For a rant concerning everything about my once favorite series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, go

Yesterday I realized that Buffy Summers is the equivalent of a dinosaur. Or rather, of a Neanderthal. The Neanderthals developed outside of the chain of evolution which ultimately produced the modern-day homo sapiens. They populated an evolutionary niche that led exactly nowhere in the end. Just like them, Buffy is already as good as extinct, given, of course, that one ignores the unsettling repercussions of the series' finale which I haven't seen so far.

Buffy is wrong in brandishing the 'Slayer' label like a weapon or a logo of quality; she no longer is the Slayer. Buffy stopped being the 'Chosen One' the moment she died for the first time, that instant her heart stopped when she drowned in the caverns beneath Sunny-dale, killed by the Master. That second, the power of the Slayer was transferred to her successor, Kendra. When Kendra died, said power went to Kendra's successor, Faith. Should Faith die, another Potential will follow her and become the Slayer.

Buffy is an aberration of nature, a paradox; she should be dead (now twice over), and yet she isn't. She's like the queen of a country that turned democracy; still present, but unimportant in the great scheme of things. Yes, she still has the power that's in her blood, she's still strong and capable, but she no longer is The Slayer.

So why was she given the Axe to defeat the First Evil? Why does she still think of the world as her plaything? I don't get her anymore; I don't understand what drives her and lets her react in a manner that I find appalling. Did she leave behind part of her humanity when Willow brought her back from death?

Or, more likely, is it just a change 'behind the scenes', so to speak, when Joss Whedon left for Angel and Firefly, and a couple of new authors got handed the whole concept on a platter to do with as they liked?

For example, this incessant 'We're at War!" preaching turns my stomach. Who wrote her character like this? Marti Noxon? Is Buffy, the Vampire Slayer now a commercial vehicle to promote Bush's actions in Iraq? Because that's what the last six to eight episodes felt like.

It's easy to speak of "war" and berate others for not doing their share when you have no weapon that works, when you cannot attack without being utterly defeated, when every offensive action is pure unmitigated suicide. Buffy was barely able to kill one Uber-Vamp. Still, the worst propaganda I ever heard came out of her mouth in a time like this. What for? To show that pure stupid determination can win over facts? That thinking is unnecessary if your leader shouts: "Jump!"? That even civilians are an army and therefore have to blindly follow orders, and mustn't criticize their superiors? That if you dare to not agree you have to pay the prize for your disobedience in blood like Faith and the potentials did in when they stumbled into Caleb's trap? That whole storyline still makes me sick.

Doesn't Joss Whedon watch his own series anymore? Or is he blind? Why did Sarah Michelle Gellar not say anything? Is she stupid? Why did she let the writers turn her character into a bitch whose death on-screen I'd have cheered on and celebrated with chocolate? The same goes for James Marsters; Spike in olive instead of his customary black and smiling so broadly his cheek muscles must have cramped - huh? Where am I, in an alternate universe? And what was the matter with Giles; why did the character return at all if he only behaved like an asshole?

I truly do not understand the writers' motivations. Yes, the Uber-Vamps and Caleb were damned hard to kill. But - remember the Judge earlier on in the series? Xander used his memories of his time in the Army in the Hallowe'en episode to steal a missile launcher, and Buffy blasted the supposedly indestructible Judge away.

If they'd never had that episode, I could have said, yeah, Buffy is a fantasy series that doesn't use modern weaponry. But - they did. Before.

So... why not this time? It would have been the only action to make any sense. Heck, if the writers hadn't wanted to employ this easy means to dispose of Caleb et al, they could have at least explained that Buffy's gang hadn't been able to access any modern Army equipment, hadn't been able to contact the Initiative, etc. But no single script did. What do the writers think their viewers are, stupid? I felt like I was being treated like a immature child too dumb to follow even the basest chains of logic.

Then - that axe. When I saw it for the first time, I thought it was a modern gardening tool. Then I learnt that it was supposed to be several thousand years old. Huh? With that red lacquer? Bloody likely. Besides, back then, steel was unknown to man; therefore that thing would have to have been made of iron at the most, most likely rather of softer alloys like bronze or copper. It would have rusted like no one's business. Just take a look at the weapons of old you can find in museums; the only ones still preserved are from the late Middle Ages or later. Why couldn't the series' writers have used an axe made of bronze with a visible magical aura that could have explained away why the metal hadn't eroded? Why an axe that looked like it came from the gardening department of Walmart?

I guess the old saying's true after all. Do not produce a series after its fifth season; it'll only turn into a hare-brained parody of itself and will ultimately scare more faithful viewers away than attract new ones, because it ignores its own past and always takes the easiest way out, foregoing explanations or logic for cheap effect. Just look at the X-Files.

I liked Buffy.

I loved this series.

Now I'm just glad it's all over.

And if I thump my head a couple more times against my desk, I might even convince myself to watch the finale..

Not that I really want to watch "Chosen" after all the spoilers I've read, but I guess I still will, next week. Argh, argh, argh.