Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Important: Please do not post spoilers for Season Seven. I haven’t seen that one yet.
Howard and I just finished Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Six. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highlights:
Once More With Feeling was amazing. I think that is the best musical production I have ever seen. It was wonderful to see the writers and the cast try their abilities at something so different and see them succeed so well.
The wedding break-up made me sick to my stomach. Bad Xander.
The development of The Trio as villains was a fascinating character study. Particularly of Warren. We get to watch him move from petty and amusing through stages all the way to an evil doer of evil deeds.
Evil Willow rocked. She was scary and powerful. She had me on the edge of my seat. “Bored now.” Very evil. I’m not sure how Willow the person is going to be able to come to terms with what she became and what she did.
The Buffy and Spike relationship was also fascinating to watch. I confess that I’ve always loved the Spike character and I really felt his pain in season 5. What I emotionally wanted to have happen was that Spike’s feelings for Buffy to ennoble him, redeem him somehow. Instead the relationship with Spike only created confusion and pain for both of them. A much more realistic result considering the people involved. Then things bottomed out and now it looks like I could yet see the redemption of Spike in season 7. That’d be nice.
Anyway, those are the highlights of my thoughts on Buffy Season 6. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of the series.
Oh, to be young and innocent once more, and still have more unwatched Buffy to look forward to! What bliss!
One interesting thing I noticed about the musical episode: Willow only has one line in a song, and it’s more spoken than sung. I wonder if everyone’s favorite red-headed witch is unable to carry a tune?
Regarding some of your points:
– Willow’s alienation from Tara and everyone else took place over the period of almost two seasons, from when she began using her magic rather ‘indiscriminately’ immediately in the period before Buffy’s death and subsequent resurrection. We’ve seen hints of this dark side in her ‘vampiric twin’, among others. It was almost inevitable, given how things were going – she was becoming increasingly isolated from everyone else, and the use of magic was, to an extent, corrupting her. There were reasons why Tara’s family did have some prohibitions against the sorts of usage that Willow indulged in.
– Buffy and Spike – after the departure of Soldier Boy, this was an… interesting development. Spike’s had a thing for Buffy for ages, and she’s known this for some time – anyone remember the Buffy Bot? Then the return of the other, clueless Buffy also helped push things along this route. Spike’s always been a bit of a bad boy (an apparent requirement to get the Slayer’s interest, even including Riley – look at how that ended). Between this and Spike’s rather surprising depth, at least so far as villain-types go, along with his role as one of the few unattached males in Buffy’s life, I wasn’t too surprised as to how this went. Or will go, eventually.
You’ll also notice that the misfiring magic thing seems to be endemic as a plot device in Season Six; this sort of failure isn’t helping Willow self-esteem at all, and after what happened with Glory, she was rather desperate to be of use. Xander could fight; Spike could fight better with his vampire strength and speed; Buffy could fight really well with Slayer Strength and endurance; Giles is a more scholarly sort with a better library of information than Willow has. All Willow had to distinguish herself from the others, and to be part of events, was her magic – and in the end, that magic helps her almost destroy the world, because she thinks she’s really not all that good at it too, at least not good enough to save Buffy AND Tara.
And so she went.