What's the worst thing in Buffy?

[TheVoid68]

There are many things that I think Buffy did wrong, but if I had to pick one it would without a doubt the "Magic Drugs" storyline in S6. In one fell swoop it:

1) Destroyed a subtle, complex, multiple-season-long character arc about power, control and abuse, and simplified it to "MAGIC IS ADDICTIVE".
2) Neutered a once great character by giving her a lame storyline and then turning her into a shell of her former self in the next season.
3) Gave way to Dark Willow and therefore some truly horrible dialogue ("Get off superbitch!" Need I say more?).
4) Corrupted a once beautiful and pure relationship in Tara/Willow and killed my love for them.
5) Forced a sympathetic character to become a villian by being incomprehensibly OOC - Amy, once a shy, cute witch whose abuse of magic extended to pushing back homework deadlines, gets turned into a rat, wakes up 3 years later and is suddenly an out-of-control
drug addict.
6) Went completely against all prior and subsequent mythology of the series. Nowhere, outside of that storyline, was magic ever portrayed to be addictive. Nor did it give users acid trips.
7) Deviated from the show's tradition of tongue-in-cheek self awareness by taking itself completely seriously, despite the stupidity of it.
8) Insulted my intelligence, your intelligence... hell it insulted my pet rock's intelligence with its ham-fisted, anvilicious, in-your-face, after-school-special message that MAGIC IS DRUGS AND DRUGS ARE BAD.

 

[Summerlilly]

Wow! I agree and disagree with one thing in almost every post! What diverse opinions we have, eh? I can think of three things off the top of my head that still really annoy the crap out of me. Early Dawn, Kennedy, and Connor/Cordy.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Spuffy, Spuffy, Spuffy.

And Spuffy. Oh, and also Spuffy.

God, how I could forget Spuffy!

Yup, I think that's it.

 

[SupportOGal]

Not enough for the series finale. There should have been a powerful and epic battle down in the hellmouth before it was blown to smithereens.

I agree with this so much. Chosen didn't feel epic to me at all - I think because we got to the last episode, and all of a sudden they decide to take the fight to the Hellmouth.

Now, the end of Season 5 is like a crazy roller-coaster that builds up perfectly to The Gift. The sense of dread, urgency, anxiousness, etc. is there, and you know serious stuff is going to happen. From the end of Tough Love (I think?) where Glory finds out Dawn is the key, and Buffy takes off running with her in her arms in panic is excellent. It all feels like it's building up to something, and Chosen just didn't do that for me.

 

[WakingNightmare]

Keeping Buffy chained to Angel for eight seasons.
The fact that Buffy had to be raped by the Universe to break free of that.
Eve being referred to as "Lilah Junior" in an episode. She does not deserve it.
Destroying Cordy's character in season four.
Making Fred the female lead in seasons four/five.
Fred's treatment of Wesley never being addressed.
Faith achieving redemption and hardly any other characters acknowledging it.
Spike doing a total 180 halfway through season six for storytelling purposes.
Rape being used as plot device.

 

[fly on the wall]

- Number one, definitely: Riley. Riley Finn. Captain Cardboard. I'll never understand how the writers, who created such dynamic, wonderful, emotive and realistic characters who tug at my heartstrings and make me laugh and cry and want to change the world, could also create...Riley Finn. Ughhhhhh (forever).

- Spuffy. In truth, I think Buffy and Spike had a beautiful friendship towards the end and it should have just been..that, simply put.

- What the writers did to Spike, in general. And how it tries to undermine everything they'd taught us about vampire lore and how demons work.

- Kennedy. BIG UGH.

- And last but not least, Dawn. Seriously, if they had just picked a younger actress, I don't think she'd annoy me as much. But she was written wayyyyy too young for how old she was, and it just didn't make any sense half the time.

 

[Abby27]

Things that bother me:

- Jesse never ever being mentioned again after he is killed in The Harvest. He was Xander's best friend and he never mourns him? What?
- Jenny dying.
- Angel being brought back from hell. There are several theories as to why he was but there was never anything solid given to us. It felt very forced, without much thought behind it, just "Uh oh, we need Angel back."
-Xander summoning Sweet in OMWF. Like everyone has already said, it was OOC, especially after what he saw happen with spells in BB&B. He summoned a demon that killed people, that's a big deal.
- Buffy being painted as a bitch in season 7. I really hated how she was given crap by everyone. I really hated that after everything in the series, everyone kicked her out. So dumb
- Oh and Kennedy. She was just....just so not needed...

 

[Ricia]

I agree with a lot of what people have said, especially about Kennedy...bleh. Really though my least favorite thing in Buffy is the fact that practically every relationship ends horribly. Nobody is allowed to be happy in the Buffyverse! You there! Are you happy? Stop it!

 

[Kean]

Spike.

Quickly followed by and not unrelated to, Seasons 6 & 7.

Those seasons just felt like The Spike Show featuring The Cast Formerly Known as the Main Characters. And that just wasn't my idea of entertainment.

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

-The destroying of characters simply to serve a plot point, or not destroying them with finesse (ala Willow was being done with finesse until the whole drugs = magic thing kicked into overdrive)

 

[Kean]

caitaintdead agrees: It's funny, I've always been a big Spike fan and never able to see this. Now I totally agree.

You know, as much as I loathe the character, it took me a really long time to realise just how much he and his story dominates in the last few seasons. I'm fairly certain there were a few discussions here that contributed to my enlightenment. 😉 🙂

 

[Gum Gnome33]

I've got a lot of these! Honestly, the more time goes by, the more my love for this show increases. But as that happens, I become more and more frustrated with so many things that I believe could have easily been handled differently. Some of these have been mentioned already, but it could only help at this point to mention them again. 🙂

-Jesse's death is unacknowledged. CORDELIA'S death is unacknowledged in Buffy 8 and is barely discussed on Angel. Anya's death is barely discussed. Gah.

-Buffy is kicked out of her own home in Season 7. I understand the need to demonstrate that the characters are beyond scared and sometimes unable to blindly follow her. Sure, that's very human. But this is forced, pointless, and cheapens the feel of the season.

-Spike gets his freaking SOUL, comes back in to Sunnydale, and the deed is basically unacknowledged by anyone but Buffy. A Vampire VOLUNTARILY ensouls himself in the Buffyverse and we don't care? Really, guys?

-When Faith returns in Season 7,clearly reformed and doing the best she can to stand by Buffy's side, no one seems to care.

-Giles leaves, citing the need for Buffy to become more independent as his motivation, when she clearly needs him most. By season 5 he has become so much more than a watcher; he is family. Buffy's mother is dead, he's all she and Dawn have left of a parental figure, Buffy is clinically depressed and newly resurrected, and Giles thinks it's a great time to leave? Just totally inconsistent with his characterization up until this point.

-18 year old Cordelia moves to LA and within half a season is transformed into a slightly immature 32 year old. No magic credited. 🙂

-The whole magic/drugs analogy subplot in season 6.

-Some of the lame dialogue that makes you go "ish." Lots of it came from Dark Willow. Ugh.

-Terminator/Matrix Adam stuff.

-The way Xander is portrayed in Selfless. The love of his life has decided to become a murderous demon again, and his best friend has decided to kill her. Heavy stuff, kid. But he's kind of whining and whimpering like all that's happened is that he made a bad investment and lost a few thousand bucks. Or discovered the tooth fairy isn't real. "Nooo, please. Aw, man, d'you have to? Stoppit!" I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean. Xander is so much better than that.

 

[patriot1123]

Giles leaves, citing the need for Buffy to become more independent as his motivation, when she clearly needs him most. By season 5 he has become so much more than a watcher; he is family. Buffy's mother is dead, he's all she and Dawn have left of a parental figure, Buffy is clinically depressed and newly resurrected, and Giles thinks it's a great time to leave? Just totally inconsistent with his characterization up until this point.

Although I'll be the first to say how much I HATED Giles leaving Buffy in season 6, you have to admit that Anthony's decision to spend more time in England with his family left the writers with an almost impossible task. The only other way to write Giles out would have been to kill him off and I'm very glad they didn't do it that way. So my disappointment with him leaving is always somewhat muted by understanding that the plot point flowed from a loving decision Anthony made as a father.

---------- Post added at 11:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:45 AM ----------

Wow, I had no idea! Thanks for this--it really does give a whole new perspective to Giles's actions...sort of ironic but heartwarming...

Yes, knowing that fact does help with what was otherwise an inexplicable decision on Giles part. And makes Anthony that much more loveable. He's told the story in interviews, including that what tipped the balance for him was his younger daughter saying that he had been gone for more than half of her life. So he turned his back on his father-to-Buffy character role, in order to devote himself to his father-in-real-life role. 🙂

 

[spikes bitch]

the wost thing in Buffy

easy for me the stunts sometimes even the hair didn't match

 

[Gum Gnome33]

Haha I know, Zobo... the more time I spend at these boards I feel like you and I are some of the biggest Spike advocates, especially when it comes to other characters not noticing his soul!! 🙂

 

[Taake]

-Jesse's death is unacknowledged. CORDELIA'S death is unacknowledged in Buffy 8 and is barely discussed on Angel. Anya's death is barely discussed. Gah.

-Buffy is kicked out of her own home in Season 7. I understand the need to demonstrate that the characters are beyond scared and sometimes unable to blindly follow her. Sure, that's very human. But this is forced, pointless, and cheapens the feel of the season.

-When Faith returns in Season 7,clearly reformed and doing the best she can to stand by Buffy's side, no one seems to care.

-18 year old Cordelia moves to LA and within half a season is transformed into a slightly immature 32 year old. No magic credited. 🙂

Completely agree on these points, especially the last two. The Cordy one is kind of funny in a way but also majorly irritating.

Gum Gnome33:
-Spike gets his freaking SOUL, comes back in to Sunnydale, and the deed is basically unacknowledged by anyone but Buffy. A Vampire VOLUNTARILY ensouls himself in the Buffyverse and we don't care? Really, guys?

Nope, care to the sum of zero. One of the most disappointing plot twist out of the whole series for me. I tend to have to skip over that part of the episode because it just makes me cringe.

 

[caitaintdead]

Although I'll be the first to say how much I HATED Giles leaving Buffy in season 6, you have to admit that Anthony's decision to spend more time in England with his family left the writers with an almost impossible task. The only other way to write Giles out would have been to kill him off and I'm very glad they didn't do it that way. So my disappointment with him leaving is always somewhat muted by understanding that the plot point flowed from a loving decision Anthony made as a father.

---------- Post added at 11:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:45 AM ----------



Yes, knowing that fact does help with what was otherwise an inexplicable decision on Giles part. And makes Anthony that much more loveable. He's told the story in interviews, including that what tipped the balance for him was his younger daughter saying that he had been gone for more than half of her life. So he turned his back on his father-to-Buffy character role, in order to devote himself to his father-in-real-life role. 🙂

I totally understand this, but at the end of the day they killed him off anyway, and personally I would have preferred for Giles to go out as a hero protecting Buffy rather than becoming the enemy.

Also, I can think of so many reasons to get rid of Giles other than this. How about him being called back by the watchers council to train up Faith? Or a 3rd slayer has been called due to Buffy's second death. Or he has run into trouble in England with Ethan Rayne who has escaped and Ethan has sent him into a hell dimension.

 

[TeamSunnydale]

I think that in the later seasons, the show lost its essence. At the beginning, it was a girl trying to live a normal life while fighting vampires with her friends. By the end, the vampires are practically out of the show, the characters have lost the spark between them and the whole show just becomes unrelatable. Do you agree?