White Tree

The First is wearing Kendra's face. This is assuming I also got to re-do Season Three and parts of Seasons Four and Five to make Kendra haunt the narrative. So the First is pretending to be Kendra to screw with Faith and Buffy and SINEYA, because--

Sineya is a character not a racist cameo. AGAIN, assume I got my arrogant, armchair showrunner hands on a few non-season seven episodes and gave Sineya more characterization to begin with. Sineya is an infrequent but impactful voice who's opinion is both sought out and highly valued. Like this is vital: Buffy shows Sineya both compassion and great respect in this version. Ideally, all Slayers do.

When Buffy is given the chance to become all Shadow Demon-y and become more powerful, it's Sineya who's initially offering it. This Sineya basically explains that the demon's essence drives you """mad""" AKA turns you into a bloody thirsty menace with few coherent thoughts and little impulse control and that she needed years to regain her grip on herself and her powers through sheer PRACTICE, and often reverts to that state even in death. Give Buffy several episodes to consider this. Make her rejection of it a more significant step on her journey to the ultimate conclusion of Chosen.

Hell, we can even have Sineya actively participating in the ritual, giving her a more intense, parallel version of Buffy's own arc: in death, she gives up her demon essence, becomes a normal slayer instead of the Uberslayer she was in the extended lore. Evenly distributing the primordial strength she had forced upon her, she allows the mass awakening of other slayers. Over three seasons, she goes from trying to kill Buffy for HAVING FRIENDS and a WATCHER to saying "actually, no, none of us should ever be alone ever."