I'd like to hope that one clumsy storyline (the s7 one) doesn't necessarily mean every future storyline needs to be equally clumsy. However, I think part of my problem with the story is that I just don't buy that Joss would let Buffy crash and burn completely. He's gone on record so many times saying that he created Buffy for a very specific purpose; she's the Hero. She shall overcome. I'd love a good Buffy-turns-dark story (I don't think this is quite it; IMO, it's too clumsy and too dependent on having Buffy do things just for the sake of seeming dark). But still, it's one of the most interesting things about the comic. However, the problem is that while I like that Joss lets Buffy stumble, he hasn't convinced me that he could let her fall so far she can't get up. Which means that when he starts telegraphing his punches as early as in #2, the first thing I start wondering is "OK, Buffy's going dark, when's the big epiphany coming?" And the longer it takes and the blinder he has to write Buffy to maintain the arc, the more annoyed I get. Whether that's my fault or Whedon's, I leave up to the reader.

But what I was referring to specifically was the amount of fans who seem(ed) to not notice that he's had Buffy checking every box on the Whedonverse Darkness Arc checklist. A story about power corrupting only works if the readers can see that the character with power is being corrupted; otherwise, it's all rather pointless. Whether that's the reader's fault or Whedon's, I leave up to... well, me. ;-)

*isn't sure if that made any sense, but it's late*