r/BTVSRevival

I know people don't have a very positive view of reboots, but I think they can be very good if they're done by good hands. For example, the Addams Family series from the 60s, the Addams Family movies from the 90s, and the Netflix series Wednesday were all good. They all had differences, and different actors played the same characters in all three productions, and I think they were all good at their jobs.Also, I think the Brady Bunch series from the 70s and the Brady Bunch movies from the 90s were good too. They were productions where the same characters were played by different actors and had different atmospheres to a certain extent, but they were still good.I think if there were a reboot of Buffy, and if the showrunners, writers, and actors making the reboot were genuinely good at their jobs and respected the original series, I think the reboot itself would be pretty good.

I've been thinking about the cancelled Buffy sequel, and while I would've loved to see as many of the Scoobies return as possible (where it actually made sense), I think there was an opportunity to tell a much darker story.

Obviously, if Michelle Trachtenberg, Anthony Head, and Nicholas Brendon were all still with us and able to return, I'd have loved to see Dawn, Giles, and Xander back too. Sadly, that's not the reality, and I believe we'd have been able to count any returning BtVS or Angel characters on one hand anyway.

I'd have made Buffy much more hardened and pessimistic. By this point, she's lost almost everyone she's ever loved. The people still around would mostly be the ones who are immortal or exceptionally powerful, like Spike, Angel, Willow, and maybe Oz popping in from time to time. Almost everyone else is gone.

Buffy still takes Rowan or Nova or whatever her name was going to be under her wing, but unlike her own experience, she constantly discourages Rowan from involving her friends or family. Whenever Rowan starts building her own "Scooby Gang," Buffy shuts it down. She believes Slayers should carry the burden alone because she's convinced everyone who gets close to them eventually pays the price.

Spike or Angel would challenge her on this, reminding Buffy that the only reason she survived as long as she did was because of her friends. Without them, she would've died years ago. But Buffy sees it differently. In her mind, her friends helped keep her alive, but they were the ones who paid the ultimate price. She carries enormous survivor's guilt and believes that if they had never been dragged into her life, many of them would still be alive.

I also wouldn't make Rowan some uniquely chosen, extra-special Slayer or anything. I'd simply make her special because she's the Slayer stationed on the Hellmouth, putting her in situations most Slayers never have to face. Could have other Slayers running around the world at the same time, or not. Could be that Rowan is the first "called" in decades.

The heart of the series would be Rowan proving Buffy wrong. She'd gradually show Buffy that isolation isn't what keeps people alive, and that the bonds Buffy formed weren't her greatest mistake, but were the reason she became the greatest Slayer in the first place.

(Alas, since we didn't get any of that anyway, I'd settle for a Tales of the Slayer anthology series narrated by Sarah Michelle Gellar.)

unpopular opinion, in my opinion, is that a Buffy reboot made by skilled hands wouldn't be a bad thing.

The cancelled sequel series should've explored the real cost of being the Slayer