should link to our episode guide, plus the pics don't always help. Thanks!

Re: Anonymous - I'm also shocked about Normal Again. It's kicking ass! That ep irritates me like no other.

Re: other Anonymous - not sure. Dead Things might have been on one or more of our bottom 16. Taking eps out was a painstaiking process and we were all shocked to see Go Fish was left in. That was an oversight for sure. On the other hand, I personally love Beer Bad but I wouldn't worry as it's most certainly not making it past the first round anyway.


Overall, I think certain eps get a bad reputation within the fandom, but they are actually cute, fun, memorable episodes that just happen to be of earlier quality or have that cheese factor (i.e., Reptile Boy). Just my opinion.

Michelle said...

In other funny news, "Go Fish" and "Teacher's Pet" are loosing with dignity. Who knew.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised Seeing Red is doing as well as it is. Sure, it would win against most regular episodes, but Restless? Weird. (I do like Seeing Red, it does have my favourite happy moment of the whole series, where Dawn gets all giddy about Willow&Tara. To be crushed the way Joss does, but still...)

I went with Witch (incorrectly labeled as "The Witch"), as I passionately dislike Hell's Bells, but I'm sure the wedding ep will go down against any real episode.

The others are going as suspected, I guess, too bad about Fear Itself, a nice light episode cut too early by its better.

Harvin said...

Thanks for the picture addition--it makes it easier to remember what happened (I'm not even a 1-year-old fan yet).

I'm delighted to see "Go Fish" on here, as it's one of my favorite Xander episodes (who doesn't like a good dose of Xander, especially swim team Xander?!).

Claire said...

Ok, is this which is your favourite? Or which is the most shocking/angry/leaves you screaming Joss? I'm confused. The post that goes with the poll makes it seem like the latter, but all these comments people are talking about their favourites...

Gwen said...

The poll for Never Leave Me vs Selfless is not showing for me. I NEED to vote for Selfless lol

Tara said...

Re: Claire - no, it's for favorite ep. Hopefully the new wording clears things up.

Re:Gwen - hmmm...not sure what that's about. You should be able to see it now. Let us know if there are any future problems. If it makes you feel any better, Selfless has the lead.

Also, anyone can feel free to email buffyfest@aim.com if you are experiencing any other problems.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe 'Go Fish' has any votes at all I hated that episode it's my least favourite of all seven series!
I only just found this site, I love what you're doing here, Buffy is a majour passion of mine!

Iceeh said...

This was actually pretty easy. I'm glad to see other people don't like Normal Again, I thought I was the only one! D:

Tara said...

Thanks a lot, Anon!

And Iceeh, you are DEFINITELY not the only one...especially here at Bufffest. Still, looks like Normal Again will be advancing.

And that's it for round 1a. Voting has ended, on to round 1b!