Change one thing in S5

[Xin Rong]

Dawn not dying!

... and what happened to Tara.

 

[bottark]

Although a Riley/Buffy split was inevitable, I wish it could have been done in a way that didn't purposefully condition the viewer to hate his guts. The couple had absolutely no closure.

What a worse way to end a character's run than to have them secretly donate their blood to the undead and then break up using a typical "I can't provide for you" ruse?

It took me a long time not to hate Riley because of that one episode. Thankfully, "As You Were" came along and fixed it.

 

[Sweet J]

As much as I loath Dawn, if I could change just 1 thing, it would be to bring back the cast from Angel.

The show was so much stronger when they were all together in 1 big group rather than split apart.

If you really want the Angel spin off have it located in Sunnydale so they run into each other a lot.

 

[BlessedLunatic]

Jooyyyyyyyce!

Honestly, if I thought about it more, I could probably come up with something more eloquent and thought-provoking.

But my first reaction upon hearing the words "change" and "season 5" is "make Joyce not dead!!!!!"

😀

 

[Taake]

Well, I want to say Dawn dying instead of Buffy because I'm not a Dawn fan, but then I started to think about those knights... the knights of Byzantium... if I could change one thing I'd probably eliminate them completely or replace them with something else.

 

[Doppelgang]

I think the Dawn story-line impacted greatly on the closeness of the whole scooby gang, so yes maybe do something about that.

 

[Hawkbrother]

Joyce does not die.
I have mixed feelings about Dawn. The way she was introduced made no sense.Are we to believe she lived in the house with Buffy and Joyce the first 4 seasons and we never saw her or heard about her?
Maybe had her living with her father,or have her be Joyce's child by another relationship(like how Paige was brought into Charmed). Still could have had her be the Key.
She was anoying at first, but she grew and I really came to likeher by time showed ended.

 

[Cheese Slices]

Joyce does not die.
I have mixed feelings about Dawn. The way she was introduced made no sense.Are we to believe she lived in the house with Buffy and Joyce the first 4 seasons and we never saw her or heard about her?

Well it was explained by the fact that she did not exist as a human up until that point, and that all the memories of her were fake. I think it was pretty clearly stated.

 

[Anya2012]

Mine would for Dawn to jump and not Buffy.

 

[Jon Irenicus]

Glory given a proper second-in-command, or sidekick. Ben worked in the end, but that was on the very last legs of the Glory arc.

Dru, maybe.

 

[tec]

Buffy's funral and a send off even if they brought her back next season

 

[WallflowerBitca]

Tara's lack of character development - we see her grow hugely in one episode (Family) and then she's jsut filler-gal right up until she offers Buffy some solace in The Body, then gets brain sucked (not adding anything to her character, only pushing forward Willow's magic abuse story arc). I wish they hadn't waited until her last 5 episodes to really carve her character - she could have been so much more, and it would have been great if they'd set that up to happen in season 5.

 

[iShower4free]

As always, more Angel!!!!

 

[EVIL UU]

Strong emphasis on Buffy's ambition to become a better, tougher, stronger, more powerful slayer.

More cool training sessions with Giles, more scenes with Buffy doing general research and research into the slayer history, more meditating and a greater interest in magic, not just trance states, I'm talking actual offensive stuff, fireballs, sunlight spells and shit, I mean, Buffy was already doing advanced trance spells on her own and Willow was researching a sunlight spell for her why didn't they do anything with that anyway? Think about it, Witch/Slayer multiclass, how an awesomely overpowered combo, I can stake you or set you on fire, pick your poison undead maggot! And whenever Buffy's hurt, she pours her pain and her anger into her quest for becoming stronger. My boyfriend left me? **** it, if he'd love me he wouldn't have left, right, and I don't need a guy right now. I'm gonna do some extra training, hang out with my best buds, dance some with Xander and by the way that new vibrator is pretty wow. Mom died...OK, grieve, wallow but the stress and the anger? I'll blow off that steam with slaying. Yeah, shit like that you know. And speaking of anger? More righteous, slayer anger outbursts like in "Into the Woods". No mercy for suckers, with stake and fire, send the bastards into hell like the hell of a woman you are. Death is your gift? Well, embrace your inner Kali and keep on spreading that charity like a horn of plenty.

So, it's time for the final battle. Buffy makes use of her newly acquired magical-foo and her newly acquired god hammer and hammers Glory to dirt. She saves Dawn, Scoobies, in glory, walk away into the rising sun. There's a smile on Buffy's face because finally she understands that it's not about power and that it's not even about slaying, it's about protecting. Finally, she knows what she is, THE SLAYER and for the first time in her life she truly ****ing loves it.

Yeah, the best season ever.

 

[Kenimowy]

I would either eliminate Ben all together because I didn't really like that whole Glory is Ben thing, or I would have not made Giles kill Ben. I understand he had to die to get rid of Glory, but I think seeing Giles go fill Ripper and actually kill someone was a bit scarier than Dark Willow, for me anyways!

 

[tec]

Yeah well that seed was planted by Tara herself
Giles was just makeing sure no one suffered Glorys way of feeding like Tara suffered

 

[Pike]

Mine would for Dawn to jump and not Buffy.

If Dawn would have jumped I bet so many people would have felt so bad for Dawn. It seems many people arn't a fan of her. If she would have jumped, people would have been so pro-Dawn. Buffy could have mourned over it. It would have been interesting to watch.

I smell a time-travel-fan-fiction

 

[tec]

Had to have been written already.

Dawn never bothered me.

 

[Moonlight Demon]

There is only one element of Season 5 I would change, and that would be Spike falling for Buffy. If it were my show, it never would have happened. In my opinion, the dynamic between them ranged from either being painfully annoying or flat out boring, not to mention it involved a bit of retconning in order to make it appear as though it was planned from the start when it was not (i.e. Dru stating that Spike loved Buffy as early as between "Becoming: Part II" and "Lovers Walk" in both "Fool For Love" and "Crush" when there is evidence clearly illustrating the contrary in Seasons 2 - 4). Furthermore, I feel Spuffy absolutely gutted Spike as a character, as well as played a big role in Buffy becoming entirely unlikable in Seasons 6 and 7.

Instead of having Spike develop his "twu lub" for Buffy, I would have had him leave Sunnydale with Dru by the end of the season, but not before they pulled off one last scheme in a three episode mini-arc before departing. Of course, I would have this take place after Dru's time on Angel, since her role in the Season 2 Darla arc was great 🙂

I also would have had the show end with "The Gift." In my opinion, it was an excellent series finale that provided good closure to the overall story and practically every principle character's arc. In particular, I found Buffy's sacrifice quite moving. In my opinion, it did a great job of signifying her reaching adulthood and standing out amongst all of the other Slayers by dying in an act of self-sacrifice as opposed to in battle. I felt the final two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were appalling. They completely destroyed everything I loved about the show, and I really wish they never existed.

Of course, my wanting "The Gift" to be the series finale is more of a Season 6 complaint, not a Season 5 complaint.

 

[Robb Stark]

There is only one element of Season 5 I would change, and that would be Spike falling for Buffy. If it were my show, it never would have happened. In my opinion, the dynamic between them ranged from either being painfully annoying or flat out boring, not to mention it involved a bit of retconning in order to make it appear as though it was planned from the start when it was not (i.e. Dru stating that Spike loved Buffy as early as between "Becoming: Part II" and "Lovers Walk" in both "Fool For Love" and "Crush" when there is evidence clearly illustrating the contrary in Seasons 2 - 4). Furthermore, I feel Spuffy absolutely gutted Spike as a character, as well as played a big role in Buffy becoming entirely unlikable in Seasons 6 and 7.

Instead of having Spike develop his "twu lub" for Buffy, I would have had him leave Sunnydale with Dru by the end of the season, but not before they pulled off one last scheme in a three episode mini-arc before departing. Of course, I would have this take place after Dru's time on Angel, since her role in the Season 2 Darla arc was great 🙂

I would never say no to more Drusilla 🙂. I didn't have a problem at all with Spike becoming a good guy. There were elements I would have tweaked (more in S6), but I thought he developed into an awesome hero in S7 and in Angel S5.

This always seems to be my complaint in threads like this, but I would have liked more Angel. I was always hoping for more crossovers than there were (even though I understand the reasoning why they scaled back on them). I always thought a big crossover between The Scoobies and Angel Investigations to fight Glory would have been awesome.