So You Think You Can Do It Better...

[white avenger]

This is based on attempts by various members to second guess Buffy, her methods, and her actions, especially as they pertained to Spike, during Season 7. So, here's your chance to be the general. What would you have done differently if you were the Mama Slayer?

But just remember, no matter WHAT you do, there's going to be someone with a perfectly valid and, hopefully, well thought out reason to disagree with you.

 

[Robb Stark]

There's a ton that Buffy could have done better. A TON.

I'll start with Caleb, because that's quite possibly her greatest failure. Buffy made zero, and I mean zero, effort to even remotely gauge what Caleb was capable of. She didn't consider for a second that she was being led into a trap, which she was, despite her long, long history of being led into, you know, a trap (to quote Angelus: "you fall for it every time!"). She didn't attempt to scout, she didn't form any sort of battle plan whatsoever beyond "charge!". She just rushed in totally blind, and there's no excuse for that. That's failure number one.

I had no problem whatsoever with her wanting to go back in. You can't just ignore Caleb. However, she wants to essentially replicate her first failure. Buffy has consistently shown over the course of the series that when she's physically outgunned, she has the intelligence to think her way around the problem. We saw that with The Judge and with The Mayor. Why didn't she take a moment to compose a tactical game plan for going back in? No wonder her charges balked. She didn't outline anything she would have done differently. I mean hell, take a rocket launcher again and blow the place up. Try and anticipate how Caleb thinks, and how he'll react. She makes no attempt to do that.

I had no issue with Buffy keeping Spike around and honestly, I don't know why people view it as a problem. He's dedicated, he's powerful and he's loyal.

The...um..."plan" in"Chosen" was a mess. A complete, near suicidal mess. Buffy had no clue what the amulet actually did, and had no actual goal for storming the Hellmouth. What would I have done differently? Let the uber-vamps stream out into the school in the middle of the day, and when they do, have Willow magically collapse the roof of the building, kind of like what Dawn did, but on a larger scale. Or better yet, put in a call to Riley and have him get the military involved. You have thousands upon thousands of suped up vampires streaming out of a totally evacuated town and you don't activate the Air Force? Why? The Turok-Han are exclusively ground soldiers. They have zero air capability. One call to the military, who are fully aware of what's happening in Sunnydale, and the threat of the uber-vamps is kind of negated. Sure, they have some difficult questions to answer, but the threat itself is mitigated. It doesn't make for great television, but ten U.S. fighter jets trump the entire Turok-Han army. Can anyone even make a case against that?

Even if Buffy doesn't want to do that for some reason, turning Angel and, I'm assuming, the forces of W&H away is idiotic. I know the show had to do that because they were committed to Spike as their male lead and it would have been unfair to the plot to not resolve his arc with Buffy, but looking at it tactically, why not have him there? Because Spike is going to be jealous? I get the "second front" idea but really, if Buffy is that concerned about a second front to the battle, she would have called Riley. It made no sense not to have Angel and all his considerably vast resources engaged in the final battle. And if she was hesitant to use W&H it's like you said [MENTION=6758]white avenger[/MENTION], desperate times call for unlikely alliances.

Those are the big ones. If someone thinks I'm wrong logically, and not just wrong in the sense of what a television plot requires please, by all means, test me on it. I could have done much, much better.

 

[Blaze]

.

The...um..."plan" in"Chosen" was a mess. A complete, near suicidal mess. Buffy had no clue what the amulet actually did, and had no actual goal for storming the Hellmouth. What would I have done differently? Let the uber-vamps stream out into the school in the middle of the day, and when they do, have Willow magically collapse the roof of the building, kind of like what Dawn did, but on a larger scale. Or better yet, put in a call to Riley and have him get the military involved. You have thousands upon thousands of suped up vampires streaming out of a totally evacuated town and you don't activate the Air Force? Why? The Turok-Han are exclusively ground soldiers. They have zero air capability. One call to the military, who are fully aware of what's happening in Sunnydale, and the threat of the uber-vamps is kind of negated. Sure, they have some difficult questions to answer, but the threat itself is mitigated. It doesn't make for great television, but ten U.S. fighter jets trump the entire Turok-Han army. Can anyone even make a case against that?

Now I agree with what you said, my only issue that I have is that seeing as the initiative is a governmental organisation, I would be scared that some crazy person decides that the uber-vamps shouldn't all be exterminated, but instead captured to make a super army that would ensure the States could win in any upcoming war. We've seen it countless time in the real world, where instead of exterminating viruses and infections, we kept them in laboratory to use as bio-terrorism warfare agents (eg. Using the plague as a way to kill people in WWII knowing that it is very contagious and may affect the entire world). Maybe I'm looking too much into this, but it's not that far fetch seeing as the initiative had some pretty crazy minds in s4, and the government isn't exactly the most trust worthy organisation in the Buffy verse. Sure Riley could probably have prevented some of it, but I would have still been a bit worried that they decide the vamps could be used for a bigger plan.

Now I know the initiative are presented as the good guys when they come back in s7, eliminating dangerous demons, so most likely it would have been safe, but being Buffy, I would still have that though at the back of my head that maybe it is best not to include the government in the operation.

 

[Robb Stark]

Now I agree with what you said, my only issue that I have is that seeing as the initiative is a governmental organisation, I would be scared that some crazy person decides that the uber-vamps shouldn't all be exterminated, but instead captured to make a super army that would ensure the States could win in any upcoming war. We've seen it countless time in the real world, where instead of exterminating viruses and infections, we kept them in laboratory to use as bio-terrorism warfare agents (eg. Using the plague as a way to kill people in WWII knowing that it is very contagious and may affect the entire world). Maybe I'm looking too much into this, but it's not that far fetch seeing as the initiative had some pretty crazy minds in s4, and the government isn't exactly the most trust worthy organisation in the Buffy verse. Sure Riley could probably have prevented some of it, but I would have still been a bit worried that they decide the vamps could be used for a bigger plan.

Now I know the initiative are presented as the good guys when they come back in s7, eliminating dangerous demons, so most likely it would have been safe, but being Buffy, I would still have that though at the back of my head that maybe it is best not to include the government in the operation.

Even if Buffy is worried about that, I don't think that's nearly enough cause not to involve them. When you think about it, Buffy won the proverbial war against The First because she got lucky with the amulet. If her only rationale for not involving the United States military against a literal army of super powerful vampires that are trying to destroy the planet is that they might keep a few, then frankly, she shouldn't be leading anything. I mean, think about if the amulet doesn't work. Then they all die because Buffy doesn't call Riley.

 

[white avenger]

I have to confess, I posted this thread because I've been rebooting that last episode (actually probably the last three, with details reaching back as far as the beginning of the season0 almost since the series finale first aired.

But I ain't revealing my master strategies just yet. I wanta see what all you young whipper snappers can come up with. Then, and only then, will the White Avenger deal himself into this poker game.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

I had no issue with Buffy keeping Spike around and honestly, I don't know why people view it as a problem. He's dedicated, he's powerful and he's loyal.

But none of that matters, at any time he could have be activated and at that point spike is gone, so his loyalty plays no part.



I wouldn't change anything in the last series as everything worked out more or less. I don't understand why Spike wasn't seen as more of a risk since he had no control over his actions. If I were in Buffys places I wouldnt have taken the risk with him.

I would have investigated more with celeb, I wouldn't have wanted go back in straight away and just repeat exactly what she just did.

I would have activated the potentials before going into the hellmouth.

I never had a problem with the story of season 7, just that they shoved Spike down our throats for an entire season, at the expense of better and more long them characters.
The main problem I had with Buffy was that she wanted to go back into the vineyard after what had just happened, but she didn't get her way so there's no need to change that.

 

[SlayerPrincess]

I probably would have took that demon the shadow men offered her. For real because that last scene always scares me...like do you see that? Lol. And couldn't they knock down the school and then open the hellmouth? Wouldn't that have worked?

 

[white avenger]

One of the first major changes that I would have made would have been that, as soon as the Bringers first illustrated that they could break into Buffy's house pretty much whenever they wanted to, I would have immediately moved out and found a place more easily fortified and with more room to house the steadily increasing number of Potentials that kept streaming into town (about 30, if I recall correctly, by the end of the season) Angel's old mansion would, I believe, have made a good place, or just about any larger house than the Summers' home. They must have been packed like sardines in that place, and the idea of all of those teenaged girls sharing a single bathroom ...

 

[JReed1985]

My take on the Season

The season is overall hit and miss for me but did have some moments.
The potential slayers idea wasn't a bad idea it just wasn't executed well, them becoming full slayers does cheat the prophecy a little.
I would have liked to see normal citezins of Sunnydale take arms and join Buffy's army and do their part. That would have been really powerful and epic like Lord of the Rings.