Buffy season 10 no 30
Aug. 24th, 2016 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightSo, Buffy season 10 is over at last, and unlike in previous comics 'seasons,' I'm not left with this feeling of...well, raging fury at the sheer stupidity of it all.
This is not to say that there wasn't stupid stuff in the series (there was - loads of it), or that everyone will feel the same because as it just so happens this season is more in tune with my particular 'shipping preferences. In fact, I already saw someone over on Tumblr complaining that Christos Gage has it in for Bangel 'shippers, though as far as I can see this is based solely on the fact that season 10 ends with Spike and Buffy still together, not because Gage has spent the whole season bashing Bangel. But mileage varies, obvs.) but I still think it was less of a mess than previous seasons.
I will have to re-read from the beginning to be sure this is true plotwise. Sometimes, when you re-read, you discover that the writer has been cleverer than you thought. We'll see. I do think it seemed more coherent as a whole than either seasons 8 or 9, and I'm quite looking forward to season 11 for that reason. I think the 12 issue short, tight story with no digressions will probably suit Gage's writing style.
When it comes to character development, mileage is going to vary again. In many ways, the Buffy of season 10 seems a lot less mature than the Buffy of the show. On the other hand, I never knew where I was with seasons 8/9 Buffy so I still regard the fact that you do see character/relationship development over the season as an improvement on the two previous comics seasons. Certainly, I like the way that Spike has developed as a character, and to me, the Spike/Buffy relationship as depicted in season 10 works well, whereas I couldn't see, say, the AtS season 5 version of Spike in a relationship with Buffy at all.
I also think the season did well by Andrew, a character I never liked in the show. He's stopped being a source of stupid gay panic jokiness and become his own person.
In fact, I suppose Gage was true to the theme of the season - growing up - if you interpret that as becoming your own person. Everyone does by the end, even Not!Real Anya.
Well, maybe notHarry Potter Mini!Giles, my least favourite thing about season 10. He's part of the abovementioned stupid stuff, along with Maloker (you know, the ancient demon who was somehow or other Angelus, Drusilla and Spike's ancestor, in a way that messed with canon big time?) and Dawn being the key again, which, though it involved some stuff I loved, like her and Xander's journey home through the various dimensions, is just too convenient a plot device. But even some of the stupid stuff was enjoyable (Xander/Dracula will never not be funny), and I personally adore Harmony, queen of the vampires.
Anyway, the final issue doesn't end in a big group hug, as I predicted it would. Instead, it ends with Buffy constituting a new magic council to ensure best use of the Vampyr book, with herself as president, Mini!Giles as vice-president-in-charge-of-banging-a-gavel-loudly, and with such diverse members as Willow, Riley, Dracula (yay!I do love him in the comics), Archduchess Venobia, and a few other assorted demons.
This is after they've got rid of D'Hoffryn (for good, Buffy cuts off his head), having been saved by Not Really Anya, who grants Buffy's wish that she'd never given D'Hoffryn the chance to acquire those powers in the first place (as seen in the preview pages), reconstitutes Xander, and is incinerated by D'Hoffryn for her troubles. She does get a nice death scene first, though. In which she says it was worth it to become her own person (in tune with the theme of the season), and that she forgives Xander and so would the real Anya.
At the end, Buffy and Spike are still together, and Xander and Dawn are dating again.
It would all be a little too sugary, I guess, not to mention easy (for instance, Buffy and co chase D'Hoffryn back to Arashmaharr by writing in the Book that Dawn's key powers work to open portals even in our world) if it weren't for the frankly hilarious Magic Council scenes at the end, in which the various new council members are lobbied by interest groups (Lilah Morgan is there for Wolfram & Hart), such as the Protect Human Sacrifice Group and Ghoul Power before they convene for the first time.
So basically season 10 ends with Buffy going into politics. ;)
Just to reiterate, I enjoyed the series, and I'm not going to deny it. Yes, it pandered to my 'shipping preferences big time, and there were way too many instances of exposition-heavy dialogue, and the characters were regressed in many ways, and I wish Rebekah Isaacs could find another way of expressing extreme emotion than having everyone in floods of tears (though this is not untypical in comics) but I enjoyed the humour, I liked the art (both artists), and I thought several of the issues - notably the one-off dealing with the AR, and the issue featuring Hank Summers - were very good indeed.
YMMV, of course.
ETA: Some angry Bangel 'shippers (some of whose names I recognise) on Gage's Twitter feed, I see. Ironically, one of them seems to think Scott Allie is ultimately to blame for Spuffy in the comics.
This is not to say that there wasn't stupid stuff in the series (there was - loads of it), or that everyone will feel the same because as it just so happens this season is more in tune with my particular 'shipping preferences. In fact, I already saw someone over on Tumblr complaining that Christos Gage has it in for Bangel 'shippers, though as far as I can see this is based solely on the fact that season 10 ends with Spike and Buffy still together, not because Gage has spent the whole season bashing Bangel. But mileage varies, obvs.) but I still think it was less of a mess than previous seasons.
I will have to re-read from the beginning to be sure this is true plotwise. Sometimes, when you re-read, you discover that the writer has been cleverer than you thought. We'll see. I do think it seemed more coherent as a whole than either seasons 8 or 9, and I'm quite looking forward to season 11 for that reason. I think the 12 issue short, tight story with no digressions will probably suit Gage's writing style.
When it comes to character development, mileage is going to vary again. In many ways, the Buffy of season 10 seems a lot less mature than the Buffy of the show. On the other hand, I never knew where I was with seasons 8/9 Buffy so I still regard the fact that you do see character/relationship development over the season as an improvement on the two previous comics seasons. Certainly, I like the way that Spike has developed as a character, and to me, the Spike/Buffy relationship as depicted in season 10 works well, whereas I couldn't see, say, the AtS season 5 version of Spike in a relationship with Buffy at all.
I also think the season did well by Andrew, a character I never liked in the show. He's stopped being a source of stupid gay panic jokiness and become his own person.
In fact, I suppose Gage was true to the theme of the season - growing up - if you interpret that as becoming your own person. Everyone does by the end, even Not!Real Anya.
Well, maybe not
Anyway, the final issue doesn't end in a big group hug, as I predicted it would. Instead, it ends with Buffy constituting a new magic council to ensure best use of the Vampyr book, with herself as president, Mini!Giles as vice-president-in-charge-of-banging-a-gavel-loudly, and with such diverse members as Willow, Riley, Dracula (yay!I do love him in the comics), Archduchess Venobia, and a few other assorted demons.
This is after they've got rid of D'Hoffryn (for good, Buffy cuts off his head), having been saved by Not Really Anya, who grants Buffy's wish that she'd never given D'Hoffryn the chance to acquire those powers in the first place (as seen in the preview pages), reconstitutes Xander, and is incinerated by D'Hoffryn for her troubles. She does get a nice death scene first, though. In which she says it was worth it to become her own person (in tune with the theme of the season), and that she forgives Xander and so would the real Anya.
At the end, Buffy and Spike are still together, and Xander and Dawn are dating again.
It would all be a little too sugary, I guess, not to mention easy (for instance, Buffy and co chase D'Hoffryn back to Arashmaharr by writing in the Book that Dawn's key powers work to open portals even in our world) if it weren't for the frankly hilarious Magic Council scenes at the end, in which the various new council members are lobbied by interest groups (Lilah Morgan is there for Wolfram & Hart), such as the Protect Human Sacrifice Group and Ghoul Power before they convene for the first time.
So basically season 10 ends with Buffy going into politics. ;)
Just to reiterate, I enjoyed the series, and I'm not going to deny it. Yes, it pandered to my 'shipping preferences big time, and there were way too many instances of exposition-heavy dialogue, and the characters were regressed in many ways, and I wish Rebekah Isaacs could find another way of expressing extreme emotion than having everyone in floods of tears (though this is not untypical in comics) but I enjoyed the humour, I liked the art (both artists), and I thought several of the issues - notably the one-off dealing with the AR, and the issue featuring Hank Summers - were very good indeed.
YMMV, of course.
ETA: Some angry Bangel 'shippers (some of whose names I recognise) on Gage's Twitter feed, I see. Ironically, one of them seems to think Scott Allie is ultimately to blame for Spuffy in the comics.