At the beginning of the Season that's what I thought. As the Season progressed and into S7 it clearly had nothing to do with Buffy and was all about Spike.
I'm sorry but I can never take statements like this seriously. It was Always About Buffy. With all due respect, it's kind of ludicrous to suggest that at the beginning of the season the writers all sat down to penn S6 and said 'Hmm, so lets make the show about Spike now' and I think whatever hatred you feel for the character is blinding you to reason and common sense. The reason Spike got a more prominent role is because he became Buffy's love interest. That's what happens when your story becomes more entwined with the titualer character. It happened to Angel and it happened to Riley too. Heck, it happened to Dawn's character in S5 when the writers actually said that she was Buffy's "love interest" that season and Dawn got a VERY prominent role and a lot of screen time devoted to her arc and journey. The closer your role to Buffy the bigger your role in the story is -- and that's because it's her show. Always was.
It's one thing to have your main character suffer depression and make some wrong choices as a result. That's relatable. But you don't write the evil, soulles, mass murderer who also happens to use techniques from Abusive Relationships 101 more sympathetic than the main character. Because that's what happened and the writers were fully aware of this. Otherwise there would have been no attempted rape. But hey at least Marti found it funny how many fans were getting their Buffy hate on.
Firstly, Buffy and Spike entered a
mutually abusive relationship. Spike most certainly was guilty of that
but so was Buffy. Secondly, who was more sympathetic is a completely subjective thing and up to the interpretation of the viewer. At no point did I ever feel Spike was more sympathetic than Buffy and whilst I certainly think she was flawed in S6 my heart was always predominently with her. If your entire argument was that it became 'the Spike show' because viewers found Spike more sympathetic it's already an argument that's bound to fail because you can't possibly know how every fan reacted to the storyline or where their sympathies lied. Not to mention that your main character doesn't have to be the most sympathetic in it order for it to still be their show. Walter White was a horrible bastard by the end of Breaking Bad but it was no doubt still his show. And last of all, isn't your argument kind of contradicting itself if you claim that the writer's wrote the attempted rape with the intention of creating a Spike backlash? If they wanted it to become the 'Spike Show' then why would they write a plot point with the sole intention of making the audience turn against him and go back to rooting for Buffy because they were worried fans were sympathising with him too much? That would be counterproductive, no? According to you they created this entire story arc for the purpose of making it the 'Spike Show' so having the audience root for him more is exactly what they'd want under your theory?
That's exactly the problem though. Why pretend to be something you aren't? Let them see how crappy you feel. Don't pretend to feel fine for their benefit. Show them what their shortsightedness has done to you. This way it's right in their face and it would give all parties an equal playing field how to deal with the aftermath.
Because for right or wrong Buffy felt obligated to put on a happy face for their benefit and didn't know how to vocalise what she was feeling inside or cope with her own depression. In an ideal world people would easily express their emotions and deal with them in the healthiest way they can but Buffy isn't a perfect character and neither is anybody a perfect human being. How Buffy dealt with her depression is how a lot of people deal with their depression - by trying to cope with it on their own because they don't want people to worry, or don't know how to articulate how they're feeling, or because they don't feel like people will understand. For somebody like Buffy, who everybody looks to for guidance and help, it can be very hard to not feel obligated to have a stiff upper lip and try and live up those expectations and not let people see how horrible you're coping. Not to mention that on the rare occasion when she DID breakdown and tell them all exactly how she was feeling ("It's too much - it's too much. If you guys understood how hard it's been. How it felt - how it still feels! It feels like I'm dying") the gang swept under the rug because they didn't know how to help her or deal with their own mind-boggling guilt.
How the gang dealt with Buffy's depression is painfully realistic. People often don't know how to deal with someone who is clinically depressed so they shut down and try and ignore it. Especially for a group of 21 year olds. And in the gang's case, they felt responsible for Buffy's pain because it was a result of their own actions and trying to come to terms with that guilt was really hard for them because they were still glad that Buffy was alive and didn't know how to deal with Buffy's unhappiness about that. As Xander himself said -- "I just feel weird feeling bad that my friend's not dead. It's ... too mind-boggling"
The writing in S6 was brilliant. Don't mistake characters making what can appear to be illogical or silly decisions and assume it is a case of bad writing. In real life people don't always handle things in the most healthy way they can and having that reflected in your characters just makes them more three-dimensional and well-written. Buffy behaved exactly as many do when dealing with depression. The gang behaved exactly as many people do when trying to cope with a loved one dealing with depression. All of the character beats made complete sense based on where they were at this stage in their lives and what it was they were going through.
No thanks to this story development. While Buffy sure felt isolation sometimes she has always had support. And back in the day Buffy knew that when something didn't play to her strenght or she couldn't do it alone she was able to delegate. Don't have to look further than S1-4 for that. Whether it's Innocence where Xander comes up with the bazooka part of the plan, Gradution Day, Choices, Primevil or even The Gift, just to name a few off the top of my head. While everyone was looking at Buffy to lead in S7 (instead of oh I don't know Giles) and Giles was no help piling on the pressure while doing nothing really himself, nothing was stopping Buffy from delegating like she used to back in the day.
Buffy's entire tough love speech in Get It Done was trying to motivate the others to push themselves and step up to the plate. That Was The Entire purpose of the episode. Willow was a 'Wicca-who-wont-a", Spike was wallowing in his guilt and had lost his passion for the fight, Xander and Anya were scared, and the Potentials were being.... the Potentials. Buffy lashed out at the gang and called on them to "surprise themselves" and "force [themselves] to do what can't be done" as an attempt to make them all step up to the plate. Throwing herself into that portal was another act to force the gang to believe in themselves and prove that they still had what it takes. As the season progressed Buffy's leadership did become flawed as her coping mechanism was to shut people out but it was all fairly understandable given the odds stacked against them, the First Slayer telling her "it wasn't enough", Giles telling her "all eyes were on her" and it was up to her to lead now, and Buffy having the vision of the humongous Turok-Han army living in her head. Again, characters making mistakes is not a sign of bad writing unless the mistakes they're making are OOC or have no natural progression. I could easily plot out S7 step-by-step and demonstrate how Buffy's arc trajectory makes sense and is logical based on the circumstances at the time.
I also call BS on that Faith line. We had just seen Faith take charge of the 'capture Angelus' mission over on AtS and she did more than fine.
It isn't comparable at all. Faith led the AtS Team for what, an hour at most? She literally led them from the foyer of the Hyperion to the streets of LA and then sent Connor and Gunn back to the Hyperion. The remainder of her time in AtS was either Faith hunting for Angelus with just Wesley or lying in a coma. Gunn and Fred spent the rest of the time resenting her and Wesley ("Super-girl wouldn't have fallen for this piece of plastic junk"/"Like they would have been any help") and sitting back at the Hotel. You're greatly overestimating her leadership position on AtS and even then, that is no in no way comparable to trying to lead an army of over 30 people who are freaked out and yelling at you (some of whom are vying for some kind of leadership of their own like Kennedy) and having the responsibility of 30 young lives in your hands and leading everybody into an apocalyptic war where the fate of not only their lives but the entire worlds rests on your shoulders. There is no comparison.
Faith was set up to fail on BtVS for the simple reason that it would make Buffy look less bad
AMANDA
We shouldn't have followed her -- it didn't work out
BUFFY
Guys! It's not her fault! It could have just as easily happened to me
...
FAITH
It never mattered to me. Somebody has to lead. Let's vote for Chao-Ahn. It's harder to lead people into a deathtrap if you don't speak English.
BUFFY
It wasn't your fault.
FAITH
(looks away) I'm really not looking for forgiveness.
BUFFY
You're not?
FAITH
What do you want me to say? I blew it.
BUFFY
You didn't blow it.
FAITH
Tell that to—
BUFFY
People die. You lead them into battle, they're gonna die. It doesn't matter how ready you are or how smart you are. War is about death. Needless, stupid death.
The show was very kind to Faith. She messed up, so what?
So did Buffy in Dirty Girls when she led the gang into Caleb's trap. The writers had no problem having Buffy make mistakes in S7 and it resulted in the gang turning on her.
I'm not ignoring the Scoobies dealing with their own stuff. Though except for Willow none of the others have any excuse. Xander only had his Anya thing and that shouldn't occupy that much story, Dawn had no one and she is just a child and Giles just leaves for no good reason. Buffy pretends to be fine while she really isn't. None of this made any sense, especially when you consider that this comes after S5, the supposed Family themed Season. The Scoobies were written as occupied, heads in sand or just plain out of character to pull off the 'Buffy is isolated from everyone because they deal with their own problems' so she has to turn to Spike. It's pretty much the only way to be able to pull off this story.
Nah, it all made sense. As I said above, people don't always know how to cope with someone suffering from depression so they try and carry on with their lives the best they can and ignore it. The way the gang dealt with their own guilt over their resurrection, their conflicting feelings about Buffy being alive again, their discomfort at her pain, and their own personal demons and dramas, was painfully realistic and well-written. As was how Buffy coped by trying to put on a brave face. It's reminiscent of so many cases I dealt with in my line of work (resurrections aside) and my own experience with depression. For right or wrong I didn't tell my family what was wrong out of shame and not wanting people to be concerned for me and finding it exhausting having to worry about their feelings as well as my own. S6 resonated with me so much and I'll always appreciate it and the writers for telling that story.
That's why this is a discussion board. For people discussing their different opinions. No one is asking you to agree with me.
I'm well aware of that, thanks.
