Anya was wasted after "Selfless"

[YummySushiPJs]

Anya gets an awesome episode in Selfless, pretty much the only (or definately, the most) Anya-centric episode of the show. After which she is mostly a waste of space. Don't get me wrong, she is very funny in the following episode, "Him", though it is a bit jarring seeing her at her comedy best after the emotional wreck she became a week earlier. And the rest of the season, she gets a few good lines here and there, but my main gripe is that...

Throughout Selfless, the point made is that Anya has always clung to whatever came along, and has never been her true self. She ends the episode utterly devastated but at the same time, walking towards her new future, to discover who she really is. After an emotionally raw episode it's a very uplifting ending full of hope of promise.

So what does she do next on this discovery of self-worth? Erm, well, nothing really. Just what she's always done... sits around the Summer's House offering not much at all except for sarcastic suggestions and humerous lines. She continues to do so up until the final episode where she dies in battle, and despite a few lines about show she has finally found a purpose in - and found the courage to fight for - humanity, it seems she's pretty much only there because she's not bothered to go anywhere else and nobody's asked her to leave.

So Selfless is good, and Chosen is good, but everything in the middle pretty much sucks. If we're not actually going to see Anya on this journey of self discovery it really belittles the ending to Selfless.

I think a better approach would have been for Selfless to have been Anya's penultimate episode. At the end she walks off to stand on her own two feet for the first time and work out who she really is. We don't see her again (and assume we won't) until she comes back in Chosen (or one of the episodes leading up to it) having realised her place is with the Scoobies, and she has come to fight the fight, of her own accord, not just because she happens to be hanging around with nowhere else to go. She asks if they will have her back, they gladly accept, and we, the audience, are happy to see Anya back and that she has found confidence in herself. She then dies in battle as her true self - a brave, heroic human.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I agree that Anya didn't have much use to the group after "Selfless". She was definitely there more for comic relief than anything else. But then, there were so many people running around in the last half of Season 7 that not many of them did have much use to the group, that we were able to see.

 

[EVIL UU]

I kinda agree but honestly, who isn't wasted in season 7? The entire season is a stupid, worthless waste, unless you're a fan of substandard vampire erotica.

Just what she's always done... sits around the Summer's House offering not much at all except for sarcastic suggestions and humerous lines.

Now, I love Ahn, I think that Emma Caufield is pretty much the best actress in the series, she's just ridiculously talented but Anya herself is a criminally underdeveloped character. She never becomes anything more than a comic relief. Even in tears, she's still funny. Complex development of the character in the last season just wouldn't ring true.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I kinda agree but honestly, who isn't wasted in season 7? The entire season is a stupid, worthless waste, unless you're a fan of substandard vampire erotica.



Now, I love Ahn, I think that Emma Caufield is pretty much the best actress in the series, she's just ridiculously talented but Anya herself is a criminally underdeveloped character. She never becomes anything more than a comic relief. Even in tears, she's still funny. Complex development of the character in the last season just wouldn't ring true.

Ummm, Season 7 doesn't have much sex in it at all. Where do you get that it's "substandard vampire erotica"?? I think you're thinking of Season 6...

 

[EVIL UU]

[MENTION=8356]HisMrs[/MENTION]

Ummm, Season 7 doesn't have much sex in it at all.

Hence substandard.

Vampire with a soul and a vampire slayer, will they get together or will destiny separate them once again? Tune in for a new episode of "The Passions of The Slayer.

WHO CARES?!

There's too much relationship Spike/Buffy filler crap in season 7, it turns the show into a freaking soap opera. Just shag him or better yet, throw him into fire and end this nonsense already, give me something entertaining instead. No, of course not. In season 7 Spike has more lines than Giles, Xander and Dawn. Dawn, OK? The single most important person in Buffy's life doesn't exist in season 7, they barely talk to each other! What kind of bullshit is this? Willow has a little bit more lines than Spike but she still gets less screen time. Anya? Of course she's wasted, Spike has twice as many dialog lines as Anya not to mention raw screen time, Anya in season 7 has even less dialog lines than Dawn! 1000 years of murder, no remorse whatsoever, wealth of knowledge, quirky personality - give me some more Anya, she's just so much more fun than Spike. No, it's Spike, Spike, Spike. Between Spike Contamination and Potential Spam there's not enough time to develop any other character, that's why everybody blows so hard in season 7. I don't understand it, there was a healthy balance between relationship rubbish and everything else and in season 7 it goes straight to hell.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for good romance but Spike/Buffy in season 7 is not even decent, even by vampire erotica sub-genre standards.

It just sucks.

 

[BuffyElevated]

[MENTION=8356]HisMrs[/MENTION]


Hence substandard.

Vampire with a soul and a vampire slayer, will they get together or will destiny separate them once again? Tune in for a new episode of "The Passions of The Slayer.

WHO CARES?!

There's too much relationship Spike/Buffy filler crap in season 7, it turns the show into a freaking soap opera. Just shag him or better yet, throw him into fire and end this nonsense already, give me something entertaining instead. No, of course not. In season 7 Spike has more lines than Giles, Xander and Dawn. Dawn, OK? The single most important person in Buffy's life doesn't exist in season 7, they barely talk to each other! What kind of bullshit is this? Willow has a little bit more lines than Spike but she still gets less screen time. Anya? Of course she's wasted, Spike has twice as many dialog lines as Anya not to mention raw screen time, Anya in season 7 has even less dialog lines than Dawn! 1000 years of murder, no remorse whatsoever, wealth of knowledge, quirky personality - give me some more Anya, she's just so much more fun than Spike. No, it's Spike, Spike, Spike. Between Spike Contamination and Potential Spam there's not enough time to develop any other character, that's why everybody blows so hard in season 7. I don't understand it, there was a healthy balance between relationship rubbish and everything else and in season 7 it goes straight to hell.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for good romance but Spike/Buffy in season 7 is not even decent, even by vampire erotica sub-genre standards.

It just sucks.

Well unfortunately for you, the show is about BUFFY, not Anya. And since Buffy was in a relationship with Spike, we got to see a lot of relationship drama instead of group interaction.
Season 7 isn't as bad as you're making it out to be... And if you really do think the show is that bad, why do you even watch?

 

[EVIL UU]

[MENTION=8356]HisMrs[/MENTION]

And since Buffy was in a relationship with Spike, we got to see a lot of relationship drama instead of group interaction.

That's fine, except her relationships with previous wankers didn't take so much screen time, yeah, I actually checked it. Both Angel and Riley don't have so much dialog lines compared to the other core characters as Spike in season 7 and also don't take so much screen time.

Season 7 isn't as bad as you're making it out to be

You're right, it's even worse, I was being tame.

And if you really do think the show is that bad

I never said that, don't put words in my mouth, will you? I think that season 7 is rubbish, you don't have to agree with me but at least respect my opinion.

why do you even watch?

https://buffy-boards.com/showpost.php?p=1074022&postcount=8

 

[brinkster130]

I felt like season 7 had too much going on with all the potentials running around and Spike taking over as a main character to really focus on and include Anya in a meaningful way. It's a shame that in the shows last season the Scoobies pretty much became wallflowers.

 

[Robb Stark]

I think Anya was symbolic of a lot of characters in S7. Now, I didn't mind the season, don't get me wrong, but character wise it's the strangest by far. The producers clearly had big time arcs in mind for Buffy, The Potentials and Spike, but everyone else, it felt like they were working on the fly, and a few characters, like Anya, they had nothing for at all.

I mean, Anya, Dawn, Xander and Giles had no real presence that season beyond the occasional one-shot episode centered around them (which often felt like a reminder that they're still part of the show). Anya's made zero sense, she murders a bunch of frat guys before it gets magically wiped away and everyone not only forgives her, but pretends it didn't happen, and then like you said, was practically erased anyways.

Even the characters they seemed to have plans for, like Principal Wood and Andrew and Faith, faded in the stretch. They developed a whole high school angle with Dawn and then never came back to it.

Again, I'm not saying it's bad, but beyond the central arc and the big romance story (which I liked, by the way) there wasn't a whole lot going on. Spike's increased presence (even though "increased" might be the wrong word, he was a huge part of S6) in S7 probably stems from them just not having a lot of plot depth for the other main characters that year. They still had a story to tell with Spike. With Anya, Xander, Dawn and the rest, they just ran out of things to do with them.

 

[BuffyElevated]

[MENTION=8356]HisMrs[/MENTION]


That's fine, except her relationships with previous wankers didn't take so much screen time, yeah, I actually checked it. Both Angel and Riley don't have so much dialog lines compared to the other core characters as Spike in season 7 and also don't take so much screen time.



You're right, it's even worse, I was being tame.



I never said that, don't put words in my mouth, will you? I think that season 7 is rubbish, you don't have to agree with me but at least respect my opinion.



https://buffy-boards.com/showpost.php?p=1074022&postcount=8

You need to slow your roll. You yourself said you thought Season 7 was lame, and in the post you linked here, you said the show is shit. I don't have to put words in your mouth; you already said it.

And as far as Spike getting more screentime than Angel or Riley, well that makes sense because he's been with the show since Season 2. He was a fan favorite, so the writers wrote more scenes for him. If there had been as big of a following for Angel or Riley (and Angel hadn't gotten his own show), I'm sure it would have been the same for either of them.

 

[KellGreen]

Mostly, but I really, really love watching the scenes of her and Andrew in the abandoned hospital. But, yeah, they didn't use her much after Selfless in any meaningful way.

 

[YummySushiPJs]

Interesting point someone made about Dawn, as well. I think "Potential" was Dawn's "Selfless". An episode to remind us that she's still there and still important, but which in effect only draws attention to the fact that the writers clearly don't believe this! (As she isn't developped outside this episode).

I don't hate the Spike/Buffy relationship, or Spike as a character, but I don't love it/him either. And I do think it is focussed on too much at the expense of the core Scoobies. But as "Always Bangel" says, had they run out of stories for the core Scoobies anyway? Or were they just sidelined to focus on Spike, Principal Wood, (to a lesser extent) Andrew, and all those potentials? I think the writers got so carried away with this story and with Spike/Buffy that the core Scoobies became an after-thought.

 

[EVIL UU]

[MENTION=11975]Always Bangel[/MENTION]

even though "increased" might be the wrong word, he was a huge part of S6

Actually, Spike has a bit more lines in season 5 than in season 6. Weird, I know.

[MENTION=8356]HisMrs[/MENTION]

You need to slow your roll and stop being such an ass.

That's a personal attack. Please, follow the board rules:

No personal attacks! Please be respectful of all members of the posting community and treat others as you would want to be treated. Abuse of this rule will not be tolerated by the site staff. Disagreements are fine, but they should be conducted in a civilized manner - we have faith in your ability to discuss issues without resorting to personal attacks. Please remember that it's about the argument, not the person. If you see a personal attack on the board, please use the report post button and do not retaliate. Retaliation just inflames the situation and makes it more difficult for the staff to punish the real offender.

The staff has agreed on the following pledge to you, our members:
4. To keep our personal feelings out of our moderating decisions and to keep a level head.
5. To take time out when over-stressed so as to not take it out on members and better handle situations.

 

[BuffyElevated]

[MENTION=8356]HisMrs[/MENTION]


That's a personal attack. Please, follow the board rules:

You don't need to tell me what the board rules are, and you definitely don't need to be telling me to follow the board rules. I can quote the FAQ, too:

What We Expect

- kindness and respect towards your fellow members

- including everyone, even newbies, in discussion on the board and in the chat

- leaving the enforcement of board rules to the staff

- listening to directions given by the staff

- leaving snide comments and personal attacks off the board

- not going along with bullying, gossiping and other bad behavior by others on the board and standing up for the rights of your fellow members

What I said to you is not a personal attack; your tone in this thread and others has been nothing but rude and argumentative. Discuss the thread topic without being rude, and you will be respected, as will your opinion. However, you can't expect to post on a board full of true fans of the show without getting backlash if you call the show shit and get mad that a beloved character has more scenes than others who aren't as integral to the plot of the show/season.

And now, getting this thread back on topic:
There is a lot of things I don't like about Season 7. I really hated all the whiny Potentials when they came in, and I hated that the Scoobies got shafted for screentime because of them, Anya included. I felt like the final season should have been about the Scoobies as a whole, and not all these newer characters like Andrew, Kennedy, etc. But that being said, I also liked the idea of the Potential storyline and I liked the way the show ended. I just feel like they crammed too much into one season, and certain characters got a bad deal because of it.

 

[EVIL UU]

[MENTION=8356]HisMrs[/MENTION]

your tone in this thread and others has been nothing but rude and argumentative.

I'm passionate and my opinions are pronounced but I do not resort to personal attacks.

What I said to you is not a personal attack.

Yes it was, you just called me an ass. I expect a post edit and an apology, until then we have nothing to talk about.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Take it out of the thread, you can report a post and it will be dealt with, please stay on topic.