I agree, it is a fine line to balance. Just wish they'd bothered trying harder in S7.

A world of wrod. I really enjoyed the beginning of the season, but I never recovered from Unnatural!NoTouchie!Giles being strung out for multiple episodes for a cheap sight gag.

but I never recovered from Unnatural!NoTouchie!Giles being strung out for multiple episodes for a cheap sight gag.

Giles didn't even recover from it until the last two episodes.

The script for The Pack is the original writer's draft. I'd say it's pre-Joss surgery because it's missing the "heimlich with stripes" line and it's less subtle. Here's the original interaction as written, though I think it was filmed differently.

WHAM! Someone jumps off the building onto Xander, knocking him to the ground. Xander and the FIGURE wrestle, back and forth, around and around, until Xander rolls on top, pinning BUFFY with his knees.

XANDER
I've been waiting for you to jump my bones.

BUFFY
Get off me!

XANDER
Is that what you really want? We both know what you really want.

Xander shifts off Buffy's arms. Buffy rolls onto her hands and knees. They're now face to face on hands and knees, exhausted from the struggle, panting like animals.

XANDER
You want danger, don't you - you like your men dangerous --

BUFFY
You're in trouble -- infected with some Hyena thing, like a demonic possession --

XANDER
--Dangerous and mean, right? Like Mr. Black Leather Motorcycle Guy -- Well, guess who just got mean --

Xander pushes toward her, menacing, and she backs up.

BUFFY
I don't want to hurt you, Xander.

He sniffs the air.

XANDER
I knew you were following me. I'd know your smell a mile a way.

Xander begins SNIFFING Buffy's shoulder.

BUFFY
You and the others -- ate Herbert alive --

XANDER
--You now how long I've waited? Until you'd stop pretending we aren't attracted--

Buffy rolls away and jumps to her feet. He follows her.

XANDER
Until Willow'd stop kidding herself, that I'd settle for anyone but you --

BUFFY
No, stop it -- You're scaring me.

Xander suddenly TACKLES her.

XANDER
Being scared make you wanna hurt me? C'mon, Slayer -- I like it when you smell scared.

Xander climbs on top, straddling her.

XANDER
--The more I scare you, the better you smell.

Xander roughly grabs Buffy's jaw. Begins kissing her, biting her lips -- but Buffy ROLLS him on his back, pinning his wrists against the ground. Now she's in control.

BUFFY
What part of "NO" don't you understand!

XANDER
The "N."

Suddenly, Xander THRUSTS Buffy's arms away, throwing her backward -- with a power that shocks her. Buffy's head hits the ground, just missing a pile of bricks. He leans into her face -- for the first time, we see his powerful biceps.

XANDER
(soft)
Welcome to the jungle.

Giles didn't even recover from it until the last two episodes.

I think they loaded Giles in Chosen from an earlier tape backup after his character flashed the Blue Screen of Death, thus causing the S1 flashbacks, the Real!Giles, etc. Alas for the data loss that robbed us all of Real!Giles reactions to that stretch in the middle.

Wow. I'm tired enough that that made sense.

Mouse batteries dying, going to give in and sleep. g'night.

I keep writing and deleting this post about the unified theory of S7 suckage as seen by me - but then it gets all circular and dumb. Its thesis is basically what Plei said about the activation of the Potentials and them being too focused on that which resulted in too much filler. And god love him, too much Andrew and not enough Xander or Dawn. The Giles thing didn't bother me too too much. I hated the Speeches and Kennedy way more.

Wow. I'm tired enough that that made sense.

I must be tired as well because it made perfect sense to me. Goodnight.

Hmmm, more from the original script for The Pack. This is interesting because so much of it is different from what was aired. Like, originally there were five pack members before Xander joined. Anyway, this is telling (something):

Willow and Giles look up from their research startled and anxious. BUFFY enters, dragging an unconscious XANDER.

BUFFY
Hurry -- we've gotta lock him up somehow, before he comes to.

Willow turns off the Video she's been studying.

WILLOW
Ohmigod, Xander -- is he alright?

BUFFY
Oh fine. He's just enjoying a little brick-induced coma designed to prevent felony sexual assault.

Buffy HEAVES Xander into a steel-mesh book-return cage. She slams the door and locks it. Hangs the keys on a nearby book.

GILES
Oh Buffy, the Hyena in him didn't --

BUFFY
No, but it's safe to say that in his current state, his idea of wooing somebody doesn't include a Yanni CD and a bottle of Chianti.
(thumbs behind her)
And there's five more of them out there. What've you found?

That "Welcome to the Jungle" line wasn't in the actual episode, right?

I would have remembered something that awful and cheesy, I'm sure.

Can I give Plei a kiss? I adore her.

I do love "Chosen" still, and rewatched it last night, along with breaking out the S3 DVDs to revel in "Band Candy" and "Lovers Walk." And I love the big activation of potentials moment. But I still hate all the screentime a bunch of random girls stole from all the characters whose stories I'd followed for years and years.

So, if I were in charge of rewriting S7, we'd still have the potentials storyline, but they wouldn't take over the Summers house. For most of the year, we'd have four at most, with Giles or Willow discovering a bunch more just before the finale and bringing them in. Or, we'd have them, but they'd house them in an unused dorm at UC-Sunnydale or something, and within the exception of a few that we'd get to know closely, they'd have almost no screentime.

And you know, the one thing we never saw from the potentials that would've made them more sympathetic to me? Some kind of outside life they left behind. Parents looking for runaways, or girls calling home to reassure Mom and Dad that everything was just dandy at Professor Giles's School for the Gifted.