Best Season or Worst?

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VisionGirl said:
And even then I still didn't think it was his intention to get his soul- I thought it was some kind of mistake. I remember seeing bits & pieces of season 7 (my 1st rewatch was via syndication on FX, didn't get to see everything), but I must have missed Beneath You, because it wasn't until much later that I realized that it was a clever trick the writers played on us (& JM carried it out very well!). I'm such a dweeb! 🙂
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Lol, I can't remember who (maybe Jane Espenson?) but someone said the writers almost did too good of job with writing that arc, since many people did not see it coming and thought it was Spike's intention to get rid of the chip. But, it was always the intention for him to get a soul 🙂 He mentions it in Beneath You and in Never Leave Me.
 
VisionGirl
VisionGirl
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You could see it building over several seasons and especially at the end of The Gift that Spike was already moving towards regaining or at least wanting to regain his soul. Then at the end of six it looked like he'd had enough and just wanted the pain to be over, they fooled me.

Such a great arc.
 
This was by far my favorite season. I related with the geeks on quite a few levels, I was really able to enjoy the Spuffy stuff that was going on. OMWF songs still get stuck in my head at least once a week. And it had one of the best season finales in my opinion.
 
The best season in my mind. Anya is great in it, the Buffy/Spike relationship develops. It has Tabula Rasa, with the "Randy Giles" moment and the Anya/Giles marriage, and all the bunnies appearing whatever spell Anya tries to cast. It has Once more with feeling. It has Willow as a bad guy, with a final emotional reunion with Xander at the end. It has Hells Bells, and the episode where Dawn gets them all trapped in the house. It has the friendly demon with floppy ears and the gambling for kittens. It has the hapless supervillains. I remember watching it first time and each episode was like a revelation. It showed just how ambiguous in real life the distinction between good and evil can be, but that despite this, there is still a way to choose the good over the evil in the end.
 
S
StarSlayer
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I dislike season 6 for the fact that Spike was very much in the fore-front (also why I dislike season 7 more) and the fact that Spuffy was often shown as the most important part of the season, if not the series. Also, the AR scene in Seeing Red drops it below season 4.
 
Season 6 is most compelling and interesting season of the entire series, combined with Season 7, for me is the very best thing of BtVS. It was certainly not going to appeal to a great many viewers of the period, and today is still seen in a totally negative perspective - but for high dramatic power, superb performances, and psychological exploration of the characters, I don't think any of the other seasons match it.

The transformation journey story of Spike and the journey that Buffy and Spike take together is one of the great vampire stories ever. Season 6 demands a great deal of the audience with the thematic material and multi-layered treatment of the characters, story arcs and metaphor. Nothing else in the entire series has connected with me on such a powerful level as Season 6 - it presented everything that humans experience in their lives.
 
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StarSlayer
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Least favourite for me, I think this is where the show jumped the shark for me. I've said it elsewhere, but sometimes I wish the show had ended with Season 5.

Season 6 had by far the least interesting villains for me in The Trio. They just weren't compelling enough to carry the season until Willow takes over in the final few eps. Compare them to The Master from S1, The Mayor and Faith from S3, Angelus/Spike/Dru in S2 or Glory in S5 and you'll find real compelling Big Bads.

Buffy self hating/self destructing did nothing for me unfortunately. This was the beginning of the end for the character IMO. I found her so unlikeable in S6 (which really annoyed me given the perfect way in which S5 ended), and in S7 in contrast to Faith. Go back and look at S3 of Buffy and you can see who has successfully fought with their demons more effectively (I'm talking about Faith btw). The only moments Buffy was likeable in S7 was when she was locking horns with even more annoying slayers in training.

I'm going off in a tangent and ranting now so I'll stop. 😛

I will say one to thing, junkie Willow was the best part of the season for me.
 
RE Best season or worst

Season six is arguably one of my favourite seasons of Buffy, A close second to Season Two. For me, the angst emotional issues that the characters go through represents the dark period many people go through in their lives before they find themselves.

The metaphors, although played out quite literally in some cases, show how our beloved characters, even our heroine, can surrender to the bad things that life throws at them. It is at times hard to watch as our characters bring more pain upon themselves with their choices and the season can become quite dark in nature. The triumph for me is that they do ultimately learn from their mistakes and begin the process of healing.
 
Sommers Summers said:
Look, it's divisive, this Season 6.

But yes, I think that junkie Willow was what drove Season 6 for me. In fact, it became the best season for that exact reason.
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I have to agree season 6 is divisive, since junkie Willow was actually one of the few things I found frustrating and annoying in season 6. She was being so irresponsible with Dawn, and so uncaring to the people around her. One of my favourite moments was when Giles came back to put her in her place calling her a rank amateur. For me, its the comedy moments that make season 6 good, interspersed with the more dark and serious stuff. The trio were an important part of this, and so, contrary to what some other people have said, I think they were a key part of what made season 6 good.

As regards it being the best season, I did post and say that it was not long ago, but on a recent rewatch, I'm starting to think its more a case of a few individually brilliant episodes than being the best season overall, and so I'm now leaning towards season 5 as being my favourite as an overall season 🙂
 
Hmm, upon rewatching the season over the past week, it's not as bad as I had remembered.

I actually think now that Warren was one of the best big bads the show had had. With the likes of Spike and Glory, they always had likeable qualities, you loved to hate them. But with Warren, he was rotten to the core with no redeeming qualities, and that's scary considering he is human.

I also like the junkie Willow arc even more now because she totally nailed what it is to be an addict. I know what you mean Dopplegang about how Willow treated Dawn, but that's exactly what addicts are, irresponsible to the point that they become a liability to not just themselves but to those around them too.

Still not feeling the whole Spuffy thing and I'd say As You Were is one of my favourite episodes in the season purely for the perspective Buffy gained, regardless of the apparent plot holes throughout the episode.

Anyway, to answer the question, not the best or worst season. My ranking at this stage is

Season 3
Season 2
Season 5
Season 6
Season 1
Season 4
Season 7
 
Gotham said:
I also like the junkie Willow arc even more now because she totally nailed what it is to be an addict. I know what you mean Dopplegang about how Willow treated Dawn, but that's exactly what addicts are, irresponsible to the point that they become a liability to not just themselves but to those around them too.
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Thats a fair enough point, its part of the serious and realistic side of season 6, it just makes it a bit difficult to watch at times, particularly cos she thinks she can handle anything when its quite clear that she can't.

Gotham said:
Still not feeling the whole Spuffy thing and I'd say As You Were is one of my favourite episodes in the season purely for the perspective Buffy gained, regardless of the apparent plot holes throughout the episode.
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The Spuffy moments are not as good as they are in Season 5, I could agree with that, but there are still some, particularly their interaction in life serial, an episode I've just watched, when buffy gets drunk with spike after her failed attempt at working at the magic shop.

All in all, I'd say It's still my second favourite season at least, and as I watch a few more of the episodes now, I'm starting to remember again what made this series so good.
 
Worst season IMO. I don't like the arcs, and the episodes aren't that interesting either, except for Tabula Rasa and OMWF.

and again, I don't see why because Buffy is so depressed she start sleeping with a dead thing that she claims to hate, I've read the reasons why but I still can't seem to connect the dots cos Buffy sleeping with Spike makes no sense to me. I prefer Spike/Buffy in season 7, but how anyone could like Spuffy in season 6 is beyond me.. idk the whole thing just made me love Buffy as a character a lot less.


I'm a Tillow shipper so I despise how this season ended, all though Willow trying to destroy the world was pretty romantic 😛
 
I don't have any seasons that I think of as "worst." Actually, I think each and every season is amazing in their own right. I find it hard for me to number best to worst.
 
Username said:
and again, I don't see why because Buffy is so depressed she start sleeping with a dead thing that she claims to hate, I've read the reasons why but I still can't seem to connect the dots cos Buffy sleeping with Spike makes no sense to me. I prefer Spike/Buffy in season 7, but how anyone could like Spuffy in season 6 is beyond me.. idk the whole thing just made me love Buffy as a character a lot less.
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S6 Spuffy leads to S7 Spuffy for one thing, lol, so that's why some of us like it 😛 And there's some great Spuffy moments (along with the tough ones).

Buffy sleeps with Spike because it gives her a feeling of escape. Spike represents the darkness, something she wants to retreat to since coming back from heaven and she finds comfort in that. At the same time, it also makes her feel something. "The only time I feel anything is when [I'm with him, sleep with him, etc]." However, after a while, Buffy begins to realize that she's just using him to feel better about herself because she believes she can never love him (since he's soulless). There's so many other things going on too, but that's kind of the basic of it. 🙂
 
I found season 6 extremely painful to watch (not the Spuffy sex, that was hot), mostly because of the bad writing and lack of overall plot consistency and I HATED the nerd trio as the Big Nuisance. But I'm currently reading a book called "Reading the Vampire Slayer" and its analysis of the season as the most controversial one offered me a few insights that I missed while watching for the first time. Maybe I'll like it more when I rewatch it.
 
I don't think season 6 is the best or the worst; I would rank it in the bottom 3 though.
I liked its dark feeling and I think that was very realistic, Buffy being brought back from heaven and all, but I felt like the arc's were lacking.

mayfever said:
I found season 6 extremely painful to watch (not the Spuffy sex, that was hot), mostly because of the bad writing and lack of overall plot consistency and I HATED the nerd trio as the Big Nuisance.
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Yes, I hated the nerd trio. They are my least favorite part of the season. I can't believe they spent so much time on them. They were a bunch of babbling buffoons that Buffy and the Scoobies should have been able to get rid of in an episode or two.


mayfever said:
But I'm currently reading a book called "Reading the Vampire Slayer" and its analysis of the season as the most controversial one offered me a few insights that I missed while watching for the first time. Maybe I'll like it more when I rewatch it.
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This sounds like an interesting read. Maybe I should check it out; are you enjoying it?
 
M
mayfever
very much. I'd let you borrow it if you didn't live in LA.
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