S7, via Snick
Jun. 8th, 2010 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snick_backupIn response to the last post, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
penny_lane_42 asked, You get to rewrite S7 of BtVS. What do you do? Be as specific as you want! How do you think things should have unfolded after S6?
And I said, Hah! You don't ask for much, do you?
This, then, are my ideas for an S7 nearer to my liking. I'm trying to be realistic here and approach this as a potential actual season of the show, rather than a fic. So: nothing on location in Egypt, no sudden return of Seth Green, etc.
Laundry list of things that need to happen or be dealt with, following "Grave":
1. Spike's return. I suspect some brief but severe woobification is necessary; we're talking serious soul-angst here. I think that's what it takes for the Scoobs - and a not-insignificant portion of the audience - to even consider not staking him on sight. So what we got in canon, basically, but with only soul-related crazy.
2. Exploration of the significance of Spike's shiny new soul. What does it mean that he has one? How have his feelings changed towards violence? Towards blood? Towards sticking his neck out for people he doesn't know? This should be a subplot in two or three different episodes, as we see him take babysteps with this whole soul business - not just dealing with the grief of it, but actually exercising it, like one would an atrophied muscle.
3. Restoring the Spike&Buffy relationship. I think, with this rewatch, that I'm basically satisfied with how the two of them deal with the AR. It has a much larger presence than I remembered, and though they don't actually talk about it between them that we see, it looks to me that they're mostly able to put it behind them.
So what I want that I don't think we got enough of is a slow build-up of the sort of interaction we saw in Potential: fond memories of the past, expression of present confusion, and hope for the future. And I want our girl Buffy to quit giving out the mixed signals! Spike is about a thousand feet below kicked puppy this season and he follows her lead, but in canon her lead has rather a drunken sailor look to it.
4. Restoration of the Spike&Dawn relationship. This actually wouldn't take much, and you could even keep the threats of burning alive from the beginning.
5. Bringing Willow back into the fold. Again, not sure what I want here, just that I want it different than what we got in canon. Less wet-blanket Willow, more acknowledging-character-flaws-and-learning-from-them Willow. Also more Willow&Anya friendship, because that rocked.
6. A plot! Definitely in need of a plot. I'd totally be down with this being the "Dawn comes into her own" season. Maybe we discover the Key was - and can still be - used for more than tearing the fabric of the multiverse. Then maybe Dawn learns how to harness some of her own power and rescue herself for a change.
7. Also need a villain. Hmm. Rather than someone who wants to kill Dawn, maybe we need someone trying to seduce her to the dark side. I'm not entirely opposed to Ethan for this purpose. I'd be open to someone else, though.
7a. Regardless, this season needs some Ethan. No excuses.
8. We'll still need to work around ASH's preferred work schedule somehow. This could quite possibly involve more scenes of Giles riding on a horse. And also Giles fighting. And also Giles occasionally kissing Anya, or possibly Faith (although that'd require a whole other subplot a little earlier than in canon).
8a. Faith still needs to come back at some point.
9. And then there are all the other elements that probably ought to be thrown in, but which I don't care about one way or the other. Xander needs an arc of some kind, probably. He and Anya can get together or not, I don't care. Willow could start warming up to another girl, although at a much slower pace than with Kennedy. And the girl would not be pushy nor ever call anyone a maggot. And she could be a bit demon - I think it's Willow's turn at that sort of thing.
10. Oh, and I suppose Buffy needs an arc. Shoot. I think this ought to be her season for learning again how to be Slayer and girl both. Her relationship to friends, family, and the world have been increasingly claustrophobic over the last few seasons. This season I want to build her, not just destroy her. I want her to learn to open up again - with Giles and Dawn and Willow, too, not just Spike.
11. Oh! And speaking of Buffy and Dawn, I want that episode I keep talking about, wherein together they go back and visit bits of early canon and see what it was like without Dawn, while also showing us the viewer what it was like with. Do the fun structural thing! And also sister-bonding and Dawn character exploration, please. It just kills me that they never did an ep like this in canon. And Jane E should write it.
12. Finally, please to be noting what I left out: The First Evil. The Potentials. The scythe and the guardian. Angel. The Gnarl! The destruction of Sunnydale. The death of Anya. The death of Spike. Really, I'm perfectly okay doing without all those things.
penny_lane_42 asked, You get to rewrite S7 of BtVS. What do you do? Be as specific as you want! How do you think things should have unfolded after S6?And I said, Hah! You don't ask for much, do you?
This, then, are my ideas for an S7 nearer to my liking. I'm trying to be realistic here and approach this as a potential actual season of the show, rather than a fic. So: nothing on location in Egypt, no sudden return of Seth Green, etc.
Laundry list of things that need to happen or be dealt with, following "Grave":
1. Spike's return. I suspect some brief but severe woobification is necessary; we're talking serious soul-angst here. I think that's what it takes for the Scoobs - and a not-insignificant portion of the audience - to even consider not staking him on sight. So what we got in canon, basically, but with only soul-related crazy.
2. Exploration of the significance of Spike's shiny new soul. What does it mean that he has one? How have his feelings changed towards violence? Towards blood? Towards sticking his neck out for people he doesn't know? This should be a subplot in two or three different episodes, as we see him take babysteps with this whole soul business - not just dealing with the grief of it, but actually exercising it, like one would an atrophied muscle.
3. Restoring the Spike&Buffy relationship. I think, with this rewatch, that I'm basically satisfied with how the two of them deal with the AR. It has a much larger presence than I remembered, and though they don't actually talk about it between them that we see, it looks to me that they're mostly able to put it behind them.
So what I want that I don't think we got enough of is a slow build-up of the sort of interaction we saw in Potential: fond memories of the past, expression of present confusion, and hope for the future. And I want our girl Buffy to quit giving out the mixed signals! Spike is about a thousand feet below kicked puppy this season and he follows her lead, but in canon her lead has rather a drunken sailor look to it.
4. Restoration of the Spike&Dawn relationship. This actually wouldn't take much, and you could even keep the threats of burning alive from the beginning.
5. Bringing Willow back into the fold. Again, not sure what I want here, just that I want it different than what we got in canon. Less wet-blanket Willow, more acknowledging-character-flaws-and-learning-from-them Willow. Also more Willow&Anya friendship, because that rocked.
6. A plot! Definitely in need of a plot. I'd totally be down with this being the "Dawn comes into her own" season. Maybe we discover the Key was - and can still be - used for more than tearing the fabric of the multiverse. Then maybe Dawn learns how to harness some of her own power and rescue herself for a change.
7. Also need a villain. Hmm. Rather than someone who wants to kill Dawn, maybe we need someone trying to seduce her to the dark side. I'm not entirely opposed to Ethan for this purpose. I'd be open to someone else, though.
7a. Regardless, this season needs some Ethan. No excuses.
8. We'll still need to work around ASH's preferred work schedule somehow. This could quite possibly involve more scenes of Giles riding on a horse. And also Giles fighting. And also Giles occasionally kissing Anya, or possibly Faith (although that'd require a whole other subplot a little earlier than in canon).
8a. Faith still needs to come back at some point.
9. And then there are all the other elements that probably ought to be thrown in, but which I don't care about one way or the other. Xander needs an arc of some kind, probably. He and Anya can get together or not, I don't care. Willow could start warming up to another girl, although at a much slower pace than with Kennedy. And the girl would not be pushy nor ever call anyone a maggot. And she could be a bit demon - I think it's Willow's turn at that sort of thing.
10. Oh, and I suppose Buffy needs an arc. Shoot. I think this ought to be her season for learning again how to be Slayer and girl both. Her relationship to friends, family, and the world have been increasingly claustrophobic over the last few seasons. This season I want to build her, not just destroy her. I want her to learn to open up again - with Giles and Dawn and Willow, too, not just Spike.
11. Oh! And speaking of Buffy and Dawn, I want that episode I keep talking about, wherein together they go back and visit bits of early canon and see what it was like without Dawn, while also showing us the viewer what it was like with. Do the fun structural thing! And also sister-bonding and Dawn character exploration, please. It just kills me that they never did an ep like this in canon. And Jane E should write it.
12. Finally, please to be noting what I left out: The First Evil. The Potentials. The scythe and the guardian. Angel. The Gnarl! The destruction of Sunnydale. The death of Anya. The death of Spike. Really, I'm perfectly okay doing without all those things.
