Buffy season 10 no 20
Oct. 21st, 2015 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightHave to say, having read this I think one of the posters on Buffyforums has it right, for the most part.
Speculating about the Spike/Buffy stuff in this issue, they say, This feels similar to the Buffy/Giles stuff in the last issue. It's more for the fans than having any story cohesion or, frankly, relevance.
Mostly true, IMO, though as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rahirah has pointed out elsewhere, that doesn't mean it's a bad comic, or that it doesn't have anything new to say.
Also, it reads a lot better the second time around.
Spoilers behind cut. There is a lot of mention of the attempted rape in Seeing Red, so if that upsets you, don't read.
I know I'm pretty much alone in liking Megan Levens' art so I won't even mention the art except to say I like it, but I know everyone else will be saying how ugly it is.
The issue is pretty much equally split between the Spike/Buffy stuff and plotty stuff to do with Xander and Ghost!Anya.
It turns out that Ghost Anya is not actually Anya at all, which I personally was disappointed to learn. Despite the fact that over in Angel & Faith this season, the writer has managed to make the return of the real, actual Fred - which I've wanted ever since Joss killed her off in that disgusting way in AHitW - so boring it makes you want to bash your head against a wall rather than read it, I'm not against bringing back dead characters if you have a story to tell, and the Ghost Anya stuff has been one of the most intriguing plotlines in season 10.
Anyway, she's not the real Anya. Xander finds this out during the course of the book but chooses not to tell her (the implication is that he's very lonely since the break-up with Dawn and enjoying Ghost Anya's company so much he doesn't want to risk losing it), and at the end there's a scene between her and someone we don't see, during which it turns out that between visits with this person she herself forgets she isn't the real Anya. What the mysterious person wants her to do we don't learn, but she asks again that it not hurt Xander and is told this is part of the bargain.
My money's on the hidden presence either being D'Hoffryn, because he's being far too nice and reasonable about the Vampyr! book, or possibly on the Sculptor, who may be able to make Ghost Anya a body. We'll see.
As for the Buffy/Spike part of the issue, while I guess I applaud Gage for going where Joss himself feared to tread (because he was a bloody idiot and should never have thrown his characters under a bus so that ground was there to be trodden or not in the first place), I do feel like this issue exists because there must have been correspondence to Dark Horse incensed about Buffy dating 'her rapist,' and giving him the same 'you have a soul now/it wasn't you' out that Angel always gets (even when he does bad stuff with a soul) and this is Gage trying to show that they've taken (some of) their points on board (though not to the extent of breaking Spike and Buffy up. Not yet anyway).
Still, whether that's true or not, asrahirah has pointed out elsewhere, this is in fact the first time we get Buffy's POV on the attempted rape (which beggars belief when you think about it, and is yet more evidence that Joss should never have gone there - he made the AR All About Spike, part of his story, and apparently never thought twice about it).
So in that sense, it's good to return to it, especially since previous mentions of it over the season - notably in the Return to Sunnydale arc - consist of Spike guilt-tripping and Buffy telling him it wasn't him but that other guy who didn't have a soul (a reaction that Spike himself didn't seem to agree with, but which is par for the course with Buffy, as her reaction to Angel during their first meeting post-Twilight makes clear yet again).
In this issue, her conversations with the lady from the Women's Shelter help her realise that she has possibly been handling the fallout from her various traumas (of which there are many) in an unhealthy way, and the final Spike/Buffy scene is a nice one, where she stops him dead in his tracks from further guilt-tripping, which makes it 'all about him', points out that what happened between them is only one of a list of bad things that have happened to her, and not the worst thing on it by far. The death of her mother and her father disowning her trump it by miles (the Twilight stuff should be on that list too, but isn't mentioned), but that she will sometimes remember it and have to deal with it as a consequence.
Spike - which I love - takes this on board at once and says he would like to help. He's just not sure how. Then he listens when she tells him. To me, this seems like good character development for him (though possibly not as revelatory as all that, given that, as early as Beneath You, he seemed aware that apologies on their own were pretty useless).
The 'catalyst' scene in the issue does strike me as rather contrived, though.
This is a scene where Spike walks in on Buffy having a shower (this all makes it look like Spike and Buffy are living together, rather than that she is living with Dawn and Willow and he with Xander, which is weird). Spike asks if he can jump into the shower with Buffy. She says she's already finished. He pulls aside the shower curtain saying he'll 'pop in before the water goes cold.' Buffy kicks him across the room. When she says he surprised her and she acted on instinct, he points out she put her robe on before checking on him. He goes on to say it's fine, only natural, especially given the case they're working on.
I just have a hard time believing that Spike would walk in on Buffy like this, in a bathroom, given that his face when they first talk to the lady at the Women's Shelter makes it clear that, hearing the woman's story, he thinks Buffy must be thinking about the attempted rape.
So, as I said, kudos to Gage for at least going there. I'm pretty certain this won't satisfy any people who might have written Dark Horse angry emails, many of whom probably wanted to see Spike cast into the outer darkness for good, or at least for Buffy to realise belatedly that their relationship was inappropriate and break up with him (which, IMO, would have been very contrived at this point, but YMMV). Neither of those things happen. So, it does read somewhat as Dark Horse trying to silence anyone who has been saying they've treated the matter insensitively, or in a trivial manner, or whatever.
Which won't work, but doesn't mean the story isn't worth doing at all.
Also, the Xander/Anya stuff is interesting, and at least Megan Levens has stopped drawing Buffy with that weird line across her nose (though Spike still has it).
Speculating about the Spike/Buffy stuff in this issue, they say, This feels similar to the Buffy/Giles stuff in the last issue. It's more for the fans than having any story cohesion or, frankly, relevance.
Mostly true, IMO, though as
rahirah has pointed out elsewhere, that doesn't mean it's a bad comic, or that it doesn't have anything new to say.Also, it reads a lot better the second time around.
Spoilers behind cut. There is a lot of mention of the attempted rape in Seeing Red, so if that upsets you, don't read.
I know I'm pretty much alone in liking Megan Levens' art so I won't even mention the art except to say I like it, but I know everyone else will be saying how ugly it is.
The issue is pretty much equally split between the Spike/Buffy stuff and plotty stuff to do with Xander and Ghost!Anya.
It turns out that Ghost Anya is not actually Anya at all, which I personally was disappointed to learn. Despite the fact that over in Angel & Faith this season, the writer has managed to make the return of the real, actual Fred - which I've wanted ever since Joss killed her off in that disgusting way in AHitW - so boring it makes you want to bash your head against a wall rather than read it, I'm not against bringing back dead characters if you have a story to tell, and the Ghost Anya stuff has been one of the most intriguing plotlines in season 10.
Anyway, she's not the real Anya. Xander finds this out during the course of the book but chooses not to tell her (the implication is that he's very lonely since the break-up with Dawn and enjoying Ghost Anya's company so much he doesn't want to risk losing it), and at the end there's a scene between her and someone we don't see, during which it turns out that between visits with this person she herself forgets she isn't the real Anya. What the mysterious person wants her to do we don't learn, but she asks again that it not hurt Xander and is told this is part of the bargain.
My money's on the hidden presence either being D'Hoffryn, because he's being far too nice and reasonable about the Vampyr! book, or possibly on the Sculptor, who may be able to make Ghost Anya a body. We'll see.
As for the Buffy/Spike part of the issue, while I guess I applaud Gage for going where Joss himself feared to tread (because he was a bloody idiot and should never have thrown his characters under a bus so that ground was there to be trodden or not in the first place), I do feel like this issue exists because there must have been correspondence to Dark Horse incensed about Buffy dating 'her rapist,' and giving him the same 'you have a soul now/it wasn't you' out that Angel always gets (even when he does bad stuff with a soul) and this is Gage trying to show that they've taken (some of) their points on board (though not to the extent of breaking Spike and Buffy up. Not yet anyway).
Still, whether that's true or not, as
rahirah has pointed out elsewhere, this is in fact the first time we get Buffy's POV on the attempted rape (which beggars belief when you think about it, and is yet more evidence that Joss should never have gone there - he made the AR All About Spike, part of his story, and apparently never thought twice about it). So in that sense, it's good to return to it, especially since previous mentions of it over the season - notably in the Return to Sunnydale arc - consist of Spike guilt-tripping and Buffy telling him it wasn't him but that other guy who didn't have a soul (a reaction that Spike himself didn't seem to agree with, but which is par for the course with Buffy, as her reaction to Angel during their first meeting post-Twilight makes clear yet again).
In this issue, her conversations with the lady from the Women's Shelter help her realise that she has possibly been handling the fallout from her various traumas (of which there are many) in an unhealthy way, and the final Spike/Buffy scene is a nice one, where she stops him dead in his tracks from further guilt-tripping, which makes it 'all about him', points out that what happened between them is only one of a list of bad things that have happened to her, and not the worst thing on it by far. The death of her mother and her father disowning her trump it by miles (the Twilight stuff should be on that list too, but isn't mentioned), but that she will sometimes remember it and have to deal with it as a consequence.
Spike - which I love - takes this on board at once and says he would like to help. He's just not sure how. Then he listens when she tells him. To me, this seems like good character development for him (though possibly not as revelatory as all that, given that, as early as Beneath You, he seemed aware that apologies on their own were pretty useless).
The 'catalyst' scene in the issue does strike me as rather contrived, though.
This is a scene where Spike walks in on Buffy having a shower (this all makes it look like Spike and Buffy are living together, rather than that she is living with Dawn and Willow and he with Xander, which is weird). Spike asks if he can jump into the shower with Buffy. She says she's already finished. He pulls aside the shower curtain saying he'll 'pop in before the water goes cold.' Buffy kicks him across the room. When she says he surprised her and she acted on instinct, he points out she put her robe on before checking on him. He goes on to say it's fine, only natural, especially given the case they're working on.
I just have a hard time believing that Spike would walk in on Buffy like this, in a bathroom, given that his face when they first talk to the lady at the Women's Shelter makes it clear that, hearing the woman's story, he thinks Buffy must be thinking about the attempted rape.
So, as I said, kudos to Gage for at least going there. I'm pretty certain this won't satisfy any people who might have written Dark Horse angry emails, many of whom probably wanted to see Spike cast into the outer darkness for good, or at least for Buffy to realise belatedly that their relationship was inappropriate and break up with him (which, IMO, would have been very contrived at this point, but YMMV). Neither of those things happen. So, it does read somewhat as Dark Horse trying to silence anyone who has been saying they've treated the matter insensitively, or in a trivial manner, or whatever.
Which won't work, but doesn't mean the story isn't worth doing at all.
Also, the Xander/Anya stuff is interesting, and at least Megan Levens has stopped drawing Buffy with that weird line across her nose (though Spike still has it).