They didn't know that that amulet had the potential of killing the guy wearing it, did they?

Not as such, but as Angel said, they really didn't know what it could do. Also, even if Spike wasn't physically able to leave, his attitude throughout the whole thing showed that he would have made that choice even with full foreknowledge of what would happen.

I'm wondering if the "cleansing" did something to (soulless) vampires everywhere, not just the UberVamps. We'll have to wait and see.

OK, I just got a plot bunny for a story about the softball slayer girl. Please restrain me before I commit cheesey bad baseball fic.

Love Joy Press. She's Simon Reynolds' wife, and a lovely woman (I went out to dinner with them yonks ago. She's also the best feminist rock critic around.

Here's hoping Annika Sorenstam got some Slayer in her.

I don't think it's morally reprehenisble to snuggle with someone you know doesn'tlove you back, or you have the sneaking suspcion doesn't love you back.

Spike knew that Buffy didn't feel the same way about him and he did what he did willingly.

I've been in Spike's position, where there was someone I really cared about, but who I knew didn't love me, and I took cuddled with them when I had the chance because that's what I wanted to do.

Buffy never made any promises to Spike about her feelings, Spike has always known that he has stronger feelings for Buffy than she has for him. He's known this from the very beginning---before this season in fact.

I see a situation in which two consenting adults get more out of it than if they hadn't, come out with less pain (both, not just the one with the "upper hand") as not using.

I have to agree with ita here. There are waaaaaaay more choices in a relationship between two people than just a) using, and b) pure, unadulterated, True Love.

I see a situation in which two consenting adults get more out of it than if they hadn't, come out with less pain (both, not just the one with the "upper hand") as not using.

Yes, this.

Leading someone on to get comfort is using them. Telling them honestly how you feel and telling them part of those feelings involves relying on them is not, IMO, using. I think it is actually more honorable than what Wenda is talking about--because she gave Spike a choice, which gives him more power than if she decides for him. I don't want to be manipulated or lied to--but I also don't want to be patronized and have my choices taken away from me.

I couldn't understand why I both enjoyed the episode AND was terribly disappointed by it, at least until I watched it again last night. So here are my pennies, for what they are worth.

Joss did a terrific finale. The only thing that hurt that show was that it was only one hour. I was a bit bummed that they had to rush through everything. Take care of the First, the Army, the Hellmouth, and dealing with the whole ending of the series all in 44 minutes? Jeez, too much. It is an eternal shame that he could not have at least returned to write the final two of three eps. But I do realize that one man only has so many hours in the day, days in the week, and week in a year.

Too bad, too, that so many of the precious few minutes were wasted by Kennedy and Angel kissing.

But what a great story. What a great idea for empowering all girls everywhere, thus releasing Buffy from her burden in a way I never expected. Beautiful.

(Interrupting this post, as I will interrupt all my posts for a while, to mention that Kennedy should have been killed in a freak Zamboni accident. It's the finale, Joss. Pull out all the stops, dude.)

I loved it all, except for the retconning of the Ubers, which ended up being fine considering how boring the indestructible Uber was earlier in the season. Actually I am glad Joss felt the same way, but it was a bit much that Anya hit one in the thigh and it turned to dust. And I was really, really disgusted with Xander's reaction to Anya's death, but, hey, that's just me probably.

Otherwise, what an appropriate and lovely story to end the series. How poetic was William the Bloody's death? Very, if you ask me.

And how cool was it that the First's power turns out to be bullshit, literally? I took, from Buffy getting stabbed and the First suddenly appearing, that the First was doing what the First did all along: lie to people about their fears coming true. Buffy wasn't mortally wounded and then suddenly not. Buffy was just wounded, and the First did its best to try and get Buffy to give up and stay down, but Buffy saw through it and realized that there was no reason physically that she couldn't get up and keep fighting. She just had to throw off the mental shackles that she had been wearing all season. And she did. Because she's Buffy, super chick, and she doesn't fall for the same old line of crap too many times in a row.

Very cool. Very cool that the whole point was, to me, that the First was a metaphor for our own self doubt paralyzing us from doing our best, or doing anything at all sometimes. Maybe the metaphor for the season should be depression. Most of the season was certainly depressing enough, and it turned out that mostly what was holding back the victory parade was the gang's own insecurities.

Which brings me to the one other thing this finale did that disappointing, which was put the complete brakes on my own retconning of the full season. I was starting to think, "You know, maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought." This was while reading all the posts of the past week. I kind of started to come over the camp that believes that it wasn't that bad of a season.

Joss killed that thought dead in my head. If the fine finale did anything, it made me want to puke my guts up over the final season.

Giles was just some of the laziest (is he dead or not), lamest (is he corporeal or not), weakest (he's acting like a retard) writing in the history of television. And while now we at least we know now why the SITs were there, I still have no idea why no one could think of anything to do with them but bore me to tears.

Spike and Buffy's moment could have been beautiful, but was not thanks to the absolutely fucking nothing that they did with Spuffy all season. Although James Marsters proved that he is, indeed, God. His performance managed to make me tear up and feel everything Joss was likely hoping for me to feel about Spike, despite the fact that Joss did more with Spike's soul in five minutes than the rest of the ME team did over the whole season.

The finale was great, but the deep emotional resonance that could have been there was not, thanks to the fact that the season just sort of wandered around aimlessly until Joss came back to try and put it on track in 44 minutes. There was resonance for me, but it all came from the years of Buffy watching, not from anythign that happened this season. And what resonance there was got dulled by the last year of what now turns out to have been lame nothingness that mostly had nothing to do with anything. Giles had nothing to do with anything. Botox had nothing to do with anything. Wood and Kennedy were extraneous and useless all the way to the bitter end. And the SiTs turn out to have been just a plot device that could have been introduced just three episodes ago, thus saving weeks and weeks of time wasting boredom, while still managing to be an effective Dues Ex in the finale.

I'm not a psycho fan. I don't blame. I don't hate. It doesn't work that way for me. It's a tough job to run three shows at once. Nearly impossible to find enough talented writers and producers to keep everything up to impossibly high standards. No one's fault that it happened. It just is what it is, which is a little sad, but nothing that will diminish my enduring love for what has been something I feel truly fortunate to have experienced for nearly 7 years, and fortunate to have been able to share communally with so many different people.

Thanks so much, Joss. Thanks for 6 great seasons and a terrific finale. Thanks for running yourself into the ground over the last 7 years in order to produce three of the finest shows in television history. Thanks for dispelling the notion that there is a "weaker sex." And thanks for some of the most complicated and interesting character development in the history of any media.

And thanks, Buffistas, for gi