Buffy season 10 no 23
Jan. 20th, 2016 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightRather anti-climactic spoilers behind cut
Well, I don't know what else I was expecting except anticlimax but anyway...
Okay, there are some interesting things in the book. Buffy caving in to D'Hoffryn's suggestion that they use the Vampyr book to up the power levels of the members of the magic council so as to help them in their fight against the Three Stooges, for instance, and Buffy's doubts about having done it. This will undoubtedly come back to bite them all very soon. Not to mention it increases exponentially the chances that D'Hoffryn is the ultimate Big Bad and is behind the appearance of Ghost!Anya.
Also, the rather fraught state of the Buffy/Willow relationship is new (or is a new iteration of it), and has the potential to be interesting. Plus, there're more Spike/Buffy problems, this time from Buffy's POV rather than Spike's, as she and Spike give themselves a day off from fighting but when they try to decide what to do realise that the things Buffy wants to do (go for an Italian meal, go for a run) are things that either don't much interest Spike or that he just plain can't do. Then, while out on her run, Buffy sees a couple pushing their baby in a pram, and an elderly couple walking along holding hands. She doesn't say anything in those panels but both things are of course Highly Significant.
The only review of the issue I've so far read, takes the view that the writing is on the wall for Spuffy, and it may well end with them parting by mutual agreement and deciding they're better off just as friends.
I don't terribly like this scenario, but I prefer it to them splitting up due to faults in their characters that Gage has pretty much invented.
There are some funny scenes, including one where Buffy, Spike and the Magic Council manifest into Buffy's living room and scare the bejeezus out of Dawn's study buddies. Also a weird scene where Mini!Giles gets an invitation to go to Fairyland and duly goes (I suspect he won't be back for a few issues. I also suspect that the invitation may not be as innocent as it seems. Whatever D'Hoffryn and co want to do will be easier with Mini!Giles out of the way).
But what I guess is the main story of the issue- the Sculptor trying to get Andrew to betray Buffy in exchange for giving Cyber!Jonathan a new body - is, as I said, anticlimactic. Not because Andrew doesn't do it (though I know we all expected him to), but because it kind of ends in another group hug (well, there's no actual hugging, but it feels a bit like one). Also, the demise of the Sculptor is so easy it just makes you wonder why Buffy and co found it so hard to get rid of him before (though of course it also adds weight to the D'Hoffryn theory - and will do so even more if the following two issues feature the gang catching up with, and disposing of, the Mistress and the Soul Eater).
But the issue's not horrible or anything, and IMO no one is made to look stupid or unreasonable, or like their POV has no merit (well, maybe Mini!Giles). What is going on?
It may be just me, but I kind of like Megan Levens' art. I like Rebecca Isaacs' work a lot, but I'm quite happy for Levens as fill-in.
Well, I don't know what else I was expecting except anticlimax but anyway...
Okay, there are some interesting things in the book. Buffy caving in to D'Hoffryn's suggestion that they use the Vampyr book to up the power levels of the members of the magic council so as to help them in their fight against the Three Stooges, for instance, and Buffy's doubts about having done it. This will undoubtedly come back to bite them all very soon. Not to mention it increases exponentially the chances that D'Hoffryn is the ultimate Big Bad and is behind the appearance of Ghost!Anya.
Also, the rather fraught state of the Buffy/Willow relationship is new (or is a new iteration of it), and has the potential to be interesting. Plus, there're more Spike/Buffy problems, this time from Buffy's POV rather than Spike's, as she and Spike give themselves a day off from fighting but when they try to decide what to do realise that the things Buffy wants to do (go for an Italian meal, go for a run) are things that either don't much interest Spike or that he just plain can't do. Then, while out on her run, Buffy sees a couple pushing their baby in a pram, and an elderly couple walking along holding hands. She doesn't say anything in those panels but both things are of course Highly Significant.
The only review of the issue I've so far read, takes the view that the writing is on the wall for Spuffy, and it may well end with them parting by mutual agreement and deciding they're better off just as friends.
I don't terribly like this scenario, but I prefer it to them splitting up due to faults in their characters that Gage has pretty much invented.
There are some funny scenes, including one where Buffy, Spike and the Magic Council manifest into Buffy's living room and scare the bejeezus out of Dawn's study buddies. Also a weird scene where Mini!Giles gets an invitation to go to Fairyland and duly goes (I suspect he won't be back for a few issues. I also suspect that the invitation may not be as innocent as it seems. Whatever D'Hoffryn and co want to do will be easier with Mini!Giles out of the way).
But what I guess is the main story of the issue- the Sculptor trying to get Andrew to betray Buffy in exchange for giving Cyber!Jonathan a new body - is, as I said, anticlimactic. Not because Andrew doesn't do it (though I know we all expected him to), but because it kind of ends in another group hug (well, there's no actual hugging, but it feels a bit like one). Also, the demise of the Sculptor is so easy it just makes you wonder why Buffy and co found it so hard to get rid of him before (though of course it also adds weight to the D'Hoffryn theory - and will do so even more if the following two issues feature the gang catching up with, and disposing of, the Mistress and the Soul Eater).
But the issue's not horrible or anything, and IMO no one is made to look stupid or unreasonable, or like their POV has no merit (well, maybe Mini!Giles). What is going on?
It may be just me, but I kind of like Megan Levens' art. I like Rebecca Isaacs' work a lot, but I'm quite happy for Levens as fill-in.
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Date: 2016-01-20 08:58 pm (UTC)Well, Joss might do that, but I don't think Gage would.
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Date: 2016-01-20 09:05 pm (UTC)I sort of think that Buffy in another dimension and Willow using her magic to find her and bring her home could be a cool story - but it would need really good writers and illustrators to pull that off and I just don't see that happening.
With the A&F season over does this mean Angel will be back in Buffy's title? They talked about merging the two at the end of S8 if I recall, or heading that direction.
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Date: 2016-01-21 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-21 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-21 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-22 12:05 am (UTC)I enjoyed the reviews from readers of this issue on Slayalive, some interesting analysis. That isn't always the case. People over there seem to like this issue quite a bit.
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Date: 2016-01-21 09:41 pm (UTC)As of now, no one knows. I hope not, though. The Buffy book has too many characters to service already.
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Date: 2016-01-22 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-20 09:40 pm (UTC)Buffy getting lost is probably a great setup for S11. All the crew from both books comes together to get her back, perhaps. It would add a sense of purpose instead of meandering.
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Date: 2016-01-21 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-22 12:18 pm (UTC)I'd hope not. They'd be better off leaving her out completely because they've demonstrated for 3 years straight they have no story whatsoever for her.
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Date: 2016-01-22 07:16 pm (UTC)This is sadly true.
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Date: 2016-01-22 07:43 pm (UTC)Yeah, you know obviously I'm not a fan of what they've written, so biased.
But I say with all the objectivity I can muster, even with the bizarre moral structure and lobotomy they've given her, what exactly has she learned in the comics? They keep saying it's about growing up but she never changes. They couldn't even let her stay mad at Angel. You could take the Buffy that was moping around that castle in 8.1, swap her with 10.23 and there's no difference.
She's just there for other characters to talk to so they can change. She's a macguffin in presence. So... might as well make her an actual one. :P
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Date: 2016-01-23 04:29 pm (UTC)What a hatchet job, Joss.
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Date: 2016-01-24 12:45 am (UTC)I don't know. I can only blame Joss so much. He trashed her in S8, but he also trashed Angel. Yet DH spent an entire run whitewashing him. They just dug Buffy's whole deeper with more stupidity. OK, maybe that was Joss, too.
But S10 isn't really an improvement. Storyline wise it is. Character wise? Not really. Other than 20 where she displayed competence in forming a plan and executing it, she's still an idiot. Even these character moments that are supposed to move are fabricated. The Giles stuff, the AR fallout, how she's chasing normal which is apparently Her Big Issue that hasn't been there since S1 and realizing that :O vampires can't do certain things.
I honestly think I'm doing Gage a favor by reading it as an extension of his 'won't let herself be happy/kick guys to the curb' set up. Maybe they'll have her get over it, but since that never made sense, what good is it? It'd be like if Spike's big moment is realizing things only change if you make them. He did that. He said those exact words.
*is well aware this is little more than a rant*
Revelations are meaningless the second time. Take Andrew this last issue. This is the same. exact. storyline. as First Date. Bad Guy attempts to manipulate him, he does the right thing and tells the gang. The set up is even the same.
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Date: 2016-01-27 12:33 pm (UTC)I'm more inclined to blame Scott Allie. He never liked the character.
Otherwise, yes, I agree. There is no new stuff here (or not much, as RSD points out somewhere in this thread, Buffy and Spike behaving like an actual RL couple (for however long it lasts) is new, as is Andrew actually coming out. But that's not much in the big picture.
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Date: 2016-01-27 06:09 pm (UTC)I'm more inclined to blame Scott Allie. He never liked the character.
True, but even in the old comics she wasn't written so poorly. I'm inclined to think that, like Spike/Spuffy in S8, most of opinions were informed by Joss.
as is Andrew actually coming out.
Which has been put back to being a joke. He's gay but is perpetually looking for someone. What happened to Clive?