and all the time spent on misdirection, whether it was Dawn, Not!Joyce, or Pod!Giles,

This is the thing that bugs me as much as anything. All of sudden we had a red tide of red herring in S7. And none of them fucking panned out as interesting. Or even necessarily coherent. It was cheap. Obviously a misdirect can be a key part in building narrative suspense - not the way they did it. So much time wasted on bullshit. Grrrr. Let Giles be Giles! Let Xander do...something. I didn't mind Principal Hottie - he was one of the intriguing figures of S7. But they really made a mistake by stuffing the house with potentials.

It was supposed to build a siege-like pressure, but all it did was disperse focus.

Half the number of potentials, with names and a semblance of a story, would have given twice the dramatic punch. Or, shocking thought, you've got a bunch of people with seven years or so of carefully built back story, use them. I loved Andrew because he's cute, but he took time from other folks.

I loved Andrew because he's cute, but he took time from other folks.

I'm not sure that was a mistake by itself. The show had long been able to integrate new characters into the group, and it didn't become clear until pretty late that S7 would be the last. Maybe he didn't deserve quite so much emphasis, or at least needed to provide more of an impetus to everyone else's story, but I liked his story.

But not enough wrod in the world to show my agreement on the "too many potentials" line of argument.

I loved Andrew because he's cute, but he took time from other folks.

I think Andrew's story was one of the few things that was fresh and interesting and consistently entertaining in S7. Obviously the writers enjoyed writing for his character and didn't feel so constrained as they did with the show's own mythology.

I think we need to see Andrew one last time.

I think Andrew's story was one of the few things that was fresh and interesting and consistently entertaining in S7.

Here's where we part company. I'm hoping Illyria's time-manipulation powers mean that if she should ever meet Andrew and be sufficiently annoyed by him, she can go back in time and kill him retroactively before Buffy Season 7 happens.

Matt, but then you miss "Storyteller." Which may have been the last Great Buffy Ep.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite TV show, ever. In fact, I can't even imagine a day when it won't be my favorite show. That's said, it wasn't flawless.

This would look kick ass on a t-shirt. And I appreciate being able to honestly discuss the best and the worst of BtVS without it turning into a flame war.

Let Xander do...something

This was a huge beef for me in S7. Xander is such a cherished character for me and to see him banished to the background was very disappointing. I am sure the idea was to have all the core scoobies appear in the series finale, but honestly, I wish they would have put Xander *out of his misery and just had the balls to kill him off instead of poking his eye out.*

With the cancellation of Angel (and really, I don't have my money on getting it moved to a different network) some folks here and other places have lamented that this is the end of the Buffyverse. I honestly don't feel like it is. Maybe I'm in denial, but I think there are stories left to tell in film and TV.

edited to remove spoilerish comments

Mariposa, the full 144 episodes of BtVS can be discussed in here without spoiler font. The only thing you have to be careful of is discussion of current series. For instance you can't compare something on Buffy to something from this season of Angel, unless the Angel stuff is white fonted. In fact, I think we try to avoid talking about the current season of Angel in here at all.

It's a little confusing, because this thread was once a NAFDA thread. You're safe discussing all of BtVS in here.

Fred, missing "Storyteller" would so not be a problem for me. In my memory, it's divided into "funny teaser sequence with Faith fighting Mr. Spock" and "40 minutes of Andrewcentric crap."