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Date Posted: 22:10:53 08/28/03 Thu
Author: Wyvern
Subject: My main reservation...
In reply to:
Kashmanik
's message, "OK, how does this sound? (please read folks!) :-)" on 00:48:23 08/27/03 Wed
Yes, I'm firmly in favour of slimming down the cast. Whilst I'm not sure I want to spend too much time on rebuilding Sunnydale (a slow down is necessary in the real world but doesn't necessarily make for gripping viewing - I'd be inclined to allow a little time to have passed and spend maybe 3 episodes on the latter part of the regeneration of Sunnydale because 5 episodes is too long to be letting things slide). I do like the idea of Willow breaking things off with Kennedy - I always got the impression that Willow wasn't totally into the relationship in the first place, so it fits fine with me.
The Anya pregnancy thing. Not a problem, but I don't see why it has to lead to Anya being all but written out. Last season I was in favour of writing her right out but this season I think we've used her so well that there's a lot more we can do with her. And I don't want to do a pregnancy storyline that early on, without Anya and Xander spending time "together" together first. I don't *really* want to do a pregnancy storyline at all - it's not going to be a mystical pregnancy and it's otherwise so limiting of the character. But if we do one, I don't think it should be an excuse to scale back Anya's involvement. Pregnancy isn't an illness and although it's physically demanding it just means that Anya's role would change a little. Having said that, Anya isn't really about the combat anyway, though she's always prepared to step into a scrap if she needs to. Writing pregnancy always tends to get cliched - there's always some variation on the "the baby's in peril" storyline or the "dangerous birth" situation or whatever, and that's so done to death. So if we write pregnancy, I'm keen to make it no big deal. I'd rather we did them getting married at some point - "Feb sweeps" would be my timing of choice, though "Nov sweeps" would be as acceptable. In fact, yes, have the wedding in Nov and the pregnancy announcement in Feb. Yes, it means that the birth would be S10, but if we decide *not* to do an S10, all we need to do is either an "epilogue" episode or we can do the spinoff movie series! I think it would be nice to do something really different with pregnancy and childbirth and by making it a side issue, I think that would do nicely. Plus, it would lead in for the birth being in S10 Nov sweeps...
Another important character point.
Assuming that Sunnydale is a 3 year high school (unless Dawn's been retconned to make her a year younger!) she should be graduating this season.
Slimming the cast... (how I'd do it if I was god...)
Lose Kennedy. We've been warming to her a little by writing her, but although the audience seems to prefer our version, she just isn't working.
Make Faith recurring. We can still use her a lot (maybe 17 of 22 eps, like certain characters seem to have been contracted for in AtS this season).
DON'T KILL SPIKE! It would be really cool from a dramatic point of view, but it's ratings suicide. If we're going to approach this from the point of view of making a TV series, we have to make it commercially viable, which means being aware of the demographic we're trying to reach. However, if we're not going to make Spike all dusty, we could make him recurring too - in fact, we could have him in LA with AI and popping back from time to time if we wanted!
If Dawn's graduating, Buffy will probably encourage her to spend more time studying. This would naturally allow us to scale back her involvement and use her in a recurring capacity rather than in every episode. Again, I'm finding the theme of noble self sacrifice a bit cliched. Though it might be fun for the monks spell to start breaking down and for Dawn to have to choose once and for all between being the Key and being Dawn and Willow and Giles having to do something magick to separate the Dawn and Key elements.
Phew, my brain's broken down now...
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Good -- Idea Guy, 23:11:19 08/28/03 Thu
I do think somebody should leave though. Just because it's who everyone is used to it doesn't mean they need to be around.
Spike's got nothing left of his own to tell and Faith, like I said, isn't a group girl.
Nobody out of the core four has lasted (other than Spike) more than three seasons as a regular. I think new characters would be good or Dawn going to school elsewhere (I'd imagine Sunnydale high is gone?)
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Hmm, two birds with one stone perhaps? -- Kashmanik, 23:16:37 08/28/03 Thu
They could decide around mid-season that Dawn should go back to school, whilst the gang are needed elsewhere. So pregnant Anya and Dawn go and settle down somewhere, whilst the rest carry on.
We could even do a one-off episode that is just Dawn and Anya in a new town dealing with some demonic plans. :-)
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See - Everyone wins. -- Idea Guy, 23:19:49 08/28/03 Thu
If you do it at the right time then there could be enough going on not to majorly notice it. If you just scaled down the appearance then if you season 10 make the cast list be minus them (If you do do a season 10 I really think Spike's story is over by then)
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Well, I did suggest... -- Wyvern, 23:49:14 08/28/03 Thu
...writing out Kennedy. She just doesn't fit right. All the other potentials are gone and despite everything we've done she's always going to be first and foremost Willow's (possibly ex-)girlfriend. And she's not actually very interesting. If it wasn't for his continuing popularity, I'd get rid of Andrew as well and go back to centering on the core scoobies for a while.
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good point. -- Idea guy, 23:53:26 08/28/03 Thu
One thing I think was wrong is that it took Mutant Enemy three seasons to credit Tara as a regular yet season eight has allowed it after thirteen episodes. I think a list of seven regulars (Buffy, Xander, Anya, Dawn, Andrew, Spike and Willow) would work fine keeping Kennedy and Faith recurring (Kennedy in seventeen, Faith in maybe fourteen) and having Giles (as, realistically he was demoted to recurring) as recurring especially if the wheelchair thing takes off.
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I actually like that balance of characters a lot better -- Wyvern, 00:02:40 08/29/03 Fri
Just so long as we make the most of Giles wherever we use him, rather than his just happening to be there but not being properly used (if you know what I mean).
The one idea I really dislike is that we might use an Anya pregnancy as an excuse to downplay her role, and effectively Xander's as well (cos I don't see us being able to send her away in that condition without him following cos I'm certainly not in favour of her pregnancy splitting them up again! And not that I'm suggesting it out of any sense of moral outrage, I'd really like them to get married before we do that storyline anyway - cos I want them to have happy things to do!!!)
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But don't you think..... -- Kashmanik, 00:02:20 08/29/03 Fri
...that Kennedy's non-interestingness (it's a word....!) can be rectified? That's the point I was going for when I suggested a little more focus on her. We could, if we really worked at it, create an interesting character out of her, by allowing some backstory and character development.
I'd be more tempted to remove some of the older regulars rather than remove Kennedy or Andrew. JMO.
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We tried it. -- Wyvern, 00:06:46 08/29/03 Fri
The problem is, I'm not sure that the writers really enjoy writing her, though most of us have probably warmed to her a little more through writing her. I know I find her difficult to write, though. And I just don't see the point in developing a character the audience consistently refuses to invest in.
Shed older regulars if you like, but not core scoobies and not people in key relationships to core scoobies. Faith and Spike are IMO the best candidates.
My feeling is that this season we should concentrate on the core scooby dynamic and scale down the characters on the periphery.
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