Speculations, idle and impassioned
So Perigon and I both approach the one hundred per cent mark in our predictions--nearly a hundred percent of my predictions are wrong. That's something I appreciate about BtVS; I can think of no other TV show or fiction of any kind that's so consistently surprising, and this is a show that doesn't sacrifice its storyline for a petty shocker.
That said, I want to make a few of my own (doomed) predictions.
1) This is the show's last season 🙁 . There are just too many signs of closure and completion. Leaving aside such logistics as the slipping ratings and expiring contracts, we've seen cameos by all of Buffy's nemeses from prior seasons; the story has come full circle and deposited us in high school again; and (I believe) the current villain's henchman, the ubervamp, is designed to resemble the creature on the Mutant Enemy logo--the one that says "Grrr! Argh!" I take all of these as authorial indications of leavetaking, as a breathless look back at the brilliance of these years.
2) Buffy won't die; Faith is going to die. The bloodline will continue to one of the youngsters (not Dawn), and whoever it is, her Watcher will be either Willow or--Spike. I remember Willow saying at one point, a long time ago now, that she'd considered becoming a Watcher, and in the episode called "Restless," Spike (in a dream) announces that he's been training to become a Watcher. The same dream has Anya telling Xander that she's going to return to being a vengeance demon, Tara telling Buffy something about Dawn (who didn't exist yet), some creepy foreshadowing of Joyce's death, and a lot of other prophetic material.
3) Since (I expect) the show isn't going to continue, the new slayer and her watcher will frequently recur on Angel for a season, while Joss and the other Mutant Enemy producers check to see if the characters have the right chemistry for a spin-off of their own.
4) Sarah Michelle Gellar will probably try to pursue her film career, earning more kudos for her positively Shakespearean delivery of lines such as "EEEK!" while a masked killer stabs her (Scream, I Know What You Did...) or wasting her flawless comic delivery in witless roles where she plays second banana to a cgi dog. Hollywood is so unaccustomed to anyone being remotely talented that no one seems to know what to do with talent when they find it.
However,
🙄 , this works out well for us; once or twice a year (I think) she'll make gladiatorial entrances onto the set of Angel and the other potential spinoff.
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Something does need to change if Buffy is to pass her Slayer mantle over to a young 'un; but I don't have a clue what that will be.
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William Butler Yeats quickly earned a reputation as a profound and joyous poet of youth; but over the years something remarkable happened: he became a great poet of age. BtVS has been an extraordinary exploration of youth, and I for one would like to grow old with these characters. I number them among my tribe--Buffy, Xander, Willow. Would Joss & crew be able to explore the human questions of advancing years with the same genius and insight they used to inquire into the challenges and ignominy of growing up? We may never know. I do have to say, though, that even if Buffy only returns once or twice a year to the other show(s), it will thrill me to no end; I want to keep on seeing her grow.
