s8 retrospective.
So, the final issue. I think this warrants something a bit more than the usual, don’t you? After having thought about it, I decided to do a ‘reaction post’ to all the major arcs/revelation in s8, using gifs. Well, my reactions. Can’t speak for other people. And to start us off, here’s my reaction to the fact that we’ve finally come to the end…
I don’t really want to do any kind of meta, so I shall quote shadowkat67, who summed things up rather beautifully: The whole thing reads like fanfic - Alternate Universe fanfic. It does not feel like a true continuation of the story nor does it organically appear to flow from it. What it feels like is a big What-if Scenario that intrigued Whedon for it's thematic questions/implications, which Whedon appears to still be interested in.
I think that’s pretty spot-on. s8 is nothing more than Meltzer’s fanfic that Joss decided to OK. Personally I think this was a monumentally stupid idea that’s a done a lot more harm than good, but hey-ho, that’s life. But waffling is boring - let the gif party commence!
(Notes: I’ve not read #40 yet, so there are no spoilers. Although if you want to talk about it, please do.)
So, the beginning. Helicopters and castles and mysterious symbols and giant Dawn etc etc. It was intriguing but I wasn’t exactly… hugely impressed. Hence Jack being all ‘Darn it!’ and me (Ianto) being all ‘Whatever. I’ll wait and see.”
Then there was the threesome panel… And we liked that Precious. Yes we did.
The Faith arc… Sorry.
Buffy the Bankrobber reveal:
(It was after this that I decided that the story was irredeemable. There was nothing they could have done to fix it, except have the whole thing be a dream/Buffy being possessed.)
And then the Buffy/Satsu lovin’...
(For those not familiar with Torchwood I should probably point out that in this scene Owen is actually watching girl-on-girl action. (Alien pheromones at work.) I thought it rather appropriate.)
Which brings us to my favourite part of s8 hands down: Xander/Dracula. (Doesn’t make sense, obviously, but unlike the rest it’s awesomness squared!)
Followed by Fray & timey-wimey-ness and Buffy killing Willow and quite frankly my head just couldn’t take it any more. (I'm rather fond of that little thing called logic):
Hmmm. I should probably say something about ‘Always Darkest’, shouldn’t I? Cause that was pretty fun. Although… THIS is how you do slash:
(Just ask Gwen.)
Anyway, shortly after that I stopped reading (it was the evil toy kittens that did it) so I’ll just skip ahead to the Twilight reveal and the spacefrakking and sentient universes etc etc. My reactions went in this order:
And then it all went completely silly and stupid and Spike showed up (and was IN CHARACTER OMFG!). So. Just because this is one of the most brilliant gifs ever and I really want to use it, I will (and if I don’t laugh at s8 it’ll make me cry). Also s8 iS NOT CANON and Buffy dated this guy ("He's not my boyfriend. He's my lover.") and had a LOT of fun until they went their separate ways. You hear me?
All of which daft absurdity brings us to the end, which is where I get off since I doubt anyone’s going to pay me to read s9 (and they’d need A LOT MORE MONEY this time).
But - some good came out of it. I wrote a very silly fic:
The Girl in Question II. (Written before the bank robbing reveal.)
And I wrote a proper, genuine, almost-published essay:
BtVS Season 8: Please Mind the Gaps.
ETA: Oh, and then I wrote a fic for Barb's Nertz to you Joss Whedon!ficathon: Don’t You Want To Be Happy?
But you don’t care about all that I know. You’re here for one thing only, and that’s this guy here:
So long, and thanks for all the penguins!
I don’t really want to do any kind of meta, so I shall quote shadowkat67, who summed things up rather beautifully: The whole thing reads like fanfic - Alternate Universe fanfic. It does not feel like a true continuation of the story nor does it organically appear to flow from it. What it feels like is a big What-if Scenario that intrigued Whedon for it's thematic questions/implications, which Whedon appears to still be interested in.
I think that’s pretty spot-on. s8 is nothing more than Meltzer’s fanfic that Joss decided to OK. Personally I think this was a monumentally stupid idea that’s a done a lot more harm than good, but hey-ho, that’s life. But waffling is boring - let the gif party commence!
(Notes: I’ve not read #40 yet, so there are no spoilers. Although if you want to talk about it, please do.)
So, the beginning. Helicopters and castles and mysterious symbols and giant Dawn etc etc. It was intriguing but I wasn’t exactly… hugely impressed. Hence Jack being all ‘Darn it!’ and me (Ianto) being all ‘Whatever. I’ll wait and see.”
Then there was the threesome panel… And we liked that Precious. Yes we did.
The Faith arc… Sorry.
Buffy the Bankrobber reveal:
(It was after this that I decided that the story was irredeemable. There was nothing they could have done to fix it, except have the whole thing be a dream/Buffy being possessed.)
And then the Buffy/Satsu lovin’...
(For those not familiar with Torchwood I should probably point out that in this scene Owen is actually watching girl-on-girl action. (Alien pheromones at work.) I thought it rather appropriate.)
Which brings us to my favourite part of s8 hands down: Xander/Dracula. (Doesn’t make sense, obviously, but unlike the rest it’s awesomness squared!)
Followed by Fray & timey-wimey-ness and Buffy killing Willow and quite frankly my head just couldn’t take it any more. (I'm rather fond of that little thing called logic):
Hmmm. I should probably say something about ‘Always Darkest’, shouldn’t I? Cause that was pretty fun. Although… THIS is how you do slash:
(Just ask Gwen.)
Anyway, shortly after that I stopped reading (it was the evil toy kittens that did it) so I’ll just skip ahead to the Twilight reveal and the spacefrakking and sentient universes etc etc. My reactions went in this order:
And then it all went completely silly and stupid and Spike showed up (and was IN CHARACTER OMFG!). So. Just because this is one of the most brilliant gifs ever and I really want to use it, I will (and if I don’t laugh at s8 it’ll make me cry). Also s8 iS NOT CANON and Buffy dated this guy ("He's not my boyfriend. He's my lover.") and had a LOT of fun until they went their separate ways. You hear me?
All of which daft absurdity brings us to the end, which is where I get off since I doubt anyone’s going to pay me to read s9 (and they’d need A LOT MORE MONEY this time).
But - some good came out of it. I wrote a very silly fic:
The Girl in Question II. (Written before the bank robbing reveal.)
And I wrote a proper, genuine, almost-published essay:
BtVS Season 8: Please Mind the Gaps.
ETA: Oh, and then I wrote a fic for Barb's Nertz to you Joss Whedon!ficathon: Don’t You Want To Be Happy?
But you don’t care about all that I know. You’re here for one thing only, and that’s this guy here:
So long, and thanks for all the penguins!