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Post by buffyfan21 on May 14, 2008 23:21:31 GMT -5
I can appreciate Giles' leaving for the motivation behind it. He wants Buffy to stop using him as a crutch. It reminds me of 'Tough Love' when Buffy asks him to be the dad to Dawn and he refuses and has to push her out the door. But did he ever just sit down and talk to her? Besides the whole not letting people go with her to confront Sweet. Its still always seemed too harsh for me that he planned to leave one episode after Buffy confesses she was in heaven. His retreat back to England seems a bit OOC when you consider that they just got over another spell that Willow did that exploded in their faces. His anger over Willow doing Buffy's resurrection should have surfaced during the episode, I think. Instead he still gets on the plan home. . But I think that Giles did give Buffy many chances and opportunities to try and stand on her own more. Still, she kept being too dependent upon him. I think for Giles it was a thing of wanting to be there to protect your children, while at the same time trusting them to go off on their own. I think this is a decision that Giles really struggled with, and I certainly don't think it was easy for him in the least. He felt he was doing the right thing at the time. |
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Post by Emmie on May 14, 2008 23:32:34 GMT -5
But its not as clear cut as Buffy being too immature to take care of herself. She was going through severe depression. Trying to stop wanting to die so she could be in heaven again. Helping someone through depression is a fine line, but what Giles did at first was try to fix it with money (which she did need) and then he left. I'd rather have seen Giles get angry at Buffy for retreating from her life and responsibilities then for him to leave. What he did was give up on someone who was suicidal imo.
And I don't think she got better because he was gone. Absence and moving to another continent doesn't help someone who wants to kill themself and I think at the beginning of Season 6 that's what Buffy wanted. It wasn't about her needing to grow up and take care of things herself, which is what Giles says was his reason for leaving.
Anthony Stewart Head leaving prompted Giles' character departure for Season 6. Maybe his character would have been cut back anyway, but I still think the reason they gave for his departure wasn't an intelligent way to help Buffy.
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Post by buffyfan21 on May 15, 2008 12:48:51 GMT -5
You make some valid points, Emmie. And I definitely agree with you that Buffy was suicidal.  |
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alycat7
Wise-cracking Techno Genius
I don't wanna be this good looking and athletic. We all have crosses to bear - Spike[Mo0:4]
Posts: 752
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Post by alycat7 on May 15, 2008 19:20:25 GMT -5
Im one of the few people who believe that everything about season 6 was beautifully done. It is the most realistic season, and it makes the characters more human. Giles did abandon Buffy, but it had to be done. Buffy never seemed suicidal to me, she never showed signs of wanting to end her life. Im also really glad that Buffy lost the hero aspect of the show for as long as it did. I hate when characters get over their problems too quickly, it took Buffy almost a year to recover and that seems like an appropriate length to me.
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Post by Emmie on May 15, 2008 19:55:38 GMT -5
Im one of the few people who believe that everything about season 6 was beautifully done. It is the most realistic season, and it makes the characters more human. Giles did abandon Buffy, but it had to be done. Buffy never seemed suicidal to me, she never showed signs of wanting to end her life. Im also really glad that Buffy lost the hero aspect of the show for as long as it did. I hate when characters get over their problems too quickly, it took Buffy almost a year to recover and that seems like an appropriate length to me. Buffy talks about not being able to feel anything and wanting to not be here during Season 6, meaning not wanting to be alive again. Wanting to be in heaven is wanting to die, which is suicidal to me. Thoughts about desiring death is the first warning stage for a possible suicide. Maybe she never went so far as to plan to kill herself, but she did want death at times imo. |
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nadir
Innocent Bystander
[Mo0:0]
Posts: 28
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Post by nadir on May 16, 2008 13:44:44 GMT -5
Buffy talks about not being able to feel anything and wanting to not be here during Season 6, meaning not wanting to be alive again. Wanting to be in heaven is wanting to die, which is suicidal to me. Thoughts about desiring death is the first warning stage for a possible suicide. Maybe she never went so far as to plan to kill herself, but she did want death at times imo. I agree, to an extent. I think it was all subconscious, slowly beginning to manifest. Spike keyed in on this in Season 5. The name of the episode escapes me, but it was when she almost gets beaten and asks Spike to tell her the stories of the slayers he killed. He knew that slight death wish was a part of her. She just didn't realize it. |
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Post by kittyfantastico on Dec 23, 2008 18:10:02 GMT -5
It bugged me that Giles never really TOLD Buffy that she was depending on him too much, until he left. He has that song with Tara but they aren't really parallels; Tara has told Willow many times what the problem is and Willow is ignoring her. Buffy might be oblivious but Giles never really points it out to her, he just leaves. I've heard it was because the actor wanted to move back to England or something, but they could have had him speak up a little more before deciding to bail.
Anyway, why does Buffy suddenly have to stand on her own without a watcher? Did the other Slayers in the past never live as long? Because there is no implication that their Watchers ever left.
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Nicholas
Descendant of a Toaster Oven
One Good Scare
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Post by Nicholas on Feb 10, 2009 23:48:21 GMT -5
Ok, so I'm currently watching season 6 again for the millionth time, and these are some things I've always wondered... First of all, Why did it never occur to the scooby gang that Buffy being a good person would've went to a heavenly dimension? They just automatically assumed that Buffy was in a hell dimension like Angel was, suffering unbearable torment. I guess it's like Willow said, they were selfish and didn't want to know. They just wanted their friend back. Secondly, When Buffy comes back and finds out she is running out of money, (I believe this was first brought up in 'Flooded') why is it that Willow and Tara never offered to get jobs and help out too? I mean, they were living there after all. The only thing I can think of is that both Willow and Tara were busy w/ school at the time and weren't able to work, and since Buffy wasn't in school she had to be doing something so she got a job. So, since Tara and Willow never had jobs that we know of, we can assume that Buffy struggled to pay all the bills on her own. Though she did get some help from Giles that lasted a while. Obviously the Doublemeat couldn't have paid more than minimum wage. Also, we can assume that Willow and Tara probably got financial aid to help pay for school, couldn't they have helped Buffy out with some of that money? And Xander had a job, why couldn't he have helped Buffy out? Even though he was not living there. I dunno... I like to think they helped her out off screen, but at times it sure didn't seem like they were.... I know, I've thought way too much about this. But seriously, has anybody else ever wondered these things or am I alone here? It's just something that's always kinda bugged me... Thoughts? A) I think that because of the circumstances of Buffy's death and how it was all mystical and had to do with her closing portals between hell dimensions, that they figured her soul would be in Hell, which isnt exactly a illogical thought. It would have occured to me as well. B) Now that I think about it, that does make me wonder why the hell those douche bags didnt help. Well, im sure that they did, but still. |
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Post by eco on Feb 18, 2009 19:40:25 GMT -5
Alot of people's reviews on Season 6 state that they don't like the way Willow's arc was handled. I really enjoyed the whole magic = drugs thing going on, I think it was a lil heavy handed but if anything, it made me enjoy it more. Willow was using too much magic and it had to lead down a slippery slope. Plus, the black eyes thing was uber cool.
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Post by Essentially Yours on Feb 18, 2009 23:15:53 GMT -5
As for Willow and Tara not contributing to the household, I'm sure they did. Even if Willow and Tara got scholarships for their college, how were they able to pay for new clothes and food through out the series? I'm guessing it just wasn't mentioned.
Plus, I imagine it was time-consuming for both Willow and Tara to go to classes, raise Dawn, and fight vampires in their spare time.
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Post by Essentially Yours on Feb 18, 2009 23:22:13 GMT -5
Also season six was probably my favorite season of all. The only thing that I wasn't too comfortable with was that magic was used for a drug metaphor. It just kind of annoyed me that magic was a substitute for Willow and Tara making love in earlier seasons (My guess is because they couldn't show very much on television at that time.) I was just thinking... "Magic can't be a metaphor for somethiing different each season." Lol. Other than that, I agree to all of the earlier posts that list positive aspects of season six.
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Post by Greer on Feb 19, 2009 7:25:11 GMT -5
I'm a Season Six lover, it's prob my #2 or #3 out of the 7. I do thoroughly enjoy that the hero aspect was brutally taken from Buffy and she had to realize that there are a lot of things that one has to do to grow up.
I agree with Giles leaving. He had to,she had been depending on him to do everything for her and just take most of the responsibility for everything. I am glad that he was able to financially secure Buffy for the long haul, but I wish he would've stayed, even in a reduced capacity.
Buffy was severely depressed, and she wanted her death to come again quickly. She was trying so hard at times to be happy and get out of her rut, and she couldn't. She was rejected from school, which has to be a huge blow to her ego and just her whole self-concept of what she was good at besides the slaying. She had to be thrust into head of household, especially with Dawn, and for someone who's so detached from their life as it is, that had to be extremely difficult. Buffy barely had anything that made her feel positive and good. The only thing that made her "feel" was Spike. Like she stated in "The Gift", Buffy probably just wanted her mother back. Joyce was a huge influence in Buffy's life and she was one of the normal consistencies that was abruptly taken from her, and Buffy most likely got her back in heaven, when she stated that everyone she knew was safe. That had to be one of the more difficult things she went through, to have your mother taken from you, and then you get to see her for 3 months, then you get sucked out of heaven, back to a place that you know you'll never be able to see her again(or for a very long time, in the least).Buffy just seemed so visibly sad to me, but she was able to get out of it, in the end.
Regarding Tara & Willow's contribution, that was something that always irked me a bit. It most likely didn't fit into the story very well, but come the heck on! How did they pay for the house while Buffy was gone? Maybe Will made some magic money appear out of nowhere, but they both live there and eat there. There are plenty of people who work and go to school, so I think that they both needed to contribute. My happy little theory about that is Anya paid off the house with her bank-robbing money from the episode Him. I can dream, right?
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