Amen, the end.

[Nina]

I've trouble with Buffy's lack of progression (IMO) in the last seasons, worse .. I think that she is regressing. But this morning I asked myself who Buffy must be in the end of her story, to satisfy me. And I can't find an answer.

I don't know when or how, but once Buffy's story will end. One day we will read the last panel, see the last scene or read the last alinea of her story. What for a person should she be at that point? If she will die, how?

Angel's story never caused me this trouble, Angel last page is about being redeemed or him making amends with who he really was, is and will be. Angel grows every season, he makes mistakes but he gets stronger out of it. And slowly, we see him making amends with who he is, and he becomes a better man. And if you read that, it will feel good.

Buffy was never stronger than she was in season 2, when she 'killed' Angel to save the world. Who didn't love her when she said the word 'Me' and shove the sword in Angel in Becoming. In my eyes, this is still the ultimate sacrifice ... it's easier to die than to live with the idea that the man you love is in hell because you send him to that place. Doesn't change the greatness of her jump in The Gift, but for me ... Becoming was Buffy's most glorious moment as a hero.

So where does Buffy end her story? After years of seeing this girl fight, I want to be proud of her in the end. But how can they top Becoming or The Gift? It would be cheap if they did the 'I killed the person I love the most' story again, and Buffy sacrificing herself is also a been-there-done-that story.

In the last seasons we see a Buffy who isn't a shadow anymore of the strong girl in season 2. The fall of a hero can be a beautiful story, but would it satisfy? I don't think so, it's a very depressive message. If you save the world too many times, you become an unlikable, lifeless person who dies without glory. Not really an optimistic message or a nice ending for a story about female empowerment.

Maybe a real epiphany will be enough? A bright, non-depressive, sweet Buffy would be great, but is it enough to end her story with? I don't know, it's not the big emotional bang nor will it satisfy like Angel's story, because Buffy started as a happy and nice girl ... Angel started out as nothing.

To make a long story short, I still don't know the answer. Maybe I'll steal your ideas. So, what do you want to happen on Buffy's last page? And, if you want Buffy to be married and have ten childeren on the last page ... what will happen on the page before that scenario.

[Sosa lola]

I want her to be happy. I want her to not be alone. I want her to not feel alone. I want her surrounded with family of friends she trusts and a nice boyfriend she's capable of loving back with the same passion she felt about Angel.

That would be too fairy-tale-y but I'll take it. Poor Buffy suffered a lot and she needs a happily ever after ending with no problems except for paying bills, raising kids, and a few lousy days at work. Real life type work.

[Weredog]

I want her to be done baking. With (a human) Angel.

I also want her to be heartbreakingly proud when Dawn leaves the nest as a successful something something something.

And I want her to be an arm's length away from Giles, Xander and Willow. Forever.

[Michael]

The best ending is a new beginning.

To judge from what I have picked up from the spoiler for #16 in the comic book series, in the 23rd century they have the legend of a Slayer in the 21st century who led the good guys in an apocalyptic battle that drove all the demons away from the Earth and brought the line of slayers to an end.

That sounds very much like Buffy's last fight in the slayer mode, at least I hope it is. What next? Buffy has the mind and spirit of a fighter. I can see her going back to college and becoming a lawyer--a crusading lawyer fighting the Big Bads of our mundane world just as she fought against supernatural evil, only with different weapons and different tactics.

Relationships? I think that when you doing what your soul wants you to do you meet the right people.

[-beardo-]

I think Joss is doing a season nine, not to sure, but for me, when buffy finally ends it should be like this, whether its a movie, book, comic whatever, this is how it should end.

We see a big battle ending all magics and buffy is no longer a slayer, we then see scenes with her in the future (something like whjat charmed had on the last episode), the scenes include, children, partying whatever, just different scenes of her life after the last fight. And finally we see a buffy (now an old woman) lying in a bed, with all her children, grandchildren surrounding her crying, we then see next to her a old man lying in bed with her, the old man is angel (since he is now human) and they hold each others hands, and close there eyes and die peacefully. After that we should see a graveyard and in that grave yard we should see different graves of charcters, willow, xander, everyone who would have been around buffys age, and it finnaly ends on buffys grave and it says the same thing that it said on the grave in the gift and then above all of their garves, there spirts appear as there normal selfs.

buffy should be allowed a normal life.

[ThePoet's<3]

The best ending is a new beginning.

Very well spoken, Michael!!

To judge from what I have picked up from the spoiler for #16 in the comic book series, in the 23rd century they have the legend of a Slayer in the 21st century who led the good guys in an apocalyptic battle that drove all the demons away from the Earth and brought the line of slayers to an end.

That sounds very much like Buffy's last fight in the slayer mode, at least I hope it is. What next? Buffy has the mind and spirit of a fighter. I can see her going back to college and becoming a lawyer--a crusading lawyer fighting the Big Bads of our mundane world just as she fought against supernatural evil, only with different weapons and different tactics.

Relationships? I think that when you doing what your soul wants you to do you meet the right people.

From the comic "Fray":

"A Slayer, possibly with some mystical allies, faced an apocalyptic army of demons. And when it was done, they were gone. All demons, all magicks, banished from this earthly dimension," and the Slayer, whose fate is unknown, was the last to be called.

As we move closer to the Fray comic storyline I think it will be more clear as to what Buffy will make of her life.

My wishes are her to either settle with Spike (or William he will be now - a writer of poetry, novels and short stories). Or she will meet someone outside of the Buffyverse.

But Fray is definitely the new beginning.

[redrevo]

I think the important thing is that we don't see the end, whether it be the end of magic or the end of any of the Core Four's lives. It would just snuff out the imagination. There would be no more speculative discussions about where Buffy is now, no more future fanfiction, and a death ending would be too much of a sad note to end on for such a vibrant, living show.

Also, if Joss were to end the comics with the end of magic, it would be entirely too predictable because of the Fray comics. Perhaps he will explore time travel and have Buffy alter the future because she knows what it's like...

[lara]

I'd like her to be cookies...as in she finally being confortable with who she is and what she wants in life...do what, in her soul, she feels is right and not minding so much what other people expect from her.

From what little I've read about Fray, yeah I agree, Fray is the new beginning.

[vampmogs]

I want Buffy to end being the strong passionate woman she was before season six and seven, a woman I'm seeing glimpses of in season 8 and I only hope that continues. I want her to still have Willow and Xander by her side, and Giles if possible, that'd just be great. I want her and Dawn to be close and happy, for Buffy to either be with Angel again or even just somone else who'd she feel as passionate about as she did with Angel or happily confident and content without a guy at all.

Really I don't think it'd be cheesy at all for her to return to the same kind of state she was in in s2-s4. She still has the life lessons, but there's nothing immature about being a woman who's happy and heroic and immensly passionate about life, maturity doesn't have to mean depression or bitterness or becoming unlikeable.

[Enisy]

I was more or less satisfied with the send-off she got in Chosen, so more of the same: A validation of the series' theme of female empowerment, and of Buffy's hero status (even in the case that it leaves some ethical question-marks, like Chosen did -- the authorial intent holds enough weight for me to overlook them), a heroine who's still surrounded by her "family" (verifying that she "walks and talks and shops and sneezes", despite being a Slayer), an open ending to her love life, and hope for the future.

[KingofCretins]

Romantically speaking, I would love an ending identical to the end of "Veronica Mars" Season 1 -- it would drive the fandom crazy forever. Especially if the ending was set a little bit later, with Buffy in her 30s or so.

Here's a basic idea I'd love -- we know that the magic faded, but Buffy herself still *is* a Slayer, just without anything to really slay. I nice long Joss one shot takes us through a picture of her life. She's a doctor/police detective/firefighter ("Restless")/teacher -- something pro bono publico, y'know? -- and still teaches one or two remaining Slayers, perhaps -- and we see her get home, see moppets on or near her yard that may or may not be hers, because all she does is smile at them as she walks up to her door, and she steps through and greets... someone we can't see.

End of series.

[litzie]

I find it pretty hard to imagine a satisfactory ending myself. I have to say, any angel or spike decision time nonsense would really put me off. While I always loved the romance side of buffy, that was never what the series was about for me.

Some things that would be necessary to a resolution for me:
-things with buffy and Giles coming to a head, and subsequently being resolved in a real, and not superficial (cough-season-seven-cough-cough), way.
-a further reunion between Buffy and faith, with a new level of mutual respect. As nicely as Faith's arc ended, their relationship can't end with them trying to kill each other again! hello, been there, so done that.
-the intimations of a future path for buffy. I would so not be ok with Joss wiping all the demons off the face of the earth and then ending with a big smile. I want some where do we go from here's answered. And no blowing up the castle and leaving just a big crater!

[Michael]

I agree with litzie that there must be a clear and serious resolution of the problem with Giles. And I hope to see Willow and Xander support Buffy decently, and not weazle out of it and let her down.

I also would like to see a full reconciliation between Buffy and Faith, but it sees to me that their last encounter in No Future For You was so engineered as to set up another showdown or something. I hope I am wrong.

In my mind's eye I can see "Summers & Lehane"-- a partnership in which Buffy is a lawyer and Faith is a private eye.