Buffy season 10 no 19
Sep. 23rd, 2015 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightThis is the Giles gets re-aged just for a day issue.
Spoilery thoughts behind cut.
This issue read as mostly filler to me. Not entirely, because one scene is a meeting between Buffy, Dawn and their deadbeat dad, Hank, which I thought was quite good.
As far as I can see, it's there to contrast Hank's treatment of Buffy with Giles's.
In brief, Hank is getting remarried. His wife to be, Paige, has two children of her own, younger than Buffy and Dawn. Paige has encouraged Hank to see more of Buffy and Dawn (it wasn't even his own idea to call them and invite them out for lunch, it seems), but she doesn't want Buffy at the wedding, because she's seen her on TV, knows what she does, and thinks she's too dangerous to have near her kids. Dawn, on the other hand, is welcome to come to the wedding.
As might be expected, Dawn is furious on Buffy's behalf and tells Hank she doesn't want to see him any more. Later, she tells Buffy that after Joyce died, Buffy was pretty much her parents. Buffy responds that she's glad Dawn didn't tell her that at the time, as she would have been scared stiff.
Both scenes are well written, I think, but I can't believe that Buffy didn't know she was in loco parentis to Dawn, from that painful scene in Forever where she's folding tea towels onwards. Also, that Buffy can't help agreeing with Hank that she's too dangerous to risk being near Paige's kids - while it might well be something Buffy would think since she has a tendency to blame herself for stuff (she cites the people she feels have died because of her - Anya, Tara, Jenny Calendar, Giles (seemingly forgetting that Angel was responsible for the last two, and that Anya made her own choices in Chosen)) - strikes me as very anvil-ly. Part of the whole Buffy longing for a normal life even though she's made a choice not to try and have one/mortal+immortal relationships don't work schtick that Gage has going this season.
As for the Giles stuff, it all seemed a bit pointless to me. He gets aged up, has sex with Olivia, then finds no one else needs him to be an adult. They know what they're doing and can just get on with it. In the end, the only real purpose Adult!Giles serves is so that Buffy can cry all over him at the end (because of what Hank said) and tell him he's her real father, which Giles is clearly very pleased about.
Nice, I guess, though at odds with the show, where Giles - though he did have fatherly feelings towards Buffy - always tried not to give in to them too much because he wanted her to stand on her own two feet etc etc. Still, I suppose you could say that now that she clearly can stand on her own two feet and doesn't need him to be her dad, it's okay for him to be it.
For a day, anyway. He'll be a kid again the next day (which makes him having sex with Olivia everso slightly icky, given that it seems they both know that's what's going to happen), and the whole exercise rather pointless.
Spike is absent throughout 'on a police case.' Nice to know he's off doing something positive.
There's a funny answer to a letter on the letters page, not liking Spuffy and wanting Bangel instead.
'If there's one thing I've learned in my short tenure as the Buffy editor,' says Jim Gibbons, who is apparently leaving too, 'it's that there's no way to make every fan happy- especially when it comes to Buffy's romantic life. So, in the interest of being fair to Bangel and Spuffy fans alike...I'm getting Buffy back together with Riley so you can all be equally mad together.'
He then spoils it by saying he's not actually going to do that. Shame.
So, ostensibly a Giles issue, but rather dull in that respect. The Buffy/Dawn/Hank stuff is far more interesting.
I do wonder if there's a connection between Willow's job with Theo Daniels' start-up and Hank returning to the US because he wants to get in on a tech startup. It seems a bit of a coincidence.
On the other hand, I hope this is the last we've seen of Hank. Dull character in the show - his best use was in Nightmares in season 1 - and dull in the comic.
A bit meh! really. But not awful.
Spoilery thoughts behind cut.
This issue read as mostly filler to me. Not entirely, because one scene is a meeting between Buffy, Dawn and their deadbeat dad, Hank, which I thought was quite good.
As far as I can see, it's there to contrast Hank's treatment of Buffy with Giles's.
In brief, Hank is getting remarried. His wife to be, Paige, has two children of her own, younger than Buffy and Dawn. Paige has encouraged Hank to see more of Buffy and Dawn (it wasn't even his own idea to call them and invite them out for lunch, it seems), but she doesn't want Buffy at the wedding, because she's seen her on TV, knows what she does, and thinks she's too dangerous to have near her kids. Dawn, on the other hand, is welcome to come to the wedding.
As might be expected, Dawn is furious on Buffy's behalf and tells Hank she doesn't want to see him any more. Later, she tells Buffy that after Joyce died, Buffy was pretty much her parents. Buffy responds that she's glad Dawn didn't tell her that at the time, as she would have been scared stiff.
Both scenes are well written, I think, but I can't believe that Buffy didn't know she was in loco parentis to Dawn, from that painful scene in Forever where she's folding tea towels onwards. Also, that Buffy can't help agreeing with Hank that she's too dangerous to risk being near Paige's kids - while it might well be something Buffy would think since she has a tendency to blame herself for stuff (she cites the people she feels have died because of her - Anya, Tara, Jenny Calendar, Giles (seemingly forgetting that Angel was responsible for the last two, and that Anya made her own choices in Chosen)) - strikes me as very anvil-ly. Part of the whole Buffy longing for a normal life even though she's made a choice not to try and have one/mortal+immortal relationships don't work schtick that Gage has going this season.
As for the Giles stuff, it all seemed a bit pointless to me. He gets aged up, has sex with Olivia, then finds no one else needs him to be an adult. They know what they're doing and can just get on with it. In the end, the only real purpose Adult!Giles serves is so that Buffy can cry all over him at the end (because of what Hank said) and tell him he's her real father, which Giles is clearly very pleased about.
Nice, I guess, though at odds with the show, where Giles - though he did have fatherly feelings towards Buffy - always tried not to give in to them too much because he wanted her to stand on her own two feet etc etc. Still, I suppose you could say that now that she clearly can stand on her own two feet and doesn't need him to be her dad, it's okay for him to be it.
For a day, anyway. He'll be a kid again the next day (which makes him having sex with Olivia everso slightly icky, given that it seems they both know that's what's going to happen), and the whole exercise rather pointless.
Spike is absent throughout 'on a police case.' Nice to know he's off doing something positive.
There's a funny answer to a letter on the letters page, not liking Spuffy and wanting Bangel instead.
'If there's one thing I've learned in my short tenure as the Buffy editor,' says Jim Gibbons, who is apparently leaving too, 'it's that there's no way to make every fan happy- especially when it comes to Buffy's romantic life. So, in the interest of being fair to Bangel and Spuffy fans alike...I'm getting Buffy back together with Riley so you can all be equally mad together.'
He then spoils it by saying he's not actually going to do that. Shame.
So, ostensibly a Giles issue, but rather dull in that respect. The Buffy/Dawn/Hank stuff is far more interesting.
I do wonder if there's a connection between Willow's job with Theo Daniels' start-up and Hank returning to the US because he wants to get in on a tech startup. It seems a bit of a coincidence.
On the other hand, I hope this is the last we've seen of Hank. Dull character in the show - his best use was in Nightmares in season 1 - and dull in the comic.
A bit meh! really. But not awful.
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no subject
Date: 2015-09-23 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-23 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-23 03:14 pm (UTC)Buffy was pretty much her parents.
I thought Willow was her mother-figure. Actually, I thought it was Buffy-Tara, but I was told it was Willow in S8.
but I can't believe that Buffy didn't know she was in loco parentis to Dawn, from that painful scene in Forever where she's folding tea towels onwards
Thought the same thing. They made her out of me.
Anya, Tara, Jenny Calendar, Giles
And Tara really had nothing to do with Buffy. Wrong place at the wrong time. And they already did this. Buffy tries to separate herself from her friends for safety, she's a bitca because it's their choice was done in S2/S3. I'm not sure how it ties to Spike, though, because if anything it would push her more towards him since he's immortal. Maybe that's the point. She throws all-in with him and he ends it 'cause he wants to be normal and she's all alone. *teardrop* Judging from Levins comments, sounds like it ends in 24 or 25.
Anyway, I await the next one. Ghost!Anya!
no subject
Date: 2015-09-23 04:19 pm (UTC)Poor Dawn is obviously quite confused.
I agree that Buffy still seeing 'normal' as an ideal that she should push Dawn towards even though she's given up hope of it for herself doesn't really mesh with her breaking up with Spike because of the mortal/immortal=bad thing, but somehow it seems all of a piece to me. Maybe it's more because in this issue Buffy defaults back to blaming herself for everything, whereas in the previous one Angel had stated that Spike would also default back to a kind of 'steady state' that meant he and Buffy wouldn't last (and Spike himself in the previous issue had been full of self-doubt). It's almost like Gage is stating the parameters that will mean the two of them just keep going around in circles? ;(
Judging from Levins comments, sounds like it ends in 24 or 25. Are you basing this on her saying she hopes people don't hate her, or has she said something else?
You're probably right. Oh well, I knew it wouldn't last. I just hoped they might give them a fair crack of the whip (ie. more than half a season) before breaking them up again.
Yes, Ghost!Anya will probably be a lot more interesting.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-23 07:10 pm (UTC)My impression is she's is that it's not really about normal so much as away from her. There is something to be said for the logic of it...the first time they did it in S5 and S6. After that, Dawn, like the rest of them, makes her choice. That does seem to be what they're shooting for. Giles says they're being targeted, which sort of echoes the sentiment.
Jeez, I wonder if they'll actually redo Seeing Red and have Xander and Dawn get back together only to be killed.
Are you basing this on her saying she hopes people don't hate her, or has she said something else?
Her saying that, along with the title of the arc: In Pieces On the Ground.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-24 05:09 pm (UTC)It wouldn't entirely surprise me. I hope not, though. Dawn's one of the more likeable people in the story.
Her saying that, along with the title of the arc: In Pieces On the Ground.
Did not know it was called that. It doesn't look good, does it? Meh!
I did hope we might at least get one entire season, instead of half a season. If this is the end it's like season 6 only with less (so far) nastiness.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-24 08:23 pm (UTC)It wouldn't entirely surprise me. I hope not, though.
I'm randomly reminded of that dream comic Joss did where Tara is in Dawn's place and blaming her for her death.
It doesn't look good, does it? Meh!
So far though, I'm just not seeing a mechanism that makes sense. Nothing we've seen so far really suggests Buffy would end it. Spike and the whole normal life/not changing thing doesn't work either. Which is not to say they won't do it.
Assuming they do break up. She could have been talking about something happening to Dawn.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-24 09:24 pm (UTC)Like you, I can't really see a mechanism for a Spike/Buffy breakup at the moment.
Mrs MarstersDylan would need a lot longer to bed in to the story to work in that way, I feel.no subject
Date: 2015-09-24 09:53 pm (UTC)The only thing I can see is the whole book thing, though it's thin. It fits both of the last book titles (the other being Own It) and Megan's comments. People have also been asking about that and of course we know they're aware of shippers.
I can't help but think there's something there. It's just the sheer volume of manipulation storylines. Arc 1 - Thrall, Arc 2 - the childhood stuff/the Sirens, Arc 3 - Archaeus, Arc 4 - Archaeus+Incubus, Arc 5 - ?
I think the next issue might be pivotal. Whatever Anya is is going to tie into it.
Or it's all a big nothing and it's your typical Gage story and it all ends in hugs.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-25 03:47 pm (UTC)Oh, I dunno. We'll see. I hope the Anya stuff is pivotal. It's certainly the most interesting plotline of the series so far.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-25 05:14 pm (UTC)The very first issue of the series hinted that there was still mutual attraction between Spike and Buffy
Yeah, but that's the thing as you pointed out before. S8/S9 Buffy to S10 is jarring. If Ghost!Anya is a projection of Xander somehow it would suggest all of them are affecting reality like the new vamp rules.
Bah. There's no use in speculating. Even in S10, which is better, their writing isn't tight enough. Anything can happen just because they write it, it doesn't have to make sense.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-18 01:19 pm (UTC)Tucked this back here as it's bad news for me on the old house front.
Looks like the government are going to try and push to include council take benefit into Universal Credit and apparently they'll require proof of ownership before they pay up.
Mainly they'll demand the title deeds of the house to be transfered into the owners name or you can't claim. This is far more thorough then the old council tax system that doesn't require that. I've seen a case on line where a landlord has had this ultimatum from the DWP after years of being okay with the local council, but now after being changed over to Universal Credit they'll demanding it, so you can imagine how I'm feeling a the moment. :(
Sorry to worry at you but I feel so gutted.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-19 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-19 02:58 pm (UTC)My future is currently looking very grim. :(
Fuck Universal Credit.....