Little stuff that bugged you.

[xxxvaliumxxx]

~it bothered me that they didnt wait for the spell to kick in before heading down the stairs to battle the first in chosen.

~it also bothers me that jonathon didnt have enough blood in his body to open the seal, yet blood from the hands of like 20 girls does??

~why the scoobies never got themselves some karate lessons or at least self-defense lessons

~why it was up to buffy to provide for everyone when tara and willow were both living in her house in season 6

~how amanda managed to stake a vamp perfectly in potential yet buffy missed the heart and had no idea what she was doing when she was first called

there's quite a few more things that bother me

[sagewoman]

I agree with xxxvaliumxxx
Why didn't Willow and Tara kick in any rent or grocery money. They would have been paying rent when they lived on campus. Also, Giles should have been saving money for Buffy while she was in High School or the Council should have a fund set up. Why should Joyce have to pay for all the renovations and replacement items? Since watchers for paid, and the Council had a lot of money - one slayer- would not be a huge cost to them.

[gumgnome]

It especially annoys me that when Buffy returns from the grave, the money problems have already begun - Willow and Tara have clearly been spending the rest of what Joyce left even while Buffy was dead. Then they have the nerve to say that she has financial problems, when they're comfortably living in the master bedroom of the house.

There are various times when the Watcher's Council don't do enough to help the Slayer when they feasibly could. If they're so good with the beauracratic nonsense, why not help her out when she gets arrested/kicked out of school? Snyder would be a small-fry for them to manipulate, but they don't even try. One theory could be that they just don't care enough about the Slayer's well-being - she is just a tool for them. Or they deliberately do nothing, hoping that difficulties at school/home drive her away from those things and more towards slaying...

[tkts]

Oct 1, 2009 3:24:34 GMT -5 gumgnome said:

It especially annoys me that when Buffy returns from the grave, the money problems have already begun - Willow and Tara have clearly been spending the rest of what Joyce left even while Buffy was dead. Then they have the nerve to say that she has financial problems, when they're comfortably living in the master bedroom of the house.

Well, they're both full-time students without degrees, so their income potential is somewhat limited. And while Willow's mother probably pays for some of her expenses, Tara presumably has no family support. But, yes, you'd think that at least one of them could get a part-time job in retail or food service to help make ends meet. They don't both need to be around 24/7 to take care of Dawn.

Or, heck, they could have hired out the Buffybot. She's perky, she's physically strong, she never gets tired, and she could use Buffy's Social Security card for tax purposes. She'd probably do pretty well in retail.

(Semi-related, how is it that Tara has a place to go when she leaves Willow in S6? She's estranged from her family, and I can't see her going into the semester paying for a dorm room that she didn't plan to use. Does she move in with a non-Scooby friend? Crash on Xander and Anya's couch? Rent a room in the same fleabag motel that Faith stayed in?)

[gumgnome]

Sure, they're students, but so is Buffy. How is it fair for her to have to leave college to support everyone on top of the whole coming back from the dead thing and being the Slayer? Frankly, Willow could clearly get quite a high-paying job without her degree and just go back to college whenever she wanted. Her employment prospects are a darn sight better than Buffy's, at any rate.

I love the idea of the Buffybot at work in retail! You're right, she'd be fantastic with customers and wouldn't tire of the grinding monotony of the whole thing!
*karma for putting a smile on my face

[buffyfan21]

Oct 2, 2009 5:53:52 GMT -5 gumgnome said:

Sure, they're students, but so is Buffy. How is it fair for her to have to leave college to support everyone on top of the whole coming back from the dead thing and being the Slayer? Frankly, Willow could clearly get quite a high-paying job without her degree and just go back to college whenever she wanted. Her employment prospects are a darn sight better than Buffy's, at any rate.

Completely agree. Karma! Love your banner, btw.

[sweetj]

Forget about anyone getting a job, why didn't Willow and Tara put their Jedi mind tricks to good use and go into a big multinational bank and convince the teller that they're a rich client and they wish to take out a few Thousand in cash.
If they morally had an issue with that then why didn't they magically mass produce some ''hand made'' glass paper weights and sell them on ebay or something.

[tkts]

Oct 2, 2009 13:17:15 GMT -5 sweetj said:

Forget about anyone getting a job, why didn't Willow and Tara put their Jedi mind tricks to good use and go into a big multinational bank and convince the teller that they're a rich client and they wish to take out a few Thousand in cash.
If they morally had an issue with that then why didn't they magically mass produce some ''hand made'' glass paper weights and sell them on ebay or something.

Tara would never do it -- even the conjuring things to sell on eBay plan-- and if Willow wanted to, Tara would but the kibosh on the idea pretty quickly. Remember how she reacts when Willow whips up some decorations for a spur-of-the-moment Anya/Xander engagement party?

[xxxvaliumxxx]

i'm from australia so this is why im asking... do many students studying in collage not work?
is that the norm for collage students?

because in australia, its normal to have a part time or even full time job to support yourself, so i'm wondering if that difference is the reason why tara and willow didnt get jobs...

[alycat7]

Oct 2, 2009 19:15:43 GMT -5 xxxvaliumxxx said:

i'm from australia so this is why im asking... do many students studying in collage not work?
is that the norm for collage students?

because in australia, its normal to have a part time or even full time job to support yourself, so i'm wondering if that difference is the reason why tara and willow didnt get jobs...

my guess is Willow's parents were paying for school, or seeing as how she's a genius, maybe she got a full scholarship so there was no need for her to work. I can't think of any logical reason why Tara wasn't working.

[xxxvaliumxxx]

my guess is Willow's parents were paying for school, or seeing as how she's a genius, maybe she got a full scholarship so there was no need for her to work. I can't think of any logical reason why Tara wasn't working.

true about Willow... i'm fairly sure in earshot in season 3 she says she's got a scholarship or at least its implied... but still, you'd need some extra cash wouldn't you??

[tkts]

Given that Willow could have gone to any school in the country, or for that matter the world, and that it was strongly implied that UC Sunnydale was a significant step down from most of the schools that accepted her, I think it's safe to assume the school threw lots of money her way. There's a good chance she didn't have to pay for anything, and that her mother took care of any extra expenses.

Tara's pretty smart too, and has the kind of personality that probably would have led her to be an extremely diligent student in high school ... maybe she's on a full scholarship (or something close to it) herself as well?

[wenxina]

Ever consider the fact that perhaps Willow and Tara DID chip in behind the scenes? There's a lot of money that goes into paying for household expenses. Bills, mortgage (assuming the house wasn't fully paid off... can't remember if it was), more bills, more pressing bills, bills that benchpress 250 lbs, etc. Then there's the matter of food and other miscellaneous expenses. Unless the Doublemeat Palace paid exorbitantly, there's no way Buffy's lone salary would keep them afloat for long. Giles' generous check took care of the initial bit, but on a month-to-month basis, realistically, Buffy probably did have help from her friends.

[tkts]

True -- it is entirely possible that Willow and Tara helped out as much as they could, but the bills still piled up. It's doubtful the house was paid off, considering Joyce had only lived in it for five years.

[buffyverseforever]

I always assumed they helped out....


Best wishes,


Scott

[gumgnome]

But even with the assumption that Willow and Tara help out, I still feel they put an unneccesary burden on Buffy. Willow has acknowledged that the fight against evil is a full-time gig that she wants to be a part of in Season 3, and she's also directly responsible for Buffy being back from the dead. I would think that she would want to help out as much as possible, and would get a full-time job in Buffy's place, leaving the Slayer to slay.

[wenxina]

Why would anyone expect Willow to drop her own life? You don't think that Willow would eventually resent her friend if that had been the arrangement? Besides... slaying is mostly a night-time gig.
As for Willow and Tara placing an unnecessary burden on Buffy, I'd disagree in that they acted like surrogate mothers for Dawn while Buffy was out playing the absentee sister who occasionally had dumpster sex with Spike.

[Emmie]

Except the financial burden that was shoved on Buffy post-resurrection - all those bills that kept piling up after Joyce's and Buffy's death...why the hell didn't the living people do something about it?

Sure, once Buffy is back they should try to equally share the responsibilities and cost of the house (with Buffy shouldering most of it as the owner, Willow and Tara paying rent and utilities shares). But when Buffy was dead, all those became Willow and Tara's responsibility mostly when they decided to move in and become surrogate moms. Except when we come back to Bargaining, it's pretty clear that they did nothing to deal with the financial ship that was sinking. Willow's plan was "Bring Buffy back, we need her, then it'll all be fixed." She resurrected Buffy and dumped ALL these problems on a traumatized 21 year old.

Willow and Tara fail in this regard.

Or perhaps even worse - Willow and Tara spent ALL of the money from Joyce's insurance without even considering the long term and getting jobs over the summer that Buffy was dead. Then when Buffy is back, she has nothing because they spent all of that money without thinking about the future.

[wenxina]

Most of the insurance money probably went to the funeral home... never understood why people have such a morbid fascination with death. It's a body. Put in box, bury. Or some people don't even have the box. I was recently enlightened about the costs... sheesh. I'd do a 180 in my grave if I knew someone spent that much money on something so ridiculous.

But more seriously, the insurance money (what was left after funeral costs) probably went towards taking care of things for a bit. I don't remember it ever being established that Willow and Tara did nothing to help, just that whatever it was, the money was running out a lot faster than anticipated. Real life happens. Inflation is a bitch. As for failure... the entire Scooby Gang failed in S6. Some epic ones litter the entire season. You were perhaps expecting them to trump finances as the only hurrah?

[Emmie]

I think the failure was all around, too. But that the expectation that a resurrected woman who had to claw her way out of her grave a few days ago was supposed to be able to deal with this type of situation and resume her leadership position without help - that was unreasonable.

As for Willow and Tara doing something to help - did they have jobs? There was no evidence of that. So no, I don't think they really stretched themselves to help her. A failure in writing here, too, because it makes them look careless and irresponsible. And it just reinforces Willow's dependence on the "I wish Buffy were here" wish that would fix it all - if Willow weren't banking on Buffy being the magical fix-it, then she would have been thinking long-term and made that brain leap to "oh, maybe I should get a job and stop living in my best friend's house without contributing to the household financially".

Whatever money was left over from insurance Buffy referenced as being used for "clothes" and "food" - if Tara and Willow used one penny of that money on themselves, they did cross a line. That money was for Dawn. It's like a guardian trying to milk their kid's trust fund and live off it so they don't have to get a job. Willow and Tara don't get paid for being a mom to Dawn. It's not a trade where they get financial restitution. It's not a job. They're the ones who needed to have jobs. Being a mom is a role they took on and one that requires they give, not receive. The trust/insurance money is there for the child, but that money is only a part of how to care for the child. The guardian assumes the responsibility of providing and if Willow and Tara were actually serious about it, they'd have gotten jobs. Because clearly the insurance money wasn't enough.

They did well at giving the emotional stability, but as for assuming the financial responsibilities of a parent, they put that off and then shoved it onto Buffy's shoulders. Because neither one is independently wealthy and neither one got a job for the household.