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shapinglight) wrote2016-07-20 08:31 am
shapinglight) wrote2016-07-20 08:31 am
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Buffy season 10 no 29
Spoilers behind cut.
In brief, it's action all the way through, when D'Hoffryn discovers that Buffy and co are blocking his attempts to make himself all powerful via the Vampyre! book by getting people to just not believe he's all powerful so the book rejects what he's trying to write in it (due to some magical balance of probabilities or something). He comes to kill them, accompanied by Fake!Anya, Evil!Jonathan and various other vengeance demons.
This stopping D'Hoffryn by refusing to believe in him is almost as cheesy as Peter Pan asking the audience to believe in fairies so that Tinkerbell won't die - not to mention that the people expected to do the not believing are Vicki the vampire and the remaining members of the magical council, who know quite well how powerful D'Hoffryn is. But whatever. Plot is not this series' strong point any more than it was ever Joss's.
Anyway, D'Hoffryn is very, very cross, and neither the Scythe, which Buffy was counting on to defeat him, or Willow's magic can hold him off. The biggest (though not the best) scene in the issue, though, is when Dawn demands to know why D'Hoffryn wants to kill them all in the first place, and he responds that it's because of what happened to Anya, which he blames on them. They then retort that whatever he says, he never cared about Anya or he wouldn't have killed Halfrek to teach her a lesson, etc, etc. Xander, however, says that Anya's death was his fault, and though he doesn't think they should have got married, the way/place he told her that was appalling. He offers himself up to be punished while D'Hoffryn holds the others down with magic. Fake!Anya obliges by incinerating him.
"He made me a ghost. Now I've made him one," she says, over a pile of Xander's ashes.
I like Xander in the comics. I think Gage makes him very relatable. But despite that, I have to admit this scene had very little emotional impact on me, given that in the first (and by far the best) scene in the book D'Hoffryn says that, in exceptional circumstances, vengeance demons can bring people back from the dead. In view of what happens to Xander, this remark is obviously very anvil-y so I fully expect Xander to be restored in the next issue and for the series to end on yet another group hug.
We'll see.
The best scene in the book, btw, is of the vengeance demon office in Arashmaharr, which is just like any other office, with partitions and computer screens and conference rooms with whiteboards. There's even a board with a notice on it that says '32 days without an apocalypse' where you can change the number. Presumably, the longer they go without one, the less productivity there's been? Very funny indeed, and IMO quite Jossian.
'Course, it doesn't chime with what Willow saw of the place in Something Blue, but maybe D'Hoffryn's re-decorated?
In brief, it's action all the way through, when D'Hoffryn discovers that Buffy and co are blocking his attempts to make himself all powerful via the Vampyre! book by getting people to just not believe he's all powerful so the book rejects what he's trying to write in it (due to some magical balance of probabilities or something). He comes to kill them, accompanied by Fake!Anya, Evil!Jonathan and various other vengeance demons.
This stopping D'Hoffryn by refusing to believe in him is almost as cheesy as Peter Pan asking the audience to believe in fairies so that Tinkerbell won't die - not to mention that the people expected to do the not believing are Vicki the vampire and the remaining members of the magical council, who know quite well how powerful D'Hoffryn is. But whatever. Plot is not this series' strong point any more than it was ever Joss's.
Anyway, D'Hoffryn is very, very cross, and neither the Scythe, which Buffy was counting on to defeat him, or Willow's magic can hold him off. The biggest (though not the best) scene in the issue, though, is when Dawn demands to know why D'Hoffryn wants to kill them all in the first place, and he responds that it's because of what happened to Anya, which he blames on them. They then retort that whatever he says, he never cared about Anya or he wouldn't have killed Halfrek to teach her a lesson, etc, etc. Xander, however, says that Anya's death was his fault, and though he doesn't think they should have got married, the way/place he told her that was appalling. He offers himself up to be punished while D'Hoffryn holds the others down with magic. Fake!Anya obliges by incinerating him.
"He made me a ghost. Now I've made him one," she says, over a pile of Xander's ashes.
I like Xander in the comics. I think Gage makes him very relatable. But despite that, I have to admit this scene had very little emotional impact on me, given that in the first (and by far the best) scene in the book D'Hoffryn says that, in exceptional circumstances, vengeance demons can bring people back from the dead. In view of what happens to Xander, this remark is obviously very anvil-y so I fully expect Xander to be restored in the next issue and for the series to end on yet another group hug.
We'll see.
The best scene in the book, btw, is of the vengeance demon office in Arashmaharr, which is just like any other office, with partitions and computer screens and conference rooms with whiteboards. There's even a board with a notice on it that says '32 days without an apocalypse' where you can change the number. Presumably, the longer they go without one, the less productivity there's been? Very funny indeed, and IMO quite Jossian.
'Course, it doesn't chime with what Willow saw of the place in Something Blue, but maybe D'Hoffryn's re-decorated?
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Also probably D'hoffryn's get out of jail free card.
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On the other hand, I'm sure that won't stop him being brought back at some point.
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Maybe. I thought Selfless made it clear only he could undo things.
Not that rules matter.
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They do seem to be there to be ignored, don't they?
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That said, I do enjoy the updates in a 'They did what?' way.
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;) There's quite a lot of eye-rolling involved even for those of us who quite like them.
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It really would. If they don't, I'll be retrospectively quite upset. I've really enjoyed Xander this season. I like his interaction with Spike, I like his relationship with Dawn, etc, etc.
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- D'Hoffryn blaming Buffy & Co. for Anya's death. (I never felt like D'Hoffryn retained any emotional attachment to Anya once she quit being a vengeance demon and chose the mortal life instead. And all mortals...die.)
- Xander volunteering to take the blame for Anya's death. (What? She chose to stay and fight, in a remarkable arc of redemption and self-sacrifice. Taking away her agency because, what, a man had refused to marry her? Oh, please. The most significant event of a woman's life is rejection from a man?)
- Fake!Anya killing Xander. Seriously? Real Anya would never blame Xander for her death. (See self-sacrifice point above.) Also, by Season 7 Anya no longer resented Xander. They'd reconciled. Unless this is to emphasize the fakeness of this Anya, which means readers should care even less about her?
And I think by now we all know that deaths in the Buffyverse don't stick. I agree with you on the lack of emotional response to Xander's death. It makes no sense, there's zero point in Xander "offering" himself up, and he's going to be brought back anyway (which also cheapens it). It's lame for a series to resort to using shock value to create tension and drama, and even sadder when it fails to elicit any kind of emotional response (because we're calling the writer's bluff), as is the case here.
This more than disappoints me. This angers me.
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Plus he tried to kill her himself. Well, himself via a goon, but still.
Anya's personality is way off, but so is Jonathon who wasn't really ever that evil.
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I suppose you can say that they aren't really them? Or it's debatable that they're them. I dunno.
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They could be sans soul, I guess. I doubt D'hoffryn can just make one, nor I think you can download one to a flash drive. Only evil nipple piercings.
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:Snort: That will never not be funny.
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As for Anya, this isn't really her, so it doesn't matter if we don't like her, I suppose, or that she seems fixated on the moment Xander left her. D'Hoffryn created her. Maybe that's how he made her? I don't think he cared whether or not she became her own woman and reconciled with Xander. He only cares (or says he cares, but the Scoobies call him out on that) that Xander treated her badly earlier.
No idea what Xander's meant to be thinking, but since I'm almost certain he'll be back next issue, maybe he'll say so then?
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You know, there have been quite a few elements this season (mostly to do with Spuffy) where the writing has felt like Gage responding to criticism he's received from people. Some fans felt Xander hadn't apologised enough for what he did to Anya, so maybe this is Gage giving those fans what he thinks they want? I don't know.
I quite like Xander/Dawn in the comics. I hope they'll get back together.