Buffy fan: If you'd have your druthers, what would you have changed about the show?

Cafe Society
1

“The deal’s done. The polls are in, and it’s time for my concession speech.” - Xander Harris, Prophecy Girl

Buffy’s been officially over for almost a week now. Looking back, if you were God / Joss, what would you change? (Other than personnel decisions that were out of his hands, such as Seth Green (Oz) leaving to appear in more movies and Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) deciding to cut back on work so he could spend more time back home in Great Britian.)

If it were me, I’d have made the following changes:

  1. In season 6, I wouldn’t have had Giles leave town because he thought that’s what Buffy needed in order to stand on her own two feet, because I don’t think Giles really thought that. (In my head I hear Reverend Jim Ignatowski of the sitcom "Taxi"complaining that some tv network executive had the “Romulan commander saying something Romulan commanders would just never say!” ) I’d have explained Giles’ move back to England by making it either something beyond Giles’ control, like an INS order, or because Giles obtained a board of directors level position with the Council of Watchers and believed that he could do something to reform and modernize the Council from within.

  2. I’m bothered by the unexplained absence of Hank Summers after season 3. I would’ve had him show up in Sunnydale after Joyce’s death as a vampire. Think of the angst as the Summers’ girls had to come to grips with staking their dad!

  3. After Anya discovered her human calling in retail running “The Magic Shop” I have made her active in the Sunnydale Chamber of Commerce. I think that could’ve been rich vein for humor, right up until Anya discovered that in the power vacuum left by the death of Mayor Wilkins, the businesses in town were run by mafia type demons, like the Shark-demon Spike owed kitten gambling debts to in “Tabula Rasa.” I never bought the idea that Anya would invite demons from her demon days to her wedding, or that she’d have invited D’Hoffryn after he refused her pleas in “Dopplegangland”, but if Anya had invited her new friends from the chamber of commerce, human or demon, to the wedding, I could’ve believed that.

  4. The biggie is that I wouldn’t have made Willow exclusively gay. Bi yes, gay no. I’m sorry, but I never believed she’d carried a torch for Xander, then fell in love with Oz, and then turned exclusively homosexual after Oz left her. Looking back on season 4, I thought Willow had good chemistry with Riley, certainly better chemistry that Riley and Buffy ever had. As evidence I point to the whole “If you hurt her, I’ll beat you to death with a shovel. A vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend” scene. I’d have made Riley go after Buffy like he did, but then decide he liked Willow better. Then there could’ve been a Willow/Riley/Tara love triangle. As for Buffy’s love interest, I’d have made her more gun-shy about guys after getting burned by Parker. I’d have let her play the field romantically, making her go through non-serious “nice guy” college boyfriends - like her drinking buddies from “Beer Bad” - the way Murphy Brown used to go through secretaries. She could’ve even dated Jonathan in “Superstar” until the spell wore off.

  5. I didn’t like how Giles was sexually emasculated. The only time he got to display normal adult sexual urges was briefly in season 4 when he hooked up with Olivia, (and Buffy got jealous and called him “Hugh Hefner”) and with Joyce under the “Band Candy” spell. Giles should’ve been able to shove Spike’s “Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea” remark down Spike’s throat.

How about you? What would you have changed?

2

This is literally the only thing I would have changed. Could have set the tone for the whole series.

3

Welllllll…

I’ve heard that in S4, Spike was originally intended to be paired up romantically with Willow, but after “Something Blue”, the proverbial THEY saw the chemistry between JM and SMG was so great…

I’d have made Willow not gay (I never really bought the idea of her “turning gay for Tara” even though I liked them as a couple). I’d have gone with Spillow. I think Spike pursuing a sweet thing like Willow would have made for some adorable romantic tension. She could spurn him because, “Hello, evil vampire,” and provided the impetus for him to go get his soul back without the sordid brutality of S6 Spuffy.

4

No potentials, at least not surviving to live and train in Buffy’s house. Forced the show to spend endless amounts of time with boring new characters, and doing the same things ep to ep, when we should have been taking our final revisits with the old character.

I would have foreshadowed Willow’s being gay much earlier. Have her liking boys because that’s what she thinks she should be doing, and liking them, but not quite getting what’s so special about it. Some hint to make being desively GAY (as opposed to bisexual) more believable. The way they did it (especially with lines like “remember: gay now” made it almost seem like some sudden and magical transformation rather than a real character trait. She was portrayed too much as having a CRUSH on Xander, being deeply in love with Oz, and definately oggling over boys even in prviate moments.

I would have done SOMETHING with Giles’ character. His development basically ended when he left Buffy in Season 6. We had no idea what he was up to, what he did, where he wanted to be going.

I would have had season 7 be about revealing a deeper mythology that was running throughout the show: a real back to the beginning. This would have included revealing something more about Giles/Ripper. Revealing more about vampires and their connection to the Turok-Han, and for what purpose they were so important to “evil.” I would have had “evil” have a plot more interesting than just “Hulk Smash!” I actually would have only introduced Caleb near the end as an atual character, but I would have foreshadowed him much earlier, perhaps as a shadowy figure or a reference to him by Bringers. I would have foreshadowed the scythe much earlier as well: even back a few seasons: perhaps even have references to older slayers living longer because they had it. And lots, lots more.

5

I disagree with Thea Logica and Apos about Willow’s “turning gay.” I thought it was handled very, very well. It emphasized that love is more important than gender. It was nice (for a while, anyway, before they brought that Kennedy nonsense in) to see someone who wasn’t locked into someone else’s definition of who she was and wasn’t allowed to be attracted to.

IIRC, her “gay now” line was when she was still with Tara, and it was a funny way of pointing out that she’s in love with another woman, not that she’s had some magical transformation. I wouldn’t have minded the Kennedy thing so much if there’d been any chemistry between them; instead it just came off as “I’m attracted to women now, so this is what I’ll do.” But before that was ineptly handled, it was working.

Why are people so hung up on stuff like “gay” or “straight” or “bisexual,” anyway? To the point of criticizing a show that tries to break out of those rigid definitions?

6

My only problem with “gay Willow” is my own prurient interest in that li’l gal. They were committed to making one of the principal characters gay and if not Willow, who else? Buffy was the star and they were merchandising action figures of her, so she’s out. Xander was basically defined by his frustrated pining for Buffy, so he’s out. Giles, being so much older, was never seen as a sexual being, so making him gay would’ve been a cop-out. That left Willow and Cordelia, and Cordelia was gone by then. Hence, Gay Willow.

Actually, Gay Joyce might have been interesting.

7

I think Spike should have died at the end of Season Five. Yeah, he was fun in his original incarnation, and great in Lover’s Walk, and even a good time to kick around in the fifth season. But the gruesome sexual degradation and disempowerment of our feminist heroine, and the schmoopification of a one-time badass villain… that I could have done without. Also, vampire with a soul in love with Buffy - been done.

I also think that Xander should have gotten involved with the Initiative in season four. He could have had an actual plotline, friends other than the Scoobs, and could have escaped his butt-monkeyness. It seemed so odd that Xander knew he was the one without superpowers, yet never really tried to acquire power any other way.

More specifically, the respective deaths of Anya and Tara were, I believe, handled badly. Not enough emotional fallout in a realistic way for either, and too much of a “we just did this to get from regular Willow to Darth Willow” in Tara’s case. All the emotional moments for Willow came in some sort of magical context, and her eventual breakdown and Warren-being this season just came out of nowhere.

Probably would have cast someone other than Clare Kramer as Glory. She just didn’t get the contrast between regular person and evil creature that Harry Groening nailed as the Mayor.

8

It’s the show that used the rigid definitions: going out of its way to say again and again that “Willow is gay now: she only likes women. In case you didn’t get that, let us demonstrate it over and over and reference it to be hip. We aren’t going to explain Oz and Xander at all.”

I liked the idea of a longtime character discovering that she likes women. But this show didn’t set it up well at all for the one-note place where it went (which you seem to recognize fine with Kennedy, but miss out on it happening even earlier as well). Post Tara, Willow had zero interest in men: she wanted to turn the “Him” guy into a woman for instance, at which point everyone shouts something like “but Willow, you’re GAY!?”

I just wish that had been made into more of an interesting story, instead of something Joss decided to do all of a sudden.

9

I refuse to spend much time second guessing an excellent show.

They made Willow’s orientation clear, especially in the final season. “Gay” was just shorthand for her feelings; it wasn’t that she was “gay,” but that she was in love with Tara. And since people (like those in this thread) insist of labeling someone “gay,” “straight,” or “bisexual” (rather limited), Willow had to consider herself gay because, like you, she couldn’t think beyond three options. I also liked her relationship with Kennedy, who was a great character and, had Buffy died, would have been my choice to become the new slayer.

10

Ah, so the show’s own limited, simplistic scripting of this issue is MY fault, somehow? It was “shorthand”: so this was conveyed how? Via constant references to Willow being gay, and her total lack of interest in male strangers sexually, but definate interest in female strangers (which isn’t about loving a particular person)? If she loved people for who they were, then why change Mr. Jacket Guy into a woman?

The “it’s just love for Tara” idea, which was definately a good idea, was belied by all the cheap, one-note references/jokes about Willow being gay that came after. It isn’t me that forced them to make her dogmatically, categorically, and self-labelingly gay: the writers could not help but say and gay and illustrate gay every chance it got. Exclusively gay. Uninterested in men, rather than interested in all people for who they were as you suggest.

It’s also pretty stupid to say that gay/striaght/bisexual is “rather limited.” In fact, with the addition of asexual, it pretty much covers the entire spectrum of human sexual interest in other people: either you like men, you like women, you can like both, or you don’t like anyone sexually.

I’m sure you’ll find lots of people here that agree with you on that one, but I just can’t go there.

11

I would have ended the series after Season 5. Buffy sacrificing herself was a much, much better ending than the finale last week. And, quite frankly, I thought Seasons 6/7 paled in comparison to the previous once. Once the characters got out of high school it was very hard to maintain the drama/comedy balance because they weren’t teenagers anymore.

Barring axing Seasons 6/7, I would have had Xander marry Anya and perhaps even had Anya become pregnant. His character was not developed nearly to the degree that Willow, Buffy and Spike were. At the end he would have saved the world instead of Spike.

I would have liked to have seen Dru more often. She was one psychotic vamp.

Ditto on removing the Slayers In Training from S7.

I also thought it was a mistake to turn Willow into an uber-witch. I thought it distracted from her character’s charm and turned the show in the Superheroes vs. a show about one girl with superpowers who hung out with normal kids.

12

I think Willow’s entire magic addiction arc could have been handled much, much better. The way I saw Willow was that she was always standing in Buffy’s shadow. She was a mouse, rather timid, low self-esteem, etc. Anyway, when Buffy died at the end of S5, Willow was finally able to step out of the shadows and assume the mantle of power.

She liked it. A little too much, in fact, and that’s how I would have written her magic problem: not that magic is a drug, that POWER is a drug and magic was just the means to an end. I would not have written magic itself as being addictive, because it just didn’t work. Joss could not take magic away from Willow completely, and the backpedal and retcon ME had to do with S7 was not believable. I think all of the incidents of magic-related excess could have been written as Willow on a power trip and would have made more sense.

Another pet peeve of mine was the way Riley Finn was handled. I loathed him deeply. First of all, he was getting out of bed with Buffy in the middle of the night to go to vampire whores, but when Buffy found out, he dropped an ultimatum in her lap and then walked away from her when she wouldn’t forgive him instantly. OK, that’s fine, that’s not even what really bothered me. What bothered me was Xander making Buffy second guess herself and chase after his cheating, pathetic ass. Then Buffy felt bad, like she lost a chance to be with the love of her life. Puhleeze. Riley was not a nice, normal guy. He wanted a woman who would need him, would allow him to be the big, dominant hero. Buffy was too strong for him; they were wrong for each other. That is what a real friend would have told Buffy after Riley left, IMO.

Adding insult to injury was As You Were, where Riley returns to Sunny D with his wife in tow… and ME made Sam Finn so saccarine sweet, so submissive and self-effacing, that it was impossible to hate her (only to be disgusted, IMO). The Scoobs all loved her, it made me nauseous. It also gave the impression that Buffy was the one who was screwed up, b/c there’s Riley, with his perfect little marriage, looking down on her and Spike. It just irritated the hell out of me.

I also thought Giles was very hard to like this past season, and that sucked because I’ve always loved Giles.

That said, overall, it was a great show and I can find little fault with the first 5 seasons.

13

Wow, Rubystreak, I thought it, but you said it. I completely agree with your post.

14

I wanted to see more Potentials killed in battle. And not just in the finale. The first Ubervamp should have knocked some off. And Caleb should have knocked off more. Maybe even a couple of Potentials get killed by a garden-variety vampire and/or get vamped themselves. This was supposed to be a war, but there just weren’t enough corpses to make it look like one.

I think that Buffy’s super scythe probably didn’t need to be HOT PINK.

15

I would’ve gotten rid of the potential slayers of season seven and focused on the original scoobies+spike vs. the First/preacher man. I would’ve had the old friendship back long before the latter half of the last episode. I would’ve had Xander hook up with Willow (I think they did as well as they could regarding B/S/A). I would’ve had Anya leave at the end of season 6, middle of 7 at the latest. I would’ve had more Dawn/Buffy interaction (I do think they played well off each other, even in the Whiny Days) and a resolution to Dawns story in “Conversations with Dead People.” I would’ve rewritten Cassie’s scene in “CwDP” so that Amber Benson would’ve played it as Tara (she could’ve been a good guy, telling Willow to warn Buffy not to take the shaman’s gift.)

I would not have entertained the season 6 notion that this could be the figment of an insane girl. Such plotlines kind of take the purpose of the whole exercise away from me.

No more Angel after season 2, except in the final episode.

16

Buffy had a chance to be happily married to a man who could join her at her side, doing what she does best, what she’s already doing, and get paid in the process… and you don’t think that she would get upset when she saw the potential missed opportunity?

Buffy was at her nadir in “As You Were” and was the one who was “screwed up.” If you got that impression, then be glad, because the writers got their message across.

Another thing I would’ve changed is that I wouldn’t have made Riley so… corn-fed, so wholesome. That irritated a lot of viewers for some reason.

17

Happily married? To Riley? Personal feelings aside, I really don’t think Buffy would have been happy with Riley. He may have been using vamp hoes, but she was leaving their bed to go hunting because he left her so unsatisfied.

18

I don’t think the Riley angle was bad. If it worked out not to people’s satisfaction… well it didn’t work out to Buffy’s satisfaction either. That’s life. At least it was believable, unlike the suddenly wimpy Uber-Vamps.

19

Exactly
(I stink at remembering episode titles. Sorry)
In one of the Double Meat Palace eps, Willow is confronted by a demon who looks like an elderly woman with a moray eel/worm/thingy coming out of her head. Willow describes the worm as “If I hadn’t been gay before…”.

After dressing Xander for his wedding, Willow looks at him and says “It’s a good thing I realised that I’m gay.”

After returning Amy to human form, they go to the Bronze.Amy uses her magic to pick up a guy. She looks at Willow and casts a spell to get Willow a girl.

I would have very preferred a Willow who was NOT stuck in a rigidly defined label. After morning for Tara for a suitable period, Willow looks for the same qualities in a partner she always did. But the gender of that person is no longer important.

Willow’s feelings for Xander and Oz were very real. To dismiss them because she’s “Gay now.” is unbelievably stupid and closeminded.

20

The episode title you’re looking for is, oddly enough, Doublemeat Palace :wink: