Buffy issue 10 summary and analysis (spoilers)

[moscow_watcher]

Summary:

Buffy and Willow fly to a Sephrillian demon to ask him for help. Willow levitates in the air, Buffy clings to her. To distract herself from her fear of flying, Buffy fantasizes about Daniel Craig and Willow fantasizes about Tina Fey.

The lair of the demon has a Tardis-like effect: it looks like a small dilapidated house on the outside and like an enormous cave with a staircase on the inside. It's an unstable reality where "time and logic and everything's just bendy in the brain".

The lair is guarded by a "minder" Robin (guest star Robin Balzer who won her role in a letter contest). She says to the girls cryptic words "the important thing is that you rescue the prince" and the girls enter the lair.

Once there, Willow says other cryptic words "ah, l'esprit d'escolier". In French "l'esprit" means spirit and "escolier" is a weird hydrid of the words "ecolier" - "pupil" and "escalier" - "staircase". (I wonder if it's a clue to some future plot twist or just a misspelling). They follow the route, Buffy fantasizes about two Christian Bales at once, then asks Willow about Kennedy - and then a Sephrillian demon appears. It looks like a sand worm from Dune, with a square board attached to his tail. The board features pictures of what look like masks of Greek theater.

Demon informs them that The Twilight's goal is to terminate all demons and all magic. He also tells them they can't accept "the horrible beauty of total awareness" and shows them... ta-dam! Buffy and her slayer squad robbing the Swiss bank... ta-dam! Willow cheating on Kennedy with a half-woman, half-snake. Interestingly, Buffy tries to lie to Willow even when they see the robbery in progress, but Willow quickly realises: "so the mysterious benefactor bankrolling the slayer army..." Buffy tries to justify her actions "It's all insured! It's a victimless crime! And we totally found a Watto the Nazis hid and sent it to the Tate".

In the next scene Willow asks Robin the minder "Has this happened yet?" (?)

Robin shows them Buffy - cut, bleeding, crying - and tells about "betrayal. The closest, the most unexpected".

Willow tells Buffy that she is already betraying her by not letting Kennedy participate in the Slayer program. She is afraid that she'll die like Tara.

The Sephrillian demon speechifies about the upcoming war and weak humans. Buffy, angry, kills him. The place becomes unstable, the girls get thrown out of the lair, and it blows up. Buffy and Willow go away in a bad mood.

In a parallel story Dawn tells Xander that she hasn't slept with Kenny - she has slept with his roommate Nick.

Analysis:

I like Cliff Richards art. A lot. Finally the characters look like young adults, not like children.

I'm saying that because I desperately want to sound positive. I'm afraid I can't - but I don't want to whine and complain. I remember back in 2002-2003 people whined about later seasons (which I love dearly) and were telling that Buffy has lost it's spirit. And now I'm ready to repeat these words. Do I turn into a grumpy hag?

Anyway I'll try to formulate what's wrong different with season 8 in my opinion. I know that many people enjoy it; please, don't throw rotten fruits at me.

To me, Buffyverse's most interesting aspects are stories about love and friendship. Buffy\Spike. Willow\Tara. Xander\Anya. These characters went through hell because of love and I was there with them. In seasons 1-7 BtVS was a drama\comedy about relationships with strong metaphorical subtext. Relationships were the stars of the show; conspiracies were supporting players.

I remember back in 2003 I was mostly concerned if Buffy would confess her love for Spike. I also wanted to know if Xander and Anya would make up; if Faith and Buffy would finally overcome their differences.

Right now I'm wondering who's the traitor. I visit DH board and I notice that other fans are also mostly arguing about the identity of the Twilight's source in the castle. It's understandable: his existence is so hyped; it's mentioned in two consecutive issues, we are teased with it again and again. It's interesting and uninvolving at the same time. It's like Lost. I watch the show with interest but all I care about is the conspiracy. Who lives, who dies, who falls for whom - what's the difference?

Long story short, I think that season 8 is made in different genre. It's a political thriller with detective elements. It's a story about a complex conspiracy with a requisite traitor in the middle of supposedly good guys. Conspiracy is the star, characters serve the plot twists. The plot demands Buffy to rob a bank. She robs a bank. Tomorrow the plot will demand Willow to become a movie star. Or a FBI agent. And she will become the next Julia Roberts or a government spy.

I don't say that Buffy can't rob a bank. Or that Willow can't be a movie star. But I need a motivation. If, say, Buffy did it in a desperate situation to save somebody's life, I'd cheer such plot twist. I love moral dilemmas. But this is not the case. Obviously she did it just because "it's only money". Or maybe she did it for a valid reason but we'll find about it in 5 years when emotionally it won't matter anymore.

I wonder why Joss has switched to another genre. Has he decided that the audience won't be able to care about the relationships of comic characters the way they cared when they were played by actors? Did he find the comic format more suitable for the story about global human\demon stand-off rather than for a more intimate story about relationships? Hard to say.

About the issue 10 per se. The word "unnecessary" comes to mind, and, although I try to chase it away, it refuses to go. What happens to season 8 reminds me the situation with Harry Potter saga. Each new volume was thicker and more extensive than the previous one. I couldn't finish it. I only read the spoilers that has leaked online a week before the publication date of the last book and that was enough. I think that right now Joss is in danger of following in Rowling's footsteps and becoming self-indulgent. He writes just because he likes to write. For example, it takes him four pages to tell that Dawn has slept with one character we never met instead of the other character we never met. And - what? Nothing.

At least now we know why Buffy hasn't exposed general Voll's activities to the American goverment. Because she's also a criminal.

Or not. Current issue is so ambiguous it's really baffling. Willow's question to Robin - "Has this happened yet?" - indicates that even Buffy's mentioning the details of the robbery may be a fluke of unstable reality. What Buffy and Willow saw could be truth or lie. It has either happened or will happen or won't happen. Looks like the goal of the issue is to stir up fans and make them paranoid.

Or maybe Joss just drags it out to make more money.

Or maybe he has a big plan for the whole season.

Questions, questions...

-- Is the Sephrillian demon with Greek masks on his tail the metaphor or art? If that's the case there is a definite echo of Once More With Feeling, where demon Sweet was also the metaphor of art (in his case, singing and dancing) that made people say dangerous truths and get burned by them.

-- Is Robin a good or a bad guy? There is the mention that Robin Balzer relates to Drusilla who is her "fantasy icon" in the letter column. Hmmm...

-- Is Buffy with two Christian Bales a parody on her relationship with her vampires? Bale-the-sweet-charmer from Little Women could be the parody on Spike\William and Bale-the-dragonslayer from Reign of Fire could be a parody on Angel.

-- Is it amorphous "now" or very concrete summer of 2007? Casino Royale premiered in November 2006 and it's summer outside...

Bottom line: I'm not sure I'll go on writing reviews on BtVS. Anyway I'll go on reading them. And I'll definitely continue to read and rec fanfiction, though.

Comments

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I've said since the beginning that all the hi-tech equipment is unnecessary, and if she is stealing to fund it, then that makes it twice so.

You saying things doesn't make them so. The single most obvious thing that comes to mind as needing more than a few sharp sticks is the defeat of Yamanh's demon army in The Chain. Slayers have fought an army once before but if it weren't for the magical hi-tech of Wolfram & Hart's amulet they would have died and lost (the battle not the war ) in that order.

[elisi]

Oh all the armour etc is very *practical*, definitely. But if the price is to become criminals who'll either end up in prison (can't save the world like that) or outlaws/vigilantes... It just strikes me as kinda dumb. I'd like to see every other option explored - surely there are other ways of getting money.

As I said, I want to know *why* that path was taken. We're seeing the consequences of an unknown. 'Fraid I need to know the unknown before I begin to care. (This was the problem with S1 of Torchwood btw - we didn't know Jack's story, why he was where he was, or how he'd got there. Finding that out was one of the great joys of his guest appearance on DW!)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

If you'd rather read through every other option being explored one by one by one then we have very different tastes in comics. Apart from that brief period she was working for the Initiative Buffy and Co have always operated outside the law. I'm quoting myself but hell:

Despite her refusal to take money from individuals, Buffy has always been a little cavalier about her treatment of corporate property when for Slaying purposes. She stole a rocket launcher, she blew up a school and then a whole town, she broke into restricted government institutions and had Willow hack into their mainframes. (She was, as Voll said from the beginning, a terrorist). Moreover, since the fall of Sunnydale it seems she’s become aware of W&H, which is unlikely to have changed her opinion of corporations in any positive direction.

The full details of why they did it is what makes me eager to read more but the reveal that she did it at all is emotionally satisfying because of the way it accounts for the schizo reactions she had to Faith and Giles and brings new depth to all her previous statements from "The thing about changing the world" onwards.

[elisi]

If you'd rather read through every other option being explored one by one by one then we have very different tastes in comics.
Hee! No, I just want to know that this was a last resort - or a situation a la Angel's deal with W&H.

Despite her refusal to take money from individuals, Buffy has always been a little cavalier about her treatment of corporate property when for Slaying purposes.
There is a difference between your examples, and stealing to fund her new life.

but the reveal that she did it at all is emotionally satisfying because of the way it accounts for the schizo reactions she had to Faith and Giles
Really? Sorry, but I'm still confused by everything. Hopefully the next issue will give some answers. If not, I'm strongly feeling like just giving up reading.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

There is a difference between your examples, and stealing to fund her new life.
Is it such a large difference? As you've pointed out at great length she's not funding her life but her slaying and she's not mugging passers-by like S4 Spike but breaking into a faceless corporation and removing its assets as Giles did in order to 'acquire' the Council's records in S7. And like Giles she may feel it was necessary but she still feels guilty about it. It eats at her hence the schizo would be my interpretation.

I'm strongly feeling like just giving up reading.
It might be wise.

[elisi]

Is it such a large difference?
This is clearly where the line falls - some of us think yes, some no.

It might be wise.
I certainly won't be debating them anymore. This comment was a last lapse.