I was talking the finale over with a coworker who isn't a fan, but whose roommate is, and realized that for me, the finale was emotionally satisfying, but intellectually unsatisfying.

By which I mean, if I try to make it work logically, and jibe with all the previous plot developments, I will just get frustrated and annoyed. But without any deep analysis, and having only watched it once, in pleasing company, laughing a lot and bleh-ing in chorus to the excessive schmoop, I really did enjoy it, even though I know it will probably not stand up to the hard scrutiny I tend to prefer.

Which means, I think, I can never watch it again, so as not to harsh my mellow.

but I do feel condemned a little, and don't necessarily appreciate it.

I'm sorry, Sean. That's why I mentioned the other things I don't like, to give some perspective on how I see things. It's quite possible for me to separate the person from the act, and I'm not going to go around saying I think Barbie dolls are a good thing just because little girls do get pleasure from playing with them that outweighs the negative body image issues they may (or may not) develop (I mean, I played with Barbies, and I've never been anorexic, so Barbies must be okay, right?).

If you want to be defined totally by your willingness to snuggle with people who love you when you don't love them the same way, then be my guest, but you're going to have to accept that I'm going to feel a certain way about you. Or you could not care, which is probably the best way to deal.

My sister wants to buy an SUV. Damn her.

I need three arms to write out all these apparently pent up and long winded posts that are pouring out of me.

Anyone know a spell to get me a third arm?

I thought the Slayers Awakening Everywhere montage was way overly cheesy, and I've never liked the "cutting a speech off halfway and then cutting back in the ending montage to reveal the end" style of narrative. It always feels cheap and sloppy to me. This one wasn't as bad as in the UberVamp Telepathy episode, but it's an overused device in this show, and not one I'm a fan of.

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.

I have fanwank! I suspect that the FE "empowered" the first UberVamp we saw, much as it did Caleb, so it was a bit tougher than usual.

Watched it again. Much, much love for this episode, and some really nice directorial touches. The scene in the high school, which starts with the Slayer and her herd and then thins down to just the core four, then Buffy, Willow and Xander walking down the hallway, with Willow peeling off, then Xander, leaving Buffy alone for a moment--that was nice.

Also, Dawn kicking Buffy in the shins gets funnier each time. As does the D&D game. And McHottie shined again. He should be on the spin-off. "I'm way prettier than you are." BWAH!!!

I'm with Ken, this season ranks in the middle for me, with S5 being the low point.

I will never never understand the notion that Buffy mistreated Spike somehow. Aside from Ple's nicely annotated list of things Buffy has done on his behalf, recall that he was a gleeful murderer for a century, chained her up and threatened her with torture after he plead his love to her, tried to rape her, and was himself quite nastily manipulative when he fucked her on the catwalk in the Bronze.

And I like Spike. Honestly, like the character and JM's performance. The only place where I felt like Buffy entered a morally ambiguous zone in her relationship with Spike was when she didn't stake him on the many occasions when he obviously deserved it.

The very notion that Buffy toyed with Spike's feelings is insanely laughable to me. He is love's bitch, and man enough to admit it. He would totally consider it the very point of his existence to get into a warped romance with layers of sex and betrayal and redemption because he is a big fucking drama queen. Spike is, and always has been, a parody of Romance Writ Large. The guy went out laughing and saving the world with his ex-lover standing there telling him she loved him? Spike could not have scripted a finer moment for himself.

Narrative drove a lot of the decisions as well as a bit of meta. No way ever in the history of humanity was either Kennedy going to die (can't go killing Willow's lesbian lover again) nor Rona (can't go out killing yet another black person in Sunnydale). Narratively, Spike had to die for much the same reason that Xena had to die in her finale. Their crimes were too great to ever be redeemed by anything less than a total sacrifice.

Giles? Wasted this year. Oh well. Both he and Xander were wasted in S4. It's a tough juggle.

Also, Dawn kicking Buffy in the shins gets funnier each time.

The height difference between MT and SMG just makes it funnier.

Which means, I think, I can never watch it again, so as not to harsh my mellow.

I was kinda worried that this might be the case for me. Unfortunately, my damn VCR didn't tape it while I was out watching it on the big screen, so it might not be an issue.

I have fanwank! I suspect that the FE "empowered" the first UberVamp we saw, much as it did Caleb, so it was a bit tougher than usual.

Sure, Vic, I can purchase that. Hell, I can purchase anything for the sake of the finale. It doesn't really matter to me why they weren't so powerful now, although Anya hitting one in the thigh wouldn't kill a regular vamp.

But I didn't feel a need to wank the finale. I didn't care that he dispensed with a plot point I didn't like anyway. But wasn't there something earlier in the season about how scary it was going to be to have to face an army of Uber Vamps who couldn't be killed in a normal fashion? And didn't one of the SiTs just stab one in the heart a week or two ago and it did nothing? Then Buffy showed up with ScythAxe and dusted them?

The retconning doesn't bug me for the finale. It just makes the rest of the season bug me even more. Which is my problem, I know.

Narratively, Spike had to die for much the same reason that Xena had to die in her finale. Their crimes were too great to ever be redeemed by anything less than a total sacrifice.

Anya, too.