How Would You Fix Season 7?

nerd4hire

nerd4hire

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I'm a big fan of Season 7. Even so, if you put me in a corner and twisted my arm just a bit, I'd freely admit to finding it flawed as Hell--especially the second half.

It's irritating, because one can't help thinking it could be easily repaired. What would you do to fix Season 7.

Here's what I'd do.

1. Pay more attention to the character developments of the core 4 (Willow, Xander, Giles and Buffy)

2. Clarify the rules governing what the First Evil can and can't do.

3. Devote at least 1 episode to the more interesting Potentials. Who exactly were Molly, Vye, Rona, and Kennedy. Where did they come from? What were they like? What events led to their coming to Sunnydale. Seeing it with my own eyes would have made the whole Potential thing fit in better.

4. Foreshadow the stuff that appears to be just stuffed into the final arc of 5 episodes (Caleb, the Guardian, the tomb, and the scythe).

5. Not allow the lesser writers (Greenberg and Kirshner) anywhere near the final arc of 5 episodes.

6. Make the finale a two hour episode.
 
Wow. Good ideas. I especially like the idea of an episode devoted to the potentials. Maybe if they'd had an entire episode dealing with one potential, and the confusion she was facing - she probably wouldn't even know why they were after her. Following her for a whole story would have been great.

I'm thinking that they could have:

1: Introduced the scythe early on so it didn't seem like an afterthought. No one thought that the hammer Buff used in The Gift was cheesy, because it had been sitting around gathering dust for awhile. They wouldn't necessarily have to let it be in the possession on Buffy, but maybe have it around in the story in some way.

2: Taken alot of the scenes with the harbringers and maybe even Caleb, and spaced them back throughout the earlier eps, without making it obvious that it was a major issue. Yeah, we'd know it was The First, but we wouldn't actually come into contact with TFE until later in the series.

3: Have TFE masquerading as someone you get to know through the season, but never appearing as TFE to the audience for the bulk of the season. They did this with the dead SIT, but I'm thinking of someone you'd actually like, and the characters might actually respect, and besides - we knew TFE was running around pretending to be people so the SIT never came as a surprise. That way it could be like TFE is always there, but there is no reason it would be so stupidly overt when it has talents in the realm of deception. As it was, TFE came off as a bit of a chump to me - with the ability to look like any dead person I could have done ALOT more damage than the TFE who was about as subtle as a punch in the nose.

4: Made SURE to spread out the plot twists throughout the whole season. They could have interspersed these unveilings within all the other side-stories that were happening. As it was, they dealt with each matter fully and completely before they moved on to the next. It would have been so much more menacing if the Evil-Manipulated-Spike thing was tangled in with the final story arc, and I'm sure most matters would have seemed better that way. Of course, if they spaced it out, the final story arc would have been longer...
 
I would have made Kennedy evil.

It just didn't feel right, how easily Willow forgot the love (Tara) she was willing to destroy the world for.

Right now in Season 7, Kennedy looks like the lesbo equivalent of a player, and Willow just looks easy.

If Kennedy had been evil, and brain diddling Willow to corrupt her, a lot of things would have made more sense; Willow's unnatural weakness of character, and cowardice in dealing with her dark magic problem, for instance.

What if in the wine cellar scene Willow had gone along instead of Spike, and discovered Kennedy's dark nature there.

Caleb could have chucked Xander to Kennedy after he plucked his eye out and said "Finish Him".

This would have been enough to activate Power-Willow. She could have killed Evil-Kennedy, and set up a barrier for everyone to escape. I always thought it was too easy how everyone got out of there.

In my alternative Season 7 universe Kennedy would have turned out to be one of those Ashanti-demons that tried to sacrifice Xander over the seal in First Date.
 
I seen a interview about the Willow/Kennedy relationship the other day. I believe it was Espenson that said Kennedy is the rebound girl, just like Reily was the rebound guy to Buffy. If I remember correctly, they said Kennedy isn't a long term partner for Willow....I just seen the interview the other day, and already I forgot most of what they said.....
 
1. I would have NEVER had willow involved w/ kennedy, if it wasn't tara it should have been another guy. Bring oz back for some comfort

2. add more comic relief. it was good what they did w/ andrew but they didn't have many light moments at ALL

3. The whole 'potential' storyline was lame as hell and they overshadowed dawn for the entire season.

4. Buffy and Spike should have gotten together in a more real way. I hated how their relationship ended.
 
Although I've never hated Kennedy, I love your ideas for her, nerd4hire.

One thing I know that ticked me off, that hasn't been mentioned, is that the writers just seemed to have forgotten that Dawn is not just a regular teen. I mean, did the whole Key idea just disappear? They easily could've used that throughout the season or in the last core episodes to fight the big fight.

There were just way too many filler episodes, and they focused on Spike for too long. It felt like it would never end. They could've used those episodes for nerd4hire's forshadowing idea of Caleb, the scythe, etc...

Wood was slightly a stupid idea to bring into the series. All he did was add to the elongated Spike storyline, and it had no purpose to main story of the First.

There should've been more to Xander and Anya's dealio. They've both been in the series so long and they were completely rejected through the whole season. At least the two of them could've had some better closure than just sex.
 
Careful, 5X5, you're encouraging me, this is never good. Now I have to tell you how I've been rewriting the whole death of Kennedy thing in my head.

Now Kennedy doesn't die in the wine cellar. Instead Willow flies Kennedy head-first through a wine keg.

Kennedy finishes the rest of the season at the side of Caleb and the First, no longer looking like Kennedy, but now unmasked as the thing Ashanti turned into in First Date.

In the climatic battle, the Kennedy-demon is clad in chain mail, and brandishing a steel axe. She comes face to face with Buffy. They start with a word fight.

Kennedy starts grossing on Willow. She says "I'll say one thing for Willow, she was a good..."

Before she can finish the sentence, Buffy wields the scythe, and with one slice whizzes through Kennedy, axe, chain mail and all. Kennedy flies away into 2 sections to either side of the cavern.

The top half is still talking. It says "piece of..."

Buffy leaps 20 feet in one bound, and slices down with the scythe, quartering the top of half of the Kennedy-demon's torso and cutting 6 inches into the floor of the cavern.

Buffy cocks the scythe for another swing and says, "Just keep talking bitch".

***

You don't mess with Buffy's buddies
 
Originally posted by nerd4hire
3. Devote at least 1 episode to the more interesting Potentials. Who exactly were Molly, Vye, Rona, and Kennedy. Where did they come from? What were they like? What events led to their coming to Sunnydale. Seeing it with my own eyes would have made the whole Potential thing fit in better.
Click to expand...

Well I'd say the scary hooded blind guys with knives kinda scared the watchers out of watching to save these girls and set them on the path but the blind guys with knives would given them a hint 😀

But I myself thought Season 7 was on par with the classic season 2... although angel in the final episode, just didn't seem right, apart from the cookie analogy 😀
 
yeah i totally think they could've bettered this storyline, made it a LOT more suspenseful like S5 was... they really screwed it up since TFE is incorporeal.. they shouldve made it become corporeal at one point or something and use that as the final villian..

caleb shoul'dve come in early in the season along with the ubervamps so they're seen as one medium-bad and then ended with the death of caleb triggering the corporealization of TFE or something and then TFE would be the Big Bad

ARG this could've been a better season than S2... and they totally fudged it up!!

cliff
 
Season 7 is my third favorite season, but there is a lot of stuff I would've changed.

First, I would have cut out Him. It was funny, but way too fluffy. Like nerd4hire said, they could replace it with a story about one of the Potentials.

They could have just left Wood out of the season. He was a good match for Faith, but boring and like FivebyFiveB said, it just lengthened the Spike story. Although I love Spike, I think they focused way too much of him this year.

When the First decided to take it's little break mid-season, they could have had it attempting to manipulate more people, stuff like that. Most of those mid-season episodes were just boring and filled with too much fluff, so I would have liked to see more of that.

I also would have combined Touched and Empty Places. There was great moments in each, but a lot of it seemed to fluffy. THe Scoobies could've kicked Buffy out after she decided to let Spike live and maybe have him kill one of the potentials and move Lies My Parents told me after Dirty Girls, but still explain how Spike overcame the chip.

Instead of Touched, which would now be part of Empty Places, they should've dedicated an episode to the core Scooby Gang. Giving more emphasis on them and the growing rift between them and reaching a satisfying reconciliation. The one in Chosen seemed way to rush.

I would keep Chosen the same, with the exception of a few things. I think they should have made, in the episode beforehand, Buffy finding a new weapon similar to the thing Angel gave her. This weapon could be the cross Angel gave Buffy in the very first episode. Also, the First could somehow attack Buffy in the end and Spike could jump in front of her and save her that way. Then, since as FivebyFiveB said, the writers pretty much dropped the Key thing, I think Dawn could have used the remains of her Key-y powers to lock the Hellmouth with the First inside it. Then, Dawn could loose all her Keyness and get to be completely normal. I think that would haev been cool.

IMO, if Joss would have done something along those lines, I prolly wiould have enjoyed season 7 as a whole more and maybe even have it as my first or second favorite season. 😀
 
I didn't enjoy "Him" that much at first either. But now I watch it, and it really reminds me of a generic season 1 or 2 episode. It presents a old school feel I think. A great filler episode with some actual comedy.....There's not much I would of changed this season, other then tightening up the plot. Turok Han is strong early on, then they are weak near the end? I've made an excuse for that happening, but it's a big flaw. Potentials were a pain, not too fond of them. And the First Evil wasn't a great villain due to it's noncorporeal form like everyones said already. But the season wasn't entirely about a evil entity, it was about self knowledge. The First Evil almost taught something to each of them accidently while blabbing. Otherwise I think the season was a huge improvement over Season 6, and it's about the same quality as the 5th year.
 
Khaych:

What if rather than introduce the actual scythe early in the series, you just suggested the idea of the scythe.

For example:

Remember in Empty places when Spike and Andrew go the monastery Caleb attacked years earlier. It was interesting, and there was great chemistry between the 2 actors. I suggest cutting it anyways, and moving the monastery event to earlier in the season.

After Showtime the Uber-Vamp was destroyed and the tension of the conflict with the First Evil began to dissipate.

Go back to Never Leave Me when the Watcher's building blew up. Right there you could introduce Caleb by simply showing a figure in Priest garb enjoying the show of the explosion.

After Showtime you re-introduce the preacher with a scene that begins:

1999: a monastery in southern California.

Here you show the actual event of Caleb reading the inscription that introduces the possibility of the Scythe. He kills all but one of the monks. That monk puts on civvies and runs out the door.

We follow the monk through the remainder of the season as he travels around California, talking to clerics, discovering the existence of the tomb and the Guardians.

In the mean time you introduce the notion that the symbols carved on Spike's chest in Never Leave Me mean something. The wounds don't heal. He shows them to Buffy. Buffy shows them to Giles. Giles reads them. Somehow they suggest the existence of the scythe. Giles gets Dawn researching it. She discovers the story of the event in the monastery. Now Andrew and Spike hop on the bike to look for the monk. We know if they find him, the scoobies will know about the Scythe, the tomb, and the guardians. We want the terrible duo to find the monk.

I think this alternate storyline would respark the tension that was lost in the second half of the season. Also it would foreshadow the stuff that looked forced in the second half of the season. What do you think?

BTW Pezz, I s-o-o-o agree with you about cutting Him. I personally would nominate that one as worst Buffy episode ever.

I suspect it was forced into Season 7 for the pre-grade 10 crowd. They really do seem to like it.

Nevertheless, in my opinion it just doesn't fit into Season 7. It seems to throw the whole season off-balance.
 
Season 7 is probably my favourite after season three, but there are a couple of things I would've changed.

1. Fewer potentials. The idea of gathering as big an army as possible was good, but some episodes got bogged down with all those teenage girls running round. In Bring on the Night, Giles said there were only a handful of potential slayers left, and it shouldn't have been anymore than a handful. I would've stuck with just a few core SITs instead; Kennedy, Rona, Vi, Chao-Ahn, Molly, Amanda, Shannon, Eve, Chloe and Annabelle. Also, I would've made Dawn a junior slayer - that would stop her character fading into the background as much as it did.

2. I wouldn't have intoduced Principal Wood. He played too big a part for just a guest character, and the writers would've been better giving more material and development to Xander and Giles instead. Alternatively, they could've introduced him, but have Dawn continually think there was something evil about him and eventually expose him as some sort of demon midway through the season. It could be a more comical element of the season, like Buffy's roommate Kathy in season four.

3. Have the First Evil reside in the form of Joyce rather than Buffy; I think it would've been creepier.

4. Willow would overcome her problems with using magic a lot earlier in the series. For too long she sat on the sidelines being nervous about getting black roots... Also, I would've avoided a relationship between her and Kennedy - they have no sparkage whatsoever.

5. Have Andrew use his ability to summon demons. I'm sure the scoobies could've found one or two that would be useful in their fight against the first.

6. Get Xander and Anya back together, and have Xander sacrifice himself to D'Hoffryn as an exchange for leaving Anya in peace.
 
I wish they could have done more with buffy and spike... developed they're relationship or something more that he had a soul...
 
Originally posted by Khaych
Wow. Good ideas. I especially like the idea of an episode devoted to the potentials. Maybe if they'd had an entire episode dealing with one potential, and the confusion she was facing - she probably wouldn't even know why they were after her. Following her for a whole story would have been great.

I'm thinking that they could have:

1: Introduced the scythe early on so it didn't seem like an afterthought. No one thought that the hammer Buff used in The Gift was cheesy, because it had been sitting around gathering dust for awhile. They wouldn't necessarily have to let it be in the possession on Buffy, but maybe have it around in the story in some way.
Click to expand...

Originally posted by mmmdonuts
yeah i totally think they could've bettered this storyline, made it a LOT more suspenseful like S5 was... they really screwed it up since TFE is incorporeal.. they shouldve made it become corporeal at one point or something and use that as the final villian..

caleb shoul'dve come in early in the season along with the ubervamps so they're seen as one medium-bad and then ended with the death of caleb triggering the corporealization of TFE or something and then TFE would be the Big Bad

ARG this could've been a better season than S2... and they totally fudged it up!!

cliff
Click to expand...

Originally posted by AberAngelus
Season 7 is probably my favourite after season three, but there are a couple of things I would've changed.

1. Fewer potentials. The idea of gathering as big an army as possible was good, but some episodes got bogged down with all those teenage girls running round. In Bring on the Night, Giles said there were only a handful of potential slayers left, and it shouldn't have been anymore than a handful. I would've stuck with just a few core SITs instead; Kennedy, Rona, Vi, Chao-Ahn, Molly, Amanda, Shannon, Eve, Chloe and Annabelle. Also, I would've made Dawn a junior slayer - that would stop her character fading into the background as much as it did.

2. I wouldn't have intoduced Principal Wood. He played too big a part for just a guest character, and the writers would've been better giving more material and development to Xander and Giles instead. Alternatively, they could've introduced him, but have Dawn continually think there was something evil about him and eventually expose him as some sort of demon midway through the season. It could be a more comical element of the season, like Buffy's roommate Kathy in season four.

3. Have the First Evil reside in the form of Joyce rather than Buffy; I think it would've been creepier.

4. Willow would overcome her problems with using magic a lot earlier in the series. For too long she sat on the sidelines being nervous about getting black roots... Also, I would've avoided a relationship between her and Kennedy - they have no sparkage whatsoever.

5. Have Andrew use his ability to summon demons. I'm sure the scoobies could've found one or two that would be useful in their fight against the first.
Click to expand...

Originally posted by Midnight Breeze
I wish they could have done more with buffy and spike... developed they're relationship or something more that he had a soul...
Click to expand...

For all of these things (with a slight twist on the stuff contained in demand #5 of AberAngelus' post) and more, see the link in my sig.
 
Definately more about Amy. I mean she was just there for one episode apparently bent on ruining Willow's life, than she just left. What was the point of that? Couldn't they of made her an agent of the first or something, so we could have a big final battle between them?
 
It sounds like I'm a minority in saying that I liked S6 the best. Could be because it was the first season I watched in it's first run (I was a late comer to the Buffyverse). People complained about the dark tone of S6, but I like my stories dark. And OMWF. I like my musicals too!

All the ideas for fixing S7 are intriguing. I have a few gripes, but few solutions. The scythe was introduced too abruptly. The death of Anya got very little play. "From beneath you it devours" became a throw away line with no meaning. It seemed like so many potential plotlines (no pun intended) were squandered, and that some were just made up on a whim. I'm kinda dissatisfied with S7, and I don't know how to fix it...wait...how 'bout a movie! Or tie up the loose ends gradually over the next year of Angel. That would work for me.
 
Here's my take on the basic flaw of Season 7.

The first half of the the season was great. It set up a gigantic mystery filled with smaller riddles.

There was all this mystery wrapped in an enigma stuff. Radical character changes that promised to be explained, buzzy little phrases like "From beneath you" and "It's about power" that intimated larger things, questions like what did Beljoxas eye mean, who is Wood, or was it the real Joyce.

By reading the posts at the message boards from the first half of the season I can tell we bought it. We ate it up. We were crazy, anxious to turn the page and see what happened next.

In the Second half however there was no payoff and that rankled. The story meandered off in all directions. The tension of the mystery was lost and the depth promised in the first half of the season was never delivered on.

One last thing... KD, don't you think Season 7 is also dark?
 
Originally posted by killerdwarf
It sounds like I'm a minority in saying that I liked S6 the best. Could be because it was the first season I watched in it's first run (I was a late comer to the Buffyverse). People complained about the dark tone of S6, but I like my stories dark. And OMWF. I like my musicals too!
Click to expand...

You're not in the minority; it just might seem like it at times. BTW, I LOVE S6 (as is evidenced by my custom title), and I love it for all of the reasons that the S6 haters think were mistakes on the part of Joss and Co. (Buffy/Spike sex, Buffy being depressed, the DMP, the Troika/Trio, etc.)
 
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