I know I'm kinda obsessed. Posted this in the 20th thread, but was encouraged to make it it's own thread so here it goes. If you disagree, give me reasons! I love debating this show. If I missed something, blow my mind.
Foreshadowing in the Buffy verse
In this post Im going to talk specifically about four episodes: Graduation Day, This Years Girl, Restless, and Once More with Feeling. The first three dealing with Dawn and the death of Buffy (and Ill likely wax poetic about my much reviled at the time theory of Spike redemption based on dreams and wounds so feel free to skip that), with Once More with Feeling having more General foreshadowing for the rest of six and of seven.
This Years Girl and Graduation Day have been a highly debated topic in this thread alone.
First: Graduation Day (pt II).
Buffys dream while she is in a coma from Angel feeding from her. The room is packed (as was Dawns room when Buffy discovered she wasnt real), and they first talk about a cat. A cat that no one owns, and that flashes back and forth to a dark-haired girl. Could be Faith? Could be a refence to Dawn.
Then theres the line:
Buffy: Theres something Im supposed to be doing.
Faith: Oh yeah, Miles to Go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0.
This is the most widely talked about part of the dream sequence. Because at the time the episode was aired (or supposed to air), there were 730 days until Buffys death in season 5.
They then have a conversation that is obviously about Angel, and then talk about the stuff again, which Faith gives to Buffy. There is a fan theory going around that, because Dawn looks less like Buffy and more like Faith, the monks fucked up and modeled her after the dark-haired slayer, but relegalized and gave her Buffys blood. Stupid theory, but figured Id mention it, as it would be then foreshadowing that Faith is giving her all her stuff.
On to this Years Girl, with the juicier bits:
This Faith and Buffy dream sequence begins with them making a bed that reminds you of the room Faith left her stuff in in season three. They smell good dont they. Is the first line, as Faith and Buffy adjust the clean sheets. Clean sheets. Like Summer. (As in Summers, a brand new clean one). Faith says she wouldnt know, because Dawn is not hers, not in that sense.
Again, the most talked about part of the sequence:
Buffy: I wish I could stay but..
Faith: You have to go.
Buffy: Its just with
Faith: Little sis coming. I know. So much to do before she gets here.
Many people at the time figured that little sis meant Faith herself, as she would wake from her coma later in the episode. But nope. And then the dripping blood and Faith saying Damn. Just when we made it so nice. Has made fans speculate that again, Dawn was created from BOTH slayers, as they both dreamed about her. We find out soon that this dream was not in fact Buffys, it was Faiths.
Alright. Thats the last of the little stuff. On to Restless. Like I said, I could talk about Restless ALL DAY. I will not be focusing on the Dawn bits here, but I will put them first if you want to skip the rest.
Of course, Restless is the episode that makes NO sense on the surface. Its a huge dream seque3nce, with all the scoobies caught in it. But the foreshadowing is insane. As Joss has said, only the Cheese Man didnt mean anything at all (though some argue the placement of the cheese meant shit lol)
We start with Willow and Tara. Tara mentions Dawn again, saying I think we should worry, that we havent found her name. Again about a cat. Willow later says Shes not all grown yet. Which was true at the time.
Incidentally, fans figured out the poem written on Taras back was about controlling ones lover. Epic foreshadowing there.
The drama stuff is Willow pretending to be who shes not, which got lost in the drug addiction metaphor of season six of not being the yellow bright girl, but a power hungry witch.
Also, of course Riley is Cowboy Guy and I CANT AGREE MORE.
Giles mentions the Musical number too lmao.
Props and props is about how vampires are always considered wrong
Willow then gets lost finding herself after meeting the spirit Cheese Man (hes not touching them, so spirit).
Why is there a cowboy in Death of a Salesman anyway? indeed. GO AWAY RILEY. Ahem. My issues, ignore. Tara of course then warns Willow about the path of dark magic and power (I wish it would have stayed power and not drugs). Buffys rant about men foreshadowed her I dont love Riley bit.
You must have done something. I rarely do anything. I am very seldom naughty.
Buffy rips off her costume and its old dopey Willow, but still I believe the metaphor is about her travels down dark paths. Then of course, she is killed by the First Slayer my draining her spirit.
Xander:
Xanders dream is mostly about his self-confidence issues. He is also the only person in Restless who goes upstairs/is upstairs and doesnt die, so note that.
He continues to end up in his basement room, where his father is shaking the door at the top of the stairs. Thats not the way out. Well, he doesnt die, so sure.
SPIKE! Swinging in the sun, wanting to be a watcher. Foreshadowing. Also, wearing Randys suit and Spikes like a son to me from Tabula Rasa. Also that he sees Buffy as more childlike than he should, and he wants to protect her from things he cannot.
And then the hilarious Anya sequence that shows how much he kinda disregards her. Foreshadowing Hells Bells in season six. And then of course Willow and Tara getting sexy cause hes a boy.
Also note how everyone tells him They are way ahead of him. Again with the self-confidence issues.
And hes back in the basement. Because he believes he will be stuck there forever, and he doesnt want to become his abusive father. Thats not the way out. Again. Cheese Man holds the cheese near his chest, for the heart reference.
Giles tells him the others have gone on ahead. Again, everyone is ahead of him. And then no one speaks English anymore because he believes hes stupid.
God, the Snyder-Xander conversation is amazing. Where are from Harris? The basement mostly.
Youre a whipping boy, raised by mongrels and set on a sacrificial stone. A lot of us at the time thought this meant Xanders death, like Joyce and Tara and Buffy, was also coming. I posited later that Thats not the way out. Saved him.
And then of course, the first slayer kills him by ripping out his heart.
Giles:
Jesus, this one and Buffys are the biggest. He is controlling Buffy, but sees her as a child at the same time. He wants a family, his orgasm friend is pushing an empty stroller and is pregnant (some say another reference to Dawn)
THE SPIKE PHOTOSHOOT. OMG OMG
Oliva is sobbing on the crypt, an empty stroller again, and no longer pregnant. Either a reference to Buffys death, or that Dawn was one who should have died.
Spikes posing, putting on airs of being the big bad vampire.
And then, the thing that got me laughed at for YEARS until it actually came true:
Giles: I still think Buffy should have killed you.
And then Spike, in response, strike a pose: A perfect representation of Christ on the Cross. Redemption and sacrifice.
This triggered the Redemptionista movement in fandom hardcore, and I kept churning out evidence throughout season five that I was right; all of his injuries sustained after Intervention were wounds of the cross (bite to the side, the hands with the sword blade, and finally, the crown of thorns after Buffys death). Again was told I was crazy, and season six kinda made me think I was wrong, but then seven happened and I was right and yay.
ANYWAYS.
Cheese Man again, with Cheese on his head, which represents Giles being the head. Joss is a LIER.
Xander: I promised Anya Id be there for our big night. FUCK YOU XANDER. *crying*
Some primal, animal, force.
That used to be us. A reference to how very old the Slayer line is, basically since humans were a thing.
And then Giles sings and I forget to like, do anything but fangirl, but Ill try. Its called the Exposition Song, because its just exposition lol
No wait..
And then the First Slayer Kills Giles by scalping him, as he is the head.
The watch returns as he still controls Buffy and is a watcher. You never had a watcher. Ugh.
BUFFY:
Pretty much the most important dream of course, cause its Buffy.
Buffy wakes up after Anya begs her in the exact room Faith and her prepared for Dawn, down to the posters.
Buffy : Faith and I just made that bed.
Tara: For who? (Little sister)
Buffy: I thought you were here to tell me.
Then:
Buffy: Its so late.
Tara: Oh. That clocks completely wrong. (It was now 360 days until Buffy's death, it's not getting late, it's nearly there)
There is then a reference to Buffy being the Hand (fighter) and a direct quote of the first Slayer from Intervention in season five from Tara.
The bed is suddenly made, all ready again.
Buffy leaves the room, and of course, Tara says:
Be back before Dawn.
Buffys mother being stuck in a wall might be reference to her tumor, or her separation from Buffy because of college. The mice thing makes me think its the tumor 
Riley: Hey there killer. Another reference to what a Slayer is. The gun on the table pointed in her direction.
Adam without the monster is a BEAUTIFUL thing too.
Adam: Aggression is a natural human tendency, though you and me come by it another way.
Buffy:
Adam: Is that a fact? (Of course we later learn in season seven that Slayers are in fact, made from demons)
Then some funny, and the demons start coming, and Buffy has her weapons. But her weapon is the Slayer itself; the mud on her face, the essence of what she is.
I do love the color shift here. She is a slayer, at her core, but different. She has people that help and care for her, and isnt alone. Riley, seeing what she is, leaves her. Which of course, happens to everyones delight in season five.
An then, my favorite scene.
The hallway to sand. The desert. This might be because the desert is where I grew up. But anyhow.
Buffy has her first conversation with the First slayer.
Someone has to speak for her,
I have no speech, no name; I live in the action of death, the blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destructionabsolute, alone.
What a slayer has been since Buffy became one.
The Slayer does not walk in this world. After Buffy reminds her that she is not alone.
I walk, I talk, I shop, I sneeze. Im going to be a fireman when the floods roll back. Theres trees in the desert since you moved out, and I dont sleep on a bed of bones.
Buffy is NOT a mindless creature of destruction, even if it is the core of her nature.
Cheese Man and the Cheese in his hands. LIES JOSS. IT MEANS A LITTLE BIT, Buffy was the Hand.
They fight of course, Buffy wins, and then the First Slayer stabs her in her arms, which is interesting. Buffy ignores her, and the dream breaks. You are not the source of me. Except sorry Buffy, she is.
There endth the lesson on Restless. There is TONS more, and I typed this up during a quick rewatch, but yeah. Sorry for going on and on.
OMWF.
Foreshadowing in Once More with Feeling You Say? I say yes.
Much subtler of course than the other foreshadowing. Tara on the stairs (which for some reason mean death in this show), singing about leaving. Spike hitting a dead end on his way to save Buffy. Spike grabbing a priest and begging for 'sweet release'. Spike saying 'Someday he'll be a real boy.'
"first he'll kill her, then I'll save her." was a reference to the tear-jerking "Every night I save you" speech from Spike earlier in the season. and OW OW OW Also for the final battle Buffy is pretty much literally dressed in Spike's usual armor of leather coat and red shirt. They are wearing the same clothing, and he hadn't worn what fandom refered to as the 'red shirt of evil' in a long time before that.
I am sure there is more but this is already 6 pages and likely full of typos, so I am done now. Enjoy if you like meta-analysis of foreshadowing. Point out if you think I am wrong.
SORRY FOR GOING ON AND ON. I AM A HUGE GEEK.
And now I am watching OMWF for the 150th time, thanks guys.
Here, a present:
https://youtu.be/5Xh8duZ1-j0
Sweet being an amazing villian and Dawn's hippy thing that made me feel weird even as a straight woman. "What I mean, I'm 15, so this Queen things illegal."
Foreshadowing in the Buffy verse
In this post Im going to talk specifically about four episodes: Graduation Day, This Years Girl, Restless, and Once More with Feeling. The first three dealing with Dawn and the death of Buffy (and Ill likely wax poetic about my much reviled at the time theory of Spike redemption based on dreams and wounds so feel free to skip that), with Once More with Feeling having more General foreshadowing for the rest of six and of seven.
This Years Girl and Graduation Day have been a highly debated topic in this thread alone.
First: Graduation Day (pt II).
Buffys dream while she is in a coma from Angel feeding from her. The room is packed (as was Dawns room when Buffy discovered she wasnt real), and they first talk about a cat. A cat that no one owns, and that flashes back and forth to a dark-haired girl. Could be Faith? Could be a refence to Dawn.
Then theres the line:
Buffy: Theres something Im supposed to be doing.
Faith: Oh yeah, Miles to Go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0.
This is the most widely talked about part of the dream sequence. Because at the time the episode was aired (or supposed to air), there were 730 days until Buffys death in season 5.
They then have a conversation that is obviously about Angel, and then talk about the stuff again, which Faith gives to Buffy. There is a fan theory going around that, because Dawn looks less like Buffy and more like Faith, the monks fucked up and modeled her after the dark-haired slayer, but relegalized and gave her Buffys blood. Stupid theory, but figured Id mention it, as it would be then foreshadowing that Faith is giving her all her stuff.
On to this Years Girl, with the juicier bits:
This Faith and Buffy dream sequence begins with them making a bed that reminds you of the room Faith left her stuff in in season three. They smell good dont they. Is the first line, as Faith and Buffy adjust the clean sheets. Clean sheets. Like Summer. (As in Summers, a brand new clean one). Faith says she wouldnt know, because Dawn is not hers, not in that sense.
Again, the most talked about part of the sequence:
Buffy: I wish I could stay but..
Faith: You have to go.
Buffy: Its just with
Faith: Little sis coming. I know. So much to do before she gets here.
Many people at the time figured that little sis meant Faith herself, as she would wake from her coma later in the episode. But nope. And then the dripping blood and Faith saying Damn. Just when we made it so nice. Has made fans speculate that again, Dawn was created from BOTH slayers, as they both dreamed about her. We find out soon that this dream was not in fact Buffys, it was Faiths.
Alright. Thats the last of the little stuff. On to Restless. Like I said, I could talk about Restless ALL DAY. I will not be focusing on the Dawn bits here, but I will put them first if you want to skip the rest.
Of course, Restless is the episode that makes NO sense on the surface. Its a huge dream seque3nce, with all the scoobies caught in it. But the foreshadowing is insane. As Joss has said, only the Cheese Man didnt mean anything at all (though some argue the placement of the cheese meant shit lol)
We start with Willow and Tara. Tara mentions Dawn again, saying I think we should worry, that we havent found her name. Again about a cat. Willow later says Shes not all grown yet. Which was true at the time.
Incidentally, fans figured out the poem written on Taras back was about controlling ones lover. Epic foreshadowing there.
The drama stuff is Willow pretending to be who shes not, which got lost in the drug addiction metaphor of season six of not being the yellow bright girl, but a power hungry witch.
Also, of course Riley is Cowboy Guy and I CANT AGREE MORE.
Giles mentions the Musical number too lmao.
Props and props is about how vampires are always considered wrong
Willow then gets lost finding herself after meeting the spirit Cheese Man (hes not touching them, so spirit).
Why is there a cowboy in Death of a Salesman anyway? indeed. GO AWAY RILEY. Ahem. My issues, ignore. Tara of course then warns Willow about the path of dark magic and power (I wish it would have stayed power and not drugs). Buffys rant about men foreshadowed her I dont love Riley bit.
You must have done something. I rarely do anything. I am very seldom naughty.
Buffy rips off her costume and its old dopey Willow, but still I believe the metaphor is about her travels down dark paths. Then of course, she is killed by the First Slayer my draining her spirit.
Xander:
Xanders dream is mostly about his self-confidence issues. He is also the only person in Restless who goes upstairs/is upstairs and doesnt die, so note that.
He continues to end up in his basement room, where his father is shaking the door at the top of the stairs. Thats not the way out. Well, he doesnt die, so sure.
SPIKE! Swinging in the sun, wanting to be a watcher. Foreshadowing. Also, wearing Randys suit and Spikes like a son to me from Tabula Rasa. Also that he sees Buffy as more childlike than he should, and he wants to protect her from things he cannot.
And then the hilarious Anya sequence that shows how much he kinda disregards her. Foreshadowing Hells Bells in season six. And then of course Willow and Tara getting sexy cause hes a boy.
Also note how everyone tells him They are way ahead of him. Again with the self-confidence issues.
And hes back in the basement. Because he believes he will be stuck there forever, and he doesnt want to become his abusive father. Thats not the way out. Again. Cheese Man holds the cheese near his chest, for the heart reference.
Giles tells him the others have gone on ahead. Again, everyone is ahead of him. And then no one speaks English anymore because he believes hes stupid.
God, the Snyder-Xander conversation is amazing. Where are from Harris? The basement mostly.
Youre a whipping boy, raised by mongrels and set on a sacrificial stone. A lot of us at the time thought this meant Xanders death, like Joyce and Tara and Buffy, was also coming. I posited later that Thats not the way out. Saved him.
And then of course, the first slayer kills him by ripping out his heart.
Giles:
Jesus, this one and Buffys are the biggest. He is controlling Buffy, but sees her as a child at the same time. He wants a family, his orgasm friend is pushing an empty stroller and is pregnant (some say another reference to Dawn)
THE SPIKE PHOTOSHOOT. OMG OMG
Oliva is sobbing on the crypt, an empty stroller again, and no longer pregnant. Either a reference to Buffys death, or that Dawn was one who should have died.
Spikes posing, putting on airs of being the big bad vampire.
And then, the thing that got me laughed at for YEARS until it actually came true:
Giles: I still think Buffy should have killed you.
And then Spike, in response, strike a pose: A perfect representation of Christ on the Cross. Redemption and sacrifice.
This triggered the Redemptionista movement in fandom hardcore, and I kept churning out evidence throughout season five that I was right; all of his injuries sustained after Intervention were wounds of the cross (bite to the side, the hands with the sword blade, and finally, the crown of thorns after Buffys death). Again was told I was crazy, and season six kinda made me think I was wrong, but then seven happened and I was right and yay.
ANYWAYS.
Cheese Man again, with Cheese on his head, which represents Giles being the head. Joss is a LIER.
Xander: I promised Anya Id be there for our big night. FUCK YOU XANDER. *crying*
Some primal, animal, force.
That used to be us. A reference to how very old the Slayer line is, basically since humans were a thing.
And then Giles sings and I forget to like, do anything but fangirl, but Ill try. Its called the Exposition Song, because its just exposition lol
No wait..
And then the First Slayer Kills Giles by scalping him, as he is the head.
The watch returns as he still controls Buffy and is a watcher. You never had a watcher. Ugh.
BUFFY:
Pretty much the most important dream of course, cause its Buffy.
Buffy wakes up after Anya begs her in the exact room Faith and her prepared for Dawn, down to the posters.
Buffy : Faith and I just made that bed.
Tara: For who? (Little sister)
Buffy: I thought you were here to tell me.
Then:
Buffy: Its so late.
Tara: Oh. That clocks completely wrong. (It was now 360 days until Buffy's death, it's not getting late, it's nearly there)
There is then a reference to Buffy being the Hand (fighter) and a direct quote of the first Slayer from Intervention in season five from Tara.
The bed is suddenly made, all ready again.
Buffy leaves the room, and of course, Tara says:
Be back before Dawn.
Buffys mother being stuck in a wall might be reference to her tumor, or her separation from Buffy because of college. The mice thing makes me think its the tumor 
Riley: Hey there killer. Another reference to what a Slayer is. The gun on the table pointed in her direction.
Adam without the monster is a BEAUTIFUL thing too.
Adam: Aggression is a natural human tendency, though you and me come by it another way.
Buffy:
Adam: Is that a fact? (Of course we later learn in season seven that Slayers are in fact, made from demons)
Then some funny, and the demons start coming, and Buffy has her weapons. But her weapon is the Slayer itself; the mud on her face, the essence of what she is.
I do love the color shift here. She is a slayer, at her core, but different. She has people that help and care for her, and isnt alone. Riley, seeing what she is, leaves her. Which of course, happens to everyones delight in season five.
An then, my favorite scene.
The hallway to sand. The desert. This might be because the desert is where I grew up. But anyhow.
Buffy has her first conversation with the First slayer.
Someone has to speak for her,
I have no speech, no name; I live in the action of death, the blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destructionabsolute, alone.
What a slayer has been since Buffy became one.
The Slayer does not walk in this world. After Buffy reminds her that she is not alone.
I walk, I talk, I shop, I sneeze. Im going to be a fireman when the floods roll back. Theres trees in the desert since you moved out, and I dont sleep on a bed of bones.
Buffy is NOT a mindless creature of destruction, even if it is the core of her nature.
Cheese Man and the Cheese in his hands. LIES JOSS. IT MEANS A LITTLE BIT, Buffy was the Hand.
They fight of course, Buffy wins, and then the First Slayer stabs her in her arms, which is interesting. Buffy ignores her, and the dream breaks. You are not the source of me. Except sorry Buffy, she is.
There endth the lesson on Restless. There is TONS more, and I typed this up during a quick rewatch, but yeah. Sorry for going on and on.
OMWF.
Foreshadowing in Once More with Feeling You Say? I say yes.
Much subtler of course than the other foreshadowing. Tara on the stairs (which for some reason mean death in this show), singing about leaving. Spike hitting a dead end on his way to save Buffy. Spike grabbing a priest and begging for 'sweet release'. Spike saying 'Someday he'll be a real boy.'
"first he'll kill her, then I'll save her." was a reference to the tear-jerking "Every night I save you" speech from Spike earlier in the season. and OW OW OW Also for the final battle Buffy is pretty much literally dressed in Spike's usual armor of leather coat and red shirt. They are wearing the same clothing, and he hadn't worn what fandom refered to as the 'red shirt of evil' in a long time before that.
I am sure there is more but this is already 6 pages and likely full of typos, so I am done now. Enjoy if you like meta-analysis of foreshadowing. Point out if you think I am wrong.
SORRY FOR GOING ON AND ON. I AM A HUGE GEEK.
And now I am watching OMWF for the 150th time, thanks guys.
Here, a present:
https://youtu.be/5Xh8duZ1-j0
Sweet being an amazing villian and Dawn's hippy thing that made me feel weird even as a straight woman. "What I mean, I'm 15, so this Queen things illegal."
