So whaddaya think of season 7?

POSTED BY: JenDandy
UPDATED: Friday, February 11, 2005 16:11
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THESOMNAMBULIST

Tuesday, October 5, 2004 1:13 PM

Season 7.

Given that previous Buffy seasons were so strong, it's not surprising seven came up short. I think the fact that Joss was working on two other show's at the time, is evident of the drop in the storyline for the season arc.

The idea of the potentials never sat well for me, as Buffy is the real Heroine of this show, and aside from her faithful siddekicks of Giles, Willow and Xander. It was she who saved the day.

The shift in strength to a number of potentials - was just too convenient a resolution. And the sudden revelation that Willow had enough power to make every potential a Slayer rendered the whole purpose of having a slayer pointless. Why not just have Willow save the day? I didn't get that, maybe I missed something?

Also what was with that axe type thing? There had been no previous mention of a 'super weapon' in any past Slayer lore, yet now it was paramount!

No there are many other things but I can see this going very in depth and I don't think thats needed.

However there are some gems in season 7, that I couldn't do without. Andrew's video diary is priceless, as is the one where Dawn is haunted in the house. D.B as the Principal and son of a Slayer was a nice twist on the Spike tale, but really underdeveloped.

Season favourites

1. Season3 - so many threads tied up. Angel moves on. And Oz too!
2. Season2 - Spike and Drew. Totally inspired
3. Season1 - Just charming and a fun ride.
4. Season4 - Well it had Hush the best ever episode.
5. Season6 - Buffy in self distruct.
6. Season5 - Dawn revealed from season 3 and 4. Very smart. And Buffy dies.
7. Season7 - Andrew and D.B.

I still think it should all have concluded with season five though - that would have been for me the perfect ending.

TheSomnambulist

www.cirqus.com

ARAWAEN

Tuesday, October 5, 2004 4:16 PM

The problems I had with season 7, I attribute to the fact that while the First is a great villian in principle, it is not a good choice for a heroine whose powers are essentially physical, you can't beat down a ghost.

The First's strength is that it can really cause a person to doubt themselves. It can appear selectively and taunt a particular victim with all their own mistakes and regrets. It goads a person into doing evil to protect their own ego and to stop others from discovering their weaknesses and past deeds.

The First should have been the ultimate tempter and conniver but it ended up being kind of stupid, tipping its hand far to soon and being reduced to the nag that can do nothing but taunt.

IMO, Caleb was added because the season needed a big bad to beat down. Like the first he would have been more effectively used as an intelligent and cunning villian rather than uber powerful.

While I have only watched season 7 once, I currently hold it as my least favorite Buffy season because of so much missed potential (no pun intended).

Um, I'm lost. Uh, I'm Angry. And I'm Armed.

THIEFJEHAT

Wednesday, February 9, 2005 11:16 PM

I'm glad I found this thread. Buffy season 7 is a topic that has layed heavy upon my mind. I had a violent and extreme reaction to this season. I felt the same way the night I walked out of matrix reloaded, a film that followed a wonderous work of art but as a film itself failed to deliver. Buffy season 7 is in a similar place. I have carefully considered and compiled what I believe to be the worst things this season presented in order of extremes. I'll follow up with a few redeaming qualities to prove I'm not all angry.

1. The worst thing this season did was violate the character of Willow. I hold violations of character to be the worst thing a writer can do to a film/TV show. For as much as I love Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy, I cannot forgive him for allowing Farimir to sucumb to the temptation of the ring in The two towers and for making Sam abandon his master in The ROTK. Those were clear violations of character. Likewise, Willow giving up her grief over her soulmate for a slip of a girl (16 y/o. Willow is 22ish) was absurd. They had such a great character in Willow. A girl who was a mouse and found her voice over 6 years then was subjected to, and survived, great evil made for a rich wonderful character. I was excited at the season's start when she was shown to be our familar timid Willow just off the plane but then dark and violent when defending against Anya's heart-eating spider demon. What a great juxtaposition. She was totally set up for her own show, and what a great show it would have been. To violate that with kennedy was terrible. It was the worst thing season 7 did.

2. I hate throw away characters. They serve only to break my Suspention of Disbelief. Caleb was a mistake. Now I love Nathan totally, and his acting was great. But the character was wrong and too easily defeated after being built up as some great big bad. Also to be considered is the fact that Caleb existed solely because Nathan had a contracted number of episodes to fulfill. So, just like Gina as Jasmine in Season 4 Angel, Caleb is around for exactly the number of episodes required before the writers dispose of him. I feel betrayed when I consider this.

3. The slayer axe was also a mistake, and clearly a writers means of getting us to the end of the show. Do writers expect me to believe that this great slayer artifact that has heretofor never been mentioned is for real? Is this a fools logic? But of course once introduced it needs to remain and we see it again in Joss's comic series "Fray" which I love. But as far as season 7 goes, it was foolish.

4. The Buffyverse holds: all magic has a price. What was the price payed for granting all the potentials with permanent slayer powers? Willow's white hair? Come on, there needs to be an explaination here. But nevermind that because you've just killed the romantic idea of "one girl in all the world" by making this a permanent thing. I know why they did it, to establish that Buffy can lay down her burden. But hey...theres Faith...oh wait they must have forgotten about her.

5. As mentioned above on this thread, season 7 sub-plots were mostly directionless. Spike's soulful character was GREAT but underused and his insanity at the seasons start had wonderful potential before they just abandoned it. The big bad failed to impress me. Everytime Kennedy opened her mouth to act all-knowing I got upset. I became ever more frustrated when the scoobies actually listened to her, this newbie, and how Willow's 7-year friendship with Buffy was so easily undermined. The writer's choice to compose Buffy's poor leadership was a mistake. I don't care that Buffy was a bad leader, I care that the writer MADE her a bad leader after 7 years of development(think about Buffy as the war leader in graduation day and then tell me if you still think she would have made the choices she made in season 7). This was a writing mistake. Then writing in the response of the scoobies to fire Buffy to follow Faith who just says "Yo" a lot was insane. Finally, I couldn't bu

GROUNDED

Wednesday, February 9, 2005 11:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by thiefjehat:
1. Anya's death was good.

Don't you think it was a bit of a hollow gesture putting it in the finale? Buffy should have killed her in Selfless - now that would have been some good drama.

TMURRIE

Thursday, February 10, 2005 2:00 AM

I thought it was the best season ever,but then again it's the only season I saw from the first episode to the last episode, when all the other seasons I saw pieces of and put it together myself..hmm

/still loves season 7

RABIT

Thursday, February 10, 2005 2:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by thiefjehat:
a slip of a girl (16 y/o. Willow is 22ish)

Uh, no offense, but Kennedy was not 16. If anything, she was Willow's age. She was likely the oldest of the potentials. In Showtime, she even mentions that she's probably too old to be "called".

Just FYI...

Rabit

THIEFJEHAT

Thursday, February 10, 2005 2:53 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Grounded:

Don't you think it was a bit of a hollow gesture putting it in the finale? Buffy should have killed her in Selfless - now that would have been some good drama.

Yes you are right, it was kinda hollow. When Buffy drives that blade through Anya's chest and pins her to the wall I remember feeling a moment of emotional pain, for Buffy for having to do it, for Xander who had to watch it but remain unable to do anything due to his "mundane mortal" status, and for Emma Caufield who rocks as an actress and could have potentially left the show right there. It only occured to me later that vengence demons can't be harmed by mundane weaponary as shown by Halfrek being impailed in season 6 in the Summers' home then getting back up.

But the sequence itself was powerful, with the flashback to the musical then the scene cut mid-verse to Anya impailed. And to wrap that up by the episode end with a happy ending(not so happy for Halfrek) was slightly hokey, although I must admit that they at least "payed a price" for the return of the lives of the frat boys by the death of a vengence demon. Bravo. However, yes I can understand the hollow feeling one would have at the seasons end. "Well we could have caused emotional drama for characters in mid-season but we didn't. Let's make up for it here at the end and give Xander 5 minutes of grief before we end this show forever." Yes it was kinda hollow. But as I can be harsh at times I will also be fair, I did like that the camera shot back across her staring face to Xander frantically searching for her and not finding her. That was a human moment.

And to the comment regarding Kennedy's age, I may have messed that one up. But since slayers are "one GIRL in all the world" they can't be all that old, otherwise at 22 you'd be one WOMAN in all the world. I have searched for info regarding the mystical age limits of slayer calling and if anybody knows info I'd be glad to read it.

But Kennedy's true age is not really a factor in changing Willow's character to such an extreme. I have since considered this more and what I believe to be the proper way to handle her would be to allow multi-seasonal healing to occur, perhaps cap it off with a mystical conversation with Tara who tells Willow to move on and live her life ALA Spike to Buffy: "Life isn't bliss, live is just this, it's living. You have to go on living" But...I guess they couldn't do that. The show was over.

I also considered that I wrote that Kennedy's attitude grated on me. I've since said "So what?" That's her character. She's abrasive. I should not be upset about the nature of a character, what I am upset about is the derailment of a story. Ultimately, I have concluded that all the issues here, the hollow gesture of Anya's condition, Willow's character violation, Caleb and a super-axe,....it all, I think, resulted from "We gotta end this show right now. Find a way to wrap it up and never mind if some watchers will think it seems forced"

And that is what happened.

SASJA

Thursday, February 10, 2005 2:58 PM

Thanks, Thiefjehat, for voicing exactly my opinion! I couldn't agree more - both with your harsh but fair criticism and the few redeeming points - except on Anya's death. I agree with you on the killing characters issue - my favorite episodes mostly have the offing of someone I like in them, like Becoming or Passion - but Anya's death didn't hurt me like it should have. I like Anya, but it just left me cold - it was like they had to kill someone, and she just drew the shortest straw. It seemed unnecessary and superfluous and didn't tie properly in with the story or the character development. I liked the way she went - direct and to the point, just like she was. But there just wasn't time enough to give her the death the dramatic impact it should have had. I cried a lot more for Ms Calendar who I'd known for a season than for Anya who has been in more than three seasons. Maybe she was just the wrong person to kill - to get the big emotional impact, you have to kill someone people love (I mean people in the show). It just seemed like a pointless subplot.

I'd like to add the Anya episode to the redeeming aspects of season 7, too. I had watched the trailer, so I was spoiled that she wouldn't die (I hate that!), but it would have worked well - the song would definitely have made me think she was going. Her death would have had a much bigger impact there (quite aside from the repercussions for Buffy).

Edit: Heh, I can see we actually agree on these points too

GORRAMREAVERS

Thursday, February 10, 2005 4:31 PM

Just wanted to touch on Tara's absence from this season. Joss wanted her to become evil..at least at first..when she came back. Amber didnt want that so she didnt sign on. I love Amber but I wish she had trusted Joss to make it worth-while. Oh well.

I liked season 7 but yeah...worst out of all 7 seasons.

1. S5
2. S2
3. S4
4. S3
5. S6 (first 1/2 of the season was awesome)
6. S1
7. S7

"..it is my very favorite gun."

GROUNDED

Thursday, February 10, 2005 5:09 PM

I see quite a lot of people vote 5 their favourite although I can't understand why. Other than Fool For Love, The Body and, to some extent, The Gift, the rest of the season is pretty average and there are plenty of howlers too.

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