How about if it ended with Wesley not pulling the trigger in time in 5x19 because it was Fred's face he was looking into?

Nah. I think 5x18 ended it on a perfectly fine note.

Though your ending still works better than the real one. Dragon, my big white ass.

I think I cut the end of the season a lot of slack because I knew it was ending. I mean, the last scene of the last ep was just...silly. No way they're walking away from that.

In all, it seemed like a decent Big Bad that should have been planned better, and given more time to develop. The execution of it was definitely haphazard. But I still like the idea of taking on the Senior Partners, even if the way it shook out was not very satisfying.

I think season 4 of Angel is the best thing that ever came out of Mutant Enemy. But I like serials.

And it's been established that I don't care so much about characters. I never saw consistent weirdness with how Cordelia was written. Sometimes, sure, but they were all acting like crazy people sometimes. Intellectually, I understand what bothered people about her, but it usually didn't occur to me when I was watching the show.

I much prefered Spike on Angel to S7 Buffy Spike- I only liked that one when he was crazy, and during Lies My Parents Told Me, Which I think would be nice to watch with the crazy slayer Angel episode.

I think season 4 of Angel is the best thing that ever came out of Mutant Enemy. But I like serials.

Whee! I love S4. Because I, too, like serials. And they kept pulling the rug out from under me. Like, ooh, Satan is the Big Bad! Except, whoa, they already killed him. Oh, Cordy's the Big Bad! Except, whoa, Jasmine. Oh, Jasmine's lost her powers and they're going to spend forever fighting her! Except, whoa, Connor punched through her head. Cripes, people. Be predictable now and then, it's comforting.

I think season 4 of Angel is the best thing that ever came out of Mutant Enemy.

Word.

I found the first third of S5 immensely annoying, mostly due to the awkwardness of having Spike around, and spending so much time dealing with his souledness/incorporeality/etc.

The end of the season, as asspully and handwavy as it was, was at least asspully and handwavy in a way that felt like AtS.

I thought the post about being "emotionally traumatized by Spuffy" overstated its case quite a bit, but I can see what the writer was getting at, especially in re: the show's "women who like bad boys suffer" thing. However, I think she's misunderstanding the cause of Spife/Buffy people moving to slash. I think it's more about some people needing to support "edgy" relationships than it is about "OH NOES I cannot trust the show ennymore!!!1".

Edit: I'm leaving in the accidental typo, and I shall call him Spife forevermore.

but I can see what the writer was getting at, especially in re: the show's "women who like bad boys suffer" thing.

Well, except that her definition of "bad boy" is "my wonderful dad who rides a motorcycle," and her definition of "good guy" is "alchoholic child abuser who seemed nice at first."

What Jess said. I had a post about that last night, but something went kerfluey with the board, and I lost it, and couldn't bother.

Also, no offense, but *actual* bad guys--that is bad in reality, and not just a little snarky, or given to wearing leather jackets, but actual bad men--they're not the salt of the earth. They're the epiphanies of therapy.

All that whole entry was--was another "Buffy's a bitch because she didn't wuv Spike enough, and Spike didn't really attempt to rape Buffy. The writers made him do it. He never would have done that on his own," load o crap.

I didn't see it that way, but I haven't watched Buffy in a while, so I might just be in the wrong headspace for this.