Buffy issue 14 review

[moscow_watcher]

Summary:

Buffy brings Aiko, the dead slayer to their Japanese "base" - another big castle with international slayer crew. Newly arrived Dracula contributes significantly on Scoobies' plans by recommending some spell with obscure objective. He also asks if he could feed on the dead Slayer and is jealous when Xander kisses Renee.

Vampires prepare to go online (obviously, to strip Slayers off their power). Scoobies catch a Random Vampire who happens to know everything about the Scythe - who has stolen it, why, as well as when and where the ritual should happen.

Buffy doesn't want to use local girls in her operation against local vampires. According to her, they're too shaken up by Aiko's death. The explanation is lame and I wonder if she trusts them at all. Or maybe she needs justification for bringing her own troops. She wants Satsu to stay at the castle, but the latter flatly refuses.

So, Buffy, Satsu, Xander, Willow, Renee, Dracula, Lea and, inexplainably, Andrew penetrate the vampire headquarters. Willow teleports Giant!Dawn as a distraction. "Hi! I mean - ROOAAARR!" Buffy's group locates Raidon with the Scythe, but turns out it's a trap. Buffy sees a hologram of Raidon while the real vampire impales Renee, obviously, killing her.

Analysis:

When I was writing about the previous issue I was tempted to mention that instead of "shoe sale noise" Goddard could write at least one line about Buffy's slayer intuition telling her about the importance of the Scythe. Because Buffy's decision to organize a very expensive international operation to retrieve a piece of metal looked weird. I didn't mention it because I wrote it off as a genre convention. The story looked silly and fluffy, Austin-Poweresque romp about dating and travels.

But this issue has different mood. It starts and ends with the death of a slayer. Yet the writer often uses jokes to escape serious issues. For example, when Satsu refuses to obey to Buffy, it ends with a joke. The mourning for Aiko is diluted by Dracula's line about "finishing eating her".

Now, I can appreciate black humor but I find it pretty hard to switch from drama to black comedy and back in every other panel. Should we take everything at face value or should we suspense our disbelief?

Did Buffy leave her castle unprotected and bring her own people to Japan where she also has a castle and a squad of slayers because she doesn't trust them or because writer wanted her to have a quarrel with Satsu pronto? Does Buffy's line "I find it sexy when she calls me "ma'am" written to highlight her fascination with power or just as a "lol" moment?

I believe the second option is more probable, but who knows? - maybe in the next issue we'll find out that the theme of the issue was Buffy's irresponsibility: she risked Xander's life sending him to Dracula's castle, her lack of proper planning caused Renee's death...

I wonder if Renee is dead. Given that "terrible loss" is mentioned in the synopsis of the next issue, I suppose she's gone. But in Jossverse the fatality of any wound always depends on its dramatic purpose. So, knowing Joss' love of twists, it's pretty possible that it's his way of raising the stakes: if Renee is just wounded then her survival depends on keeping her slayer healing powers. This way Buffy &Co get another, more urgent cause to prevent Kumiko's spell: to save Renee's life. In that case, the major casualty should be Satsu. Her eagerness to join the battle may be her swan song.

Though formally it's a Xander arc, it looks like he has nothing much to do here. I read theories that this may be a set-up for the seasonal arc and that Twilight is Future!Xander, changed by grief over Renee. So far, the most sensible objection against "Xander = Twilight" was the fact that in the first issue Xander worked at Slayer Central while Twilight was spying on Buffy. But after the cover with two scythes it looks like objects from different timeframes can co-exist (Buffy's scythe and Fray's scythe is the same one), so theoretically Future!Xander could meet current! Xander.

I don't think writers may go this way and can't see him as a bad guy. But I'd love to see anything significant happening to him.

The art looks OK (or maybe I just got used to it), although Dracula's transformation from Sam Shepard to John Travolta on the same page is quite hilarious.