Y'all are hitting on some of my Season 7 problems. I think 5-7 suffered from poorly plotted arcs, but find 5 much more forgiveable in retrospect. A little tightening here and there, and it would have been perfect enough. Six was when I realized that the writing was falling out, and Seven just drove me bonkers with the mischaracterizations, the poor plotting, and the inability to create any suspense. Especially since Six & Seven had all of the opportunities for greatness present, but the execution was half-baked.

My perfect S7 would have been called S5 and would have incorporated all the good bits of the last 3 seasons with none of the dead weight.

Yes, yes, and YES. I also would get rid of Dawn. Not in the kill sense; in the never-should-have-brought-her-on sense. She wasn't quite a Cousin Oliver, but the show took a radical turn in tone in S5-7. Which are coincidentally, Dawn's seasons.

I found Monkey'sPaw!Joyce to be the scariest thing in the show's history

The scariest thing for me -- and I remember *exactly* how I felt when it happened, and I was unspoiled for it -- was black-eyed!pissed-off!Willow, levitating into Glory's penthouse to kick some godly ass. Seeing her all dark magic-y freaked my shit out. The fact that she was *levitating* -- freaked my shit out. Because....it was *Willow,* you know?

Farscape's done an amazing job of creating scary Muppets. Emotional one's too.

AND they re-used the Skeksis!

AND they re-used the Skeksis!

There was an ep I saw recently (Green-Eyed Monster, mabye?) where Chricton says "Skeksis" as part of a list in a "oh boy, what's chasing us this time?" rant, and I loved that I really had no idea if this was Chricton making a random pop culture reference, or if it was the name of an alien species we hadn't met yet, or if he was pop-culturally referencing the Skeksi-like aliens from S1.

but find 5 much more forgiveable in retrospect.

Ugh, no. Maybe it's because I didn't abhor Spuffy as much as some people, but Glory was the nadir for me. 6 and 7 were recoveries from a dismal season compared to 5. And Ben...

shudder

Reading season 7 recaps, I just came across Yet Another Unanswered Question: what was the deal with Principal Wood appearing to be in a trance and burying Jonathan in Never Leave Me? "Mother was a Slayer", "pestered by the FE", and "good fighter", but none of those would seem to give one the ability to dowse for corpses.

what was the deal with Principal Wood appearing to be in a trance and burying Jonathan in Never Leave Me?

Yes! This! I was certain the FE was guiding him down there somehow, but ... I mean, why? Did Wood smell him? Was he doing his bit for school hygiene? This made no sense!

Yes, the quandry for Buffy, the lesson, that without evil, she would not have forged these relationships, would never have known Angel, Giles, any of the Scoobies, that she would never know her strength without these constant trials.

I wanted this from the first evil, not the RubberFacedClown. Again, so much potential wasted on too many potentials.

If the lesson is that heroism is found in crisis, that one doesn't exist without the other, that there is a balance, then we could have had a greater examination on what it meant to be in Willow's shoes, what Anya meant to Xander, Faith's redemption, Spike's struggle, Buffy's losing her way in six...it would have all been so much more cohesive to have been able to examine them in relation to the First.

The First, like Buffy, depends on the scales being in balance. Cheating on the balance by bringing her back allows the First to cheat by destroying the Slayer line.

But what we had with Buffy sharing the power is another upset of balance, and it could have been more clearly presented as an balancing of the scales, if instead of giving the power to all the girls of the world, she could simply have bestowed it one, restoring the line. Also could have used that opportunity to wrap up the "she won't choose you."

Of course, Buffy did what the first council did, by not offering the girls a choice.

but the show took a radical turn in tone in S5-7. Which are coincidentally, Dawn's seasons.

I'm not sure the problem was Dawn as much as leaving school behind. Certainly by late S5, the show lost its overriding theme of "High school/ college is hell." After that, there was no real overriding theme that was both semi-realistic and entertaining.

And my rankings: S5 was mostly solid (it's the season I started watching, BTW). S6 was brilliant at both ends, but sagged badly in the middle (DMP and AYW, anyone?). S7 started well but became a mess (except for "Storyteller" and, oddly enough, LMPTM) -- with some too-little-too-late improvement at the end.

AYW, anyone?

Yeah, actually. It has its faults, several of them, but of all of season 6, it's my third most-watched episode (after the Smashed and Wreaked).

I agree that there were a lot of problems with S7, and a lot of missed opportunities, but I also remember how much I liked the first part of the season, some of the shows in the middle, and the finale.

This is where I am, too. They should have done more with Dawn and Xander, less with the stupid frelling UberVamps, and used the Potentials in fewer episodes.