Would you have ended Season 7 differently?

[EarthLogic]

1) NO cop-out amulet! Yeah it was great to have Angel swing by, yeah the deus ex machina was sorely needed because they'd apparently forgotten how to write stories that needed endings (don't create invincible odds/villains that needs defeating), but it's such a disappointment to have a magical doo-hickey save the day! (Also, you get one magical get-out-of-jail free card, that's the scythe, don't come at me with magical jewellry on top of this!)

Yup, all those last-minute surprise weapons were cringeworthy.

2) If anyone is getting Slayer powers it's gonna be Buffy doubling up in Get It Done. Having her refuse it and 'beating the patriarchy' down only to force it upon thousands of unasked girls (below mentioned 'master race') because like 12 of them said - yeah ok - is not girl power. It's Buffy turning into the new Watcher's Council, forcing an unwanted destiny upon clueless innocent girls, with unknown ramifications.

I think Buffy was right to refuse the extra demonyness from the Shadowmen, so I liked that part in terms of 'beating down the patriarchy'. But yes the decsion to empower every potential worldwide is a troubling perpetuation of what was done to her - she essentially imparts them with the same demon spirit that is in her. If it had just been the Potentials in the room then it would have made more sense because they were the only ones who chose it.

4) Have Buffy save the day. This is Buffy's final stand. I want to see Buffy win and conquer once more, not go through with a half-baked plan that ultimately is only a way to stall the bad guys until the amulet kicks in. The final words of the show being "Spike" makes me want to rip my eyes out and scream, am I watching Spike the vampire? Charmed? It's Buffy's show, for pete's sake, if you want a grand finale it should be hers, after seven years dammit she's earned it.

To be fair, while Buffy's final word is 'Spike', you could argue it's not the final statement of the show, which I think is contained in Buffy's smile when asked 'what are we gonna do now?'. I can see how it annoys people though.

at this point they could've just stuffed it with Andrew or something.

HA!

 

[Taake]

I think Buffy was right to refuse the extra demonyness from the Shadowmen, so I liked that part in terms of 'beating down the patriarchy'. But yes the decsion to empower every potential worldwide is a troubling perpetuation of what was done to her - she essentially imparts them with the same demon spirit that is in her. If it had just been the Potentials in the room then it would have made more sense because they were the only ones who chose it.

Yeah, no, I can't enjoy her refusal anymore because it's just so hypocritical. At least she gets a choice. Beating down the monster, just to become it, makes the whole thing so shallow to me. The excuse that now there's more slayers, so it's not as hard or whatever, is one I've seen and utterly reject. Agreed that if it had been only the Potentials in the room, it would've been different, but they sacrificed story and character consistency for a flimsy "girl power" message that's ultimately really, really shallow and undermines their lead character.

To be fair, while Buffy's final word is 'Spike', you could argue it's not the final statement of the show, which I think is contained in Buffy's smile when asked 'what are we gonna do now?'. I can see how it annoys people though.

Fair enough, it is the last thing she says though, and since you know my feelings on the amulet in general, it really bugs me that he gets credited with saving the world. Having Buffy just smile is nice in theory, but in the context of how the episode played out, it didn't work for me and wasn't much of a final statement.

(It's no "Let's go to work" )

 

[Fool for Buffy]

Chosen is perfect. They couldn't have possibly ended the show any better.

 

[DagonSphere]

If you were in charge, how would you have ended Season 7?

I love the finale. I think it was almost perfect. There is only one thing that I would change and it's the whole Spike/amulette thing. Since the finale was about female empowerment, he should not have saved the world and Angel should not have given Buffy a Deus Ex Machina Device from Wolfram and Hart as the thing that actually saves the day. Both these things undermine the message that Joss was trying to set up.

I do also agree with the poster who said Willow should have been in the fight. It's so strange that Willow does her spell and then while everybody else is fighting, she's just lying on the floor in the principal's office (presumably, she is not seen on screen while the fighting is happening, maybe she is fighting against Ubervamps who want to enter the office off-screen).

And another thing that bothered me was the destruction of Sunnydale, because it seemed so silly that suddenly everybody is leaving town in the last few episodes when they never noticed an apocalypse before and one could also still assume that there were still some other people in Sunnyvale left when it got destroyed. Did really everybody leave? But that's not quite as important as the Spike/Amulette stuff for me.

Other than that, the finale was pretty much awesome. I loved Buffy sharing her powers with the girls; and the fight scenes with the musical score by Rob Duncan were amazing.

 

[white avenger]

The main thing that I would have liked to see would have been a final memorial scene, similar to what we got at the end of "Serenity," for those of you who might have seen it, honoring those who had fallen in the final battle. Spike, Anya, and the Potentials who would never return from the hellmouth deserved something more than just a shrug, a slight smile, and a "Everybody aboard, we're heading for..." (wherever they went after the battle) Maybe even (and I know there are some here who roll their eyes heavenward every time that I say it) Giles coming to Buffy and saying something like, "You were right about Spike. We should have listened to you. I'm sorry."

Even having said that, I still preferred the ending of "Chosen" far, far more than the cop out that they used for "Angel" the next year.

 

[thetopher]

Amanda lives whilst Rona dies horribly.

Wood doesn't make it.

Buffy says something after 'Spike,', let her final words be as meaningful as Angel's were. I like the happy smile and that promise of tomorrow but something else as well please.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

If you were in charge, how would you have ended Season 7?

Everyone dies. 😈

 

[GraceK]

With Buffy walking out of the mental asylum, finally cured and on her way to live a healthy normal life.

 

[Mrs Gordo]

I would've liked to see the slayers defeat the Turkey Khans. I wanted their newly empowered selves to be the reason the apocalypse is stopped.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

I would have kept the Demon Spirit Buffy around for a few episodes. It's not like anything was happening until Sweeps, but remove it by the time Caleb shows up. If the theme of the season is power, showing Buffy with power and being corrupted by it and having her overcome it is better than telling us, yeah, that's what would happen. I mean, if you are going to turn the slayer mythos into a rape metaphor, do it for a dramatic payoff. But I suppose we would have to wait for next season of Angel for that.

 

[SES SA]

A lot of the problems I had with the final episode would require changing what had already happened throughout the season. If you can only change last episode stuff, the deus ex machina Amulet/Scythe/Angel/Slayer spell were needed, but I would have preferred Buffy to be the driving force behind the victory. Two seasons in a row she is playing Scottie Pippen to I don't like that.

Also, the Turok Hans are too weak, obviously. But it is one thing to have the slayers and Spike fight them evenly, but when Anya cutting through them like tissue paper was too much. And all those vampires did to Andrew was shove him. That's it. While he makes "funny" jokes about "swimmers ear". So weak.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

Amanda lives whilst Rona dies horribly.

Wood doesn't make it.

Buffy says something after 'Spike,', let her final words be as meaningful as Angel's were. I like the happy smile and that promise of tomorrow but something else as well please.

Wow. Kill off ALL the black people of signficance in the entire series in one fell swoop. I see that a lot in badfic. It's actually a clue that the writer doesn't plan on doing anything but lionizing the favorites and no one could possibly want to see development of Rona or Wood. Wood was a pill. And killing him and Andrew would have been fine with me, but when you say let's get rid of both Rona and Wood, while you have a dweeb like Andrew survive... no.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

I would've liked to see the slayers defeat the Turkey Khans. I wanted their newly empowered selves to be the reason the apocalypse is stopped.

I certainly would have liked to see more slayer action... but then again, I really would have liked to see them do the spell before they went down into the hole... and maybe gather several hundred slayers around the school. I bet you there were a bunch of undiscovered potential slayers in CA, OR and WA alone...

I don't have a problem with the idea of Spike's soul burning out the enemy. Seems oddly appropriate that a vampire's soul should kill all the vampires... and it brings him full circle. Spike's humanity is why he joined forces with Buffy against Angel and Dru the first time... and now he's got his human soul and the fullness of humanity, at least from a spiritual standpoint.

Spike is only there because of Buffy's action, therefore, I credit the win to her column anyway. General's don't shoot the big bomb, they just decide how and where to deploy it. They still count as winning the war. She is the one who insisted in keeping him around, saved him and deployed him in battle. So it's not 'man power' saving the 'little woman'. It's the 'little woman' figuring out how to use her big guns. Willow. Spike. The potentials. And SHE wins.

You don't have to be the only one on the field to win the war. In fact, in modern wars, the general and the president pretty much aren't ever in the middle of the battle.

Without BUFFY, there's no Willow the powerful witch. Willow dies in season one. Without Buffy, there's no Angel the redeemed with an amulet... he goes on wandering lost in the wilderness. Without Buffy Spike either gets killed by some slayer or goes on being evil. Without Buffy, the potentials don't survive, much less become slayers who help save the world.

Everyone in that building who fought that battle was there because of BUFFY.

Chosen wasn't perfect but it was pretty good. Given the huge missteps of season seven, it's actually a pretty good 'save'.

But there definitely could have been a bigger role for the new slayers.

Blue

 

[thetopher]

Wow. Kill off ALL the black people of signficance in the entire series in one fell swoop. I see that a lot in badfic.

Guess I'm colour blind (or maybe secretly racist!).
I mean, I really like Gunn and never think 'oh, that's a relief because he's black'.
It's completely alien thinking to me to see only skin color and let that factor my thinking.
I just don't like either Rona or Wood for reasons other than race. Go figure.

It's actually a clue that the writer doesn't plan on doing anything but lionizing the favorites and no one could possibly want to see development of Rona or Wood.

I guess if I were bothered to write a post-S7 fic then I would keep it 'in canon' and have those two live- but ignore the hell out of their existence- but I did take the comics into account with my re-write thinking and neither character developed into anything interesting.

And killing him and Andrew would have been fine with me, but when you say let's get rid of both Rona and Wood, while you have a dweeb like Andrew survive... no.

Rona brought nothing but misery and butt-hurt wherever she went, she was a dull, annoying character and so 'death'.
Wood was- in a way- even more pointless, merely ancillary to Spike's 'soul development' and that was it. 'Evil' red herring and mom issues shouldn't spare him from being killed.

Hell, at least Andrew was given funny lines, contributed to moving the plot forward, matured a little over the course S7- contributed to one of the best episodes of the season- and then developed later over on Angel and in the comics.
In other words he was utilized well enough so he gets to live.

Ha, not really. I wanted him to live because he was a white dude.


And if I didn't make it clear I find your assumptions and insinuations deeply offensive.

 

[joseph]

Would've killed Andrew & Rona instead of Anya & Amanda... even if Andrews character deserved more development at that point than Anya. It made more sense for Anya to die than Andrew but no reason Amanda had to die and not Rona.

okay as everyone knows I hate this season but it would have been great if the brought back cordy for the last episode & Oz since they could not bring back Tara.

 

[joseph]

okay as everyone knows I hate this season but it would have been great if the brought back cordy for the last episode & Oz since they could not bring back Tara.

sorry never watched season 7 or angel thanks for the info on Cordelia what season of angel is that in.

 

[Bluebird]

If the comics were always gonna be a thing (I don't think they were until after the show finished) then the ending of the TV show doesn't work well. The ending works as a metaphor only, once literal consequences come into it it's a hot mess, that was never meant to be told. As a flowery message of sharing power it's okay - it made for good TV - but when metaphors have to have literal consequences, because you wanna continue the story, then it becomes deeply stupid.

 

[nightshade]

I would have not had the Slayer spell done by Willow and no amulet. I don't like the whole let's make everyone a slayer thing, what about the girls that didn't want to be slayers? What about those that were only babies?

I don't like the amulet either, yes it brought Angel to Sunnydale, which while I view Angel as being all OOC in it, was good to have him there, it was a terribly thought out plan, use some random amulet to save the world.

 

[white avenger]

On further consideration, I think that I would have ended Season 7 something like this:

I would start back at "Dirty Girls." Faith arrives in town, the gang goes to the vineyard, and Buffy decides to leave the Potentials outside under Xander's command while she, Spike, and Faith check out the wine cellar. They confront Caleb there, and by coordinating their attack, they are able to defeat him in the same way that a pack of wolves brings down a much larger and stronger moose, by keeping him totally in a defensive mode, never being able to attack one fighter before another strikes from behind. The fight might be long and bloody, but Caleb's fate would be inevitable. By attrition, Buffy, Spike, and Faith are able to take him down.

From that point, with little or no injuries to Xander or the Potentials, there is no cause for any ill feelings or mutiny. Willow is able to work a locator spell, Buffy recovers the Scythe, and the rest of the Season is spent picking off the now leaderless Bringers and planning for the upcoming Big Finale. (We see Xander and Giles raiding local Sporting Goods stores and Hardware stores to obtain enough proper weapons for everyone, while Andrew and Anya stock up on medical supplies. Wood and several Potentials outfit a school bus as a combination troop transport and assault vehicle.)

Comes the big day, Buffy, Spike, and Faith lead the Potentials down into the hellmouth with several barrels of gasoline, a pump and torches, creating a fire and fighting a holding action, keeping the army of ubervamps at bay while Xander and Giles rig enough explosives at the portal opening to seal it up for all eternity. Dynamite set, fuses laid out, detonator rigged, Xander radios Buffy (they have walkie talkies) the fighters beat a hasty retreat, the plunger is pushed, and the explosion is deafening. Then Willow casts a Retaining Spell over the rubble, sealing it for all eternity, everybody loads up on the bus, and they all head out for Cleveland to set up headquarters over Hell Mouth #2.

In my version, there is no Angel, no amulet, no cookie dough speech, no self sacrificing Spike, no deus ex machina of any kind. Buffy and her little army kick ass, take names, and head off into the sunset, bound for new adventures beginning on the new Faith spinoff next year.

Eat your heart out, Joss Whedon!

 

[VisionGuy]

I would have done the entire season differently. Too much focus was placed on the potentials and there wasn't enough time given to the core cast. As for the finale, it was pretty great. Except that I would have had Spike keep his mouth shut after Buffy told him she loved him.