Season Seven: Worst Season of Buffy

[xanderholic]

Personally, S7 is my favourite season, with my favourite episode of the season being "Conversations with Dead People." This season made Buffy go back to her roots, further back than she ever would have realized. And, well, I always thought Andrew as sooooo fun to watch! lol

Also, I loved the Anya-centric ep when she finds she no longer feels the same out the vengence business as she used to - sooo heart-pulling

[Just Willow]

CDWP and Selfless are both awesome eps.

[EvanCooper93]

May 27, 2009 14:23:42 GMT -5 Just Willow said:

May 27, 2009 14:03:27 GMT -5 @mcbuffy said:

I haven't rewatched season 7 a great deal (due to various non-Buffy related things). However, my over riding memory is that I really enjoyed it. It felt more like the earlier seasons.
The beginning and end sections were particularly strong.

My only gripes with it are:

Too much Spike. They handled his character alot better this season compared to season 6. However any hint of Spuffy by this point instantly made me want to vomit, scream or hit something really hard.

Empty Places. I won't go into too much detail as thinking about what happens makes me so incredibly angry. I'll simply say - They would NEVER throw Buffy out.

Kennedy. More specifically Kennedy with Willow. Season 8 has made me realise (after the excellent "Swell") that I actually quite like her. It's just Kennedy with Willow that doesn't sit right with me.

agree with your first and third points. i actually LOVED when they threw Buffy out. it was the highlight of the season for me, because she was a major ass bitca.

I got so heated when they kicked Buffy out. It was so out of character for everyone to do that. I also just felt so bad for her. As much as I love Faith, I think Buffy would be the better pick for an apocalypse. You know, it's kinda what she does...

[Just Willow]

yeah, i totally agree with her coming back to save the day and everything. i just thought it was good of all of them to finally stand up to her when they had been taking her bossy orders for years.

[wenxina]

When has Buffy ever allowed a personal grudge to come between her and her goals? She hated Spike with a vengeance in S2: he tried to kill her mother amongst others, tried to kill Angel, nearly killed her a bunch of times (sending the assassin order after her), and he's a soulless vampire who's killed two Slayers before her. And she still worked with him.

And then S4. If there's ever a precedent for a quickie kumbaya, that scene in "Primeval" where the four Scoobies make up would be it. They acknowledged that they'd been played, and moved on. The only difference is that there was a cute group hug at the bottom of the elevator shaft.

The thing is, Buffy probably didn't blame her friends for what they did. She acknowledges that she was wrong for cutting people off. Ultimately, she was right about the mission, and when she had proven that to herself, there really wasn't much of anything to do but to go back and save the day. She's Buffy. The Slayer. Not some cheap Made in China (sorry Chao-Ahn) knockoff.

[Rebecca]

Well said, xi. But I'd also like to add that in Empty Places everyone was acting out of character. The Hellmouth was abuzzin'... I just place the blame at the foot of The First. It's energy made a lot of people who stayed in Sunnydale do the wacky (e.g., the Police). So I really don't blame the group, their heads weren't in the right place.


EDITED: I'm an idiot

[Just Willow]

May 27, 2009 19:41:13 GMT -5 Rebecca said:

Well said, xi.

Oh, and speaking of grudges... I think Buffy going after Faith on Angel after Who Are You? had personal vendetta written all over it! (I cannot remember the name of the ep for the life of me.)

I think that's Five By Five. or Sanctuary. those are the two Angel S1 Faith eps.

[eternalspikefan]

Well I may be flamed for this but I actually really enjoyed season 7.
To be honest it is my favourite season of Buffy
I can completely understand why people dislike it and think it's a let down but I am a little surprised at the majority of fellow die-hard Buffy fans disliking or even hating it
I think the main reason for it, and I may well be wrong here, is the tone of the season. It wasn't particularly happy or jovial for any lengthy period of time like the earlier seasons such as season 1 etc. The obvious reason for this Buffy grew up, we watched her make plenty of mistakes along the way. (Letting Rhona into the house in season 7 probably her biggest...just kidding I'm sure there are some Rhona fans out there lol)
I hate how they kicked Buffy out of the house in Empty Places, as much as I Love Spike defending her here I did think it was slightly OOC for Willow,Xander and Giles etc to kick Buffy out after everything but I think it was required. Buffy was getting to holier than thou to coin the phrase and needed a reality check HOWEVER I still think Buffy was in the right she is their leader etc and I love how she in true Buffy form forgives them and comes in to save the day,karma for Buffy haha
Some of my fave episodes too like: Chosen, Lies My Parents Told Me,Conversations With Dead People and Selfless amongst others.
As I was saying, the tone needed to be set as pessimistic throughout obviously because it was the final season and Joss was implying Buffy was going to lose hence had to set the recurring tone...until it finally occurs to Buffy in Chosen that she is going to kick ass as usual
I liked the character developments, particularly Willows recovery, Spike's Soul and Redemption, Faiths Redemption and the First/Ubervamp arc too.
I get that people who don't like Spike were peeved at his screen time, but look back at Angels screen time in the earlier seasons. Don't get me wrong I love both characters but just a fair point *hides for fear of flames*
Overall, as my reply is getting kinda lengthy lol, I think that season 7 of Buffy is the most motivational in my opinion and ends on a high note when looked at in perspective yay!

[Nicholas]

I actually thought that this was one of the better seasons of the show. It showed that the show could evolve and become more adult while still retaining what made it shine. Brilliant.

[VampSpike]

I'm loving the appreciation for CWDP- There was a time I thought I was the only one who liked that ep. Its nice to feel the love. Lol.

For me, S7 was one of the weakest seasons, for points previously made by henz- too many convineant plot devices too late in the game.
One of the my huge pet hates with S7 is simply the re-use of the S3 graphic of The First. Its just so cheap, and like they couldn't be bothered reworking a new image. In some episodes it seems to fit ( a la Willow being possessed in Showtime) but in others (such as when Caleb gets "reborn") it just doesnt work. I wish they'd had done something with this.

I liked Ubie, and Caleb however

[urnofosiris]

Well, I enjoyed it, but at the same time found it a bit towards the let down-side of the scale.
Some of the episodes were plain boring, and some were really good.
But, that's just me. I love every season, and every episode, no matter how crap they may be.

[xaphania]

S7 is my second favourite season (S5 being the first). I think it has some great standalone episodes early on, and I like the overall arc.

Three gripes with the season, though:

-The potentials... too many of them were annoying. Hated Kennedy, and Molly's mockney gets on my nerves so badly.

-Pod!Giles... what was up with Giles in this season? I know they wanted to do the misdirection with him potentially being the First, but not having him touch anything, or hug anyone until The Killer in Me reveal... just not very good. On my first watch, I didn't mind so much. But going back and watching the episodes now, it looks so contrived and silly.

-Lack of main character storylines/progression. I always seem to read that everyone hated how there was too much Spike in this season - well, I didn't mind that. I liked Spike's storyline. But what I didn't like was how Willow, Xander, Anya and Dawn (and Giles to an extent) didn't get very much to do in favour of the potentials/Andrew and yeah, Spike. I mean... if you took Anya out of the picture completely from Selfless onwards (say, if Buffy had killed her), you wouldn't miss much. Some snarky comments and the funny hospital scenes with Andrew but that's about it.

LOL and now it probably sounds like I do hate the season. But apart from those few things, I pretty much love the rest of it.

[bitca]

I thought tossing Buffy out of the house could have worked better, if it had happened earlier in the series. With just 3 episodes left, you can't really do something major like that and work out all the issues satisfactorily.

Seemed like the resolution was Buffy comes back, saves their butts, tends to the wounded, and then everythings cool again.

[Skytteflickan88]

You're right. I've never though of it like that, but Buffy being tossed out earlier could have been really good. Sort of like the troubles of trust and friendship they had in season 4, but in larger scale, more tears, drama and making up.

But Buffy being tossed out when she did was also very dramatic. "OMG, they kicked her out! But the finale is soon! How will they fix it!!!"

[iamthewalrus]

not my favourite season, but i do like season 7

i think if they had more time to tune out the kinks, it would be one of the strongest seasons
i never get why people hate on the potentials, they're one of my favourite things about season 7

[EvanCooper93]

Them kicking Buffy out just felt so out of character, you know? And choosing Faith! Faith tried to kill or do harm to most of Buffy's friends in that room. (Kidnapping Willow!!) As much as I love Faith... what was the gang thinking?!

[ambersknight]

The scene of everyone kicking Buffy out was so completely out of step that it just felt like drama for the sake of drama. The writers just trying to pad out what wa a very weak season arc wise with some angst before a fantastic ending with all folks together and happy.

It was dumb!

[henzINNIT]

It was utterly contrived. It's one of those convos that doesn't even flow. It's like:

-We're going back to the vineyard
-You're reckless
-No you. Bye

Ironically, this argument could have been shown as the First's real power. You have a villian that can do nothing but talk to people, and a scene that needs all the characters to throw their toys out of the pram out of the blue... This was the perfect situation to have the First actually do something, meddle with everyone, screw with their minds and twist the knife.

[Midnight Butterfly]

There are so many comments here to read through so I am just going to give my opinion.

I really enjoyed season seven. I loved all seasons but season seven was better that 2 and 6 in my opinion. It was kind of annoying how they introduced dozens of characters after the half way of the series but I got over it.
Alot of other things about season seven annoyed me also like Anyas death, snotty nosed Kenedy and ofcourse how it ended. I never liked the way everyone who could have been a slayer became one.
Also in season seven the scoobies friendship is weaker than ever and I hated that.
So yes a hell of alot of things annoyed me in season season seven but I still loved it and dont think it was the worst.