#make it queue number one

[singlemaltantiseptics]

Rewatching Nine’s season of Doctor Who right now is a great comfort. It’s both so campy and so grounded. I already loved Rose but now I truly love this 19 yr old who dived into space with Dark & Handsome Northerner and in all the chaos of worlds buring just says “Hey dumbass I don’t care about space law, we’re saving these people they have rights probably, who do I need to punch to make this happen?”

[singlemaltantiseptics]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 7 (held up against my other rants of season 6) is an amazing season. Finding a solid balance of comedy to earnestness, this season introduces the ultimate evil of the series while showing how far Buffy has come throughout. In the first few episodes, it’s clear after the last season she has embraced her role caring for Dawn while looking working through her depression.

Getting a job in the old haunt, Buffy’s gone from troubled student to troubled-student-counselor. She finds a balance between work and calling while showing Dawn (for the most part) she will be the stable adult in her life, after about 6 abandonments on poor Dawn’s part. Throughout the season, Buffy does what she’s always had to, stand together and apart. While I hate a certain episode with a insane choice to mutiny that narratively makes a kind of sense, but not character wise, this season highlights how Buffy always has the world on her shoulders and also the blame. But in the end (spoiler) she shares it. She shares her power and her responsibility and for the first time in a while, acknowledges it doesn’t always have to be on her. 

(also for those who question the councilor move - have you met a highschool counselor, none of them are qualified.)

Despite the break up, or should I say the fall apart wedding, Xander really has stepped up and into his role as supporter and glue of the team while also finally stable in himself. He goes through more danger than ever and comes out the other side as one of the most strategic leaders of the group. He may flounder on one-on-one, but he can always see the whole map.

Willow moves out of the woods and toward rehabilitation, showing that while her power is great she can focus it and control it. She returns, scared but more connected to both the world and magic around her. She no longer has the option to blame others for her slip ups or choices, and starts taking responsibility while acknowledging she’s no longer the shy girl standing in the corner, but a powerful force.

Spikes soul is back, but new to the whole deal he kinda goes insane cause of the hundreds of years of death and torture and the current year of brainwashing and manipulation. But through it all, he starts to make penance for his last season, and makes it clear he will always support Dawn and Buffy.

Dawn has grown up and into herself, just as Buffy had to in highschool. The constant abandonment and rejection of the past two years has left her anxious and scared of Buffy leaving her, but despite it she rises into her own place in the Scoobies and finds real value in the work. (I really hate how people always hate on Dawn. The constant pattern of hating a teen girl character isn’t cute y’all is ✨ misogyny ✨)

Giles finally finds his balance between helping and doing his own thing, despite a few bumps and one insane mutiny. Thankfully not evil, he makes it clear while he’ll always be a call away, Buffy is the one in charge of the show and has the trust to do so...again for the most part.

The supporting cast in Anya and Andrew, the slayerettes/potentials, Principal Wood, and a guest appearance by Faith, expand the universe and give it more breadth. (Except for Kennedy - I am sorry but she’s straight up the worst.) Even before it started, the groundwork was laid for the comic continuation while still finishing the series strongly with a cast of rounded and loveable characters. With Angel in the periphery and the future unknown, s7 makes the magical world more than Sunnydale and wider than imagined from each potential to each connection beyond them.

Overall, with a strong start and a big finish, season 7 works to conclude the cult classic in a way both satisfying but realistic: with laughter and loss but good scraping by and saving the world, again.