What was Buffy's biggest mistake??

[Angelsgirl]

Giles: Buffy, you acted wrongly, I admit that. But believe me, that was
hardly the, the worst mistake you'll ever make. Uh, that wasn't quite as
comforting as it was meant to be.

Sooo..... What do you think was Buffy's biggest mistake? I mean she is only human after all and even she has her faults!

[BennyTheKey]

Having sex with Spike.......although it was hot.
It was just not needed..ok they needed to show that Buffy was like in a really bad way, but urgh!

[joony]

Doing nothing but chain Spike up in season 7. Completely undermined her "general" act in my opinion. She goes to kill Anya without much hesitation in "Selfless", and when it comes to Spike (an actual threat, unwilling agent of The First but agent nonetheless, powerful vampire in close proximity to the potentials, attempted to rape her less than six months ago!...need i go on?) she goes out of her way to keep him around. In the same conversation when she confesses she'd sacrifice dawn to save the world, she runs to save someone who's been nothing but a side-thorn for the past five years of her life! Anyone who says sleeping with Satsu was out of character hasn't got anything on "Lies My Parents Told Me". I mean she'd willingly give up her sister to save the world but has a panic attack when her attempted rapist is almost killed!?..........eep i think i got ranty...but i think the first sentence got my point across =).

p.s. not a spike hater, love him in angel, just not a spuffy fan
x

[kimtaro]

Actually, joony, she should have killed Spike back in S4 when he got the chip in his head

[hitnrun017]

Not killing Angelus in Innocence. I'm glad she didn't, because it made for amazing television, but not killing him led to many deaths that she is partly responsible for. Also, I sort of have a problem with her going to get Faith and feed her to Angel. Faith deserved to be punished for the things she did, but in no way deserved to die. I find it annoying how in Villians she acts all high and mighty about not killing humans and not wanting Willow to go after Warren, but that is EXACTLY what she did in Graduation Day Pt. 1.

[Emmie]

Nov 20, 2008 15:24:55 GMT -5 hitnrun017 said:

Not killing Angelus in Innocence. I'm glad she didn't, because it made for amazing television, but not killing him led to many deaths that she is partly responsible for. Also, I sort of have a problem with her going to get Faith and feed her to Angel. Faith deserved to be punished for the things she did, but in no way deserved to die. I find it annoying how in Villians she acts all high and mighty about not killing humans and not wanting Willow to go after Warren, but that is EXACTLY what she did in Graduation Day Pt. 1.

I agree, both were questionable moments for Buffy in judgment. Both irrational decisions were inspired by her emotional attachment to Angel.

The Scoobies, most notably Xander, called Buffy out on failing to kill Angelus. But here's something to consider, no one even tried to stop Buffy or reason with her that feeding Faith to Angel was wrong. Xander, Willow and Oz were there when Buffy made her decision. Willow and Oz helped her track down Faith's apartment. Xander expressed concern that he might lose Buffy. No one breathed a word that Buffy was wrong to cold-bloodedly (heck, maybe it's more hot-blooded considering her anger at this point) kill Faith.

You failed to kill Angelus? Bad Buffy. You are going to kill Faith? Alrighty, let's see how we can help.

Her friends failed her (not that they're to blame for her actions, but they still weren't doing her any moral favors here) in that moment in bringing her back to reason. I can only think that Buffy's experience with Faith might have shaped her words to Willow in Villains. She was doing what her friends failed to do for her, trying to talk down her friend seeking vengeance.

Although, there's a vindictive part of me that was immensely satisfied that Warren was dead. *Hated* him. Which is probably why it was hard to swallow his retcon return in Season 8.

[Whedon Fan]

Nov 20, 2008 15:24:55 GMT -5 hitnrun017 said:

Not killing Angelus in Innocence. I'm glad she didn't, because it made for amazing television, but not killing him led to many deaths that she is partly responsible for. Also, I sort of have a problem with her going to get Faith and feed her to Angel. Faith deserved to be punished for the things she did, but in no way deserved to die. I find it annoying how in Villians she acts all high and mighty about not killing humans and not wanting Willow to go after Warren, but that is EXACTLY what she did in Graduation Day Pt. 1.

That is exaxtly what I came here to write. It made for good TV and it was heart breaking at times but she should have got her slayer self together and staked his ass well before he attempted to end the world. Good point about Faith but I think she hated Faith on more personal level than she did Warren. She never trusted Warren but Buffy did trust and was her friend. But still she never deserved to be given to Angel no matter what she did.

[wenxina]

Nov 20, 2008 17:06:43 GMT -5 Emmie said:

I agree, both were questionable moments for Buffy in judgment. Both irrational decisions were inspired by her emotional attachment to Angel.

The Scoobies, most notably Xander, called Buffy out on failing to kill Angelus. But here's something to consider, no one even tried to stop Buffy or reason with her that feeding Faith to Angel was wrong. Xander, Willow and Oz were there when Buffy made her decision. Willow and Oz helped her track down Faith's apartment. Xander expressed concern that he might lose Buffy. No one breathed a word that Buffy was wrong to cold-bloodedly (heck, maybe it's more hot-blooded considering her anger at this point) kill Faith.

You failed to kill Angelus? Bad Buffy. You are going to kill Faith? Alrighty, let's see how we can help.

Her friends failed her (not that they're to blame for her actions, but they still weren't doing her any moral favors here) in that moment in bringing her back to reason. I can only think that Buffy's experience with Faith might have shaped her words to Willow in Villains. She was doing what her friends failed to do for her, trying to talk down her friend seeking vengeance.

Although, there's a vindictive part of me that was immensely satisfied that Warren was dead. *Hated* him. Which is probably why it was hard to swallow his retcon return in Season 8.

Never quite blamed the Scoobies for not talking Buffy out of doing Faith in. For one, it was completely natural. By that point, Faith had tried to strangle Xander (she forgot to give him the safeword), kill Willow, aligned herself with the Big Bad of the season, temporarily corrupted Buffy ("Want. Take. Have."), betrayed Buffy by trying to set her up, tried to bring Angelus back. Yeah, Angelus tried to kill them all, and psychologically tortured Buffy, but at that point in time, Angel was an ally, and that put him in the "good guys" column. His sucking Faith dry would have been poetic justice. The alternative (which happened anyway) was unthinkable; i.e. draining Buffy. The other alternative, which is letting Angel die, was unfavorable, since as I've already argued, Angel was one of the good guys then. Faith, on the other hand, was seemingly unrepentant. In other words, as unsavory as it sounds when stating it quite so objectively, offing Faith was desirable over the other choices.
And hey, it made for good drama, including one totally hot fight scene where Buffy and Faith play rockstars in a cocaine-driven frenzy when they trash Faith's pad. I'm sure even the PlayStation didn't survive that brawl.

[Emmie]

Yeah, I never blamed the Scoobies for it either. It's just something to consider - they did help Buffy plot to murder another person. If Buffy's going down for attempted murder in our "Biggest Mistakes" list, they are too as accessories.

[Enisy]

Agree about her letting Angelus roam freely for so long in Season 2, and it's amazing to me that people complain less about that than about her willingness to kill Dawn to save the world in Season 7. Am I the only one who remembers that she was willing to kill Angel to save the world in Season 2? And that that was treated as a, y'know, Big Damn Heroic Act?

(I won't even touch the Spike quotes -- I've come to expect them from this forum.)

[Skytteflickan88]

This is hard. At first I thought "Buffy? Making a misstake?" Then it dawned on me...

I have to make a top five list.

5.Not killing Angelus in Innocence, even tough that can be excused. I mean, she loved him.
4.Not killing Faith while she was in a coma.
3.Not killing Spike in season 4, even after he worked with Adam.
2.Not killing Ben.
1.Not getting rid of of Giles & Wood after the went behind her back and tried to kill Spike. There were no time for Vendettas.

[henzINNIT]

Nov 20, 2008 14:28:38 GMT -5 joony said:

Doing nothing but chain Spike up in season 7. Completely undermined her "general" act in my opinion. She goes to kill Anya without much hesitation in "Selfless", and when it comes to Spike (an actual threat, unwilling agent of The First but agent nonetheless, powerful vampire in close proximity to the potentials, attempted to rape her less than six months ago!...need i go on?) she goes out of her way to keep him around. In the same conversation when she confesses she'd sacrifice dawn to save the world, she runs to save someone who's been nothing but a side-thorn for the past five years of her life! Anyone who says sleeping with Satsu was out of character hasn't got anything on "Lies My Parents Told Me". I mean she'd willingly give up her sister to save the world but has a panic attack when her attempted rapist is almost killed!?..........eep i think i got ranty...but i think the first sentence got my point across =).

p.s. not a spike hater, love him in angel, just not a spuffy fan
x

Very true. It's an interesting contradiction. Keeping Spike alive did prove beneficial in the long run - His sacrifice won the final battle, he saved Xander's remaining eye (it was him who knocked Caleb away I believe); and he provided Buffy the emotional support that saw her through the last through episodes (although it was pretty much Buffy's unfounded faith in Spike that caused her to be in that emotional situation anyway lol) - It is annoying though that Buffy turned out to be right because she acted very recklessly.

[Hallow Thorn]

I'm with the 'not killing Spike in season 4-7', 'sleeping with him', 'trying to kill Anya in season 7', 'letting Xander, Dawn, Anya ect fight in the season 7 final'...

[Mayor Of F♥ckville]

Not letting Dawn jump off the crazy person bridge haha

[BennyTheKey]

Nov 21, 2008 9:02:58 GMT -5 Skytteflickan88 said:

This is hard. At first I thought "Buffy? Making a misstake?" Then it dawned on me...

4.Not killing Faith while she was in a coma.

Did Buffy know Faith was in a coma?

[henzINNIT]

^ She did. Buffy was in Hospital with Faith briefly at the end of Season 3.

Why would Buffy kill a coma patient? She was only going to kill Faith as a last resort to save Angel and because she was dangerous. Both of those factors were gone. Faith wasn't even supposed to ever wake up, according to the doctors.

[Skytteflickan88]

Safety first, I say.

But true, killing a human being, no matter how many lives that could be saved in the process, isn't a Buffy-thing to do. Probably not even if that human being had tried to kill her boyfriend.

But it's a misstake, since I'm pretty sure Buffy would have felt sad is Faith would have killed Buffy's friends when she woke up...

Just saying, she should have killed Faith. She had no idea if Faith would wake up or not (since they lived on a Hellmouth AND Faith had slayer healing powers) and kill people. To me, that's a misstake.

[henzINNIT]

My vote for Buffy's biggest mistake was not killing Angelus when she had the chance. It led directly to the death of several people.

[watcher]

Letting Dawn and the rest of the potentials and scoobies kick her out of her own house in S7. That was seriously the lamest moment of the whole Buffy series.

[zorthrip]

Enough said.