How Would You Fix Season 7?

Oh yeah, S7 is dark, but in a "fighting against insurmountable odds" kind of way. S6 was a lot about character development, eg: Buffy's self-loathing (and sex with Spike as a result), Willow's struggle with magic (addiction), Xander's fear of committment, Giles' insecurities, etc. A character exploring their inner darkness makes for very compelling stories, and some of the best stories were told in S6. Buffy's story arc with Spike was very rivetting, and it explored attraction, obsession, lust and love. The Three Amigos aside, some of the most desperate fights in the Buffyverse were fought in S6, most of them being the characters fighting themselves.

One thing I did like about S7 was the explanation of the Slayers' powers. It turns out Dracula was right about Buffy's powers being very close to his and indeed "rooted in darkness". Nice to have that little dangler cleared up, but S7 left a lot of big danglers in my opinion.
 
I read your post KD, and my first reaction was "That is so true". I thought about it for a while then I found I had to qualify my reaction

I believe what you say is true but it isn't.

100% I agree with your assessment of how S6 examined the darker sides of the characters, but I'm not sure they rejected this view in Season 7.

The character issues introduced in the first half of Season 7 are dark. Most of them have to do with morality, and the struggle to remain good when all about them it is black. The problem is, again these tensions are never paid off. Sometimes you can do that, and that in itself is the pay off. That isn't the case here though. In the second half of Season 7. They simply shuffled character development down to a lesser priority, and concentrated on introducing, inconsequential, new characters, storylines, and what I'm sure they thought were clever bits. With the possible exception of episodes like Storyteller, and Lies My Parents Told Me, the tension of the dark character conflicts introduced in the first half are ignored in the the second.

Nevertheless I'm not sure a blanket statement thrown over the whole season, stating the character develpment of Season 7 wasn't dark is accurate. The darkness is there it just kind of faded into shadow in the second half.
 
Yes, I would agree that the possibilities for character development in S7 were back burnered for a lot of big fight scenes and a lot of red herrings. I'm not sure why this happened, but it seemed to me that Joss and co. were desperately trying to "spoil the spoilers". By that I mean they introduced dead ends and twists and throwaway characters and totally took their eye off the ball, just for the sake of being unpredictable. I never meant to imply that the deep character development in S6 was not continued in S7...it was, at first as you pointed out. But my overall impression of S7 is a big fight against a nearly all-powerful foe, and many squandered opportunities to make the whole thing truly interesting on so many levels.
 
Personally I think Season 7 does more than just carry over the dark feel of S6 for the early episodes. I think S7 went into the dumper shortly after the episode Showtime--right about mid-season.

Remember that scene in Bring on the Night where Willow is at the dining room table trying to do a summoning spell, and the First Evil possesses her?

What if they could have kept the whole of Season 7 at that level, where the characters are wrestling with issues of conscience, and at the same time fighting a genuinely, frightening evil capable of exploiting their weaknesses. Season 7 could have blown your mind with it's dark, spooky self.

You're not saying Conversations With Dead People isn't dark, are you?
 
I liked season 6 MUCH better than 7 if for no other reason than they really focused on EACH of the core characters. There were WAYYY too many people brought into season 7 and the original cast was lost in the shuffle.

I loved season 6 because of buffy and spike also.
 
Here'' how I would of made it.(I'' not saying I'm better than the writers of the show, since without them I wouldn't of had the idea to think of most of this, and I really did like this season.)

First, I would of kept everything up to sleeper, than change a lot of things starting with Never Leave Me.

I'd make it so that the seal wasn't something of evil, out of the seal came the sycthe. But it would only open if it had the blood of someone special, which is why I believe that the only people who have opened in the real series have been Spike, and Buffy with the rest of the potentials. Jonathon's and Xander's blood didn't do anything.

I would also introduce Caleb in the same ep as the seal opens the first time. He would be seen blowing up the council, and he would be the one to cut Spike. On the seal there would be markings, which Willow or Giles would figure out said "It is not for thee. It is for her alone to wield". But whenever Spike, Buffy, Faith, or any of the potentials are in the room, the words would mysteriously change and say "Has A Soul But Is More Than A Human" When the sycthe comes, it burns Caleb's hands since he is not the one to wield it, and disappears back into the seal.

Spike is kept hidden in the vineyard, since they know that he is the user of the amulet, and they also know that his blood can open the seal, and know that they can get the sycthe when they get enough power. They also wanted to make Buffy kill Spike by making him evil so that they're plan can't get traced back.

In the next episode, Bring On The Night, Annabelle, the SIT who ran away, is not killed by the uber-vamp, but is picked up by Caleb, and so the rest of the ep is almost the same as Dirty Girls, they go down to the vineyard and get their asses kicked. Nobody dies however, and Xander does lose his eye. Annabelle dies later in the hospital.

The next ep, Showtime, deals with what is Empty Places and Touched. Buffy wants to go back to the vineyard, the rest don't want to. Olny Xander stays on her side. Dawn does not choose a side, she is still thinking about the warning Joyce gave her, and the rest of the scoobies want to be there for her, but know that she shouldn't do this. The SITs hate her. Buffy stays at Xander's place for a few days, and he is the one who gives her the idea to speedblitz Caleb. She goes down to the vineyard, same kind of fight, Buffy finds and saves Spike in the trapdoor. After they leave, the First tells Caleb that it will never happen again, and they merge.

Potential, this ep should be VERY different. The first part of it involves them finding out Amanda is a potential and convincing her about the truth. The rest of the eps shows flashbacks of all the SITs and how they ended up in Sunnydale. Also in the subplot. Also Spike shows Buffy the seal, and they begin to find out about the writing, and that a powerful weapon is help inside.

The episode Killer In Me, would remain almost the same, except that more is added. When Kennedy leaves, Amy stand facing the first, taking the form of her mother(is she dead? I forgot. If not insert random dead person here.) And she says that the plan to destroy Willow's life are going as planned. The FE has spent months driving Amy insane, though it wasn't that hard to begin with. But she's just a pawn in a much bigger game.

After Willow and Kennedy kiss and the spell is reversed, we see Kennedy turning into the same kind of demon Ashanti was, a female bringer. She talks with the first. She is an agent of hers, using magic to help her become give off the essence of a potential. They talk about the master plan. They are going to use Amy as a way to get Willow to get to full power, and get them to go into a final confrontation. They both draw their powers from evil, so the more energy they use, the stronger the FE will get, and closer it will get to corpereal form. Apparently Willow's evil time in S6 is one of the reasons the First is able to start its attack.

First Date. This ep starts off with Wood, in the basement, holding an unconcisious woman, and cutting her. The blood pours on the seal, but nothing happens. Wood seems angry. That is the bloody knife he is seen carrying later. Buffy goes on the date and finds out about his past(which is true). In the end of the ep we see Wood talking to his mother/FE, and him promising to kill the bad vamp who killed her.
 
N4H:

I did like CWDP. It pushed the characters to deal with their problems, much like in S6. The whole psych-analysis for Buffy was particularly enlightening to her and us. But again, I return to your point about fading into the background. We saw little of this type of character development after this ep, and the demons the gang faced were real, not internal. CDWP is another example of how the year should have gone, but didn't. You're right, the potential (there's that word again) was ther for S7 to be dark and mind-blowingly spooky (see Billy Blood's post for a good example). Too bad.
 
Yeah... I think we're maybe both saying the same thing, only differently.

I've heard other people say CWDP is where Season 7 peaked and dumped. I like to think it was later, but maybe that's because I was such a fan of the early part of Season 7. I didn't want to believe it was gone.

The common ground is we both wish S7 could have followed where CWDP led. Unfortunately it didn't.

It wasn't even necessary that it ever reach that quality again. It only had to do the things you mentioned, (added character development, increased spookiness, continuity of the dark mood that was set). It could have been so special.
 
Maybe we can talk them into doing a movie, and doing it up right, although I think Joss was getting bored with BtVS. It kinda showed, and I still think the "cleverness" you alluded (oooooh, big word) to was just an attempt to thwart the spoilers. Besides, I think SMG was bored too, and probably won't want to reprise Buffy until some of her other options are explored. Maybe a guest shot on Angel...
 
How about a 3 episode mini series that explains all the behind the scenes stuff they missed in S7.

Stuff like: Was it the real Joyce in CWDP? Who planted the talisman in Lessons? What did Beljoxa's eye mean? Why did Annabelle run? How did Spike get his sanity back? (Was there a shrink hiding in the school basement?) BTW whatever happened to that pig? How did Amy get so much power, and still manage to think of herself as the weak witch? What does a character like Willow see in a drooling, teenaged, self-satisfying, lesbian skirt-chaser? Why does Giles the solution-finder, turn into Giles the "we're doomed and there's way out" guy? How could the loyal Xander turn on Buffy so easily? What caused the gigantic character changes between the beginning of Empty Places and the end of it? Where did Dawn suddenly get the authority to kick her older sister out of the house? After everything the citizens of Sunnydale have been through in 7 years, why did they suddenly get so scared they all decided to leave their homes? Why would a 6 ft 2 man with a shotgun run from an anorexic little blond girl? Why didn't the first just blow Casa Del Summers into splinters? (It had C-4). Why did the potential's parents give up their children so easily? How did Dawn learn so much about magic and demons so quickly? Why did the First go to the trouble of carving those symbols on Spike's chest? Why exactly is it that Jonathan doesn't have enough blood to open the Seal of Danzalthar, yet Wood can open it by scratching himself? Who was Danzalthar? Who were the Guardians? Where did they find those torches with a 5,000 year burning life? How did Caleb get hooked up with the first? Why couldn't D'hoffryn make up his mind about whether he wanted Anya dead or not? Were Turok Han the Uber-vamps of Showtime, or the Uber-weenies of Chosen? Why does an Uber-weenie turn to dust when you cut it's stomach? How does a fifteen year old British girl get a California driver's license? How does a Demon like Clem get a driver's license, registration, and a $30,000 punch buggy?

Wait a minute now. That's too much material for a mini-series isn't it? They could do a whole new series. They could call it series 7 1/2. They wouldn't even need SMG.
 
Second Part to my post! Ok, well just ignore what I said about Giles being possessed by the FE, I don't want that.

Ok, to verify, Wood is in cohoots with the FE to get revenge on Spike, but he's actually a pawn to get him to kill Spike. Amy does not know that she's a pawn for the first, she just thinks she's being haunted by her mom's ghost. Caleb has left town for now to deal with all the other hellmouths on Earth(I say there are 7-One in Sunnydale, Cleveland, China, England, Africa, the Caribean, and Turkey.) Soon they will all be open. He is also killing any rogue demon hunters, wiccans, noisy monks, and potentials he can find.

In Get It Done, Buffy is not so cold about Chloe, and does not give that horrible speach. The bag that Wood gives Buffy is a trick. The shadowmen are all actually the first. Though these are the origins of the first slayer, the FE is trying to give Buffy more demon so that it can controll her. The vision Buffy gets in the end is not the Uber-Vamps, but rather the seal. She hears a voice saying that it is for her to wield.

Storyteller is kept mostly in tact. Except that I would have it show Andrew telling his attraction to Dawn. I would of had Andrew somewhat flirting with her in the past few episodes. Buffy, after her vision, turn to Andrew to find out about it. The story of redemption here is that he helps her despite the First telling him that he can become the most powerful being in the world. Buffy and the potentials cuts their hands with Andrew's knife, and the scythe appears. She keeps it at home lcoked up.

In Lies My Parents Told Me, I would keep most of it, only add a lot more. In this ep, Hank Summers shows up in town. He says that he's getting married, and wants to get costudy of Dawn. Buffy is pretty pissed off that he comes back now, that he wasn't even there for them when Joyce died. But Buffy, after getting a visit from the first as Quentin Tavers, the head watcher, warning her that he will kill all of her friends, including Dawn. She decides to let Dawn go with him, but Dawn doesn't want to go. The first as Joyce comes to her again, repeating her message that Buffy won't choose her, and that she has to run away. Dawn does, and Hank and Buffy go out to search for her. She is running through the woods, where a group of bringers wait for her. Hank and Buffy however are right behind her, and Hank watches on as Buffy kills the demons. After a LOOONG explaination, Hank is pretty angry, but realizes why he has to leave. Buffy tells him that when this is all over, she'll call him. Dawn realizes that Joyce was the first. In the main story however, Spike and Wood do their fight, and the flashbacks and all. However, Wood has been possessed by the first, and is all black-eyed and super-powered. The song, Early One Morning, is playing on a continuatious loop. In the end, Spike kills Wood, while still be triggered. After all the mayhem, Giles and Buffy are talking at home. He asks her if she were in the same position again, would she sacrifice Dawn. Buffy said she would save the world...she'd jump off the tower again. Than they start talking about Spike, and Buffy realizes what's going on. She rushes to see Wood all possessed, and Spike killing him. After that, he goes back to normal, even though the song is still playing, and Buffy asks what happened, and he just says he realized something about his mother.

Than Dirty Girls comes, and so does Faith. And so does Caleb. In this ep they try to find out more about the scythe, but come up with nothing. However vampire and demon numbers seem to be rising, and dozens have been dying from severe neck trauma. Faith comes on to Spike, but he resists her. Buffy is royally pissed with Giles, even after he tried to apologize to her. Than at the dead of night, Caleb breaks in, a couple of potentials die, and he tries to get the scythe. But he gets burned, and Buffy and Faith are able to drive him out of the house, but not before the first is able to possess Buffy. The next night, she suufocates Molly in her sleep. But one of the other potentials wakes up, and starts screaming. The whole house wakes up, and they realize what's going on. Faith starts to beat her up, but it isn't enough. Willow relunctantly castes a spell to try and exorcise her, and she goes all black-haired, and Buffy seems to be getting stronger. But then her hair turns back to normal, and Buffy seems ok.
 
You're sounding a bit bitter, N4H. All your questions deserve answering, but I don't think we'll be getting them any time soon, if at all. The more we talk, the more disappointed I become at the way S7 was handled. I think we were seeing Joss saying "bored now" (is this a non-sequiter or what!!!). Mini-series or movie, or even clarification on Angel...any would be better than what we're doing, sitting here getting more and more grumpy about what could have been.
 
Yeah, I guess... and the more I think about it, the more I'm starting to agree with the people who say Joss's heart just didn't seem to be in it anymore (although Lessons still had that spark).

I think the best indication Joss just didn't care any more, is the fact Chosen was only a 1 hour episode. Everything seemed to call for it to be a 2 hour special. Maybe it's best the series did end when it did.

BTW, didn't the Buffy writer, David Fury write for Pinky and the Brain?
 
Yup. I still think Pinky and the Brain is one of the funniest shows ever made. Buffy made me laugh out loud a lot, but Pinky and the Brain made me laugh every ep. The Fury Buffy eps were some of the best too!
 
I really do think that oo much emphasis was put on SPike and Buffy this year. I barely remembering seeing Dawn. After that speech Xander gave her in Potential, I thought we were going to see something very heroic from her. Then she zapped Xander in "End Of Day" and I was thinking "Yes, this is going to answer many questions" and what happens? A kick in the ankle, A DAMN kick in the ankle. I read somewheree though that the amulet that Angel gave to Buffy would also have been able to work with Dawn since she has a soul (Im guessing. We really never learned that becasue being human doesn't neccessarily mean you have a soul, but Dawn was genuinely good so she probably does) and is more than human. However, Buffy doesn't CHOOSE her, like Joyce says, and she chooses Spike to wear it. However, i guess Joss was running out of time and probably thought "They probably forgot about that already. i can just skip that part." However, it would have answered an ongoing mystery that never got solved. maybe since he didn't put it in, it will be able to get resolved another way in the future.
 
So, Little William, you're implying that "The Key" can still open the lock, or even another one?

My actual question is this: was that ever resolved?
 
Well, Dawn is mystical energy and nowhere did it actually say that that energy left her after the portal was closed in The Gift. She only thinks she doesn't open anything anyomore, she doesn't know for sure. So that could be left wide open. However, it could go either way now that it wasn't in the episode. But I did read somewhere that the part was in the original script for Chosen. Don't know why it was taken out.
 
Originally posted by nerd4hire
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.
Click to expand...


Sorry, I disagree. I saw nothing wrong with Season 7 - well, aside from Anya telling Spike that Giles may be the FE. Never understood that bit.

And I would keep the Potentials. I believe they played a major, major role in the development of Buffy's personal story. Buffy's relationship with Potentials seemed almost parallel to her old relationship with the Watchers' Council - only with slight differences, in the end. Personally, I believe that the Potentials were more important to Buffy's development as an adult than the Scoobies were, at this time.
 
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