5 Off My Head - Background Buffy Players

Today is the master Joss Whedon's 46th birthday and if you've visited MNPP once or twice before you migt've come to the conclusion, the correct conclusion, that I am Joss Whedon's butt boy. That and more, yo. Anyway I figured I should do something in his honor for his bday and I considered a couple of topics - I just recently squirmed my way through my 10 favorite episodes of Buffy right here - but came down to this one: my five favorite ancillary Buffy characters. And I'm talking ancillary - no Harmonys (oh how I adore Harmony) or Darlas (although Darla obviously only became a thing over on Angel) here! And my memory's much fainter than Joe's proved to be with his spectacular list so I'm drawing from this list at Wiki.

Willy the Snitch (Saverio Guerra) - Odd that I was flooded with such warm feelings when I came across his character's name, isn't it? Willy was such a big part of the early seasons and then just disappeared some time during the 4th. I guess we're left to assume he died when Sunnydale sloughed off into the Earth in the finale, eh? Free Willy!


Clem (James Charles Leary) - Unlike Willy at least they gave us some Clem resolution! We got to see him driving outta town in his little car before everything went to Hell. Clem got a lot of love from fans of the show during the last couple of seasons, probably because they were so dreary (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) and he always brought a spark of funny. Like by acknowledging his ravenous appetite for kittens.


Halfrek (Kali Rocha) - I was torn between Vengeance Demons here and probably should've gone with D'Hoffryn if I were sticking to being as ancillary as possible, but then I kept replaying the look on Hallie's face in "Selfless" where she's summoned and all smiley and then burnt up to a screaming crisp in front of Anya and I had to go with her. Aww Hallie.


Ben (Charlie Weber) - Glory is Ben! Ben is Glory! Am I misremembering things or do people not like Ben? He's never spoken of really, so I'm thinking they do? Well I thought he was hot, so there. But as I've said before, Season Five was my entry point and I really like all the new characters introduced therein that most of the viewers who'd been watching the series for awhile couldn't tolerate (yes, even - especially - Dawn.) Plus Ben allows for what's arguably Giles' darkest moment in the entire series in "The Gift" with the whole smothering thing...


Larry Blaisdell (Larry Bagby III) - Yay closeted jock! You know what I always loved about Larry's coming out? That he wasn't the slightest bit interested in Xander sexually. That his mistaken reading of Xander as gay wasn't about sleeping with him but about working through the emotional process, as friends. It was sweet and funny and fitting with the recurring bit about how nobody ever saw a hot piece like Nick Brendon as a hot piece (til Cordy opened her damn eyes, of course). I know Bagby's a fundie in real life and made gross remarks about playing gay later on, but I still like the character, outside shit be damned. Anyway as Willow put it to Amy once Amy stopped being a rat - Larry's gay, Larry's dead, and high school's over. 'Nuff said!
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