Re: Request and Questions - Rewrite season 6

["blinviz" <debvii@xxxxxxxxx>]

Fascinating idea and topic. Don't know how helpful I can be, so I'll 
just throw out random thoughts.


CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING UP THRU SEEING RED.

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1. Agree that the broken urn ought to have greater significance beyond 
"it's the last urn, no more resurrections."

2. The deep cellular tan was illogical and, well, stupid. The idea 
that there's nothing "technically" wrong with Buffy may have had some 
merit...actually, no, not sure about that, cuz the effect was to make 
Buffy less sympathetic. I was intrigued by the actual text of the 
resurrection spell, esp. that "warrior of the people" idea.

3. SHOW, don't just tell, the effects of post-heaven depression. In 
many ways, Buffy has been beyond heroic in her ability to deal with PHD 
while still functioning relatively normally. I don't have specific 
idears about how one would increase empathy for Buffy, but if I had to 
choose the single worst flaw in the season, lack of said empathy in the 
writing would be it.

4. The Dawn/Hank/Social Services/Buffy-neglect story needed emergency 
assistance. Holier and danglier than a 20-yr-old, dog-chewed sweater. 
Furthermore, if Dawn's only real purpose is to be an "adult" burden for 
Buffy then, well, she needs to be written out.

5. Re-write early W/T scenes so that Willow's depiction is in line with 
what we know about Will and her friendship with Buffy from S1-5, NOT 
from Tara's "you need to learn how to be a friend" perspective. For 
example, the scene in which Willow wondered why Buffy was thankful to 
be back was skewed to sound like Will likes to lord it over Buffy and 
wants everyone to worship at her feet, rather than being genuinely 
concerned about why Buffy's reaction was so muted. Okay, perhaps that 
was an acting problem rather than a writing issue... Or perhaps it IS 
the case that Will wants to lord it over Buffy (which would fit with 
Will's season-long focus on mission pragmatics rather than Buffy's 
emotional state), but Will's motivations (like Buffy's) cannot stay 
COMPLETELY in the subtext.

6. Re-write Will & Tara's differences over magick with some 
intelligence and don't start off Tara with complaining about stupid 
stuff like surprise party decorations. Give it some meat, some depth, 
some honesty. Reasonable people can differ on matters of approach and 
philosophy. This was a great opportunity to explore *Tara's* magickal 
background (upbringing). IMO, Will and Tara *both* have iss-ewes when 
it comes to magick....

7. In retrospect, I think the Troika developed nicely. If there were 
anything I would change, it would be to make Andrew more of a wildcard 
whose loyalties are pretty evenly divided between Warren and Jonathan. 
Oh, also, make the Troika harder to catch so that Buffy & the Scoobs 
don't look all lame and slackerly. If, OTOH, the point IS that the 
Scoobs have become lame and slackerly, then do something with that. 
One of those Xanya Magic Box scenes ought to have been re-written to 
focus more on the conflict between Scoobyism and "real life". (Perhaps 
this will come to fruition in the final eps.)

8. There are 7 people in the main cast (incl. Tara). It seems to me 
that the reason one uses ensembles is that they provide greater 
opportunity for understanding characters from multiple viewpoints. ME 
has, strangely, gotten increasingly worse at capitalising on their 
strong ensemble, and this season they were absolutely abyssmal. Just 
because the characters are going thru hard times and are fractured does 
not mean one cannot still use the ensemble to great effect. More scenes 
like the Xanya, W/T scene in Tabula Rasa and the Anya-Willow 
confrontation in Older (or even the W-D Bronze scene, assuming it were 
re-written to be character-appropriate) would have been good. Imagine, 
for example, if Dawn's kleptomania arc had moved faster. Then there 
would have been ops for Dawn-Anya Magic Box scenes which I think could 
have been great for exploring both characters' emotional development 
and their respective places within the group. Or what about the 
missing Anya-Tara Magic Box scene in Dead Things?

9. I, too, have mixed feelings about the Black Magick Willow 
development. On the one hand, I'm looking forward to it just to see 
Aly tackle the material, to get back to the supernatural, and to get 
relief from the boredom of Noxon's mundane brand of angst & bathos. 
OTOH, I'm not sure I completely buy it, and I've become increasingly 
uncomfortable with the parallels between Willow and Spike & Warren. 
Regardless, what I would have liked most was to make Will's magick use 
more about the Scoobies as semi-self-appointed fighters-of-evil, rather 
than just about Willow's personality flaws. The Scoobies, afterall, 
appointed Willow the leader in Buffy's absence, and Giles was right 
there every night over the summer while Willow directed traffic from on 
high. Young adulthood is not just about drunk driving and working at 
fast food joints: It's also a time when people wrestle with 
philosophies of life and worldview. S6 touched on this some, but not 
enough, IMO.

10. Since Spiral at least, Buffy and Willow have both been treated as 
tools to be turned on and off at the whims of the group. I can imagine 
there would be resentment there, and I think S6 has hinted at it, but 
this theme could have been tapped more openly.

11. Spike. sigh. Hopeless.

12. Much as the sight of Spike's bony little peanut-head cocking and 
dipping and bopping up and down in front of Buffy now makes me nauseous 
and gives me nightmares, I do think Spuffy as a manifestation of 
Buffy's confusion, depression, self-loathing, and self-destructiveness 
was a fine idea. I don't know what else to say about that other than 
that something went terribly wrong in the telling.

13. Ah, a big one. Giles' departure. His reasoning didn't work for 
me in that it didn't fit with the Giles I'd come to know and love. His 
complete absence from the thoughts of the Scoobs is even less 
plausible.

14. More Rack, more Amy, less Mary-Suism (in Tara, Riley, and Sam), 
less plot-over-character and plot-over-canon (see, for example, 
Bewitched-style magick in Smashed and Clem the Cuddly Demon), less 
trauma as plot device (Tara's death, Buffy's near-rape).

15. Favourite eps: OMWF, Normal Again, Seeing Red, Bargaining I, 
Afterlife, Life Serial, Gone (script only). Favourite lines: "Buffy's 
broken?", "Don't get used to [those clothes]", "Where do we go from 
here?"/"How did we get here?"

16. I want to know what Willow's majors are (can't believe she'd have 
only one; my guesses: chemistry & comparative religion w/minor in 
computer science), and I'd like Xander's job to get more play. Is 
Xander even employed anymore?? All of these eps can't possibly be 
taking place on Saturday and Sunday. Heck, is Buffy still employed?

ooh, tired now.