By Chris Snellgrove
| Printed 29 seconds in the past
It’s straightforward to overlook amid all of the hilarious writing and fascinating appearing, however Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a present stuffed with cool names, particularly for its fan-favorite monster of the week villains. From the smooth-talking Candy to the murderously mute Gents, it is a present stuffed with memorable monster monikers. In a single case, although, this was an accident: when David Greenwalt wrote the episode “Reptile Boy,” he was very proud to provide you with “Machida” because the identify for the episode’s essential villain, not realizing that he was subconsciously impressed by the Makita gear used for the manufacturing of the sequence.
The Buffy Origins Of Machida
On this Buffy episode, Machida is a very hungry demon who continuously receives human sacrifices from some evil frat dudes in trade for wealth and energy. David Greenwalt wrote this reminiscence episode, and he admitted on the DVD commentary that he was initially impressed with himself for developing with such an amazing demon identify. Nevertheless, he later felt foolish when he realized that the present used Makita model gear and that this seemingly served because the unconscious inspiration for his demon’s identify.
Whereas this Buffy naming goof would have been embarrassing for any author, it was significantly urgent for the person behind Machida as a result of Greenwalt is without doubt one of the present’s largest inventive forces. Along with writing a number of episodes of Buffy, he served because the present’s co-executive producer for Seasons 1 and a pair of earlier than changing into government producer for Season 3. And he solely left this present to co-create the Angel spinoff, making Greenwalt one of many largest movers and shakers of the Buffyverse.
Amusingly sufficient, this former Buffy bigwig had a type of reunion with Machida over in Angel…or, extra precisely, the person behind Machida. In “Reptile Boy,” this memorable monster was performed by Robin Atkin Downes, an English actor who returned to play a Pockla demon within the Angel episode “Useless Finish.” That episode was written by David Greenwalt, permitting him to reunite with the person behind the monster he had killed on the finish of “Reptile Boy.”
Most Buffy followers are conscious that whereas Machida didn’t survive the tip of “Reptile Boy,” his spirit lived on by Avilas, a demon from the Season 7 episode “Assist” who equally provided wealth and prosperity to those that supplied human sacrifices. Regardless of the foremost similarities with Machida, this later demon isn’t associated to the sooner one. Apparently, Machida was initially written to outlive the occasions of “Reptile Boy” and Willow had a line about his doable return; had this different ending been shot, Season 7 might need featured the return of Machida as a substitute of Avila, his dimestore duplicate.
Buffy veteran David Greenwalt felt unhealthy about by chance naming Machida after manufacturing gear, however he shouldn’t beat himself up…in any case, there are solely so many utterly distinct names on the market to make use of for the present’s many monsters. And getting subconsciously impressed by a reputation that you just see numerous instances every week is basically par for the course for even one of the best writers. Nonetheless, we are able to’t assist however chortle that the identify of Machida, top-of-the-line early villains, has probably probably the most embarrassing origin story in all of Buffy historical past.
