General Buffy comments

[thebratqueen]

I started this as a reply to stakebait and it got so long I figured I'd haul it over here. So, with regards to the First not being much of a threat:

I feel like we've lost focus with the First. And not to beat a dead horse but I can't feel it's a coincidence that we're loosing this focus right at the time that A) Marti came off her leave and B) Joss gave Buffy the finger so he could try to keep Firefly on the air. I'm fine for the First not attacking yet if it at least gets a personality. Angelus and the Mayor never did much onscreen but they were cool enough that we didn't mind - and their plots were handled in such a way that you got the feeling they were biding their time for something bigger, so it was okay. Like I said about Soulless, I don't need my evil constantly tying people up to train tracks. It can take a break for a poo and a Zagnut bar. It's okay - but be interesting.

I feel like of all things we need more of a Jossian spin on the First. Where's the quippy comments? Where's the First bitching that for all that it's evil, damn it really wants to scratch its nose? Where's the quirks?

Right now the First has no real personality. What little it has was borrowed from the characters it pretended to be. Which is okay as far as it goes, but only for giving us more of those characters. It doesn't give us anything to react to. And thus, when nothing happens, we can't help but notice the nothing. Which might have been okay for previous big bads, but when we're dealing with The First [dum dum DAAAAAA] it's a wee bit anticlimactic.

And I especially feel that Buffy of all people would notice this. She's the one who rolled her eyes at the First back in season 3. Why isn't she doing that some more? Even in depressed s6 she was still able to manage "Hey, I've died twice" in the face of trouble. If she's together enough to flirt with Wood, she should be together enough to ask the First if it can appear as anybody dead, can it do a good Marilyn Monroe impersonation? Or prove that Elvis question once and for all?

Don't get me wrong - I think s7 kicks. It's just a solid B effort from a group that can do A+ in its sleep. I mourn the lost opportunities.