Look at all the people...Are these nice people?

Hellmouth: If you could change one thing about the area you live in, what would it be?

Slayer: Do you believe in destiny or fate? If so, why? If not, why not?

Vampire: If you had the chance to live forever, would you take it and why?

Watcher: What’s the last book you read? Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it?

Witch: Any unusual or rare talents?

Vengeance Demon: Something you can’t stand?

Harbinger: Your favourite celebrity?

Key: Is there anything or one you’d die for?

Hell-God: Anything you’re particularly fussy or adamant about?

Double-Meat Palace: What’s the first job you ever took? Did you enjoy it? If you haven’t ever taken a job or part-time job, what job would you like to do in the future?

Seer: Does the future scare or excite you?

Potential Slayer: Biggest single ambition?

The Initiative: Are you a rebellious type? Do you question authority or follow the rules?

Turok-Han: Do you work best on your own or in a group?

Ascension: Weirdest thing that has ever happened to you?

Stake: Is it better to be physically or emotionally strong and why?

Holy Water: Any allergies?

Sunnydale High: Fondest high school memory? If you aren’t in high school or secondary school yet, your fondest memory of school up until this point? 

Sweet: Would you describe yourself as a musical person? Can you sing? Can you dance? Can you play any instruments?

Master: Something that scared you as a child?

Leather Duster: What makes you feel confident (if anything)?

Willy’s Place: Have you ever bribed someone? Have you ever blackmailed someone?

First Evil: Something you are proud of overcoming?

Urn of Osiris: Are you secretive or a open book?

Chaos Demon: Anything you’re embarrassed about or regret doing?

Werewolf: Are you the same person you were 12 months ago? If not, how so?

Bronze: Do you drink alcohol? Are there any particular reasons you do or don’t?

Praying-Mantis: Are you good at making first impressions?

Magic Box: Favourite possession?

Sluggoth Demon: Do you believe in karma?

Glove of Myhnegon: How well do you handle positions of power or leadership?

I only have the setup worked out: Dru is alone, because her Grandmummy is dust and her Daddy and her Spike both have souls.  And even though the thought of ensoulment and not being herself is frightening, being alone in the world when her family was always part of her is more so.  So she fights the Kshonte (spelling?  Is it Geshundi?) demon that Spike does to get her soul.

And all of a sudden she doesn’t want to see them.  They have the faces of the man who tortured her and made her a monster, and of the sweet boy she turned to sin and cruelty.

Since she cannot turn to W&H, she has to seek sanctuary with the only other people who know about creatures like her, even if they kill creatures like her.  The slayer and her organization.  She knows the Slayer has loved and protected Angel and Spike, so she hopes she will have some mercy on her.

After the argument among the scoobies about what to do with her, I don’t have anything planned at all except that Tara (who is alive, but has broken up with Willow because there was just too much past trauma in their relationship) bonds with her.  Between Glory and Lethe’s bramble, Tara recognizes Dru’s fear of her own mental illness and its distortion of her perceptions.  And having been told she was a demon all her life, she knows how ‘I don’t want to be an evil thing’ feels.  I don’t know if it’s a romance, or if Dru just expects it to be and that’s a source of conflict.

But I think maybe the core issue I have is that a direct continuation of the story means that Buffy has to go through more shit. I mean, that is how stories work, like you need drama and tension and all that, and you can’t just make a comic book continuation where Buffy and co. go to therapy and like, heal from their trauma (I mean I would read the shit out of that, but I’m willing to acknowledge that I’m probably in the minority here). But like, they had a happy ending. They’ve been through so much. I just want them to heal from their shit, and repair their relationships, and any kind of continuation can’t let that happen, because healthy, well-adjusted characters and dynamics make for less interesting stories.

Sometimes, a character’s story just needs to end. Because if a show is basically a soap opera but with vampires, eventually it’s going to feel like the characters have gone through too much, and it becomes kind of exhausting. I’m glad that Buffy ended when it did, because as dumb as it sounds, the characters deserved to rest, and we the audience deserved catharsis. And say what you will about season 7, it did give us that. 

“There’s this love story between Spike and Dru that is very sweet,” she (Juliet) explains.  “It gets kinky as well, but it’s sweet.  That balances out the evil that we do.”

Balance isn’t a word that suits Drusilla at all.  When we first see her in Buffy’s second season she is sickly and weak and Spike has brought her to Sunnydale with hopes of making ‘all better’.  Juliet plays the part in flowing glowns and with roving eyes as she teases dead birds and ties up her dolls.

“There is an element of what I call ‘touched’.  Angel was obsessed with her, you see, so he killed her family and tortured her ruthlessly driving her to a convent for refuse.  On the night she was to take her vows, he made her into a vampire.  Now she has a sort of neurosis where she thinks of the daisies dying or her hair falling out.  Spike rescues her from those moments.”

He does indeed.  As evil as the couple may be, viewers are drawn into the deep love they have for each other.  It is this ‘human’ side that makes them watchable week after week.  They dance, they kiss, they play and yes, they do snack on a teenager now and again, but you can’t hold that against them.  “When Spike and Dru are together we’re sort of gentle and sexual and it’s fun.  Sometimes when you play a villain it’s very one-dimensional but with Dru I have a lot of other colours as well.”