Were Willow, Giles and Xander useless in season 7?

[Joshua]

I'm rewatching Season 7 lately and I've noticed that besides Willow using magic, her, Xander and Giles are quite useless in this season. Anybody else thought so? I mean what have they really done, besides wanting protection from Buffy against The First, and researching? I mean Willow barely used any magic until "Chosen" due to her fear of going Dark Willow again.

 

[Robb Stark]

Yeah, I like S7 but there are flaws to it. I think that the producers/writers really only had major stories to tell for Buffy, Spike and the Potentials. Willow, Giles, Xander, Dawn, Anya had very little significant presence that season.

It just felt like they sort of ran out of things to do with them. Well, Giles hadn't been really relevant to the overarching plot since S3. And with Dawn, I really don't think they were planning on going past S5 because even though she morphs into a pretty cool character there's really only one big story there. After the wedding arc they had nothing to do for Anya. And with Willow, yeah, I didn't really feel like she had a major presence in S7 either. The ending to her "I'm addicted to magic" arc didn't make much sense to begin with.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Giles was her watcher and had been with her since the beginning, with some absences. Xander was in every episode except "Conversations with Dead People". Willow has been in every episode, occasionally as the lead character. I don't think the series would have had the feel of continuity if they had been cast aside or abandoned in Season 7 and it is part of the description of Buffy herself that she will stay with the people ahe started with.

So they might not have done much and they might have even gone against Buffy's interests on occasion, but the main feeling of Buffy is that whoever she stays with is part of her family. I don't think many people would have been happy to have had a Season 7 where they were jettisoned as excess baggage. Buffy on her own would not have been dramatizeable - she has to work as a counterpoint to her friends.

 

[patriot1123]

I'm actually just finishing a rewatch right now of the Spike and Buffy show (aka season seven) and I couldn't agree more. I think the writers really let the fans down when they replaced the core four with Spike and Buffy. I'm sure that if they wanted to they could have thought of better storylines for Giles, Xander and Willow. That's why it's my least favorite season of all.

 

[Kenimowy]

I kind of was disappointed in the lack of Willow for sure. Ok sure, she went all dark and scary, but I think they had so much more they could have done besides playing the scared to use magic card.
I am also not a big fan on the rift they created between Giles and Buffy. That really upset me. I understand people grow apart with time, but I never thought Giles would be the one that Buffy would separate herself from.
As for Xander, he has always kind of been the comic relief, however this season he become kind of like a support system/shoulder to lean on. Personally I think his speech to Dawn in "Potential" was one of the most productive things he has done in the entire show lol.

I would never say any of them were useless, but I do think they weren't used to their full potential in the last season. Then again, I think it was meant to be that way to create an added side of stress to her already overloaded plate.

 

[tec]

I understand Willow's reluctance and that she was still getting over the fact that she was accepted back. Had we got a real S8 (not that the comics dont count its just we all know the show would have been very diffrant) I think you would have seen another entance of Wilows growth as a character.

Still its not a total wash for Willow in S7 theres still some great moments for her the very first Ep delt with some of the fallout of her darkness

And Kennady as the rebound girl works to some degree and solidfies Willow as being gay and not just a one time deal as so many people hope witch I gave the writeing staff and Joss and Alyson credit for sticking to there guns about that and not backing down.

 

[Pike]

I like the smallness of Giles role. He is missing, then they guess that he is the First. Then later Spike tells him Buffy no longer needs him. While he is just there, his lack of importance is enjoyable.

Willow, as you said, is important as far as the magic goes. I think her relationship with Kennedy was a miss and kinda of brings her out of the mix. Maybe a bigger struggle with magic, leading up to a 'perfect storm' kind of ending could have gave her justice.

Xander.. I hate to say it, he defiantly was filler. I dig Xander, but a death instead of an eye-injury, could have given his character more meaning. 😎

 

[white avenger]

As much as I enjoyed it, being a hard core Spike/Buffy fan, I do have to agree with others in the fact that the rest of the original cast seemed to be used almost exclusively as support and filler for when Buffy and Spike weren't on screen. And, as much as I enjoyed their story, it shouldn't have pushed all of the other characters so completely out of the story line.

 

[TotallySpiked]

I'm sure they weren't useless, but the writers sure did make them seem that way. I love season 7 but the bit about it I don't love is the lack of the core group being and working together, like the used to. I dislike that the Buffy and Giles relationship was strained and they never seemed to get back on track. Xander and Willow were just cast aside in favour of a bunch of annoying teenage girls. I get the fact that there needed to be potentials, but was it really necessary to make them all like Dawn season 5? Blegh.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I wouldn't say they were useless. Even though they weren't able to come up with much in the way of research on The First, they all helped in their own ways, even if it was just to help take care of the Potentials and keep the house clean.

 

[EVIL UU]

Useless? I wish they were useless. Joyce was useless, Dawn was useless, except for that one time when she stopped Buffy from killing herself, again, hell, Spike was useless, he did nothing to stop the trio of anti-intellectual stereotypes or Willow on drugs. Useless is not so bad. Giles, Xander and Willow in season 7 are not useless, they are irrelevant. It's just not their story anymore. What do they even do?

Giles is, eh, waste of keyboard.

Xander tries to find a new girlfriend, goes back to Anya, looses his eye, looses Anya. That's it. Also, he fixes crap. Wait, is this Xander freaking Harris we're talking about or just some random wanker? Xander is less important in season 7 than both Andrew and Robin. Seriously, look at the plot, Xander does nothing of relevance, nothing! Erase him from the script, nothing changes.

Willow. Disclaimer: I hate season 7 Willow. I hate her. It's not dislike, not antipathy, no, it's pure, undiluted hatred.

Alright, what does Willow do in season 7? Whatever Buffy tells her to do. That's Willow's entire everything in this season, she makes zero plot-relevant decisions. Nothing. You could swap her with just about any random witch, Amy or even Anya. No, seriously. This is the final season, the end of the story, it's fair to expect a conclusion, an all out, guns blazing, ass kicking hell of an ending for each of the core characters. And that's what I expected, I expected Willow to oh I don't know, marry zombie/robot Tara, turn Amy into a rat and feed her to Miss Kitty II or at least to finally woman up and stop being Buffy's pathetic, reliable, meek little minion. Challenge her, sleep with her boyfriend just for shit and giggles, kick her super-ass or die trying. Whatever, I'd take everything.

No, all I got was dark side is bad kids, freedom is wrong bullshit and the most boring love interest ever. So irrelevant. This is Willow we're talking about here, the second most important character - amount of dialog lines, scenes, episodes that focus on her - she's second to Buffy only and she could as well be swapped with a random, generic, place holder character, the plot would not change. It's ridiculous.

 

[Joshua]

Useless? I wish they were useless. Joyce was useless, Dawn was useless, except for that one time when she stopped Buffy from killing herself, again, hell, Spike was useless, he did nothing to stop the trio of anti-intellectual stereotypes or Willow on drugs. Useless is not so bad. Giles, Xander and Willow in season 7 are not useless, they are irrelevant. It's just not their story anymore. What do they even do?

Giles is, eh, waste of keyboard.

Xander tries to find a new girlfriend, goes back to Anya, looses his eye, looses Anya. That's it. Also, he fixes crap. Wait, is this Xander freaking Harris we're talking about or just some random wanker? Xander is less important in season 7 than both Andrew and Robin. Seriously, look at the plot, Xander does nothing of relevance, nothing! Erase him from the script, nothing changes.

Willow. Disclaimer: I hate season 7 Willow. I hate her. It's not dislike, not antipathy, no, it's pure, undiluted hatred.

Alright, what does Willow do in season 7? Whatever Buffy tells her to do. That's Willow's entire everything in this season, she makes zero plot-relevant decisions. Nothing. You could swap her with just about any random witch, Amy or even Anya. No, seriously. This is the final season, the end of the story, it's fair to expect a conclusion, an all out, guns blazing, ass kicking hell of an ending for each of the core characters. And that's what I expected, I expected Willow to oh I don't know, marry zombie/robot Tara, turn Amy into a rat and feed her to Miss Kitty II or at least to finally woman up and stop being Buffy's pathetic, reliable, meek little minion. Challenge her, sleep with her boyfriend just for shit and giggles, kick her super-ass or die trying. Whatever, I'd take everything.

No, all I got was dark side is bad kids, freedom is wrong bullshit and the most boring love interest ever. So irrelevant. This is Willow we're talking about here, the second most important character - amount of dialog lines, scenes, episodes that focus on her - she's second to Buffy only and she could as well be swapped with a random, generic, place holder character, the plot would not change. It's ridiculous.

What would Spike a vampire with a chip in his head, be able to stop Dark Willow? Spike would have been dusted by Dark Willow in a flat second

 

[EVIL UU]

What would Spike a vampire with a chip in his head, be able to stop Dark Willow? Spike would have been dusted by Dark Willow in a flat second

Just like Xander and Xander did manage to stop her. Either way, this is not the topic of this thread and I will not discuss it any further.

 

[RipperGilesFan]

They could never be useless in my opinion, but the writers sure did try very hard to create that impression. It's one of the reasons I hate the season I hardly ever re watch it. I also often get the impression it was done to strengthen Spuffy (which only made me dislike them more 😉 ) which all made it feel very forced.

Shoving Willow and Xander to the background, the rift between Buffy and Giles, making Buffy a lot less likeable....and all that to make Spuffy the centre of the season? I never found it believable and it sucked. Big time 🙁

 

[dolphineclipse]

I wouldn't say ''useless'', but I definitely feel Willow was poorly served by Season 7. She became defined by her fear of using magic and her relationship with Kennedy, both of which were kind of dull and unmemorable, especially after the previous season where she'd been given a lot more interesting stuff to do.

I did at least still feel like she was basically Willow though, which I'm not sure I can say of Giles. His character just always feels off to me in Season 7, to the point where I almost wish they hadn't brought him back at all that year - I certainly think he should've appeared in fewer episodes, perhaps only turning up near the end like Faith.

I disagree about Xander though. He's not a favourite character of mine, although I do like him, but I felt Season 7 gave him a lot more to do than the previous couple of seasons had. From the yellow crayon speech at the end of Season 6 onwards, I felt Xander was a vital part of the group again for the first time in a long while.

I know she isn't part of the question, but I also felt Anya benefitted a lot from Season 7. I'd always liked her a lot, but that was the season where she seemed to finally become a fully-fleshed human being rather than a reformed demon.

 

[PDH5204]

As I've said before, with a few exceptions, say, Selfless, and some bits and pieces of other episodes, most of season 7 should be taken out back and burned. One of the cruel ironies, by the way, a story presumably based on notion of female empowerment ends up with a veritable cast of characters reduced to impotence. Hopefully, in the real world, feminism offers more than that.

 

[Hale Caesar]

I feel they were, season 7 focused mostly on Buffy, Spike, the Potentials (ew!) and sometimes Willow. I was so disappointed to see these characters leave the show the way they did, it really left a taste in my mouth

 

[crazysoulless]

I think they were really off the mark with Willow. She should've spent the season delving into her fear of still being a nobody loser nerd inside and that she abuses magick to feel powerful and cool.

They only had her with Kennedy because they had to put her with another woman to appease the fans that called the show homophobic for killing a gay character. Despite the fact that Joss is known for killing characters in every project he's involved in despite race, gender, or sexual leanings.

I think that Willow seemed meek because without magick she was reverting to S1 and early S2 Willow. That was the last time she had been without magick and spells. She had to start from the ground up if she was ever going to become a genuine person. It's probably another reason she ended up with Kennedy. Assertive Willow had the soft Oz & Tara. But return to shy wallflower Willow would need the opposite of that.

I love that the graphic novels explain why Giles has been so weird. He knew that the Watchers Council being destroyed, the Slayer line attacked, and the First Evil rising to power was leading to the Twilight Prophecy and that it was about Buffy. It was the reason he became so distant and less warm and understanding of her. He started seeing her the way he did Dawn or Ben in The Gift.

There should've been scenes involving Giles talking about what it felt like to have the WC destroyed. He grew up with it. Generations of his family were members of it. Most of the people he knew outside of the Scooby Gang were a part of the WC. And then it was obliterated with even field agents hunted down and murdered. That was huge! And completely ignored by the writers.

We saw Xander mature a lot in S7. He was finally completely okay with a vampire. He'd stood up for himself and stopped taking all the blame for Anya. I say it is good he left her if she was the kind of woman that would become a demon just to try to wish mutilation and murder on him for breaking her heart. He handled a serious life altering injury with grace. He was the buffer between the group and Buffy since they could relate more to the regular Joe guy than they could to a demon huntress with prophetic dreams that goes patrolling nightly and has traveled to other dimensions. Xander had become the glue in the group.

 

[tylermaaynard]

I agree with [MENTION=11504]dolphineclipse[/MENTION] I really don't like how they decided to cut willow from her powers:/ and again with her relationship with Kennedy, it was so where near as good as her and Tara's relationship. I don't think they made it a 'believable' role that they were in love, but I guess they didn't have enough time to show off their relationship.

And I guess Dawn could of been classed as 'useless' in season 7 because we don't really see much of her except from the episode 'potential' which I guess is what you could call her episode of the season. And surprisingly I actually enjoyed that episode, not sure what other people's opinion are? And again in that episode Xander has that speech that he says to Dawn about np not being the one with strength and power, which I thought was quite nice 🙂

 

[AmelRIOT]

I think Dawn had been useless ever since Season 5 ended haha, Giles wasn't that useless, Willow a bit but for some reason I did find Xander a bit useless but I just annoyed how the scooby gang was still broken I really think they could of brought them closer in this season.