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By Chris Snellgrove
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It is easy to lose in the middle of all the funny writing and fascinating acting, but Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a show filled with cool names, especially for his Monster of the Week Villains fan. From the sweet sweet speaking to the murderous gentry, this is a show filled with memorable monster monikers. In one case, however, this was an accident: when David Greenwalt wrote the episode “Reptile Boy,” he was delighted to think of “Machida” as the name of the chapter of the chapter, without realizing that it was subconscious inspired by the Makita equipment used for the production of the series.
Buffy Machida Roots
In this Puff A chapter, Machida is a particularly hungry devil that often receives human sacrifices from some evil frat tudes in exchange for wealth and power. David Greenwalt wrote this memory chapter, and admitted on the DVD commentary that he himself was initially impressed with thinking about such a great demon name. However, he felt silly later when he realized that the show used Makita brand tools and that this was likely to be a subconscious inspiration for the name of his demon.
While this Puff Naming Goof would have been embarrassing for any writer, he was particularly pressed for the man behind Machida because Greenwalt was one of the show’s greatest creative forces. As well as writing several chapters of PuffHe served as the show’s co-operative producer for seasons 1 and 2 before becoming an active producer for season 3. And this show only left to co-create this show Angel Spinoff, making Greenwalt one of the biggest movers and shakers of the Buffyverse.
Funny enough, the first Puff Bigwig got a kind of reunion with Machida over Angel… Or, more accurately, the man behind Machida. In “reptile boy,” this memorable monster was played by Robin Atkin Downes, an English actor who returned to play a Pockla demon in the Angel CHAPTER “DEAD END.” That chapter was written by David Greenwalt, allowing him to reunite with the man behind the monster he had killed at the end of “reptile boy.”
Majority Puff Fans are aware that although Machida did not survive the end of “Reptile Boy,” his spirit lived through Avilas, a demon from the Season 7 chapter of “help” which similarly offered wealth and prosperity to those who provided human sacrifices. Despite the great similarities with Machida, this later demon is not associated with the earlier one. Interestingly, Machida was originally written to survive “reptile boy” and Willow had a line for his possible return; If this alternative finale was shot, season 7 could have included the return of Machida instead of Avila, its duplicate Dimestore.
Puff Former Charer David Greenwalt felt bad for accidentally naming Machida after production equipment, but he should not beat himself up … after all, just so many different names to use for many show monsters. And being inspired subconsciously by a name you see countless times each week is truly equal for the course for even the best writers. Still, I couldn’t help but laugh that Machida’s name, one of the best early villains, may have the most possibly embarrassment the story of origin in each Puff History.
