Reviews of s8 issue 4.

[elisi]

Realised that for some reason I forgot to put these up. This time I've ordered them in groups:

I've got a theory...
Excellent summary and analysis by moscow_watcher.

Canon-y goodness yay!

Indepth review by stormwreath

Review and meta by aycheb

*shrug* (a mixed bag...)

Review by beer_good_foamy

Review by yourlibrarian

Review by confusedkayt

Review by shapinglight

Review/rant by ruuger

wtf?

Review by sp23


Um... thedeadlyhook? molly_may? Any thoughts at all? Or are you just paralysed with not caring anymore?


But I have a theory of my own... Because lets face it, Buffy looks *nothing* like she did on the show (who is this round-faced, button-nosed young woman people keep addressing as Buffy?). So, I think the real Buffy (and the real Dawn) are in Rome. This Buffy (and Dawn) are from a parallel universe, where incidents not entirely unlike those in 'our verse' took place, but with the odd differences of course [insert ret-cons]. Oh and Willow mindwiped everyone so they *think* this is the real Buffy. :)

*has brainwave*

When they brought the other Buffy and Dawn through, parallel!Amy and parallel!Warren hitched a ride. That, I think, explains everything! My theory is neat! *g*

Comments

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Some people like snarky and confrontational – we probably shouldn’t be allowed out on the internets. Everyone here is so nice!

Interesting that I can only think of male torturees on BtVS, Dawn being cut comes closest, but that’s another essay.

Uh topic. As it happens I don’t remember having a “HURRY, BUFFY, THEY'RE KILLING HIM!" response to either of those examples. With Giles I was more worried that he’d tell Angelus what he needed to know about the ritual (HURRY BUFFY, SAVE THE WORLD!) with Spike (in Bring on the Night more than Showtime?) his sufferings echoed Buffy’s being ground down, like Greek chorus with pain. I may just be callous but I think it’s more that torture has a tendency to make the viewer detach emotionally. For me possibly the most effective damsel scenario on the show was Willow telling Buffy about the room full of dead boys in Prophecy Girl.

Back to 8.04 I did get the feeling that Willow was in mortal peril, that her powers were being used to bind her so all she could do was to hide (to detach emotionally if you want to go meta). I found the imagery of the little paper brain people fluttering away quite effective, especially in the panel just before the wand one when they’re falling round her and although, having watched TV before, I knew she wasn’t going to die I hadn’t figured out how she was going to escape. As you say Willow’s outgrown the damsel role, she’s her own worst enemy now so that “Problem?” grin was both a relief and a hubristic moment to mark down for later reference.

[elisi]

Just to jump in quickly - both Giles' and Spike's torture told us something about them, about their strength. It was a test of fire.

I found the imagery of the little paper brain people fluttering away quite effective, especially in the panel just before the wand one when they’re falling round her and although, having watched TV before, I knew she wasn’t going to die I hadn’t figured out how she was going to escape.
Yes to all of that. Willow's predicament was different, which is why I wanted a different sort of response - something to show what being face to face with the man she murdered affected her in any way at all. Think back to STSP or TKiM - they hinged on Willow's state of mind, her guilt, her awareness of what she had done, what she was capable of. This time she fell utterly flat - there should have been fallout of some sort. But she's not even scared of dying. Willow is a blank shiny, smiley facade, and I cannot see what goes on underneath... and I fear there might be nothing. Except possibly darkness, which I could go for.

There's always consequences. Always. If not - then why bother reading?

[liliaeth]

Honestly, I felt the same way about SPST and KiM, I still don't believe that Willow had any real remorse for her crimes. All she really felt bad about, was daring to be with someone else in KiM.

To me, what those eps showed was that a huge part of Willow still feels, she was in the right when she tortured Warren to death.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Yes the torture *told* us they were strong but I wasn't watching it filled with glowing admiration. Likesay torture = emotional detachment.

STSP hinged on Willow's guilt about what she nearly done to her friends and her shame at them knowing it, they couldn't see her but Anya could. I suspect ret-conned Warren probably could too. TKiM revealed guilt about Tara not Warren and certainly not for killing him, for that she has a justification in terms of protecting future Taras. "I killed him for a reason," not I flayed him for a reason. Which is why I agree with stormwreath, having Warren resurrected doesn't absolve Willow, if anything it compounds her guilt by removing the one positive consequence of what she did.

S8 Willow is a facade certainly. As I pointed out in some other post she gets no voice-over, she makes no explanations. That's why I'm glad Warren escaped, that Buffy has only just discovered that he's back and that there'll be time to give Willow's issues a full examination later. The events of this episode do reveal that despite her increased powers she isn't invulnerable, without her friend's help she would have died (and from natural causes too).

[elisi]

TKiM revealed guilt about Tara not Warren and certainly not for killing him
Oh yes. Which is why I (and others) hoped that *one* good thing about ret-conned Warren would be to get Willow to do some reflection re. the man she killed. A la early S7 Willow:

WILLOW: Will they always be afraid of me?
GILES: Maybe. Can you handle it?
WILLOW: I deserve a lot worse. I killed people, Giles.
GILES: I've not forgotten.
[...]
GILES: Do you want to be punished?
WILLOW: I wanna be Willow.

Guess what I was hoping for was something along the lines of Spike in 'Damage' - being forced to face the ugly truth of what she did. What does Willow deserve? What does she think she deserves?

I can cope with Willow being a blank I guess, but not like this. More than anything it just reinforces that these books aren't my show... if we had seen this on screen *everything* would have told me about Willow - the look in her eyes, the way she carried herself, her tone of voice, a slight hesitiation when she spoke (or maybe no hesititation at all), the way she behaved around her friends and their response. The music, the framing of scenes, possibly even the lighting. The reduction in format is almost painful.

Bored now.