Both; I was specifically talking about Buffyverse, since that's the main topic of discussion, but it's absolutely a pattern overall. And you're right, I haven't seen most of the 'verse, and I shouldn't act like it's impossible for it to improve in this regard, because I just literally haven't seen enough to know if that's true or not. To revise my statement, it seemed to me that this is clearly a pattern in the first two seasons of Buffy as well as what I've seen of the third, and conversations with friends have given me the impression that it's not a pattern that ever truly goes away--but, to be fair, it's not a pattern that has fully gone away in the entertainment industry as a whole, either, even though there's been a lot of progress made since BtVS came out. It's by no means a problem that is exclusive to the Buffyverse.