Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2023 May 6

= May 6 =

Buffy's fire
I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), long after watching (at least twice) the series of the same name. In the premiere (1997) of the latter, Buffy explains that she had to burn down the gymnasium at her previous school because "it was full of vamp——asbestos." Somewhere I have read that the movie is ambiguous about whether Buffy intentionally started the fire.

So imagine my surprise when the movie ends with no fire at all, darn it. Have I misremembered something (again)? —Tamfang (talk) 01:55, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 * As Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film) explains, the finished film deviated significantly from Joss Weedon's original screenplay, and the TV series is intentionally not a faithful sequel to the film, deliberately contradicting it in many backstory details: ". . . Whedon wrote the pilot to the TV series as a sequel to his original script, which is why the TV series makes references to events that did not occur in the film". {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.19} 90.213.18.208 (talk) 07:20, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Ah thanks. I came back to delete this question as unlikely to get a meaningful response! —Tamfang (talk) 11:22, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 * The burning happens in "Graduation Day, Part Two", the season finale of the third season of the television series, which aired in 1999. The reference in the 1997 series premiere is a flashforward. --Lambiam 08:21, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks but I don't buy that Buffy's account of burning a gymnasium full of vampires (or asbestos) at Hemery High in Los Angeles refers only to blowing up a library with ANFO to kill one giant demon in Sunnydale. It's a better match to "Some Assembly Required" (ep 2:2 – though there it's clearly not intentional); in the next episode she obliquely admits to having done it more than once. —Tamfang (talk) 11:43, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

staying dead the Marvel way
Is it known who first said, "No one in comics stays dead except for Bucky Barnes, Jason Todd and Uncle Ben"? —Tamfang (talk) 02:15, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Comic book death has a citation to what I believe is This Wall Street Journal article, dated March 13, 2007. I don't have a subscription, so can't read more than the first few lines of the article, but you might want to check that out.  Google searches turn up very little online before about 2014, so that may be our best lead. -- Jayron 32 14:44, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * This semi-RS source says, "Among comics fans in the 1990s, the axiom concerning this situation used to be "No one stays dead in comics except Uncle Ben, Bucky Barnes, and Jason Todd." suggesting that the phrase is 20+ years old. I'm pretty sure I recall a Marvel-only version at one point. Matt Deres (talk) 03:30, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
 * The ironic thing about the saying is that, in universe, Bucky Barnes didn't stay dead, he became the Winter Soldier. Neither did Jason Todd, he became Red Hood.  Uncle Ben, AFAIK, remains dead.  The resurrections of Bucky Barnes and Jason Todd post-date the aphorism, however, if the aphorism indeed dates to the 1990s.  -- Jayron 32 12:24, 12 May 2023 (UTC)