Buffy Season Six...better than I remembered.
- Thread starter Skywalker
- Start date
I'm surprised by all the Andrew hate. I liked a lot of the characters introduced in Season 7, like Principal Wood and Caleb, but the only episode in it that I can still enjoy from start to finish is "Storyteller", which is of course a showcase for that character and actor. I find the rest of the season just underwhelming. In my opinion, there wasn't a lot of life left in the show by that point, and they were pretty much out of good ideas.
I didn't care for the 'potentials' storyline or Willow's totally forced romance with that completely uninteresting Kennedy character, especially after how much time and care had been put into naturally developing her previous relationships with Oz, and to a lesser extent, Tara. That last one was so obviously just giving her a love interest for the sake of giving her a love interest. Didn't really see a plausible romance developing there. I just remember Kennedy saying, "you have an odd way of talking, I like that." Well whoop dee freaking doo, it must be true love.
I didn't care for the 'potentials' storyline or Willow's totally forced romance with that completely uninteresting Kennedy character, especially after how much time and care had been put into naturally developing her previous relationships with Oz, and to a lesser extent, Tara. That last one was so obviously just giving her a love interest for the sake of giving her a love interest. Didn't really see a plausible romance developing there. I just remember Kennedy saying, "you have an odd way of talking, I like that." Well whoop dee freaking doo, it must be true love.
I really liked season 6 and I loved how Buffy and the rest of the characters were ran through the shits and felt like killing themselves. I loved the Dark Willow arc and of course "Once More With Feeling".
The only problem I had with season 6 was Spuffy. It was gross, degrading, and just fucked up. I hated all there PDA sex scenes and it really made me dislike Spike as a character.
Season 7 I thought was the weakest of all the seasons but I still enjoyed it, especially the closing arc and the epic finale.
The only problem I had with season 6 was Spuffy. It was gross, degrading, and just fucked up. I hated all there PDA sex scenes and it really made me dislike Spike as a character.
Season 7 I thought was the weakest of all the seasons but I still enjoyed it, especially the closing arc and the epic finale.
I don't hate him, but he was annoying, I'd say purposefully. His crush on Spike was funny, though, and I did like what was done with his character in "Storyteller." I liked the idea that he was acting like this was all fun and games, when really it was a serious situation. I'm not at all that fond of Principal Wood, myself. "My mom the slayer got killed by Spike and I haven't gotten over it..." Yeah, just the guy I'd want principaling my kid's HS.
I didn't care for the 'potentials' storyline or Willow's totally forced romance with that completely uninteresting Kennedy character, especially after how much time and care had been put into naturally developing her previous relationships with Oz, and to a lesser extent, Tara. That last one was so obviously just giving her a love interest for the sake of giving her a love interest. Didn't really see a plausible romance developing there. I just remember Kennedy saying, "you have an odd way of talking, I like that." Well whoop dee freaking doo, it must be true love.
I agree. Post-Tara mourning time should have probably given way to "me time" for Willow. If it was meant to be a rebound to quickly replace Tara, they should have addressed that. (Come to think of it, I'm surprised they didn't treat it that way.)
I would have liked to have seen a strong Willow who didn't need anyone to make her happy, and who also didn't want to revert to someone else's shadow. If there's one lesson she could have learned from Tara's death, it might have been to stand on her own more strongly before entering a relationship with someone else.
Sorry. They say Time Gives a Fresh Perspective...not this time. Season Six is, IMHO, still the fetid piece of characterization rape that turned me off the show that I had watched faithfully for five years. I sometimes wonder if the writers made a bet to see if they could distort these characters beyond virtually all recognition and still have people watch every week.
"Once More With Feeling" - it's cute, but not the greatest thing Whedon's ever done.
Spuffy - turned my stomach.
Xander leaving Anya at the alter - unforgivable. The man who once stared Angelus himself down...getting cold feet? No way.
Killing Tara merely to be the trigger for Dark Willow - the most unforgivable of all.
To paraphrase Chief Joseph, my heart is sick and sad; from the last five minutes of "Seeing Red" I will watch Buffy no more forever.
"Once More With Feeling" - it's cute, but not the greatest thing Whedon's ever done.
Spuffy - turned my stomach.
Xander leaving Anya at the alter - unforgivable. The man who once stared Angelus himself down...getting cold feet? No way.
Killing Tara merely to be the trigger for Dark Willow - the most unforgivable of all.
To paraphrase Chief Joseph, my heart is sick and sad; from the last five minutes of "Seeing Red" I will watch Buffy no more forever.
Got to agree with these. What season four did to Spike was survivable. What season five did to him was a gaping wound. What season six did to him was kill the character permanently.
As for Xander, they treated the guy like dirt in every episode he'd been in since day one. I'm not really surprised that they couldn't bring themselves to allow him to be happy. Ironically, at the time they did it he was the only one of the original trio who wasn't a sponging loser.
Skywalker, I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on S7, since it is by far my least favorite season, and I would like to see if you share my opinion, or if you share the opinion of a large majority of the rest of the fandom in praising S7.
I wanted to chime in on the whole discussion about Willow's character by saying that nothing that was done in S6 with regards to her characterization was contrary to who she had been established as deep down. The problems with Willow's characterization come in S7, when her recovery arc is bogged down needlessly and is resolved haphazardly through her appearance on ANGEL in 'Orpheus' (that episode gets general praise from a lot of the fandom, and while it IS a very good episode, it suffers because the writers on ANGEL paid no attention at all to what was happening with Willow's character on Buffy at the time).
I also wanted to address the 'Kennedy was uninteresting' complaint, which strikes me as very ironic given that she is almost 100% archetypeally identical to the character of Faith LeHane, to the point that I have referred to her (Kennedy) in the past as a 'rich man's Faith' (a term that my good friend Caligula still doesn't quite get
).
I wanted to chime in on the whole discussion about Willow's character by saying that nothing that was done in S6 with regards to her characterization was contrary to who she had been established as deep down. The problems with Willow's characterization come in S7, when her recovery arc is bogged down needlessly and is resolved haphazardly through her appearance on ANGEL in 'Orpheus' (that episode gets general praise from a lot of the fandom, and while it IS a very good episode, it suffers because the writers on ANGEL paid no attention at all to what was happening with Willow's character on Buffy at the time).
I also wanted to address the 'Kennedy was uninteresting' complaint, which strikes me as very ironic given that she is almost 100% archetypeally identical to the character of Faith LeHane, to the point that I have referred to her (Kennedy) in the past as a 'rich man's Faith' (a term that my good friend Caligula still doesn't quite get
).
Yeah, I can see where the season had potential, but, to me, here's what I didn't care for (and I realize I'm probably retreading a lot of ground here, but so what?). Some of it's character derailment/assassination of the type that's been gone over, but most of these examples are just Fridge Logic moments that really pissed me off once I realized them.
-- People will probably laugh at me for this one, but, to me, the season got off on the wrong foot for me with the Buffybot. It was clever for them to reactivate it to help keep the peace in Sunnydale. It was even cute watching it try to 'put marzipan in their pieplate'. But then, the Scoobies managed to voodoo Buffy back from the dead, and suddenly, we get treated to the lighthearted Buffybot getting dismembered in a rather horrible fashion that was just... disturbing. Worse yet, it appears they just left it there to rot after that. That's gratitude for you.
-- The whole decision to bring back Buffy by the other Scoobies just ended up coming off as incredibly selfish after the fact. It seemed less like they wanted her back as an ally so much as they wanted her to come back and start carrying the load again so they could stop doing it... They managed to prove themselves up until that point, but afterwards, instead of stepping up a bit more to take up some of Buffy's slack, they went right back to hiding behind her coattails... to the point that Buffy was the one who had to go find work at menial fast food? Seriously? Aside from the fact that it should have been impossible to maintain their standard of living on that kind of income, just what was everyone else contributing here? Willow and Tara were essentially freeloading, and Dawn was old enough to pick up a part-time job, and Giles... you'd think someone who was at first concerned about Buffy's 'real world' responsibilities detracting from her Slaying lifestyle in the beginning of the series would have taken a more active hand in securing her financial stability so she wouldn't have to worry about such mundane things as paying the bills... I don't think they ever forced any other Slayer to keep up a mortgage...
-- The Trio were weak. Yeah, they were meant to be a distraction menace until Darth Willow cropped up, but still, these were one-episode filler villains, not Big Bads as we've come to know them, or even phony Big Bads... you just couldn't take them seriously or understand why nobody just walked to their house and took care of them (even Xander should have been able to single-handedly take these guys out)... well, other than...
-- The massive character derailment. I don't have a problem with putting characters through the ringer, but I prefer it to be an organic, natural process.... Farscape season 3, I think did the whole 'angst as plot' thing rather well. Yeah, the writers were bullying the cast left and right, but they stayed true to character. Buffy S6, however, had characters doing big and little things that just pissed off the audience... to the point that you didn't care how they were feeling, you just wanted them to quit.
An excellent example of this is Xander. Dumping Anya at the altar, even AFTER knowing he was being screwed with by a demon, was just... I don't even know, but it didn't make sense, and it just felt like the writers just made him do it because it was the most upsetting option instead of the one that made sense. There's also the 'Once More With Feeling' musical, where, at the end, it's revealed that Xander summoned the damn demon, for... some reason. A demon that, in the course of the episode, killed at least one guy with fire, and nearly got Buffy the same way, and no one said or did anything about it. It was played like it was just another day, and made me think at the time that the whole cast had turned into a bunch of callous jerkasses.
--I'm not a Spuffy fan. Even so, I can deal with certain developments in S4 and 5 along those lines. They were plausible, and, while you could see the mutual attraction between the two characters, you could credit Buffy with the sense to not act on it... I mean, Angel was one thing... he had a soul. But Spike was a soulless killing machine, a fact continually touched upon throughout the series. Not a year before, he would have ripped all their hearts out and ate them alive if he'd managed to ditch the control collar/chip thing for five minutes. This, like most vampire romances, sound much better in concept than in execution, especially in terms of unfortunately implications. And that's not even getting into the S&M stuff and the near-rape scene, which I can only fault Spike for to a certain degree-- it's easier when you think of him less as a human and more like a wild animal, at least pre-soul-ing-- but how long did Buffy seriously think she'd be able to blantantly manipulate Spike like that until something really unpleasant happened to her? I realize what they were trying to go for here, but it's undermined by the fact that Spike isn't supposed to be human, or a man, but a monster. This is the kind of thing he does, or at least, is supposed to do. And Buffy should have known that. The whole relationship was massive derailment on both their parts.
--For a series whose major subtext is about female empowerment, I found the whole stuffing-Tara-in-the-fridge-to-make-Willow-go-nuts bit completely out of character for the series. It was just so random, stupid and contrived (compare an example of character death for angst done right: Jenny Calender's murder at the hands of Angelus). And that all the evil and dark Willow needed to get better was a hug from Xander, a man? I realize they were angling at the friendship angle rather than sexual politics in this case, but it does kind of give the air of the man swooping in and saving the day with a few choice words.
What all this comes down to, in the end is bad, incoherent writing on the part of the show runners. I can see where the major plot points of the season could have been done well, the witty one liners and scenes taken out of context, as well as what some people get out of this season, but the sheer inconsistency of the characterization in light of past developments and expectations I feel really weakened the core cast, especially when the one consistently decent person in the group got killed off so abruptly for a cheap bezerk button reaction.
But that's just me... And sadly, I feel even worse about Season 7... well, maybe not worse, but not any better. The UPN years were not kind to this show.
-- People will probably laugh at me for this one, but, to me, the season got off on the wrong foot for me with the Buffybot. It was clever for them to reactivate it to help keep the peace in Sunnydale. It was even cute watching it try to 'put marzipan in their pieplate'. But then, the Scoobies managed to voodoo Buffy back from the dead, and suddenly, we get treated to the lighthearted Buffybot getting dismembered in a rather horrible fashion that was just... disturbing. Worse yet, it appears they just left it there to rot after that. That's gratitude for you.
-- The whole decision to bring back Buffy by the other Scoobies just ended up coming off as incredibly selfish after the fact. It seemed less like they wanted her back as an ally so much as they wanted her to come back and start carrying the load again so they could stop doing it... They managed to prove themselves up until that point, but afterwards, instead of stepping up a bit more to take up some of Buffy's slack, they went right back to hiding behind her coattails... to the point that Buffy was the one who had to go find work at menial fast food? Seriously? Aside from the fact that it should have been impossible to maintain their standard of living on that kind of income, just what was everyone else contributing here? Willow and Tara were essentially freeloading, and Dawn was old enough to pick up a part-time job, and Giles... you'd think someone who was at first concerned about Buffy's 'real world' responsibilities detracting from her Slaying lifestyle in the beginning of the series would have taken a more active hand in securing her financial stability so she wouldn't have to worry about such mundane things as paying the bills... I don't think they ever forced any other Slayer to keep up a mortgage...
-- The Trio were weak. Yeah, they were meant to be a distraction menace until Darth Willow cropped up, but still, these were one-episode filler villains, not Big Bads as we've come to know them, or even phony Big Bads... you just couldn't take them seriously or understand why nobody just walked to their house and took care of them (even Xander should have been able to single-handedly take these guys out)... well, other than...
-- The massive character derailment. I don't have a problem with putting characters through the ringer, but I prefer it to be an organic, natural process.... Farscape season 3, I think did the whole 'angst as plot' thing rather well. Yeah, the writers were bullying the cast left and right, but they stayed true to character. Buffy S6, however, had characters doing big and little things that just pissed off the audience... to the point that you didn't care how they were feeling, you just wanted them to quit.
An excellent example of this is Xander. Dumping Anya at the altar, even AFTER knowing he was being screwed with by a demon, was just... I don't even know, but it didn't make sense, and it just felt like the writers just made him do it because it was the most upsetting option instead of the one that made sense. There's also the 'Once More With Feeling' musical, where, at the end, it's revealed that Xander summoned the damn demon, for... some reason. A demon that, in the course of the episode, killed at least one guy with fire, and nearly got Buffy the same way, and no one said or did anything about it. It was played like it was just another day, and made me think at the time that the whole cast had turned into a bunch of callous jerkasses.
--I'm not a Spuffy fan. Even so, I can deal with certain developments in S4 and 5 along those lines. They were plausible, and, while you could see the mutual attraction between the two characters, you could credit Buffy with the sense to not act on it... I mean, Angel was one thing... he had a soul. But Spike was a soulless killing machine, a fact continually touched upon throughout the series. Not a year before, he would have ripped all their hearts out and ate them alive if he'd managed to ditch the control collar/chip thing for five minutes. This, like most vampire romances, sound much better in concept than in execution, especially in terms of unfortunately implications. And that's not even getting into the S&M stuff and the near-rape scene, which I can only fault Spike for to a certain degree-- it's easier when you think of him less as a human and more like a wild animal, at least pre-soul-ing-- but how long did Buffy seriously think she'd be able to blantantly manipulate Spike like that until something really unpleasant happened to her? I realize what they were trying to go for here, but it's undermined by the fact that Spike isn't supposed to be human, or a man, but a monster. This is the kind of thing he does, or at least, is supposed to do. And Buffy should have known that. The whole relationship was massive derailment on both their parts.
--For a series whose major subtext is about female empowerment, I found the whole stuffing-Tara-in-the-fridge-to-make-Willow-go-nuts bit completely out of character for the series. It was just so random, stupid and contrived (compare an example of character death for angst done right: Jenny Calender's murder at the hands of Angelus). And that all the evil and dark Willow needed to get better was a hug from Xander, a man? I realize they were angling at the friendship angle rather than sexual politics in this case, but it does kind of give the air of the man swooping in and saving the day with a few choice words.
What all this comes down to, in the end is bad, incoherent writing on the part of the show runners. I can see where the major plot points of the season could have been done well, the witty one liners and scenes taken out of context, as well as what some people get out of this season, but the sheer inconsistency of the characterization in light of past developments and expectations I feel really weakened the core cast, especially when the one consistently decent person in the group got killed off so abruptly for a cheap bezerk button reaction.
But that's just me... And sadly, I feel even worse about Season 7... well, maybe not worse, but not any better. The UPN years were not kind to this show.
I also wanted to address the 'Kennedy was uninteresting' complaint, which strikes me as very ironic given that she is almost 100% archetypeally identical to the character of Faith LeHane, to the point that I have referred to her (Kennedy) in the past as a 'rich man's Faith' (a term that my good friend Caligula still doesn't quite get
Amen... though I think the point of contention for most people isn't the character herself (her attitude is annoying, but can be dealt with), but rather, her random pairing off with Willow which cheapened her previous relationship and grieving for Tara. It didn't help either that there was no discernible reason for Willow's attraction to Kennedy beyond the physical (or the Unfortunate Implication that they got paired off just because they happened to both be lesbians, which seems like a bit of an insult on several levels).
That the Expanded Universe apparently tries to deepen this relationship only adds insult to injury, as it could be forgiven if it'd just been treated as a rebound/grieving thing on Willow's part, but trying to make this obviously ill-suited pair work just seems... I hate to repeat myself, but insulting.
One of my least favorite parts about S6 was what they did to Xander. He's been arguably my favorite character in the show (after Giles), and no matter how many ways I try to rationalize it, I just can't buy that he would abandon Anya at the altar like that. Not after he knew that a demon was just screwing with his head.
During that last conversation with Anya, we saw Xander look at his father, who was busy screaming at Mrs. Harris about some inane thing, which I guess was supposed to imply that Xander was afraid he and Anya would end up the same way. And realistically, he should be a little afraid, but really, after everything he's been through by that point, Xander would have more likely stepped up and married Anya because 1) he still loved her, and 2) just to prove to himself that he's better than his father, and what he and Anya had was stronger than whatever his parents used to have. But, no, they decided to keep pouring on the misery.
I actually don't mind that they had Spike start to fall for Buffy, aside from the fact that Buffy is one of my least favorite characters on the show, so for me it reeks more of "Buffy is the greatest and specialest and most wonderfulest woman ever" than of Spike's character being assassinated. What he tried to do to her at the end of "Seeing Red" was still absolutely pitiful, though. Again, they went for the absolute worst option, when it really wasn't necessary.
Also agreed with Bonzo that the Scoobies were being horribly selfish when they agreed to resurrect Buffy. Sure, they tried to justify it by saying they thought they were rescuing her from Hell, but if they could pull her spirit back from the Beyond, they should have been able to find out where exactly she was, too.
As for S7, I don't think I'm far enough into it yet to give it a fair judgment. The last episode I watched was "Never Leave Me," where the First tries to get Spike to kill Andrew, and then uses Spike's blood to awaken an ubervamp. The Potentials haven't started showing up yet.
So far, though, I think it's decent.
During that last conversation with Anya, we saw Xander look at his father, who was busy screaming at Mrs. Harris about some inane thing, which I guess was supposed to imply that Xander was afraid he and Anya would end up the same way. And realistically, he should be a little afraid, but really, after everything he's been through by that point, Xander would have more likely stepped up and married Anya because 1) he still loved her, and 2) just to prove to himself that he's better than his father, and what he and Anya had was stronger than whatever his parents used to have. But, no, they decided to keep pouring on the misery.
I actually don't mind that they had Spike start to fall for Buffy, aside from the fact that Buffy is one of my least favorite characters on the show, so for me it reeks more of "Buffy is the greatest and specialest and most wonderfulest woman ever" than of Spike's character being assassinated. What he tried to do to her at the end of "Seeing Red" was still absolutely pitiful, though. Again, they went for the absolute worst option, when it really wasn't necessary.
Also agreed with Bonzo that the Scoobies were being horribly selfish when they agreed to resurrect Buffy. Sure, they tried to justify it by saying they thought they were rescuing her from Hell, but if they could pull her spirit back from the Beyond, they should have been able to find out where exactly she was, too.
As for S7, I don't think I'm far enough into it yet to give it a fair judgment. The last episode I watched was "Never Leave Me," where the First tries to get Spike to kill Andrew, and then uses Spike's blood to awaken an ubervamp. The Potentials haven't started showing up yet.
So far, though, I think it's decent.
One of my least favorite parts about S6 was what they did to Xander. He's been arguably my favorite character in the show (after Giles), and no matter how many ways I try to rationalize it, I just can't buy that he would abandon Anya at the altar like that. Not after he knew that a demon was just screwing with his head.
During that last conversation with Anya, we saw Xander look at his father, who was busy screaming at Mrs. Harris about some inane thing, which I guess was supposed to imply that Xander was afraid he and Anya would end up the same way. And realistically, he should be a little afraid, but really, after everything he's been through by that point, Xander would have more likely stepped up and married Anya because 1) he still loved her, and 2) just to prove to himself that he's better than his father, and what he and Anya had was stronger than whatever his parents used to have. But, no, they decided to keep pouring on the misery.
Yeah, I agree with that. I know I know, "put the characters through hell and it will be good drama." I for one would have liked Xander, the consistently most normal person on the show who I always saw as THE anchor from all the wackyness, to have stayed the anchor without that little hiccup, especially since they pretty much veered back on course after it was done with.
Yeah, that's more along the lines how I see it, too. I still wish they'd have used it to make Spike more evil, not less.
Yeah, my friends and I had a long running joke based around that: whenever we did something to try to help someone that backfired, we would say a variation of "sorry, we thought you were in a hell dimension."
Marti Noxon is one hell of a writer. But Season 6 and 7 proved she had no business running a TV show. Dave Greenwalt's steadying hand was missed here. Actually it had been missed since season 3. Because there is no way he would have let them do what they did this season. Time has proven David Fury should have been put in charge, because he's one of the few writers that didn't go insane at the end.
Is this season unfairly maligned? Considering that it chased away many causal viewers, bitterly divided the fanbase for years, and pissed off the lead actress so much she wants nothing ever to do with Whedon or The Buffyverse ever again? No I don't think so. If anything people are way too kind to it. Because they didn't just jump the shark this season. They frickin' Tony Jaa'ed that motherfucker.
I kind of veiw it in the same way that I veiw Spider-Man 3 or the really crappy parts of NuBSG. Thematically and stylistically all are very similar. Dark, depressing, soap opera's where the previously heroic characters we once rooted for and admired become selfish, degenerate assholes and cheat on and backstab each other for the main purpose of pushing a cliche and heavey handed " Message of Forgiveness" at the end. Most of the narative is rooted in nihlism, and it's rarely subtle about it. Whedon's always kind of done this to an extent, but it was always in small doses. This time he beat you over the head with it and they just wouldn't stop. This type of storytelling is always a bad way to go IMO. It usually requires that the characters act cartoonishly out of character to the point of a total loss of character crediblity in order for the "forgiveness" part at the end to have more resonance. What Sam Raimi, Ron Moore, and Joss Whedon fail to recognize is that in real life, people don't just forgive others unconditionally. People say that they do. But they really don't. People willingly forget, but they rarely forgive.
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I too thought more of season 6 on a recent rewatch than I used to. Some of it is still, forgive me, godawful. All the Way is just utter rubbish, as is Older and Far Away. Along with Season Three's Dead Man's Party, those mark the absolute worst pieces of 'character drama' I think they ever attempted.
The Willow arc is shamefully curtailed by writers who got scared and chickened out of really making one of their day-one regulars bad. Early on, the arc is obvious through Tara - Willow's long-seen control freak tendencies are beginning to take her over, through the metaphor of magic. But instead of going down that road, which is an actual character flaw we've seen bascially since very early on, so would be very hard to 'forgive and forget', we get a token 'magic=crack cocaine' addiction metaphor instead, nice and forgiveable, not really her fault, doesn't damage poor little Willow. One of the show's biggest missed opportunities, imho.
Having said those things, I did enjoy season 6 a lot more than 7 on a rewatch. For all the darkness, the characters still felt themselves, the story was itneresting and engaging, and there were some real gems of episodes. Unliek season 7's repetitive, boring preachiness this season still felt fun. And I actually qutie like the Trio as bad guys - especially the fact that Buffy's lamest villains actually do pretty much the worst lasting damage of any to that point.
The Willow arc is shamefully curtailed by writers who got scared and chickened out of really making one of their day-one regulars bad. Early on, the arc is obvious through Tara - Willow's long-seen control freak tendencies are beginning to take her over, through the metaphor of magic. But instead of going down that road, which is an actual character flaw we've seen bascially since very early on, so would be very hard to 'forgive and forget', we get a token 'magic=crack cocaine' addiction metaphor instead, nice and forgiveable, not really her fault, doesn't damage poor little Willow. One of the show's biggest missed opportunities, imho.
Having said those things, I did enjoy season 6 a lot more than 7 on a rewatch. For all the darkness, the characters still felt themselves, the story was itneresting and engaging, and there were some real gems of episodes. Unliek season 7's repetitive, boring preachiness this season still felt fun. And I actually qutie like the Trio as bad guys - especially the fact that Buffy's lamest villains actually do pretty much the worst lasting damage of any to that point.
From your post, Thrall, I took two things;
I admit, I lol'd.
I totally get where you're coming from there.
I admit, I lol'd.
I totally get where you're coming from there.
That's a good point, and, I think would have been an excellent way to turn Willow evil... Dark Willow wasn't necessarily a bad idea... in fact, it was a great one (which I think is one of the sole reasons why people want to redeem this season so much), just horribly set up. Don't turn magic into a drug, but use the Star Wars Force analogy instead... Using dark magic (like necromancy) can corrupt a person, amplifying the more selfish and evil urges, bringing the id ascendant. Thus instead of being a bit of a control freak and a little bit needy, she becomes a mental compeller and a total obsessive. Studies dark tomes, takes baby steps down the path of evil... they could have dug a lot of drama by drawing out her Start of Darkness better. Heck, you could even still have Tara killed, if you establish her more properly as the one thing keeping her still human... though, ideally, I would have killed Xander. He's just as close to Willow as Tara (just a different way), and Tara would have probably proven more useful in bringing Willow down in a not-totally-lame fashion like they ended up doing... besides, it would have been a great chance for Wheedon to invert the women-in-the-fridge plot device by stuffing a male in for a change.
To me, that could have solved the Season 6-7 debacle utterly, since you could still have the events from 'Seeing Red' but with a different, more disturbing motivation, with more setup, and the knowledge that there's probably no coming back for dear old Willow... then set Season 7 up with her as the already established Big Bad for the series closer. Of course, this would likely have necessitated Willow raping a lot of puppies and probably require her to die in some messy fashion, which would have probably upset a lot of fans, as well... just goes to show you that dark isn't always the best way to go.
Of course, if you want to go with the other typical BtVS tradition of the fake Big Bad leading to a true one, here's an idea... have Willow be the initial Bad, but have it revealed at the halfway point that she's acting as a conduit for the First Evil (using Willow instead of Caleb). Might cheapen Willow's arc, but might allow a means to save her if you're dead set against killing her off or having her be COMPLETELY responsible for the travesties she'll do. But that's just me spitballing... I'm not a television producer, nor do I pretend to be one...
That's a good point, and not something I'd thought about. Even worse when you consider that they hurt her through completely mundane means instead of supernatural supervillainy.
My wife and I watched S6 long after the show ended and watched it on DVD over a few days. It was, of course, an extremely DARK season and definitely far from having the best collection of episodes but, frankly, it had an interesting overall story arc and some memorable characters/moments. The first few episodes with the Geek Trio were amusing but Warren gradually became a more disturbed character and Jonathan and Andrew seemed unwilling/unable to confront him. Maybe it depends on how you watch what your overall opinion of it is but when you watch it closer together it may seem more coherent than it otherwise might. The "Dark Willow" arc at the end of the season was pretty good IMHO. As Joss himself said, the whole season was about the "Scoobies" turning in on themselves and each other. They ended up becoming their own worst enemies. The ending was hopeful, however.
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