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Lord Varys is rewatching Buffy and Angel


Lord Varys

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46 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

 

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Xander as a character is mostly completely pointless, having little to no right to actually be a part of such important events since he cannot offer anything to help Buffy. And when he gets involved he cannot even deal with his own issues, presuming to judge Buffy or other characters simply because his little desires and demands are not properly met by them.

That he suddenly becomes more compassionate and insightful in later seasons goes at the expense of other characters like Buffy - who was written as Madam Moron in her interactions with Riley in season 5 - not because he himself was consistently written.

 

How was Buffy "Madam Moron"? If anything, Riley was being a moron. Buffy didn't do anything wrong, except for the fact that she later started to fully blame herself and idealize Riley, even though he was the one who went to vampire hookers because he was insecure.

Xander wasn't always compassionate and insightful either - think of Hell's Bells/Entropy/most of the rest of season 6 until he redeems himself in the finale.

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Jane Espenson's 'Triangle' is nearly as bad as 'The Zeppo', by the way. A childish plot with the characters written as if they were out-of-character morons. Willow still not liking Xander's relationship with Anya is something I can accept - the woman is an ex-demon and thus a potential danger, especially if Xander were to fuck things up with her which is not unlikely to do - but the kind of silly entitled way in which Willow behaves in that episode is completely unbearable

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My least favorite episode of season 5.

All the characters on Buffy and Angel, male or female, have these moments occasionally where they act incredibly petty and jealous and come off as really childish. Or it is portrayed as dramataic and sad but also can get really scary. We get that with Buffy, Willow, Spike, Angel, Riley, obviously Xander - a lot, Oz, Tara, Wesley, Cordelia,  Darla, Drusilla, and so on.  You even get fully non-romantic insecurity and jealousy, e.g. with Giles re: Post and Walsh. Or Joyce re: Giles' parent role with Buffy. 

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Nope, I meant Xander resorting to magic to force Cordelia to love him again so he could humiliate and dump her. Which is the pretense behind the spell that goes wrong.

That's a guy doing something very douchy to his ex, but it's not an abusive relationship.

 

(I screwed up the quoting above. it's really difficult here to cut quotes into pieces to answer each separately)

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20 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

How was Buffy "Madam Moron"? If anything, Riley was being a moron. Buffy didn't do anything wrong, except for the fact that she later started to fully blame herself and idealize Riley, even though he was the one who went to vampire hookers because he was insecure.

I think the entire plotline there is very badly written since nothing in season 4 indicates Riley thought that Buffy didn't love him nor is there any indication that Buffy would ignore Riley to the point that she did.

Remember, shortly before the season 4 finale we still had an episode like 'Where the Wild Things Are' which had Buffy and Riley as a couple at the height of sexual and romantic desire.

20 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

Xander wasn't always compassionate and insightful either - think of Hell's Bells/Entropy/most of the rest of season 6 until he redeems himself in the finale.

Have to rewatch all that first, but I meant that Xander gets his place as 'the heart' of the gang following the ritual at the end of season 4 when his previous behavior had him as anything but the heart of the gang. Xander was always a disruptive element, somebody who messed up things and relationships, not somebody who offered stability and support to his friends.

If somebody was the heart of the gang it was Willow - who always supported Buffy, remained in Sunnydale to be close to her, etc.

20 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

All the characters on Buffy and Angel, male or female, have these moments occasionally where they act incredibly petty and jealous and come off as really childish. Or it is portrayed as dramataic and sad but also can get really scary. We get that with Buffy, Willow, Spike, Angel, Riley, obviously Xander - a lot, Oz, Tara, Wesley, Cordelia,  Darla, Drusilla, and so on.  You even get fully non-romantic insecurity and jealousy, e.g. with Giles re: Post and Walsh. Or Joyce re: Giles' parent role with Buffy. 

If that's well-written and making sense in context it is completely fine. It doesn't in that particular episode.

Wesley is also a character with some very problematic traits ... but unless I'm misremembering things he is himself a victim of domestic abuse and genuinely is capable to behave in a normal and controlled manner. When he snaps early in season 3 and attacks Fred he is under the influence of the rage guy and subsequently completely crushed.

20 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

That's a guy doing something very douchy to his ex, but it's not an abusive relationship.

I imagine it would have been an abusive relationship if the spell had worked and Cordy and Xander had gotten back together only for Xander to dump her then.

The whole spell thing is basically on the same level (or comparable to) the mind control device Warren later uses to control his ex. The only difference there is that Xander never gets the opportunity to control Cordelia ... but he did play with the mind and desire of every other woman in that episode. And as the suffering of Willow shows that was a very ugly thing to do.

Not looking forward to the silly 'magic is a drug' metaphor of season 6. That was a complete joke. Magic is magic and it could have been a great plot to see Willow turn evil because of the things magic allowed her to do, not so much because of what it did to her.

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On 2/25/2022 at 5:18 PM, Lord Varys said:

I think the entire plotline there is very badly written since nothing in season 4 indicates Riley thought that Buffy didn't love him nor is there any indication that Buffy would ignore Riley to the point that she did.

Remember, shortly before the season 4 finale we still had an episode like 'Where the Wild Things Are' which had Buffy and Riley as a couple at the height of sexual and romantic desire.

That's a terrible example to use. They were put under a lust-spell that made them have sex all day long. If spell-induced sex is their height of sexual and romantic desire, that really doesn't say anything great about their relationship. By the same logic, Angel and Eve were a great couple because Lorne unintentionally make them constanttly bang in Life of the Party.

There's plenty in season 4 to indicate Riley's insecurities. The guy was so jealous that he got into a fight with Angel when he turned up in Sunnydale to talk to Buffy and even jumped to the conclusion and accused Buffy of having cheated on him with Angel and having made him evil again when she was briefly in LA to talk to Faith. And Buffy herself was insecure about the fact that Riley slept with Faith when he thought she was Buffy and didn't realize it was her (which was really rape by deception, but they glossed over it). He also showed some surprise and discomfort when he learned  Buffy was a more experienced and better/stronger demon fighter than him - but that was still not an issue when Riley himself had a job and a mission and was a supersoldier. As for ignoring him - well, that would've been impossible to do so in season 4, since Riley was at the center of the constant the Initiative-induced drama. Either his boss/mother figure was trying to kill Buffy, or was getting killed by Adam, or Riley was under the influence of substances he was given by the Initiative and had to be deprogrammed, or everytone was involved in fighting Adam. 

That's hardly evidence that their relationship was suepr healthy and strong, and the situation was completely different in season 5, when Buffy had a ton of things on her plate - finding out her sister was really the Key and not her actual sister and her memories had been alteed, that a super-powerful Hell god was after her sister and could destroy the world, and finding out that her mother had a brain tumor and could die. She was hardly going to be focusing on Riley, and saw him as her safe space (which is exactly what had first drawn her to him back in early season 4, before she knew he was in the Initiative - she wanted a "stable, normal" boyfriend). OTOH, Riley himself was having an identity crisis after losing his place in the Initiative, being jobless and without a mission of his own. and not having the superstrength anymore. We already saw his insecurities regarding Buffy's feelings for him in season 4 - no one who is secure in his relationship is going to immediately accuse his girlfriend of cheating on him with her ex. Of course those would multiply once he wasn't able to be her superpowered partner in demon fighting, and when he basically didn't have anything else going on in his life.

The season 5 storyline made perfect sense, and also finally retroactively managed to make narrative use of the characters'/actors' incredible lack of chemistry. That,  and Ri;ey's blandness as a character (and actor's lack of presence - Blucas is OK as a suipporting actor, but really isn't cut out for a male lead. which is what he was in season 4) made most of season 4  (aside from standalones) so underwhelming. Riley was the center of that storyline, even the Big Bad was connected just to him and not really to Buffy or the rest of the gang.

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Have to rewatch all that first, but I meant that Xander gets his place as 'the heart' of the gang following the ritual at the end of season 4 when his previous behavior had him as anything but the heart of the gang. Xander was always a disruptive element, somebody who messed up things and relationships, not somebody who offered stability and support to his friends.

If somebody was the heart of the gang it was Willow - who always supported Buffy, remained in Sunnydale to be close to her, etc.

 

You're assuming that "the Heart" is something automatically positive. It is not. In Primeval/Restless, Willow was the Spirit, Xander the Heart, and Giles the Mind, and at no point did we hear that being the Heart is superior to being the Spirit or Mind. All those can be positive or negative, and we see it expressed in positive and negative ways. Even Giles sometimes acts purely on emotion too (in extreme circumstances like in Passion), but usually, we see him act more rationally (for instance, he is understandably bitter and resentful of Angel in season 3, and makes this clear when Angel comes to see him in Amends, but he stays calm, does not undermine Buffy in front of others in Revelations but only tells her how he feels in private, and does not try to get Angel klilled, since his rational mind knows that he cannot be blamed for what he did when he was soulless. But we also see Giles acting in a cold and calculated way and even committing a murder for the big picture (but a murder that probably saved the world in the long run).

Being the Heart means primarily acting on emotion. Emotions can be both positive and negative, and acting an emotion can be great, or can make yoiu act like a complete douche and do a lot of stupid things. All characters have moments when they act fully on emotion, without thinking, but no one does it as much as Xander. And acting on his emotions like anger and jealousy, or acting on his romantic interest in multiple girls without much thinkin,  was usually why Xander was so annoying in the early seasons. But in other times, the same impulsivess could make him act bravely and do great things to help and save his friends. In the later season, he is older and more mature and we see a more positive, caring and compassionate version of Xander. But he still has moments of regression, most notably in season 6, where we see both the good and the bad sides - in Hell's Bells he leaves Anya at the altar our of his fear and insecurities induced by his own family life, he acts out of anger and jealousy in Entropy and it is really ugly, but he also acts out of love for Willow and saves her and the world in the finale.

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Wesley is also a character with some very problematic traits ... but unless I'm misremembering things he is himself a victim of domestic abuse 

So is Xander. We have heard a lot about his dysfunctional famiy throughout the show. 

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Not looking forward to the silly 'magic is a drug' metaphor of season 6. That was a complete joke. Magic is magic and it could have been a great plot to see Willow turn evil because of the things magic allowed her to do, not so much because of what it did to her.

I never thought she turned evil for any other reason than what magic allowed her to do. The 'addiction' was her addiction to power. Her dialogue in the last few episodes of season 6 makes that clear - especially her speech where she talked about how much she despised her old self pre-magic, the one she saw as weak and timid and a loser.

 

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1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

That's a terrible example to use. They were put under a lust-spell that made them have sex all day long. If spell-induced sex is their height of sexual and romantic desire, that really doesn't say anything great about their relationship. By the same logic, Angel and Eve were a great couple because Lorne unintentionally make them constanttly bang in Life of the Party.

No, they weren't under a 'lust spell'. The lust and desire they felt was fueling the energies in the house, not the other way around. Their genuine feelings for each other drove this thing which is why the gang had to stop them having sex to stop the ghosts from manifesting.

1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

There's plenty in season 4 to indicate Riley's insecurities. The guy was so jealous that he got into a fight with Angel when he turned up in Sunnydale to talk to Buffy and even jumped to the conclusion and accused Buffy of having cheated on him with Angel and having made him evil again when she was briefly in LA to talk to Faith.

I didn't say Riley had no issues ... but keep in mind that Buffy never talked about Angel prior to that and the context there was about Oz's return causing further trouble with 'demonic boyfriends'.

I'm not saying there was no way to write a convincing and fast break-up - just that the way they did it - the silly scenario of Riley thinking that Buffy didn't love him - isn't good. Nor is the way Buffy treats Riley early in season 5 - shutting him out completely - not something she would do.

1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

And Buffy herself was insecure about the fact that Riley slept with Faith when he thought she was Buffy and didn't realize it was her (which was really rape by deception, but they glossed over it). He also showed some surprise and discomfort when he learned  Buffy was a more experienced and better/stronger demon fighter than him - but that was still not an issue when Riley himself had a job and a mission and was a supersoldier. As for ignoring him - well, that would've been impossible to do so in season 4, since Riley was at the center of the constant the Initiative-induced drama. Either his boss/mother figure was trying to kill Buffy, or was getting killed by Adam, or Riley was under the influence of substances he was given by the Initiative and had to be deprogrammed, or everytone was involved in fighting Adam.

The Faith drama wasn't that big of an issue. Riley having issues with Buffy being better and stronger than him is an issue ... but not that big of an issue in context that the utter failures Giles, Xander, Willow, and Anya routinely accompany the Slayer on her patrols. Neither of those people can properly fight much less survive an encounter with more than two demons. Yet that's only an issue when it is convenient for the (then ridiculous) plot whereas we have Dawn gleefully tell Riley how Buffy talks about his helplessness in his absence.

Riley obviously is the ideal partner for Buffy. He actually does have combat training and skills even after he is no longer a super soldier.

1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

That's hardly evidence that their relationship was suepr healthy and strong, and the situation was completely different in season 5, when Buffy had a ton of things on her plate - finding out her sister was really the Key and not her actual sister and her memories had been alteed, that a super-powerful Hell god was after her sister and could destroy the world, and finding out that her mother had a brain tumor and could die.

Yes, the Dawn thing is something Buffy also kept from Riley, and one can understand that decision to a point. Although she told Giles soon enough, so she should have trusted her partner with that, too, one imagines. She likely would have told Angel.

The truth about Glory she learns only after Riley has left - when he was still around she was just a very powerful female villain.

Buffy suddenly and inexplicably treats Riley as a convenient commodity - somebody who is at her beck and call, somebody who will always be there when she needs him, etc. - and that just doesn't make sense in context.

1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

The season 5 storyline made perfect sense, and also finally retroactively managed to make narrative use of the characters'/actors' incredible lack of chemistry. That,  and Ri;ey's blandness as a character (and actor's lack of presence - Blucas is OK as a suipporting actor, but really isn't cut out for a male lead. which is what he was in season 4) made most of season 4  (aside from standalones) so underwhelming. Riley was the center of that storyline, even the Big Bad was connected just to him and not really to Buffy or the rest of the gang.

You certainly can like the plotline - I don't find it convincing in context. I don't like season 4 (Riley included) particularly, but that doesn't change the fact that I also don't like how Riley was handled.

1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

You're assuming that "the Heart" is something automatically positive. It is not. In Primeval/Restless, Willow was the Spirit, Xander the Heart, and Giles the Mind, and at no point did we hear that being the Heart is superior to being the Spirit or Mind. All those can be positive or negative, and we see it expressed in positive and negative ways. Even Giles sometimes acts purely on emotion too (in extreme circumstances like in Passion), but usually, we see him act more rationally (for instance, he is understandably bitter and resentful of Angel in season 3, and makes this clear when Angel comes to see him in Amends, but he stays calm, does not undermine Buffy in front of others in Revelations but only tells her how he feels in private, and does not try to get Angel klilled, since his rational mind knows that he cannot be blamed for what he did when he was soulless. But we also see Giles acting in a cold and calculated way and even committing a murder for the big picture (but a murder that probably saved the world in the long run).

I didn't say 'the Heart' has to be always positive - although I'd say that in context of the ritual we are not talking positive/negative aspects of people but rather a whole where all parts are necessary for 'the Super Buffy' to work - I said that I don't see Xander as Mr. Empathy prior to the writers' decision in the finale of season 4 to have him as 'the Heart' that this aspect of his character was developed - at the cost of ignoring/not developing his more problematic personality traits we got in the first four seasons.

1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

So is Xander. We have heard a lot about his dysfunctional famiy throughout the show. 

Yes, but we don't here anything about concrete domestic abuse of Xander, no? Unlike with Wesley, who is visibly and lastingly shaken after a phone call with his father at the end of season 2.

1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

I never thought she turned evil for any other reason than what magic allowed her to do. The 'addiction' was her addiction to power. Her dialogue in the last few episodes of season 6 makes that clear - especially her speech where she talked about how much she despised her old self pre-magic, the one she saw as weak and timid and a loser..

The addiction is her very real 'addiction to magic' which is treated not like a psychological 'desire for power' but as if she was an alcoholic or other drug addict - she has symptoms of withdrawal, acts like being drunk/intoxicated when she is 'on magic', cannot stop using magic, etc.

Early in the season the writers still treat it as a character thing - Willow viewing herself as powerful, threatening Giles, messing with Tara's memory - and subsequently the memories of the entire gang. But that the devolves into a stupid 'magic is a drug' plot right to the point where Willow being 'on bad magic' is what turns her into a villain, not so much her own desires and decisions.

Right up until the middle of season 6 there is no indication that magic is a substance you can suck out of people or is something you consume like a drug. When Willow resurrects Buffy or attacks Glory the whole thing is portrayed completely different than when she sucks spell books dry, sucks magic out of Giles, etc.

A proper character arc would of course gone with Willow's deep-seated fear to become her 'normal' and 'weak' self again - something we saw as her fear in the nightmare episode. But they didn't allow that to play out. If they had handled it as it should have been, Willow would have become a cold and calculating person using her powers as she saw fit to do 'the right thing'. It starts like that with her insisting on Buffy's resurrection, her changing the minds and memories of her friends, etc. but then it just becomes a stupid story.

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Well, the musical is still great!

They really tried to make it sense that Giles would go ... but it doesn't. It can't. The whole 'I've to allow her to make her own mistakes' approach would have made sense back in season 5 - when he first considered to go. But now we are talking about a young woman who was dead for three months, who was deeply traumatized by the way of her resurrection (and also by the fact that she sacrified herself to save her sister and the world), who is forced to act as guardian for her little sister (a powerful magical artifact who could become the target of evil forces at any time), who has no monetary assets of any kind, no job, qualification of any kind.

And then she is also the Slayer ... and Giles is her Watcher, having been reinstated by the Council just last season.

In what world does it make sense to just leave Buffy when she is clearly suffering from a severe depression - quite literally from the worst kind of depression you could possibly suffer considering that she was literally in heaven?

So far the Willow plot does still work. Magic is still just a shortcut and Willow's universal means to resolve whatever 'problems' she has. But the conflict between her and Tara is also clearly framed as a drug addict thing. Willow cannot stop using magic, uses too much magic, apparently, and we have her act like a drug addict in response.

In context the problem shouldn't be how often Willow uses magic but rather how she uses it and what she uses it for. How she risks the lives and well-being of other people is the scary thing ... not to mention altering the memory of her girlfriend and her other friends.

They should have tried to come up with weirdo and scary motivations for Willow to use magic for. The idea that she would use it as an everyday shortcut like decorating the house for Xander and Anya's party shouldn't be cause for concern. On the one hand, that kind of thing doesn't sit well with how magic was portrayed earlier (spells do need time and effort) nor is this something Willow would use it for. This makes only sense if magic was a kind of drug, if she had the need and drive to do it again and again. And that's just not something that makes much sense.

They should have been brave enough to turn Willow into a villain because she wanted to do things ... not because she couldn't help herself or couldn't control herself. That was the cheap way out and it shows.

Not to mention that the Xander finale would have worked infinitely better if his actual knowledge of Willow's personality and past would have been what would help her see reason - not a general emotional plea.

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4 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

Willow cannot stop using magic, uses too much magic, apparently, and we have her act like a drug addict in response.

Substitute 'power' for 'magic' as the metaphor for power, and there you go.  It happens all the time. Getting anyone who has power to step back from wielding it when they've gotten used to using it, is nearly impossible.  Look at any politician, ruler, head of a corporation, name it.

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7 hours ago, Zorral said:

Substitute 'power' for 'magic' as the metaphor for power, and there you go.  It happens all the time. Getting anyone who has power to step back from wielding it when they've gotten used to using it, is nearly impossible.  Look at any politician, ruler, head of a corporation, name it.

But it isn't a metaphor for power, it is a metaphor for drug abuse. Character and personality changes are the result of too much 'use of magic' - just as substance abuse and alcoholism change your character.

Willow floats at the ceiling and forgets her domestic tasks because she is intoxicated, not because she has 'too much power'.

Power also may affect your character and personality but not in the way it affects Willow after they write her as a 'magic junkie'.

Yes, in the first half of the season Willow's behavior kind of makes sense - although Tara's concerns that Willow is using 'too much magic' make little sense insofar as Willow is using magic for trivial things. If magic weren't like a drug - and it is never described as such until it is in season 6 - then Willow using it for everyday things shouldn't pose any problem at all. The problem would only come when she takes more and more risks and/or uses magic to do questionable things. That eventually also happens - although it is odd that Tara is very much okay with the resurrection spell - but the core conflict of the couple is about Willow using too much magic, not about what she is doing with that magic.

[In context it may have made much more sense if Willow had brought back Buffy all by herself, the crowning achievement of her awesome powers. The idea that Tara and Anya (who has a lot of magical knowledge) would have been okay with this is very weird. That could also have helped to set Willow on a destructive path because the guilt to drag Buffy out of heaven would have been hers alone.]

After rewatching 'Tabula Rasa' Giles leaving makes even less sense - we do have a scenario where not only Buffy and Dawn would need his help, but one of his best friends and protegés has just shown that she is a loose cannon, willing and able to mess with the memories and minds of her friends if she felt like it.

In what world does it make sense that Giles would abandon Willow in this situation? In context, it also makes no sense that Giles doesn't show up again for Xander/Anya's wedding - aren't these two his friends as well? Would he miss that?

And insofar as Buffy is concerned ... her disgust at life and her yearning for heaven make her potentially suicidal - but Giles either doesn't realize this or he doesn't care.

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Didn't Anthony Head want to go back to England at this time?

For instance this:

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1366836/buffy-why-did-anthony-stewart-head-leave-quit-rupert-giles-evg

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Head said the reason he had left the series was so he could spend more time with his family, who still lived in the UK.

 

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1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Didn't Anthony Head want to go back to England at this time?

For instance this:

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1366836/buffy-why-did-anthony-stewart-head-leave-quit-rupert-giles-evg

 

Yes, of course, Head also didn't like how Giles had literally nothing to do since season 4. After season 5 he decided he no longer wanted to be part of the main cast.

My issue was strictly with how they handled Giles' disappearance in-universe. In a different scenario this could have made more sense (e.g. back in season 5 when he first considered this before Joyce and Buffy both died). But putting Buffy, Dawn, and Willow in such precarious positions at that time make it pretty much impossible to swallow this and continue to view Giles as essentially the foster father of all those characters.

Basically, Buffy and by extension Dawn are completely on their own. Buffy isn't prepared for or capable of being a single parent. This would have been a hard task considering her calling and private life even before her death ... but afterwards it makes no sense to expect her to do that all on her own if you are a close friend of the family.

Up until Willow's ugly behavior in 'Tabula Rasa' Giles could delude himself into believing Willow and Tara could be co-foster parents for Dawn and help Buffy to get better since they were living with her. But after that Tara is more or less gone and Willow is completely incapable of exerting a positive influence on either of them.

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Well,  not everyone necessarily interprets these matters quite like that, which is to be expected. For another this is television, and network television at that, though sometimes new versions.  Nobody knew from one season to the next what was going to happen, including whether or not there would be another season. 

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19 hours ago, Zorral said:

Well,  not everyone necessarily interprets these matters quite like that, which is to be expected. For another this is television, and network television at that, though sometimes new versions.  Nobody knew from one season to the next what was going to happen, including whether or not there would be another season. 

Oh, I didn't view them in this manner during my earlier watches - I just focused more on the Giles/Buffy relationship this time, and especially with Dawn and in the wake of Joyce's death it makes no sense that the foster father would pretty much abandon both his charges. He is not just responsible for Buffy as her Watcher but, by extension, also for Dawn.

In that context it is also odd that he would leave Dawn while Buffy is still dead. I mean, they actually have Buffybot pretend she is Buffy so that Dawn can remain with Willow/Tara. With Giles not knowing about the plan to resurrect Buffy that's an impossible situation for a sane and responsible adult.

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Giles shattered from executing a goddess and the death of Buffy, functioning poorly himself? Dawn is a fabricant, plus aren't there other parents around to help out Willow with Dawn?  I'm not fighting or arguing with this, just saying there are other ways of looking at 

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20 hours ago, Zorral said:

Giles shattered from executing a goddess and the death of Buffy, functioning poorly himself? Dawn is a fabricant, plus aren't there other parents around to help out Willow with Dawn?  I'm not fighting or arguing with this, just saying there are other ways of looking at 

Giles murdering Ben doesn't even come up afterwards, so there is no indication that he was 'shattered' or even affected by that. Dawn is just a little girl, she is not viewed as 'a fabricant'.

In regards to the magic plot I watched another three episodes - Buffy is so out of it that she didn't seem to process that Tara had broken up with Willow and left the house since she first mistakes Amy for Tara. The writers also failed to properly deal with the 'Tabula Rasa' madness - Willow tried to mess with Tara's and Buffy's memories and they are still all friends with her, Tara excluded? What is this? Is it okay to mind control you? Do you still want to be friends with a person who nearly got all of you killed when her ugly mind control spell backfired?

And then there is a double nonsense about Amy. While it is really great that they brought Amy back, it is ridiculous that Willow could take on an actual goddess and bring back Buffy from the dead before she could transform Amy back into a human being. But second - and more importantly - how on earth does it make sense that Amy is some kind of magic junkie when there is no indication in that direction back in season 3? Willow, Amy, and the warlock kid are part of a witch coven there, but they don't do very powerful or dangerous stuff. Amy certainly was a more powerful and more ruthless witch than Willow at that time, using magic to bewitch her teachers and having mastered transformation.

Amy should have been brought back in season 5, I think, as part of the bigger projects of Willow and Tara, or perhaps even in the second half of season 4.

It is with the episode 'Wrecked' that everything about magic breaks down. First we have Willow having symptoms of a 'magical hangover', losing the ability to do magic after she overdid herself at the Bronze with her little tricks there. Then we get the introduction of Rack who is literally 'a magic dealer' and subsequently magic and spells are portrayed as working like drugs - Rack's customers look like junkies, Rack's spells work like drugs, intoxicating Willow, making her behave and act as if she were drunk or drugged.

That just isn't how magic worked up to that point. We can, perhaps, assume that Willow would want to cause spells which make her feel better in light of what she is going through - sort of like she tried to do back when Oz left her - but just doing magic in general is in now way akin to or resembling intoxication. If the had to do the Rack plot Willow should have had a specific reason to go to him other than him being able to send her on weird and arbitrary magical trips.

And Willow being 'on magic' causing her to summon weirdo demons and stuff also seems to make no sense at all. Why on earth Willow would first agree to do something with Dawn only to them give in to 'magic withdrawal' and visit Rack for another shot is pretty much beyond me.

Not to mention the subsequent treatment of 'magical artifacts' being treated like drugs, causing Buffy to remove crystals and candles from the house - or the ridiculous scene where a clear parallel is drawn between herbs and pot when the social services lady shows. The worst scene is Amy breaking into Buffy's house like a junkie trying to steal 'magical things' as if she and Willow are consuming magical things like they were literal drugs.

The general portrayal of magic as a shortcut is also something that wasn't part of how magic was portrayed earlier - it was difficult and time-consuming to prepare for and cast more complicated spells. Some work pretty fast, of course, but most after considerable preparation and training. The way Amy and Willow work magic at the Bronze seems to be beyond what has been reasonably possible before - using mere gestures to teleport, change, and mess with people's minds.

The idea that Willow would become addicted to magic because she can access databanks faster if she uses magic seems kind of ridiculous in context. She does use magic a lot to solve problems in the earlier seasons, but not for everyday things. Especially not for things related to her studying.

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Having finished season 6 I must say that the decision to have Willow go on a revenge spree was the easy way out. They have Buffy and Willow talk about and play around with what could have been Willow's real motives to become evil - her insecurities and her desire to never be the little girl she was for most of her life.

Instead, we basically get a cheap revenge story where the good guys just declare that Willow killing Warren and subsequently the other guys will turn her irrevocably evil - which is nothing that's established as a fact. Giles murdered Ben in cold blood at the end of season 5 - arguably a much crueler and more grievous crime than Willow possibly killing Jonathan and Andrew (these two actually committed crimes, helped to cover up a murder, etc.) - yet it didn't turn him into a monster. He got away with that crime and continued to live as before.

That doesn't mean the story doesn't work pretty well as a revenge story - but 'Evil Willow' could have been a much better story on its own, one they should have spent an entire season on, I think.

Magic is just a drug in the finale, and Willow is essentially just driven by emotions - first her grief for Tara and her anger over her murder, and then whatever evil or cruelty is in the magic she absorbs.

She is like a junkie who switches between drugs and whose feelings change accordingly.

Buffy suddenly discoverying that life is good also comes completely out of the left field. She was in a deep depression and went to a lot of dark places in that season. Nothing got resolved, but she is suddenly no longer depressed? How does this work? It would have been much better if the whole heaven thing had been resolved - they could have given her another (near) death experience during which she realized that this place was always waiting for her and she was in no rush to get back there.

I also think the 'word destruction' MacGuffin in the end was completely unnecessary. If they wanted to give Willow an object to work on, why didn't they use Acathla again? The statue should still be somewhere in Sunnydale, Willow had more intimate knowledge about it than some buried satanist temple.

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