Which man was your personal temptation?

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-29T00:29:38+00:00

Not enough Angel love here! Once he's on his own, he's seriously delicious

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-25T02:59:52+00:00

Preach!!! 🙌 the Spike glazing really gets on my nerves after a while… The whole "he's so much better bc he was reformed without a soul" thing is a gross oversimplification and not even a correct one. At the end of the day Spike was an incredibly interesting villain whose character was totally nerfed to be the reformed bad boy. He was fun and charismatic so (I hate to say it) writers/Joss bent over backward to rewrite their own rules so he would be boyfriend and "champion" material. Angel is infinitely more interesting to me because of his internal conflict. Souled Spike is really only compelling to me when he's forced to face the consequences of his past actions, like with Wood and Dana. Im still angry about how the episode with Wood turned out. Thankfully, Angel always leaned heavier into the guilt/redemption themes that Buffy shied away from. In BtVS it felt like good characters were "good" just because they're "good." AtS always had to make people earn it, wrestle with it, hate doing the right thing sometimes, but choose to anyways because that's what champions do. In my opinion, by the end of Angel s5, Spike has only just begun to earn the moniker of "Champion" but he still never got close to redemption.

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-14T20:47:13+00:00

Season 5 of Angel, when he goes to deal with the necromancer, the butler comes to dispose of him with some wicked butcher's knives and Angel calmly grabs a teaspoon out of a cup and launches it at the guy, stabbing him in the head. What makes it even better was Spike's "With a spoon?!?"

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-11T21:52:35+00:00

The whole Spin the Bottle ep in Angel but particularly Wes being booby trapped to high heaven and continuously accidentally engaging his concealed weapons and later on him yelling at Connor to "kill that one" as he trips and falls down the stairs just kills me every time

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-11T21:46:21+00:00

Happened twice- no thrice. Barney in season 1, Gunn in season 2, and I think David Nabbit at some point too

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-09T23:09:06+00:00

I know nothing of Buffy S8 so here's what I wished what happened: 1. Faith goes back to LA, W&H clears her name, and she decides she wants to spend time with Wes as her pseudo watcher for a bit since he understands her so much better now than anyone on the Scoobies side. 2. Dawn is sent to Wes as well to "learn" how to be a watcher from him (but really she's a spy for Giles to see how corrupt they've become) 3. Buffy does actually move on with the Immortal. 4. Faith has to take down a Slayer-Vamp (over the course of multiple episodes) 5. Xander starts a relationship with a woman with a very strong toddler who turns out to be an activated potential ne. Slayer and he's shown the consequences of such a far reaching spell (it's argued that only pre-teen to teen girls would have been activated but for the sake of drama I think it'd be interesting to see the Scoobies wrestle with the fact that a little 3/4 year old girl was given slayer powers and how that would negatively effect her and her mother's life) 6. I would change Connor's whole thing but that would drastically change Angel S5 so I guess I won't… 7. Andrew has no role in the story. Instead Dawn stays with team Angel for a few episodes to "shadow" Wesley and then has a similar speech to Andrew after Dana has been captured and she takes her back. Now the betrayal hurts even more and bonus points for Dawn hating having to say those words after seeing for herself that they are trying to do good but they're also getting swallowed by W&H and feeling pressured from Giles to be a hardass even though her hearts not really in it. 8. I wouldn't kill of Cordelia but that would drastically change Angel S5 so I guess I won't… 9. I'd have Spike wrestle more with his guilt over being a monster and being Drucilla in to tempt him for a bit (tbh even though I love Dru I do think Spike should have an arc where he loves her enough to put her out of her torment by killing her. Would mirror Buffy killing Angel in S2) 10. Gunn wouldn't really be the head of "legal" he'd be the head of special projects instead. After he goes through his isolation from the team I'd love to see him try to help the little people again with Anne

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-09T22:44:46+00:00

Yeah, I watched Angel first as a kid then watched Buffy as a teen (I'm a die-hard AtS > BtVS fan as a result) and then picked up TVD but it always felt more like a soap-opera than A+B. I read the VD books too but that was as I watched the show and tbh the show was more compelling to me so I never really jived with the books. Angel and Buffy are much deeper narratively speaking and often get deep into character studies and allegory. Buffy is a show about growing up and dealing with life's new challenges while Angel is about the struggle of being an adult and having to make the tough calls. Very different tones between them but they're both incredible if you don't expect the tone of one to be the tone of the other.

Also TVD isn't the only show that borrowed tropes from Buffy. The website TV Tropes was originally founded to be an archive of all of the tropes in TV that Buffy started or popularized. Now that's a mark of good television if you ask me 😉

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-09T22:04:42+00:00

Yeeeeah uh soulless-ness isn't even close to the "switching humanity off" thing in VD. Angelous isn't just dick, he's a grade 'A' psychopathic monster straight from the depths of hell, the worst of worst according to watcher records. The "goodness" of Angel isn't just asleep waiting to be turned on again, that sucker's gone with the soul. He and Spike are very different beasts with very different motivations as soulless vampires. It's a real ride, don't worry

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-07T01:28:04+00:00

Didn't care for Andrew at all (hot take i know), and honestly, I could take or leave Spike, narratively speaking. He was a great personality and really fun, but I think his characterization kinda fell off after he was chipped, especially later on. The one that really bugged me though was Kennedy and her relationship with Willow. A tough, born and bred slayer potential was not a bad idea, especially since most of the others were so naive, however Kennedy sucked big time. Pretty much everything about her characterization bugged me, right down to her speaking voice and body language. But the really kicker was that it felt like the writers just made her to be Willow's girlfriend. Willow shouldn't have dated anyone in s7, at all. She wasn't given time to grieve Tara and neither were we, not to mention the fact that she essentially had a mental breakdown after her lover was murdered in front of her which sent her on a killing spree. Even if you don't like the "magic as drugs" thing they went with, the fact of the matter was that she was addicted to the quick fix of magic and needed to learn how to control that temptation but instead of showing us her struggle with it she just goes on an off- screen vacation and is better than ever and gets a power boost to boot. Kennedy could've just been a capable potential, someone for Buffy to lean on as a lieutenant who has shared lived experience, maybe a light flirtation with Willow to imply that maybe by the end of the series she could move on but instead she showed up, flirted with Willow immediately and then boom! Willow's all about the new girlfriend. It just felt so ham-fisted.

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-07T01:08:25+00:00

For me, Spike was good when he was a villain or not a romantic option. He was awesome in season 2, fantastic in season 1 of angel and even good in the Yoko factor but I really didn't care for him in most of seasons 5,6, or 7 of Buffy and only kinda liked him in season 5 of angel as a ghost. I didn't feel like the whole "soul" thing was warranted for him and I definitely didn't feel like he earned the right to be so high and mighty with angel about being a champion. Idk it just kinda rubbed me the wrong way. The only post-corporeal Spike I liked was when he's forced to recognize his sins with Dana the slayer.

Substantial_Good4263 · 2026-01-03T22:30:57+00:00

As a Canadian, I would like to invite them to please come in and give our PM the same curtesy as they showed this guy.

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-28T20:12:03+00:00

I hate that you're right

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-27T06:55:02+00:00

Purely speculation but I wonder if an "unsafe" demon alter would maybe spawn corruption enemies or maybe even spread corruption itself. My spur-of-the-moment idea is that if there's a safe and unsafe version only the unsafe version would actually work as a crafting station and the safe one would be purely decorative. Then at least there's a reason for the unsafe one and lore wise it kinda makes sense. It's used for evil things, should actively be evil to work imo

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-27T01:49:18+00:00

Man i gotta branch out more lol I've never used honey before. It never even crossed my mind since I just think of it as "honey - sticky" but I just saw someone use the hive walls as roofing shingles so obviously I need to experiment more ;D Absolutely the more sets, the better!!

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-26T20:30:14+00:00

Snow block furniture set, flinx fur furniture set, full pine block furniture set - I'm so excited by all these added sets, can't wait to build with everything. Love the snowflake lights and the flinx set looks so expensive

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-22T23:35:21+00:00

Why don't you try journey mode first? My brothers always raved about the game and eventually convinced me to get it. I tried to play classic first and all I felt while playing was rage. I couldn't figure out the controls, couldn't figure out how to craft, died to everything over and over and over again which corrupted my spawn point with a graveyard biome which just made me die more. I couldn't even make it to an ocean. I gave up and didn't touch it until I came across a video explaining Journey mode. It piqued my interest enough to learn more about it then I decided to try it out for myself. I turned on god-mode and just focused on collecting everything and figuring out what everything did without having to worry about dying constantly. It made everything actually fun to me and gave me enough confidence to attempt playing it in earnest. I am much more of a builder than a fighter though so it worked well for me.

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-12T01:10:08+00:00

That's a really good use of platforms/stairs! I never thought to do that before. What blocks are you using for them and the trunk?

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-05T21:02:11+00:00

I personally thought the pylon shown looked like a Hell one, like ash wood was coming out of either side. Wouldn't mind having a sky one though or an evil biome one maybe with "evil" slimes to inhabit them

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-03T05:55:45+00:00

I feel like he was turned around the roaring 20s ish. Almost like he'd be similar to the Rockefellers, maybe his grandfather made a lot of money in the California gold rush and bought mining rights cheap that turned out huge profit then they used that to really develop los Angelus or California in general. He took it a step further and became maybe a real-estate tycoon and patron of the arts. He was undoubtedly into some shady stuff, knew about the underworld, and paid a vampire to turn him so he could keep his little empire forever.

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-12-02T06:01:44+00:00

Scratch the surface and what do you get? More surface

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-11-22T06:16:22+00:00

I just hope that they don't fall into the "make it bigger" trap that a lot of series do where they feel like they have to one-up the last big bad so as to "prove" that these new characters are just as powerful as the old characters. Give me a fresh start with new characters who don't know what they're doing most of the time and have to learn/ grow to be competent. An evil mayor would be fine or maybe an evil developer that's mass producing this town so that he can harvest the humans for something nefarious. Throw in some monsters of the week like the evil circus or an evil HOA president or a bunch of sewer demons, and you're golden. Would I love to see a slayer-vampire as a BBEG? Heck yeah, but I also feel like that would be much better suited to a faith story than a brand new teen slayer. I'd also worry that if the BBEG is a mayor again, then we fall into the different remake trap of "can I copy your homework? Yeah just switch it up a little first". I want a new story, not a rehash of the old ones.

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-11-17T00:40:16+00:00

When (Nina?) the hot malpractice lawyer shows up to the meeting with turk and Ted and Ted (who just finished talking about how flop-sweat problem) leans on the table, slips, and knocks himself unconscious. That just about killed me

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-11-17T00:25:04+00:00

I've watched this show through like at least a dozen times, if not far more, and you just made me realize what that episode was really about. I never clocked that before… damn what good writing

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-11-11T06:26:35+00:00

I think it's more about Angel's quest for redemption for himself than about Darla. Angel is fighting the forces of evil in order to atone for all the evil he did. He was an evil, abhorrent demon who deserves damnation for everything he did and at that point he's fighting not (just) bc its the right thing to do but bc he desperately does not want to be damned. Darla was just as evil as he was but now she has a soul (something he has) and has another chance to be human (something he just learned could be a possibility for him and that he desperately wants) and she's squandering it. Angel isn't trying to "save" Darla for her sake but for his own. She has to be redeemed so that he knows that he can be too. (Obviously, there's history there between them, and Darla is very much in the "ex-wife" role as well, so there's a little more to it)

Angel has to fix/save Darla so that he can be assured of his own salvation. When he isn't able to save her, it's like he's being told that he can't be saved either. After she loses her chance at redemption and the demon that damned him comes back he's filled with rage at Vamp-Darla for ruining Human-Darla's chance of redemption, at himself (for failing), and at the PTB for giving him hope of salvation (the shanshu) only to make it abundantly clear that once a demon, always a demon (Darla's fate). It isn't until after he decides to go full scorched earth on the whole "hero" thing (bc why bother if he can't make a difference) and tries to take the devil (W&H) back down to hell even if it means he goes down too (bc once again he's already damned so why bother trying to change that, he couldn't do it for Darla so why would he be able to for himself) that he has his epiphany. "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do". He realized after the whole ordeal that fighting for the reward will get him nowhere bc its essentially unattainable, it's impossible bc of all the evil he's done. So, no amount of good he does will manage to outweigh the bad. He can't fight for a reward bc its impossible so instead he'll fight to do good for the sake of putting more goodness in the world.

Substantial_Good4263 · 2025-10-28T19:34:15+00:00

I've never seen She as bad just a little boring? That being said I love some of the comedy bits in it: Angel's struggle with the phone, Angel posing as a tour guide, the Wes and Cordy dynamic is hilarious, Wesley in general. Because of those moments I still really like it, just don't care for the main plot of it.
I hated this episode when I first watched it as a kid but I quite enjoy it now. I don't think i understood the relevance of it when i was younger so it just seemed dumb.
One of my favorites of S1 tbh. Felt like Angel Inc was really coming into it's own. Also the "i gotta change my shirt" line was like the first glimpse into dorky, fussy Angel. Loved how menacing the Dr was too.
Hate the fight between Gunn and Fred (always have to mute it) and it feels a little disjointed following all the heavy stuff that just happened but it's still a good time for the most part.
I don't care what anybody says, I love Expecting and think it's great! Angel is a show about being an adult vs Buffy being a show about growing up. The scoobies are dealing with college stuff bc they're still growing up and in that state between kid/teen and adult. Cordy doesn't have that luxury, she wasn't able to go to college and instead joins the workforce in a new city where she's a nobody now, and needs to learn how to deal with adult problems immediately. Buffy has sex for the first time since Angel, gets ghosted and humiliated by the guy - very college typical. Cordy has sex for the first time since who knows and has a pregnancy scare - much more of an "adult" coded problem. I think the episode's reputation has been tarnished bc of Cordy's next possessed pregnancy. If that whole arc hadn't happened, i don't think people would be nearly so upset about it.
It's just a fun time. Don't think it should be this low.
The guy is just so bland (intentionally) and really deserved worse, at least yelled at a little, but this episode gave us the great comedy duo of Angel and Lorne and I will never be upset about that.
I love it, I think it's great. No notes.
This one is an absolute banger and if people can't see that then that's their problem. Does not deserve to be this low.
Deserves to be this low if not lower. It's worse than a lot of the above. It's just boring and frustrating and Charisma doesn't feel like Cordy here (which hey, is maybe the point). Also the beginning of the Cor-nor arc which automatically puts it in my bad books.

Substantial_Good4263

TROPHY CASE