I'm a huge fan of "What If?" It's a game that can drive you crazy, but I've always been completely fascinated by the ways that one little thing can drastically change the future in unexpected ways. So...

What if Xander had told Buffy that Willow was doing the spell?
Would Buffy have held back against Angelus and been killed? Would Buffy have tried harder to keep him from pulling out the sword in the first place if she thought she had a chance to save him? Would it have made any difference? Would Willow's magick have grown differently if her first experience with it had been more positive?

What if someone wished to Anya that Warren's gun had jammed? Or his jetpack misfired?
Would it be considered a "vengeful" enough wish if Buffy said she wanted to kick Warren's ass herself? Even months in the future, would one of the Scoobies (Willow, at very least, or maybe Dawn) be willing to change the past if it meant a chance to save Tara's life and prevent Willow's rampage?

What if Jenny had been working on her home computer?
You know, where a vampire can't wander in off the street? Would Angelus have still killed her? Would he have killed someone else to make his big impression? If she didn't have Miss Calendar's shoes to fill, would Willow have still become interested in witchcraft and almost destroyed the world? Would Willow have still met Tara at the Wicca group meeting? Would Jenny, Tara, and Warren all still be alive if Jenny had thought not to be out alone after dark?

What if Olivia had decided she could handle the monstery weirdness?
Would Giles have stayed in Sunnydale if Olivia were there with him? How much of seasons six and seven would have been different if Olivia had made a different decision two years earlier?

What if Xander hadn't chosen to be a soldier that Halloween?
How many plans since would have been different if he didn't have a few hours of "Private Harris" memory to draw upon? Would The Judge have burned up all of humanity without Xander's previous choice of costume?

What if Cordelia hadn't asked Willow to help set up the sound system for the dance?
If Willow hadn't been at the school that morning to be frightened by the killings on campus, would Buffy have still gone to face The Master and died? Would Kendra and Faith have been Called? Would Finch (the Mayor's assistant) and the geology professor Faith stabbed still be alive? For that matter, would Buffy have been able to stop The Mayor without Faith's dream-help? Would Giles have been killed facing The Master in Buffy's place? How many times over might Sunnydale and the world have been destroyed if Cordy hadn't asked Willow that favour?

What if Harmony hadn't been killed at Graduation?
Would Buffy have known how to stop Spike when he had the Gem if Harmony hadn't been there to blab about it? Would he have killed Buffy if she hadn't known to take the ring off him? Would Spike have left Sunnydale then or stuck around? Would he still have been in town to be chipped? And go on his quest at the end of season six? How different would everyone's lives be if Harmony hadn't been bitten at Graduation?

What if Giles had gotten the memo about Gwendolyn Post going rogue?
What difference would it have made in Faith's path if she hadn't been taken in by that woman?

What if Michael hadn't thought to run to the SHS Library when the adults started rounding people up in Gingerbread?
Would Buffy, Amy, and Willow have been burned at the stake if Giles and the others hadn't known where to go? How many apocolypses since wouldn't have been averted? And on a smaller scale, because it's the one I seem to keep returning to, would Tara be alive if Michael hadn't run to the Library years earlier?

What if Buffy hadn't been bled on by the demon in "Earshot"?
Would Jonathan have killed himself? Would the lunch lady have succeeded in poisoning the students? And if she had succeeded, how would that have affected the Mayor's plans for the remaining student body? With Jonathan dead, would Warren still have taken the same path? And without Jonathan, would Tara and Warren still be alive if Buffy hadn't been bled on?

What if Xander hadn't borrowed his uncle's car?
Would the rest of the gang be dead now, caught in the explosion of Jack's "cake"? Or would Jack's plan have even taken off without his "wheel man"? And would the apocalypse happening upstairs have come about if the school, and therefore the people inside fighting against it, were destroyed? Would Faith have been killed by the Sister of Jhe she was getting whupped by? New Slayer? No reason for Buffy to go to L.A. and yell at Angel. Would Anya have been Xander's "first"?

What if Cordelia had made a different wish?
Would Anya still be around now, or would a more subtle wish (like the "Willow with monkey hair" option) not have been so quickly discovered? And Giles... would he have been more reluctant to leave if Anya weren't there to take over the Magic Box, or would he have sold it and left anyway?

What if Willow hadn't brought Buffy back?
Would the world be Slayerless? With the line running through Faith now, what would the Council have done? Sent in a team to get her out of jail? Or maybe a less friendly team to kill her and "call" the next Slayer? What did the Council spend all that summer doing without an active Slayer?

What if Xander had talked a little longer with Willow at the costume party?
Presumably, Ampata would have drained Jonathan. And if Jonathan had died way back in S2, how drastically different would the last two seasons have been? His know-how was a huge part of The Trio's schemes in S6, so if Xander had chatted with Willow for a few more seconds, would Tara and Katrina still be alive? And for that matter, where and how would Andrew be now? And there's that other little question it raises for S7 as well: namely, what would have happened with the seal in the school basement?

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