#tbf i know theres a lot of downtime with glory throughout the season but buffy drew the comparison between

[angelthemanspanker]

I've been trying to think of possible consequences for Sunnydale if the gang go off to have homoerotic hijinks at the Hyperion Hotel and its really reminding me what a shit job season 7 did of building the tension lmao

Spiral in season 5 is like. The pinnacle of Its All Too Much and its one of my favourites because of it because DAMN do the threats keep piling up in terrifyingly organic ways. Tara's down, Glory knows about Dawn and is coming the second Ben loses control again, the knights are right behind us and Spike can't fight them because of the chip, Giles just took a fucking spear to the gut and Buffy called BEN for help! A perfectly logical move for her to make because she doesn't know what we know! I was literally more scared and stressed for these fictional characters than I thought possible because we knew what was at stake: Dawn, and by extension Buffy's last family and lets be honest she would never have gotten over it if she'd lost Dawn, and that's before this episode tells us that Dawn's painful death will take everyone else with her. Even if you don't care about Dawn (I love her so. More stress) the consequences for everyone would be so dire if they fail that it really makes you cling to your stuffed animal when the final fight finally comes

Meanwhile in season 7 Buffy says she's in the fight of her life, specifically saying that she WOULD sacrifice Dawn to save the day this time and implicitly saying the threat is worse now than it was with Glory. She says this, btw, while fighting a lovely fledgling vamp named Richard because she and Giles had time to kill. Yknow there was an empty hour on the timetable between Talk About How Scary The First Is and Something Something Spuffy so why don't we go out and literally look for something to fight. While we talk about how this is The Fight Of Our Lives. Hey Giles did you record Friends because the guys really wanna see how this Joey/Rachel thing pans out when we get home. Where we're in much peril, obviously. The First sometimes attacks twice in a month. Remember when Glory found and punched a hole in Willow's dorm building just because she was pissed that Willow spat at her and when she found out Dawn was the Key we literally could not stop running until we got away which we didn't bc she took Dawn. That pales in comparison to this. When do you want me to kill Richard btw