Buffy #23--Predators and Prey
To honor an issue about our favorite pop culture sponge nerd, I’m gonna list some pop cultural parallels that this issue reminded me of.
1)Star Trek: Voyager--Neelix feels his usefulness as Voyager’s navigator is almost up as they’re coming to the end of the Delta Quadrant so he lies his butt off just so Janeway doesn’t dump his ass on an M-Class.
The parallel is almost too obvious, but it also has a nice angle that the writers were probably shooting for in this issue. Andrew is a very divisive character in the fandom and it was interesting how mixed the anticipation for the issue was. It went from “Yay! Buffy and Andrew team-up! This will be fun! We might get some news about if Buffy knows Spike’s alive!” to “Why doesn’t Buffy just kill Andrew already? We all know he’s Twilight!” I’m sure there were many Voyager fans who were probably hoping Janeway would dump Neelix, too.
Instead, in a more scolding and somewhat nastier tone than Buffy, Janeway basically said she would not give Neelix the easy way out. You’re a full member of this crew, now, and this is when we really see how you step up with this responsibility by dealing with the consequences of your lies. Neelix gets reprimanded and chewed out. No more. No less. Just like any member of her crew.
I think one of the reasons I liked this issue is how in a roundabout way we might have seen how Wesley might have dealt with his failure with Faith if he stayed in Sunnydale instead of becoming the wandering Rogue Demon Hunter. I always wondered how Buffy saw Wesley after that, because all she really knew is that he joined with Angel in LA. And she certainly did not see his turn into badass, tortured stubbled stud. Faith got a picture, and the scary thing is I think evil bitch Faith would have dug the hell out of Wesley. But reformed Faith is appalled at his ruthlessness. What if instead of Rogue Demon Hunter we get Andrew Wells, Rogue Demon Master.
I mentioned before how in After the Fall, Angel learned that mistakes don’t define you it’s how you bounce back from them. Buffy extends this same lesson to Andrew. More importantly, as wise Maggie brought up, maybe she’s learned this lesson herself.
So both Neelix and Andrew are part of their respective crews and they aren’t going anywhere. Deal with it.
2) In a clip that’s gonna make me make a clockwork orange out of my less enlightened and narrow-minded friends if they badmouth Battlestar Galactica, Lee Adama gives one of those speeches that defines why so many feel Galactica transcends sci-fi. Having the temerity and gall to call out those who want Gaius Baltar to pay for his crimes on New Caprica. Not because he’s guilty. But because they don’t like him. And in turn deny their own culpability and error in judgment. They voted for him. Point the finger at yourselves.
I’m a big fan of episodes that are nothing special plot wise but standout because of their characters. Here is an interesting variation on that. It’s one thing to introduce a charismatic vampire during parent-teacher night or love spell du jour centered around the adorable Everyman nerd that we all root for. This is pretty standard, too, save for one character we love and have loved, while the other is at best a wild card for some while an annoyance Willow should have taken care of in that meat shop. Because at least Warren had misogyny to mask his nerdiness. And because of that darkness that automatically makes him cool.
Now before this sounds like I’m on the Andrew bandwagon, I went through the entire story expecting the other shoe to drop with him and the writers immediately picked up on this by fucking with the reader pretty much the whole way through. Even if we got the seal of ally approval with Buffy, well she still can’t be friends with him, right? No, they found the Daniel Craig bond and voila, Buffy’s got her Xander, Jr. So if the main hero’s judgment isn’t good enough, then who’s is? This, honestly, is as close to a “fuck you, we like the character” story as the Buffy staff has ever given us. I love stories with this kind of hidden meta. I still think the whole Angel/Spike rivalry of Season Five of Angel was a total dig at both camps. And importantly that also hasn’t gone away. More on that later.
But if I can speak from Mutant Enemy’s side for a minute, why can’t they get a bit ornery? When you have fans telling the writer that he’s wrong that this character would do something so audacious as get a soul because, well, he’s an evil, soulless vampire and it’s wrong for characters to grow and evolve because, hello, evil, how the hell are you supposed to respond to something like that? The writers must go into some doozies of chucklefests about us, sometimes.
Like all good stories you could take Predators and Prey at face value or dig into the meta commentary which takes me to
3) Watchmen
Yes, it probably has to do with the fact I saw this on Friday but here’s the biggest misconception about the story. It’s not the story itself that made the graphic novel so revolutionary. Super hero gets murdered and his retired teammates reunite to investigate. Big whoop. It’s how it went about telling it subversively, undermining expectations, and making the characters completely fucked up human beings.
I’ve seen comments stating how unimpressed they were with the issue itself. It’s a retread. It’s like a combination of Family from Buffy and Reunion from Angel. Not very original.
But like Watchmen with being a fan of comics and comic book conventions and knowing what they’re referencing so too does it help when you're familiar with the Buffyverse and its conventions
You also want to keep this in mind.
Nothing is incidental. There’s purpose behind the briefest non-sequitur or random frame. I may be reaching here but methinks there’s a little something going on that’s unsaid which really gives some meat to the story,
But we’ll start with the episode comparison first.
Yes, this is like Family except for one crucial difference. Thanks to Amber Benson’s beautiful realizing of the character we’re completely in her corner. Plus she wuvs Willow and we all wuv Willow, don’t we?
With Andrew everything is stacked against him. He was with the Troika, he was a follower with no moral backbone, his redemption was, shall we say, written for an ADD generation it seems, and even in this issue he really hasn’t shown any noticeable signs of growing up.
So the scary thing about Simone is that part of us agrees with her. She makes some valid and cold-blooded points. But they’re cold-blooded. Buffy could have ignored and dismissed Giles, too, but even when he was a bit tweedy and stuffy ended up being a confidant and mentor to Buffy in more profound ways. Ways Buffy heeded. Ways she didn’t forget.
And, likewise, even if Simone has a point the Italy Squad proves her wrong by risking their lives to save Mr. Wells. So therefore he is worth something and worth being a member of Buffy’s family.
And from Buffy’s perspective it’s even more devastating. Tara turned her back on her family in that episode. For all intents and purposes, Buffy turns her back on her spiritual family.
That’s not to say everyone, but there’s now a definite underlying addendum of saving Slayers worth saving. What’s telling is how much this reminded me of her encounter with Faith. While primarily Buffy was trying to save Andrew, I think the deeper significance is she was trying to save Simone’s soul and to consider that her way wasn’t the only way. There are other options, other perspectives. Look how taking a life fundamentally changed Faith. Hell, look how it changed Buffy.
And when you look at it that way, as Buffy the mother trying to bring back the daughter who has lost her way, then the more devastating parallel can be seen. It’s not for Reunion, it’s for Season Seven’s Potential.
We’ve come full circle now. The first time was a training exercise that proved that these potentials were worthy of becoming Slayers. This time it’s the real deal under far more dangerous circumstances. And this time mother leaves these Slayers behind. They have perverted the Slayer legacy and Buffy has symbolically cut the cord. They are lost potential.
On the other hand, it has strengthened her loyalty to the human race. The destruction of the castle has forced the queen to mingle with the common folk. She’s made a personal connection to a girl and an old woman now. She’s no longer above humanity like she told Satsu. She’s seen that to save humanity (and the Slayers) she has to be part of humanity. Honestly, I missed seeing Buffy like this and it felt really good.
So a bittersweet ending, perhaps. I personally would have liked it if Buffy would have taken one long last look at the scythe before putting it away in a safehouse in the basement or something. Something solid with four feet wide metal doors.
But there was also an expectation that fans were hoping for more than Buffy and Andrew: Road Pals. What does Buffy know about Spike and would Andrew spill the beans.
It was the elephant in the room and in one brilliant throwaway we get our answer.
The key line is stuff he hasn’t said that he wants to. So in a roundabout way he admits to Buffy that Spike is alive, but in such a way as to not really reveal anything. That way she won’t take back not trusting him and he can still keep Spike’s secret. Andrew’s getting better at lying. It’s more indirect.
Which is why he basically says the trade up thing. He’s in Spike’s corner and wants Buffy to consider her options. Kind of how Buffy tells Simone to consider hers. Don’t be stuck on one path because of destiny or whatever. Because people and loves aren’t the end all, be all. They’re just people.
Now that’s not to say Buffy will choose Spike once she finds out for sure. She may not. He’s as much as an option as Angel. But so is Xander or anyone else she may meet along life’s journey. That’s the point of Andrew’s little rant. Keep your options open.
But then we get into something else Watchmen is famous for--the moral quandary. There it was pretty fuckin’ signinificant to the entire story. Here, not so much. Still it’s interesting. When is it permissible to lie? Would the news have just completely thrown Buffy off her game against Simone, so was Andrew actually doing Buffy a favor? Is lying all right when you want to own up to personal responsibility yourself? To show you can handle it? To prove to yourself you can?
Also, I think Andrew better remember Buffy’s forgiveness for his lie here. Because lies out in the field where she’s constantly dealt with lies with good intentions is one thing.
Lies affecting the heart, however, may prove to be unforgivable.
Tallgent
1)Star Trek: Voyager--Neelix feels his usefulness as Voyager’s navigator is almost up as they’re coming to the end of the Delta Quadrant so he lies his butt off just so Janeway doesn’t dump his ass on an M-Class.
The parallel is almost too obvious, but it also has a nice angle that the writers were probably shooting for in this issue. Andrew is a very divisive character in the fandom and it was interesting how mixed the anticipation for the issue was. It went from “Yay! Buffy and Andrew team-up! This will be fun! We might get some news about if Buffy knows Spike’s alive!” to “Why doesn’t Buffy just kill Andrew already? We all know he’s Twilight!” I’m sure there were many Voyager fans who were probably hoping Janeway would dump Neelix, too.
Instead, in a more scolding and somewhat nastier tone than Buffy, Janeway basically said she would not give Neelix the easy way out. You’re a full member of this crew, now, and this is when we really see how you step up with this responsibility by dealing with the consequences of your lies. Neelix gets reprimanded and chewed out. No more. No less. Just like any member of her crew.
I think one of the reasons I liked this issue is how in a roundabout way we might have seen how Wesley might have dealt with his failure with Faith if he stayed in Sunnydale instead of becoming the wandering Rogue Demon Hunter. I always wondered how Buffy saw Wesley after that, because all she really knew is that he joined with Angel in LA. And she certainly did not see his turn into badass, tortured stubbled stud. Faith got a picture, and the scary thing is I think evil bitch Faith would have dug the hell out of Wesley. But reformed Faith is appalled at his ruthlessness. What if instead of Rogue Demon Hunter we get Andrew Wells, Rogue Demon Master.
I mentioned before how in After the Fall, Angel learned that mistakes don’t define you it’s how you bounce back from them. Buffy extends this same lesson to Andrew. More importantly, as wise Maggie brought up, maybe she’s learned this lesson herself.
So both Neelix and Andrew are part of their respective crews and they aren’t going anywhere. Deal with it.
2) In a clip that’s gonna make me make a clockwork orange out of my less enlightened and narrow-minded friends if they badmouth Battlestar Galactica, Lee Adama gives one of those speeches that defines why so many feel Galactica transcends sci-fi. Having the temerity and gall to call out those who want Gaius Baltar to pay for his crimes on New Caprica. Not because he’s guilty. But because they don’t like him. And in turn deny their own culpability and error in judgment. They voted for him. Point the finger at yourselves.
I’m a big fan of episodes that are nothing special plot wise but standout because of their characters. Here is an interesting variation on that. It’s one thing to introduce a charismatic vampire during parent-teacher night or love spell du jour centered around the adorable Everyman nerd that we all root for. This is pretty standard, too, save for one character we love and have loved, while the other is at best a wild card for some while an annoyance Willow should have taken care of in that meat shop. Because at least Warren had misogyny to mask his nerdiness. And because of that darkness that automatically makes him cool.
Now before this sounds like I’m on the Andrew bandwagon, I went through the entire story expecting the other shoe to drop with him and the writers immediately picked up on this by fucking with the reader pretty much the whole way through. Even if we got the seal of ally approval with Buffy, well she still can’t be friends with him, right? No, they found the Daniel Craig bond and voila, Buffy’s got her Xander, Jr. So if the main hero’s judgment isn’t good enough, then who’s is? This, honestly, is as close to a “fuck you, we like the character” story as the Buffy staff has ever given us. I love stories with this kind of hidden meta. I still think the whole Angel/Spike rivalry of Season Five of Angel was a total dig at both camps. And importantly that also hasn’t gone away. More on that later.
But if I can speak from Mutant Enemy’s side for a minute, why can’t they get a bit ornery? When you have fans telling the writer that he’s wrong that this character would do something so audacious as get a soul because, well, he’s an evil, soulless vampire and it’s wrong for characters to grow and evolve because, hello, evil, how the hell are you supposed to respond to something like that? The writers must go into some doozies of chucklefests about us, sometimes.
Like all good stories you could take Predators and Prey at face value or dig into the meta commentary which takes me to
3) Watchmen
Yes, it probably has to do with the fact I saw this on Friday but here’s the biggest misconception about the story. It’s not the story itself that made the graphic novel so revolutionary. Super hero gets murdered and his retired teammates reunite to investigate. Big whoop. It’s how it went about telling it subversively, undermining expectations, and making the characters completely fucked up human beings.
I’ve seen comments stating how unimpressed they were with the issue itself. It’s a retread. It’s like a combination of Family from Buffy and Reunion from Angel. Not very original.
But like Watchmen with being a fan of comics and comic book conventions and knowing what they’re referencing so too does it help when you're familiar with the Buffyverse and its conventions
You also want to keep this in mind.
Nothing is incidental. There’s purpose behind the briefest non-sequitur or random frame. I may be reaching here but methinks there’s a little something going on that’s unsaid which really gives some meat to the story,
But we’ll start with the episode comparison first.
Yes, this is like Family except for one crucial difference. Thanks to Amber Benson’s beautiful realizing of the character we’re completely in her corner. Plus she wuvs Willow and we all wuv Willow, don’t we?
With Andrew everything is stacked against him. He was with the Troika, he was a follower with no moral backbone, his redemption was, shall we say, written for an ADD generation it seems, and even in this issue he really hasn’t shown any noticeable signs of growing up.
So the scary thing about Simone is that part of us agrees with her. She makes some valid and cold-blooded points. But they’re cold-blooded. Buffy could have ignored and dismissed Giles, too, but even when he was a bit tweedy and stuffy ended up being a confidant and mentor to Buffy in more profound ways. Ways Buffy heeded. Ways she didn’t forget.
And, likewise, even if Simone has a point the Italy Squad proves her wrong by risking their lives to save Mr. Wells. So therefore he is worth something and worth being a member of Buffy’s family.
And from Buffy’s perspective it’s even more devastating. Tara turned her back on her family in that episode. For all intents and purposes, Buffy turns her back on her spiritual family.
That’s not to say everyone, but there’s now a definite underlying addendum of saving Slayers worth saving. What’s telling is how much this reminded me of her encounter with Faith. While primarily Buffy was trying to save Andrew, I think the deeper significance is she was trying to save Simone’s soul and to consider that her way wasn’t the only way. There are other options, other perspectives. Look how taking a life fundamentally changed Faith. Hell, look how it changed Buffy.
And when you look at it that way, as Buffy the mother trying to bring back the daughter who has lost her way, then the more devastating parallel can be seen. It’s not for Reunion, it’s for Season Seven’s Potential.
We’ve come full circle now. The first time was a training exercise that proved that these potentials were worthy of becoming Slayers. This time it’s the real deal under far more dangerous circumstances. And this time mother leaves these Slayers behind. They have perverted the Slayer legacy and Buffy has symbolically cut the cord. They are lost potential.
On the other hand, it has strengthened her loyalty to the human race. The destruction of the castle has forced the queen to mingle with the common folk. She’s made a personal connection to a girl and an old woman now. She’s no longer above humanity like she told Satsu. She’s seen that to save humanity (and the Slayers) she has to be part of humanity. Honestly, I missed seeing Buffy like this and it felt really good.
So a bittersweet ending, perhaps. I personally would have liked it if Buffy would have taken one long last look at the scythe before putting it away in a safehouse in the basement or something. Something solid with four feet wide metal doors.
But there was also an expectation that fans were hoping for more than Buffy and Andrew: Road Pals. What does Buffy know about Spike and would Andrew spill the beans.
It was the elephant in the room and in one brilliant throwaway we get our answer.
The key line is stuff he hasn’t said that he wants to. So in a roundabout way he admits to Buffy that Spike is alive, but in such a way as to not really reveal anything. That way she won’t take back not trusting him and he can still keep Spike’s secret. Andrew’s getting better at lying. It’s more indirect.
Which is why he basically says the trade up thing. He’s in Spike’s corner and wants Buffy to consider her options. Kind of how Buffy tells Simone to consider hers. Don’t be stuck on one path because of destiny or whatever. Because people and loves aren’t the end all, be all. They’re just people.
Now that’s not to say Buffy will choose Spike once she finds out for sure. She may not. He’s as much as an option as Angel. But so is Xander or anyone else she may meet along life’s journey. That’s the point of Andrew’s little rant. Keep your options open.
But then we get into something else Watchmen is famous for--the moral quandary. There it was pretty fuckin’ signinificant to the entire story. Here, not so much. Still it’s interesting. When is it permissible to lie? Would the news have just completely thrown Buffy off her game against Simone, so was Andrew actually doing Buffy a favor? Is lying all right when you want to own up to personal responsibility yourself? To show you can handle it? To prove to yourself you can?
Also, I think Andrew better remember Buffy’s forgiveness for his lie here. Because lies out in the field where she’s constantly dealt with lies with good intentions is one thing.
Lies affecting the heart, however, may prove to be unforgivable.
Tallgent