You control Buffy Season 6

[The Guid]

Buffy Season 6, and then Season 7, seems to get a fairly bad rap. There are many complaints that people make about them.

I am not attempting to rehash those arguments (though go ahead if you want).

My questions is:
What would you do? What kind of arc would you have in place of what was done?

Assume 2 scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Total control. Feel free to even shut down Angel and bring back those characters and merge the shows if that's your fancy

Scenario 2:
The executives insist that Sarah Michelle Gellar has to come back to play Buffy. You may not interfere too much with Angel.

Personally I am not sure exactly where I'd go. For a start, you somehow have to take a step UP for fighting a GOD. I think potentially you could be looking at a powerful spellcaster of some kind, making Willow in fact the main opponent. That way you can still have Willow & Tara's problems with magic, and the preceding buildup, really matter on the grand scale of things. Willow's corruption can have as much to do with the big bad as with just her general self, so it doesn't become such a hackneyed drugs metaphor. I would also not bring Buffy back if I had the choice, but instead have Giles reluctantly call Faith out of retirement because otherwise there is no Slayer. She and Spike can then have the rather dodgy romance. Dawn would be under the care of Giles, giving him something more to do and an added responsibility to take. With such a large cast I think I would have to have a "shit got real" death somewhere in mid season 6; either Anya or Tara most likely, but conceivably even Spike or Giles.

Then in Season 7 the First Evil does actually make a good villain, and so it would just be a continuation of that.

Thoughts?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I'd keep things mostly the same, I think, but ease off of the brutality a bit. Don't break up Xander and Anya.

Restructure the reveal that Buffy was essentially ripped out of heaven so it's less about dumping a pile of fuck-you bricks on Buffy's head, and instead a more positive message about duty and a higher calling - this in turn could work favorably toward her character development as an adult (as opposed to the teenager she was in earlier seasons), and still fit the themes of accepting her adult responsibilities. With that done, we could probably keep Giles around more instead of him dumping even more fuck-you on Buffy.

Preserve Jonathan's character a bit more; probably have him redeem himself properly and turn on the rest of the Trio. Don't kill him off in seven.

Be a little less on-the-nose with Tara's death. Make it a targeted, magical attack from Warren ("I'll kill those Scoobies one by one if I have to!"), rather than a completely randomly pointlessly brutal gunshot.

And just to avert the nonsense of the comic book continuations entirely with the powers of Captain Hindsight, bring Angel back, contrive solution #4252 for "Angel can now safely have a relationship with Buffy" and give them a goddamn semi-happy ending, for fuck's sake, at least as far as the scope of the show is concerned. Buffy dying in combat later in life might be an interesting story in and of itself vis-a-vis immortal Angel and his reaction to it.

[FaxModem1]

Buffy comes back via resurrection, same as the real season 6, since well, she's the star of the show. She comes back through spell, same as normal, keep the season going normal with the memory lost episode and the musical episodes, those were golden. Buffy and Spike get closer to each other, same as normal. There is a trio, and they are dipping into the paranormal for their own selfish gains. Now, here's where things change. Giles stays for the rest of the season, he's an integral part of the show, and him being gone makes him look like an asshole who doesn't care about Buffy. Willow and Tara fight, and get back together, but there is no memory wiping subplot or magic addiction subplot, as these don't really go anywhere, aside from making our characters rather awful people.

Xander and Anya, do get married, and try and experience the honeymoon period. Xander grows up, and stops being the 'butt monkey' of evil.

The trio remain utterly harmless, as they're at best, comic relief. After about half a season, we see them taken care of with the Trio just splitting up because they're utter failures, and not because the Scooby gang do anything.

Warren, sick of failing, neutralizes Spike's chip. He gets turned into Spike's vampire minion for his troubles. Through coincidence, Anya is the first to find out, she gets an offer to join him. She's changed from the vengeance demon she was in season 3, and refuses, not wanting blood on her hands. For this, she gets killed, but not before saying goodbye to Xander.

Spike is back, and he's season 2 Spike, the one who wants to kill the slayer and her friends, and is no longer neutralized by a chip. He isn't their pet vampire anymore, and he wants them dead. Spike isn't Angelus, he doesn't torment, he goes straight up and fights. Buffy is, naturally, confused.

"I thought you changed."

"No, I'm a soulless vampire. That never changed. I can just bite again."

And this is how we fix the mistakes of season 4 and 5. Spike was never their friend, and never their ally. He was their prisoner, their pet, and their toy, and now he wants revenge for it. He is not some bad boy that can be redeemed by the power of love. The show's rules have it that vampires are soulless killing machines who are vicious and evil. Spike was okay with being that. Buffy and him have a showdown, but is unable to win due to Spike bringing about his army, with tech provided by vampire Warren.

This season, Buffy learns the meaning of family, and trusting others, and about her limits. She has Dawn and Giles do the strategic planning, Willow and Tara being the heavy hitters with their magic, Xander making their defenses. She calls in Riley for Initiative support while Giles also brings in the Watchers. Buffy eats humble pie and learns not to be so prideful. The watchers won't manuever for a pardon of Faith, as they view her as too far gone.(and we're saving her for the next season)

Minor and major characters, from previous seasons, such as Drusilla, happy that her boy is finally back, the cowboy vampire brothers, join up with Spike. Every two bit side character from the past few seasons who Buffy didn't stop is brought in, so that they can get revenge against Buffy. A Buffy version of the Legion of Doom. Buffy learns about finishing what you start, which is what she was sent here to do in the first place by the Powers that Be.

Season finale: showdown between the Buffy Justice league vs Spike's legion of Doom. Eventually, it's Buffy vs Spike, and of course Buffy wins. Spike is dust. Drusilla runs away, to fight Buffy another day. Buffy, different than she was at the start of the season, leads her crew on the hunt for her. Buffy finishes what she starts.

[Lusankya]

I quite like season 6, so I'd largely keep as is, except for minor changes, such as getting rid of the magic = drugs metaphor. If total control includes having mind control powers over Anthony Stuart Head so that he wouldn't want to go back to England to spend more time with his family, then I would keep him around for the whole two seasons, but if not, I'd give him a better reason to leave than they gave in the show. I would also change Spike's dialogue during the end where he's getting his soul, because the writing for that is just rubbish.

As for Season 7 - well, I thought that was shit, so here's my better idea:

Giles has brought in a psychiatrist to help everyone on the team get over their issues that they had in season 6. Spike comes back to Sunnydale and is mind controlled by the new big bad into killing some dude. The Scoobies go and investigate, and then Spike has to join their team, as well as their group therapy sessions! The psychiatrist is working with the government, and convinces the scoobies to hand any captured monsters over to the government, where they are held in some kind of facility - which claims to be a mental health facility but is kinda ominous. It turns out that the guy who was mind controlling Spike is working for this paranormal terrorist organisation. They keep fishing out operatives, and find a woman who they believe is the head of the terrorists. They don't catch her, but Anya becomes her penpal. A while later, however, they discover that she's just a front for the real boss, who has plans to kill all humans. He organises a setup which results in Buffy and the government killing a bunch of renegade members of the terrorist cell - including Anya's penpal. Anya is very upset by this. This leaves the whole lot of them feeling disillusioned, and in protest, the psychiatrist goes on television and reveals the existence of paranormal mosters to the entire world.

Things heat up in the second half of the season, as the big bad is developing a plan that will not only kill all humans in the world, but will also increase the powers of all monsters a hundredfold. The stress of fighting the terrorists is making the scoobies go back into their old, bad habits. Willow goes off on a bit of a bender mind controlling people, but gets brought back into the fold. The psychiatrist discovers that Dawn has actually been secretly working with the terrorists, and convinces her to go and be an undercover agent. Buffy and Spike are furious at the psychiatrist for allowing this to happen, and go and rescue her. They succeed in rescuing her, but Dawn then sacrifices herself to stop a nefarious and deadly plot by the big bad.

For the latter part of the season, the scoobies are divided. Buffy, the psychiatrist and Spike are all about revenge. They are all 100% focused on killing the big bad for his part in Dawn's death. The others, meanwhile, are trying to focus on stopping the big bad's plot - if that means killing him, then that's fine, but as his plan seems to involve some kind of device, they are just focussing on ruining the device for now. Through plot machinations, the murderise the big bad plan and the stop the big bad's evil killing people machine plot both culminate at the same time and place. They manage to save humanity, but they can't stop the device from affecting everyone in the immediate vicinity. Everyone falls down, except for Anya, for some reason. Then the credits roll. If Buffy doesn't get renewed for a season 8 after that, then at least they'll be able to carry some of the plot threads over onto Angel.

[The Romulan Republic]

For a start:

1. I'd have a bigger role for Giles.

2. I'd rewrite how Buffy is brought back, since its kind of hard to sympathize with a character once they use dark magic to yank there dead friend's soul out of the after life and bring her back to life. I'd probably have Spike make a deal with some dark being to resurrect Buffy, since unethical behaviour is perfectly in character for him.

3. Scrap or heavily rewrite the musical episode.

[Metahive]

Leave Buffy dead and show the Scoobies attempts to either mold Faith into a proper slayer or have her killed for a potentially more suitable replacement.

[Crazedwraith]

I don't know how you can have a series called 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' without you know... Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So she'd be back some how. I don't really have any strong opinions on how to change things except... you don't get Faith back. Ever. Unless its part of a grand crossover with Angel. Because her development on Angel was well... better than what Buffy did with her.

[PREDATOR490]

Bringing Buffy back is kinda mandatory and the Scoobies doing it seems fairly reasonable because it establishes that Slayers may be powerful but the real power lies in folks that can wield magic. Which is how the Slayers got created in the first place. Willow going from mousy side kick to goddess is really what kept me interested in the series. In both Scenarios I would essentially have Angel and Buffy overlap a lot more because the seperation between the two bugs the hell out of me.

Angel really forced the issue when they decided to turn Wolfram in Hart into a powerful organisation with branches all over the world. Wolfram and Hart are controlling elections and playing across multiple dimensions while Buffy is trading witty dialogue with the Trio. The only time Buffy really seems to get serious about scaling up is with the Initiative and the First Evil. The former just went nowhere and the latter fizzeled out because it was the finale.

If you want to shake things up then have S6 start with Buffy being brought back and getting to grips with the fact that the 'good' guys need to stop fighting back alley brawls and start proactively dismantling organisations like Wolfram and Hart. The destruction of the Watchers HQ would make a good catalyst for Buffy and Co. rebuilding a bigger and better organisation to fight and match Wolfram and Hart. I'm personally thinking of them setting up some sort of Slayer / Jedi Academy with Initiative military organisation and equipment.

Granted, it would never happen because I would end up with a Buffy / Angel combination that ends up like this
Might have something to do with my favourite scene from Buffy being her blowing the Judge to bits with a Rocket Launcher.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm not sure that makes sense for Buffy and her friends. While I haven't watched the whole show, I'm guessing most or all of them lack military or even law enforcement training. So expecting them to act like a military force is a bit silly.

[PREDATOR490]

I'm not sure that makes sense for Buffy and her friends. While I haven't watched the whole show, I'm guessing most or all of them lack military or even law enforcement training. So expecting them to act like a military force is a bit silly.

They started that with S7 trying to raise a Slayer Army and then had the big finish where it actually does become an army thanks to Willow but no indication of how it is going to work. Angel briefly shows that the Slayers have started to form a new Watcher Council and operate in packs but thats about it from the show.
Buffy and Co are by nature childish and inexperienced but over the course of the series they grow up. Part of that growing process would be learning to think more strategically and get more militant.

Angel and Buffy established a world where demons walk the earth and run global law firms with access to military equipment. Its kinda hard to sell the premise that a single Slayer can defend the world when the only bad guys they actually kill are the stupid ones. The intelligent bad guys have supposedly been around since before humanity evolved or whatever and outlived the First Ones like Illyeria.
Angel did a pretty good job of painting their entire run as being a footnote compared to the real players like Wolfram and Hart and the good guys are ultimately powerless to do anything about it.
The last episode of Angel basically plays out like Mass Effect 2's Suicide Mission with a Mass Effect 3 ending but it is completely out of scale with the rest of the series.

[lPeregrine]

Two things, both in season 6:

1) A more believable "big bad". The trio just seem tacked on to fill space, like the writers didn't really have any good ideas but had to throw something in because it's what everyone expects the show to have. They're annoying characters, and their random stumbling around trying to be "evil" ruins any chance of them being plausible villains for the story. And even when they finally have a meaningful impact on the story it's just by pure luck with a random gunshot. So, replace them with something more traditional. It doesn't have to try to out-do season 5, and keep Willow's fall as the end to the season, but at least have something that doesn't have the audience constantly asking themselves how it takes more than 15 minutes to deal with the main villain.

2) More focus. My biggest complaint with season 6 was that there wasn't any real sense of direction, everyone just moves from personal crisis episode to personal crisis episode without any apparent overall story to tie it all together. I don't know if this was a deliberate bad choice, or just a consequence of suddenly having a show again and scrambling to throw something together before the deadline, but it just doesn't work. Keep the theme of "everything is falling apart", but push it to the background a bit and have a unifying story that isn't obviously just filling time until the last few episodes and the season-ending drama. Every episode should be an important part, not just something you skip past to watch the conclusion.

IMO season 7 was a lot better, so I'd mostly leave it alone.

[The Romulan Republic]

I think the trio are an interesting concept. They make a sharp contrast with Glory, and they could add a new level of paranoia to the series by showing that an ordinary person could be a deadly threat. I'm not saying they were very good, but the idea has some potential.

[lPeregrine]

I think the trio are an interesting concept. They make a sharp contrast with Glory, and they could add a new level of paranoia to the series by showing that an ordinary person could be a deadly threat. I'm not saying they were very good, but the idea has some potential.

The idea might have some potential, but it needs a lot of work. They have to be a credible threat, you can't have them stumbling around doing stupid things while even the main characters laugh at how pathetic they are.

[Majin Gojira]

The overall theme of Season 6 was the meandering loss and confusion of leaving college. It's hard to avoid a lot of the complaints because of that.

[Eleas]

The idea might have some potential, but it needs a lot of work. They have to be a credible threat, you can't have them stumbling around doing stupid things while even the main characters laugh at how pathetic they are.

One thing about the Trio is that they're intended to showcase how entitled and privileged people wreck things, often consciously planning to, simply because they feel they deserve things that aren't theirs. Usually BtVS deals with these matters in metaphor though, and maybe that was the problem: the Trio isn't metaphor but real, and that's why you had to laugh at them even though the things they did weren't so much funny as creepy/sad.

[Raw Shark]

I think the trio are an interesting concept. They make a sharp contrast with Glory, and they could add a new level of paranoia to the series by showing that an ordinary person could be a deadly threat. I'm not saying they were very good, but the idea has some potential.

Yeah, I think they could've been better, but I like them for pretty much those reasons. Season 5 finale, Buffy and Crew just fought a god with (among other things) a wrecking ball and sealed a portal to Hell by killing Buffy (again). Once you've jumped the shark that thoroughly, where do you go from there (if you're determined to not end the series)..? Have her fight an even bigger god from a more powerful pantheon with nuclear weapons and get thrown into the sun? I thought scaling down to a more personal conflict level for a season was a great move.

I especially like the ordinary guy / deadly threat thing. Sure, the god-slaying S6-era Scooby Gang might clown them every week, but these guys would royally fuck shit up in an ordinary town with no superheroes defending it. We see them pull off mind control, summoning controlled demons (including ones that mess with space and time in one episode, and one that manages to turn Buffy on the team temporarily in another), robots that can convincingly replace a real person (kind of, from a distance) plus jetpacks that work longer than 90 seconds and other supersciencey type gear, and recovered (at significant peril) magic-gear-based invulnerability to all harm off the top of my head. If anything, their real downfall was that they thought too small with this kind of stuff, and if they'd really had time to gather steam before they imploded they could've been a Big Bad someday. It really underscores that this is a setting where anybody can do magic. Any Angry Young Virgin Boy can learn how to do magic. That one bartender learned a powerful spell from his brother-in-law as a joke. Fucking Xander has done magic, including something that could've destroyed the building he was in by accident, and something that inflicted potentially lethal mind-control on hundreds, if not thousands, of people, on his first try with Amy walking him through it. For a show that incorporates any comic relief at all, that's some pretty grim shit right there.

I also like that they (well, almost in Andrew's case) are well-established in the series before they turn to villainy. Jonathan appeared in an innocuous role many times during the high school seasons and has already been introduced as a "dabbler in the dark arts" in his own (hilarious) S4 episode, and Warren was much more recently a villain-of-the-week and cameo plot device at the end of Season 5 whose work from offstage can be seen in the first moments of Season 6, creating a great sense of continuity that's usually missing when a new threat emerges.