Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S5/E11 Triangle

''YOU CANNOT APPEASE ME! DO NOT TRY!''

Willow and Anya are fighting over Xander's affection. They accidentally summon a troll.

"Dawn: What are you doing? Buffy: Playing soccer."
 * All Trolls Are Different
 * Ask a Stupid Question: Buffy is sitting on her bed, reading a magazine.

"YOU FIGHT WELL, ALTHOUGH YOU ARE A TINY MAN!"
 * Baddie Flattery: Olaf to Xander

"Olaf: YOU THERE! DO YOU KNOW WHERE THERE ARE BABIES? Spike: (To Xander) What do you think, the hospital?"
 * Battle Discretion Shot: We never see how Buffy beats Olaf.
 * Berserk Button: Also a Buffy Burst Into Tears Button -- any suggestion that Xander and Anya might break up like Buffy and Riley did.
 * Black Comedy Rape: Olaf promises to make merry with the local virgins.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Olaf the Troll
 * Brick Joke: Willow's spell that makes the cash register disappear.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Olaf's Hammer is used in the season finale.
 * Comically Missing the Point: Spike assumes Buffy is angry over his part in the Buffy/Riley breakup, when Buffy is so miserable Spike isn't even on her radar screen.
 * Covert Pervert: Buffy falls on Spike during the Bronze fight. Spike doesn't miss his chance to get in some groping while "helping" Buffy to her feet.
 * Drives Like Crazy: Anya is driving Giles' BMW without having learnt to drive.
 * Eats Babies: Olaf, apparently.

"Buffy: So, um, a-about being a nun... (They begin to walk along together) You know, um, with the whole ... abjuring the company of men ... you know, how's that working for you? The... abjuring."
 * Exact Eavesdropping: Dawn overhears Giles, Buffy and Joyce talking about the Key, and that it has something to do with her.
 * Get Thee to a Nunnery: For a moment it appears Buffy is coping with her man problems this way, then she appears and stakes a vampire who's about to eat the young blonde-haired nun. After staking the vampire...

"Anya: You [Willow] have known him [Xander] since you were squealing infants together. You will always know him better than I do!"
 * Friend Versus Lover

"Olaf: IT WAS ONLY ONE WENCH. I HAD HAD A GREAT DEAL OF MEAD. NEXT THING I KNOW, I'M A TROLL! OH, YOU SHALL PAY FOR THIS ANYANKA!
 * Geographic Flexibility: There's a convent out there somewhere.
 * Girlish Pigtails: Buffy
 * The Hedonist

Xander: But you seem to enjoy the -- the being a troll.

Olaf: (shrugs) I ADJUSTED!"

"Giles: Um, Anya, while, while I completely trust you uh, uh, to take care of the inventory and the money, um ... dealing with people requires a certain, uh ... finesse. Anya: I have finesse! I have finesse coming out of my bottom! I can completely lie to the health inspector. I can, you know, distract him with coy smiles, and, and bribe him with money and goods."
 * Insane Troll Logic: Xander becomes the Trope Namer.
 * I Resemble That Remark

"I'm not stealing. I-I'm just taking things without paying for th... (pauses) In what twisted dictionary is that stealing?"
 * Willow is using the Magic Shop supplies to do a spell, so Anya accuses her of stealing

"Buffy: Don't talk about the books again. You get all ... and sometimes there's drool."
 * Large Ham: ALL OF OLAF'S LINES WERE WRITTEN IN CAPS.
 * Moral Dissonance: Olaf demands babies to eat. Spike turns to Xander and asks, "What do you think, the hospital?"
 * Nerdgasm: Giles is going on about the Watcher's Council library.

"Willow: Well, hello, gay now."
 * No Bisexuals: Anya thinks Willow might put the moves on Xander like she did when he was seeing Cordelia.

"Anya: Oh, yeah! I forgot he still has all that troll strength."
 * Noodle Incident: Whatever fishbowl balancing act Willow did that got her banned from owning fish for five years.
 * Now You Tell Me: Anya tells Buffy that Olaf's power is in his hammer -- after Olaf loses it, Buffy rushes in to finish him off only to get Punched Across the Room.

"Anya: Hey! Don't float the merchandise!"
 * Pet the Dog: Hoping to impress Buffy, Spike gives first aid to injured people at the Bronze without feeding from them. Buffy is incredulous that he "wants credit for not feeding on disaster victims" and storms off, causing Spike to exclaim, "What does it take?"
 * Power Floats: Willow doing a spell.

"Buffy: Their love! Will last! Forever!"
 * Punctuated Pounding

"Willow: I wish Buffy were here. Buffy: I'm here! Willow: I wish I had a million dollars! Just checking..."
 * Retroactive Wish: A Call Back to "Something Blue" when everything Willow said came true.

"Willow: Anya, I have faith in you. There is no one you cannot piss off."
 * Running Gag: The Alternate Universe without shrimp is mentioned again.
 * Sadistic Choice: Olaf demands Xander choose which woman to spare -- his girlfriend or best friend. Xander refuses on the grounds that it's Insane Troll Logic.
 * Security Cling: Anya and Willow facing Olaf.
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Xander and Tara beat a retreat rather than get caught up in Willow and Anya's squabbling.
 * Stealth Insult: Willow tells Anya to annoy Olaf to distract him from Buffy.

"Anya: He probably got sent to the Land of the Trolls. He'll like it there. Full of trolls."
 * Shaped Like Itself

"Anya: Your menacing stance is merely mildly alarming and your roar is less than full-throated! Olaf: DESIST! MY GOD, WOMAN, IT'S BEEN A THOUSAND YEARS AND YOU ARE YET AS AGGRAVATING AND EMASCULATING AS EVER YOU WERE!"
 * Trash the Set: The Bronze and the Magic Shop.
 * Trick Dialogue: Spike (holding a gift-wrapped box of chocolates) appears to be apologizing to Buffy for his part in the Riley affair. It turns out he's rehearsing his lines with the shop dummy he'd dressed up as Buffy. Eventually Spike loses his temper over Buffy's imaginary rejection and hits the dummy over the head with the box, only to calmly put things back in order and start again.
 * Villain Has A Point: Olaf's "condition" is the reason Anya is a Vengeance Demon - the man cheated on her once and he claims he was drunk at the time. Regardless, turning him into an ugly brute and then sending him to an interdimensional jail for centuries, well, you can hardly blame the guy for being angry at her.
 * We Need a Distraction: Anya being irritating.

"Anya: Xander? If you ever decide to go, I want a warning. You know, big flashing red lights, and-and-and one of those clocks that counts down like a bomb in a movie? And there's a whole bunch of, of colored wires, and I'm not sure which is the right one to cut, but I guess the green one, and then at the last second "No! The red one!" and then click, it stops with three-tenths of a second left, but then you don't leave. Like that, okay? Xander: Check. Big bomb clock."
 * Wire Dilemma / Incredibly Obvious Bomb: Used as a metaphor by Anya.


 * Woman Scorned: Olaf turns out to be Anya's ex, whom she turned into a troll after he cheated on her, thereby getting her job as a vengeance demon. The full story is shown in Season 7's "Selfless".