Buffy season 10 no 29
Jul. 20th, 2016 08:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightSpoilers 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?
no subject
Date: 2016-07-26 10:51 am (UTC)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.