Do you get a little sad when you finish S3?

Robb Stark

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I just finished "Graduation Day Part 2" and found I got a little sad. It was a blockbuster episode that defined epic, and it couldn't have wrapped up high school for Buffy, Angel and the rest much better, but I'm finding I'm getting really, really nostalgic.

When I think of Buffy, I always think of her and the show in the first three seasons. It's kind of gotten me to thinking about my own time in high school and how much I miss it. How I, I don't know, wish I could do some stuff over again, if that makes any sense.

**Whoops, I just realized I posted this in the Angel S3 section. Could one of the mods move it to Buffy S3 for me? Sorry.
 
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Sweet J
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SlayerPrincess
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I am from Class of 99 myself so I look at it like my own graduation I survived liked Buffy did to walk.

I remeber when part one aired right before I graduadted I was wonder what life would be like and part two a few days after and when it did air I was already headed in my own direction and it got me to thinking whats next for us both. So yeah nasalgas a part of it
 
I do as well. The thought that Buffy and the gang are growing up is saddening in a way cuz it becomes clear it wont last forever. Nothing does. There are so many great things with high school, and so many things I never got to experience, which I will never have a chance to do ever again. It's hard.

There are certain things you want to do in high school, but the time flies by and before you know it, it's over. It makes me feel hopeless and like I've wasted my life at the age of 19. Which I haven't, but now I've got years of working, worrying and...Well the feeling of going to high school is never coming back. I'll never get to experience that again. I'm babbling now... Um... It's just sad. Really puts me down. Man I've got to do something else now... The Dude always gets me on a better mood! 😀
 
It is the end of an era, the end of High school for the gang and the end of the high school in general (until the very short lived second version was built years later) so I do feel some loss at the end of this season, but I'm a huge fan of Season 4 so I feel like this is the pathway to the gate of the beginning of Season 4. Also Season 3 isn't the only one that creates the end of an Era that way. At the end of Seasons 4, 6 and 7, things are resolved within the group and friendships are re-kindled, I think they have the same effect.
 
High school is a defining era for everyone, but I don't miss it at all. We had the obnoxious jocks, an army of Cordelia's and Harmony's and a Snyder replica. The fact is, I look at my time in high school like I look at the worm that lives in a radish - I didn't know life could be sweet until I got into university.

Drama is about choices and you have very little choice in high school but a galaxy of choices in university. This is simply a more fertile ground for varieties of drama.
 
When I watched season 3 I was just about to start college. When the prospect of college was about bfought up in the show it scared me a little because I had no idea what to expect from college.

Luckily I enjoyed college much more than school, so I'm now able to watch S3without panicking about college,or thinking about h ow much it sucked. 😉
 
I kinda do. Season 5 is my favourite overall, but the show is never the same once they leave high school and go out into the big wide world.
 
I often feel quite sad and nostalgic when I reach the end of Season 3 too, even though most of the seasons I like best are post-High School.

Graduation Day isn't just the end of them attending High School, but also the end of Buffy/Angel, Cordy/Xander (I know they'd broken up already, but at least they were still interacting), Giles being librarian...etc. And even the characters of Willow, Xander and Giles were changed quite a bit simply by no longer being at the High School.
 
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SlayerPrincess
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NeonNightLight
NeonNightLight
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I'll be blunt about it - if high school is the pinnacle of your life, then you are living wrong. This is shown via Amy Madison's mother in season 1 as the cheerleader who couldn't move on from being a teenage "success".

Even though the group graduates and leaves (and blows up the school in the process), the post high school era is when the extreme regimentation disappears and people are left to find their own centre of gravity to rotate around. The core scoobies stay together (with the exception of Cordelia, who becomes much more interesting on Angel) and none of the dynamic is lost, it just becomes more dynamic.

What is more jarring is the introduction of the potentials in season 7 - if a bunch of strangers entered my home and took up all the space (and there were a lot of them), my reaction would be like Spike's - get out, get drunk and repeat as necessary.
 
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itssmiletime
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I'll be blunt about it - if high school is the pinnacle of your life, then you are living wrong. This is shown via Amy Madison's mother in season 1 as the cheerleader who couldn't move on from being a teenage "success".

Not what I said. At all. I stated that I miss high school from time to time and that there are certain things I wish I could do again. I highly doubt I'm not the only person who feels that way.

Not everyone views high school as this evil period in their life that they want to bury and forget. So please don't tell me that I'm "living wrong".
 
I'd definately have to say that I get nostalgic watching the season finale. Not really because I miss highschool (which I do sometimes btw) but mostly because I know that what follows, to me, is not as good as those first three seasons. Whenever I rewatch episodes for stand-alone purposes (just to get a little dose haha) I always find myself reaching for season 1, 2 or 3. I like the relationship that the scooby gang has more in those seasons.
I do understand that they have to grow up and go their separate ways eventually but their connection felt more organic to me then. I felt as if that is what I would want my friendships to be like as opposed to say, the later seasons where everyone seemed to be there mostly because they felt obligated, not because they wanted to be.

And I'll stop myself now before I continue to rant and get off topic 🙂
 
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Robb Stark
I like this a lot.
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Sweet J
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NeonNightLight
NeonNightLight
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Now I've watched it all, yes the earlier seasons were the better ones, so yes i get sad we don't have that quality again
 
I get nostalgic for my own school days. We didn't 'graduate' as such but the last few weeks of school were especially memorable for me. Whenever I get all sentimental I rewatch Graduation Day.
 
Season 3 really is the end of an era for the show. It's the end of the High School years, the last season to fully feature Angel, Cordelia, and Oz, and it's also the end of things being 'simple', per say.

After Season 3, the friendships grow even more complex, with the core three (Buffy, Xander, & Willow) growing up, and a little apart from one another. It's that feeling of being alone that I get from watching Buffy in "The Freshman", Willow's making new friends, and Xander's getting a job. It's really a crossroad of the series. Our characters cross the line from being somewhat naive about the real world, and start to see life for what it really is. Things aren't so simply anymore. Season 6 was a great example of this, with Buffy's resurrection and resulting depression, the financial struggle that comes to the forefront, the broken friendships amongst the group, and finally an acceptance at the end of it all.
 
I miss the beautiful school! Which in my opinion, was almost like a character onto itself. As Xander and Willow explain to Faith -

Xander: "This is the spot where, uh, Angel tried to kill Willow."
Xander: ''Oh, and over there in the lounge is where Spike and his gang nearly massacred us all on Parent-Teacher night.''
Willow: "And up those stairs, I was sucked into a muddy grave."

I miss the library! :-( so there is serious nostalgia when season 3 ends. it was never quite the same again.
 
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Robb Stark
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NeonNightLight
NeonNightLight
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Yeah, man. It's the end of an era, not only for the gang but for the show as well. I got a little sad everytime I think about that, but, in the end, you know, c'est la vie. Nothing lasts forever. People have to move on and recreate their lives, in fictional and real world too. XD
 
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