Wild Theory - the final entry
Season 8 - post mortem
Joss Whedon wrote us a nice long letter at the end of #40. It was frank and honest and, speaking for myself, highly appreciated. In it, Joss recognises that the epic, over the top, bigger-than-Ben-Hur approach to the story telling does not necessarily suit Buffy’s story. Just because you can have anything imaginable on the pages of a comic book doesn’t mean you should. The story given in #40 is promised to be a glimpse of how things will be in season nine and if it remains as tight and character driven as that particular issue then it should be awesome. That being said, I find, after reading the final issue of the season that I’m substantially more forgiving, or accepting of the hugeness of the story we’ve just been told. It had to be that way. Season seven ended with the world changed; multiple slayers, Buffy no longer alone and the world full of hope. But Fray showed us something completely different. And this, Whedon says is the crux of the season; “the challenge of reconciling the optimistic, empowering message of the final episode with the dystopian, Slayerless vision of Fray’s future gave season 8 genuine weight”
So this is why we had to get Big. And if, at times it went a little far (I’m thinking of things like Mech-Dawn, an over abundance of superpowers and the use of sophisticated weaponry. And Dracula), then perhaps we can blame enthusiasm and the untamed freedom offered by the comic book genre. I’m just thankful that Whedon has realised something that, I suspect, many of the readers already knew - Buffy is about people. The situations are just the side show. Season 8, at times, forgot that along the way. Season nine won’t.
Near the beginning of the season, I remember really wanting to see a number of things happen:
1. Less reliance on magic
2. Reduction in the number of active Slayers
3. Spike
And I got them all
1. Willow’s power was too great. Her abilities made things too easy for the Scoobies and consequently, way less compelling. I would sit there and wonder why Willow didn’t simply conjure up a revealing spell so that they could find out exactly who Twilight was - I mean, she could fly anywhere, transfigure them all into fish, transport a submarine to Tibet but she couldn’t make Twilight lose the mask? Willow’s magic was so powerful that the convenience of it in a narrative sense became all too apparent. Willow could do amazing magic when the story called for it but not when the writers needed the gang to be in, peril of some kind or to maintain a mystery. There was a lack of consistency with the magic. Limitless in its applications in some instances but completely overlooked in others. I am so excited to see how Willow copes without magic, if she will try and get it back and most of all, I’m excited to see how Buffy and her team operates without access to solve-everything-magic spells.
2. At the end of season seven, Buffy empowered potential Slayers all over the World. She was not alone anymore. The number of Slayers swelled to thousands. Trouble was, I wasn’t so interested in the other Slayers. I was interested in Buffy and her friends. I didn’t much fancy the Slayer army as a world-wide organisation. I know it sounds harsh but I was happy to see the sheer number of Slayers reduced and am kinda relieved to know that the Slayer army has a finite period of existence. It’s not that I don’t want to see girls empowered - I do. Or I did. It was a great way to end Season Seven but it’s not so great as the story continues - too many Slayers. Simple as that. And I like Whedon’s solution - he doesn’t disempower the Slayers activated by the Chosen Spell but he also makes it so there will be no more. Buffy’s story will be better for it.
3. And Spike - He might have arrived late to the party but we got him in the end ;)
Overall feelings
There were things I loved about season 8. There were also things I loathed
I didn’t much like Wolves at the Gate (easily my least favourite arc). I still don’t understand why Dracula was a necessary inclusion. Still think Buffy sleeping with Satsu was jarringly out of character and served little purpose other than titillation and/or controversy and I cringed at the appearance of Mech Dawn. Andrew’s continued presence in the story perplexed me greatly, but to be fair, this reaction was most likely triggered by Spike’s continued absence. The gaps in the story between season 7 and 8 bothered me greatly initially but I find that now it doesn’t concern me as much (although I would dearly love to know more about Buffy finding out that Spike was alive). I really didn’t like the super-frak. I don’t mind that it happened, but the way it was presented was laughable. Page after page of Buffy and Angel in new and exciting positions drawn in a naïve, cartoony fashion was not great reading or complimentary to the characters. To me, it seemed kinda gratuitous. How much more effective would a single, well-drawn, artistic and sexy splash page have been - something like, Buffy and Angel mid-ecstasy, surrounded by images of the global destruction they were causing? But what do I know anyway? I’m not a comic book writer. I liked that we had 40 issues of Buffy but I didn’t like that the story was slow to unfold and took so long to tell and that too many issues left you shrugging your shoulders with reluctant disinterest. I wanted to love season 8 but sometimes that was hard. I’ve since re-read the entire story and it is much better without all the long gaps and with the story unfolding in a continuous stream.
Of course for me, it was shame that none of my stupid theories panned out - but I sure had fun speculating. But the thing that annoyed me throughout the entire season was the input of explanations from the Dark Horse staff. They would explain things that didn’t need explaining, propose their opinions as fact, assume unified interpretations of the series amongst readers, come across as ignorant to the televised history and blight speculation and discussion with ‘definitive’ answers. Hated that. I know, I shouldn’t have read their interviews or Q&As but when people on discussion forums quote them, use them to support their arguments it’s kinda hard to not want to see them for yourself. Glad to see that they’ve become less talky as the series progressed (particularly in the final arc). Scott Allie’s Q&A for the final issue was his best yet - very glad to see him decline to answer questions that, once upon a time he would have (for example someone asks is Willow’s ‘other woman’ Tara or Aluwyn? He has an answer but declines to give it; He leaves it open to the reader’s interpretation).
Angel’s role as Twilight was a major shock (wasn’t Twilight-Gate fun?) but I came to like the development - it had the potential to be a meaty and intriguing story for Angel. But it has to be said, this aspect of the story was handled very poorly. The explanations were limp and under-developed. It never really made sense exactly why Angel decided to jump on board with Twilight and, forgive me, but the mask was just silly. The retrospective additions to the Slayer mythology were overly complicated and contrived what with the sentient universe, the glowing and evolutionary-god-like power stuff that Giles knew about but never mentioned ever before. Wouldn’t it have been simpler for them to have found Sir Robert Kane’s Twilight Compendium (as mentioned in season Three’s Revelations) and learn all their Twilight shit from that? And Buffy’s super powers being rooted in the death of multitudinous Slayers was a great idea - Why’d they abandon that? Buffy gradually powering up as each Slayer dies is good narrative angle. Weakening her, defeating her, so that she’s ‘pushed’ into developing superpowers is not. Explanations would have been so much more sensible and simple and would have made the story more accessible. So yeah, the whole Twilight storyline was hugely problematic in its execution; I came to love the readings of the text that proposed that the whole thing was designed to deliberately subvert Buffy and Angel’s “twu luv 4 eva” romance; they were the only thing that seemed to make any sense.
Sounds like I hated the whole thing. But I didn’t. I loved The Long Way Home, No Future for You, The Chain and that final issue too. Most issues had something to like in them even if the overall package was sometimes less than inspiring. I love Jo Chen’s covers - they are superb. I loved the Georges Jeanty cover for #5 - I have an enlarged version framed and hanging above my desk. Always Darkest was a total treat. Spike’s return was completely brilliant - if overdue. Most of all I just loved having a monthly dose of Buffy to look forward to and the discussion it spawned in the fan communities. If I didn’t understand something or ‘get’ a particular development in the story then I could just jump online, find people discussing, theorising and dissecting the issue in great detail and usually, this would be enlightening or succeed in assuring my qualms. Season 8 would never be my favourite season but I’d rather have it that not. And now I’m really looking forward to Season 9!
Joss Whedon wrote us a nice long letter at the end of #40. It was frank and honest and, speaking for myself, highly appreciated. In it, Joss recognises that the epic, over the top, bigger-than-Ben-Hur approach to the story telling does not necessarily suit Buffy’s story. Just because you can have anything imaginable on the pages of a comic book doesn’t mean you should. The story given in #40 is promised to be a glimpse of how things will be in season nine and if it remains as tight and character driven as that particular issue then it should be awesome. That being said, I find, after reading the final issue of the season that I’m substantially more forgiving, or accepting of the hugeness of the story we’ve just been told. It had to be that way. Season seven ended with the world changed; multiple slayers, Buffy no longer alone and the world full of hope. But Fray showed us something completely different. And this, Whedon says is the crux of the season; “the challenge of reconciling the optimistic, empowering message of the final episode with the dystopian, Slayerless vision of Fray’s future gave season 8 genuine weight”
So this is why we had to get Big. And if, at times it went a little far (I’m thinking of things like Mech-Dawn, an over abundance of superpowers and the use of sophisticated weaponry. And Dracula), then perhaps we can blame enthusiasm and the untamed freedom offered by the comic book genre. I’m just thankful that Whedon has realised something that, I suspect, many of the readers already knew - Buffy is about people. The situations are just the side show. Season 8, at times, forgot that along the way. Season nine won’t.
Near the beginning of the season, I remember really wanting to see a number of things happen:
1. Less reliance on magic
2. Reduction in the number of active Slayers
3. Spike
And I got them all
1. Willow’s power was too great. Her abilities made things too easy for the Scoobies and consequently, way less compelling. I would sit there and wonder why Willow didn’t simply conjure up a revealing spell so that they could find out exactly who Twilight was - I mean, she could fly anywhere, transfigure them all into fish, transport a submarine to Tibet but she couldn’t make Twilight lose the mask? Willow’s magic was so powerful that the convenience of it in a narrative sense became all too apparent. Willow could do amazing magic when the story called for it but not when the writers needed the gang to be in, peril of some kind or to maintain a mystery. There was a lack of consistency with the magic. Limitless in its applications in some instances but completely overlooked in others. I am so excited to see how Willow copes without magic, if she will try and get it back and most of all, I’m excited to see how Buffy and her team operates without access to solve-everything-magic spells.
2. At the end of season seven, Buffy empowered potential Slayers all over the World. She was not alone anymore. The number of Slayers swelled to thousands. Trouble was, I wasn’t so interested in the other Slayers. I was interested in Buffy and her friends. I didn’t much fancy the Slayer army as a world-wide organisation. I know it sounds harsh but I was happy to see the sheer number of Slayers reduced and am kinda relieved to know that the Slayer army has a finite period of existence. It’s not that I don’t want to see girls empowered - I do. Or I did. It was a great way to end Season Seven but it’s not so great as the story continues - too many Slayers. Simple as that. And I like Whedon’s solution - he doesn’t disempower the Slayers activated by the Chosen Spell but he also makes it so there will be no more. Buffy’s story will be better for it.
3. And Spike - He might have arrived late to the party but we got him in the end ;)
Overall feelings
There were things I loved about season 8. There were also things I loathed
I didn’t much like Wolves at the Gate (easily my least favourite arc). I still don’t understand why Dracula was a necessary inclusion. Still think Buffy sleeping with Satsu was jarringly out of character and served little purpose other than titillation and/or controversy and I cringed at the appearance of Mech Dawn. Andrew’s continued presence in the story perplexed me greatly, but to be fair, this reaction was most likely triggered by Spike’s continued absence. The gaps in the story between season 7 and 8 bothered me greatly initially but I find that now it doesn’t concern me as much (although I would dearly love to know more about Buffy finding out that Spike was alive). I really didn’t like the super-frak. I don’t mind that it happened, but the way it was presented was laughable. Page after page of Buffy and Angel in new and exciting positions drawn in a naïve, cartoony fashion was not great reading or complimentary to the characters. To me, it seemed kinda gratuitous. How much more effective would a single, well-drawn, artistic and sexy splash page have been - something like, Buffy and Angel mid-ecstasy, surrounded by images of the global destruction they were causing? But what do I know anyway? I’m not a comic book writer. I liked that we had 40 issues of Buffy but I didn’t like that the story was slow to unfold and took so long to tell and that too many issues left you shrugging your shoulders with reluctant disinterest. I wanted to love season 8 but sometimes that was hard. I’ve since re-read the entire story and it is much better without all the long gaps and with the story unfolding in a continuous stream.
Of course for me, it was shame that none of my stupid theories panned out - but I sure had fun speculating. But the thing that annoyed me throughout the entire season was the input of explanations from the Dark Horse staff. They would explain things that didn’t need explaining, propose their opinions as fact, assume unified interpretations of the series amongst readers, come across as ignorant to the televised history and blight speculation and discussion with ‘definitive’ answers. Hated that. I know, I shouldn’t have read their interviews or Q&As but when people on discussion forums quote them, use them to support their arguments it’s kinda hard to not want to see them for yourself. Glad to see that they’ve become less talky as the series progressed (particularly in the final arc). Scott Allie’s Q&A for the final issue was his best yet - very glad to see him decline to answer questions that, once upon a time he would have (for example someone asks is Willow’s ‘other woman’ Tara or Aluwyn? He has an answer but declines to give it; He leaves it open to the reader’s interpretation).
Angel’s role as Twilight was a major shock (wasn’t Twilight-Gate fun?) but I came to like the development - it had the potential to be a meaty and intriguing story for Angel. But it has to be said, this aspect of the story was handled very poorly. The explanations were limp and under-developed. It never really made sense exactly why Angel decided to jump on board with Twilight and, forgive me, but the mask was just silly. The retrospective additions to the Slayer mythology were overly complicated and contrived what with the sentient universe, the glowing and evolutionary-god-like power stuff that Giles knew about but never mentioned ever before. Wouldn’t it have been simpler for them to have found Sir Robert Kane’s Twilight Compendium (as mentioned in season Three’s Revelations) and learn all their Twilight shit from that? And Buffy’s super powers being rooted in the death of multitudinous Slayers was a great idea - Why’d they abandon that? Buffy gradually powering up as each Slayer dies is good narrative angle. Weakening her, defeating her, so that she’s ‘pushed’ into developing superpowers is not. Explanations would have been so much more sensible and simple and would have made the story more accessible. So yeah, the whole Twilight storyline was hugely problematic in its execution; I came to love the readings of the text that proposed that the whole thing was designed to deliberately subvert Buffy and Angel’s “twu luv 4 eva” romance; they were the only thing that seemed to make any sense.
Sounds like I hated the whole thing. But I didn’t. I loved The Long Way Home, No Future for You, The Chain and that final issue too. Most issues had something to like in them even if the overall package was sometimes less than inspiring. I love Jo Chen’s covers - they are superb. I loved the Georges Jeanty cover for #5 - I have an enlarged version framed and hanging above my desk. Always Darkest was a total treat. Spike’s return was completely brilliant - if overdue. Most of all I just loved having a monthly dose of Buffy to look forward to and the discussion it spawned in the fan communities. If I didn’t understand something or ‘get’ a particular development in the story then I could just jump online, find people discussing, theorising and dissecting the issue in great detail and usually, this would be enlightening or succeed in assuring my qualms. Season 8 would never be my favourite season but I’d rather have it that not. And now I’m really looking forward to Season 9!