Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Out of the Madhouse by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Werewolves, Trolls, Sea Monsters, Rain of toads, Skyquakes.  Sunnydale is being besieged by dark forces.  But even with Buffy providing her unique style of damage control while Giles is hospitalized out of town, it's more than one Slayer can handle - especially since the abominations are coming from a centuries-old portal through time and space. 

Somehow, the hell-hole must be found and corked at it's source.  For Buffy, Angel, and the rest of her gang, that means a road trip to Boston where an ailing Gatekeeper resides over a supernatural mansion that has been, until recently holding the world's  worst monsters at bay.  Once there, Buffy discovers the catastrophic truth: the magical structure houses thousands of rooms, all of which are doorways to limbo's "ghost roads," and all of which may bring her face-to-face with the most nefarious forces in hell and on earth - forces bent on horrific plans far worse than the Slayer ever imagined. 

You guys know that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite show of all time, so it should come as no surprise that I loved the tie in books that were being published while the show was on the air.  I stayed away from the novelization of actual episodes, and loved the books that were original story lines.  I used to own at least twenty of the, but a few moves ago,  I had to make a decision to let them go.  I owned too many books, of course I still do, so I'm not sure what I was thinking.  Over the years, I've only managed to repurchase three of them, the three books that comprised The Gatekeeper Trilogy.

There were a ton of authors that tackled the Buffyverse, but Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder were the two that, for me at least, seemed to actual the actual feel of the show the best.  When they got together and wrote this trilogy, I was in seventh heaven.  I always thought if they ever made a movie based of the books, this was the way to go.

The first book, Out of the Madhouse, introduces us to a whole other dimension of strangeness.  Much like The High House by James Stoddard, the Gatekeeper in this trilogy oversees a supernatural prison, that form the outside, looks like a grand Boston mansion.  Locked in it's rooms are ghouls, shapeshifters, ghosts, and monsters straight out of legend; among them, Springheel Jack, the Leviathan, and the Mary Celeste.  It's also home to the family that has been charged with keeping the world safe from them.  They have managed to accrue a few helpful tools to help them with their charge; the Spear of Longinus and the Cauldron of Bran the Blessed.  The current Gatekeeper is weakening, and his heir has been kidnapped by a cabal of sorcerers, bent on allowing chaos to reign free over the earth.

Sunnydale, because it sits on a Hellmouth, has been dealing with the side affects of the house failing. The residents are starting to escape from the house, even if for a short amount of time, and the Hellmouth draws them in, allowing them to run amok.   Buffy and her friends, after some serious research, travel to Boston to figure out what's going on.  Upon their arrival, they quickly agree to help the Gatekeeper get back the heir, and the best television tie-in of all time is born.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Wesley Wyndham-Price

When I'm in a bad mood, I have a few things that I can drag out to make me feel better. There are times I will watch The Women or Auntie Mame, getting lost in two of my favorite movies.  If I'm cranky, and in the right mood for something scary, I put The Haunting in the DVD player in, and get lost in Hill House.  If I'm not in the mood for a long movie, I may watch an episode or two of Scarecrow & Mrs. King, Angel, Supernatural, or my favorite TV show of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Buffy is one of those shows I will never get tired of, I could watch every single episode 100 times, and I would always go back for more.  It was a character driven show in a genre that normally goes for special effects, over character development.  I should add that while Buffy and Angel were two different shows, because of the way they were structured, they are one show in my mind.

Wesley was one of those characters that moved from Buffy to Angel, and he was one of the more interesting characters. He started as this pompous know it all, who seemed so out of his element.  Nobody liked him, well Cordelia seemed to have a crush on him, but I think that had to do with his accent more than anything else.  He grated on everybody's nerves, and just didn't seem to understand why.  In his head, he was doing what he knew was right, but his approach was all wrong.  

By the time Angel was over, the man he ended up being, had nothing in common with the sniveling little boy he started off as.  He was a strong, confident man who was willing to cut corners in order to get the job done.  He was the one who was willing to make the hard decisions, even if they were a bit on the darker side.  He was the character that embodied the stereotypical definition of masculinity, and he was damn sexy for it.   

Favorite Fictional Character --- Anya Jenkins

Only one more week before we start talking about some of my favorite characters that remind me of Halloween.  After Christmas, Halloween is the time of year that I love the most.  I love horror movies and almost everything associated with the holiday, so I'm looking forward to the characters that I'll be presenting to you during October.  For today's post, I'm revisiting my favorite TV show of all time.  I haven't posted a character from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, or Angel for that matter, in over a year.  I actually a bit amazed by my blatant disrespect for some of the greatest characters to ever grace the silver screen.  I could even do an entire year of characters, just from those two shows.  But today, I want to quickly talk about my favorite demon, Anya Jenkins.

The woman we would all come to call Anya, was born Aud in a 9th century Scandinavian village.  She wasn't well liked by her fellow villagers and quickly became an outcast.  She raised rabbits, more on the bunny thing later, but never sold them.  She would rather give them out as gifts, which makes Aud sound like a kind hearted, generous soul. Well appearances can be deceiving, and how they were with her.  When men disappointed her, she did horrible things to them.  She caused one man to have boils on his, well I'm sure you can guess.  Her biggest accomplishment, and then one that would change her life forever, was turning a cheat boyfriend into a troll.  Now boys, let this serve as a lesson to you.  Unless you want to spend eternity as a Shrek wannabe, don't cheat.

That last act of revenge attracted the attention of D'Hoffryn, a demon who showers Aud with praise for her hellish acts of vengeance.  He offers her the chance to become a vengeance demon, and poor Aud agrees to it.  D'Hoffryn renames her Anyanka, Patron Saint of the Women Scorned.  Anyanka spends the next 1000 plus years creating havoc on the behalf of desperate women everywhere.  Here time is spent, from a demon's point of view, wisely. She comes up with more and more elaborate ways of granting the wishes of the scorned upon the men who so wronged them.  She turns one into a giant worm, another into a demon who is sent to Hell to suffer for all eternity.

We don't meet this goddess of retribution until Cordelia catches Xander and Willow kissing.  A distraught Cordy, who can't imagine any man would ever cheat on her, is in such pain that Anyanka can't resist the summons.  When she gets Cordy to make a wish, all hell breaks lose.  Cordy blamed everything on Buffy, without Buffy coming to town, Cordy would never have stooped so low as to date Xander.  Cordy wishes that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, a wish that Anyanka grants happily.  Of course it leads to the vampires taking over, Xander and Willow turned into vampires, and pretty much everyone else dead.  Giles, with some helps, figures out that this isn't the world that was supposed to be, and breaks Anyanka's spell.  This didn't end well for Anyanka, as the amulet that gave her power, was destroyed.  It made her mortal.

Over the next few years we get to know Anya, who happens to be one of the most complex characters Joss Whedon ever created.  Anya, who has spent over a thousand years as a demon, has no clue on how to live as mortal.  Because of that, she tends to say exactly what she is thinking.  The showed played that aspect of her personality for all it was worth.  Often times it would get her into trouble with the others, but mainly because she was saying something the others were hesitant to.  She was the voice of reason, that they all wanted to ignore.  It also made her look at relationships in a way that was unique to her.

Almost from the get go, she develops a thing for Xander, even though at first it makes her want to vomit.  She has spent so long hating men, that finding herself interested in one, just doesn't make sense.  For years the two of them go back and forth, almost getting married.  It was an interesting relationship to watch develop over the course of a few seasons.  The dynamic between them was amazing.  Xander made Anya more human, and likable to the others.  Anya kept Xander grounded and forced him to grow up.  Though they weren't together at the end, their friendship was solid and something they both cherished.

Now Anya wasn't a perfect "human", she made huge mistakes and was oftentimes selfish.  When she was hurt, she would lash out, and even reverted back to her vengeance demon days.  But underneath the shell, was a fiercely loyal young woman who valued love and commitment more than anyone else on the show.  She had a strange way of showing it most of the times, but I almost think she was the most human of all the characters.  Where she developed the phobia to rabbits is beyond, me, but it was funny to watch her aversion to a creature she once raised so lovingly.

When the end came, she met it with courage and bravery.  She was the only one of the core group to not eventually survive the final showdown, but she went down fighting.  Her loyalty to her friends and her love, mainly for Xander, forced her to be fully human once and for all.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Charles Gunn

I had about 20 different Buffy/Angel characters enter into my head for consideration for this, the last Buffyverse FFC post of the month.  The problem with narrowing it down, is that there are so many great characters, many of which will get their own post someday, that it's really hard to weigh them against each other.  Today, I decided to go with Charles Gunn, the street warrior turned lawyer from "Angel".

When we first meet Gunn, he is the leader of a vigilante street gang who hunts down, and kills vampires.  By the end of his television journey, he is a former lawyer for an evil law firm and is dying in a back alley after taking that firm on.  It's that journey in between such opposite personalities that makes Charles Gunn a captivating character.

From an early age, Gunn is taught how to fight vampires by his grandmother.  The area of L.A. he grew up in, the Badlands, is a desolate section abandoned by those who should have protected the civilian population.  Because of that lack of attention, vampires and other demons have been allowed to have an almost free reign and are only kept in check by those willing to take them on.  Gunn kills his first vampire in her kitchen.  Along with his sister, Alonna, Gunn quickly raises through the ranks and eventually takes over the leadership of his own gang of vampire hunters.  Despite his tactical knowledge and skills as a fighter, Gunn quickly let the mission take over his life, he no longer valued himself as anything other than a killing machine.

When he first meets Angel, he tries to kill him.  All he saw was a vampire roughing up a human and Gunn assumed the worst. Since the show continued to air, Gunn failed at his attempt and over a period of time the two of them began to form a tenuous sense of trust.  They would come to each other for help.  Sadly, their tentative friendship did not happen in time to keep Alonna from being turned into a vampire, which causes Gunn to stake her.

That single event, which haunts him for the remainder of his days, caused Gunn to refocus on his life and take a long hard look in the mirror.  He had to decide if his way of doing things were the right thing or if maybe, just maybe Angel may have had the answers all along.  He joins the time, though he doesn't really sign on full time for a while.  He still feels torn between his new allies and his old gang.  Those divided loyalties eventually come to a head and Gunn realizes that he is happy and at home with Angel investigations.

Gunn fits in easily with the rest of the team and falls hard for Winifred "Fred" Burkle who they had rescued from a demon dimension.  His relationship with her allows him to look at himself as more than just the team's muscle.  Because Fred is a genius, Gunn begins to want more for himself, mainly because he doesn't think he deserves Fred's affections.  Gunn has a lot of self doubts and some of them come true when he is forced to kill the man who sent Fred to the dimension, in order to spare Fred from doing it.  Instead of it bringing them together though, it tears them apart.  Fred can't forgive herself of Gunn for what happened, and it drives home that maybe he is just the muscle.

When the team join Wolfram & Hart, the evil law firm, Gunn has an infinite knowledge of law downloaded into his brain, making him the one team member that seems to fit flawlessly into the firm.  He thinks he has finally discovered his place on the team, that maybe now they will look at him as something else, someone as smart as they are.  Through various events, including the death of Fred due to his own actions, Gunn realizes that being a super lawyer isn't all it's cracked up to be.  It's only through a lot of soul searching and self sacrifice that Gunn finally accepts who he is and his role in life.  It's because of that actual self acceptance that Gunn is able to face the end, even when he is mortally wounded taking out one of human puppet masters behind the firm.  When we last see him on screen, he is standing side by side with Angel ready to face an army of demons bent on destroying them.  At that moment, Gunn has finally come into his own as a true mythical hero.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Xander Harris

I think of all the Buffyverse characters, once stand out as being the most "normal".  He is the one that, I think, most of us could identify with, especially in our high school years.  I think for that reason, Xander Harris is probably the most human character of them all.

I think what set Xander apart from the rest of the Scooby Gang, especially in later seasons, was that all though he was part of the gang, he was always a little outside of them as well.  Despite his military knowledge, borrowed from his Halloween Costume, Xander didn't have any special powers.  He wasn't super strong like Buffy, didn't have Willow's affinity for magic, and he definitely didn't have the brains that Giles was gifted with.  What he did have though was a fierce sense of loyalty and courage that I'm not sure I would have been able to display if I was in his shoes.

It was that lack of "specialness", at least in his own head, that made Xander's struggle with maturity that much harder.  The entire arc of his character was him trying to grown up, become a mature, adult male who could not only take care of himself but others as well.  He started off as a little geeky, but like a lot of socially awkward people, he had all the best lines.  He had a sense of wit that I, as witty as I am, was just a little bit jealous of.  His lack of maturity though, and lack of a filter, would allow his mouth to get him in trouble sometimes, but he was always funny.

As the series progressed, especially with episodes like "The Zeppo", Xander started to become more confident in himself and his role in the gang.  He took a more ownership of the decisions and by the last season, he was an almost unofficial Watcher for Buffy.  Like most of us who had that awkward high school stage, Xander eventually discovered who he was and became an adult who was a productive member of a group that acted more as a family than anything else.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Rupert Giles

I don't think any journey through the Buffyverse could be complete without our next guest.  I'm not even sure he needs a lengthy introduction.  So with no further ado, may I present to you, one of the sexiest librarians around, Mr. Rupert Giles (Ripper to his friends).

Theoretically, if I were a young teenage girl charged with the slaying of vampires and other demons, I would want someone like Rupert Giles to be there for me.  When Buffy first arrives in Sunnydale, trying to put her slaying days behind her, she realizes that not only can she not escape her destiny, but she also has a new Watcher.  Giles is a third generation Watcher and even though he tried to get away from it in his youth, going as far as demon worship, he found himself in the same shoes as Buffy.  He was destined to be someone he didn't want to be.  Also like Buffy, once he accepted his destiny, he excelled at it.

On the surface, Giles didn't seem all that impressive.  He came across as rather mild mannered, a bit nerdy (despite the good looks), and way too stuffy.  Underneath all of that though lurked a dangerous man, one that you did not want to be on the bad side of.  When he needed to, Giles was capable of a detached sort of violence that none of the other characters came close to.  When he smothered Ben, so Buffy would not have to, he showed a side of him that I think had been hinted at all along but was rarely shown in such a blatant way.  

He was also proficient in both hand to hand combat and magic.  He taught Buffy all she needed to know in order to defend herself and slay anything that made it's way to the Hellmouth.  With the magical training of Willow, things didn't run as smoothly.  Giles was totally against her involvement from the beginning, but when he realized she would progress without him, into dangerous waters, he took her under his reluctant wing and taught her what she needed to know.  In fact, overtime, the pupil outpaced the teacher and I don't think he could have been prouder or either one of them.

I think of all the characters, Giles was the most subtly complex of the lot.  Where a lot of them wore their personalities on their sleeves, Giles did more of a slow reveal of himself.  I don't think he showed off every facet of himself until well into the 6th season.  Regardless of his mistakes, which he did make a few of, Giles was a true father figure to The Scooby Gang.  He loved them and tried to protect them the best he could in a world where any of them could be killed on any given day.  He was a fabulous mentor and friend to them all and I have to admit to being a bit jealous of them for that.

Favorite Fictional Characters --- Willow Rosenberg

First of all I can't believe that it's been since July 15th of last year that I've talked about a character from the Buffyverse.  I feel that I've let my favorite TV show of all time down by not talking about them more often.  This month I'm going to remedy that a bit.  For the next 4 Wednesdays, I'm going to highlight one of my favorite characters from either "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" or "Angel".  Since I've already talked about Buffy, Angel, and Cordelia, this week will be all about my favorite witch, Willow Rosenberg.  By the way if anyone wants to go back and comment on any of those three posts, you are more than welcome to.  Buffy didn't get much response at all, poor girl.

Where do you start with Willow Rosenberg?  I guess it will have to be from the beginning, though I'll try to make this short.  When we first meet Willow, she is the really smart girl in school who doesn't seem to have a clue about anything other than how to solve long equations and spout off answers in class.  What you quickly find out about her though, is so much more.  Beneath the smarts and really bad wardrobe, is a girl who is sweet, unassuming, loyal to her friends, and always willing to help out. 

Once the show got rolling and Buffy's friends learned about her "uniqueness", Willow jumped into the role of researcher and budding witch.  Throughout the show those two things, especially the magic, quickly began to define Willow's role in the Scooby Gang.  As her powers grew, her role grew in fighting demons and monsters and even started to assert herself as a strategist.  That fascination with magic was also one of the biggest hurdles Willow had to face.  Over time, she became addicted to it.  She didn't want to do anything with out it, she let it define her as a person.  As you know, once you allow something to define you, that is all you see yourself as.  She ended up spiraling out of control, that eventually led her to taking the life of someone else using magic.  Now there were severe circumstance that allowed her to go down that road, but it was a decision that would haunt her for years to come.

The other thing that defined Willow for me was of all the characters she was the one that seemed to need to be in a relationship the most.  Now all the characters had issues when it came to love, but I think Willow was the one character that it came naturally to and seemed to need it the most.  Especially in the beginning she seemed to grasp at every offer of affection she received.  At first that caused her to make some bad choices, including leaving The Bronze with a vampire and falling in love with a demon over the internet.  Both of which almost ended her quest for love permanently. 

As the show progressed though, so did Willow and her attitude on love.  When she first met Oz they had an almost cute courtship.  They both were rather odd, quirky characters that fit well together.  The longer they were together the more comfortable Willow became with herself and others.  She seemed to find herself in a way that she hadn't before.  She even dealt with Oz being a werewolf, a situation she knew nothing about in the beginning.  The way she dealt with the problem, helped  her grow as a person and made her stronger.  As in any TV show though, no relationship is allowed to progress perfectly.  After falling back into her infatuation with Xander and almost costing her Oz, he ended up going crazy for a female werewolf and ditching her.  That almost tore her apart but it was needed for her to meet the love of her life, Tara.

With Tara, Willow blossomed as a person and as a witch.  Of all the couples on the show, they were probably the most well balanced and equal partnership.  They complimented each other in a way that allowed them both to become strong, independent adults.  It was Tara that helped Willow realize that she had a problem with magic.  I really think without Tara and her love, Willow would have never been able to break the habit and would have gone down the darker road earlier and longer.   When Tara is taken from her but a gunshot, Willow loses herself and does things she never knew she was capable of.  It was a long, hard road back to herself but through the love of her friends and time, she eventually did.  She even realized that it would not be betraying Tara to be with someone else.

I know a lot of people think Willow is the one character that changed the most and had no problem telling me so when I said it was Cordelia Chase that changed the most.  In reality, I think Willow was the one character that came into her own the most.  She, of all of them, fulfilled her potential and became the woman she was destined to be.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Cordelia Chase

Yes, I'm eventually going to work my way through the entire Buffy/Angel universe for these FFC posts.  I shouldn't have to give you a reason for this but I will anyway.  It's simple really, except for Dawn, there isn't a character I don't love.  Since I've already done both Buffy Summers and Angel, I figured it was time to move onto the fabulous Queen C, Cordelia Chase.

For those of you who never had the pleasure of finding yourself lost in the Buffyverse, Cordelia started off as the rich bitch of Sunnydale.  If you wanted to be popular, you didn't dare cross her.  She was everything little girls dream of being in HS.  She was the girl in the school that could make or break you, and she really didn't care either way. 

No don't get me wrong, even back then, Cordelia showed promise.  She would be there when the gang needed her, she would never had admitted it back then, but she liked being part of the group  Being one of them, even though she would never admit to being one of them, allowed Cordy to more than a one dimensional character.  She was still selfish and bitchy, but when the chips were down she could be counted on to lend a hand or a car ride. 

Getting kidnapped by snake worshiping frat boys, being forced to participate in Slayer Fest, hunted down by invisible girl, and dating Xander were just some of the challenges Cordelia faced in HS and I must say she came through them all with her head held high and her caustic wit intact.  High School is where Cordelia fist started to mature and where we first saw signs of who she was to become later.

After high school, Cordy moved to LA and to a new show.  When Angel got his own show, Cordelia went along for the ride.  She starts off as the same shallow girl we had come to love, still looking for fame and fortune.  By the end of her run though she was selfless, loving, and probably the most caring character between both shows.  Of all the characters she changed the most and I loved watching her grow and learn to love her friends and Angel. 

Some of the growth could be attributed to the psychic powers she was given by The Powers That Be, as she was forced to watch suffering on a level she had never experienced before.  I think it had more to do with her finally realizing what her friends meant to her and by figuring out that she really did have something to offer to others and the world.  She came into her own as a woman and as a hero and because of that Cordelia was probably the most human of them all.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Angel

Well here we are, a new week and a new FFC post.  Well as you can tell I picked Angel from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel, one of the sexiest vampires to grace the small screen.   How can you not love him, look at him, he's hot.  Of course it helps that he was played by David Boreanz, who is one of the hottest guys in hollywood.

For those of you who were living under large, unmovable rocks from 1997 through 2004, Angel was the cursed, brooding vampire that broke Buffy's heart.  He was turned into a vampire by Drusilla (played by the wonderful Julie Benz) and the two of them went on a rampage, slaughtering hundreds of people and reveling in the blood.  He killed a young gypsy girl, then had her clan curse him with his soul back.  He spent years living in squalor, feeding of rats, and moping around the world, feeling sorry for himself.

He is given a purpose to protect Buffy and the rest is history.  He was a brilliantly complex character who grew over seven years into a man who loved his friends, his family, and even under the worst circumstances always tried to do the right thing.  You see him as the hero and the villian at times and both of those aspects of his personality are needed to make him the man that he is.

Favorite Fictional Characters ---- Buffy Summers

What's not to like? She strong, sexy and can kick butt in heeled boots. Buffy Summers is my choice for the second post of my favorite fictional characters.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still my favorite TV show of all time. Watching the character grow from a sophomore in HS unsure of her powers and unwilling to use them, to a strong, independent adult who is willing to sacrifice herself for others was a pleasure to watch. Buffy was the kind of girl you would want to hang out with at the mall or have watching your back in the local graveyard.

She is resourceful, and able to fight through all the pain and hurt in order to defend her friends, and the world, from descending into Hell. When she dies, which she did twice, she comes back and keeps fighting the good fight. When she is beaten she regroups and comes back for more, until the job is done.

She is loyal to her friends and family and willing to put them first, over her own needs and safety. She is resilient and able to change plans midway through. Whether it's in complete silence or during a song and dance number, she is able to focus on her duty, do the job, and go home again.