Buffy in season 6

Being really depressing is one of the many side-effects of being really depressed. 😛 😉 (Sorry, I couldn't resist) 🙂.

The whole season is incredibly bleak. Despair looms over every episode, choking the characters. It really isn't much fun to watch, at all. Personally, I don't find Buffy herself "depressing", I actually empathise with her, but I find her situation incredibly austere, if not achingly sad. And I don't mean sad as in pathetic, but sad as in sorrowful.
 
david4wt said:
Well yes, that was one of the main storylines of the season 🙂
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Exactly... The whole point of the season is that life isn't always sunshine and rainbows, and sometimes we're forced to deal with scenarios in life that are hard and tough to go through, but we have to do it anyway.
 
WileyDairyGnome
WileyDairyGnome
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This is not my favouirte no where near but had really good episodes in it. I felt more sorry then depressed when Buffy was depressed, I mean she got pulled out of heaven back to hell where she had to go back fighting demons and loosing love ones. But not only that she was pulled out by her own friends which is worst. But her friends didn't know they thought she was in hell because all this hurt they all did crazy things. I was angry when Buffy started sleeping around with Spike (please don't hate me Spuffy fans 🙁 ) because she knew Spike love her but she used him and he wasn't a good influence on her. But she wanted to not feel numb anymore, I do wish Buffy had spoken to Giles about her pain cause maybe he would of helped her plus I wish we did see Buffy seeing Angel, I would of liked if Angel came back trying to help in episodes but it would of damaged the Angel series. However even though I didn't like this season I was so sad for Buffy and wish I could of gave her a hug 🙁
 
That was the big arc over the course of the season. Like others have said, the true big bad of S6 wasn't Dark Willow, it was just...real life. Working jobs you hate but need at the same time, being in relationships that aren't perfect because you need something, trying to keep up with life because it moves so fast and probably above all, trying to find a sense of meaning and your place in the world. It's tough, very tough, and I think more than most, S6 was pretty reflective of a lot of people's lives.

Is it a bit depressing? For sure it is, but that's a big part of what makes it so powerful.
 
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Living Dead Boy
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Jodast
Jodast
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Astral
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Always Bangel said:
That was the big arc over the course of the season. Like others have said, the true big bad of S6 wasn't Dark Willow, it was just...real life. Working jobs you hate but need at the same time, being in relationships that aren't perfect because you need something, trying to keep up with life because it moves so fast and probably above all, trying to find a sense of meaning and your place in the world. It's tough, very tough, and I think more than most, S6 was pretty reflective of a lot of people's lives.

Is it a bit depressing? For sure it is, but that's a big part of what makes it so powerful.
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This. It's the very reason why season 6 is my favorite. Especially now, considering I'm her age, going through similar experiences (although I'll admit, I never died and went to heaven, only to be ripped out by my friends. 😉) Going through a serious existential period right now, which to be fair, is what alot of young 20 somethings are going through.
 
Living Dead Boy said:
This. It's the very reason why season 6 is my favorite. Especially now, considering I'm her age, going through similar experiences (although I'll admit, I never died and went to heaven, only to be ripped out by my friends. 😉) Going through a serious existential period right now, which to be fair, is what alot of young 20 somethings are going through.
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I think this is a big reason why I don't like S6, apart from how offensive and uncomfortable I found the Spuffy story line. Like you say, your early 20s are a mess. It's existential crisis after existential crisis. It's very tough and exhausting. And what I've found is that I have absolutely no desire to go through that again with Buffy when I am already going through it myself. For me, there is a major difference between being a teenager and wanting to have someone/something to identify and share your pain/experience with, and then being a twenty something, and just wanting to deal with your own stuff as best you can and get over it. I don't want to have to handle anyone elses' troubles on top of my own. If I watch tv I want it to be a reprieve from all the scary life stuff, not have it reflected back at me times 100.
 
Taake
Taake
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I think that's what I love about S6. It's realistic.

Throughout the seasons, the scoobies never seemed to have many troubles when it came to high school and college. They didn't fail any classes or we never saw them really cram over essays or exams. They didn't have to worry about part-time jobs or scholarships/student loans, really there weren't any money troubles at all. In a way, their lives seemed too perfect, it seemed too Television.

Season 6 shows what real life really is. It may seem depressing, but it's realistic. The hardest thing in this world is to live in it, and this season really brings out the meaning of that.
 
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Astral
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Always Bangel said:
That was the big arc over the course of the season. Like others have said, the true big bad of S6 wasn't Dark Willow, it was just...real life. Working jobs you hate but need at the same time, being in relationships that aren't perfect because you need something, trying to keep up with life because it moves so fast and probably above all, trying to find a sense of meaning and your place in the world. It's tough, very tough, and I think more than most, S6 was pretty reflective of a lot of people's lives.

Is it a bit depressing? For sure it is, but that's a big part of what makes it so powerful.
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Hmmm, I like this. I hadn't really ever put it in these terms before - in my head - I mean I got that "life is the real big bad" but not so specifically like this. It's interesting. This makes Buffy's personal journey all the more inspiring for me.... from totally feeling like she didn't belong - didn't WANT to be here - to definitely feeling like she had a purpose - and that she wanted to share that with someone else - Dawn.
 
Yeah. I noticed that too. I was a little bit sad becuase the depressed Buffy was so unusal. I used to know a happy, joking Buffy. I missed these sides on her very much in this season. Oh and in season 7 too!
 
Kean said:
I think this is a big reason why I don't like S6, apart from how offensive and uncomfortable I found the Spuffy story line. Like you say, your early 20s are a mess. It's existential crisis after existential crisis. It's very tough and exhausting. And what I've found is that I have absolutely no desire to go through that again with Buffy when I am already going through it myself. For me, there is a major difference between being a teenager and wanting to have someone/something to identify and share your pain/experience with, and then being a twenty something, and just wanting to deal with your own stuff as best you can and get over it. I don't want to have to handle anyone elses' troubles on top of my own. If I watch tv I want it to be a reprieve from all the scary life stuff, not have it reflected back at me times 100.
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I get that. I understand where you're coming from, but for some people, myself included, it's more catharsis than anything. Yes, we all go through these hard, confusing times, but it's a relief to know that we're not the only ones. And it's also comforting to know that while our problems may be tough, someone else is going through much worse.
 
Kean
Kean
Yeah, I get your perspective too. I actually wish I could feel that way about it, but it just makes me want to avoid that season at all costs.
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Robb Stark
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Living Dead Boy said:
I get that. I understand where you're coming from, but for some people, myself included, it's more catharsis than anything. Yes, we all go through these hard, confusing times, but it's a relief to know that we're not the only ones. And it's also comforting to know that while our problems may be tough, someone else is going through much worse.
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I like this view a lot. Your early 20's suck (experiencing that as we speak, actually), and for me, re-watching Buffy for the first time since high school, it's helped. I don't really know how else to say it. Even though S6 isn't my favorite season or anything, I don't think I've ever identified with Buffy (the character in particular, but the show as well) more, as as she's someone I admire, a lot, it, I don't know, makes me feel better about my own stuff, if that makes any sense.

It's not the best part of the show for me, but it was something I didn't really get when I first watched the series.
 
Well first time I watched season 6 I was depressed, so I had no problem with how depressing Buffy was, it fit me like a glove 😉

Now I find it far too bleak for my taste and I look at certain plots and events with 'new' eyes that really turns me off the season entirely. And I don't think it is 'realistic' in any larger sense than the other seasons, I think emotionally speaking Btvs has always been realistic, in season 6 they just chose to wallow in the dark side, as if competing for an older audience or competing with Ats which is naturally a much darker show.

So yes, for me Buffy - as a character - was depressing in season 6 and while it makes sense to the story it wouldn't have pulled the entire season down hadn't her depression spread to the entire town of Sunnydale.
 
Season 6 is when Buffy became an adult. That's just about the best and shortest summary that I could apply to it. Her problems are no longer limited to simply surviving a night of patrolling. She also has to deal with Child Welfare, plumbers, and friends who have not the slightest clue of the fact that she is, literally, living in that most frightening of all hells, the Real World. No wonder the poor girl becomes suicidal.

On top of all that, the one person to whom she feels comfortable in confiding her problems has no experience whatsoever in any sort of relationship that doesn't involve some degree of pain and violence, and she's too depressed and emotionally frozen to make any attempt to teach him.

Season 6 most certainly isn't pretty, but it is almost certainly the most necessary season in the entire series, simply because it is the season in which Buffy, and in fact all of the principal characters, finally begin to grow up.
 
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Living Dead Boy
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Abbeycat
Abbeycat
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Gum Gnome33
Gum Gnome33
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You also notice that the witty ness is turned down a little. Everything becomes more, more serious than the show has ever been because real life stuff like what [MENTION=6758]white avenger[/MENTION] said above. Because of the child welware stuff and plumbing and how she'll be able to afford the house...
 
I am new to this forum and I am not completely sure this goes in here, but:
I recently started watching season 6 again (I don't know how many times it has been now) and I noticed something...

"I was happy. Wherever I was... I was happy... at peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time... didn't mean anything. Nothing had form. But I was still me, you know? And I was warm. And I was loved. And I was finished. Complete. I - I don't understand theology or dimensions, any of it really... but I think I was in heaven. And now I'm not. I was torn out of there. Pulled out, by my friends. Everything here is hard and bright and violent. Everything I feel, everything I touch. This is Hell. Just getting through the next moment, and the one after that. Knowing what I've lost."

Isn't that simply the perfect description of how you feel when you're really in love"¦no, not in love"¦when you love your significant other so deeply that nothing could ever change those feelings for you?
Buffy had to die to feel like that. Her true love"¦her "the one" is death. Death is her gift.
She wasn't only supposed to die, I believe as long as she's alive she will never be able to really feel that kind of love, those feelings she described as being in heaven, ever again.
What do you think?
 
(pretty much like everybody else) I feel this made the season more 'real' and because of that it touched more people.

I see some people feel that if we are depressed why do we want to watch Buffy depressed and sad...Well i think it can help as we see how everybody including Buffy has bad times and we are not alone.

I'm glad they made a season to show the emotional effects because of what they have to face everyday and their own demons 🙂
 
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