I thought it would be interesting to have a thread discussing the road not travelled. Someone brings up a way something could have gone differently in the show- and we discuss all the repercussions across the board.

I'll start with: What if Dawn jumped and Buffy didn't die at the end of The Gift?

I wonder if Buffy would have the same depression about her sister dying, as she did about being pulled out of Heeeaven. I think the ultimate thing that woud have changed was the financial burden aspect and Buffy's happiness. Any thoughts?

Ah yes, the butterfly effect: Willow would not have been pushed into the high pressure job of leadership and parenting and would not have felt so compelled to start 'abusing' the dark magicks, Tara and Willow would not have been forced to live together so soon, (and Tara would not have been in that window in Seeing Red), and would have probably not have had the same issues leading to their break-up, leading ultimately to Dark Willow. Therefore no Dark Willow.
No ressurected Buffy means no opportunity for the First Evil to crack open the Hellmouth and bring the Turok-ham out into the world.
No resurrected Buffy also means that Buffy's depression would be more about the fact that she can't save everyone, and she would not necessary have any darkness/heaven issues that would drive her into Spike's cold embrace, and Yay! no Spuffy.

Oh, and no Dawn to steal shit and ruin Anya and Xander's engagement party.

I do feel that had Dawn died that night, regardless of whether she jumped or whatever, it would have created a rift between Buffy and Giles. While not his fault, she would resent him for suggesting Dawn die before the battle. And with ASH needing time away, I don't see that rift healing in a satisfying way or at all for a very long time. Giles would probably not deal well in and of itself regardless of how Buffy reacted. I imagine there would be much drinking on his part.

Also, no "Anchovies" song which would really suck.

I imagine if Dawn did jump, she wouldn't been killed. yeah, she was flesh and blood but she is the key, a maybe would have been infused by the energy of the open door and then become all glowy (with extra shiny hair!).She would gone to a higher plan, or just tell Buffy some nice warm speech about her (Dawn) finally a part of something that she belongs to. Kind of like that ST:TNG ep. where Deanna gets pregnant by some life form and because he was causing some problem to the Enterprise he had to leave.

But I think Dawn dying instead of Buffy would have lead to a dark season 6.

I think Dawn's death would have been devastating to Buffy. We saw what happened when Buffy only believed she killed Dawn and if it were actually to happen I think Buffy would just shut down completely. This might force Willow and the Scoobies to raise Dawn from the grave instead of Buffy, causing Willow to not only resurect the energy of the Key but to reshape reality to give her human form again. These acts may be even worse for Willow, causing her downward spiral to occur quicker or possibly killing her in the attempt.


Or, maybe Dawn's death would have undone the magick of the monks and cause the opposite effect, no one remember Dawn or that she died saving the multiverse.

Because we didn't have a dark season six now? Or do you mean darker? Or do you mean anyway? Lol. I don't know :-)

I would kind of love to see season one with Jesse not being killed right away. I think it would be a perfect little foreshadowyness of what happens when a friend turns into an evil vampire, and it would have given Xander more of an arc than his "I love Buffy" one. So if would have happened if Jesse didn't die?

I agree that if Dawn died it would have been as dark, if not darker. I think with the situation that was set up, it was in the cards for a dark and depressing season six.



It depends when he was turned. I would love if Darla turned him in "Angel" and that leads the group to think that Angel did it, so even when it's revealed that it was Darla, Xander still holds that grudge against Angel. That'd be more realistic than him hating Angel just because he's got "a big old yen" for Buffy.

Plus, I love to think of cutting back and forth of Buffy not killing Angel and letting him go and Xander killing Jesse.

I wonder if Jesse would have become one of the tough vampires if he hadn't been killed right away. All the other members of the order of Aurelius were pretty tough (Luke, Darla, Angelus, Master, Drusilla, Spike, the Three) and it might have been cool to see the high school nothing become a Big Bad.

If Jesse had lived for a while, his inevitable death probably would have had a deeper impact on the audience, and Joss may not have let Xander forget about his best friend five minutes later. In other words, possible Xander character development. Clearly, it couldn't be allowed to happen.

What if Xander and Anya had gone through with the wedding?

Yeah, I felt cheated by Jessie's death, when no one mentioned him again.

If Xander and Anya went through the wedding...we proabably get Anya bitching how no one bought from the registry...hee.

We wouldn't have "Selfless"

but we would have Xander and Anya happy...why again they had to break up? I think Joss Fucked up big time leaving Anya at the alter. Not like Anya took some interresting vengence on Xander.

I don't want to cut short the wwhi Xanya marriage went through, but, after that, I'd be interested in reading everyone's thoughts on wwhi Buffy staked Angelus at the end of Innocence.

If Buffy staked Angelus at the end of Innocence, she would be more like the Wish world buffy. Really hard and all about the mission, IMHO>

I imagine that Xander and Anya would just be like how they were pre-wedding, except instead of wacky wedding plans, it'd be wacky marriage obstacles.

Let's just say season two wouldn't be as fun. Jenny and Giles would never get back together, I think.

Hold on. We're talking about too many things too quickly. Let's just talk about Buffy's death in The Gift, the Xanya marriage, and Jesse for a while. When we've exhausted those subjects, let's talk about staking Angelus. The problem with talking about too many things at once, is we don't do what I intende<>d for the thread- to explore all ramifications of changes in the story. <end of bossy boards on boards discussion>



If Xander and Anya got married, I don't think that Joss could have easily killed of Anya. (for Jerseygirl) It would have made for a much more fun S7. I think Xander got screwed in many ways in S7, and perhaps a happy marriage with Anya would have made that easier.



I agree. But it would have seemed weird if Buffy was hit harder by Dawn's death than by her mother's. Buffy was sad about her mom's death, but she coped amazingly at the end of S5, and then she never seemed to mourn her mother in S6-7 (which was weird in and of itself). If Buffy wasn't pulled out of heaven and didn't have to support her sister, while being depressed, sleeping with Spike, rejecting her friends, and trying to kill everyone in "Normal Again" she would have looked horrible. The writers needed to have the bratty sister and the emotional ramfications from being ripped out heaven in order to excuse Buffy's actions.



I really would have hated Buffy if that happened. It seems so irrational to resent your father figure just because he made a suggestion to avoid allowing hellish dimension in Earth, and fate just allowed the empty words to come true. It also would been OOC for S1-5 Buffy. S1-5 Buffy is incredibly forgiving. She forgave Angel for not watching his soul and allowing Angelus to come out. She was running to appease Riley even though he cheated on her and his mission. She forgave Giles for poisoning her in Helpless.She doesn't even raise an eyebrow when it comes to mistakes that risk her life, i.e. Xander's love spell or Willow's "will be done" spell. To resent Giles for suggesting to save the world at Dawn's expense would have been OOC and utterly hate-worthy.

I'm just gonna stick to the first one. Dawn's immortal energy and has been around since the dawn (ahem) of time. She can neither be created, nor destroyed, since she kinda holds the universe together (or apart, as the case may be). If that teenaged mortal body the monk's shoved her into died, she (well, perhaps not 'she' any longer) would return to being what she was before, immortal green glowy stuff, which may or may not remember it's fleeting microseconds of human existence.

That being said, Buffy and the Scoobs would have no way of knowing any of this.

If Dawn jumped, it is possible that the monk spell would unravel with her corporeal existence, and the other Scoobs would completely forget she ever existed. Only Buffy, from whom she 'was made,' and standing there watching her jump, would mystically remember the sister that never was. Cue rationale for Buffy to grow estranged from her friends, as they can't even conceive of the loss she's experienced, since their memories of Dawn have faded away like the shadowy illusions they were. They are all rejoicing their victory, while Buffy stands slightly aloof, 'sad arms' at full power, alone in her misery. Even Anne Rice weeps at the angst of sad Buffy, all alone in the middle of her clueless rejoicing friends. Naturally, only keenly super-perceptive best.boyfriend.ever Spike notices, 'cause he's all empathic and shit.

Alternately, if Joss didn't have a need to push Buffy and the Scoobs apart, or for Buffy to end up sleeping with Spike, Dawn could 'die' and appear as green energy to Buffy as she returns through the portal to seal it up and set the universes aright, reassuring Buffy that she loved her time as Buffy's sister and thanking her for showing her what she'd spent so many millenia protecting. Cue tears of bittersweet joy. In this case, the memories may or may not fade, but Buffy has no reason to feel all depressed, as her 'sister' has fulfilled her destiny, tasted a brief moment of mortal life, and returned to her true existence as a formless eternal cosmic entity. Buffy could cry that it is her job to save Dawn, and Dawn could point out that Buffy has already saved the world, by teaching Dawn how to be brave enough to do what she needs to do. Boo hoo. Big sisterly hug. Dawn looks at the blood she's just gotten on Buffy's blouse and quips, "At least I got to ruin another one of your shirts." and jumps.

Basically, a 'Dawn jumps' scenario could end on an upbeat note, with the Scoobs staring teary-eyed into the sunrise, imagining that perhaps they can see a trace of green in it, or on a profoundly sad note which leads perfectly into a grim and nasty season six, like the one we had, depending on whether or not Buffy and her friends are aware of Dawn's continued existence (or prior existence even!).

If this were the case, however, Buffy would definitely have to be more integral to the world-savage in seasons six and seven. Three seasons in a row of Buffy standing around watching someone else save the day would get even more tired than it did for two seasons in a row...

**Early-series AtS spoilers ahead**

There are two big AtS parallels in that scenario - first, the Thing That Nobody But Me Will Ever Know Existed, a la "I Will Remember You," and second, the hero getting out-heroed by a self-sacrificing underling, a la, er, "Hero." Since I loved both of those episodes (in a Great Big Cry kind of way), I say bravo!

I had one idea at the start of season six that Buffy's death would have broken the monks' spell, and she would now know Dawn simply as an imposter who lived with her for a year. This would get rid of all the ridiculous attempts to keep Dawn living a normal life in that season, and allow Dawn to strike out on her own more and get a bigger storyline (or a storyline).

*Snort* This made me laugh so hard... do I smell fanfic?

I think an initial lash out would be totally in character for Buffy. When she's upset, hurting or angry she has a pattern of acting out in anger towards others. Sometimes justified and sometimes not. She may have forgiven Angel for his Angelus phase, but I do recall her throwing Jenny down onto a desk and then freezing her out for a while. She did get into a fight with Riley and went on a slayfest before she was convinced to run after the helicopter. While she had reasons with Faith, Buffy was ready in season three to take time out of saving the world to take out Faith and in season four follows her to LA to get revenge. Buffy does forgive, but many times it takes her a while to get there. And that's fine and perfectly normal. I think the way Buffy's feeling for Dawn are set up in Weight of the World and The Gift make it very clear that Dawn is more important that even herself, her only family left and despite not being real, the only person in her life who has known Buffy right from very close to the start. I think loosing Dawn would have made Buffy hate herself and for a while her friends for not saving her, Giles taking the worst of that because he was the one who suggested having to kill Dawn to save the world. And that's not to say Buffy wouldn't have gotten over blaming the others, only that behind the scenes stuff with ASH wanting serious time away would have prevented a proper reconciliation for quite a while and really messed with the tone of the show.

Compared to Lestat, who cries 2x every chapter.




er, then the Initiative will try to get the blood from the blouse to make a really annoying monster.

Another AtS parallel--the Wolfram and Hart mindwipe that made everyone but Angel (and Cordy) forget that Connor ever existed. It makes me wonder if they'd gone this way with Dawn jumping and everyone forgetting about her, would they feasibly have been able to run a similar storyline with Connor/Angel/MoG? I guess I'm looking at the ramifications throughout the JossVerse...should I be sticking to the Buffyverse only?

How about this....what if Buffy was really pulled out of a hell dimension in season 6 instead of HEEAAAVEN.

Would she come flying from the sky nekkid?

It would seem incredibly lame if Buffy didn't perk up faster or just as fast as Angel. She would look like a total drama queen/wuss. So I would imagine that she would moan about being in hell for a while but then perk up.

Here's where it gets interesting. As much as Buffy's eyes were closed to Willow's problems and failings in S6, I bet Buffy would have an even harder time criticizing and restraining from rationalizing Willow's behavior. Buffy would feel beholden since Willow rescued her from a hell dimension using this black magic.

I imagine Hell for Buffy would be being stuck as Cordy's slave. Then she would be glad when Cordy becomes coma-girl.

So that's what everyone forgets in "Home." That makes sense. I understand why VK isn't in season five of AtS now :-) (That didn't spoil me that much so don't feel bad!)

I don't know if Buffy would have been able to recover so fast. Angel was a vampire, so maybe he could stand the torture more?

But Buffy has Slayer strength. And oftentimes kicks Angel's ass.

But she doesn't have evil within her, even if it's hidden. In "Becoming," someone (Giles?) mentions that any soulless creature with suffer eternal torment, so I think it's possible that the demon within Angel (which can be seperate from the good half if you take Angel's Pylea arc into account) helped him a little bit, but since Buffy is wholly human, it might be worse. Or something :-)

That was interesting. I was thinking of Giles's line in Beauty in the Beasts where he said that it would take someone of tremendous strength of character to come out sane and functioning from a hell dimension. So I always assumed that it was the strength and the goodness in Angel's soul that allowed him to get past his hell dimension. However, it would be interesting if Giles was thinking of only humans surviving hell dimensions, so he cited extraordinary strength of character as the thing that would get someone through such misery. But then someone like Angel would contradict that, where it's actually thanks to his demonic, dark side that he was able to come out okay.

Must mull and think a bit about this. ;-)

I've often thought that Buffy's threat to kill her friends in the Gift was itself a product of the monks' spell: If they chose her to protect the Key at all costs, then wouldn't their magic arrange for said Protector to turn on any allies who look to be potentially stepping out of line? (Which might also explain Hank's apparently sudden turnabout from decent dad to selfish, deadbeat asshole. If the monks wanted the Key with the Slayer, wouldn't it make sense to eliminate any possible snags like the interference of a peskily supportive father?)

I agree that Dawn jumping at the end of the Gift would have probably resulted in S6 Depress-O Buffy even without the whole "coming back from Hea-eea-venn" crap. But the real question is whether that would have made for a better S6? Even without Dawnie's...er..."story arc" (i.e. flouncing, screeching, shoplifting, general snottiness), it seems to me they still would have had to come up with a better season-long plotline, better villains and storylines, etc.

I think they acomplished that by rewiring the Scoobies relationships. I don't think S1-S4 Buffy would have threatened to kill her friends, she was willing to maybe doom the town to get Willow back from the Mayor. Add in Dawn and you have to change all the key moments and chances are Buffy no longer remembers several of the key bonding moments they had but still remembers all the big fights so they aren't quite as close anymore.

But then in S7, she said that she would kill Dawn to save the world. As much as I would love to explain away Buffy's failings in S5-7 with Dawn's appearance, Buffy changes her priorities and mind so frequently then that I can't.

Although, wouldn't it be great if you *could* explain away the Scoobies asholicness because of some wacky thing the monks did. Spike was castrated and turned into some pathetic Buffy arm accessory because the Monks wanted to harness his vampiric strength into protecting Dawn. Buffy responded to this patheticness with sex and irritating, hypocritical fussing over Spike, again to add the protecting vampiric strength. Giles abandoned Buffy so that Buffy, the protector of Dawn, would be locked even more into that role. Willow became a car-crashing, irresponsible drug addict to prove to Buffy that Buffy can't trust anyone, even her formerly responsible, brainiac, sweet best friend so Buffy must carry the parenting/protecting all by her lonesome.

Of course, these explanations are enough to tie my brain into knots. I guess the only thing Dawn's continued annoying presence has to do with the character assasination of the Scoobies is piss-poor writing.

Add that onto the monks wanting to punish Buffy as much as possible and you've got the perfect explanation. ;)

Let's move onto a new discussion: the heretofore suggested, "What if Buffy staked Angelus before Passion?"

Well we if take AtS canon seriously, LA would be totally screwed without its batman like defender. Maybe LA would be a Wish-like place where demons rule. Oh wait, crime, bondage fun, leather is already an intrinsic part of LA's culture ;-)

As far as what would happen in BtVS...

The easiest ramification would be that Jenny would be alive. I think that she and Giles really had the potential for a serious relationship, so it's very possible that tweed-clad, computer maven children could have joined the Scooby Gang. Perhaps they would have been so cute that ME wouldn't have felt the need to add Dawn for cuteness.

It's also possible that Willow could have not become a witch because she wouldn't have been rifling through Jenny's spellpages in order to organize lesson plans and Willow definitely wouldn't have done a reensoulment with all that dark mojo going through her body. If living in Sunnydale and reading about spells was enough to eventually pique Willow's interest, she probably would have had a mentor in Jenny.

Buffy and Angel wouldn't have had their S3 relationship. However interestingly I'm having trouble thinking of long-term ramifications from Buffy and Angel not being together in S3.

Buffy and Faith?

so if Angel was staked, therefore didnt' get suck into hell...TPTB might have made him return anyway, if the 'Vampire with a Soul' was very important. Or else let Angel stay in Hell and give Spike a soul. Like Willow decides to try the resouling spell, and start resouling vampires, and Spike is the only one who doesn't stake himself right away.

But personally I think that if Buffy stakes Angel, she would act more like the Wishverse Buffy. Really cold.

Yeah, Buffy staking Angel would likely have turned into season 7 Buffy much sooner.

I don't think it would've hardened Buffy all that much. Sure, she would have been upset for a while but she also wouldn't have had to deal with the knowledge that Angel was saved when she sent him to Hell or even know that he could be. She's have been really, really upset for a while and then moved on, possibly venting her frustration on Spike and Drusilla.

Perhaps, but I think it would be easier to stake the evil Angelus rather than having to sent a souled Angel to suffer eternal torment in Hell. Plus if Buffy staked Angelus before Passion, Buffy wouldn't have had Jenny Calendar's death and many others on her shoulders. Plus her relationship gave her plenty of pain from S3 on. He could definitely be a source of comfort and advice, but more often than not there was heartbreak and angst.



Do you mean that there would have been less tension between Buffy and Faith if Angel hadn't been there to provoke jealousy? I think there's no question that Faith would have gone evil even if Angel wasn't there. *AtS Spoilers* And Faith probably would have stayed evil since Angel played such a key role in Faith's rehabilitation.

Or do you mean that the lesbian subtext between Buffy and Faith could have "rapidly become er, text" without Angel there? ;-)

I'm curious to hear how you guys feel about Angel's reensoulment and Miss Calendar's impacting Willow becoming a witch? Do you think that she would have become a witch eventually even if she didn't feel she needed to reensoul Angel and wasn't looking through Miss Calendar's things?

If she staked him before he got resouled and before he killed Jenny, she of course wouldn't know she staked him before he got resouled and killed Jenny. I think she kept from staking Angelus in a little girl's hope that maybe he can be fixed or maybe thinking it was her who did this to him. To kill him as soon as she could would have made her more adult, in that she had to make a big adult decision. Kind of like "Ole Yeller" where the boy had to make the adult decision of killing his dog that was sick. yeah, the boy could have just waited until maybe the dog died on it's own or worse have gotten loose and bit someone.

Willow, much like Xander being 'car-guy' seemed to be looking for her 'thing' that made her special, since, like Xander, she seemed unaware that she already *was* special and didn't need magic to be valuable or respected or 'cool.'

If she hadn't embraced magic specifically as her 'escape' from her 'nerdy loser' self, she might have grown out of this insecurity, or, like Xander, grown into it and become an irrelevant background character, or found another way to externalize her own 'inner cool' rather than embracing it, considering herself a schmoe, and only 'the magic' or 'the drugs' or 'the boyfriend / girlfriend' to be what was 'cool' about her.

Part of Willow's problem with responsibility is that she doesn't give herself *credit* for the good stuff she does. She blows past her wrongdoings at times (such as the time she criticized Tara for getting upset with her 'for no reason at all'), but is every bit as bad about recognizing her worth, which just perpetuates the spiral she's in. It's one thing to mess up occasionally and not take the fall for it, but it's worse, IMO, to do the right thing and refuse to give oneself credit for that, as it creates the self-concept that one *can't* do the right thing, that anything good or brave or praiseworthy that one has done was because of external factors beyond one's control, which, naturally, frees one from the internal expectation of ever actively *trying* to do the right thing, since one has already determined that they weren't capable of doing such conciously...

I'm not sure if that makes an ounce of sense, but it sounded right in my head. :)

I don't think Willow would have become a witch if these things hadn't happened. Jenny's stuff provided Willow with the information and enough lightweight harmless material to get started. And Jenny's loss left them without a designated mystique in the extended Scoobie circle.


An unfortunate side effect of this is that without becoming a witch she probably wouldn't have met Tara and Adam probably would have won.

OK, my problem with this thread is that I keep thinking stuff like, "Well, of course she would have become a witch; TPTB wanted her to be a witch, so they would have found a way to work it in." But putting the behind-the-scenes considerations aside for a moment, I think we were meant to see Willow as being connected to the magic somehow, which makes me believe that she would have come to it sooner or later. The same way Aud stumbled into her destiny by casting a spell on Olaf, so might Willow have gotten magical wit' it when Oz left ("Something Blue" sort of read as an early, terribly bungled attempt at magic anyway), or during "Hush" (assuming she would have met Tara in class or something). Or maybe she would have seen that there was a Wicca group on campus and been intrigued, Jenny or no Jenny.

I also don't think that Buffy's staking Angelus would have let directly to S7 (do not pass Go...), but my thought process here is almost entirely based on behind-the-scenes elements - namely, that the S2 writers were way too talented and motivated to allow that to happen. Back then, people got over loss pretty fast for the sake of keeping the show on track: Xander and Willow get past the loss of Jesse, Giles doesn't become a cold shell of himself after Jenny dies, Buffy comes back relatively quickly from sending Angel to hell (it was what, two episodes before she re-perked?). It's perhaps unrealistic, but so is a high school in which students are periodically turned into vampires or killed by demons. Plus, Angel would have been in Buffy's life for far less time than he was by the time he left after S3, so her recovery time should have been even quicker than it was post-Becoming. I'm more interested in the question of what would have happened if Angel hadn't come back: Would things have been different with Faith? How would it have affected the Mayor's psychological warfare?

Given Faith's abandonment issues, I think no Angel would have at least slowed her to turn to the dark side. Buffy would have had basically just the Scoobies and Giles. When Angel was there, Faith thought she was being left out of three areas of Buffy's life: Family, friends and supernatural boyfriend. Take Angel away and Buffy is spending more time w/ the gang, which could have led to more inclusion for Faith. Buffy also would have spent more time at home, and, again, Faith may have gotten some invites.

Assuming Faith still turns, then the Mayor's psych warfare could have played on her resignation that she wasn't going to be able to lead a normal life (since Faith was no longer a slayer-replacement). I don't know whether this would have been as effective, but...

On the subject of Willow becoming a witch, I have a modified agreement with Set. I just think that's inherent in Willow's personality to try to explore new things. This curiosity and thirst for knowledge, both healthy and unhealthy, is more pronounced in Willow than in any other than Buffyverse character IMO. So I really can't see her researching and reading up on spells without bothering to see if she has any talent for witchcraft. Plus, I agree that like Xander she was desperately trying to fill a void in her life and prove her "specialness" with something external.

On the subject on how the Scooby Gang could have coped if Willow wasn't a witch, it would have made things that much harder despite some of her mistakes with magic. With stopping Adam, distracting Glory from the top, resurrecting Buffy, empowering the Slayers, and many other assorted uses of magic, the Scoobies clearly relied on Willow's magic. However, necessity is the mother of invention. Perhaps the Scoobies could have been more imaginative and closer-knit later on in the series without the "Looks like a job for Wiccan girl." Perhaps not having magic would have forced to Willow to hone her science/reasoning skills more, instead of letting them get all rusty and she would have helped that way.

Moving onto Faith, I just don't see how Angel played much of a role in her turn to the dark side. If we count AtS, Angel was key in her reformation. However, I always felt that Faith was really jealous of Buffy for her comfortable home, doting mother, loyal, fun, and helpful friends and Watcher, and general position among the show's cast as "Heroine and Wonderful Girl In Chief." I thought that Faith's jealousy of Angel was window-dressing for Faith's real jealousy. It's much easier to make a play for the hunky boyfriend (and own up to wanting that) if your Faith rather than try and build up a whole life like Buffy has. Angel is gorgeous and very sweet, but he was definitely a headache boyfriend for any person, let alone Slayer. Faith herself recognized that Angelus would want to kill her eventually. So I think that Faith wanting Angel was just a physical representation of her deeper seated insecurities and desires.

On the Mayor's psychological warfare. I think that Buffy would have had a easier time defeating the Mayor if she was distracted by Angel. I think without Angel there's a real possibility that she could have found a way to stop the Ascension before graduation. She would have been more desperate to go out of state to college, without a boyfriend at home. She wouldn't have been distracted by her relationship with him, and then breaking up in The Prom. And none of the schenanigans in Graduation Day from Faith shooting Angel could have happened. There's a very real possibility that many student deaths could have been prevented if Buffy was done with Angel by S2.

If Buffy had killed Angelus then Kendra probably never would have been killed by Drusilla since there'd have been no one to lure Buffy away. This leaves Faith as a potential and never having to come to Sunnydale and go through her downward spiral.

Ha! Well, that answers things pretty succinctly. Well done, Time Monkey!

Had they avoided the Willow + magic formula, the writers would have been able to still have the same basic effect happen by having the equation be Willow + science (since rocket launchers and exploding high schools do appear to have worked quite well before Willow went sage-happy!).

Or, when magic was required, Giles could have picked up the slack, having to pack up some of Jenny's things while cleaning out her office at school, and spotting some texts of hers, perhaps even reading her diaries as a last reminder of her only to find various interesting magical tidbits. And hey, active Giles activity! A good thing!

Alternately, Tara could still have wandered onto the scene, with some magical perspective, and perhaps even gone with the original wood nymph-type heritage rather than the Marti fallback of 'woman done wrong by those ebil no-good menfolk.' With Willow *not* being into magic, and indeed being a fairly reductionistic sciency sort, it would create for an interesting dynamic between the two as Willow and Tara approach things from opposite stances and perhaps have some interesting arguments about a naturist vs. mechanistic viewpoint, that could lead to some dynamic tension between them, each convinced that the other is missing a vital understanding of reality... And what happens to two bull-headed people who end up arguing a lot during dangerous situations? Well, in the real-world, they get in a fist fight and never talk again. But in the Buffyverse, it's leads to sweaty encounters in the closet!

On the other, other, other hand, Anya could have shown up, lost her powers, but still somehow remembered that she used to be a witch innovative enough to stump a demon-lord as to the nature of her transfiguration curses, and been able to provide the occasional mystical insight. Anya, as curmudgeonly and occasionally helpful Magic Box owner (replacing Willie the Snitch as contact point to the 'underworld') could have served as a background character, backing up either Giles as go-to guy for magical stuff, or Tara as primary Scoob spellflinger.

Mixing all of this together, Giles could remain only useful for rudimentary castings, mainly ritualistic stuff, Anya could have the dark contacts and esoteric knowledge from a millenium of magical derring-do, and Tara could be the untrained fey child with some wild untamed power that isn't always easy to direct. Willow would remain the super-genius techno-hacker, able to do pretty much anything with technology, translate dead languages, dissect corpses, extrapolate quantum effects, blah-blah-blah she used to be back in seasons 1 and 2, and might even feel a wee bit threatened by this big hocus-pocus connection forming between her former mentor Giles and her secret crush, the aggravating and yet oh-so-attractive, Tara, mimicing the begrudging feelings that Buffy was bitterly expressing back when Giles and Kendra were gabbing away about, 'Dramius, chapter six, tee-hee'...

And then Willow could find out that best.friend.Xander is doing more than 'setting up new shelves' for that shrewish ex-demon hoodoo-harpy at the Magic Box, and someone's gonna have some 'splainin' to do!

I wonder if they would have sent Tara down the dark magick path into crazy badness if Willow wasn't a witch. It's not like Willow could become addicted to science.

Wow Set, I would totally watch that.

Indeed. That was always a pet-peeve of mine. Anya should have been way more helpful and connected than she was, considering that she got her gig by being all clever and innovative and has a thousand years worth of mystical contacts and knowledge. I know they used this device sometimes, but it should have gone towards defining her character instead of being a side-effect.



I'm sure that TPTB could have made Willow an evil scientist. Kind of a younger, much, much more attractive version of Maggie Walsh. I"m sure that would have accounted for her turn to the dark side. It's just that it would have been whole-hearted, deliberate evil instead of dark magic acting like a drug. I'm sure this would make the fans that had a hard-on for full-on evil Willow (and were thus disappointed by the excusing addiction storyline) happy. I hated the addiction storyline, but I didn't want Willow to be an evil, murdering fiend, so the evil end wouldn't have worked for me.

But hey, it may seem like Willow couldn't be addicted to science, but I never would have guessed that someone could be addicted to magic either. Maybe Willow could sniff chloroform or grind computers keys into powder for snorting. Those crazy hack writers! They just keep ya guessing! ;-)