Was it a good idea to have the students of Sunnydale High involved in the last battle

VisionGuy

VisionGuy

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I know Buffy needed all the help she can get, but do you think it was smart for her to put unexperienced fighters on the front line like that? She could have saved some lives if she would have told the students to just get out of town.
 
VisionGuy said:
I know Buffy needed all the help she can get, but do you think it was smart for her to put unexperienced fighters on the front line like that? She could have saved some lives if she would have told the students to just get out of town.
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If the students left town, they wouldn't graduate the mayor made that clear. And how where they going to explain that to the parents? That would be just to hard to do on such short notice. They where all going to be there anyway, so why not use them?
 
I don't think Buffy could have been successful if it was just Angel, Buffy, Giles, Xander and Willow vs. Mayor and dozens of vampires. She needed the high schoolers to at least neutralize the vampires so that she and Giles could deal with the Mayor.

Also, telling the students to leave town wasn't really possible. Too many questions from the parents, and if there was no graduation, then they would have no way of controlling where the mayor would be when he ascended, and therefore, they wouldn't have been able to set up a plan to stop him.
 
I think it's not really about whether it was a good idea, cause it would be hard to argue that as a good idea. I think it was just necessary and really the only practical option that they believed might actually work. Did they expect there would be casualties, they had to of. It was an apocalypse, everyone had the potential to die so I'd like to think that when they all went around enlisting the student's help that that was explained and warnings were given and that they all had the choice to help or run. I think the class protector award was a great setup for this battle. The fact that all the students got together, recognized all that Buffy had done and gave her that award set a precedent and served as the reason that all the students would choose to trust Buffy enough to want to stick around and help, even recognizing the risks involved.
 
MinwaraYana
MinwaraYana
Ahh this is exactly what I thought. :P
T
TheCheese
"I approve"
Buffy needed all the help she could get. Just her and the other Scoobies couldn't have done it by the sheer mass of vampires who were just ready to get their hands on the fleeing students.
Thus, she chose the less worse: some war casualties over a humongous snake demon and an apocalypse. Plus, with this we got this awesome shot of courage where all of the class stand up - clearly terrified but still willing to fight and risk their lives - which always reduces me to tears.

Also, we don't know how many of the class fled town like Anya. Couldn't have been that much since parents would obviously ask questions but there could still be a few.
 
The way I see it, she's been saving their asses for the last three years, so it's about time they all stood up and did something to help.
 
I agree with all points, but it's a bit surprising that after "Graduation Day", no one wanted to join the Scoobie gang. Having realized the danger posed by powerful, evil demons, wouldn't any of Buffy's classmates been motivated to help out for the greater good? Maybe it takes a certain kind of crazy.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
Good point... I thought of this before, too.
VisionGuy said:
I know Buffy needed all the help she can get, but do you think it was smart for her to put unexperienced fighters on the front line like that? She could have saved some lives if she would have told the students to just get out of town.
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Basically, everyone just said what i thought of saying back but i will add that ... it is their LAST day. why not make it memorable, right? fought the wars of high school until the end. For me, it was a great idea. People got killed, yes, but it was their decision to fight. They were brave and it was the coolest thing ever. I was kinda hoping our principal was somewhat a demon...so it would be a wee bit more fun 😀
 
Kanazaka said:
I agree with all points, but it's a bit surprising that after "Graduation Day", no one wanted to join the Scoobie gang. Having realized the danger posed by powerful, evil demons, wouldn't any of Buffy's classmates been motivated to help out for the greater good? Maybe it takes a certain kind of crazy.
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I guess it seems like Jonathan always wanted to?
 
I thought it was not only smart (she had a whole Army right there!) but necessary, for sure... I think it was sad that some had to die, but don't you think these students knew it was a possibility when they chose to fight against the mayor and his vampire chronies?
I LOVED the final battle in S3... It was completely AWESOME and next to the one in "Chosen", it's my favorite out of all the seasons.
 
No it was an awful idea, but it makes for a grand battle and that makes for good tv.... that should go ahead of stupidity in my book
 
They did need them, the Scooby gang wouldn't have been able to defeat the Mayor and his henchmen by themselves.
 
I don't think Buffy had much of a choice, she had the Mayor using Graduation as a big meal on all the students. She couldn't just let them all fend for themselves and run, the only way she could ensure most of their safety was to ask them to help join the fight. After The Prom episode and how most of the students came forward acknowledging that Sunnydale wasn't a normal place to be it made it easier asking them to help.

Deep down they knew Buffy wasn't normal and after she asked them Im sure most trusted her that she knew what she was doing. It was right for her to do so otherwise I think a lot of students would have died and Buffy would have felt guilty for not being able to protect them. Strength in numbers was a lot better to help take the Mayor down and it worked as best as it could.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
[No message]
I think it was smart. Had the Mayor succeeded, they pretty much all would have died anyway. And had Buffy warned them and they stayed away from graduation, the Mayor would have known something was up, I doubt with the lack of man power from the graduating class, plus the heads up the Mayor got, that the Scoobies could have succeeded in killing him.

Besides...I LOVE this episode. That moment where the whole class stands up, takes off their robes and reveals their weapons gives me goosebumps every time.
 
J
Jersh
[No message]
I kept thinking that all of the students were going to die, and a lot of them did.
LMFAO @ Harmony.
When you think about having to get the mayor and the vampires all in one place, the students helped make that possible.
It was additional firepower, which was very helpful.
I still think it's sort of silly to get a bunch of minors involved.
But graduation day was possibly the only time for them to attack, so they really didn't have a choice.
 
fly on the wall said:
^ Minors? I'm sure most (if not all) were 18 at this point.
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They were still young and innocent.
They also had no idea about what was going to hit them.
I'm sure if they really knew what was going down, they would have stayed home.
 
Willowsgirl said:
If the students left town, they wouldn't graduate the mayor made that clear. And how where they going to explain that to the parents? That would be just to hard to do on such short notice. They where all going to be there anyway, so why not use them?
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I agree with this. But also, if Buffy knew they were going to be put in harms way, and they had to be put in harms way to graduate, it meant giving them any shot at surviving at all. That meant crude weapons, bows and arrows, anything they could use to fend them off. She knew people would die, but at least she gave them a chance.
 
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