So whaddaya think of season 7?

POSTED BY: JenDandy
UPDATED: Friday, February 11, 2005 16:11
VIEWED: 10049
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JENDANDY

Wednesday, September 22, 2004 3:25 AM

I thought it was the worst season ever.

The Potentials, while a really great idea, were more annoying as hell. There were too many of them for a lot of character development so we couldn't really come to care for any of them and some HAD to have those awful British 'accents'. Not to mention Willow falling for Potential Kennedy LESS THAN A FRIGGIN YEAR after her 'soulmate' has died.

The First was the worst Big Bad ever because all it could do was taunt you...and turn into a dead person or two. If I want some quality Big Bad taunting, I'll watch Angelus in season 2 thanksverymuch.

There were too many episodes where it seemed like not a lot really happened. Buffy gets even more irritatingly superior (even admitting she felt she was 'better than everyone' in one episode) and gives about a billion too many Speeches of The Day, which gets old.

Caleb was a crap villian too, as much as I think Nathan is great in Firefly.

The plus side? Chosen was a pretty fitting and emotional end to the series, everyone starts to treat poor Dawn like a teenager instead of a 5-year-old, and there were some pretty cool moments throughout the season (Faith's return, Dawn thinking she may be a potential, more Spike flashbacks...)

-Sig Rebel-

IDEFIX

Wednesday, September 22, 2004 10:29 AM

I really liked season 7 so there's not so much I'd agree with except for the Dawn issue.

I never got why Dawn was treated like a little kid all the time. she was 15, when she was introduced in S5 and that's the ame age Buffy was called as a slayer in the movie. Buffy, Willow and Xander were 16 in season 1 the same age Dawn was in season 6. they went to the Bronce at night to dance like normal 16 year olds do. they should probably have been home by 23:00 or so but never were due to slaying-issues but they didn't get kept at home with a baby-sitter to watch over their every step and they didn't need it either. they were treated like almost grown ups and they behaved like almost grown ups. making mistakes and still learning but not like little kids.

it was no wonder Dawn was annoying, if I were treated like a 5 year old when actually being 15 I'd have been annoying too. 15 year olds are the ones doing the baby-sitting not the ones being baby-sitted.

I think they screwed that up. either they should have had her being no more than 10 at the most or they should have treated her really differently.

just needed to vent, sorry.

Idefix

WINTERFELL

Wednesday, September 22, 2004 10:47 AM

I agree it was the worst season out of all of them. i think with Amber refusing to come back, it really hurt willows story line. Dawn was an annoying mistake since her first appearance. Loved anything with spike in it though. I really liked Caleb as a villian and the return of the first was a good choice for a final villian in my oppinion. The potnetials were crap, and though i understand why they had them after watching the last ep, I think it could have been done so much better and without the damn speaches every episode.

Overall, i am glad SMG left the buffyverse forever and spike went to angel (season 5 was great), and I am looking forward to the next show and hoping it's an amalgamation of the remaining characters.

MAUGWAI

Wednesday, September 22, 2004 12:31 PM

I couldn't disagree more. The fact that Buffy felt all superior and made rousing speeches all the time, the fact that the potentials were often personalityless chattle, those were both things that were harped on. Buffy treated the potentials like cattle because that's how she saw them. That's why we never got deep into their personalities. It didn't matter. They were nameless girls. But in the end, when they became powerful, that's when they got their individual moments to be junior Buffys.

One thing I really liked about this season is how coherent it was. Every episode bled into the next. They flowed and carried the same major themes of knowing your place in the world and and choosing to stay in it. This whole season was about the choices we make and how tempted we often are to run from our fears, and it was amplified by the finale.

That's what makes The First interesting. It's not some scary ugly demon who's easy to tell apart. The First is our greatest fear, the personal insecurities we run from. That's what makes it scary.

Something else I find interesting is that while Buffy and her crew were experiencing all this over a few weeks, Angel's crew was doing the same thing over in L.A. This season was compact on both fronts.

"Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy."

JENDANDY

Thursday, September 23, 2004 4:48 AM

IDEFIX you nailed it with what you said about Dawn's character. Someone younger cast as the part would have made much more sense. A 'kid sister' as she was so often called, is supposed to be a kid right? Even in the beginning, Dawn is a teenager, on the verge of becoming a fully-fledged adult in a few years. The way she was treated more as an equal in season 7 should have been the way she was treated in the previous years. Buffy had her fun at Dawn's age and so did Willow and Xander - so her not being a slayer is no excuse for her not to be able to do the things they all did.

-Sig Rebel-

OPPYH

Thursday, September 23, 2004 6:36 AM

Season 7 was a great season for Buffy, an OK season for Xander, and a horrible season for Willow. For Willow, the Kennedy thing was probably the biggest mistake in all the seasons of Buffy. Tara was a sweet, warm person, and the chemistry between her and Willow was great. Kennedy was rude, pushy, and completely wrong for Willow, if for the only reason being there was absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. When Joss spoke about the way he wanted to go with season 7, at Wizard World in Chicago he broke my heart. In the 18th ep. of season 7 Buffy was to have one wish. anything she wished for would come true. Toward the end of the episode she brings Willow to a closet opens it, and tells her to look at a new pair of shoes in the closet. Willow kind of upset asks her of all the things she could have wished for it was a pair of shoes? Buffy says no you dummy, and walks away. When Willow turns around, Tara is standing in front of her. Then the cut to willows reaction, which my guess would have been very powerful, and the greatest Willow moment of all. It would have been one of the best episodes of Buffy, probably right up there with the Body, or The Gift. If only they could have got Amber Benson back. Damn those contract negotiations.

GROUNDED

Thursday, September 23, 2004 9:10 AM

I agree with Jendandy - S7 was rubbish. I still think S6 was worse but hey let's not split hairs ;)

The main reason S7 was so bad was that nothing really happened. They spent the entire season in Buffy's house (which the First could have sent some goons to blow up at any time for crying out loud) and wasted episode after episode on half stories. Spike's insanity, which could have been a great story as well as a window into Angel's character, lasted all of two episodes - a terrible waste. Xander was related to the status of 'almost as pointless as Dawn', we had an out of character Giles and the ultimate demise of the character that was Buffy. Faith came back and said 'yo' a lot. And to cap it all they ended the year with the biggest deus ex machina double-whammy in the history of television.

Of course there were one or two bright spots:

Jonathon and Andrew in CWDP
The guest appearances of villains past
Holden in CWDP
....um that's it.

CAPTAINCDC

Thursday, September 23, 2004 4:05 PM

I really liked season 7 for many of the reasons stated above and many more which unfortunately I don't have enough time to elaborate on at this point. But I will rank it:
Buffy Seasons
1. S2
2. S3
3. S6
4. S4
5. S7
6. S5
7. S1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

THRAWN

Thursday, September 23, 2004 6:31 PM

The difference between 6 and 7 was that they knew what they wanted to do in 6. They had a goal, they had a story, and every episode was important in that story. It was a bad story (debatably), but it was definitely planned.

Season 7 just seemed meandering and incompetent. Seemed like they had no idea what they wanted to do, and like someone else said spent episode after episode doing half-stories. The theme was a good theme (when it existed at all), and the villain had potential, it was just never realized. Nothing in the whole entire season was as dramatic as CWDP, the 7th episode.

That said, Drew Goddard nearly singlehandedly saved the season. Selfless, CWDP, Never Leave Me, Lies My Parents Told Me, Dirty Girls - all brilliant episodes. It's too bad the overall story was so haphazard and unrealized - they really had some talent here.

JENDANDY

Friday, September 24, 2004 10:15 AM

Ooh wouldn't it have been great if that Tara scene had happened? She's one of my favorite characters.

Since someone else posted their season rankings, I'll post mine too, I like making lists.

1. Season 2
2. Season 6 (either love it or hate it, I guess)
3. Season 3 (technically it IS better than season 6 though)
4. Season 1
5. Season 5
6. Season 4
7. Season 7 (ya better believe it!)

-Sig Rebel-

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