What would you change?

[IdiotJed110]

I would have preferred Oz stay for the whole season. Veruca can stay but make her less annoying. Instead of one nonsensical episode, we can see Oz and Willow's relationship fall apart as Oz spends more time with Veruca and Willow spends more time with Tara. In New Moon Rising, the Initiative capture Oz during the full moon, and the Scoobies team up with Veruca to break him out. They successfully do, but Veruca goes wolf and attacks the soilders. Oz kills her and goes to Willow, trying to fix their relationship, but Willow loves Tara now. Oz goes to LA to join AI.

 

[Kratos]

I wouldn’t change much. I’d make a few changes such as:
1. Like other people have said, Maggie Walsh being the Big Bad instead of Adam.
2. Riley not being so tied to the Initiative.
3. Ethan Rayne not being captured in A New Man.

 

[FaithLehane16]

I would have preferred Oz stay for the whole season. Veruca can stay but make her less annoying. Instead of one nonsensical episode, we can see Oz and Willow's relationship fall apart as Oz spends more time with Veruca and Willow spends more time with Tara. In New Moon Rising, the Initiative capture Oz during the full moon, and the Scoobies team up with Veruca to break him out. They successfully do, but Veruca goes wolf and attacks the soilders. Oz kills her and goes to Willow, trying to fix their relationship, but Willow loves Tara now. Oz goes to LA to join AI.

You sound like Marti Noxon when she unfairly dubbed Oz as the bad guy in the Oz/Willow/Tara triangle. Oz is in no way a bad guy.

 

[RDHWesley]

Keep Oz for the whole season. Veruca is killed exactly the same as in Wild at Heart but the whole thing leads to a fallout between Willow and Oz. Tara can be brought in to create a slightly different love triangle.

Don't get rid of Sunday. Have her pop up occasionally as the leader of a band of vamps. Maybe the Scoobies have to team up with her to face the Initiative for the finale.

Don't have Adam or Maggie Walsh as the Big Bad. Maybe even make Riley the villain by having him overexposed to whatever stuff Walsh was drugging him with. Buffy might have to face the fact that she needs to fight him the same way she did Angel.

Give Forrest and Graham something else to do besides spout exposition.

 

[DagonSphere]

1.) Alive-Maggie Walsh interacting with Adam and sharing the Big Bad spot would have made it more interesting.
2.) Fewer comedy-episodes, a little bit more darkness, more episodes like Hush, where stand-alone and season arc mesh well together. Because season four is the one season where they just don't connect well at all.
3.) Willow and Tara actually getting to kiss against the WB standard from that time.
4.) Keep Olivia around as a love/sex interest for Giles. I was fine with Oz leaving early though.
5.) Don't have Spike live with the Scoobies, he worked better the way they used him in S5 onwards, where they seemed him out for help even when they didn't want to.
6.) Don't do the Superbuffy, it not only raises the question why they never did that spell again, but it was also so far removed from what made the show great, fights like between Angel and Buffy or Buffy and Faith where there is a personal, almost intimate element to the fights.
7.) Giving Riley better storylines or have him killed by Adam.

Don't get rid of Sunday.

I don't see the appeal of Sunday. She's basically just a light version of Glory.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

Keep Oz for the whole season.

I don't think there was enough material to keep Oz around for a whole season. He's quite a bland character and his absence didn't really affect the show. Better that he left early than become a pointless hang on.

Don't get rid of Sunday. Have her pop up occasionally as the leader of a band of vamps. Maybe the Scoobies have to team up with her to face the Initiative for the finale.

I liked Sunday and thought she should've stuck around longer, however I don't think she's the type of character that you could keep around for too long. As a half-season mini-bad, yes, as an ally in the finale, not so much. With Sunday, I think less is more.

Don't have Adam or Maggie Walsh as the Big Bad. Maybe even make Riley the villain by having him overexposed to whatever stuff Walsh was drugging him with.

I think Adam should've been Maggie's actual son who was perhaps brain dead so she patched him up to prevent him from dying thus turning him into the Adam we see. It would've made him more of a tragic character and would perhaps emphasise the importance of letting go which would juxtapose nicely with Season 5 (Joyce's illness) and Season 6 (Buffy's resurrection).

4.) Keep Olivia around as a love/sex interest for Giles. I was fine with Oz leaving early though.

Olivia was barely a character. The most impact the character had was that she drew a Gentleman, that was it.

5.) Don't have Spike live with the Scoobies, he worked better the way they used him in S5 onwards, where they seemed him out for help even when they didn't want to.

I think that transition was necessary. They did show Spike seeking out his own place in Season 4 and finding one but they needed to get him and the scoobies from outright trying to kill each other to helping each other.

6.) Don't do the Superbuffy, it not only raises the question why they never did that spell again, but it was also so far removed from what made the show great, fights like between Angel and Buffy or Buffy and Faith where there is a personal, almost intimate element to the fights.

I think the reason given was that it super pissed off the first slayer and they didn't want to repeat the Restless nightmares again.

7.) Giving Riley better storylines or have him killed by Adam.

They could've made Riley a darer character since the groundwork is there.

 

[white avenger]

Having the Initiative base be that large isn't a real problem for me, but having it located underneath a fraternity building in the middle of Sunnydale College was totally unbelievable. A facility outside of town would have made more sense, even if a large portion of it were still located underground.

Having Professor Walsh be the Big Bad of the Season would have been interesting on one thing because it would be the first time that Buffy would have to actually fight, and eventually kill, a human being. There could be a whole story arc where Giles had to explain to her and the Scoobies that there were actually circumstances, however rare, where taking a human life would be necessary. It could lead to a whole big discussion about Faith killing the Assistant Mayor wasn't really what she did wrong, but the manner in which she tried to put the blame on someone else was (or some other reason, whatever the writers could come up with)

Riley shouldn't have been so boyishly charming, nor should he have had such an easy time fitting in with college life if he was supposed to be an experienced, highly trained and motivated demon fighter. He wouldn't have to be as grim as the Punisher or Cable, but he should have definitely been more of a soldier and less of a frat boy.

Spike should not been as brutal and dominating of Harmony, or at least why she put up with it, and there should have been more of an explanation as to how they had hooked up, as well as how she became a vampire in the first place.

Willow's decision to stay with Tara, rather than go away with Oz, should have taken longer, at least a couple of episodes, where Willow actually struggles with the decision, unless it had been hinted at for some time that she might have had the beginning of feelings that way. That whole decision/consequences thing just played out too quickly.

 

[DagonSphere]

Olivia was barely a character. The most impact the character had was that she drew a Gentleman, that was it.

There was opportunity to turn Olivia into a real character, and it would have been nice to give Giles something more to do. To have her slowly get involved in the supernatural and to have Giles play off someone adult would have been fun. Also, Giles deserves a lot of sex for what he's gone through and Anthony Head is foxy.

 

[Aqua]

I suppose with season 4 perhaps there could have been a more arc like format.
Season 4s may have had the best individual episodes..
I liked the villain Adam as well. I guess maybe the problems was the inititiative leading up to Adam which didn't seem cohesive.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

The Willow losing Oz to the Wolf and Oz losing Willow to the Witch was supposed to be the true second plot of the season. It would have worked too, people change in college. As per Walsh, look, it's a show about fisticuffs. Adam would have been activated, and Walsh would have underestimated the power of Demonic might. I suppose, the struggle between man and monster would have been the best use of his arc. I'm still not certain how an atheist writes magic versus science in a meaningful sense, but I trust Joss to have made it work. I suppose that's what CITW was. But the point is, Buffy would have had to use the power of friendship to beat Adam at some point. Restless kind of required it.

As for College, I think the checklist was checked. Maybe a little more interaction with non-scoobies, but hey, it is what it is.

I would have liked to have seen Anya's lighthouse home.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Re: Lighthouse; Arrested Development has a character named GOB, whose residence is never clarified. A lighthouse was the best guess.

 

[katmobile]

Have Xander join the Initiative through the army Riley can be introduced as his friend.
I'm loving the idea of Adam being Maggie's son. Failing that she could just be another surrogate son like Riley or in this scenario Xander. Adam definitely would have been improved with more backstory maybe Riley is killed and becomes Adam. More Maggie Walsh although that was circumstantial. I agree Sunday being around more and involved in things would have been good. Olivia becomes a scooby we need another normal person around.