Buffy issue 9 summary, analysis and spoilery speculations

[moscow_watcher]

Summary:

Brian K Vaughan uses any opportunity to delve into Faith's past and into her head. This issue starts - again! - with a flashback, this time dedicated to Faith's relationship with Mayor. Obviously he wants to draw a parallel to Gigi's relationship with Roden who now orders her to kill Faith. But Gigi, who has already swung her axe, conveniently hits Faith with its helve. She is mad at Faith at lying to her about her name, her goals, but most of all, about her nationality: "You're not even English?"

Is it written as a joke? I'm at loss here.

Gigi's rage is so devastating that she conveniently plunges her axe into a stone statue. Um, mister Vaughan... have you ever had an axe in your hands? I'm a woman, but even I occasionally hack twigs and branches for campfires. And I know that a metallic blade can't go into a stone.

OK, I accept it as a "suspension of disbelief" moment. Statue looks prettier. And it beautifully constrasts with the dynamics of the fight.

Meanwhile, Willow, following Buffy's order, phones Giles who is still trying to penetrate the mystical barrier around Gigi's estate. Buffy, furious, tells Giles that Faith tried to kill her. Giles has no time to explain - he has to save Faith, so he cuts Buffy short and asks her to put Willow on the line. Buffy feels betrayed.

Meanwhile, Faith-Gigi fight goes on, Gigi conveniently flies through the air and runs herself on her own axe. And, before she dies, she conveniently absolves Faith when the latter says she never meant to kill her - "Yeah. But it's like the song goes..."

Roden immediately tries to recruit Faith to kill Buffy, but, naturally, she rejects his offer and hits him with a Twilight's guidebook he offers her. Furious, Roden tries to kill Faith with a stone fist he conjures up from the earth, but cavalry in the person of Giles arrives in time and saves her. The battle between Roden and Giles is short and ridiculous: while Roden is conveniently standing there and posturing, Faith throws Roden's Twilight's guidebook to Giles, he immediately finds the necessary spell, puts the "mystic field" inside his opponent and Roden's head bursts.

Cut to the next morning. Back in Giles' apartment, Faith declares that she has decided not to quit. She has got her Big Moral Lesson and she wants "to play social worker to the slayers. Maybe I could help walk a few bad girls back from the brink". They decide to work together.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the jungle, a military helicopter lands on a tiny stone plateau. A woman in a military uniform with a Twilight sign on her palm requests the audience. A creature whose boots we saw back in issue 1 descends from above.

According to the woman, whose name is Lt. Molter, "their man on the inside" has reported that Buffy Summers was still alive. Flying Boots, who looks like Terminator in an iron mask, tells her that actually, Gigi and Roden were his targets. He plans to manipulate his enemies "into waging this ugly war, a tactic crucial for bringing the age of magic to a close".

"Night falls soon enough", he promises.

Analysis:

The second arc, as well as the first one, works OK as long as the reader doesn't overthink and overanalyse it. Analysis is a tricky thing here: a reviewer may easily turn into a whiner who complains about the lack of Shakespearean depth in a Shreck movie.

Well...

Brian K Vaughan loves Faith and this story is clearly her show. She's the star and everything else exists to showcase her ability to fight, quip and demonstrate the generosity of her spirit. I read comments from people who disliked her on the show but started to like her after this comic, and it's understandable: Faith really shines here.

But, unfortunately, Faith's greatness comes at the expence of everything else. Other characters's dialogs are either bland or sound like badfic snippets, like "Buffy's narrow ass lives to fight another day".

Vaughan's attempts to spice up Buffy's dialogues end up in some weird choices - "Faith and her droogs", for example. Buffy doesn't strike me as a girl who reads Burgess or watches Kubrick. (Well, she could hear that word from Spike - after all, his chip was a Clockwork Orange rip-off) :)

OTOH, Faith's culturological references sound spot-on ("Conan the librarian" - hee!) while Giles' "maybe I could be the Steed to your Peel" works mainly as an opening to Faith's priceless reply "I hope it's not as gross as it sounds". Have I mentioned that Vaughan loves Faith? I hope Joss will give him the spinoff rights.

Jeanty demonstrates some improvement - his Mayor looks great and Giles has several good panels. Faith is drawn better than in the previous issues, but Jeanty's alternate cover is incredibly ugly! Still there are some inspiring visual decisions in the issue, like Faith-Gigi fight taking place at sunset, with the blood-red sky as a backdrop.

About the story. *le sigh*

The story works great as long as you don't search something deep and significant in it. It's good entertainment, well-paced and provided with a requisite Valuable Moral Lesson. But it's a story of convenient situations, easy choices and artificial conflicts.

I already pointed out at multiple convenient situations in the summary. The ultimale convenience is Vaughan's decision to make Gigi's death accidental. He saves Faith from a hard choice - either kill Gigi or let her go knowing that she may strike again. Obviously, writer is too attached to the character to put her in a no-win situation.

Maybe my problem is measuring up comics by TV show standards. Onscreen Faith (as well as all the other characters) had been constantly put in no-win situations and had to make hard and unpleasant choices. Compared to them this watered down resolution is a shameful cop-out that highlights the very nature of comic-vs-TVshow dichotomy.

There are two types of conflicts between characters in fiction - real and artificial. Real ones are based on characters' different worldviews. Artificial ones are based on misunderstandings. This is the latter kind of conflict, when good guys are angry at each other because of unlucky circumstances. Giles doesn't want to cooperate with Buffy or anybody else in the castle either because he suspects there is a mole there or because he's overprotective. So he chooses Faith. Buffy finds out about his undercover operation in the worst possible situation and snaps at him, demanding the explanation. He can't waste time on explanations when Faith's life is in danger, so he snaps at Buffy, etc.

The problem with artificial conflicts is that they produce artificial resolutions. In the person of Gigi Faith killed her own metaphorical dark side and obsession with Buffy. What has changed? Instead of killing baby vampires she will be mentoring girls who kill baby vampires? I'd rather see her actively fighting.

Spoilery speculations.

1. So, there is a spy in Buffy's inner circle. If I were trying to figure him out using logic and common sense, my prime candidate would be Giles, because during his battle with Roden he acted as a person who knows the Twilight guidebook by heart. But logic and common sense are hardly applicable to BtVS (using logic and common sense I can easily prove that the real Doctor in As You Were is Riley). I'm pretty sure that Core Four are immune. Dear Xander fans, don't sweat and relax - this is a story of convenient situations, easy choices and artificial conflicts. The spy is either inadvertent (for example, New!Initiative managed to hide a bug in Xander's eyepatch) or an extra nobody cares about. Or he hasn't been introduced yet. (Just like the kiss of true love from a character who wasn't there in the room?) :)

2. Is Flying Boots the Big Bad of the season? Joss says he is. Anyway, by now the hierarchy of seasonal villains is already quite complicated to add another one. First we saw Amy and Warren; then we discovered New!Initiative; then we met Roden; now it looks like they are just pawns in Flying Boots's game. His official goal - to get rid of the magic - sounds as a trick to lull military's vigilance. After all, he's able to levitate! Could he be somebody we know? Easily. Military subplot and the promise of Riley return make Adam the best candidate.

3. Curiously, the detail that tortures me the most is the red demon on Faith's t-shirt on the last panels. It looks like the last-minute addition because it's obvious that it wasn't drawed but was copy-pasted from somewhere. The picture of demon doesn't follow the folds of the fabric of the t-shirt. I wonder if it was added to make the panels more vivid or the red demon is a foreshadowing of something sinister happening to Faith?

Bottom line: Interesting albeit not completely successful attempt to bring a bit of Avengers cool to Charlie's Angels universe.

Comments

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

If Faith's story had stopped with her being in the coma, I'd totally agree with you. But the mini-arc when she wakes up tells us that her deepest truth really isn't pitch-black evil. She really can't stand herself as pitch-black evil -- and that makes it interesting to go back and rewatch season 3, asking what led her to make a choice she really can't live with. Not as a way of excusing her -- the only way for her to come back from what she did is the path she subsequently took -- turning herself in, repenting, and starting over with some genuine humility. But rather just to understand. My own read is that most of her tragedy was in her. She has the amazing crappy childhood. Then you overlay slayer powers on that, and it's all terribly unstable. Last straw is coming to SD and having to stand in Buffy's shadow. From that perspective, I find it rather remarkable that she could make that turnaround on Angel. And I've really liked the character a lot ever since.

And while I can understand why Buffy doesn't understand Faith, it irritates me when she adopts a superior attitude towards her. Maybe Buffy wouldn't have fallen the way Faith did if she had to deal with Faith's set of circumstances. But she really doesn't know. But more importantly, a part of Buffy likes the fact that Faith fell, I think, because she benefits from the contrast. And that allows her to not deal with her own darkness. She plays the older brother to Faith's prodigal son.

Sorry -- I just loved this story. The story of a family with a black sheep is about more than just the badness of the black sheep. But still about the badness of the black sheep. And it's hard to see both of those points at the same time.

[mrs-underhill.livejournal.com]

From that perspective, I find it rather remarkable that she could make that turnaround on Angel.
Honestly, I found much more remarkable how all those people: Buffy, Angel, Giles, Wesley - took hit after hit on her behalf, turned cheek after another cheek, to help her and pull her back. Yes, finally it worked, and after those guys she hurt and tried to kill were tripping all over each other to help her, she made her turnaround. But still I think Angel, and also Buffy, Giles and Wesley, deserve much more credit here than Faith. Especially Angel.
And yes, I give more credit to Buffy and Wesley whom Faith just recently directly hurt (let's not forget that Faith was going to kill Joyce, sadistically, not a few days ago), who still stood by her and fought to keep her out of Wetworks guys clutches. That counts for much more in my book than Buffy not being a saint towards Faith after the things Faith just put her through. And I don't remember Faith acting sorry or saying sorry to Buffy for those things, by the way.
But yes, her going to jail voluntarily and staying there renewed my sympathy to her. Still, it's something for which many people fought, not just Faith.

And that's why I always found Spike's redemption journey much more compelling: he had *zero* support, he was expected to fail by everybody, including Buffy in S6, and he was often given negative reenforcement for his efforts. And still he made a turnaround, all on his own. And had to prove himself again after soul, prove that he is there to help and repent, despite the state he was in, before he ever was accepted back. His story was much more of an underdog and black sheep than Faith's ever was.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I don't think you know what it is like to be so damaged in childhood that you can't receive love later in life. Faith isn't as completely wrecked as Dana, but she's closer to Dana than anyone else we encountered on the show. In any case, lots of people helped in all the ways you say, but given her damage Faith wasn't going to be able to recognize or accept the love in it. That's why I think her turn around was remarkable. And giving her props for it shouldn't be taken as an argument that she's the only one who did good things here.

I adore Spike. But he was loved in childhood and that gives him something that Faith doesn't have. But I totally agree that he received NO support from the Scoobies, and that makes his journey remarkable in its own way. They are both underdogs -- just underdogs in different ways.

[mrs-underhill.livejournal.com]

Faith isn't as completely wrecked as Dana, but she's closer to Dana than anyone else we encountered on the show.
Umm... Connor? I think he's got much rougher deal, also with later betrayals and usage and all. Now I'm thinking that we've seen a lot of border-line psychotic people on the show who never got any help and were expected to function as usual. Except Dana who was obviously a raging psycho.
But Buffy didn't get any help in S6 and nobody, even Giles, thought about it, even when he learned about her being in depression. Faith didn't get any help (except maybe in prison?), Connor didn't. Spike and Angel both would've benefitted from it even though they had their demons raging underneath which would be outside of the field of human psychology.

Still all those guys, unlike Dana, would be considered legally responsible for what they did. They still were in possession of their wits and free will, knew what they were doing. Dana had to be locked up. If Faith was as unstable and damaged like Dana, and as dangerous for everyone, she should have been locked up too, not allowed to run around freely like a normal person. Ditto for Connor. Otherwise there'll be having pie and eating it too... It was a group effort to rehabiliate Faith, and lots of people took lots of risks to do it, rather than confine her like Dana. So yes, she doesn't get absolution on the grounds of being borderline psychotic and having unhappy childhood. On the other hand, she has to live her life as a free, functioning, normal person - but without any excuses for her actions. You can't have both, but the latter option is so much better.

Also if we go this route of excusing her for being psychotic and damaged, we can't really blame people around her for her extreme and out-of-left-field reactions to the slights which were mostly in her imagination, reactions which could be explained via her damaged psyche rather than via people being mean to her. Like "having to live in Buffy's shadow" - is not something which should normally provoke murderous tendencies. It's a perceived slight and not a real one. If you cast a shadow, you can't really be responsible that some people, who happen to be there, have violent reaction to it because of their childhood issues.

The roots of Faith troubles were subjective, as you said, she carried her tragedy inside of her. Her reactions weren't provoked as much by objective circumstances in SD but by her internal issues, by her inadequate reaction to those circumstances. And I agree, she really needed help then.

To illustrate: suppose there's this borderline-psychotic husband, say, a war-veteran with issues, who goes into violent fit every time his wife puts his spoon on the left of his plate and not on the right. And he beats up his wife for it. Should we blame his wife for regularly forgetting where to put a spoon and provoking him, or should we blame the husband and drag him by the hand to get help?
Or, if you are a Monty Python fan: there's a sketch where a furniture salesman puts a paper bag on his head anytime anyone says "mattress". And his colleagues would keep blaming poor customers for constantly saying "mattress" and provoking him. Instead of getting help for the guy... I see Faith SD issues in a similar light. It was inside of her.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

Actually, Holtz did love Connor, didn't he?

With the rest, I think we're a bit at cross-purposes. I'm not after 'excusing' Faith. I'm more after saying that if the judgments we are making is some sort of ultimate judgment, we aren't in a position to do it. We don't know what capacity a person has for acting well. And because we are social creatures, we do contribute to each others sinfulness, and that further complicates the task of judging. Faith is just a good example of the difficulty. She objectively acts terribly. But we don't really know how much of that is an exercise of her free will (and therefore blamable) and how much is due to lack of capacity/social dynamics and so on. I'm just repeating the Gospel point that at an ultimate level we can't judge. To whom much has been given, much is expected and vice versa. And we don't know what those endowments really are.accou

But the fact we don't know how accountable Faith is in an ultimate sense doesn't mean we can't say something about her accountability for her actions with respect to humans. It's proper for us to judge in that sense. So Faith had to turn herself in. Whether she was deeply morally accountable or not (depending on her capacity), she's accountable legally. Her grace was the moment she stopped fleeing that accountability and simply accepted it. There's sort of a paradox that *we* can't make moral progress until we stop making excuses, even if in some ultimate sense we really do have excuses. At the same time, I think when we are judging others, we need to always be aware that our judgments are not ultimate. If it's bad for us to excuse ourselves, it's equally bad for us not to have compassion about factors that would mitigate the guilt of others. So I think that's why at the end of the day I'm happier about where Faith is than about where Buffy is. Faith has dropped her justifications. She's completely submitted herself to the judgments of others. Buffy has never had a moment of humility like that. And partly because of that she does not judge Faith with compassion and mercy.

Did that make any sense? Probably not.

[goodbyebird]

Amen.

I could never verbalize something like this myself, but I very much agree. On what you say about faith, and passing judgement. It also seems that some people seem to take people's acceptance of Faith and their understanding of what led her to act the way she did, constitutes blaming the other characters.

Now, as for Buffy, I do believe she has shown humility before. f.exa. when she believes she's killed a girl in the woods, she's going to take the responsibility for it(I would have been there right along with Spike telling her 'this is retarded' btw). She has shown Faith compassion and mercy(saving Faith's life on the roof in 'Sanctuary' being a very golden example, having her attack her mother, then steal her body, sleep with her boyfriend then run off to her other love. Still Buffy didn't step over the line. Very admirable). She's a good person, but as we all do, she has her flaws, tempers, etc. Also, she is a leader, she's the warrior, the one with the responsibility of the world and multiple lives places squarely on her tiny shoulders. She can't afford to go around being humble. She has to trust her own instincts first and foremost.

eep! and I'd planned on writing a simple amen *blames the 'burn'*