moscow_watcher (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
moscow_watcher) wrote2007-10-06 08:58 pm
moscow_watcher) wrote2007-10-06 08:58 pm
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Buffy issue 7 summary and analysis
The issue starts with a flashback of Buffy\Faith's fight in Graduation Day 1. This time we see it from Faith's POV: according to her, she wanted to be Buffy's friend but Buffy refused to accept her friendship and tried to kill her. Obviouly the flashback is done to refreshen reader's memory and make the parallel with current situation even more striking.
Faith arrives to the party at Gigi's mansion. She throws off the earphone that connects her to Giles. "I've got enough voices in my head already". She is searched with a radio-metal locator but the guards doesn't notice a small knife in her hairdo, disguised as a pin. When Faith is asked to show an invitation she throws a Paris Hilton fit and is allowed to enter the mansion without an invitation. "You're one of them, all right" says the butler.
Staying in the line of the visitors who present Gigi their cards, Faith gives herself a pep-talk: she doesn't want to kill a slayer, but she has to believe Giles that the girl is dangerous. Gigi's tantrum interferes with Faith's plans and she goes to the balcony to smoke and to calm the nerves. Gigi joins her there and they bond instantly over Amy Winehouse songs. For three panels they discover how much in common they have, then Faith is finally ready to kill Gigi.
She reaches for a knife in her hairdo... and is immediately attacked by Roden's gargoyles who sweep her in the air. She sticks her knife in one of them, and somehow destroys the other (obviously he falls to pieces when she hits him). Then she falls unconscious. Probably it's Roden who sent her to sleep, since he's already staying by Gigi who's shattered. Probably it's just a plot necessity, because in the next scene...
Faith regains consciousness in Gigi's bedroom. "I'm begging you snuff her out now" says Roden to Gigi before Faith opens her eyes. Curiously, he can't do it himself. Either he's bound by some weird spell (like Drogin who couldn't lie) or he's afraid to contradict Gigi who has already found her best friend in Faith.
Faith opens her eyes and Gigi tells her that she's "like her and other girls who have tapped into an ancient force". Gigi plans to become their leader after the coronation "to take our rightful place at the head of this wretched society. Right after I destroy the woman holding us back and take her mantle as queen". She's talking about Buffy. She's clearly obsessed with her the way Faith was obsessed in season 3. Gigi's "locker room" is covered with Buffy's photos. Some of them fresh. Some of them may be made inside Buffy's castle. Buffy with her team. Buffy with her zap gun. Buffy with Twilight sign painted over her face.
Analysis.
Slayership as the metaphor of aristocracy could provide a basis of compelling story a century ago. But today the influence of aristocratic society on politics, economics and culture is next-to-nonexistent, so the metaphor works only as a requisite element of storytelling ("hey, Jossverse is about metaphors so we have to provide you with our metaphor-du-jour!")
Back to storytelling, I noticed that after the first issue of No Future For You many people presumed that Faith wasn't going to kill Gigi and that she agreed to work for Giles only to prevent the murder of a fellow slayer. So her actual behavior in the issue was a shock. I always saw her acceptance to do a "wet-work" for Giles as an honest agreement. Because otherwise she automatically becomes a traitor and a double agent. Not Faith-like. Vaughan provided Faith with enough lines to indicate that she's tortured about her mission. But in real life, when war is raging, people rarely choose between good and evil. People usually choose between bigger and lesser evil.
Obviously Vaughan is planning to make Faith's mission as hard as possible and I like it. I suppose the bonding between two slayers will be continued and Faith will find it more and more hard to see Gigi as an enemy. Right now the resolution is unclear. Either Faith eventually kills Gigi or she converts her to Buffy's side and Gigi becomes the next extra in Buffy's army. Or we'll get another unresolved storyark, like escaped Amy and Warren - an arc to be addressed in a year or two.
Interestingly, Gigi calls Roden "fascist tutor". It's one more mention of fascist ideology in season 8. In issue 5 Joss introduced debates on fascism in a girls' banter right before Fake!Buffy gets activated by Willow's spell. Interesting coincidence. Or maybe not a coincidence.
I still can't define the type of logic that should be applied to the story analysis. For example, is Gigi really "special"? I mean - why Roden chose Gigi, an aristocratic girl with influent parents who can raise a lot of fuss about the slayer business? Could he choose a less prominent figure - say, an orphan? Has he chosen Gigi because she has something other girls hasn't or because Joss decided to use slayership-going-wrong as a metaphor of aristocracy?
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stormwreath has a very interesting theory about it but I not sure such complex plot twist could be resolved in two remaining issues. It's stuff thick historical romance novels are made of. Then again, such twist could deepen the slayership\aristocracy and leadership\heirship parallels. And in this case weird "filthy whore!" flashback in previous issue could be even relevant to the plot.Another example of moot logic is Faith's cover not being exposed. She has killed the first gargoyle with her knife and nobody mentions it. Should we draw a conclusion that Roden knows it and is now playing Faith in hope she'll lead him to her boss? Or we should just suspend our disbelief and accept that nobody has checked the knife?
So far, I like the story without caring much about characters. Trying to figure out the puzzle is part of the fun. Hopefully there is something to figure out. But Joss' "true love kiss" explanation made me wonder. If the twist of the first arc is the absence of it and the actual solution is *that* simple, could other twists also be as elementary as this one?
Overall impression: Story-wise, it's solid, professionally done entertainment. Some visuals are cringe-worthy, but that's understandable: no drawing can give dazzling Eliza Dushku her due.
no subject
What I'm mostly seeing there is watchers at puppeteers pulling slayers' strings - both Roden and Giles. Roden is into a sunset cult, obviously, and I think his goal is to set Slayers against Slayers to eventually get rid of all of them. Giles motives also get more complicated here with the last page as it might not be about preventing apocalypse after all but preventing assasination of Buffy and playing against Sunset. In both cases slayers are not given the full truth and are being played. The endga,e might be for all of them - Buffy, Faith, and Gigi - to break free of those puppet strings and get to heart of the matter.
Now to your questions. Why Roden choose Gigi? Maybe because she was a spoiled brat the most successible to his propaganda? Also she had resources - a castle, a protection system - similar to Buffy's. And she could maintain them without raising suspicisons.
What about the knife? I thnk both knives were broken and lost in the rubble left by Gargoyles. And they probably just scraped off the whole thing with a bulldoser afterwards. :)
Also were Faith going to strike Gigi before Gargoyles took her? It's an open question - she drew the knife in the same way before when standing in line, and couldn't go through with it, put it back. Similar thing might've happened here again - she wouldn't have the nerve - but we'll never know now.
Why Roden didn't kill Faith? I got the impression that Gigi was watching over Faith at her bedside. I don't think Roden would do sonething like that in front of her and without her consent.
I'm also puzzled why characters haven't grabbed you here and only story twists seem interesting. IMHO it's a first really character driven story we got in Buffy-8 and BKV is superb in that. It's all really about Faith inner turmoil, and Giles as complex and coflicted as it comes - and yet sympathetic and understandable for the 1st time since him killing Ben, and now we are going to get Buffy into the mix and up the ante even more. I'm very jazzed up about all of it, hope the story will become more enjoyable for you as well. :)
no subject
OTOH, she's very difficult to manipulate. Wild, unpredictable, capricious. А troublemaker. That's why I think Roden wants to use her and get rid of her. That is, if we look at the story from RL standpoint.
What about the knife? I thnk both knives were broken and lost in the rubble left by Gargoyles. And they probably just scraped off the whole thing with a bulldoser afterwards. :)
But Roden organized the soiree to detect the potential assassin. And he detected a girl who could kill two gargoyles. Does he believe in coinsidences *that* much? :)))
Why Roden didn't kill Faith? I got the impression that Gigi was watching over Faith at her bedside.
Or he wants to use Faith too...
I'm also puzzled why characters haven't grabbed you here and only story twists seem interesting
I don't know. I like the story, but it's too fairy-tale to be taken seriously. The only issue that grabbed me for real was The Chain.
no subject
Good point! He might be playing with the idea of recruting Faith for real. And not, I don't think he considers Faith "a coincidence", I'm sure he knows why she's here. That's why a few pieces of broken knives won't change a thing - Roden already suspects Faith and already plots what to do with her.
Oh, and I absolutely agree that Roden wants to use Gigi and get rid of her - and him being of Sunset cult confirms that. As their ultimate goal is to get rid of the slayers (and demons).
And I agree with the discussion below that there's no single truth here - like "Slayers good, Sunset bad". I'm sure we'll see both perspectives and the whole thing might end with a compromise - with Buffy helping to rid the world of both slayers (maybe by recalling their power?) and demons, and thus setting up "Fray".
But if there's a truth which Joss believes in is that Buffy and Slayers should have a say in this matter and should make their decisions based on the whole picture. Not accepting being played by their Watchers and Sunset.
no subject
no subject
Nope they don't. :) Comics writing is one of the least profitable avenues for writers.
I bet he gets much better royalties out of DVD sales from his shows and movies, and that one-episode directing/writing stunts like he did for "Office" or "VM" would pay as much as a year worth of those comics...
I don't know if he'd ever lets go of his Buffy universe but it won't be because of comic royalties because they are pretty low even for such good-selling comics.
no subject
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-28942.html
By my estimate Joss earns between 50 and 100 grands a month from the comics - and it's a steady income, unlike Hollywood's fickleness.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not critisizing him. I only say that he might be reluctant to cut this source of income.