Living is Overrated...

I don’t know if it’s the art or the writing but im digging season 11 

sunnydaleslut:

Not gonna lie, if Sweet had kidnapped me and told me he was gonna take me to hell and make me his queen I probably would’ve been like “yeah, sounds fun”

Be the queen of a hell dimension with a smooth-singing well dressed husband? Well… sign me the fuck up

(via sunnydaleslut)

Just a reminder that Willow Rosenberg almost destroyed the entire universe by the age of 21.
What am I doing wrong guys?

buffster:

This is part of my ongoing Buffy Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the show. You can find the full list here. Gifs are not mine.

A Willow episode! The shenanigans of Doppelgangland start with Anya attempting to get her powers back. She tries to persuade D’Hoffryn but he’s not feeling sentimental right now, so she turns to Willow. Interesting that this powerful, thousand year old demon singled out Willow as the Wicca to help her summon her necklace. But it’s darker than Willow is ready for and she attempts to stop the spell, which only brings forth her doppelgänger. 

A note on the implications of this episode: my understanding is that Anya didn’t transform this world in The Wish, she merely transported Cordelia and herself to another dimension. Which means that Wishverse!Giles found himself in the same world after he smashed Anya’s necklace, except Anya was no longer there. Sad.

Faith is the Mayor’s faithful spy (heh, get it), so she’s pretending to be contrite and take all of the Council’s tests. She reports back to him that Willow is attempting to hack him. It’s interesting that he immediately got her out of that awful hotel, which Giles and Wesley never attempted to do. They might not have been able to afford a luxury apartment but surely some arrangement could have been made. Faith tries her usual sexual act on the Mayor but is immediately rebuffed. I think Faith is attracted to him because she knows he’s evil. It comforts her that there are no surprises. Faith is happier with an outright bad guy than a friend she’s always worrying is going to stab her in the back. The surprise turns out to be that he’s capable of kindness. Or, at least, an exchange of services. She is also immediately his number one (no longer playing second fiddle to Buffy).

Keep reading

The note about Cordy at the end got me thinking- She really values talking to Willow about stuff after they became sort-of friends and before the cheating. She actually has a cup of tea, meaning she’s been sitting there a while and talking about her personal life and relationships with (who she thinks is) Willow. She actually stays in contact with Willow during Angel, they talk on the phone like friends. She didn’t talk to anyone from Sunnydale but Willow. sigh. Now I want more Willow/Cordy friendship moments…

willowforever:

sometimes I forget that I am, before anything else, 100% Buffy trash.

20 years

mccoysbone:

Don’t get attached to unpopular ships because you will run out of fic and die

yes

(Source: chharliedayarchive, via thecynicalslayer)

rorysummersblog:

tamipumpkin:

rorysummersblog:

tamipumpkin:

You see, I am disappointed in season 7.

I feel like the point that this season was suppose to be “back to the beginning” wouldn’t just mean the high school element is back, but more Buffy-scooby focused. 
It started out promising, from ‘Lessons’ to ‘Conversations with Dead People’ everything seems to be going in the right direction, but after these we got a big miss.

We invested 7 years in these characters and their dynamic, and we had a very hard, heartbreaking season 6 where everyone fell apart and from each other, and I was expecting season 7 to be focused about them and their relationships.

Now, this is totally subjective so feel free to dismiss- I didn’t really care about Principal Wood, Andrew, the potentials, the first… And even, with all my love for him- Spike, for that matter. Not to diss the actual characters, they’re fine and all, but they got focus on the last season in favor of the original scoobies, which upsets me.

I mean I adore Spike’s character. He’s going through some big shit and it is very interesting, but I feel like they gave him waaay too much focus. And it felt like he was the main character in this season, not Buffy.  

Everything besides Buffy/Spike in this season, felt rushed and forced. I wanted more normal Scooby bonding, the relationships between these amazing characters that we spent 6 earlier seasons very emotionally invested in. I feel like we never got it in this season and it was the point of the show and what got me so invested in it since I was a kid. “Buffy” is about human (heh) characters and how they deal with the everyday horror they face and season 7 felt very empty for me.

This was not the time for this much new. We had that in season 4, where it was appropriate to introduce many new characters and love interests, we’d have time and focus, digest and accept them (or not). Season 7 had SO many new characters and plotlines that I honestly wasn’t able to connect with at this point. It felt like the scoobies (excluding Buffy) were reduced to exposition delivery and background characters. Now I’m not saying that the plot was terrible, the whole thing was very powerful and Buffy’s speeches were moving, but I felt like I was suppose to really care about the potentials or Andrew and that never really “got” me. What I care about is Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles (throw in some Dawn, Anya and even Faith) because they’re the core of the show! “Back to the beginning”!  

To extend the comparison between season 4 and 7:
In season 4 Buffy started a new phase in her life. No more high school, Angel, living at home and being a teen. We got this HUGE new plot with the initiative and collage life. We’ve seen every Scooby trying to adjust to this new phase- Giles and his midlife crisis, Xander with finding himself, Willow and her sexuality. All through the season we’ve seen the core group drift apart and eventually split, only to come together and realize that they are important to each other. We’ve been introduced to 3 new relationships for Buffy, Willow and Xander. We got to know Riley, Tara and Anya and their place with the group and in later seasons (except Riley…).
  
Now, compare season 4 Willow/Tara’s relationship with season 7 Willow/Kennedy’s. They were both introduced at the beginning of the season and got their episode in the middle. Willow and Tara even progressed slower as a couple than Willow and Kennedy but they felt real. Season 7 lacked that and tried to pass Willow and Kennedy as an established couple when in reality it’s a fairly new and a bit lacking in chemistry. Was I supposed to believe the two had something in common besides being gay? Was I suppose to believe Willow will let Kennedy talk for her (See: ‘Empty places’)? They barely know each other!

Season 4 was the last Faith appearance until season 7. The characters felt connected to her, understandably after everything that went down in season 3. But when she came back, besides some bits with Buffy (and again- Spike) we never got to see her and the scoobies interact on a personal level. That is unrealistic to me that after everything they’ve been through over the years they barely spoke of it- and they were living in the same house, come on.  

Season 4 Spike had a new condition to adjust to- He got a chip. His plot was interactive with the scoobies and the seasonal plot and felt connected (and hilarious).
Season 7 Spike had a new condition to adjust to- He got a soul. But he seemed so not in touch with the rest of the characters that aren’t Buffy. It felt so out of place and unconstructed, as interesting as it was. Plus he got way too much focus. The first is targeting him specifically. Giles and Wood plan to kill him. Him being the ‘champion’ I mean… I love Spike but all the season being around him bothered me a bit.

So, in both seasons 4 and 7 we see similarities but, for me, the main difference was that in S4 came in the middle of the journey, it had time for new concepts, characters and relationships, while maintaining the focus on our core characters. S7 tried to do similar things but missed by a long shot. Most of season 7 felt like Spike: season 1 and less the final season of Buffy the vampire slayer.

So for me, season 7 lacked so much (and it had so much… potential). Even the finale wasn’t as epic as it should have. It is amazing, but it felt more of a stand-alone than the wrapping of the season. I felt I could watch a ‘previously on season 7’ and then the finale itself and it would give me the same effect as watching the every single episode in this season.

Seasons 1-6 had this commitment to the characters, focusing on the people, not the plot.
It seems like I completely hate this season but I don’t, it has its moments (mostly the early episodes) but the plot overshadowed the characters that I love, and for me it just didn’t work.    

This is my subjective and honest opinion on the matter, you are very welcomed to disagree, and would love to hear other people perspectives.

I agree with you and the early episodes. I LOVED them, but then the season kind of faltered after that (although I thought “Chosen” was a strong finish).

You’re totally right about the show not focusing on the characters, but I kind of disagree about Spike. Spike had about as much screen time as he did in Season 6, and after the events of Season 6, Spike needed a strong redemption arc to move forward from the events of the previous season. I feel like this was still a majorly focused BUFFY season, not a Spike season. Although I didn’t like Buffy’s story too much because it was a rehash of everything we’d been through in the previous seasons (lack of boyfriend, her cutting herself off, learning to work together…). I’d felt we’d been through this already so that storyline was very boring to me.

Willow’s arc started promising but instead focused on her relationship with Kennedy after a while. Which I have no objection with; Willow deserves to be happy. But I kind of just wanted her to properly get through her grief and magic issues with the support of the GANG, not just Kennedy.

I kind of forgive the writers and the lack of Faith vs Scooby interaction, because there were only five episodes with her in it, so they couldn’t have interact with everyone. I thought the Faith and Spike interactions were cool. They were both currently on a path of redemption after a rough patch.  

I would have liked to have seen Faith come back sooner (I don’t know how the AtS plotline would have worked with that though), and all of them reconnecting with the group. I felt like the potentials took away a lot of Scooby screen time, although the finale was awesome so their presence was necessary.

All in all, the season was about the Scoobies isolating themselves from each other and coming back and eventually working as a team. No one was really close in that season; everyone had their own stuff to worry about. So I think that was the writer’s intention. But I feel like that should have been the main focus and not the upcoming battle. The battle was…not really worth all the fuss in the end. I mean…I don’t know what they were so panicked for. They’d been through this stuff before.

More Scoobies, less battle planning. I prefer character episodes more than plot driven ones anyway.

I do agree with Faith being back sooner, the scoobies knowing that the First is targeting the entire slayer line and leaving Faith in prison without even a visit(or even a chat with Angel about how is she doing) makes them seem really silly… They’re collecting potentials from all the corners of the world yet a drive to LA prison doesn’t come up in the scheme of things? 

The final battle did give me a slight ‘What were so so freaked out about god’, and I get the message of making giving the slayer line power and all, but in all fairness even after the big activation spell- there were waaay too many uber-vamps for them to fight, so it seemed like the main hero is Spike bc he dusted them all… 

Plus the silly- suddenly they are so killable even Dawn can fight them… it could have been sooo much easier. They burn in sunlight? Get Xander to bulldoze the roof or something and lure them out I mean… Hell even some rocket launchers would come in handy in this situations… So them just going in with swords(okay the scythe is the exception) is kind of silly, even with all of them having slayer power. 

Characters>plot, only when you can’t have them both ;)

Thanks for sharing!

I think I can forgive Joss for making Spike a big part in the finale. After everything, it make sense to give him this big final redemption arc. I think I heard Joss say somewhere that after everything, Spike had to sacrifice himself. It was kind of fitting the way he went down fighting. I also like the fact that Buffy made this plan that ended up changing the world, she alone wasn’t the big hero. Everyone contributed. Everyone worked together.

Although if we’re looking at it practically it was supposed to be an episode about female empowerment, so Spike playing a big part DID cheapen it. Season 6 was a mess that they had to fix. Make Spike a hero or a questionable character? Is Buffy a good role model if Spike happened to not be needed in the fight, or an iffy one? After telling everyone Spike was needed in the fight, it would seem weird if he, you know, wasn’t.

I think all the final battles were very plot convenient and ill planned. Like in Season 3, how did they get every single school member ready and trained for battle in one day? Where did those weapons come from? How did they properly program the BuffyBot to fight with Glory in two hours in Season 5? Why didn’t Buffy just use her rocket launcher against Glory? Why was that Season 4 spell never used again? I know it’s dangerous, but if dire circumstances called for it I’m sure the Scoobies wouldn’t mind performing it.

I think I can look over the flaws in the battle in Season 7 if I can look over the other season’s battle flaws.

I think I’m a bit salty about Spike getting to be the hero because it was the last season and he got to be back on Angel for season 5… 

Valid points about the other finals, guess I’m nitpicking because this season hurt me :(

(via rorysummersblog-deactivated2017)

rorysummersblog:

tamipumpkin:

You see, I am disappointed in season 7.

I feel like the point that this season was suppose to be “back to the beginning” wouldn’t just mean the high school element is back, but more Buffy-scooby focused. 
It started out promising, from ‘Lessons’ to ‘Conversations with Dead People’ everything seems to be going in the right direction, but after these we got a big miss.

We invested 7 years in these characters and their dynamic, and we had a very hard, heartbreaking season 6 where everyone fell apart and from each other, and I was expecting season 7 to be focused about them and their relationships.

Now, this is totally subjective so feel free to dismiss- I didn’t really care about Principal Wood, Andrew, the potentials, the first… And even, with all my love for him- Spike, for that matter. Not to diss the actual characters, they’re fine and all, but they got focus on the last season in favor of the original scoobies, which upsets me.

I mean I adore Spike’s character. He’s going through some big shit and it is very interesting, but I feel like they gave him waaay too much focus. And it felt like he was the main character in this season, not Buffy.  

Everything besides Buffy/Spike in this season, felt rushed and forced. I wanted more normal Scooby bonding, the relationships between these amazing characters that we spent 6 earlier seasons very emotionally invested in. I feel like we never got it in this season and it was the point of the show and what got me so invested in it since I was a kid. “Buffy” is about human (heh) characters and how they deal with the everyday horror they face and season 7 felt very empty for me.

This was not the time for this much new. We had that in season 4, where it was appropriate to introduce many new characters and love interests, we’d have time and focus, digest and accept them (or not). Season 7 had SO many new characters and plotlines that I honestly wasn’t able to connect with at this point. It felt like the scoobies (excluding Buffy) were reduced to exposition delivery and background characters. Now I’m not saying that the plot was terrible, the whole thing was very powerful and Buffy’s speeches were moving, but I felt like I was suppose to really care about the potentials or Andrew and that never really “got” me. What I care about is Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles (throw in some Dawn, Anya and even Faith) because they’re the core of the show! “Back to the beginning”!  

To extend the comparison between season 4 and 7:
In season 4 Buffy started a new phase in her life. No more high school, Angel, living at home and being a teen. We got this HUGE new plot with the initiative and collage life. We’ve seen every Scooby trying to adjust to this new phase- Giles and his midlife crisis, Xander with finding himself, Willow and her sexuality. All through the season we’ve seen the core group drift apart and eventually split, only to come together and realize that they are important to each other. We’ve been introduced to 3 new relationships for Buffy, Willow and Xander. We got to know Riley, Tara and Anya and their place with the group and in later seasons (except Riley…).
  
Now, compare season 4 Willow/Tara’s relationship with season 7 Willow/Kennedy’s. They were both introduced at the beginning of the season and got their episode in the middle. Willow and Tara even progressed slower as a couple than Willow and Kennedy but they felt real. Season 7 lacked that and tried to pass Willow and Kennedy as an established couple when in reality it’s a fairly new and a bit lacking in chemistry. Was I supposed to believe the two had something in common besides being gay? Was I suppose to believe Willow will let Kennedy talk for her (See: ‘Empty places’)? They barely know each other!

Season 4 was the last Faith appearance until season 7. The characters felt connected to her, understandably after everything that went down in season 3. But when she came back, besides some bits with Buffy (and again- Spike) we never got to see her and the scoobies interact on a personal level. That is unrealistic to me that after everything they’ve been through over the years they barely spoke of it- and they were living in the same house, come on.  

Season 4 Spike had a new condition to adjust to- He got a chip. His plot was interactive with the scoobies and the seasonal plot and felt connected (and hilarious).
Season 7 Spike had a new condition to adjust to- He got a soul. But he seemed so not in touch with the rest of the characters that aren’t Buffy. It felt so out of place and unconstructed, as interesting as it was. Plus he got way too much focus. The first is targeting him specifically. Giles and Wood plan to kill him. Him being the ‘champion’ I mean… I love Spike but all the season being around him bothered me a bit.

So, in both seasons 4 and 7 we see similarities but, for me, the main difference was that in S4 came in the middle of the journey, it had time for new concepts, characters and relationships, while maintaining the focus on our core characters. S7 tried to do similar things but missed by a long shot. Most of season 7 felt like Spike: season 1 and less the final season of Buffy the vampire slayer.

So for me, season 7 lacked so much (and it had so much… potential). Even the finale wasn’t as epic as it should have. It is amazing, but it felt more of a stand-alone than the wrapping of the season. I felt I could watch a 'previously on season 7’ and then the finale itself and it would give me the same effect as watching the every single episode in this season.

Seasons 1-6 had this commitment to the characters, focusing on the people, not the plot.
It seems like I completely hate this season but I don’t, it has its moments (mostly the early episodes) but the plot overshadowed the characters that I love, and for me it just didn’t work.    

This is my subjective and honest opinion on the matter, you are very welcomed to disagree, and would love to hear other people perspectives.

I agree with you and the early episodes. I LOVED them, but then the season kind of faltered after that (although I thought “Chosen” was a strong finish).

You’re totally right about the show not focusing on the characters, but I kind of disagree about Spike. Spike had about as much screen time as he did in Season 6, and after the events of Season 6, Spike needed a strong redemption arc to move forward from the events of the previous season. I feel like this was still a majorly focused BUFFY season, not a Spike season. Although I didn’t like Buffy’s story too much because it was a rehash of everything we’d been through in the previous seasons (lack of boyfriend, her cutting herself off, learning to work together…). I’d felt we’d been through this already so that storyline was very boring to me.

Willow’s arc started promising but instead focused on her relationship with Kennedy after a while. Which I have no objection with; Willow deserves to be happy. But I kind of just wanted her to properly get through her grief and magic issues with the support of the GANG, not just Kennedy.

I kind of forgive the writers and the lack of Faith vs Scooby interaction, because there were only five episodes with her in it, so they couldn’t have interact with everyone. I thought the Faith and Spike interactions were cool. They were both currently on a path of redemption after a rough patch.  

I would have liked to have seen Faith come back sooner (I don’t know how the AtS plotline would have worked with that though), and all of them reconnecting with the group. I felt like the potentials took away a lot of Scooby screen time, although the finale was awesome so their presence was necessary.

All in all, the season was about the Scoobies isolating themselves from each other and coming back and eventually working as a team. No one was really close in that season; everyone had their own stuff to worry about. So I think that was the writer’s intention. But I feel like that should have been the main focus and not the upcoming battle. The battle was…not really worth all the fuss in the end. I mean…I don’t know what they were so panicked for. They’d been through this stuff before.

More Scoobies, less battle planning. I prefer character episodes more than plot driven ones anyway.

I do agree with Faith being back sooner, the scoobies knowing that the First is targeting the entire slayer line and leaving Faith in prison without even a visit(or even a chat with Angel about how is she doing) makes them seem really silly… They’re collecting potentials from all the corners of the world yet a drive to LA prison doesn’t come up in the scheme of things? 

The final battle did give me a slight ‘What were so so freaked out about god’, and I get the message of making giving the slayer line power and all, but in all fairness even after the big activation spell- there were waaay too many uber-vamps for them to fight, so it seemed like the main hero is Spike bc he dusted them all… 

Plus the silly- suddenly they are so killable even Dawn can fight them… it could have been sooo much easier. They burn in sunlight? Get Xander to bulldoze the roof or something and lure them out I mean… Hell even some rocket launchers would come in handy in this situations… So them just going in with swords(okay the scythe is the exception) is kind of silly, even with all of them having slayer power. 

Characters>plot, only when you can’t have them both ;)

Thanks for sharing!

(via rorysummersblog-deactivated2017)

yesitsterriblysimple:

Wasn’t it ridiculous that with a Big Bad that could use the likenesses of the dead to torment the living, Jenny Calendar wasn’t even mentioned all season? I know Robia La Morte didn’t want to play the First Evil again, but Giles could have at least talked about seeing her, right? In season 7 Giles was severely lacking clear motivation and emotional life. Just one simple scene of him talking about Jenny could have added so much to his character development.

Likewise, Willow could have talked about seeing Tara as a way of getting around Amber Benson not wanting to play the First.

And the First wouldn’t have to use Tara and Jenny in some over-the-top evil way. Just showing up looking like the people Willow and Giles had loved and lost could have messed with them. (another problem I have with season 7 is that the First could have messed with everyone in so many little, subtle ways, and it didn’t. It was boring and obvious instead)

I’m thinking, something along the lines of… Willow is acting jumpy, and Giles asks her what’s wrong. Willow says it’s nothing and leaves the room. But later she comes back and confesses, “I’ve been seeing Tara. I mean, the First as Tara.” 

“Are you all right?” Giles asks, worried.

“Yeah, it’s not bad,” She says, reassuring. “Mostly, I see her - it - when I wake up, just lying besides me and smiling. Or, I walk into the bathroom and she’s there, brushing her hair. And she just looks at me, and fades away.” Willow pauses. “It’s been nice,” She adds quietly, almost ashamed of herself.

“It’s been going on for a while, hasn’t it?” Giles asks, a little distant.

Willow nods. “A few weeks. But these past couple of days I haven’t seen her, and… it’s the dumbest thing… I know it’s the First… but I miss her.”

“I know how you feel… I’ve been seeing Jenny,” Giles says. “Or, almost seeing her. Every now and then, she’s leaving the room just as I come in. And I hear her sometimes. She sounds so close…”

“You really want to see her, don’t you? Even though you know it’s not her.”

Giles nods. 

“Does it make you feel…” Willow says tentatively, “Does it make you feel like… if we lost… it might not be so bad, because then you might see her, really see her again?”

Giles doesn’t say anything, he just looks at her, and Willow knows he feels the same way as she does. 

“I guess that’s what it wants,” Willow says.

“I guess.”

ALSO, if the first can take the form of Buffy! Why did they made just Spike/The First!Buffy scenes? Wouldn’t it been terrifying for First!Buffy just going around the house and destroying Buffy’s relationships with everyone without her knowing it? It would make the first more evil!

Then the controvertial ‘Empty Places’ would’ve made even more sense, because they didn’t know it wasn’t Buffy herself that said these things to them. Just actually causing damage to the scoobies and not just Spike. The only one that I can argue that the First succeeded in really shaking up is Dawn, and now thinking about what Dawn went through in ‘Conversations with Dead People’ makes me(not agree, but) understand what brought the ‘Empty Places’. The First really shook Dawn and she became less and less trusting of Buffy over the season.

You see, I am disappointed in season 7.

I feel like the point that this season was suppose to be “back to the beginning” wouldn’t just mean the high school element is back, but more Buffy-scooby focused. 
It started out promising, from ‘Lessons’ to 'Conversations with Dead People’ everything seems to be going in the right direction, but after these we got a big miss.

We invested 7 years in these characters and their dynamic, and we had a very hard, heartbreaking season 6 where everyone fell apart and from each other, and I was expecting season 7 to be focused about them and their relationships.

Now, this is totally subjective so feel free to dismiss- I didn’t really care about Principal Wood, Andrew, the potentials, the first… And even, with all my love for him- Spike, for that matter. Not to diss the actual characters, they’re fine and all, but they got focus on the last season in favor of the original scoobies, which upsets me.

I mean I adore Spike’s character. He’s going through some big shit and it is very interesting, but I feel like they gave him waaay too much focus. And it felt like he was the main character in this season, not Buffy.  

Everything besides Buffy/Spike in this season, felt rushed and forced. I wanted more normal Scooby bonding, the relationships between these amazing characters that we spent 6 earlier seasons very emotionally invested in. I feel like we never got it in this season and it was the point of the show and what got me so invested in it since I was a kid. “Buffy” is about human (heh) characters and how they deal with the everyday horror they face and season 7 felt very empty for me.

This was not the time for this much new. We had that in season 4, where it was appropriate to introduce many new characters and love interests, we’d have time and focus, digest and accept them (or not). Season 7 had SO many new characters and plotlines that I honestly wasn’t able to connect with at this point. It felt like the scoobies (excluding Buffy) were reduced to exposition delivery and background characters. Now I’m not saying that the plot was terrible, the whole thing was very powerful and Buffy’s speeches were moving, but I felt like I was suppose to really care about the potentials or Andrew and that never really “got” me. What I care about is Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles (throw in some Dawn, Anya and even Faith) because they’re the core of the show! “Back to the beginning”!  

To extend the comparison between season 4 and 7:
In season 4 Buffy started a new phase in her life. No more high school, Angel, living at home and being a teen. We got this HUGE new plot with the initiative and collage life. We’ve seen every Scooby trying to adjust to this new phase- Giles and his midlife crisis, Xander with finding himself, Willow and her sexuality. All through the season we’ve seen the core group drift apart and eventually split, only to come together and realize that they are important to each other. We’ve been introduced to 3 new relationships for Buffy, Willow and Xander. We got to know Riley, Tara and Anya and their place with the group and in later seasons (except Riley…).
  
Now, compare season 4 Willow/Tara’s relationship with season 7 Willow/Kennedy’s. They were both introduced at the beginning of the season and got their episode in the middle. Willow and Tara even progressed slower as a couple than Willow and Kennedy but they felt real. Season 7 lacked that and tried to pass Willow and Kennedy as an established couple when in reality it’s a fairly new and a bit lacking in chemistry. Was I supposed to believe the two had something in common besides being gay? Was I suppose to believe Willow will let Kennedy talk for her (See: 'Empty places’)? They barely know each other!

Season 4 was the last Faith appearance until season 7. The characters felt connected to her, understandably after everything that went down in season 3. But when she came back, besides some bits with Buffy (and again- Spike) we never got to see her and the scoobies interact on a personal level. That is unrealistic to me that after everything they’ve been through over the years they barely spoke of it- and they were living in the same house, come on.  

Season 4 Spike had a new condition to adjust to- He got a chip. His plot was interactive with the scoobies and the seasonal plot and felt connected (and hilarious).
Season 7 Spike had a new condition to adjust to- He got a soul. But he seemed so not in touch with the rest of the characters that aren’t Buffy. It felt so out of place and unconstructed, as interesting as it was. Plus he got way too much focus. The first is targeting him specifically. Giles and Wood plan to kill him. Him being the 'champion’ I mean… I love Spike but all the season being around him bothered me a bit.

So, in both seasons 4 and 7 we see similarities but, for me, the main difference was that in S4 came in the middle of the journey, it had time for new concepts, characters and relationships, while maintaining the focus on our core characters. S7 tried to do similar things but missed by a long shot. Most of season 7 felt like Spike: season 1 and less the final season of Buffy the vampire slayer.

So for me, season 7 lacked so much (and it had so much… potential). Even the finale wasn’t as epic as it should have. It is amazing, but it felt more of a stand-alone than the wrapping of the season. I felt I could watch a 'previously on season 7’ and then the finale itself and it would give me the same effect as watching the every single episode in this season.

Seasons 1-6 had this commitment to the characters, focusing on the people, not the plot.
It seems like I completely hate this season but I don’t, it has its moments (mostly the early episodes) but the plot overshadowed the characters that I love, and for me it just didn’t work.    

This is my subjective and honest opinion on the matter, you are very welcomed to disagree, and would love to hear other people perspectives.