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Post by Lola m on Jul 30, 2007 16:49:37 GMT -5
Here's the place to discuss the 5th comic of Buffy Season 8.
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Post by beccaelizabeth on Jul 31, 2007 11:24:11 GMT -5
Wow.
This one was good.
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Post by Lola m on Jul 31, 2007 12:09:07 GMT -5
Wow. This is a very different story – and I really liked it. I mean, Joss has done eps that focused on a relatively new or totally new character before. Heck, he’s done that and had us get to know them and then killed them and broken our hearts doing it. But to have the whole story be someone else’s? And it was a great idea, really. Because all these potentials have been activated and what are their stories? We’ve always seen them through the scoobies eyes. But they’re their own people too.
And now the cover (heck, both the covers) really really make sense.
We actually get some good plot, too. Looks like the Slayers and Watchers know of some big underground bad looking to move up (literally) in the world and are organizing other supernatural beings to help fight against them. So we have links to the very first episode/comic and what we saw there. Also, we see the “multiple Buffys” thing in action, and as a strategy it kinda makes sense. Not only is Buffy’s rep a good scare tactic, but frankly, if a fake Buffy dies (I can’t tell if she’s actually dead at the end, or just badly hurt) and then later the real Buffy is seen walking around, well it just enhances the rep of her and the whole Slayer organization. Which is kinda callous, but true.
Funny bits/lines:
The faerie! With the swearing and the “I didn’t lay my eggs inside your inner ear canal to watch you die.” And then all being all casual checking her nails, “I said something else. It’s not fatal and I didn’t do it!”
“Oh my God! Maybe the panties weren’t even hers.”
The TV commercial. “Something wrong, honey?” “I can’t control my strength! And I’m having dreams that are strange and disturb me.” Oh, and the “alarming yet fun” condition.
How she even sounds like Buffy, with her “That includes the Ravenclan and the . . . that thing that looks like a leaf-blower”.
Moving moments/lines:
The faerie kissing her and saying “I love you, Buffy.” Which is even sadder when you realize she couldn’t even let her know that she wasn’t really Buffy.
The whole comic, really. The montage and cutting back and forth between her discovering she is a slayer and training (loved loved loved her lines overlapping Giles’, that was a stunningly perfect and simple way to do it) and her in the current time, fighting and then (maybe) dying and you realize all her words we’ve been reading are her (potentially) final thoughts. Again, I can’t decide if she’s really dead at the end there.
Seeing all the slayers rappelling down into the cave, along with the faeries, to fight.
Her final speech was just wonderful!!
“Can I fight? Did I help? Did I do it for my sisters? My comrades, children, slimy slug-clan … There is a chain, between each and every one of us. And like the man said, you either feel its tug or you ignore it. I tried to face the darkness like a woman and I don’t need any more than that. You don’t have to remember me. You don’t even know who I am. But I do.”
Wow!! Just really really really wow.
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Post by Lola m on Jul 31, 2007 12:09:35 GMT -5
Or, you know, what she said. ;D |
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Post by Onjel on Aug 1, 2007 14:58:22 GMT -5
It reminded me of those episodes of BtVS where there was a narrator, like Passion and Becoming. Joss does that so well. I loved it.
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Post by Lola m on Aug 1, 2007 21:59:10 GMT -5
It reminded me of those episodes of BtVS where there was a narrator, like Passion and Becoming. Joss does that so well. I loved it. **nods** And he is fond of doing interesting or experimental episodes, too. And ones focusing on one person or one moment, as it were. Looking at a character we've not met before and bringing them completely to life for us. Like Help, where we meet and get to know Cassie, and then she's gone! |
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Post by Lola m on Aug 2, 2007 12:43:27 GMT -5
Another couple of thoughts I had.
I like how we get to see the process for new slayers now. How someone tells them what they are, the training, the group bonding. And it’s the idea of them being in it together, the chain, that is new now. I wonder if it helped Buffy and crew to come up with that structure both because of the scooby gang and theiir experience of having 2 slayers alive at the same time.
This episode / comic also really brings home the “short brutal life” thing, didn’t it? But at the same time, even though she dies alone (if she’s dead), she’s part of family of slayers at the same time, and that’s got to mean something at the end.
I mean, slayers have always had the idea of a larger purpose for their lives, and also of being a link in a chain of the line of slayers going back to the first one. Like the vision she has when she first is activated from potential to slayer. But now, to have your sister slayers around you, alive when you are alive? Powerful!
And then, we still have a contrast with this woman, because she was isolated even from her fellow slayers due to the undercover work she was doing.
But the feeling of working and fighting together had to have brought her some good insights when she was asking the underdwellers to pull together to fight Yamanh and his followers.
Man! I'm doing a lot of babbling about this one, aren't I? Shows I really like it, eh?
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Post by Karen on Aug 3, 2007 10:44:13 GMT -5
Holy, moly. What a great story.
Reminds me a bit of the Tales of the Slayers book. Each slayer so different.
Interesting how she (did she have a name?), the fake Buffy, totally embraced her self-sacrificing nature. So different from Buffy, who fought against her slayer nature for so long. Is that why this other Buffy died so soon? Because she was alone (except for the faerie)? Very sad, that.
Now I'm thinking of Faith and how she tried to belong to the Scoobies, but didn't ever feel like one of them. Things got in the way - mostly her own low self-esteem.
Possibly Joss gave us this stand-alone slayer issue as a segue into the Faith arc for a good reason. Hmmm..
Loved the faerie, too. Is that what they do? Lay eggs in people's ear canals? Huh.
I think the fake Buffy is dead. I'm glad we got to hear her story.
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Post by Lola m on Aug 3, 2007 17:01:41 GMT -5
Holy, moly. What a great story. Reminds me a bit of the Tales of the Slayers book. Each slayer so different. Interesting how she (did she have a name?), the fake Buffy, totally embraced her self-sacrificing nature. So different from Buffy, who fought against her slayer nature for so long. Is that why this other Buffy died so soon? Because she was alone (except for the faerie)? Very sad, that. Now I'm thinking of Faith and how she tried to belong to the Scoobies, but didn't ever feel like one of them. Things got in the way - mostly her own low self-esteem. Possibly Joss gave us this stand-alone slayer issue as a segue into the Faith arc for a good reason. Hmmm.. Oh, excellent thoughts! |
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Post by Michelle on Aug 4, 2007 10:36:25 GMT -5
This was a very good issue, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, because I haven't been in love with the series so far.
I sense that Joss used the story to talk to us about his passion "Equality Now," but I didn't really feel preached to. All the Slayers are equal, and must make sacrifices for the greater good--but some make the biggest sacrifice of all. All females are Slayers inside, and even if we aren't THE slayer, even if we aren't the really real Buffy, we can be strong and we can help save the world.
Nice.
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Post by Onjel on Aug 4, 2007 11:08:16 GMT -5
Not a philosophical or deep thought, but the title of this episode has given me the longest running earworm of my life.  ;D |
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Post by KMInfinity on Aug 4, 2007 15:26:14 GMT -5
Holy, moly. What a great story. Reminds me a bit of the Tales of the Slayers book. Each slayer so different. Interesting how she (did she have a name?), the fake Buffy, totally embraced her self-sacrificing nature. So different from Buffy, who fought against her slayer nature for so long. Is that why this other Buffy died so soon? Because she was alone (except for the faerie)? Very sad, that. Now I'm thinking of Faith and how she tried to belong to the Scoobies, but didn't ever feel like one of them. Things got in the way - mostly her own low self-esteem. Possibly Joss gave us this stand-alone slayer issue as a segue into the Faith arc for a good reason. Hmmm.. Loved the faerie, too. Is that what they do? Lay eggs in people's ear canals? Huh. I think the fake Buffy is dead. I'm glad we got to hear her story. I loved this episode as well. I had Faith vibes with this episode too. I think part of what made this so powerful was stepping just a bit outside of the Scoobie circle, where Faith found herself so often. Needing to do the job, but feeling isolated and uncertain and unappreciated. In fact, at first I thought the slayer WAS Faith in Buffy disguise...thinking "The Chain" was from one slayer to the next...not all the slayerettes together. The Chosen One ~ from Sineya throughout history to Buffy - to Kendra - to Faith.... One solitary slayer at a time making a chain thru history to "stand against the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness." So Faith ends the slayer line as it is known and a new paradigm is born. I'm not sure about the metaphor of a chain, though, if it represents all of the slayers now "actualized." Maybe I'm missing a dimension, but a chain is one link connected to the next. The slayerettes, all over the world all working with the same mission...more like a ?? ?? |
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Post by Karen on Aug 5, 2007 16:14:55 GMT -5
It reminded me of those episodes of BtVS where there was a narrator, like Passion and Becoming. Joss does that so well. I loved it. Oh, good catch. It's very like those eps. Up to and including someone dying at the end. |
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