The Amazing AU Adventures of Joss: 8.04

[beer_good_foamy]

OK, so I'm not overly impressed by #4. Weakest so far, I think, a few really good bits notwithstanding.

What we did get:
- I really like Xander's reaction to Willow being kidnapped - he's ALL business, realizes where his strengths lie and sends the girls off to do the heavy lifting.
- I kinda like Dawn's reaction, too. OK, the "like a mother to me" thing is stupid - it would work better both with continuity and with the plot of separating Buffy from humanity if she'd said "sister" - but... for a giant (which is still silly, but not as silly as some other things) she's starting to grow on me. People complain that she's being written "too young", but let's face it, if you get turned into a giant, you have a certain right to whine about it.
- I like the final scene. I might even grow to like it a lot, depending on where it goes. As much as I hate that Ethan is dead and a waste like Warren gets to live, it's an excellent scene - all the more because it's so unfair, after we just saw Ethan joking and snarking and being his usual obnoxious self, and then WHAM - and the General-or-whatever-he-is's reveal of just what Buffy is up against. Could, in theory, be a very interesting arc - not Buffy vs the military (done that) or patriarchy vs female empowerment (done that) but humanity vs demons - and our heroes on the "wrong" side. OK, not extremely original (*cough*X-Men*cough*) but still.
- And we got the reveal of who kissed Buffy. Still too early to say if it was all just a fake-out or if there's actually going to be any advancement on it, but let's just say bakatulip wasn't far off in her characterization of Satsu... *grin*
- Some good dialogue bits. "Healthy moss", hehe.

What we didn't get:
- A credible explanation for Warren being back. 'Nuff said. He just is, and he's like evil and stuff, deal with it.
- Any sort of closure whatsoever to the Warren/Amy storyline. They're going to keep popping up whenever a villain is needed, and Joss seems to think this is a good idea. Ya-fricking-wn.
- A credible explanation for Willow being tortured to death one second and perfectly fine the next. OK, healing powers, but... dramatically, it sucks. "Willow's dying, Willow's dying... no, wait, she's A-OK." I still hope that grin (and those blue eyes?) signify that there is something going on with Willow that we don't know about yet; remember Warren saying he wants to see if he can make her go dark, her comments about evil "fading" and her off-hand dismissal of Kennedy dying for a while, but... even if that's the case, we'll have to wait a few months to get another 2 minutes worth of story.
- Any sort of explanation of what the point of Warren/Amy/Willow was, apart from getting the reveal out of the General guy, if it didn't do something to Willow. If you're going to fuck with continuity, at least have a good reason for doing so.
- A convincing fight scene. I'm sure it would have been awesome on the TV series, but squeezed together as it is in the comic, I had to read and re-read to make sense of it. There's no flow, no explanation of what happens from frame to frame.

There's potential here, but I still see Joss struggling with the format - which is surprising, considering the praise heaped on X-Men and Runaways. He's telling the story as if it were the usual 4-act 40-minute TV episode with the next episode due in a week, but with a month or more between installments, it just gets disjointed and, frankly, hard to care what happens. Especially since it's so hard to tell what's actual plot twists and what's just Joss ignoring what happened on the show.

OK, I'm gonna quit whining now. Sing it with me:
Frère Jacques,
Frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous?
Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines!
Sonnez les matines!
Din, dan, don.
Din, dan, don.

Comments

[elisi]

Any sort of explanation of what the point of Warren/Amy/Willow was,
Amen. I was worried it would turn all Willow-centric, and I think I would have preferred that. Hopefully *something* will happen next time.

Oooh, just saw that you commented on exactly the same bit in *my* post. Great minds think alike, huh?

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't mind Willow-centric - I'm pretty much equal-opportunity in my character love, and I'll gladly take anything as long as it makes sense and has a point. This still seems mostly like Joss is thinking "Well, they want me to make a season 8, so I guess I'll have to make something up for the characters to do." It's filler.

(Also, as I've seen others bring up... if Amy is that big with the portals and teleportation whatsits, what the hell was she doing trapped under the Sunnydale crater for 18 months? Spelunking?)

Hopefully *something* will happen next time.

Except as far as I can tell, the next time will be the stand-alone about another Slayer, and then the Faith arc... which means that we'll get to tackle the fallout of this ep in, what, 2008? Not to slam the comics format as such, but I find myself wishing Joss had written a novel instead...

Now I really need to work on my Warren/Greedo fic.

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

"I'll watcher your butt, lady."

"Your grammar not so much."

So far I'm really enjoying the Buffy/Xander interaction. I also love the three lead slayers. The Willow arc as well as the Dawn arc are a bit let down. Buffy, Xander and three slayers are my greatest enjoyment.

I think it's a bad move to have the new issue after two months, especially that it doesn't have Scoobies. the Faith arc I'm told is like any BtVS episode, Buffy and co. will show up.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have no issues whatsoever with the light-hearted banter; I get the feeling Joss could write dialogue for any of these characters in his sleep and make it (for the most part) sound good, and it does. And I loved the General's speech too - someone said that he echoes Mal Reynolds in Serenity, and it's an interesting point; after all, what Buffy did to thousands of young girls isn't COMPLETELY different from what the Alliance did to millions of people.

They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that.

As far as dealing with consequences - always a big part of the Jossverse - goes, the Slayers-are-demons story arc has a lot of potential. It's the kind of grey scale seasons 4 & 5 of Angel worked with, where we're never quite sure if our heroes are indeed the good guys or the bad guys. But let's see that potential fulfilled, too...

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

someone said that he echoes Mal Reynolds

Credit where credit's due: blueanddollsome.

[lauratd.livejournal.com]

I still see Joss struggling with the format - which is surprising, considering the praise heaped on X-Men and Runaways.

I was talking with a friend about this. I haven't read X-men or Runaways, but I read Fray and it worked better as a comic than Buffy is. I'm loving the new eps because I'm a Josslut and will put up with just about anything from him just for the bits of brilliance that anything he does will contain.

I think maybe the problem he's having with the comic is the problem I'm having with this comic. For 7 years they were on TV and so we expect them to act like TV characters. Fray was new and made for comics so she acted like a comic book character.

I'm really loving Xander in every episode. I'm Ok with the ret-con, though Willow being instantly fine and dandy made me feel used and cheaply had.

Buffy's "It's about power and women" speech seemed a little pedantic and out of character for her. I half expect her her to start talking about Equality Now, and while I love it when Joss gives those speeches, it seemed forced coming out of Buffy. Also I don't really see any sign yet from the Twilight guys that is about women and power.

and the idea of waiting 6 months for this story line to pick up....sucks beyond the telling

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I think maybe the problem he's having with the comic is the problem I'm having with this comic. For 7 years they were on TV and so we expect them to act like TV characters. Fray was new and made for comics so she acted like a comic book character.

Oh, absolutely. So much on the show - as with any good film or TV, obviously - was down to the actors; tone, facial expressions, body language etc. With the comics, Joss doesn't have that - but a lot of times, he still seems to write as if he thinks the drawings can communicate the same things. And personally, I'm just not seeing it. I have no idea if a cartoon Willow grinning means she's happy, ironic, evil, or sad-but-repressing.

Buffy's "It's about power and women" speech seemed a little pedantic and out of character for her.

I loved that bit, actually - given the General's immediate dismissal of it. Buffy basically starts quoting every single academic article ever written about the show, self-righteous as hell, and the general laughs at her for being naïve; it's not about that. It's about something bigger.

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking my story and thinks for the link to the download. I was getting antsy.

Yeah, Willow is a little bit off. But I'm hoping that will be explained later... but you know, she would try to smile even if she had just gotten tortured, I mean she had a decent bounceback from getting her skin peeled off and eaten. I guess since we can't hear the voice we have to take from it what we want.

And something is starting to wig me about Rowena and Leah, they looked mightily evil for a second there... with the "Don't embarass us" and the "it should've been one of you."

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're more than welcome. Great little ficlet, that.

Normally, I'm all in favour of "it'll be explained later", but... it's always nice if we know exactly what will be explained later, and how much later. Let's say s5 had been released like this; we would have had to wait... let's see, last act of "Buffy vs Dracula" until last act of "No Place Like Home", that's... 17 comic issues, a year and a half, until we found out Dawn wasn't a ridiculous retcon. The time frame IS a problem, and will be more so if the comic continues to be as vague as it has been about a lot of things.

Good call on Rowena and Leah, though. Imagine what would happen if some of the Slayers lined up with the General to fight on the side of "good"? And here's an interesting thought - which side will Faith be on? Not that I'm hoping we'll get another round of Faith vs Buffy just for the sake of it, but...

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

Geezus. A year and a half? Well with that perspective everyone should just stick with it.

I think that pointing out the demon in them thing is very interesting indeed... not that I personally like the general's point but it's something I didn't think much about before.

[faith-chaos.livejournal.com]

Frère Jacques!!!! I used to sing that song all the time when I was little. And about S8x4, I'm like whatever about it. My Willow? Kills people.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I once spent the better part of a (drunken) hour in a car with a few friends singing "Frère Jacques" in canon in five different languages. It got... confusing. :-)

[faith-chaos.livejournal.com]

Show off!

I can only sing it in Spanish and French. :(

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Well, I never said *I* sang it in all five languages... ;-)

[scarlettlily.livejournal.com]

I TOTALLY MISSED SATSU BEING THE ONE WHO KISSED HER. How did I miss that? Ok I need to go back and check on it. And I agree with you on almost everything but I was ok with the mom thing with Willow and Dawn since Willow really was the one who took care of Dawn a lot other than Tara who is dead. And this Xander is even hotter than I expected.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Well, it's pretty understated... I didn't get it myself until the second read. "Wait a tick, cinnamon, where have they mentioned that before?"

And yeah, Willow and Tara took care of Dawn... 3 years earlier. Since then, Willow has gotten Dawn into car crashes and threatened to murder her in cold blood. I'm not saying they can't have made up since then, but we've never actually gotten to see it. And then suddenly Willow is like a mom to Dawn? It's just a bit sudden.

[mouthmount.livejournal.com]

I missed the reveal of Satsu as the one who kissed Buffy, but having looked back at the last issue, got it. I wonder how many people missed that, considering it's pretty subtle.

I'm hanging on to my hope that Joss hasn't gone insane and that's not actually Warren. Amy talking about how Buffy had a major history with him felt to me like they were saying that we still didn't know who he was.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Well, that IS one thing to hope for, certainly, and I'll gladly hang on to it. Though... OK, it's tricky with the narrative shift there, but as I understood it, the "history" does indeed refer to Willow.

AMY: You just have that big atomo-phallic thing pointed at the portal and you'll get your slayer. She'll come after this witch like dog after dogshit, I swear to God. But the witch belongs to my boyfriend. They have a history. She's kind of a history major.

Now that last line COULD be someone saying it about Buffy, since the picture shifts to her, but... who would it be that says it? Especially since we then cut to the mini-slayers, who presumably know nothing about Buffy's history with Warren or indeed that it is Warren (or that history was always Buffy's WORST subject in high school). In my opinion (and it's not a good reflection on the comics that I'm not sure about this) that's still Amy talking, and the comment refers to Willow.