I finally finished BtVS S8. I had been dangerously spoiled, so I wasn't totally blown away by the ending like Roomie was. As such, it wasn't a disappointment. I didn't really get angry or anything. And I felt like Joss' letter at the end of the final volume was perfect - it totally explained to me what happened in his head, that he's /not/sorry and that S9 will be like everything used to be...
Xander and Dawn gives me the BIGGEST yuck of the century. Seriously. I think it's uber super important that the minute Dawn begins writing her own life, Xander falls right out of her mind and she starts to bond with Spike. It's why I love her. Dating Xander, to me, feels like taking away part of her free will. No, really. Xander in Dawn's life represents the monk's interference. Spike in Dawn's life represents her freedom to choose her own life. There is nothing Joss can do to take that metaphor away. Faith + Giles = my new favorite everything. They are wonderful. It's amazing to me how comics can be straddle this amazing line between the overt and the nuance...
Guys I cannot get over how spectacularly wonderful their relationship is. It's perfect and it's Ripper and it's my girl and it's wonderful Giles sacrificing himself? Less interesting to me, at the moment, in terms of how it affects Buffy and more how it affects Faith. Not because I think either relationship is stronger at this point, but because after the space-fucking, Buffy's kinda on my shit list There was space fucking. I'm moving on now The creation of the new universe was incredibly interesting, actually. It deepened the mythology and really gave me some scope for the imagination. I'm not going to say much more on the subject, other than it's unfortunate that comics don't give us more details. I'd like some fic, maybe, on the alternate universe and the creatures living there... are we in a Paradise Lost situation? Is an alt-Lucifer going to come knockin' later and demand answers? ('Cause, I'm just saying now: that would be pretty awesome.) Please, please let Dawn still be the key to reality and therefore an interesting factor in the next "season". I guess everything is leading up to Fray... somehow I want that reality to only be parallel to the one we know, not the logical end. Willow Willow my heart. God that girl just breaks me. She loved that snake-woman. She did. And now.... The world is going to hell because Buffy can't hold still (I'm feeling some weird tie-ins here to the "recklessness" that Faith portrays in Bad Girls - was Buffy reckless in the final battle over the cork (or whatever) and I wonder if that's an inaccurate reading... hmm...) Angel/us = Twilight... okay Spike back, but why? Seriously, it seemed like Joss realized at the end that Spike fans were irritated with the Angel of it all and brought him back just to have another face on the page... let him do something or let him be for the love of Pete God. Poor Dawnie. Xander? Really? Irritating. I had some neat thoughts about Willow in Dopplegangland the other day and unfortunately, shared them with the wrong-ass audience. This particular audience said (and I'm paraphrasing) that: "I know what Faith is supposed to represent, but Eliza Dushku isn't portraying it right." Total WFT moment. What Faith is supposed to represent? Like, Faith can ONLY be the "dark Slayer" and can't be a full character with conflicting emotions/feelings/etc??? And then I watched Willow being all double-Willow and had
Basically it occurred to me, not for the first time, that the costuming department on BtVS was really working hard. But... in thinking about what one character "represents" vs another character I realized that (at least in the early seasons) the costumes totally frack with the audiences' minds! No, really.
Willow is all fuzzy sweaters and bright tights. But we know, hindsight being 20/20, that Willow is more than a fuzzy sweater. She's not even very bright-tights. And when she gets funky Wiccan and starts wearing flowy flowy fun stuff - that's not all she is either. The fuzzy sweater is a cue to the audience that Willow is sweet and innocent and fuzzy. The willowy dresses later cue to the audience that Willow is in a magicks state of mind. But these cues are deceptive. They allow the audience to put their guard down - I know Faith is the "dark" Slayer because she's wearing black. But that's not all there is to Faith. And a character like Willow - who is dressed like a small child - is NOT all innocence and happy sunshine time. Being sucked in to the imagery can put BtVS viewers in a weird place. The Trio are not just nerds. Glory is not just a hot chick. Willow is not a fuzzy sweater. The First is everything and nothing. And Twilight is not just a black cape..
Final note: Faith is my homeboy. Dawn is my baby sister and I love her like pancakes. But Faith, I am discovering, I love just as much and am super excited to see where her character goes from here.