"Thing about changing the world...Once you do it, the world's all different."
That's how season 8 starts, in part what it is about, and that thought will be reprised at the very end of the season. I also now realize it's a meta commentary as well. This comic world that Buffy has transitioned into is all different. You've got tons of complicated stunts, huge and gnarly demons, and the entire globe and possibly beyond as a canvas. No limitations of budget, only of imagination, plot sense, and character. So it will be a wild ride.
We start on Buffy, and we find out right away that the promise indicated in her beginnings of a smile at the end of Chosen has passed her by. Her life is different now, but it's even farther from normal than it was on the Hellmouth. She's leading an army of about 500 slayers. There's around 1800 slayers in the world, and it's not clear at the start where the others are. There's two slayers pretending to be Buffy to make it harder for her to be targeted. One is in Rome with the Immortal. Hilarius tie-in to Angel 5x20 The Girl in Question, and another retcon meta joke in that the fans always knew the girl in Rome was not SMG. The other Buffy we will meet and whose fate we will learn of in the Chain, one of the best issues of season 8.
Buffy and Xander are in a castle in Scotland. They have a lot of sophisticated equipment, psychics, and (we learn later) Wiccans working with the slayers. We'll learn how all this was funded in a later issue as well, and it's all part of the fallout from the scythe spell in Chosen, as is the rest of the season. I am convinced that before I get too far into this, I need to rewatch the show. Listening to an old episode of Watcher Cast, their intro includes the quote from Giles that reprised the pilot episodes of Buffy, "The Earth is definitely doomed," I realized that that has foreshadowing too, reflecting forward as well as back. Season 8 seems to showing a world that is about to end, a world in its twilight. With that spell, was the Earth doomed?
More slayer stats come to light and we learn that there's a squad in Barcelona led by Donna. (Note to self, look up names given for all the surviving Potentials so I know when characters are new versus callbacks.) And Andrew has a squad in southern Italy. There's a slayer named Renee in Scotland who will become Xander's new love interest -- for a little while. Of the slayers in on the church mission with Buffy, one we will learn is Satsu and one is Rowena. Don't remember who the other three are, although they show up again I'm certain.
Buffy introduces us to Xander as her Watcher, a post he denies a couple of times. He doesn't want to be called a Watcher. He also seems to miss his old life and job, but feels duty-bound to stay and help Buffy. So nothing new there. At the end of the season he seems to be settling into a normal life, but I'm sure that will only go so far.
We first see the Twilight symbol on the men killed by demons in the church, and it's clear they were there fighting the demons, not ordinary, innocent victims. Xander and Buffy try to figure out the symbol. Buffy's idea, which is more foreshadowing, is that it's a beautiful sunset. Certainly was for her...I'm back.
Then we're with the military, one of the Initiative's offshoots or compatriots or maybe not. Since the world is so different, since the slayers are en masse and Twilight is trying to gather her enemies together, maybe it's the entire U.S. military that's in on the demon fighting now. I think later we get some indications that there's a hell of a lot of demons out there these days, and was that because of the spell? Or at least my mind goes there. I think back to Beljoxa's Eye in season 7, saying that the First was able to rise so high with such power because of Willow and crew calling the Slayer back into the world, a balancing of power, thaumogenesis type deal. Are there more demons because there's more slayers?
We meet General Voll and a sweaty man in a suit. The general considers the slayers to be a new form of terrorist, against American interests, which is what will happen to you if you try to change, and especially if you succeed in changing, the status quo. They're flying to the crater that was once Sunnydale. Again, bringing it back to where Chosen left off. By the way, in this issue we're not given any info as to how long ago that happened. Since Twilight it already up and running, I assume it's been some time. I guess Angel's disembodied friend could have started the whole thing without him, or his stint in hell might not have taken any real world time (that's probably it -- haven't finished the Angel comics yet, but LA is maybe popped back without any time having passed in real time? We'll see when I get there. I'm behind on the Angel comics.) Still, Buffy and friends needed some time to get things set up the way they are now. And the events here take place either at the same time or after the end of Angel season 5, which should be a year after Chosen, given the fake Buffy/Immortal thing. I'll watch for time indicators.
We flip back to Scotland and Buffy trying to connect with Dawn. Dawn is a giant. Awesome. She was going to Berkeley before this happened to her, and she wants to go back. So she was able to get a GED and get into school in whatever time has passed. She had a boyfriend that was a thricewise, whatever that is, and Buffy thinks she slept with him and it went bad so he cursed her. We find out the true story later. But Buffy and Dawn aren't getting along, and Dawn only wants to talk to Willow about it, not Buffy.
So Xander isn't all that excited to be here, missing a more normal life, but handling it pretty well, being Buffy's right hand and confidante. Dawn doesn't want to be there because of her own misery and condition mostly. And Buffy isn't happy in this new world either, feeling even less connected with everything than before, the exact opposite of what she wanted when she shared her power. I seem to remember later on that Faith or Willow says something to her that maybe because she started the power share/activation spell, she wasn't supposed to feel the connection the other girls do. I don't think Faith feels it either. The original Slayers already had the power; the potential slayers are the ones who were activated together and share a bond from it. Buffy tells herself to suck it up.
Then we're back with the military scientists at the Hellmouth. They've found something alive down there, two somethings actually, and no other bodies. And we get the first surprise return of an old friend/enemy in the comic: Amy! She tells them: I'm going to help you kill her. The end.
So we will find out more about Amy and her friend living in the ruins of Sunnydale soon, and the rest of the Scoobies and allies will start showing up soon. It's been a while since I've read The Long Way Home, so I'm looking forward to experiencing it again.
And I worship at the altar of Jo Chen.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
All Clear (and Blackout) by Connie Willis, a rambling review
Thursday morning I stayed in bed reading All Clear until I was done. I'm still unsure what I feel about it. Definitely had a decent ending, but there were few surprises throughout. I kind of guessed Mary before the reveal, definitely guessed Ernest before, and I kind of think I had an idea about him earlier, but I might be making that up, it's been a while. I knew they hadn't lost the war and that the continuum wasn't necessarily trying to kill them and everyone they know. I felt like Polly's epiphany was very close to Ned's at the end of To Say Nothing of the Dog. Really, the whole thing felt a bit like a rehash of old ground. The pacing, with all the running around and getting blocked and finding another way and all that did have a plot reason, but it didn't seem to have a thematic one. Maybe it didn't in TSNOTD either, but it was an effective way to do the comedy, the farce, of that book. It perfectly suited the character's confusion and the tangled mess of Victorian manners and English mysteries and all of it. And that kind of deal done for tragedy worked incredibly well for Passage, where it did tie directly into the theme and the imagery at work in that book. So much so that it's stuck with me for years in a very profound way.
I don't want to feel that that profundity has been dented by her using the same device again to a lesser purpose. It makes it feel as if she's just good at writing that kind of plot and so will continue to do so, even when the reasons for it are not as well thought out or something. I mean, it was part of figuring out the mystery, but it was basically the same conclusion that Ned had with the same reasoning of the same type of coincidences and near misses. Just this time the historians were there to take action whereas before they were there to stay out of the way -- that's not even true. In TSNOTD, they were put in places to do what needed to be done to make history stay on course, they just sat out the last bit to let everything fall into place. So Polly's big moment of understanding that turned around their attitudes felt like old news, so the fact that Dunworthy was so convinced he had ruined the world seemed like a false issue. Of course, IDK if this happened before the events of that book, maybe that's why it wasn't mentioned at all, so maybe he hadn't had the experience of learning that. That would make me feel better about the whole thing, actually.
The Blitz part was great; I learned a ton. And I liked the characters, I liked Eileen staying, although I wasn't surprised. I accepted Colin and Polly and was impressed with Michael actually dying, and quite sad. I think it did go on too long. And there were just too many issues with the trying to do something, being thwarted, trying to go around, blocked again, rinse, repeat. It didn't even match the feelings of the Blitz, which was more of a seige, getting by, doing your part kind of message, not a message of trying to do this, being thwarted, going around etc. kind of thing. And the characters seemed servants to the plot too often, not communicating things for really stupid reasons, needless deceptions, and an overall lack of professionalism. I mean, for time traveling historians, they don't seem to have a great grasp of what they're doing. It's as if Oxford is allowing them to go through the net, but not teaching them about how it works. Like they're truly just historical experts of certain time periods -- they have that knowledge -- but they're not historical scientists, they have no idea how the whole system they're utilizing works. That just seems a bad idea to me. I mean, maybe part of the point is that the historians as a whole don't really know what they're doing. After all, Dunworthy himself is ready to throw away all his old opinions on how it works to believe they've destroyed the world.
I guess the chaos theory part worked for me in the other book, but not this as much. IDK. And I probably need to refer to Doomsday Book again to see how it was handled there, since I never remember that as well. Maybe the idea of this self-correcting continuum just works better in a comedy and ill fits a darker story. I mean, Polly ends up calling it a comedy and not a tragedy, but the book itself was pretty dark. Even the end victory didn't seem that triumphant once you got there.
Still, I liked the idea that the historians from the future had always been a part of winning World War II. It's hard to wrap your head around, but it gives you a nice koan-type thing to ponder, so that was good. I think I'll just have to reread them both sometime and see if it settles in nicer the second time through. Still well worth the read, just not the masterpiece I kind of wanted it to be. But having one author be the creator of two of my favorite books of all time is really good enough I should think.
I don't want to feel that that profundity has been dented by her using the same device again to a lesser purpose. It makes it feel as if she's just good at writing that kind of plot and so will continue to do so, even when the reasons for it are not as well thought out or something. I mean, it was part of figuring out the mystery, but it was basically the same conclusion that Ned had with the same reasoning of the same type of coincidences and near misses. Just this time the historians were there to take action whereas before they were there to stay out of the way -- that's not even true. In TSNOTD, they were put in places to do what needed to be done to make history stay on course, they just sat out the last bit to let everything fall into place. So Polly's big moment of understanding that turned around their attitudes felt like old news, so the fact that Dunworthy was so convinced he had ruined the world seemed like a false issue. Of course, IDK if this happened before the events of that book, maybe that's why it wasn't mentioned at all, so maybe he hadn't had the experience of learning that. That would make me feel better about the whole thing, actually.
The Blitz part was great; I learned a ton. And I liked the characters, I liked Eileen staying, although I wasn't surprised. I accepted Colin and Polly and was impressed with Michael actually dying, and quite sad. I think it did go on too long. And there were just too many issues with the trying to do something, being thwarted, trying to go around, blocked again, rinse, repeat. It didn't even match the feelings of the Blitz, which was more of a seige, getting by, doing your part kind of message, not a message of trying to do this, being thwarted, going around etc. kind of thing. And the characters seemed servants to the plot too often, not communicating things for really stupid reasons, needless deceptions, and an overall lack of professionalism. I mean, for time traveling historians, they don't seem to have a great grasp of what they're doing. It's as if Oxford is allowing them to go through the net, but not teaching them about how it works. Like they're truly just historical experts of certain time periods -- they have that knowledge -- but they're not historical scientists, they have no idea how the whole system they're utilizing works. That just seems a bad idea to me. I mean, maybe part of the point is that the historians as a whole don't really know what they're doing. After all, Dunworthy himself is ready to throw away all his old opinions on how it works to believe they've destroyed the world.
I guess the chaos theory part worked for me in the other book, but not this as much. IDK. And I probably need to refer to Doomsday Book again to see how it was handled there, since I never remember that as well. Maybe the idea of this self-correcting continuum just works better in a comedy and ill fits a darker story. I mean, Polly ends up calling it a comedy and not a tragedy, but the book itself was pretty dark. Even the end victory didn't seem that triumphant once you got there.
Still, I liked the idea that the historians from the future had always been a part of winning World War II. It's hard to wrap your head around, but it gives you a nice koan-type thing to ponder, so that was good. I think I'll just have to reread them both sometime and see if it settles in nicer the second time through. Still well worth the read, just not the masterpiece I kind of wanted it to be. But having one author be the creator of two of my favorite books of all time is really good enough I should think.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Buffy Season 8 - Intro
So my latest project idea, hopefully one I will finish, is to, now that I've read all of Buffy season 8, to reread it and take note of what I notice this time through in light of how it ends. Mostly I'm doing this to try and make sense of the story to myself. I have read it, but I'm not certain I understand it, so I want to revisit the whole thing and try to form a coherent picture. And blog it as I do it.
My experience with the Buffy comics has been on and off again. I started the new series by subscribing to it through TFAW, and I would receive each issue as it came out. And at first I read it as I got it. Then I fell behind. Then I realized I couldn't afford to buy it every month and stopped subscribing and reading. I started picking up the trades when they came out. And I read up to Fray's issue. Then I stopped, thinking I should reread Fray first. And I never got back to it. And then came Buffy's 30th birthday and the release of the last issue. And I, having been spoiled on 2 major events already, decided I'd better catch up. So I read everything up through #36 before Wednesday, January 19th, then picked up the last 4 issues the following weekend.
I had a long gap in between. I reread the first couple of trades in the midst of it, and I ended up reading the majority of the work in the last couple of weeks. So it's fresh in my mind, but I also read through it really quickly, so I need the reread. And I really am not sure I understand it fully. I get the chronology, and the basic plot, but I'm having trouble feeling the thematic points and, for lack of a better word, the moral of the story.
Part of the problem is that it took me most of the way into the story to realize that it was a superhero comic. It was strange for me to realize how different the world was in comic form. It's not just about being able to fight hordes of demons and do awesome stunts, there's a whole new attitude that comes from the change of medium. I'm not that accustomed to comics, and I loved it so as a television show, so it really did take me some time to make the transition. On this reread, I'll go into it knowing that already. I think it will help.
Anyway, that's the "plan." I decided I should not only reread, but I should blog about it. Mostly for the exercise of writing, but also just to flesh out my thoughts a little more concretely than would occur if I was just thinking to myself or occasionally tweeting something as I thought it. Also, it's going to be spoilery, so I should keep anything major off twitter. I will be comparing things from the very first issue to things that happen at the very end and all the way through.
Onward, ho! (Wow, that sounded different in my head.)
My experience with the Buffy comics has been on and off again. I started the new series by subscribing to it through TFAW, and I would receive each issue as it came out. And at first I read it as I got it. Then I fell behind. Then I realized I couldn't afford to buy it every month and stopped subscribing and reading. I started picking up the trades when they came out. And I read up to Fray's issue. Then I stopped, thinking I should reread Fray first. And I never got back to it. And then came Buffy's 30th birthday and the release of the last issue. And I, having been spoiled on 2 major events already, decided I'd better catch up. So I read everything up through #36 before Wednesday, January 19th, then picked up the last 4 issues the following weekend.
I had a long gap in between. I reread the first couple of trades in the midst of it, and I ended up reading the majority of the work in the last couple of weeks. So it's fresh in my mind, but I also read through it really quickly, so I need the reread. And I really am not sure I understand it fully. I get the chronology, and the basic plot, but I'm having trouble feeling the thematic points and, for lack of a better word, the moral of the story.
Part of the problem is that it took me most of the way into the story to realize that it was a superhero comic. It was strange for me to realize how different the world was in comic form. It's not just about being able to fight hordes of demons and do awesome stunts, there's a whole new attitude that comes from the change of medium. I'm not that accustomed to comics, and I loved it so as a television show, so it really did take me some time to make the transition. On this reread, I'll go into it knowing that already. I think it will help.
Anyway, that's the "plan." I decided I should not only reread, but I should blog about it. Mostly for the exercise of writing, but also just to flesh out my thoughts a little more concretely than would occur if I was just thinking to myself or occasionally tweeting something as I thought it. Also, it's going to be spoilery, so I should keep anything major off twitter. I will be comparing things from the very first issue to things that happen at the very end and all the way through.
Onward, ho! (Wow, that sounded different in my head.)
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