Question I really like who Buffy became in season 7. IMO She's a warrior general! Am I alone?

[DeepBlueJoy]

Basically, I come down on the side of Buffy in season seven. In some ways, season seven is the one I like least -- mostly because of the horrible, out of character writing of the other characters. I will, however, give the writers this: all the behavior of the friends is foreshadowed and supported by things they did in the first five seasons. Still, in most of the big fights, at the end, they always came together. In this fight, they came apart. That is uncharacteristic. They were always somewhat dysfunctional, but when the rubber hit the road, they always had Buffy's back and especially after season two, it was clear that she, not Giles, was the one in charge. (Even back then, she did knock him out, but she deferred to him for most of the first couple of seasons; up through Helpless, really).

Anyway, in my opinion, while I detested the actions of most of the rest of the characters at least some of the time and would have changed much, I was very proud of Buffy, pretty much in ever episode. I believe she got stronger, and wiser.

I absolutely do believe she did make mistakes. Humans do. I do believe she wasn't always the best listener, but she listened to them a bit too much in seasons five and six, so much so that she was ashamed to ask for what she needed and turned to her best friends less and less. This time, I think she needed to trust her own mind, and listening to them would make her mind equivocate, something that doesn't make for good functioning, or good leadership.

I believe season seven made her into the leader she became and showed the weakness of having amateurs for support. It also showed the weakness of Giles in not taking on the training of the potentials, and not toughening them up. Giles is at his worst this season. He is barely there, then he comes, demands and undercuts. He seems to expect soft, obedient Buffy, but he gives her a barracks to run, and a war to plan. That was a no win situation. She could either lead, and sometimes 'break eggs' or she could waffle, and lose the entire war.

This was a war. In war people die.

Pretty much always. You MUST act on too little information, b/c the enemy doesn't announce all the advantageous choices you can make or the resources that might be available. Recklessness isn't that people die. Everyone dies.

In an apocalypse, I want to die kicking or shooting, not cringing in a sewer or under my bed. If the untrained rabble follows me into the den of demons, some of them won't come back. I'm sorry. I'll weep for them, but I won't apologize for ANY of their deaths.

Recklessness is bringing 30 odd CHILDREN to the mouth of hell without any modern weapons, any other adults, any support, and expecting ONE young adult to hone them into an army as well as to fight the war her self and protect everyone... without rest, without financial resources, without any support, while publicly undercutting her and privately going behind her back.

Why didn't anyone back up a gasoline tanker and empty the contents into the half opened hellmouth, then light it up? What, you tell me a witch with a glamor and a man with construction experience couldn't commandeer one of those? Or some high explosives from the base?

Instead of undercutting Buffy, they should have been gathering guns, explosives, magical weapons, witches... this was the last stand, people. TV has plenty of resources for this, so you can't tell me there wasn't anyone Giles could find with requisite experience. Heck, Wesley could find gun dealers...

Recklessness is turning your back on the person who has kept you alive on the mouth of hell for 7 years, without a thought to how you'll survive without her.

Reckless is turning her out onto dangerous streets to DIE ALONE without any help.

How can you turn your 'friend' (because they were not acting as friends, they were a mob) out into a deserted town alone? How could you think this behavior was forgivable? Human? Sane?

Going into the vineyard, wasn't reckless. It was essential. Maybe if they'd thrown a few explosives in first, they might have killed some of the demons before the demons killed them? Maybe, given the fight they were in (clearing the town, people, it's the end of all things!!!) the 'adults' should have looked to how they might have given support to Buffy, instead of trying to take away the ONE other person there who could fight. It might have been helpful if they'd worked harder to detrigger him. Even if Wood hated him (with justification), he should have tabled the fight -- his mother would have. You don't kill half of the fighting team available. That is poor strategic thinking. That is why we allied with the Russians in WWII - not because they were the 'good guys'.

The MISSION was what mattered. A good argument could be made that it was ALL that mattered at that point.

Even if Spike had eaten half the potentials because of the trigger, that would have been sad but an acceptable loss, IMO. (and would have made his later disposal by Wood completely justifiable) (someone should have eaten Andrew!!😵😎) Bottom line - as long as he were willing to fight the demons, Spike would still have been an asset. With the world in balance? 30 potentials (and the lives of all of them, really) simply were not that important in the final analysis - survival of the world is.

That is what I think Buffy got. That is not cold. That is General Thinking. If the base is under attack and blowing it up saves the world from invading hordes, the general will blow up the base. (I'm a fan of Stargate)

 

[Bop]

Well, Buffy's always been a warrior and a far better one in earlier seasons.
Saying Buffy's behaviour is General behaviour doesn't make it anymore likable or relatable. Buffy was being completely hypocritical and entitled when she told Robin she'd let him be killed by Spike...what part of that is okay? I can't call that Buffy my hero because that's not how a hero behaves. And the idea that Spike was crucial to winning the war is not understandable, it's not as if Buffy could see into the future...Spike's a vampire not the terminator. Buffy defended him at all costs because of personal reasons not because he's useful.

 

[thrasherpix]

I might given an equally long response on why I disagree with you on many points later (along with your choice of wording in the poll questions), but for now I just wanted to say you seem to be forgetting that Buffy didn't win it. Wolfram & Hart did, or at least Lindsey hoping to trick Angel into using the McGuffin Medallion (and if it preserved the world for him to rule it as a member of the Black Thorn later then that's a convenient fringe benefit as well). Without the medallion it was all for nothing.

On the plus side, at least when good falters as Buffy and the others did in season 7 BTVS, then we can count on the more competent evil rivals of the villain to save the day! 😛

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

General Patton wouldn't have allowed his troops to kick him out of his own house. 😛

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

It seems the fault was with the way the others behaved.

I would have been much colder than her. I would never have spoken to them again after they threw me out of my own house. I actually would have said, no, YOU are the ones who can't stay, you should leave.

Other people's feelings don't matter in a war, only stopping the enemy and trying not to die. I'm sorry her friends were scared and expected a little romp in the park. The biggest evil in existence was trying to become corporeal and take over the planet and over run it with hordes of nearly unkillable vampires...

Even if I decided to concede to you that the folks at Wolfram and Hart saved the day... The ONLY person of that lot who got anything useful for the fight was Buffy, who got the scythe and who kept the human torch alive long enough to be used in the sacrifice.

She was right to send Angel off -- if (as she reasonably suspected they might) they had failed, Angel would have been the back up plan.

She had a real vision of what was happening. The scoobies and the others thought this was a game. She was willing to sacrifice herself and everyone else to try to win. That was the right choice. The ONLY choice. If she'd lost everyone and died, but the hellmouth had been closed, I would have called that a win.

If she had walked away when they threw her out and Spike had followed her, they would NOT have won. So you are wrong. Without them, there would have been no victory, necklace or not.

Here's how Buffy won the war for them:

• BUFFY chose to use the necklace. I suspect Giles would not have taken anything from Angel.
• Spike wore it because he was still ALIVE. Because of Buffy.
• Without the scythe and the changing of the potentials into slayers, they would have been overrun. BUFFY got that.

So, you may want to believe that 'evil Buffy' and 'horrible Spike' should have known their places; that Buffy should have been obedient and funny and let the betrayers and USELESS potentials walk all over her, and let Wood play Russian Roulette with their war...

If Faith had been in charge, she would have gotten people killed too... and she would have obeyed Giles and not gotten the scythe. B/c she wanted not to rock the boat... to be seen as the 'good slayer'.

When Faith did try to go into the Vineyard, she nearly died and she did lose girls too... In fact, who saved them all? Buffy.

Buffy would have been well within her rights to have simply killed Wood, but heroes don't do that. What he did was basically a treasonous/court-martialable offense if this had been military.

He tried to disable their ONLY other warrior IN A TIME OF WAR.

Wood was a proven threat to their war and not a proven asset.

I happen to like Wood and sympathize with him. How could I not? I think they handled it just right, particularly given the fact that he'd just allied with her 'trusted mentor' to betray her. I would have been pretty upset after that!

She made it clear to Wood that he couldn't make another try without losing his life. She HAD to make sure he wouldn't try to kill Spike again. Threatening his life, killing him were her only options. If she'd kicked Wood out (where she wouldn't be able to stop him trying to kill Spike, maybe from a distance), she would have lost a potentially useful asset and not guaranteed the threat would be gone.

If she hadn't shown herself serious about killing Wood, Wood would have tried to kill Spike again.
 

General Patton wouldn't have allowed his troops to kick him out of his own house. 😛

I agree. I would have kicked them out.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

General Patton wouldn't have allowed his troops to kick him out of his own house. 😛

I agree. I would have kicked them out.

Holy crap. Mr. Patton? Is that you?

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

Generals aren't supposed to be relatable. They're supposed to win the war, preferably without losing all the troops. Warriors kill the enemy. They aren't nice and lovey-dovey. She stripped away all that nice girl, cute-itude b/c she didn't have the energy for it, and the strangers in her house wouldn't have respected her if she'd been 'best friend buffy'. Best friend Faith is a reasonable role of the second in command, btw... or the morale officer. Being nice, comfort mom was Andrew's job, maybe Dawn's job. It wasn't Buffy's job.

I don't like the watcher's council at all, but they did get something right. The fighters in the war? They ARE the tools that get the job done. The job is what matters. Caring about them does matter, and there's a time and place for that.

The middle of the war?

Not the time. Not the place.

When your humvee hits the IED, no one's gonna coddle your feelings, they're gonna shoot the enemy, collect the injured (and if possible, the dead) and get the the he## out of danger. No one cares if you're terrified. Of COURSE you're terrified! Do your job. After it's over, we'll deal with how horrible you feel.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

@DeepBlueJoy "A hero probably wouldn't have risked their lives" you mean risked their lives more than she already had? She put their lives at risk, needlessly and on a whim, all throughout the season.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

@DeepBlueJoy "A hero probably wouldn't have risked their lives" you mean risked their lives more than she already had? She put their lives at risk, needlessly and on a whim, all throughout the season.

I don't agree. I think that throwing them onto the street didn't serve the fight in anyway and though it's what they deserved, it would have still been an immoral act to put them out there with the monsters.

Most of the things she actually did, some of which were risky, were either intended as training, or as an attempt to gain ground in the fight. That some didn't make it is just the way things go in a fight. They were green. They were incompetent. The things she did were basically basic training. In combat because she didn't really have an option. Either you're part of the fight, or someone needs to protect you. She wasn't in the position to spare people to protect them. She shouldn't have been put in the role of bodyguard/nanny. I doubt the WC would have done that, btw.... they'd have tried to hide away the potentials in a tall tower some place, and sent the slayer and any other fighters out to try to win the war. The potentials should never have been brought to Sunnydale... now, if some of them had come on their own, that would have been fine, but they would have needed to recognize that they were coming to help fight, not to get protection. That was just ridiculous. You don't bring pets to the front lines. You bring dragons and howitzers, not puppies and unicorns.

 

[EarthLogic]

Lots of food for thought, though I may have to come back to address most of this topic later. Based on where I am on the S7 rewatch I agree with you about Giles - it was ludicrous for him to just bring these untrained, largely clueless girls to Buffy and just dump them on her entirely for protection without even trying to train them himself. He may not have been a Watcher any more but that's never stopped him training Buffy - why couldn't he start on that level with the girls? And what happened to the team? Why 'you' have to protect these girls, why not 'we'? Yes Buffy's the Slayer and because of her power it does fall to her to take the lead, but doesn't mean he does zilch. To me it was bad writing for him. A lot of the nuance of the former Giles was taken away in order to fit him into this role.

This I do not agree with - except maybe the Andrew part 😛:

Even if Spike had eaten half the potentials because of the trigger, that would have been sad but an acceptable loss, IMO. (and would have made his later disposal by Wood completely justifiable) (someone should have eaten Andrew!!😵😎) Bottom line - as long as he were willing to fight the demons, Spike would still have been an asset.

Slayers are shown to be stronger than vampires. 15 activated potentials would be way more of an asset in the Hellmouth than one vamp - that's Buffy's power x 15 (kind of- they don't yet have the accumulated strength from experience - so lets knock a few off - maybe 3-4 slayers? That would still be Buffy x 11).

 

[Grace]

I don't have any military experience myself, but my understanding is that most of those training to be officers in the U.S. are required to memorize this quote:

"The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling, but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or other of dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them respect for himself. While he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect towards others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself."
— John M. Schofield

I do not support the Scoobies' actions in Empty Places, far from it. But it's evidence that Buffy failed, at least temporarily, in her role as general, since she lost her own army. It doesn't matter if they were being jerks -- you can't be a general if people are unwilling to follow you. Buffy is smart and has great instincts, but she stopped inspiring confidence. I don't blame Buffy for that; she was basically set up to fail by the system (personified by Giles).

Ultimately, I don't think the point of Season 7 is that Buffy was a great general and utilitarian ethics are fine and dandy. I think the point is that Buffy was put in an impossible situation and the only solution was not to play by the established rules but to change everything.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

I don't think she starts out as a great general. I think she becomes one. I think she makes a lot of mistakes. She isn't leading an army until the very end. She's trying to herd cats. Of course she fails, for the reasons you said. She had no support. She had no preparation. She had to write the playbook b/c she wasn't given one.

You make good points. And she isn't utilitarian. It's why she sticks around and tries to take care. She does know that when the rubber hits the road, she still has to save the world, army or no army.

She wasn't the person who was brutal with the potentials. That was Kennedy, who probably caused a suicide.

There are plenty of times that troops aren't happy with generals. Particularly when the war is almost unwinnable and the odds of dying seem way better than survival.

That is when your XO and the rest of your support system should be doing one of two things, preferably both.

(1) support you in public
(2) bring their (legitimate) concerns to you in private.

The lady did the best she had with what she had. Yes, she was tough on them, if she hadn't been, they'd have fallen even further apart. She had to show them that things were scary. She wasn't happy to be burying them. What she said? It was right. It was needed. No, it wasn't fun.

If you look at basic training, however, you'll find it is rather harsh. It's not fun at all. It's supposed to prepare to you survive, and to kill the enemy. It is NOT a cake walk. People occasionally even die during basic (and during other training) -- and they AREN'T being trained during a war.

When they were training us at the fire department, we had to walk around with a full pack up to when our air ran out... and then for a bit after it ran out... so we would know what it felt like in an emergency... and so we wouldn't panic. Was it fun? Hot, very heavy gear, in hot weather, and running low on air, no? Was it cruel, also no.

In the military, training is both hard and potentially very dangerous. It's to prepare you for realities that are even more than potentially dangerous and hard. It is how you are prepared to handle the unexpected, awful. Because that's what you are gonna face. Unexpected. Awful. Dangerous. Life-threatening.

In my opinion, if Buffy had been male, and she'd had EXACTLY that same demeanor, no one would have argued she'd been mean. She'd have been a soldier telling those she was forced to protect, who were mostly a distraction to suck it up, and show up. But as a female, she's expected to be nice about it, and gentle, and smile. Why, exactly?

What exactly was there to smile about?

Until the scythe, the potentials were simply dead wood. Scared, panicky dead wood. That ate food and got injured. And panicked. And were utterly ungrateful.

I don't have any military experience myself, but my understanding is that most of those training to be officers in the U.S. are required to memorize this quote:

"The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling, but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or other of dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them respect for himself. While he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect towards others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself."
— John M. Schofield

I do not support the Scoobies' actions in Empty Places, far from it. But it's evidence that Buffy failed, at least temporarily, in her role as general, since she lost her own army. It doesn't matter if they were being jerks -- you can't be a general if people are unwilling to follow you. Buffy is smart and has great instincts, but she stopped inspiring confidence. I don't blame Buffy for that; she was basically set up to fail by the system (personified by Giles).

Ultimately, I don't think the point of Season 7 is that Buffy was a great general and utilitarian ethics are fine and dandy. I think the point is that Buffy was put in an impossible situation and the only solution was not to play by the established rules but to change everything.

 
Yes, i know i said panicky twice.😵
 

.

This I do not agree with - except maybe the Andrew part 😛:

He was just so very annoying.😀 He's very fun to kill off!!

.Slayers are shown to be stronger than vampires. 15 activated potentials would be way more of an asset in the Hellmouth than one vamp - that's Buffy's power x 15 (kind of- they don't yet have the accumulated strength from experience - so lets knock a few off - maybe 3-4 slayers? That would still be Buffy x 11).

15 activated potentials? Where do you get activated potentials BEFORE they even knew about the scythe??

When they were trying to murder Spike, (and justifying it by the trigger) the Scythe was still unknown, and the sum total of people who could fight was 2.

Also, the potentials are all untrained and panicking, so you have a bunch of panicking people - and if you've ever dealt with a bunch of panicking girls? Or even panicking adults... they are a dangerous, unpredictable liability, not an asset.

Of course, I don't want them eaten and I'm glad they weren't, but when you had a bunch of them, vs a proven fighter, and an almost unwinnable war? The proven fighter matters. I was making a point, not advocating that Spike actually should have eaten them.

 

[Mrs Gordo]

I have alot of things to say and I will come back and say them but I will say this for now regarding the Spike decision.

My biggest problem with her insistence on keeping Spike as her little lieutenant is that she knows that the First is using him, he has a trigger and he so out of control he was killing. Spike is a great unknown. What we do know is the First is able to manipulate him and as a result he is as much a liability as he is an asset. We aren't even sure what TF planned for him before he was able to overcome his trigger. I understand that he is a "strong fighter" but really what good is a strong fighter if he has the potential to turn on you or on your entire team?

Willow should be her biggest asset. She seems to know this in s5 when she tells Willow: "You're the strongest person here. You know that, right?" And sure Willow let the power control her and went bad but how is that any different from Spike's potential to go bad either?

At the end of the day, her decisions involving Spike were not all for the sake of the greater good/war etc. They were, as best I can tell, as a result of her personal feelings towards the vamp. And do you know how I know this? Because Angel - who is literally the strongest fighter available to her, comes and offers his help and she sends him away because she "can't risk him." (or insert your personal head canon reasons here). If Buffy was really thinking about having the best fighters available during the fight she would've asked Angel to stay and fight along side them. Lovers drama be damned. After all isn't that what a General would do? You put your best soldiers on the field. But she doesn't. She sends Angel away - whether its because she wants to protect him, whether its because she doesn't want to deal with the drama, whether its because she doesn't want to hurt Spike's feelings - who knows but she isn't making all of these decisions for the sake of winning the war. She is making some of these decisions based on her emotions. It's a very human thing to do and I don't fault her for it. But not everything Buffy does in s7 is motivated by the war she is waging. Some of it is just plain personal feelings and everyone else be damned.

 

[EarthLogic]

15 activated potentials? Where do you get activated potentials BEFORE they even knew about the scythe??

Sorry I didn't realise you were referring exclusively to the events before the scythe discovery. Since you mentioned final analysis, I was looking at the final picture. And frankly, I was rather shocked that you thought- or at least interpreted Buffy to have thought - that the lives of 30 potentials were insignificant in the long run, even at that time when she and Spike were physically the strongest fighters. If it were true then it would let down the season even more because a huge part of the season is devoted to Buffy protecting, rallying and training them to protect themselves. That was about showing us and them that they mattered regardless. Buffy had always had to make hard choices about saving individual lives vs saving the whole world, but I don't buy that she has even at that point reached the conclusion that 30 lives are of no consequence to the war.

And I still don't buy that Spike was 'half of the fighting team', just because he had superstrength. This is another flaw of the season. I think Spike is important and does bring lot of strength to the team, but up until then it's mostly the Scoobies who have been integral to Buffy's success and survival. Yes, in the end she's always alone, but one of the reasons she gets to those critical points is her friends. As they proved in S4, they contribute hugely to Buffy's overall strength - mentally and emotionally, if not physically. The point then was combining heart, brain, spirit and brawn. Besides, they're human and have managed to survive this long with plain old human (and witchy/demony) powers (regardless of how unrealistic this is - everyone should actually have sustained serious brain damage by now given how many times they've each been knocked out). And even when she's gone we see them pooling their resources and working together to patrol. Why are they now useless because they don't have brawn? Is it because they're fighting turok-han? If Buffy and Spike are truly the only fighters that matter because of their strength then why not just dismiss the entire gang?

 

[Antho]

There are so much things I disagree with in this thread. I have just realised something, it goes beyond the series for me, I do not have the same vision of things about life and the human being in general as you DeepBlueJoy 🙂.

 

[RomanticSoul]

I'm not in the mood to write a Buffy rant the size of a novel, though I could and S7 Buffy certainly deserves it. So when it comes to S7 Buffy (the character) I can simply sum it up with....YUCK.

ETA: The one thing I will say. General Buffy of S3 Graduation Day was 100000 times better than the moron Buffy of S7.

 

[Antho]

Briefly, my opinion :

Good General :

which lead to good soldier, or at least people who obey :

Bad General :

which lead to people who refuse to obey and threw you out of your house !

 

[thetopher]

Let me preface this by saying that Buffy is one of my favorite characters. I'm not blind to her flaws but from S1-5 she is such a terrific character and I was always able to see her pov.
And even in her S6 depression she at least has some of my sympathy and found the strength to do the right thing when it mattered.

However, regarding this I basically put 'cold and reckless' but there are NUMEROUS others problems that I have with S7 Buffy's leadership style and attitude- they're just not given in the poll.

For the record if Buffy had just been a bit cold and distant or gave too many same-y speeches, like at the start of her 'General Buffy' phase, I wouldn't have cared, but the problems go much deeper.
Here's how I break them down:


Needlessly Callous:"Chloe was an idiot"; Buffy is needlessly callous in the face of 'weakness'. I don't exactly have a problem with her calling out the Potentials or Spike for being a bit crappy (although given that the week before she went on a date then its a bit rich having her claim that she's 'carrying everyone') at this point but Buffy is a needlessly crappy person to the memory of somebody ( a child- since Buffy refers to the Potentials as children at some points) who was young, inexperienced and scared.
Not a great message to send out on the subject of teen suicide.


Reckless: Buffy lets a trigger-Spike wonder completely around unsupervised for quite a few episodes knowing he has slaughtered and may slaughter again. She knows how this happens (a song) but not how to prevent it. She also shows no inclination of even trying to fix this problem even though she relies on Spike heavily throughout this period.
I guess its one thing if Spike kills a Potential or 3 (or Andrew) because that's apparently unavoidable (but not really because chaining him in the basement is clearly a viable option) but Buffy and co knows that the First also wants Willow dead- she's the big gun- and Buffy herself perhaps might be a target.
But yeah, might as well chance it right, because personal reasons. Only personal reasons.

Who finds the cure? Who finds the solution? Who makes sure the First is deprived of a zero-hour surprise weapon and makes Spike actually not a liability and therefore useful?
Oh, that would be Giles. Buffy's metaphorical mind; as in 'having a brain at all'.


Blinkered: Hey, remember when Buffy threatened to kill anyone who threatened Dawn in S5? When she and Giles had an open and honest discussion about that very thing? And yet after Buffy made her position very clear- certainly an understandable/sympathetic one in my view- she still trusts in her friends to help her stop Glory.
And what's more Dawn was a blameless innocent who didn't deserve to die instead of somebody who was an actual viable threat with blood on their hands (trigger-Spike), but because of their relation to the Big Bad both characters could be perceived as a threat.

So S7 Buffy forgets all her past lessons in regards to her friends and allies because somehow Spike is a special case. She ignores the pleas of her friends (see- Get It Done) to NOT cut them off this time (like she did in 'Selfless') and rely on them more. Communicate, trust, delegate. This is how Buffy has won numerous battles in the past.


Hypocritical: Buffy lectures Wood about 'the mission is what matters', she has a war to win and he should just get over himself because there is no room for vendetta's in this critical struggle.
...Then she punches Faith in the face a couple of times even though she knows that- after several years- she is an ally who helped Angel out in L.A, then accuses her of engineering a mutiny and furthermore ignores all Giles advice because her feelings were hurt; so she gets to hold grudges that fractures the group and put lives in danger, but no-one else does?
'Do as I say not as I do' is not a winning strategy. Fail.


Utilitarian: "You sent away the one person watching my back". This is pretty damning, since Buffy in S7 is at her most utilitarian and heartless. Who is the most useful? Oh, Spike I guess because he is has superpowers and is 'the strongest warrior', and no-one else seems to matter. Willow and Xander certainly don't because pfft! what can they do? Xander has no powers and Willow is a big no-help scardycat; speeches and emotional support don't win wars, only fighting does.
Again, this goes to Buffy forgetting all her past victories and mistakes, 'cause that's what all good generals do.


Prideful: And lastly, Buffy was not kicked out by her friends, she left because she couldn't admit the possibility that she might be wrong. She gave the ultimatum, she walked out when that ultimatum was called instead of backing down. Everyone wanted Buffy to take a break, not to leave off on her own.

It doesn't matter that she was right in the end (because of awful, stupid villain) its that Buffy never considered that she could be wrong, that is dangerous in a leader.

That';s it in a nutshell. S7 Buffy is a terrible leader who wins mostly because of luck, the stupidity of the First, and a couple of macguffins.
I LIKE Buffy in 'End Of Days'/'Chosen' because she remembers who she is. This has nothing to do with Spike (who simply commends her for a job well-done so far and basically says 'I trust you no matter what) but because she took a break and had some time to think and gain perspective.
I guess that's why Buffy 'forgives' the Scoobies so easily, maybe she finally recognized her faults and decided to change them.

 

[Bop]

I'm really surprised there's not more uproar or controversy in the fandom over the Buffy/Robin/Spike thing, it was honestly shocking and it was so risky and sensitive for Buffy and Spike to say what they did to Robin. Many people have lost their mothers *shrug* it's a bad move.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

General Buffy of season three got more people killed.