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What issue are we on again? It's all blurring together. Anyway, I haven't seen it yet, but I predict that the mystery zompire will turn out to be a vamped Slayer. They're not exactly being subtle with the clues - ultra-strong female vamp with a hate-on for Buffy, whom Buffy thinks she knows from somewhere? That might be interesting, except we've already done that with the Turok-Han, haven't we? In fact, aren't the zompires in general just weenier versions of the Turok-Han?
And they are indeed going with Buffy/Dowling. In the abstract, well, if Buffy likes him and he likes her, more power to 'em, but if they go ahead and hook 'em up for good, there's really no reason for Spike to hang around, if he ever comes back. Meh.
In fact, that pretty much sums up this season: Meh, with interludes of WTF? Granted, that summed up S9, too, until we got to the Twangel arc, so it's possible that in the last few issues they'll pull something out of their asses that will send fandom into a tizzy. But so far this season, everything that's looked like it might be a game-changer has piffled out into nothing. Buffy's not pregnant, she doesn't get her powers sucked, she's only a robot because of a well-meaning bumbler, she and Spike are going nowhere, she's not going to get a good job and a nice house after all, she's just... gonna drift on exactly the way she's been drifting on. Maybe she'll hook up with Dowling, but let's face it, he's just another Satsu. (Too bad Mystery Zompire doesn't look more like Satsu. That would be killer. Not that I want Satsu to be a zompire, but I simply won't believe it if Buffy gets all weepy over the death of some random Slayer. According to Scott Allie, she's now OK with Angel having offed hundreds of them, so it's going to ring really false now if she pretends she cares about some other vampire killing this one.) ANYWAY, I doubt the romance will inspire a huge faction of...Bowling shippers?
(Snerk. Well, I guess it's no worse than Spawn.)
But then again, apathy may be exactly what Dark Horse wants, since shippers seem to fill them with consternation and annoyance.
I think what irritates me most about this season is that we've got a great example over in Angel & Faith of how to do it right. A&F has 1) A high-stakes story that follows directly from the catastrophic events of last season 2) Clear-cut motivations and emotional arcs for its lead characters, 3) Lots of meaningful interaction between old characters, 4) Meaningful development of backstory for old characters and the 'verse in general, 5) Interesting new characters. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it's gripping and you care about the outcome.
What kills me is that we could have had all that for Buffy, too - just involve her in Willow's quest to bring back magic, for god's sake! That could have been awesome! But instead we have the limp, hard to manage mess we've got. Why so boring, Dark Horse? Why?
Rants Talk to me
And they are indeed going with Buffy/Dowling. In the abstract, well, if Buffy likes him and he likes her, more power to 'em, but if they go ahead and hook 'em up for good, there's really no reason for Spike to hang around, if he ever comes back. Meh.
In fact, that pretty much sums up this season: Meh, with interludes of WTF? Granted, that summed up S9, too, until we got to the Twangel arc, so it's possible that in the last few issues they'll pull something out of their asses that will send fandom into a tizzy. But so far this season, everything that's looked like it might be a game-changer has piffled out into nothing. Buffy's not pregnant, she doesn't get her powers sucked, she's only a robot because of a well-meaning bumbler, she and Spike are going nowhere, she's not going to get a good job and a nice house after all, she's just... gonna drift on exactly the way she's been drifting on. Maybe she'll hook up with Dowling, but let's face it, he's just another Satsu. (Too bad Mystery Zompire doesn't look more like Satsu. That would be killer. Not that I want Satsu to be a zompire, but I simply won't believe it if Buffy gets all weepy over the death of some random Slayer. According to Scott Allie, she's now OK with Angel having offed hundreds of them, so it's going to ring really false now if she pretends she cares about some other vampire killing this one.) ANYWAY, I doubt the romance will inspire a huge faction of...Bowling shippers?
(Snerk. Well, I guess it's no worse than Spawn.)
But then again, apathy may be exactly what Dark Horse wants, since shippers seem to fill them with consternation and annoyance.
I think what irritates me most about this season is that we've got a great example over in Angel & Faith of how to do it right. A&F has 1) A high-stakes story that follows directly from the catastrophic events of last season 2) Clear-cut motivations and emotional arcs for its lead characters, 3) Lots of meaningful interaction between old characters, 4) Meaningful development of backstory for old characters and the 'verse in general, 5) Interesting new characters. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it's gripping and you care about the outcome.
What kills me is that we could have had all that for Buffy, too - just involve her in Willow's quest to bring back magic, for god's sake! That could have been awesome! But instead we have the limp, hard to manage mess we've got. Why so boring, Dark Horse? Why?
Rants Talk to me