Talk:Anya Jenkins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This Buffyverse-related article is part of WikiProject Buffyverse, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Buffy, Angel & the rest of the Buffyverse. You can help! Visit the project page, episode checklist or discuss an article at the project talk-page.

Buffy Portal

Contents 1 Aud from Norway? 2 Fear of bunnies 3 Surname issue 4 Is Anya a metaphor for autism? 5 Anya failing maths 6 History and Halfrek 7 communist vs capitalist tendencies

[edit] Aud from Norway?

This article currently states that Aud is from Norway, but I don't recall seeing anything in Buffy that makes that clear. The caption for "Selfless" says "Sjornjost, 880 A.D.", but I've not been able to find anything that pinpoints where "Sjornjost" might be. Expedia's world topographic maps, which are the best source I've found yet for finding obscure towns outside the U.S., knows of no Sjornjost. I suspect such a name, during the Viking Age, could be found not only in modern-day Norway, but Sweden, Finland, Denmark, various parts of Germany, Britain, and Iceland, if not further. Does anyone have a canonical Buffy reference or reasonable real-world argument for Norway? — Jeff Q (talk) 19:34, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The person who added 'Norway' did so because the actors are speaking Norwegian (see the page history). But I guess if you want to get super-technical, did Norway exist as an entity in the 8th century...? The Singing Badger 21:56, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Ah, I forgot that they were speaking a real Scandanavian tongue. I also don't recall (having just listened the DVD commentary last week) if they'd mentioned which language, but Norwegian would make sense — except, of course, that it didn't exist then. I think Old Norse would have been more appropriate, but that's getting really picayune! (I love it when a TV show goes to the trouble of accurately rendering foreign languages, and Buffy did that quite a bit, usually with decent results. Far be it from me to discourage that practice!)

Anyway, I've edited the article to generalize the location but incorporate this information as well. If anyone has more specific data, feel free to change my changes! — Jeff Q (talk) 22:44, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Just to add in my two cents here, I beleive Sjornjost is a Swedish town. About fifteen minutes into the episode, Olaf is turned into a troll and the town chase him away. A blonde woman in perfect Swedish yells out it is the biggest troll shes ever seen. It was definately not Norwegian (being Norwegian myself). So unless she was just a Swedish tourist roaming around Norwegian villages, chances are the rest of them are also trying to speak swedish. (hard to understand them.) whether or not Sjornjost actually ever existed in real life remains to be proven.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 87.115.228.175 (talk • contribs).

In the commentary for the episode, it was mentioned that the lines were originally going to be dubbed over, but the actors decided to go for it and read them in the Ancient Norse.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 151.197.64.207 (talk • contribs).

For what it's worth, I met Joss at a benefit event last year and asked him some Olaf-related questions, since that character was a favorite of mine; he said that the language in this episode was Swedish. DSatz 15:41, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I just checked a transcript of the DVD commentary, and yep, they mention it being Swedish. No mention of Norwegian or Ancient Norse or Norway at all.--Nalvage 15:59, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fear of bunnies

For some reason, I have been under the impression that Anya's fear of bunnies goes back to when she and Olaf had a rabbit farm, and the rabbits reproduced out of control. Another possible theory is that because of the high reproductive rate, she decided to give away rabbits to the townspeople, for goodwill, but that this backfired. Is this at all correct? Is it explained clearly in the series? Maver1ck 10:53, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

In Selfless, they do show Anya with bunnies, unafraid. It's likely that her fear sprouts from something to do with these particular bunnies, but no, it's not specifically explained. Snoopydance 01:37, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Surname issue

We could probably do with finding some way to mention the confusion over the surname; she was given the surname Emerson by the writers of the Sunnydale High Yearbook, gave herself the name Jenkins in Checkpoint and described herself as "Anya lame-ass-made-up-maiden-name Harris" in a flashback in Selfless (almost certainly a flashback to OMWF)... Kinitawowi 00:38, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is Anya a metaphor for autism?

Ever notice how she always says/does the wrong things for a situation, talks obsessively about the same topics time after time (Xander, vengeance, bunnies, sexual intercourse), speaks pedantically, and is clearly socially impaired? Could it be that Anya has Asperger's/an autistic disorder? And considering how in Buffy witchcraft is a metaphor for being ignored et al, it does not take a huge amount of imagination to link being a demoness-come-human flung into the mortal realm without anything resembling a clue on how to act, to the autistic spectrum. And I should know - I have Asperger's myself. NP Chilla 15:53, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

So do I. Hmmm. I see definite similarities, but there would have to be some official statement that it was a metaphor. Noneofyourbusiness 00:03, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Speaking as a woman with Asperger's Syndrome myself, I have to say that personally Anya totally seems to have it, and when I'm trying to explain Asperger's to people I often use her as an example because to me she's the best TV representation of the condition I've ever seen, including shows where characters were officially diagnosed with the condition. But yes, this information unfortunately would count as speculation unless there was an official source to back it up. Perhaps it would be appropriate to add to the Trivia section that her personality quirks closely match those of a person with (relatively) higher functioning Asperger's Syndrome? By the way, I wouldn't say socially impaired myself, she seems more to have the same traits with that that I do - certain social conventions I just don't get/understand, and certain ones I do get but choose to ignore because they seem pointless and an utter waste of time to me. Mostly I (like her) get along with my life absolutely fine, I'm just....perhaps noticably quirky to some people. Xmoogle 18:44, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anya failing maths

I'm pretty sure that Anya doesn't actually say she's failing maths but rather she's bunking off from her maths lesson. i'm not sure if i'm right though. i would think she'd be good with maths considering she likes money so much.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.143.196.151 (talk • contribs).

She says she's "flunking" maths, ie. failing. --Nalvage 11:28, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History and Halfrek

QUOTE: "It was originally stated that they met during the Crimean War (1854-56), but a later retcon identified Halfrek with Cecily, which means Halfrek was still human in 1880."

The Comic book "Spike: Old Times" includes that Halfrek was "on the job" at the time, so should this retcon note be removed? If I don't hear anything going against this in the next day or so, I'll change it. Jacobshaven3

Good spot, i made the change (see here). If you see something else you know is not quite right, remember you can always 'Be bold' and just make a minor change/improvement without discussion. Obviously that may not be the case for major/significant changes and discussion on the talk-page before-hand maybe appropiate.. -- Paxomen 15:18, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, (Fix's own spelling mistake), it was my first time at an attempt at editing so I was a little reluctant, thanks for the advise though. Jacobshaven3

Glad could be of help (also fix's own spelling mistake) :) -- Paxomen 23:56, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] communist vs capitalist tendencies

Is it worth mentioning that Anya seems to begin with some communistic-type views and buys into the idea of a global worker revolution, but later becomes a staunch capitalist? Her political views were only occasionally referenced, but I always thought that this was one of the most interesting things about her character. Riverbend 18:54, 27 September 2006 (UTC)