Buffy series finale (spoilers)

[John Crichton]

That it's not the main weapon used doesn't alter the fact that when it _is_ used it's shown to be an effective solution as often as any other tool. All kinds of weapons are used in different Buffy episodes, different (killing) strokes for different (monster) folks. As vampires are vulnerable to the Sun, and a nuke generates a mini-Sun, this would seem a logical way to kill them. It wouldn't kill fully incorporeal opponents like the First, of course. Getting hold of a nuke would not be easy, of course, even the Initiative might not have ready access.

It's already been said that technology has been used from time to time. However, it's never been a true staple of the show.

Either way, are you saying that you would have rather seen them carry a nuke into the hellmouth and detonate it? I'm just asking. Cuz to me, that's pretty boring and actually much less "realistic" (BIG air quotes there ) than what happened.

 

[Chun-tzu]

About the whole plan/lack thereof, here's the thing:

In seasons 1, 2, and 6, Buffy didn't face unbeatable BBEGs.

In season 3, Buffy slew the Mayor with a room full of explosives (you know, I wonder where they got all that, since explosives aren't exactly easy to come by; I guess they had the Council's help?). In season 4, Buffy faces a foe who has no trouble beating her: Adam. So she comes prepared, using her Super-Saiyan fusion technique. In season 5, again, unbeatable foe. She comes prepared, with her trusty Troll Hammer (that was acquired in a much better fashion than the contrived way the amulet and scythe were), an android decoy, and the Scooby army. The objective was to save Dawn, and stop the apocalypse, not to defeat Glory.

Season 7 comes off as extremely poorly thought out, compared to any of these. Again, she's facing an unbeatable foe, a couple of super-weapons are thrown in (that she doesn't even understand), and Buffy's plan is unclear to us.

It seems pretty clear the writers/director changed the season finale at the very end, abandoning things they were going to do. It would have made much more sense if Buffy fought the First (can't be beaten on Earth, gotta take the fight to her/it).

 

[Staffan]

In season 3, Buffy slew the Mayor with a room full of explosives (you know, I wonder where they got all that, since explosives aren't exactly easy to come by; I guess they had the Council's help?).

At the time, Buffy had just told Wesley that he could take his Council and shove it. IIRC, the explosives were mostly "home-made" - fertiliser and stuff. Maybe not as powerful as C4, but they had a whole library full of it.

 

[Vocenoctum]

It seems pretty clear the writers/director changed the season finale at the very end, abandoning things they were going to do. It would have made much more sense if Buffy fought the First (can't be beaten on Earth, gotta take the fight to her/it).

There was a link to an "alternate" script for the finale somewhere on this board. That script seemed to at least try to address some of the plot holes, if not the glaring lack of planning.

But, such is life. That didn't happen, and we're left with what we got.

 

[S'mon]

It's already been said that technology has been used from time to time. However, it's never been a true staple of the show.

Either way, are you saying that you would have rather seen them carry a nuke into the hellmouth and detonate it? I'm just asking. Cuz to me, that's pretty boring and actually much less "realistic" (BIG air quotes there ) than what happened.

I'm just saying it would have been _a plan_. Any good reason to enter the Hellmouth would have done. The problem with the episode was there was _no plan_ that, to the protagonists, appeared to rationally offer even the faintest glimmer of hope of success.
The contrast with the s3, s4, & s5 finales was striking.

Sky reshowed the original s3 First Evil episode (with the snow on Christmas day - only time Joss's ever made a pro-Christian statement, I believe) - it was a good reminder of how fantastically good the show was in the old days. The amount of plot development in it would have filled a dozen s7 episodes.

 

[S'mon]

I just read through the Buffy finale script - it looks to me like it was Joss's actual working script. Some of the changes make sense - the actual ending was much better than 'hand out of rubble' (been done a million times), but it's a big shame they left out the whole explanation of the Dawn situation foreshadowed earlier. Having the First be corporeal in Hell would have been good - it would have explained why collapsing the Hellmouth could genuinely hurt it. Buffy not knowing that, the plan still boiled down to 'something will come up', though. The idea that the Slayer line now moves through a trinity of Buffy, Dawn & Faith, and that Dawn's a Slayer, was interesting but a little nonsensical given that Kendra's death activated Faith. The implication then is that it was the creation of Dawn (post Faith's activation), not Buffy's resurrections, that actually destabilised the Line. I like that a lot.

Edit: alternate script:

http://www.buffy.nu/article.php3?id_article=731

 

[S'mon]

BTW in the finale script, in the RPG scene, Giles rolls a _d10_, the only die roll, and _takes_ 5 hit points damage. The only system I know of where this could happen is Carella's Unisystem, the system used for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. Coincidence? I think not...