Restless as an endpoint for Buffy

[DevilEyes]

I wouldn't want "The Gift" as a series finale, either. That would mean that the show would end on Buffy basically taking an easy way out and escaping the pressures of adult life by choosing a death as a martyr.

Huh?

Sacrificing her life when she wanted to keep living was the "easy way out"???? Seriously?

Sorry, but that doesn't even make sense. It's not as if Buffy was afraid to grow up or was just done living or didn't want to be there for Dawn.....she just didn't see another way that didn't involve losing her sister. She gave her life for another......"there is no greater love that a person can have than to sacrifice one's self for another".

While I enjoyed Seasons 6 and to a lesser degree 7, I seriously don't see how the series can end on a better note than how they went out in Season 5.

Seriously. Death is, in a sense, always an escape. From life, from responsability, from having to actually deal with real life and make decisions and mistakes every day, and occasionally fail badly, and not be the Perfect Self-Sacrificing Hero Who Saves the Day.

I didn't say that Buffy was afraid to grow up... But if she had died and remained dead there, she never would have had to really grow up, and deal with the world without her mom, without parent figures to watch over her, a world where she has to be a parent and have a mundane job and still continue to fight.

And as to the fact that Buffy's character growth was nowhere near maturity at that point, I present her words about Dawn:

“She's more than that. She's me. The monks made her out of me. I hold her ... and I feel closer to her than ... It's not just the memories they built. It's physical. Dawn ... is a part of me. The only part that I-”

The only part that I what?
Love?
Respect?
Trust?
Accept?

Buffy sees herself in Dawn, or rather, a very specific part of herself: her childlike innocence. And innocence is the only part of herself that she loves (or whatever she meant to say) at that point. She only likes that innocent teenage girl she once was, the one who has to be protected from the monsters, and the responsability, and the sexuality, and the violence, and the darkness, and the world of adults. (Buffy will only change her mind on the way she should treat Dawn in season 6 finale) She doesn't know how to deal with those other parts of herself, especially all that darkness that's connected to her role as a Slayer (her violent/sexual impulses, loneliness, ruthlessness) which is growing more powerful by the day - which very much comes into focus into the next 2 seasons. Take a guess who, to her, represents that part of herself.

 

[label]

Seriously. Death is, in a sense, always an escape. From life, from responsability, from having to actually deal with real life and make decisions and mistakes every day, and occasionally fail badly, and not be the Perfect Self-Sacrificing Hero Who Saves the Day.

Yes, death obviously absolves one from having to "deal" with anything....ever again. But that's only a desirable outcome if you want to be free from those things in the first place. Most people I know (and every emotionally/mentally healthy person on the planet) wants very much to live. It's the underlying motivation that drives almost everyone including Buffy. I mean, if she wanted escape, she could have easily let a demon kill her a long time ago knowing full well that someone would be called to take her place. She fought for her very life constantly which should be an indication to everyone how much she valued her life.

But if she had died and remained dead there, she never would have had to really grow up, and deal with the world without her mom, without parent figures to watch over her, a world where she has to be a parent and have a mundane job and still continue to fight.

and

She only likes that innocent teenage girl she once was, the one who has to be protected from the monsters, and the responsability, and the sexuality, and the violence, and the darkness, and the world of adults.

I guess I never got that sense of despair or disillusionment with her life from Season 5. I never thought until the middle of Season 6 that she didn't care if she lived or died.......my perspective as always that she very much wanted to be alive, be with her friends and family and wanted to experience what a new day would bring. That, IMO, is what made her sarcrifice so meaninful.....she gave her life so her sister (and others) would have life, not as an escape that she was seeking, but as a heroic act to protect those she loved.

 

[DevilEyes]

You misunderstand. I didn't say that she wanted to die for the sake of it. I'm not saying that she took the easy way out. I'm saying that the series would have been taking the easy way out if that was the end of Buffy, instead of having her deal with adult life and confronting all those issues. (Ditto for other characters, like Willow, whose problems and dark turn were foreshadowed in "Restless"; without season 6, the hints from that episode don't amount to much.)

 

[Joe Washington]

Well, she did take a brief dark turn after Glory messed with Tara's head in Season 5 so those hints would have still worked.

 

[label]

You misunderstand. I didn't say that she wanted to die for the sake of it. I'm not saying that she took the easy way out. I'm saying that the series would have been taking the easy way out if that was the end of Buffy, instead of having her deal with adult life and confronting all those issues.

Ahhh.

Gotcha. Well, in that case yes, the series at times definitely struggled with where to take the show/characters as they left the High School/College phase of their lives. So much so that they eventually returned to High School (effectively) for Season 7.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I liked the actual finale of the series just fine. They didn't have a bad season, though the transitional year (four) had some problems.

 

[DevilEyes]

^ I liked season 4... despite the premature exit of Maggie Walsh and the lack of any chemistry between SMG and Marc Blucas, it was a very enjoyable season with some of my favorite episodes, like Something Blue, Who Are You?, Hush, Restless... I don't see those big problems that everyone talks about, it was a nice transition to the college period, fun, and probably the reason I'd find easiest to rewatch since it's lighter in tone than what came after, and a lot of what came before (even though I love dark and heart-wrenching stuff, sometimes it gets too much)...

I actually find all the seasons to be high quality, except for season 1, which is much weaker (but was still rather good).