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[SweetDonuts]

Season 6 was okay, too much Spike and I already disliked his character. Dark Willow saved the entire season.

I I loved how the dawn sub plot played out. Especially the way we all knew something was so fucked up and the characters were acting like nothing was wrong and that Dawn had been there the whole time. It was so confusing and amazing. I don't think any other show could have pulled that off.

I wish I was able to see reactions to this now, to have everyone act like Dawn had always been there must've been so confusing for the audience. I was only watching on and off back then as a kid.

 

[TheVampire]

Say what you will about Riley, but his speech in As You Were was great... so great that Spike straight up rips it off in his "hell of a woman" speech in S7. No joke, he just steals it, and Spike's is way more popular since it's Spike.

 

[Media]

Season 6 was okay, too much Spike and I already disliked his character. Dark Willow saved the entire season.



I wish I was able to see reactions to this now, to have everyone act like Dawn had always been there must've been so confusing for the audience. I was only watching on and off back then as a kid.

Back then we were completely confused. There was a lot of debate on what was going on, if the show had jumped the shark and was just pretending that there was some sister that the dad had all this time. It was just… A very strange time in fandom. But it was so fun to watch play out.

 

[ZeoVGM]

I feel like the title of the article is going to naturally kill any good conversation. Season 6 is divisive while season 4 seems to get the most legitimate hate.

But yeah, this is an interesting way of looking back at season 6. I never really thought it about it that way but it might have popped into my head upon a rewatch.

 

[BKatastrophe]

Dawn is a fantastic character, but the problem is the lack of what they do with her. She never gets much focus in S6, and S7 has her being consistently overshadowed by the Potentials. This fantastical thing that isn't supposed to exist given human form and then becoming completely human was a great move amd fits perfectly within S6. That these characters are living in a normal world that's kinda shitty. They're more human than ever. S7 worked because now she has to be juxtaposed as a character who went from being fantastical to human against all these other girls her age that were human and are now becoming something fantastical.

Great character whom I strongly disliked the first time I watched it, but on repeat viewings has become more favorable.

I forgot about the Faith two-parter. When she and Buffy switch bodies, that was a good one.



The Initiative stuff is just so muddled. You can tell they're leading up to Lindsey Crouse being the villain, which could've been cool, but then she gets killed off and Adam shows up 3/4 through and just kind of becomes the big bad by default.

Also I was always bitter about the Initiative stealing all the spotlight in Oz's last episode. :|

I agree completely. The problem is that they didn't know how to focus on the Initiative properly. Like they'd be gone and then JUST SHOW UP. Then be gone. THEN JUST SHOW UP. It was more consistent after Adam, but that's not saying much.

 

[DrForester]

Didn't know the season with the geeks was considered the worst. I always thought the worst was where she fights Adam of Borg.

 

[Beren the Empty-Handed]

Season six was extremely depressing but still had a lot of great tv, and a terrific arc. Season four was the real stinker. Great standalones sure, but I was always waiting for the season arc to "get going" and it never really did. What was really disappointing was the huge wasted opportunity with Adam. People rag on that character, and they should, but the problem wasn't that the idea was bad, it was that they just let it sit there. The show could have mined lots of interesting themes from him like what being a manufactured man means (could relate this to college, government Initiative stuff, whatever), soldiers, man's overreach (Frankenstein vibes here), etc. You can see the seeds of this in Riley's character, and usually the show plays these sorts of season arcs well, but season 4 for some reason, just, doesn't. Maybe they couldn't find a good way to connect this with Buffy's character but were stuck with it as the endgame, but in any case it just doesn't take off.