Entertainment
The Buffy Episode That Secretly Embraced Trashy Romance Novels
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Like all good Millennial nerds, I rewatch Buffy the Vampire Slayer often enough that every single silly catchphrase and witty bon mot lives rent-free in my head. It’s more than just nostalgia that fuels my late-night binge sessions, though. Buffy is just one of those shows that is worth constantly returning to because there is always something new to discover. For example, when I rewatched the solid Season 3 episode “Beauty and the Beasts,” I realized that it has a core message that is effectively contradicted by the rest of the show.
This episode features a character who, Dr. Jekyll-style, takes a potion to become the kind of man his girlfriend wants him to be. Sadly, he turns into an abusive boyfriend and, inevitably, into an actual monster that is eventually put down by Angel. “Beauty and the Beasts” puts a supernatural spin on a tale about the dangers of domestic abuse. However, the messaging is somewhat contradicted by Buffy herself always falling for murderous bad boys. That message is even further contradicted by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom, many of whom grew up to be avid fans of smutty novels romanticizing the kinds of toxic men they’d hate in real life.
Of Monsters And Men
“Beauty and the Beasts” isn’t a very subtle Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode. It mostly uses The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as inspiration to tell a story about domestic abuse. Along the way, it fairly explicitly tackles the role that toxic masculinity plays in such abuse. Our villain, Pete, is someone who begins making and taking weird potions to, as he tells girlfriend Debbie, “be the man you wanted.” He prioritizes becoming a stronger man rather than a stronger boyfriend, becoming a violent, controlling jerk who ultimately murders the woman he supposedly loves.
In “Beauty and the Beasts,” Pete is contrasted by other men who present a more healthy masculinity, including Oz, who, when not in werewolf form, is the gentlest of the Scoobies. Giles is, of course, the natty embodiment of everything prim and proper. Xander, meanwhile, is our adorably schmucky beta who’s always there with a quick quip or word of encouragement. Even temporary Buffy boyfriend Scott is (before he is later retconned as a jerk) presented as a very healthy masculine alternative to Pete’s rageholic ways.
Bad Boys Do It Better
As a self-contained episode, “Beauty and the Beasts” works well, contrasting toxic masculinity with positive masculinity and showing why the latter is always better. When you look at the entire show, however, Buffy seems to be the one character who never understands this important lesson. After all, the first great love of her life is Angel, the vampire with a soul who wants to atone for past misdeeds. Their doomed romance may seem cute, but make no mistake. Buffy falls in love with a mass murderer hundreds of years older than herself, one who turns into one of the most dangerous people on the planet when his soul is removed.
If Buffy’s relationship with Angel was bad, her relationship with Spike was even worse. While he was mentally neutered by a government chip, he was still very much a soulless demon when Buffy began having sex with him. The fact that Spike had killed two Slayers and countless other people didn’t deter Buffy. In fact, they went on to have sex so intense it literally tore a house down. Later, the show emphasized Spike’s demonic nature by having him try to assault Buffy. Despite this, she later forgives him and even confesses her love to him before he died (don’t worry, he got better).
Buffy’s Outsize Influence On Modern Smut
Buffy, as a show, constantly transmits the message that toxic masculinity is bad and that it should be rejected in all of its forms. But Buffy as a character sends a very different message: that sex with bad boys is really, really hot, and relationships with such men are infinitely more fulfilling than relationships with safer suitors like Riley. Granted, Riley had the personality of wet cardboard, but he still symbolized the kind of average Joe that our Slayer consistently rejects in favor of someone more dangerous.
While Buffy the Vampire Slayer obviously didn’t invent the “bad boys are hot” trope, it arguably popularized it for multiple generations of fans. Those fans would grow up to become the core demographic for romantic novels, especially those which are affectionately labeled “smut.” While there are many different flavors of smutty novels, some of the most popular ones feature Buffy’s favorite kind of guy: dark, brooding, and oh so dangerous. Fifty Shades of Grey (a foundational text to modern smut), for example, features a rich man who is heavily into BDSM. In this way, he’s the archetypal bad boy protagonist; someone with desires so dangerous that they make him that much more attractive.
Devil of Dublin, meanwhile, features a mafioso whose willingness to hurt and kill on behalf of the female main character is presented as an unabashed plus. Lights Out is a novel where the male main character wins over his lady love by killing the man who assaults her and then covering up his death. While that novel’s motto is “the couple who slays together, stays together,” Butcher & Blackbird takes that idea to the next level by featuring male and female serial killers who bond over their desire to (Dexter style) kill bad people.
The Naked Truth
Now, I’m not here to kinkshame these books or anyone who enjoys their bondage-filled exploits. Everyone’s freak flag should be flown as loudly and proudly as they want to fly it. But it is notable that the romantic book genre is filled with the kinds of men that the vast majority of women would reject in real life. Nobody really wants to date a violent, murderous thug. But it’s fun to fantasize about, especially in between watching the kind of masked man thirst traps the Lights Out male main character specializes in.
Those fantasies might not be nearly so much fun to these readers, however, if they hadn’t grown up watching Buffy have amazing sex with a pair of sexy, brooding mass murderers. Buffy the Vampire Slayer effectively contradicts the message of “Beauty and the Beasts” by constantly showcasing how fun it is to fool around with dangerous men who are bad for her. In this way, Buffy accidentally proves that episode’s villain right. Nobody wants someone who will hurt or kill them, of course, but countless people (in the show and in the world) really do want bad boys with a monster hidden inside them.
If men could take a potion to become that archetypal bad boy that women want, most would do so in a heartbeat. In that way, “Beauty and the Beasts” takes on a kind of retrospective importance, underscoring the divide (often a large one) between our public desires and our private fantasies. It’s a tale that underscores the hubris of Dr. Jekyll while also making his downfall that much more sympathetic.
Entertainment
Claude subscribers will now have to pay extra to use OpenClaw
Claude users will now have to pay more to use third-party tools like the viral AI assistant OpenClaw, Anthropic announced.
The news came via email from Anthropic to Claude subscription holders. It was posted on Hacker News and states that as of April 4 at 12 p.m. PT, subscribers will “no longer be able to use your Claude subscription limits for third-party harnesses [tools] including OpenClaw. You can still use them with your Claude account, but they will require extra usage, a pay-as-you-go option billed separately from your subscription.”
Head of Claude Code, Boris Cherny, said the same on X on Friday, and mentioned these tools can also be used with an API key. He shared an explanation for the change: “We’ve been working hard to meet the increase in demand for Claude, and our subscriptions weren’t built for the usage patterns of these third-party tools. Capacity is a resource we manage thoughtfully and we are prioritizing our customers using our products and API.”
In February, OpenClaw developer Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI after the tool became widely known online. On Friday, Steinberger posted on X that he and OpenClaw board member Dave Morin “tried to talk sense into Anthropic, best we managed was delaying this for a week.”
Mashable Light Speed
He continued, “Funny how timings match up, first they copy some popular features into their closed harness, then they lock out open source.”
Cherny responded to this (though not to Steinberger directly), stating that the Claude team is “big fans of open source,” and that this is more about engineering constraints. “Our systems are highly optimized for one kind of workload, and to serve as many people as possible with the most intelligent models, we are continuing to optimize that,” he said.
Cherny also added, however, that if users want to cancel subscriptions, Anthropic is giving full refunds.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Topics
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic
Entertainment
Larry David Said He Would Never Write Another Finale, Then He Did The Funniest Thing Ever
By TeeJay Small
| Published
If you grew up in the 1990s or early 2000s, you almost certainly spent your fair share of evenings tuned into the comedy stylings of Seinfeld. The series, which boasted some of the highest ratings of all time, drew in a staggering number of fans.
The much-anticipated finale was reportedly watched by over 76 million people live, with millions more catching it via reruns and streaming deals. Series co-creator Larry David even returned to pen the final two-part episode, after leaving the show several years earlier. Unfortunately, the Seinfeld finale failed to impress audiences, with many critics calling it the worst sitcom finale of its day.
Larry David Vows Never To Write Another Series Finale
For years, Larry David maintained that he would never write another TV finale again. In fact, he nearly ended his next hit show Curb Your Enthusiasm without telling anybody at all. After airing eight seasons without any major interruptions, news of a Curb season nine simply didn’t materialize for years, leaving many fans and critics to wonder if the show had stealthily been cancelled behind the scenes. Over three years later, David sat down with The Guardian. When asked if he would bring Curb Your Enthusiasm back for more episodes, he proclaimed “I guess, right now, the odds would be against it, probably six to one.”
Larry David continued to explain that the fan reaction to the Seinfeld finale rubbed him the wrong way, and left him unsure about giving Curb a definitive conclusion. He argued “I wouldn’t say I’m mad about it, but it taught me a lesson that if I ever did another show, I wasn’t going to wrap it up.” After suffering through six years of silence about the future of Curb, fans were shocked when season nine finally arrived, in 2017. From there, the show resumed its usual schedule, as though the six year break never happened. Then, in 2023, Larry shocked the world by formally announcing that season 12 would be the show’s last.
The Infamous Seinfeld Finale
Just in case you’re not familiar with the Seinfeld conclusion, let’s run through a few brief bullet points. The finale centers on the main characters as they are drawn into a Kafkaesque criminal trial during an out-of-state trip. Numerous one-off side characters from the series appear and take the witness stand, creating a sort of clip show of the gang’s worst moments. After fruitlessly defending themselves as pillars of moral justice, they are thrown into jail, where they continue to pour over the minutia of everyday life as the camera pans away one last time.
If any of that sounds strikingly familiar to you, it may be because that is exactly how Larry David chose to end Curb Your Enthusiasm 26 years later. Right at the beginning of Curb season 12, Larry travels out of state, and violates a Dickensian law, resulting in him facing a criminal trial. As the season progressed weekly, fans took to social media to muse about how funny it would be if the finale acted as an exact retread of the much hated Seinfeld conclusion. Week after week it became clear that that was exactly what was going on, leaving fans unsure about the artistic choice.
Larry David Repeats The Seinfeld Finale
Season 12, episode 10 “No Lessons Learned” aired on April 7, 2024, and practically served as an exact remake of Seinfeld’s “The Finale.” Obviously, there were a few key differences, like Larry getting off after a juror broke his sequester, but nearly all of the broad strokes served as a giant middle finger to critics. During a visit to PaleyFest shortly after the Curb finale aired, Larry was asked about his decision to end the show, alongside Jerry Seinfeld and executive producer Jeff Schaffer.
Per People, Schaffer stated “it was a joke 26 years in the making. It’s neat that you can stick around long enough to do that.” Larry David didn’t mince words, however, and humorously offered one simple message to his detractors. “F— you!” He shouted. “You didn’t like the first one? F— you!” So if there is a lesson to be learned from the narrative of “No Lessons Learned,” it’s that sometimes, the funniest thing you can do is double down.
Entertainment
Grindr for lesbians? Here are the best dating apps for LGBTQ women.
Read our full Tinder Platinum review.
It’s still a lawless land, but the huge LGBTQ user base and added pronouns make it a viable option for gay gals. If you’re looking for a place to go where you are guaranteed to find a well-populated user base, Tinder is your app. Tinder is often bashed for its high number of creepy users/messages — and rightfully so. But given its sheer number of active users (including queer ones), you know we couldn’t leave it off the list.
There’s a strong chance you know at least one couple that got their start on Tinder. Countless success stories are told on Reddit when someone asks about where to meet other lesbians. You know the drill: Add pictures, set an age range, and fill out a bio as seriously and extensively (or not) as you want. While the matching isn’t exactly strategic, it’s definitely the app that’ll help most with scoping out the most lesbians in the vicinity.
“If you’re looking for a casual hookup with a wide user base, Tinder is usually an easy place to start,” Kiana Reeves, Somatic Sex Educator, Intimacy Coach, and Chief Education Officer at Foria, tells Mashable. “The app allows you to filter potential matches based on gender, location, and age preferences and will certainly give you a broad sense of what the dating scene is like in your area across a wide range of interests and ages.”
Though your feed will likely be packed with way more lesbians than other apps, it’ll see more appearances by men, too. Tinder has a tendency to ignore filters here and there, though men obviously can’t talk to anyone who doesn’t swipe right. Who can message you, though, are the girls you swipe right for who, surprise, aren’t on Tinder to meet women romantically. Some are looking for friends; some are recruiting a third for a threesome with their boyfriend — either way, you’ll have to do some wedding.
Thankfully, Tinder has made some changes within the last few years to improve its safety features, including verified profiles and the “Does This Bother You?” feature, which flags potentially inappropriate messages and asks the receiver if they’d like to report them. You can also block other users for shitty behavior, which is nice.
Claude subscribers will now have to pay extra to use OpenClaw
Jalen Williams finding rhythm as Thunder host Jazz
