Agree that Buffy is much less ambiguous than Angel. But there's always been a delicate question hanging over her, mostly regarding her self-righteousness and her corresponding tendency to (overly) harshly judge her enemies and to fail to see problems in those who are on her side. That lack of judgment/perspective seems to be worse (and more dangerous) now that she's sans watcher and in the position of leader. Fundamentally she's a total hero, but I like the shading, and I think it's deliberate.
I've never been a fan of the Scoobies either, but I did a fairly intensive rewatching of season 2 and the first half of season 3, and there's a lot more tension and distance and generic complexity than I picked up on to begin with. They are friends, but there's also a real hostility between Buffy on one side and Willow/Xander on the other. It reflects the tension ordinary folks have with heroes, who are needed but also feared (and resented). So I really don't mind revisiting them, especially if the purpose is to pull off the facade of the cozy chummy good old years of high school. And I tend to think we're going to get some facade pulling.
But of course, I'll always miss the vampires. I should add that I agree that it's unlikely that Spike will be back as a permanent fixture. I just think it would be astonishing if we didn't get more story about how Spike got (or gets) moved out of Buffy's life; and that Joss's refusal to tie this off quickly and painlessly signals that there's something in that transition that is important to Buffy's on-going story (even if Spike himself has no future in that story.)
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I've never been a fan of the Scoobies either, but I did a fairly intensive rewatching of season 2 and the first half of season 3, and there's a lot more tension and distance and generic complexity than I picked up on to begin with. They are friends, but there's also a real hostility between Buffy on one side and Willow/Xander on the other. It reflects the tension ordinary folks have with heroes, who are needed but also feared (and resented). So I really don't mind revisiting them, especially if the purpose is to pull off the facade of the cozy chummy good old years of high school. And I tend to think we're going to get some facade pulling.
But of course, I'll always miss the vampires. I should add that I agree that it's unlikely that Spike will be back as a permanent fixture. I just think it would be astonishing if we didn't get more story about how Spike got (or gets) moved out of Buffy's life; and that Joss's refusal to tie this off quickly and painlessly signals that there's something in that transition that is important to Buffy's on-going story (even if Spike himself has no future in that story.)