Hot Topic: The Amulet and lowering the odds...

Ethan Reigns said:
We keep ignoring the fact that Sunnydale had cleared out to the extent that vampires didn't have any trouble entering homes without an invitation anymore. Everything in Sunnydale was available to the slayers but they only chose to raid the hospital for medical supplies. In "Innocence 2x14", Xander steals a rocket launcher and in "Him 7ABB06", Buffy has another rocket launcher which could take out the ones coming up the steps towards them. They could have emptied a fuel truck into the cavern and lit it off because there would have been some left behind. But none of these things would have had the impact of waiting for the slayer spell to take hold (another stupid bit of battle planning - they should have done that before they went into the cavern) and having a few of their number get wounded or dead before the magic amulet solves all their problems.

I get why it was done - it was a reason for Angel to put in an appearance and for Spike to literally go out in a blaze of glory. It got the potentials into the game where they would have to actually function as slayers. It meant a good show of maximum effort and a battle where the outcome was in doubt until the amulet worked. As a series finale it worked, leaving behind the concept of "one girl in all the world" forever and leaving a view of a world where Buffy could finally get the rest and camaraderie she needed.
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It always bothered me when Spike said that he could "Just walk in, no invitation required," when, technically, I think, at that point, no invitation was required simply because all of the houses in Sunnydale had been abandoned, meaning that they weren't homes anymore, just vacant buildings. No restrictions would have applied.

The military base, most likely just a reserve site for weekend warriors, with probably less than a dozen active Army personnel assigned there full time, was almost certainly stripped of all munitions, or they were all locked up in a vault that would make a bank president jealous. Anything usable there was either gone or inaccessible. Same for the hospital. Narcotics and dangerous drugs were locked up securely. All that Andrew and Anya got from there was bandages, antiseptics, and maybe some suture kits, assuming that anyone actually knew how to stitch up a wound.

I do agree about the gasoline tanker, and Molotov cocktails are very easy to make, plus something else that seemed glaringly obvious to me is that several girls went down into the Hellmouth with nothing but pointy sticks. Faith and Spike didn't even have that much. At the very least, there should have been a few hardware or Army/Navy stores around town. Machetes aren't swords, but they could kill or disable ubervamps much better than a sharp pointed broom handle, that would probably break the first time that it was used. And Spike could bear witness that a common fire axe was quite effective against vampires.

The Angel/amulet deus ex machina was put in right at the end of the Season as a gift to the Bangel shippers, to remind everyone that Buffy still enjoyed a little "basking" time with him, and it had to be included as closely as possible to the time that Buffy told Spike that she loved him. (The argument that Angel for some reason "deserved" to be there at the end, because he was there at the beginning might have worked if Cordy, another original, had been there as well, and might have even been used as a concession to the Cangel shippers, but it would also have clouded the Bangel/Spuffy element, not to mention that Joss was probably still mad at Charisma) Beyond that, it served no real purpose besides presenting a way for Spike to move over to "Angel" without there being any sort of hint of a break up between him and Buffy (a concession to the Spuffy shippers. He might be in L A, but it wasn't, at least at first, because he wanted to be) Willow's spell could have been used to accomplish the same thing, or, for that matter, some dormant force in the scythe itself could have awakened, blasting the whole ubervamp army to ashes. It's supposed to be a "special Slayer weapon," after all. From the time of its introduction until into Season 10, it's been nothing but a dandified axe. What's so special about that?
 
Well all this talk about big bad man saving the day is depressing...

On another note, I hate any ending that chose to go the deus ex machina route. That just screams poor writing to me. Don't get me wrong, I love Chosen, but in retrospect I would have wished for a better thought out ending where they come up with a real plan that would work without the help of an non-identified object with mysterious power. I love the whole empowerment message. We get closure for Buffy and Faith's arc, of being the only one in all the world. Finally Buffy is freed of that weight she carried for 7 season. We see Buffy accept Dawn's role, and we see Dawn become a mature woman with a place in the world. We see Willow finally letting go of the dark witch and embracing her true powers. We see the Scoobies walking together towards victory...or doom. And than what? We get a cheap ending, all that slayer and witch stuff amounted to essentially nothing?

I'd almost rather see the group lose than things be magically resolved. I love the final shot, but I don't like how they got there. I don't think an ending a la Not Fade Away would have worked on Buffy, I agree with the happy and hopeful ending, I just don't agree with how it was executed.
 
white avenger said:
It's supposed to be a "special Slayer weapon," after all. From the time of its introduction until into Season 10, it's been nothing but a dandified axe. What's so special about that?
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That's a very good point. Scythe is an obscenely powerful magical battery - in the hands of a witch. In the hands of a slayer it really is just a cool axe-thing a slayer can destroy with her bare hands by the way. So how is it a slayer's weapon if most slayers ( all of them? ) can't even use it to its full potential? And when it gets broken, guess what, fixing it is suddenly not the slayer's responsibility, at least according to the first slayer.

I hate the scythe. It's such a half-assed, cheap, gimmicky, magical piece of junk. It doesn't look cool enough for what it is and it's not even a real scythe anyway.
 
Probably would've been better if the writers had simply left it at one day-saving device (macguffin)- the scythe, and abandoned the whole magical sparkly, nuclear amulet thing.
Have the stakes be a little bit smaller- a couple of really dangerous ubervamps for every 'activated' slayer (plus loads of bringers) during the final battle would've been fine.
Everything else was just down to budget constraints I suppose- a big fight is something exciting, visual and dynamic for the viewers to invest in.

The point of the amulet was really just a was for the writers to retroactively justify Buffy's somewhat questionable judgement for the latter part of that season ('see, she believed in him and so he saved the day for her...').
It came across as really contrived, especially since we'd just had the 'Spike is the reason Buffy managed to go and get the scythe' thing already- so he's already helped Buffy to become her 'best self'- that was a better bit of writing.
That actually resonated properly because it resembled a lot of what had come before in previous seasons- a friend/loved one giving Buffy the strength to be Buffy.
The 'I can feel my soul' moment- It wasn't earned or necessary really, just something more for the Spuffies.

Still, maybe some things are more important that an empowerment message, after all it kept Spike out her hair for a couple of years. No wonder Buffy's smiling at the end there. 😛
 
Mr. Pole said:
Spike was the hero of the story is what it all boils down to. Spike saved the world and he saved Buffy from being a slayer.
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That's kind of how I interpreted the ending. But I tend to see everything through Spike-tinted glasses.
 
Skanky Vamp
Skanky Vamp
judging from your avatar it comes as no surprise you see everything askew.
gite63
gite63
Well, that's not your Spike-tinted glasses - he actually died as a Hero.
bespangeled
bespangeled
Yeah, but his reasons weren't pure....XD
thetopher said:
The point of the amulet was really just a was for the writers to retroactively justify Buffy's somewhat questionable judgement for the latter part of that season ('see, she believed in him and so he saved the day for her...').
It came across as really contrived, especially since we'd just had the 'Spike is the reason Buffy managed to go and get the scythe' thing already- so he's already helped Buffy to become her 'best self'- that was a better bit of writing.
That actually resonated properly because it resembled a lot of what had come before in previous seasons- a friend/loved one giving Buffy the strength to be Buffy.
The 'I can feel my soul' moment- It wasn't earned or necessary really, just something more for the Spuffies.

Still, maybe some things are more important that an empowerment message, after all it kept Spike out her hair for a couple of years. No wonder Buffy's smiling at the end there. 😛
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The amulet itself, contrived and useless as we seem to agree that it was, served as a tie in with "Angel," Season 5, since it was a trap that the Senior Partners set, intending Angel to be the one who sprung it, rendering him under their power. At least, that's the way that the excuse that Joss gave goes. And, personally, I would just as soon have had Angel stay and wear the stupid thing. Sending as powerful a fighter as he was away, when she was desperate for troops was easily the most illogical thing that Buffy did the entire Season. Even if she had to chain Angel to the tree in the front yard to keep him and Spike from fighting, it would have been worth it, just for the extra help. The problem was, they had to figure out a way to get Spike onto Angel's show in such a way as to avoid out two favorite vampires from killing each other long enough to at least get used to being together again. There was no logical way to have Spike willingly move to L A and put up with an incorporeal Angel, so they kept Angel solid and ghostified Spike.

I must say, though, that it does seem like professional writers could have come up with something better, even if it was a last minute plot twist.
 
Mr. Pole said:
That's the thing also; if it were not for the comics, if that were truly the last you saw of Buffy I think you might look upon the ending more favorably.
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And I did... before over analyzing everything... the ex-machina amulet, sharing the power which seemed more sharing the burden etc...

After 7 years, the show had to end with a note of hope, and it did – BtVS was a different show, not dark as Angel was: big battle, everyone dead, the end – so it worked, if you don't mind the incongruities – like the Scythe, a weapon that was just a “dandified axe”, as white avenger said.
 
Mr. Pole said:
The scythe played out fine in Fray.. the problem was introducing it on the show.
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It is not for thee. It is for her alone to wield. (and Willow).

It had power, Faith felt that (It’s old... It’s strong and it feels like... like it’s mine), Willow used its energy for the spell, and later to restore magic – and that's it. Buffy, until now, hasn't being able to kill - or at least, do some damage - Archaeus with it, for instance. Where's its power?
 
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It's not a scythe - it's a Bardiche. It's a form of Halberd - weapons on both ends
 
the deus ex machina was just more proof that Whedon and Co. had phoned it in at that point. S7 was a categorical and comprehensive failure in my opinion.
 
bespangeled said:
buffy-scythe.jpg
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It's not a scythe - it's a Bardiche. It's a form of Halberd - weapons on both ends
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And if Giles, Buffy, or the unknown Guardian had called it a Bardiche or a halberd, or, for that matter, a naginata, how many of the viewers would have known just what the hell that was? They SHOULD have simply called it an axe. (In fact, that's what Angel did call it) That, at least would have been the most familiar term, and accurate as to how it was used on the show. Calling it a scythe, inaccurate as that was, gave it a more exotic name, while still being a something that the viewers were relatively familiar with.
 
Personally I've always hated the 'Scythe'. Apart from the misleading name It's looked horrible. Bright shiny red and silver finish that made it look like It had fallen out of a kids Christmas cracker and not like an ancient weapon at all. Really, really tacky.

I'm surprised it got past Whedon and co really. He should know better.
 
Let's just agree that the second half of S7 is nothing but a big mess.

As for the arguments about men saving the day... what's wrong with that? It's not like Buffy did nothing. She fought, kicked lots of asses, and she was the one who made the First cower with fear, "Get out of my face!"

In defense of Xander saving the world, he didn't "kick ass" in the traditional mucho hero sense with fists and kicks and Wesley's manly manly guns. He was always written as a the "traditional female supportive character." He saved the world because he told Willow that he loved her no matter what and that's what Willow needed at the moment. It was beautiful, but not, eh, your traditional "manly" - Buffy tends to save the world through fists. Xander saves the world through convincing, including The Zeppo. Gender roles switched. And one of the many reasons why I love Xander Harris!
 
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