[Spike]Buffy, I can feel it… My soul… it’s really there. It kinda stings.[/Spike]
No, the amulet did not burn away Spike’s soul. Angel’s comments about the amulet implied that it was a purifying agent, so it was burning what was not pure in Spike- the demon, his (dead) flesh, etc. Or, more properly, the amulet was causing his soul to burn it away. The light that was doing the burning was coming from within him, remember.
I’m hoping that the speculation about Spike’s becoming the repository of the visions is wrong, because I would find AtS much more interesting if next year there was no one with visions at all. I’d much rather have the FG come to rely on the resources of W&H to locate evil-doings, only to have the rug pulled out from them 2/3 of the way through the season. The visions worked as a plot device when AtS was more in the “monster of the week” mode but with lengthier story arcs there effectiveness has been severely diminished.
Actually, I’m thinking not so much in terms of visions as, well…
You know that keen insight into people’s modes of thought and feeling that Spike has always had? The quality that makes him so bloody annoying a lot of the time, and which he nearly succeeded in using to break up Buffy and the SG in “The Yoko Factor”? I’d like to see that ability supernaturally enhanced, so it could be brought into play after a much, much shorter period of his actually observing people.
It might make him a thorn in the side of the FG at times, but it would also be a useful tool when dealing with Angel’s adversaries, being able to sniff them out psychologically and all…
Some more-than-human strength would be nice, too.
Thea, that sounds quite a bit like what Lorne does by “reading” people but without the entertaining singing.
Could set up Lorne for a “third wheel” storyline maybe. if it goes that way.
Otto that’s a fifth wheel. Yeah, it could go that way…
It would be somewhat similar to what Lorne does, but Lorne actually has the ability to read people’s destinies, their past, their future, stuff like that .
Spike, as I envision it, would be able to sense people’s emotions, know without having previously knowing them if they were “behaving out of character”, pick up on their insecurities, etc… in other words, what he does already, but taken to a higher level, but wouldn’t have the specific kinds of information that Lorne seems to be able to get (five star restaraunts in the future, things like that).
But yeah, there could be some interesting Spike/Lorne dramatic tension because the abilities would seem to overlap, but I think there would be enough difference that there would be no real redundancy.
Not if it’s a bicycle, so there.
You want him to become Counselor Troi?!? A pox on you!
No, Counsellor Troi was a plot device. Spike is a character.
Spike would actually be insightful, and be able to actually use the, um, information he gathered as a tool or a weapon, as the situation required. When dealing with people he actually cared about, he would goad them, confront them, force them to confront themselves. Also, he’s a kickass fighter.
Counsellor Troi would simply tell Angel “he’s lying, and also feeling tense”, and if it was someone in “the group”, she would mouth warm, fuzzy platitudes, then give painless birth to an alien baby. In a fight, she’d just stand around trying to make everyone feel better about themselves. And get killed.
And Spike is much, much prettier than Counsellor Troi.
I was on vacation last week, so I just watched the final episode last night.
I thought it was as if they’d painted themselves into a corner, and not only managed to get out, but do a triple-backflip and land with a perfect dismount, pointing at the corner as if that was the way it was supposed to look all along. I thought it was a near-perfect end to the series, not only tying up everything they needed to tie up, but managing in one hour to give the entire last season some meaning.
The Gaspode said it was impossible to sum up the last season, but now it is: it was about Buffy’s becoming a real person. She’s never been able to because of her responsibilities as the slayer. That’s the theme that’s been going on since the beginning of the series, but this season put a little twist on it: it wasn’t as simplistic as her being a normal girl who had this responsibility placed on her; it was how she’d begun to define herself. Being the leader was all she had. But with the past couple of episodes, starting from Spike’s speech to her when they spent the night together, she began to realize two things: One, that she had value beyond her Slayer power, and two, that she didn’t need to do this alone.
The very end, where she realizes that she’s “finished baking,” was just excellent on so many levels. The gang is still asking her what to do next, and she realizes not only that she can do anything she wants to now, but that she doesn’t have to decide for everyone.
Looking over some of the other threads, I’m glad that I never got into the spoilers and the script previews and the fan groups and all that. (And I don’t mean that to sound as condescending as it does.) IMO, the show just works better when you accept it as it is and don’t try to bring in details that the writers didn’t feel were relevant (like throwaway lines from four or five seasons ago). Or try to associate it with what the actors are like in real life – I don’t give a rat’s ass what Sarah Michelle Gellar is like; I just want to see what happens to Buffy Summers.
You could debate details about the finale, sure, but I say that thematically, it ended perfectly. The series has been about people, Buffy in particular, finding their true power. And one hero not only found hers, but shared it with the rest of the world.
SolGrundy:
Well, yeah. The finale was about that. But not the season. Most of S.7 just drifted aimlessly around. As for the personality of SMG, I brought that up becuase I’ve been trying to pick this season apart and figure out what went wrong. Some will say that it started with the move to UPN, but I liked S.6. Buffy getting to be a normal person would have fitted better with the theme last year.
My take on a season which was, if not crappy, then in larger parts bland, is that SMG is to blame for quite a lot, if not anywhere all. This doesn’t change my perception of the character Buffy. I do know how to see performance and performer as two separate entities.
If she’s a bitch, I couldn’t care less. I don’t plan on inviting her for my next birtday party. I also don’t care if Mariah Carey is a stupid as a table lamp, as long as her singing is good, J.Lo’s diva mentality doesn’t diminish her performance in movies such as Selena, Out of sight or Angel Eyes - even if it does for some Dopers.
But I beleive that SMG’s bitchiness is partly the reason this season de-railed. And therefore I bring it up.
But if it’s a semi-truck, it’d be a seventeenth wheel.
I totally agree with you about the aimlessness; this has been the worst season of the entire series. Most of it just shambled around with no point, dull characters and plot lines were introduced and then discarded or never carried through, and so on. So I’m not saying that they had big plans in mind from the get-go, or I guess they might have, but just failed to carry through on them.
But if you take it as a case of “here’s what we have to work with,” I think they did an outstanding job of pulling it all together and making it have some sense and meaning. Buffy’s getting a job as guidance counselor was both her trying to live a normal life and trying to get back to high school, where at least she was less “adrift.” Spike was trying to define himself not as what his mother saw, and not as just a killer and a vampire, but on his own terms. Willow was trying to define herself in terms of her power and her life without Tara. Wood, his relationship with his mom (and that story reinforced the “all slayers are alone” theme). Dawn had to figure out what was her role if she weren’t a Key and she weren’t a Slayer. Xander was still dealing with the Zeppo thing, Anya was dealing with her whole “I still love humans” thing. And Faith’s story was already told much better in “Angel,” but it fits in with the theme so they touched on it again (how did the Mayor see her? How did the others see her? Is she more than just a murderer?)
The First was going around telling people “this is all you are and all you can ever be,” and they had to find a way to realize that It wasn’t just telling them lies that could be easily dismissed, but it was simplifying them to the point where they couldn’t recognize their true value.
Of course, this is all an interpretation and all done in hindsight; again, I don’t think for one second that they had this all planned from the start. But I’m extremely impressed at how it manages to give meaning to such a directionless and meandering season. And end the show on such a high note.
Yes, the finale was really good. It was certainly better than the finale of S.3, which is my favourite season. That big snake thing was just too cheesy. And I beleive I said as much in the OP, too.
Your take on the season with ‘hindsight’ is on the spot. But there are still things that bother me. I liked that Buffy got a job as counselor - but it annoyed me tremendously when that was all taken away later in the season, by Wood and Willow lauging about her skills. If this really was Wood’s feelings, why didn’t he set her up as a P.E. teacher?
Dawn grew on me. I think Trachtenberg did an excellent job with the character. A girl that age is supposed to be a whiney brat and a blossoming woman. It’s very close to real life. But I’m extremely annoyed the writers didn’t go anywhere with her. This is a girl who was made from pure Key-Energy two years earlier, who falls to bits when visited by her dead mother. There must be some tremendous inner turmoil there. And yet, all she gets to do is dig up Turkish spells. Her failing as a cheerleader was also very badly done. Seeing her dance in OMWF clearly showed that she wouldn’t have any problems with cheerleading (I got Cyd Charise flashbacks, what with the capri pants and all).
Xander not marrying Anya was one of the biggest mistakes the writers made during the past two seasons. Part of growing up and dealing with adult life is getting married/actually living with/ your SO. There were so many opportunities for drama/comedy there that were never explored. Xander’s story, with him as a failed construction worker in S.5 and ending up semi-boss was not very cleaverly handled, which leads me to think the writers didn’t care about him.
BlackWillow, finally. Yes, the finale handled that very well. Her finally using her powers and notbeing lured over to the dark side of the force. But here were 21 episodes before that, with her just drifting aimlessly.
With hindsight, I would’ve shuffled around the epsiodes of season five and six to make them fit better together. And even though JW did a very good job with the finale, it makes me upset that he didn’t apply his magic touch earlier in the season.
Also, the whole Spuffy plotline was just tireing.
You know, I was thinking about the finale because I’m writing a post-Chosen fanfic, and it occurred to be that Buffy and Dawn are really, really fucked. Xander probably has some savings, Willow has rich parents, Giles and Wood both have professoins to fall back on, and Faith always lead kind of nomadic life. (Plus, she’s a wanted fugitive anyway…) The new Slayers can all go back to their homes.
What is Buffy going to do? She’s got nothing to fall back on and a teenage “daughter” to raise. she’s going to have to borrow money from Giles or ask Angel for help—that’s real empowering. She’s got zero life skills, very little work experience, very little education, no credit…the more I think about it, the more I think Joss is a giant fucktard.
Xander has savings? Where, in the First National Bank of Sinkhole? Yeehaw, good luck getting that back. Hope he remembered to grab his bank book as the bus careened out of town.
Buffy just needs to do what Angel and co. did when they needed money: slay rich demons.
Although Pepper raises a very good point. For the past 7 years, the only thing that Buffy has done well is stand alone against the darkness. Now a big source of that darkness is blowed up, and she is most amazingly un-alone. She is in fact rather superfluous.
Superfluous? I thought Buffy had a damn good chance of becoming assistant manager at Doublemeat Palace. And a franchise like that must extend beyond Sunnydale.
Otto he may have access to Anya’s money, which I’m sure she has wisely invested.
Wow, it’s taken a while to read all these posts. The only thing I can add is that there’s at least one good thing about the last 2 seasons being not so hot, and that is that’s it’s made it a teeny-weeny bit easier to let go of the World of Buffy and to get on with my regularly scheduled…life.
The one thing that really pissed me off about Anya’s death was that once again they killed off a female who actually had boobs.
What happened to the money Anya kiefed from the bank in Him?