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

[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.