What sucked about season 7?

[Wesley Pryce]

Hi,I've noticed in my short time here at Buffy-Boards that there are a diverse amount of opinions on any given topic (as one would expect). However,i have also found that when it comes to BTVS season 7 that its not so diverse or at least not as diverse as most topics. It would seem that most,not all,but still MOST agree that to some extent,and perhaps to a large extent depending on you particular view,that most people think that Buffy 7 is the worst season of BTVS and let me say I agree with that sentiment. I will get to the "point" already 😛 I KNOW why i find season 7 so disappointing,but I'm wondering why EXACTLY does everyone else hate it. It is not as if I don't get the hate,i do in fact,but I'm just wondering if our reasons for our contempt of season seven are common. Finally,i"m wondering what exactly would you change if you could,please be specific. Feel free to answer this overly LONG-WINDED question in as brief or as "long-winded" a way as you wish to. 🙂 Look forward to your posts.

 

[itssmiletime]

Pretty much the reason why I hate Season Seven

-Buffy is such a bitca. Terrible, terrible, terrible, and just, a horrible person. Yeah, that's my main reason. I mean, I've seem some seasons of television with utterly terrible plots (Season 4 of Charmed), dull locations (season 2 of TWD) yet I kept watching, despite how flawed those seasons were, for the characters. There are no characters who are around enough to keep watching season 7. Buffy is so unlikeable.

Other reasons include the dullness of the spuffy relationship and the general grossness of it, the regression of characters such as Willow and Dawn, the underdeveloped potentials and Caleb, the changes to mythology, etc.

 

[white avenger]

A large portion of the story line centered on Spike adjusting to his new soul, Buffy's support of him, and the reaction of the Scoobies to those things. The roles of rest of the cast were reduced in order to present that story, and the introduction of new characters (the Potentials, Andrew, and Robin Wood, with his vendetta against Spike for the death of his mother) took even mor screen time away from Giles, Xander, and Willow. Add to that the strain on Buffy's relationship with her pseudo father, Giles, and his betrayal of her trust, whether it is seen as a necessary thing, or his just meddling in her private affairs, and the reduced focus on Scoobie love, fellowship, and interaction, and you pretty much have it.

To me, it seemed as though Joss knew that he had one last season to work with, and way too many new ideas left that he wanted to introduce.

Personally, Season 7 is my favorite of all the Buffy seasons, but I can see why others wouldn't like it because of all the changes and refocusing of the story line.

 

[pixd]

I think the Buffy cutting herself off from everyone was painful for me - however, I thought it was perfectly written, acted, and absolutely true to form. Actually, I have no beefs with season 7 now that I'm really thinking about it. The potentials were annoying, but not unexpected. Hrm. Guess I'm in the minority, but I'll stick around and see what others have to say. Tear holes in my love for season 7!

 

[Blaze]

Yah, I love season 7 but I'll state the things that I don't like here.

-Andrew, Wood, and half the potential (the potential idea was good but we had too many of them, keep them at the main 3-5 girls that first showed up, that'd be enough).
-If they really wanted to introduce new characters, keep Jonathan, not Andrew. Andrew is a pretty bad person, at least Jonathan had some redeeming qualities and I actually liked him.
-More air time for Giles, Willow and Xander (again, that is fixed by having less characters). I don't mind the Spike air time, because without some of the other useless characters, the show would have been more balanced
-Get a better plan at the end, keep or remove the amulet, but at least make it seem like they had a chance to win prior to the fight (maybe include the initiative)
-Get better guest roles for the First: Joyce, Tara, Jenny, Jesse
-Bring back Tara like initially planed

 

[Lyri]

To me, there was just far too much time spent on things that didn't pertain to the actual threat of the season. If there was more time focused on The First, Caleb and the threat they posed, they might not have come of as completely stupid as they did.

The First's plan didn't make sense. Not ALL of the girls with the potential to be the Slayer were known by the Council, as evidenced by Buffy herself, Faith, Rona and Amanda. Unless The First had more powers than was explained in the show, there was no way it could have rounded up ALL of those girls, meaning that, if Buffy/Faith was killed (depends on your own personal canon of how the line ran in S7) a new Slayer WOULD have been Called. She would have just been unknown to everyone. Also, gathering all the girls they DID find into one place seems beyond stupid. All Caleb had to do was bomb Revello Drive in the middle of the night and they all would have been wiped out.

Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All In A Row deals with a threat to the Slayer line and the Potentials MUCH better, though the same problems applies. Not ALL Potentials are known.


Buffy friendship with Willow and Xander was pretty much ignored through the whole season. Though I suppose that could have been by design, considering that disconnect continues in the comics.

Dawn is ignored for the most part. It's why I loved 'Potential' so much, because it actually makes sense to me that Dawn WOULD be a Slayer. If her blood is identically enough to Buffy's that Buffy was able to sacrifice herself in Dawn's place, it isn't much more of a stretch to think that whatever made Buffy the Slayer would have been passed to Dawn if the Monks really did make Dawn out of Buffy, on a mystical and biological level. It made me sad that Dawn was relegated to Watcher Jr.

There was just too much that needed to be dealt with in one season. Other things that got ignored where the things that I was most interested in.

 

[Kean]

The message and Scoobies were lost and with that went the show's heart.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

While there were parts of 7 that were very week (too much Spike), I dont think it was the worst, I'm pretty sure in general Season 4 and 6 tend to rank as worse then 7 in polls also.

 

[Yosso]

I dislike S7 primarily because the Scoobies are no longer the Scoobies: their friendship is at the heart of the show and that got taken away.

There was too much focus on other minor less likeable and relevant characters like the potentials, Wood, Andrew etc. The plot made little sense e.g. Buffy had such a hard time fighting the Turok-Han at first then managed to kill hundreds easily in "Chosen".

S4 was faar better because the Scoobies were still the central characters and Joss wasn't trying to fit too much into one season. Plus there were some stellar stand alone episodes like Hush and Restless.

S6 is my favourite season, tied with S3.

 

[bentjazz]

Everything sucks about season 7. Everything.

 

[OFAWB]

The Scoobies imploded and the moronic Potentials stole their spotlight. Spike lost his mojo and didn't reclaim it until way too late into the season. Too many new characters and scenarios were introduced. Buffy was not very likeable. The First Evil, while its manifestation was brilliant, was not fully-developed enough to be a convincing baddie. Too much Slayer mythology was discussed in a short time.

(I've calmed down since last week. I can offer a better critique now!)

 

[sleecin]

I hated the whole potential slayer thing.
I hated that the scooby gang feeling was not there
I hated what happened to Anya.