Links and a thought.

[elisi]

ETA: How could I forget? moscow_watcher made me an icon! *points and giggles* Very sharable! :)

Of course there is also this very clever manip by sueworld2003 which should be made into icons and banners with the words 'There could be some kind of oil involved' across them!

Lots of S8 issue 3 links:

Review by shapinglight!!!
Review by moscow_watcher
Review by yourlibrarian.
Review by thedeadlyhook.
Review by aycheb.
Review by stormwreath.
Review by powerofthebook.
Review by ruuger.
Review by molly_may.
nightchick tries to identify the people in Buffy's 'dreamspace'.
Musings on the title and what it might mean for the direction of the story by stormwreath.
Musings on *that character's* boyfriend by qkellie.
Drabble by st_salieri.

So far most of my thoughts have been on the issue of canonicity (totally a word!) which there will be a post on tomorrow, but this morning something else struck me...

I’ve been thinking a little about comic!Buffy. Mostly though - why did she cut her hair and why are most of her clothes so ugly? What happened to our Buffy who could (weekly!) put together new and gorgeous outfits on Doublemeat vages? The prettiest thing she’s worn so far is the nightie, and that is for sleeping in - i.e. where no one will see it. OK, so she asks one of the other slayers for hair fashion tips, but still... why is her hair so boring to begin with? It’s a comic - long hair won’t take longer in make-up... sure there’s the issue of not turning her into a sex object (in which case - what’s up with the nightie?), but ‘The Bond Issue’ does come into play with Buffy: Women (girls) should want to be her, men should want to be with her. She’s the type of girl who’d wear cats strapped to her feet after all... the one who patrols in pretty halters. The one who makes sure that her makeup looks nice before going into battle. Practical, sensible clothes tend to say that she’s depressed (no overalls so far thank goodness!). Is this the case, or is it just that the artist is a man? *sigh*

Here follows the outfits Buffy has worn so far:





ETA?: Thanks to stormwreath for pointing out that I'd missed this one. And dream!Buffy has nice boots, if an appaling taste in men!


The 4th one is the only one that’s slightly interesting. Thoughts? Comments?

ETA2: Most depressing of all, I doubt that any of it actually means anything. Whatever thoughts/notes Joss made re. Buffy's clothes I doubt they were particularly deep (or symbolic). *sigh*

There's all the talk of an 'unlimited budget', but without a director, camera man, set manager, costume department, props-people etc to actually give their expert input, it seems a little... wasted? Sorry 'bout the negativity, but I'm feeling a little 'meh' today.


ETA3: Another thought, partly brought on by AOQ's re-watch of WSWB (amongst others). Buffy season openers are never *great* episodes, but they usually tell us where Buffy's head is at, or point towards her development during the season: S1 - she was running away from her calling. S2 - she was running away from her fears. S3 - she as running away from her life. S4 - she was worried about her new life. S5 - spurred on a quest for deeper understanding of her powers. S6 - "Is this hell?". S7 - something BIG is coming and girls are going to die! So far in S8 we've established that she misses her home and sex. As molly_may says:

How does she feel about having all these new slayers? Does she ever worry that she did the wrong thing with the spell? How are she and Giles handling reinstituting the Council together after the friction they experienced in S7? Does she ever think about quitting, about a "normal" life, now? Buffy's a rich character whose always had an interior life that went a lot deeper than just wanting to get laid.

Yes there is that one line about things having been difficult/different since 'they changed the world', but one line ain't enough. Sorry. I was never into Buffy for the stories, I was there for the characters. And where is my Buffy?

Comments

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I like the hair. Long hair is depression hair for Buffy and having it tied back, as she often did in S7, really suits her face. As for clothing, having lived in the North of Scotland I can give you a very simple reason for the more utilitarian style. There’s nae shops and mail order really doesn’t give a girl the same kind of buzz. She’s doing pretty well though considering the limitations and that there’s no advantage to dressing like schmuck bait on mass patrols. Her training outfit is beautifully cut, and fitted exposing just the fashionable amount of enviable twenty-something midriff and the nightie, despite varying mysteriously in the flare of the skirt and existence or otherwise of side splits, is perfectly classic.

Buffy season openers are never *great* episodes, but they usually tell us where Buffy's head is at, or point towards her development during the season
Well missing home and sex isn’t that much less revelatory than being worried about college but I think we’ve been shown a whole lot more than that. I can see two aspects to it.

First there’s an interesting disconnect between outward success and inner uncertainty. She head of a worldwide organisation of Slayers and unlike in S7 she’s connecting with them (she knows their names) and they respect her. Her relationships with both Willow and Xander have healed, there’s warmth, banter, jokes, even hugs. Despite this there’s a slightly suspicious lack of contact with Giles and a definite rift between her and Dawn. She misses her mom (Joyce’s body is the central image in the dream space cubes) and wonders if she really has any idea what she’s up to. There’s a real sense here of her having got everything she ever wanted but still being hollow. She never really did have time to process the loss of Joyce with everything that happened afterwards.

Second there’s the fact that changing the world has clearly put her on the Big Bad radar in a way she never was before. The First targeted the Slayer line not Buffy Summers and all her other adversaries have ignored or dismissed her (apart from Angelus with whom it was simply personal). Ironically ensuring that she’s no longer the one girl in all the world has turned her into some kind of Slayer celebrity, the bad guys are after her personally, the other Slayers are calling her ma’am, she’s even picked up a stalker rooting through her personal dream space.

[elisi]

Long hair is depression hair for Buffy
She was depressed for 4 seasons? In my head there's short-haired Buffy (S1-3) and longhaired Buffy (S4-7). Except of course 2nd half of S6 when her short hair really was an outward sign of her inner pain. Guess I just equate long hair with adult!Buffy, and find comic!Buffy reminding me of Highschool!Buffy. And I think long hair suits her much, much better. But then we're only talking about a comic now, so... ;)

There’s nae shops and mail order really doesn’t give a girl the same kind of buzz.
Why on earth did she agree to live there? Heh. At least they could have done a little shopping in London or LA or *something*. Poor Buffy!

As for all the other stuff, then thank you lots - I want to like the comics, but so far there's very little I can get my teeth into. This helped!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Well I hope some of it made sense (coming soon a feminist analysis of the nurse outfit). As to hair S4 was crimped or overstraightened hair of which let us speak no more, S5 I find hard to judge with everyone looking so orange, early S6 was grave hair. Lopping it off in Gone co-incided with her realising she wanted to live.

[elisi]

coming soon a feminist analysis of the nurse outfit
From 'Family':

BUFFY: Oh, you're a god. You're like the ... god of boyfriends.
RILEY: Nah, I just like it when you owe me favors.
BUFFY: Well, this earns you a big favor. There could be outfits.
RILEY: Ooh. Be still my heart.

*raises eyebrow*

S4 hair I guess was a tie-in with university 'experimenting' (and still not as bad as S3!), S5 hair is lovely and long and that's when she's at her peak (like here), yes the 'Gone' hair co-incides with realising she wants to live, but the initial act of chopping it off comes from self-disgust. And S7 hair is gorgeous. I wish my hair could look like that.