Salvation of the Neglected Five

[Wesley Junior]

Willow, Giles, Xander, Dawn, and Anya suffered from decreased or lack of focus on them during the final season. If you were in charge of the making of Buffy's final season, what would you change on a character or story level or both to fix that problem?

 

[BuffyElevated]

I don't think Anya suffered as much as the others, but I agree that they were definitely left out a lot of the time. Anya basically showed up as comic relief most of the time, but the others got the shaft for the majority of the season.
If I had been given creative reign over the last season, I wouldn't have brought in all those Potentials. I admit, I thought the Potential storyline was cool, but I thought it would have made a much nicer plot twist to have Buffy be able to choose who she could share her power with, and give some of it to Giles, Xander, Dawn, Anya, and Willow so that they could have been the ones with the power after the spell was done, or at least been part of the ones who did.

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

I don't think Anya suffered as much as the others, but I agree that they were definitely left out a lot of the time. Anya basically showed up as comic relief most of the time, but the others got the shaft for the majority of the season.
If I had been given creative reign over the last season, I wouldn't have brought in all those Potentials. I admit, I thought the Potential storyline was cool, but I thought it would have made a much nicer plot twist to have Buffy be able to choose who she could share her power with, and give some of it to Giles, Xander, Dawn, Anya, and Willow so that they could have been the ones with the power after the spell was done, or at least been part of the ones who did.

I liked the idea of the Potential storyline too, but it really was unnecessarily prominent. I don't see why they needed to be there. I actually think the imagery of the young girls being "Chosen" by the scythe at the end would have been much more dramatic if we'd never met any of the potentials. The last season could have been about Buffy, and the baton would have been passed at the very end.

 

[Wesley Junior]

I liked the idea of the Potential storyline too, but it really was unnecessarily prominent. I don't see why they needed to be there. I actually think the imagery of the young girls being "Chosen" by the scythe at the end would have been much more dramatic if we'd never met any of the potentials. The last season could have been about Buffy, and the baton would have been passed at the very end.

I would have liked that. Anything to be free of the annoying Potentials and their whining.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I actually think the imagery of the young girls being "Chosen" by the scythe at the end would have been much more dramatic if we'd never met any of the potentials.

Yes, definitely! 'Cause no matter how many times I watch that episode, I never fail to be moved to tears by that sequence. When we see those girls getting their power and feeling empowered and encouraged, it's WAY more moving to me than seeing Vi and the others all of a sudden morphing into Slayers instead of scared wannabes.

 

[dexeded]

I think the Potentials should have moved to some kind of safe house at the other side of the world, lol. Then the focus could've truly been on the core Scooby Gang. What bugs me the most is probably what happened to Giles in S7. We didn't necessarily need character development for him... just him being as awesome as he was in the earlier seasons. (Although it would be nice if we'd gotten development with him accepting a vampire--Spike.)