Essay: ‘Apocalypses on BtVS’ or ‘Why Buffy smiled’
I was thinking about ‘Chosen’ a while ago, and about Buffy’s smile and her friends’ banter at the end and how sharply it contrasted with everyone’s grief at the end of ‘The Gift’. Did this mean that no-one cared about Spike, Anya and all the dead Potentials? Personally I never thought so, but I began to wonder about the differences between Glory’s
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You only miss one thing; and I'm afraid to say that it is a huge thing.
In all the previous apocalypses they came up eventually with good, workable, plans. Even in The Gift, when it was a plan thrown together at the last minute, it was a really good one and would have worked perfectly if not for one circumstance that could not have been anticipated.
In Chosen their plan sucked dead rats through a straw. It was pathetically stupid both in concept and in execution. It only worked because of one circumstance that could not have been anticipated. Buffy's plan was in fact irrelevant to the defeat of the First.
For that matter the First changed its mind several times during the season about what its own plan was, and its eventual plan bore no relation to anything that had gone before. The cancellation of Firefly had an enormous impact upon its intentions and methods!
Despite all that Chosen could have worked. There was one crucial scene missing. If there had been a reconciliation between Spike and Dawn at some stage, and a consoling hug from Dawn to Buffy instead of the ghastly lines about the Mall, then I would have found Chosen truly moving and I'd have been prepared to overlook all the massive plot holes.
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Buffy's plan was in fact irrelevant to the defeat of the First.
Ack, I know! But - and I forget who said this - someone pointed out that although they might all have been killed, there would now have been Slayers all over the world, ready to fight (not sure who'd have gathered them, but I'm really not going into all that right now).
And I get your point about Spike and Dawn - that was probably my biggest problem with the Season. Plotholes I happily overlook since the whole series is full of them. There was a Buffy/Dawn hug though - I think a lot of the silliness came about because they all thought that they were probably going to die - a sort of 'OMG we're actually alive' reaction.
The cancellation of Firefly had an enormous impact upon its intentions and methods!
Bwahahaha!
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The Buffy/Dawn hug was at the wrong time. It needed to come as a response to Buffy's "Spike".
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Ah, I see now.
And re. massive uber-vamp army... I always wondered what would have happened if Jasmine hadn't been defeated. Angel wouldn't have got the amulet and the uber-vamps would have come forth. The result would have been spectacular. A Power (able to control all of humanity) against the First Evil with all demons on it's side. Why has noone ever written a fic about this?
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Jasmine could defeat humanity much more easily than could the First but was herself helpless against FE.
A fic about it wouldn't be very interesting because it would have zero characterisation. Jasmine's Shiny Happy People are chilling as an enemy but boring as the heroes.
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That never occurred to me - d'oh!
but was herself helpless against FE.
Hmmm, yes and no. When Darla appeared to Connor, it was quite possibly FE trying to stop it's opponent, but it failed.
A fic about it wouldn't be very interesting because it would have zero characterisation.
I thought of it as survivors from the different 'verses fighting in a post-apocalyptic world, rather than focusing on the Big Bads.
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