I meant more from a logistical standpoint, that is, how did Buffy dying close the portal, not why'd she kill herself.
I don't know. I feel like Spike would say she wanted to commit suicide--he's really on about that darkness inside of her, her wanting death, embracing it. But he wouldn't get that Buffy never would've done it if she wasn't sure it'd save the world. That is, the only reason she did it was to save the world; no matter how many other factors might've tempted her, she would never've given into them.
The reason she looks happy, imo, is yeah, maybe relief, but not so much because she gets to die as because she thinks she's finally doing the right thing. All of S5 she couldn't win, couldn't defeat Glory, couldn't save Dawn, couldn't do the One Thing In All The World Only She Could Do. And she's confused that the world has no answers, that she could suffer everything she's suffered to save the world and still not save it anyway. But at the end she figures out how to save it; she finds her answer; her faith in the world is restored in a way, her faith in LIFE is restored in a way, and she tells Dawn that. That she has to die to get there is a price she's willing to pay to make the world a fair place for Dawn.
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I don't know. I feel like Spike would say she wanted to commit suicide--he's really on about that darkness inside of her, her wanting death, embracing it. But he wouldn't get that Buffy never would've done it if she wasn't sure it'd save the world. That is, the only reason she did it was to save the world; no matter how many other factors might've tempted her, she would never've given into them.
The reason she looks happy, imo, is yeah, maybe relief, but not so much because she gets to die as because she thinks she's finally doing the right thing. All of S5 she couldn't win, couldn't defeat Glory, couldn't save Dawn, couldn't do the One Thing In All The World Only She Could Do. And she's confused that the world has no answers, that she could suffer everything she's suffered to save the world and still not save it anyway. But at the end she figures out how to save it; she finds her answer; her faith in the world is restored in a way, her faith in LIFE is restored in a way, and she tells Dawn that. That she has to die to get there is a price she's willing to pay to make the world a fair place for Dawn.