As for the Potentials -- sending Giles off for a number of eps to search for Potentials was a good idea (given the limited number of eps he'd agreed to appear in). And each ep, another Potential or two arrives in Sunnydale.

I see you point with regard to Giles and the Potentials, but I disagree otherwise.

The season began with a couple of rather horrifying scenes of Potentials being rather easily slaughtered by Bringers. Given that beginning, I have problems with number of Poternials (both the group fighting with Buffy and the scattered group awakening) left in the world at the end of the season.

Either the PtB create way too many Potentials in each generation (diluting their specialness, imo), or the Bringers weren't nearly as efficient and scary as they seemed, causing me to question the FE's real power.

I think the whole season would have been better served if there had only been 4-6 Potentials with Buffy and if, in the end, Buffy had shared her power with all of womankind, rather than all potentials.

Buffy had shared her power with all of womankind, rather than all potentials.

But... the fact that only Potentials got the power is the only thing standing between the showverse and a huge anvil with "BUFFY EMPOWERS WOMEN!" written on it. I don't want that taken away. It's a thing.

Edit: okay, so the message is there anyway. But I'm clinging onto the only thing that stopped Chosen being a big feminist banner. Personal thing entirely.

Also the possibility of a Clem spinoff lives on.

I would *so* watch this.

I am still looking for him here in Nebraska, but 7-11's are rare so I bet he ended up not staying.

the fact that only Potentials got the power is the only thing standing between the showverse and a huge anvil with "BUFFY EMPOWERS WOMEN!" written on it.

If by "standing in the way" you mean "waved it past the finish line with an enormous pink flag with WOMYN POWER written on it in menstrual blood."

(What, me bitter?)

If by "standing in the way" you mean "waved it past the finish line with an enormous pink flag with WOMYN POWER written on it in menstrual blood."

Yeah, something like that. Shall we be bitter together?

I was trying to look at it in a positive, it-could-be-worse; it-could-have-been-all-women light, but why bother? I'll embrace the bitterness.

I pretty much threw up my hands when Caleb appeared. Having Buffy's last major act before the final battle be castrating a misogynist posessed by the First Evil was just..."over the top" doesn't even begin to cover it.

[edit: And I'm all for feminism being an underlying theme of the show, don't get me wrong. But when it's repeatedly rubbed in my face, I get annoyed. And when the show stops being about the characters, I get bored. Yeah yeah, women rule. So do Giles and Xander.]

And I totally agree with you Am-Chau. That's part of my problem.

I just don't see the point of having Big Bad Scary FE killing Potentials if every woman born on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday gets to be one. Unless of course Big Bad Scary FE actually succeeded, proving it really is Big, Bad, and Scary.

Since it didn't succeed, the evil is watered down and it appears that there is no specialness at all to being a Potential. Or really to being a Slayer. I mean if the PtB had so little confidence that a Slayer would make it past her first week on the job that they felt they had to create a huge back-up reserve, maybe she should have had more power.

I can sense I'm getting frustrated with the whole premise (as presented in Season 7) now. I think I'm going back to typing purchase orders.

And I'm all for feminism being an underlying theme of the show

The thing about the anvils is that we didn't need them to tell us that feminism is a theme. We have a female superhero, and know that women are charged with saving the world in this show. That's the statement. I got everything I needed in (checkpoint?) when Buffy told the Watcher's Council to fuck off, that the power was hers, made her demands, and stood her ground.

Though, to be honest, the little girl at bat getting that sloww grin on her face? Great visual.

I pretty much threw up my hands when Caleb appeared. Having Buffy's last major act before the final battle be castrating a misogynist posessed by the First Evil was just..."over the top" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Between Caleb, the three guys from the past, and the "Willow empowers them all", it was pretty much all-feminist-all-the-time. To the point were I felt that what had been a perfectly good, clear and understandable bit of subtext ("Buffy is a blonde girl who's really strong and does amazing things") had been turned into an overt message that assumed I was stupid, that I hadn't got the subtext. And while I enjoyed Caleb, I think that was more about Nat Fillion than his character. He could have been used much better-- the whole business of drawing power from the First was great. But no, he has to be a misogynist because just being evil doesn't cut it. He could have believed that all people were dirty, perfectly well. It would have worked that way.

I got everything I needed in (checkpoint?) when Buffy told the Watcher's Council to fuck off, that the power was hers, made her demands, and stood her ground.

"Checkpoint" is correct.

Interesting conversation going on. Now that the series is over, I tend to take the approach as "this is what happened" and not get too worked up over the mistakes and miscues that happened in the last season. My take on the season is similar to many others -- strong start, boring middle, some wasted opportunities, and a decent end. Details differ as to what I found as wasted or boring, but not much from what most people have said. (I thought momentum picked back up with "Get It Done", but YMMV). I do know that "Sleeper" was better when I watched it after the season was over, but I haven't re-watched any of the other episodes since, so I don't know if they improve much upon re-watching (although I rather doubt it).

What fascinates me is how seeing the "whole" of the series influences how I see past episodes. On FX, the wheel has turned again and they have started back up from the beginning. Watching "Welcome to the Hellmouth" for the umpteenth time still brought something new to me -- for the first time, I noticed how unprepared Giles was at having a Slayer who didn't want to follow her "calling". The look on his face after Buffy rattles off

"Prepares me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead! Prepare me."

makes you realize he really had no clue about what to do, and that he was dealing with a real person rather than a "tool" of the Council.