"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.
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