I personally think that the mutiny HAD to happen for Buffy and the gang to suceed. Everyone was downhearte, downtrodden, and after getting their asses kicked by Caleb had no morale whatsoever to be going into a war with the first ever evil which was just going to end up as a massacre. Everyone was doubting, everything was building and it had to explode. Someone else had to lead for everyone to fall into line, they had to realise how hard it was to make those decisions, to put everyone at risk. In essence, they had to learn the hard way. If Buffy had stayed and they had of went straight back to the vineyard they would never have bonded, never pulled through as a group and never survived. It took Buffy leaving and them messing up to band together and respect and trust their leader, it was better they got it out of their systems then than at the final battle.
I think that it's very harsh to say that everyone was out of line with Buffy because although I did feel very sorry for her at the intervention I can't help but agree with some people's points.
Faith does not deserve the blame for everything going wrong, she said herself she didn't want to lead, but was right in saying Buffy couldn't follow. She did not have to leave the house, she could have just backed down and followed orders for a while and waited for them to see the fault in what they did. But she couldn't, she walked away.
Many people used the arguments well Buffy has saved all their lives and they should be grateful, she is better than them. I think that is completely unfounded. Yea, Buffy possessed the strength and saved the scoobies lives many times, yes. But Xander saved Buffy's Life in Season One. Without Giles' expertise in the earlier seasons and his guidance, Buffy would not have known what or how to fight her opponents and would have surely died before then. Without Willows protection spells, spells to ward vampires out of her house, Angelus could have killed Buffy as she slept, she never would have gotten Angel back, she would have not had his strength to fight alongside and may not have made it. Without Willow, Xander and Anya, Buffy would not have been brought back, I know she didn't want it at the time but if they had not of brought her back in Season 6 she would not have been able to be leader in Season 7, would not have been able to save their lives with her strength.
Even Dawn researches and helps find information quickly and efficently so Buffy knows what she is up against. One person left with research and fighting every demon shes faced, I don't fancy her odds no matter how good a slayer she is.
Whether she likes it or not, she needs them as much as they need her. Without them she would be dead, never to return, just as they probably would have been without her. A slayer is replacable, the power Willow has is not as easily replaced, or the knowledge of Giles, or Xander's loyalty, he's saved buffy and the world morethan once.
They need to work as a team, buffy is just another part of that. The rest of the Scoobies have the right to voice their concerns, and she wasn't even listening to them most of the time in Season 7.
Yea at the end of the day, the mutiny happened and Faith made the wrong choice, but that could just as easily happened to Buffy, it's not as if she hasn't screwed up before or pushed anyone away and shut herself out. It had to happen for the war to progress, and the main scoobies had a basic right to tell her how they felt and to show her opposistion, it was her choice to leave, they did not shun her completely
