Tis the season to tl;dr apparently. This time, it's about Faith.
I'm having a pretty hard time enjoying the Buffy Season Eight comics at the moment, particularly with what they've done to Faith in the latest arc. MANY Spoilers below the cut.
To summarize this arc thus far: Faith is the loneliest of lonely outcasts, living in dive accomodations and staying far away from Robin Wood, Buffy, other slayers, and sunshine. Giles contacts her and pays her to put the kibosh on a rogue slayer who is murdering other slayers and has shadowy plans for some kind of take-over. Faith is groomed in some kind of ridiculous My Fair Lady montage to give her a British accent and backstory, since this evil slayer is a royal. On the night of a ball, Faith fails to kill her (due to some interference) and she discovers that the rogue slayer's plan is to kill Buffy, take over the slayers, and use their might to rule the world. Faith and the evil Buffy-hating nutcase find some common ground, mostly Buffy-hating ground; Faith displaying an extreme level of Buffy-complex through the whole damn thing. They bond.
The evil slayer gets Buffy teleported to the compound and tries to kill her; Buffy is enraged mainly at the idea that any slayer would use their powers to kill other slayers systematically, and whips evil slayer's ass in mighty rage. Faith keeps her from killing evil slayer in some kind of sympathetic fugue; she and Buffy fall into the pool, where Faith's inner demons (not literal demons, although with BtVS you never know) bring her to the point of nearly drowning Buffy. She doesn't. Buffy gets out of Dodge. A fight between Faith and her evil former-BFF rogue slayer is imminent, since she starts to attack Faith.
Okay, I'll take a breath.
My problems begin with: for fuck's sake, did the creators of this arc watch Season Seven ?
Season Seven continued an interesting premise about slayerhood that started with Kendra: one slayer is a lonely hero, drifting across a landscape of isolation; two slayers is a contest. More slayers than that ? A sisterhood. A dysfunctional sisterhood, but a sisterhood no less- I think an earlier Season Eeight comic, The Chain, illustrates it beautifully- you may not understand it, but you feel the tug. You're part of something.
In Season Seven, Faith challenged Buffy's leadership role not from the point of an angry outsider, but as one newly willing to shoulder leadership. She'd been criticizing Buffy's reign so long that she now wanted a piece of it- and boy, did she get it. She did what Buffy had only recently done herself: she got girls killed under her command. It shook her. We saw it shake her. And we saw a new, if grudging, understanding on Faith's part of what it really means to be Buffy- what it really means to lead. To have people need that from you. She got shown that true leadership is difficult, draining, and frightening.
In the final episode of Season Seven, Chosen, Buffy and Faith's partnership is not perfect- but it is strong. They lead the slayers together into battle, fighting at their side. When Buffy is wounded horribly, she takes the symbol of her power- of all slayer power- and she hands it without hesitation to Faith. Faith takes it with hesitation, but understanding. She takes her command from Buffy to "hold the line" and she does it admirably (and stylishly- gotta give a girl her due.) They end the television series at one another's side, victorious.
So, I'm led to say: WHAT ? Does any of that sound like the neurotic, Buffy-obsessed, self-demonizing girl of the comics ? They've taken the characterization of Faith; who went through incredible and very moving change in the final seasons; and rewound the clock. For what ? A couple of good corset shots ?
It feels cheap.
The only redeeming moment of characterization was Buffy's reaction to discovering that the evil slayer had been killing girls. Her fury is utterly true to Buffy, whose idea about empowering slayers was the lynchpin of the final season. Buffy has always been fiercely moral about protecting others, even when challenged by self-doubt or conflicted by love. Reading that scene, Buffy feels completely real.
But having Faith stick up for and identify with a girl who sees nothing wrong with murdering other slayers for sport ? What the hell ? Faith was protective of those girls in Season Seven. They looked up to her and for the first time she got to experience what that was like- we saw it transform her a little, give her growth and maturity as a leader. I give her more credit than they do: I don't think fancy bubblebaths and liking the same music would have ever, ever compromised Faith so totally. Because she is compromised in the Season Eight comics: they show her practically crippled by guilt and anger, yet feeling no shame at befriending a monster. To me, it's beyond twisted.
Faith has killed. But she's not a monster. Especially not after the penance and the growth of later seasons.
Ugh, I'm rambling now. But the villains of Season Eight have, so far, been Warren and Amy and the military; adding this to the retread of the Faith/Buffy conflict, we haven't seen much in the way of original ideas out of this series. Old plots and old villains, old character arcs; big castles and super-budgets. Huh.
I'm still buying the comics, but I don't know if I'll consider this a canon extension of the series for me. Not literally: what Joss says is canon is canon ! My fannish entitlement is not yet that crippling. ;) But as far as personal canon, what I strongly feel and believe about the characters... dunno. I'm just not feeling it.
Faith is better than this.
I should withhold judgement until the final book of the arc, but... damn. They have a lot of ground to cover if they're going to redeem it in one issue.
As always, your opinion might vary wildly: how wonderful ! It would be tiresome if everyone agreed all the time. If you are reading the Season Eight comics, I would love to have your thoughts, yay or nay or totally unrelated. I spend enough time in RL blabbing about it, might as well do it here too. ;)
To summarize this arc thus far: Faith is the loneliest of lonely outcasts, living in dive accomodations and staying far away from Robin Wood, Buffy, other slayers, and sunshine. Giles contacts her and pays her to put the kibosh on a rogue slayer who is murdering other slayers and has shadowy plans for some kind of take-over. Faith is groomed in some kind of ridiculous My Fair Lady montage to give her a British accent and backstory, since this evil slayer is a royal. On the night of a ball, Faith fails to kill her (due to some interference) and she discovers that the rogue slayer's plan is to kill Buffy, take over the slayers, and use their might to rule the world. Faith and the evil Buffy-hating nutcase find some common ground, mostly Buffy-hating ground; Faith displaying an extreme level of Buffy-complex through the whole damn thing. They bond.
The evil slayer gets Buffy teleported to the compound and tries to kill her; Buffy is enraged mainly at the idea that any slayer would use their powers to kill other slayers systematically, and whips evil slayer's ass in mighty rage. Faith keeps her from killing evil slayer in some kind of sympathetic fugue; she and Buffy fall into the pool, where Faith's inner demons (not literal demons, although with BtVS you never know) bring her to the point of nearly drowning Buffy. She doesn't. Buffy gets out of Dodge. A fight between Faith and her evil former-BFF rogue slayer is imminent, since she starts to attack Faith.
Okay, I'll take a breath.
My problems begin with: for fuck's sake, did the creators of this arc watch Season Seven ?
Season Seven continued an interesting premise about slayerhood that started with Kendra: one slayer is a lonely hero, drifting across a landscape of isolation; two slayers is a contest. More slayers than that ? A sisterhood. A dysfunctional sisterhood, but a sisterhood no less- I think an earlier Season Eeight comic, The Chain, illustrates it beautifully- you may not understand it, but you feel the tug. You're part of something.
In Season Seven, Faith challenged Buffy's leadership role not from the point of an angry outsider, but as one newly willing to shoulder leadership. She'd been criticizing Buffy's reign so long that she now wanted a piece of it- and boy, did she get it. She did what Buffy had only recently done herself: she got girls killed under her command. It shook her. We saw it shake her. And we saw a new, if grudging, understanding on Faith's part of what it really means to be Buffy- what it really means to lead. To have people need that from you. She got shown that true leadership is difficult, draining, and frightening.
In the final episode of Season Seven, Chosen, Buffy and Faith's partnership is not perfect- but it is strong. They lead the slayers together into battle, fighting at their side. When Buffy is wounded horribly, she takes the symbol of her power- of all slayer power- and she hands it without hesitation to Faith. Faith takes it with hesitation, but understanding. She takes her command from Buffy to "hold the line" and she does it admirably (and stylishly- gotta give a girl her due.) They end the television series at one another's side, victorious.
So, I'm led to say: WHAT ? Does any of that sound like the neurotic, Buffy-obsessed, self-demonizing girl of the comics ? They've taken the characterization of Faith; who went through incredible and very moving change in the final seasons; and rewound the clock. For what ? A couple of good corset shots ?
It feels cheap.
The only redeeming moment of characterization was Buffy's reaction to discovering that the evil slayer had been killing girls. Her fury is utterly true to Buffy, whose idea about empowering slayers was the lynchpin of the final season. Buffy has always been fiercely moral about protecting others, even when challenged by self-doubt or conflicted by love. Reading that scene, Buffy feels completely real.
But having Faith stick up for and identify with a girl who sees nothing wrong with murdering other slayers for sport ? What the hell ? Faith was protective of those girls in Season Seven. They looked up to her and for the first time she got to experience what that was like- we saw it transform her a little, give her growth and maturity as a leader. I give her more credit than they do: I don't think fancy bubblebaths and liking the same music would have ever, ever compromised Faith so totally. Because she is compromised in the Season Eight comics: they show her practically crippled by guilt and anger, yet feeling no shame at befriending a monster. To me, it's beyond twisted.
Faith has killed. But she's not a monster. Especially not after the penance and the growth of later seasons.
Ugh, I'm rambling now. But the villains of Season Eight have, so far, been Warren and Amy and the military; adding this to the retread of the Faith/Buffy conflict, we haven't seen much in the way of original ideas out of this series. Old plots and old villains, old character arcs; big castles and super-budgets. Huh.
I'm still buying the comics, but I don't know if I'll consider this a canon extension of the series for me. Not literally: what Joss says is canon is canon ! My fannish entitlement is not yet that crippling. ;) But as far as personal canon, what I strongly feel and believe about the characters... dunno. I'm just not feeling it.
Faith is better than this.
I should withhold judgement until the final book of the arc, but... damn. They have a lot of ground to cover if they're going to redeem it in one issue.
As always, your opinion might vary wildly: how wonderful ! It would be tiresome if everyone agreed all the time. If you are reading the Season Eight comics, I would love to have your thoughts, yay or nay or totally unrelated. I spend enough time in RL blabbing about it, might as well do it here too. ;)