I always find it interesting that people defend Buffy in season 7, since she seems to admit she was wrong by completely changing how she leads the gang.
So clearly, I think Buffy made bad decisions in season 7. I definitely dont think she deserved more respect. She was incredibly disrespectful to the other characters on a number of number of occasions, she demanded stuff from not just of the potentials but also her friends. I can understand her demanding stuff from the potentials, but I also know that if someone had demanded something of her season 1, they'd be getting a similar reaction she got from the potentials.
Buffy is a hero and feels the need to do good, but she isn't one to take commands, When Giles gives her demands she'd hardly ever do them, but she'd always do the right thing.
She became a leader she wouldn't have respected or followed.
People try and defend Buffy by saying she didn't choose the job, but none of them choose to be there, the potentials didn't have a choice. the scoobies did choose to help, but they hadn't been treated like grunt workers for the previous 6 seasons, no need for her to be that way to them now.
Keeping Spike around was such a dumb plan. The only way to defend this is liking the character of Spike, becasue without that it's just dumb. I understand her reasons for keeping him around, but that doesn't make it any less of a dumb idea, in terms of decision making skills, keeping him in the house when he could have been triggered at any stage and killed the potentials or a scoobie is just dumb. And her trust in is irrelevent cuz Spike had no control if The First triggered him, It's like if she had Angel in the house and the The First was able to remove his soul for small bursts of time, she'd be trusting Angelus.
She wasn't keeping him around becasue he was a strong ally, that was Giles point. He was also arguably her weakest ally. At that point he could be triggered at any moment, so they couldn't' have even brought him into battle, he literally had no use. She should have spent more time trying to help and support Willow who is actually her strongest ally.
I dont think her decisions in Chosen were as bad as they get made out to be though. I agree her plan had flaws, but luck has always played a part in her battles, she was lucky Xander came with Angel to find her and was able to revive her, she was lucky Spike just wanted Dru in season 2, she was lucky Anya came back and told them how to kill the ascention demon, Season 4 is less lucky then it is actually replying on her friends, same with season 5 that was a strong plan that replied on her friends, she was lucky Giles turned up and Xander talked Willow down in season 6 - she basically did very little in that.
Like if you compare season 3 graduation plan and Season 5 The Gift plan with The Vineyard, both those first plans rely on her friends strengths and every person has a part to play, even the civilians she includes are loaded up with weapons and blow torches but when going into the Vineyard the plan is basically to all charge into the room, no magic, no major weapons, nothing.
She let her feelings cloud her judgment, let her feelings make her decisions and put her friends lives in danger then treated them like crap when they questioned her.
