Sunday, September 13, 2009

Ding! Round 2 of 'September Silliness - The Buffy Episode Tourney' - West Coast Time Zone Addition

VOTING HAS ENDED FOR THIS ROUND.

Which Buffy episode is the fan favorite? We've been trying to find that out all month so far, and round put 128 eps against each other in 64 matches. I think everyone can agree that part 1 c, The Scotland Region, has some of the tourney's toughest picks so far. In round 2, things are going to get even tougher, as we're down to the top 64 episodes of the show now.

Let's quickly recap what happened in Round 1d, shall we?

"Dopplegangland" pummels "Triangle" by a lot.
"Lessons" teaches a lesson to "Out of Sight out of Mind"
Buffy and Cordy win at last with "Homecoming" over "Forever"
"Enemies" doesn't let "Beneath You" rest and takes it in the end.
"New Moon Rising" wins over "Older and Far Away"
"Revelations" says "Goodbye Iowa"
"Afterlife" beats up on "The Freshman"
"Surprise" wipes the floor with "Wrecked"
"Primevil" just makes it over "Nightmares"
"Faith, Hope and Trick" takes the spot from "Same Time, Same Place"
"Bargaining Part 2" beats "Beer Bad"
"Band Candy" kicks "Bad Egg" to the curb
"Tabula Rasa" leaves "Some Assembly Required" in the dust
"The I in Team" beats 'Inca Mummy Girl"
"Beauty and the Beast" goes "All the Way"
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" wins against "Harsh Light of Day"

Round 2 will be broken into 2 parts, with 16 matches in each. Voting for this part ends Monday at 11:59 pm EST, at which point Round 2b will begin.

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




23 comments:

Anonymous said...

This round is a tricky one. For me, the hardest choices were "Storyteller" vs. "Who Are You"; "Hush" vs. "Earshot"; and "Chosen" vs. "The Prom."

I decided on "Earshot," as I just adore that episode, and it has such a powerful message, communicated through Buffy's speech to Jonathan. Plus, I love when we get to hear everyone's thoughts--especially Cordelia ("I think it, I say it. That's my way.") and Oz.

As for the other 2 conundrums? I will have to sleep on it.

Tara said...

OK, wait....first of all "Ted" vs. "The Gift" Ha! That's hysterical! Aww, "Ted", and in turn, John Ritter, we hardly knew ye.

Also, now that I think of it, you mean to tell me that "The Yoko Factor" beat "Anne" in Round 1??? Where was I when that particular brand of crack was being smoked? Not that I could've stopped the crack smoking...I'm just saying, there was crack to be had somewhere around that time.

Dalton said...

Hi, guys....

Restless over I Only Have Eyes For You, mainly because I've always thought the latter episode sucked. Restless is pretty cool. Not the best, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Dadgummit, Selfless and Normal Again was a toughie. Sat for a good solid 5 minutes in front of the computer churning the old gulliver over this one, folks. I chose Selfless.

Hell's Bells all the way. Is it just me, or is Emma one smokin' babe?

Had to go with Consequences over Phases. Very tough choice.

The Wish is one of my favs.

Voted for Becoming over my beloved Doublemeat Palace related ep

The Gift. Sorry Jack.

Storyteller over Who Are You. Check out that tongue....

I voted for The Zeppo, not only because I love the ep but also in spite of all the mean Xander haters out there. Chew on that for awhile...

Hush ALL THE WAY.

A New Man.

Bad Girls, but after I voted had voter's regret and wish I'd chosen Innocence. Damn it.

The Prom. Chosen sucked, with all of its loser Potential/Actualized Slayer babes.

Halloween. One of me favs.

Grad Day Part 2. Duh.

Amanda said...

Hush vs Earshot was the hardest for me. I loved those two episodes a lot.

Chosen and The Prom were hard as well.

Do you think it says something about all of us that we chose the episodes that cause the most heartache over the funny ones?

Iceeh said...

Well, this round is proving to be trickier than the rest.

How funny. Selfless is my favorite episode ever, and Normal Again is one of my least favorites ever. If Normal Again beats Selfless, I will die 1000 deaths and lose all faith in humanity.

LOL at Becoming Part 2 vs As You Were and The Gift vs Ted!

Okay. Storyteller vs. Who Are You is the toughest choice I've yet to face. These episodes are practically tied on my list, so I'm gonna have to do an eenie meenie miney moe... anddd it looks like Who Are You is the winner!

Hush vs Earshot is another toughie. I'm going with Hush, even though I also love Earshot to little pieces.

AHHH man, I'm sad to see The Yoko Factor get out (most likely) this soon. It's a fab episode, and has one of the best scenes ever in it. "Fort dix? PFFAHAHHAHAHAAH!!!!"

Scar said...

The later ones were easy to descide but the first three were so hard!
I went with 'Restless' over 'I only have eyes for you' even though they're my season favourites from two and four.
I went with 'Normal again' over 'Selfless' 'cos even though I love everything to do with Anya it was rather fun seeing Buffy think she was crazy.
And then I went with 'I was made to love you' over 'Hells bells' because, again I love everything to do with Anya, but I have soo much in common wth that robot and then it does have the most shocking end.
I can tell it's gonna get more difficult as more of the favourites are being pitted together. Arg I understand exactly what someone said a few rounds ago, it's like having to pick your favourite of your children! It just feels wrong picking between them!

Anonymous said...

How are people voting for Normal Again over Selfless? Name 2 memorable lines from Normal Again! Now think about how many there are from Selfless!

DivaDea said...

Looks like I'm in the minority, but I LOVE Ted.
It's pretty even right now, so I'm still hoping Selfless will pull ahead - that one is in my personal top five.

Michelle said...

I had a hard time with "Restless" and "I Only Have Eyes for You", but in the end "Restless" has amazing imagery and it's one of the few things I like about Season 4.

"Selfless" is one of the few things I like about Season 7.

"Hell's Bells" is amazing in that it's funny and heartbreaking all wrapped up in one.

Sorry Oz, but "Consequences" has the turning point of Season 3 and remember when Faith tries to kill Xander. Hilarious.

"The Wish" is so great.

"Becoming Part II" is a masterpiece.

I love "Ted", too, but "The Gift" is one of my favorite episodes and really the last time we see a consistently good Season.

I love when Buffy and Faith switch bodies in "Who Are you?" and the entire 4-part arc.

"Amends" has a little bit of snow and a lot of forgiveness.

I went with "Earshot" because even though "Hush" did something daring and different, so did "Earshot" with its commentary on social issues.

"Blood Ties", not sure why.

"This Year's Girl" (see "Who Are You?" above)

"Innocence" - tough one, but then I thought about Buffy's face in Angel's apartment. Poor thing.

"The Prom" is so good.

I actually had a tough time with picking "Halloween" over "Buffy vs. Dracula", but I did it.

Poor "Yoko Factor".

Michael (mbatz) said...

How can Restless be in a dog fight??? It's one of the best eps ever. Layers upon layers of psychological goodies. And I may be in the minority, but I loath Hell's Bells. I just wanted to bitch slap Xander the whole ep for being so "not Xander" like. I mean come on...thought he decided not to be anyone's "butt-monkey" again. Blah.

The Groosalugg said...

Voted Earshot, though Hush is very, very, very good. I would say only Earshot, The Body and Once More With Feeling are in the same extraordinary league.

Basically, Hush and Earshot are both amongst my 5 favourite episodes. So sad that one of them will have to go already. :(

Bad Girls vs. Innocence was another difficult and unfortunate one (they're not in my top 5, but certainly in the top 20, maybe in the top 10). Voted Bad Girls.

Chosen vs. The Prom are eps that have both quite special episodes too. They're still very close, but I hope The Prom makes it.

I voted for Selfless and Restless and hope they'll make it to the next round, where they'll have to face each other.

Phases vs. Consequences is one of the few fortunate pairings. Finally one of my favs isn't paired against another. And it's also pulling ahead (so far, I hope I don't curse it).

Sadly I seem to be on the minority voting for Buffy vs. Dracula, The Zeppo and Storyteller :(.

The Groosalugg said...

I see I forgot to mention some:

Becoming Part 2 vs. As you were was another very, very easy choice of course.

And I voted for Yoko Factor out of pity and love for Spike (though I have to admit and agree that Graduation Day Part II is in fact the better episode. Ah well, poor Yoko Factor has so little votes and Graduation Day II, that lucky bastard, has so many.

Oh and there also is I Was Made to Love You vs. Hell's Bells. I never liked Anya & Xander breaking up, so I voted for the funny robot one.

skyroom80 said...

It's tough to have to choose between episodes as excellent as "Hush" and "Earshot." Went with "Hush," of course -- it's one of the top 10 best episodes of the series.

I also went with "Buffy vs Dracula" over "Halloween: but it was a cruel moment of indecision.

"Storyteller" over "Who Are You" because it so well describes Andrew. One of the better Season 7 episodes.

"Normal Again" over "Selfless."

My prediction is that one of these 5 will end up the winner:
- "Once More With Feeling"
- "Hush"
- "The Body"
- "Innocence"
- "Becoming, Part 2"

Michelle said...

I can't believe "The Zeppo" is tied with "Amends". I like "The Zeppo" a lot, but it doesn't seem on par with the quality storytelling of "Amends".

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised I Only Have Eyes For You is close to tied with Restless. While the latter is good, to me it's just a good episode, nothing special. Where as Restless is clearly one of the best ones, easily fighting for a spot in top 5, if not the top 3.

Also, vote for Zeppo and disvote for Hell's Bells. The previous one was a nice bright spot on Xander, and the Hell's Bells, unlike Michael commented, was a clear indication of all the bad about Xander I disliked about him, especially in the later seasons. Sure, he was a jerk most of the time, but then he was cast as the heart of the group many times without much bringing in the heart. If only he had more Zeppo moments... (Also, Amends while good, was just good; nothing that special).

All in all, to me this round seemed easy, until I noticed I voted against the most in more categories than in the earlier rounds... Only one really hard pick, This Year's Girl starting the great Faith arc, vs. A New Man, the oh so hilarious Ethan Rayne ep, which we didn't get enough of.

Oh yes, the last one too. I went with The Prom, as I really didn't like Chosen as an episode. Where it ended was awesome, and worthy of the series. But how it got there, not so great. Still, either winning is ok for me.

Dalton said...

Hey, I voted for "The Zeppo." And just what are you trying to say about my critical ability to choose cool episodes, Ms. Michelle? Huh? Huh? I like "Amends" alot, but it doesn't seem to be on par with the quality storytelling of "The Zeppo."
So there. Go Xander!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Iceeh: "If Normal Again beats Selfless, I will die 1000 deaths and lose all faith in humanity." Now that multiple lives are on the line, I hope some may reconsider ;P In all serious, though, "Selfless" is a great character episode for all involved.

Anonymous said...

I wish I could edit my typo in the above comment. Sigh.

D said...

Yep, your intelligence is definitely in question now, heroinetv.
I like "Normal Again," but "Selfless" should win.

Tara said...

Normal Again sucks. That is all.

D said...

:-(

Unknown said...

I have to agree with Tara about the crack smoking when it comes to Anne vs Ted, and not just because she has an awesome name.

Unknown said...

And of course when I wrote Ted I meant The Yoko Factor, this is what happens when I start writing things directly after napping...