(no subject)

[peroxidepirate]

A thread on green_maia 's journal inspired me to post my first-ever poll. Maia's question was whether BtVS would have been a better show if it ended with S5 -- and naturally, that segued into commentary on the final ending of the show in S7. Now I'm curious. And rather than threadjacking over there, I thought I'd start my own poll. Two questions, pretty straightforward. For question 2, check as many answers as you want. For both questions, there's an "other" option in case you don't agree with any of the answers. And please feel free to comment! Also, since my F-list is tiny, I'd love it if anyone wants to link this. I want to know what people think.


[Poll #1426884]

Comments

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

On question one, I think Buffy and her friends believed all the remaining Potentials were already in Sunnydale and thus would have the chance to vote on the activation spell. If they'd stopped to think about it, they might have thought there were a few out there who'd escaped the Bringers. But, given that they were in a fight for the Fate of the World, I don't think they gave it all that much thought.

Interesting questions!

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense. They were pretty much focused on survival at the end.

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

To answer the first question, I am assuming that Buffy & Co. thought they had all the gathered potentials there so that the spell would only affect them.

As to the second question, I say No! very strongly. First of all, her "plan" insisted of walking into hell with a group of potentials, another slayer and a vamp. with a soul and the hope that Willow could pull this spell off. Honestly, what the hell was she thinking? There was no strategy, no forethought as to how to properly escape, I mean honestly what the hell?!

If it wasn't for Spike and mystical amulet, they would be so screwed!

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

So that's, "No. It was a plan that wouldn't have worked," for question 2... wish I'd thought to put that on the poll!

If it wasn't for Spike and mystical amulet, they would be so screwed!

Agreed. And that's my least favorite thing about "Chosen." It's Buffy's show, and in the end her ex-boyfriend saves the day. Meh.

[larabeckinsale.livejournal.com]

Hi there! *waves* your poll was pimped in a friend's journal, so I thought I'd stop by.

Well, the potentials were being killed all over the world and the ones that escaped the bringers were supposed to be in Sunnydale with Buffy, so I think Buffy & Co. believed that they were the only left, which is understandable because every clue pointed to that. They did what they had to with the spell, they voted and didn't know that they could be any other slayers left, so I'm ok with it. But if you consider this, then s8 comics is very stupid, they say there's like 800 slayers around the world, it's absolutely illogical.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

They might have believed at the time that all the remaining Potentials were in Sunnydale - but almost as soon as she'd finished casting the spell, Willow realised that wasn't the case:

WILLOW: We changed the world. I can feel them, Buffy. All over. Slayers are awakening everywhere.

DAWN: We'll have to find them.

WILLOW: We will.


So, they miscalculated. Or rather, I suspect, the Watchers' Council miscalculated - it was them who were supposed to keep track of Potentials, and Giles was using their records to track them down and send them to Sunnydale. With its usual efficiency, the Council managed to miss at least 1800 Potentials...

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

I forgot that all the info. about potential slayers was from the Watchers' Council. Trust them to get it drastically wrong.

[larabeckinsale.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah I remember that part of dialogue, that part is like 'spreading the girl power', which I get was kinda the point with Chosen.

The watchers miscalculated, ok, I get that, like you say it wouldn't be the first time, but what a HUGE mistake! You can miss a few hundred, but 1800? But they weren't the only ones tracking the potentials, the bringers were too, how could they miss 1800 slayers?

I seems most likely that the writers forgot the original plot when they wrote that part.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

then s8 comics is very stupid, they say there's like 800 slayers around the world, it's absolutely illogical.

Yes, that took me completely by surprise! I thought there were, maybe, a few dozen out there... and come to find out it's actually HUNDREDS.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

For your second question, the 'Other' option I ticked was for:

Yes. Liberating the potential within all those other women and empowering them to make the choice to use their Slayer abilities if they so chose was a good thing in itself.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

You know, I never once thought of the spell as liberating. I guess it's because of the tremendous responsibility that Buffy always feels, the way slaying is such a burden to her.

But you're right, in that giving the new slayers a choice in whether they want to take on slayer-y responsibilities would be a great thing! I'm just not sure, even with the spell, that carrying out a slayer's duties is ever optional.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

Buffy thought Slaying was a burden because she has such a huge sense of responsibility. If she chose to spend the evening at home watching TV and someone was murdered by a vampire that night, she'd blame herself personally for their death.

It's unreasonable, really - Buffy is only one woman and there are thousands, perhaps millions of demons out there - but the fact that she does care is what makes her a capital-H Hero.

But now, if she stays at home to watch 'Veronica Mars', there are 1800 other Slayers ready to pick up the slack. So she does get a choice now. So does each of them.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

But now, if she stays at home to watch 'Veronica Mars', there are 1800 other Slayers ready to pick up the slack. So she does get a choice now. So does each of them.

No matter how many slayers there are, I don't think that's true. I think Buffy will always blame herself if she's not in the right place at the right time and someone gets killed by a demon. And I think a lot of the newly activated slayers will feel the same.

It's not reasonable and it's not fair, but there it is. There are more slayers now, which lessens the actual responsibilities for each of them: there might be times slayers patrol and don't encounter any demons. There might be cities that become completely vampire-free.

But I don't think that changes the sense of responsibility each slayer feels for the safety of her corner of the world. It's just that more corners of the world will have slayers looking out for them.

But that's just my take on it.

[rahirah]

I don't think Buffy was thinking about the potentials GIles missed at all, nor do I think she had any real idea how many there were.

I like the concept of Buffy sharing her power, and the idea that sharing a responsibility/burden makes it lighter. In theory, I think that activating the potentials was great. in practice, I think it had a lot of very dubious subtext attached.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

In theory, I think that activating the potentials was great. in practice, I think it had a lot of very dubious subtext attached.

That dissonance between theory and practice comes up a lot in the Buffy-verse. Casualty of a fantasy show, I guess.

[next_to_normal]

I like the concept of Buffy sharing her power, and the idea that sharing a responsibility/burden makes it lighter. In theory, I think that activating the potentials was great. in practice, I think it had a lot of very dubious subtext attached.

Agreed.

[erimthar.livejournal.com]

I believe they would have assumed there were many other Potentials out there besides the ones in Sunnydale. I think they would have expected hundreds, although the 1,800 they got might have taken them by surprise... as did the fact (revealed in season 8) that new Slayers are still being created all the time.

And I agree that the Slayer Spell was an empowering and good thing... though with the current situation in season 8, not all of them are thinking so.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

Interesting theory.

the fact (revealed in season 8) that new Slayers are still being created all the time.

Yeah, that is quite the surprise. Makes you wonder if/when it's going to stop...

[ms-scarletibis.livejournal.com]

I think they knew it'd activate all the potentials, if that montage was any indication. And yes, I think it was a total violation, since the others didn't vote. If it had been potential specific, than that would have been different...

Still, I think it would have been easier, cooler to make the Hellmouth go out in a blaze. I mean, the army base was abandoned...a couple of rocket launchers, some barrels of kerosene and bam! No more ubervamp army.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

I think it would have been easier, cooler to make the Hellmouth go out in a blaze. I mean, the army base was abandoned...a couple of rocket launchers, some barrels of kerosene and bam! No more ubervamp army.

Now that would have been awesome! It would have pretty much had the same effect as Spike's amulet, actually, but everybody could have been part of it.

[deird1]

I agree with stormwreath. As per usual.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting!

[of-too-minds.livejournal.com]

#1. I think Buffy and co. thought they'd collected all the surviving Potentials in Sunnydale and therefore they all had a chance to vote.

#2. No! No no no no. It violates the free will of all the Potentials who didn't get a say. Buffy whined for season after season about not having a choice but to be the Slayer, and then she goes and does it to other girls. wft?? Plus having 2 Slayers is what gave The First access to the world, so why on earth would they think it was okay to activate all the Potentials?? That never made sense to me.

The whole battle plan struck me as amateur. They marched in there without a plan or a strategy or a plan of retreat. If it weren't for Spike and the amulet, the world would have been lost that day. There were 1000s of Turok Han and maybe 2 dozen newly minted Slayers. No way that was going to be enough. Skill counts for a lot but so does superior numbers. (And how much skill could the Potentials have anyway after only a couple of weeks of training? Seriously.) Buffy knew how many ubervamps they were facing thanks to her vision... and she still chose to march in there. Dumb. And why the hell didn't Willow do the spell BEFORE they got down into the pit??? Makes absolutely no sense to me.

I love S7 because of Spike's character arc, but the rest of it is very bleh.