For the Spuffy fen...

[elisi]

‘Shadow Puppets’ issue 1 gives us what four issues of s8 haven’t.

Spike is weighing the options for and against going to Japan and taking out the new Smile Time puppets:



See? One line: ‘What if there’s an impromptu reunion with the Slayer while I’m away?’

It doesn’t stop him from going. I doubt she’ll be mentioned *at all* in the story to come. I *expect* Spike to hit on every hot-looking girl he comes across (and sleep with them if he can). But - we know that he thinks about Buffy. He might not imagine that he can actually ever have a future with her, and he might not ever try to look her up, but he does dream. She’s a part of his world, of his hopes for the future, whether those hopes become reality or not.

And none of this in any way compares to Buffy’s threesome fantasy. *That* was about sex - and heck, she had fantasies about sex with Spike before she slept with him. It tells us nothing about what she thinks or feels for either of the vampires in question, beyond the fact that she’d like to sleep with them again (and that she’s horny. That she loves them I’m taken as understood). Does she miss Spike? Mourn him? Does she even know he’s alive? Does she ponder a reunion, even if she’d not actually seek one out? We don’t know.

One line. One line is all it’d take. I don’t need a resolution, I don’t need a meeting or buckets of tears. Actually I'd really dislike buckets of tears. All I want is an acknowledgement that Spike matters(/mattered) to Buffy.

And what have I got? Buffy misses Teh Sex. *sigh* I much, much prefer the Buffy who’s dating The Immortal. At least she's getting some.

Comments

[mikeygs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, would've been nice if there had been something, even if not from Buffy. The Kiss thing would have been perfect for at least some non-Buffy exposition in that area, to make it known if any of them know he's back other than Twerp.

I much, much prefer the Buffy who’s dating The Immortal. At least she's getting some.

What? You don't like post-Series Buffy who's secluded in a nunnery isolated castle filled with girls?

[elisi]

to make it known if any of them know he's back other than Twerp.
*nods* So many wasted opportunities for adding depth. Oh and there's a great mention of Andrew in 'Shadow Puppets'. From Spike's inner monologue:

'I keep a little appartment out of the way. No one else knows about it. Andrew would have called it my batcave. And then I would have hit him.'

What? You don't like post-Series Buffy who's secluded in a nunnery isolated castle filled with girls?
Don't get me started... actually something I've realised is how fantasy-like s8 seems. Have we had a single scene set in a normal place so far? It's castles, and military installations, and a demon lair etc. It's not just that Buffy's isolated from the world, she might as well *be* on another world. We'd never know the difference. (Shadow Puppets brought this home to me again, with it's fabulous RL references and use of settings.)

(Also check your e-mail)

[sp23.livejournal.com]

You know, I never really gave that much thought, but you're very right. We went from complete normalcy (high school, dating, fights with parents, homework, making friends, finding independence) to a landscape with not one ordinary person appearing. Huh.

[elisi]

We went from complete normalcy (high school, dating, fights with parents, homework, making friends, finding independence) to a landscape with not one ordinary person appearing. Huh.
Even in S7 Buffy got a new job and the fact that everyone left town towards the end was an omen that The End Was Nigh. I miss the world...

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

Have we had a single scene set in a normal place so far? It's castles, and military installations, and a demon lair etc. It's not just that Buffy's isolated from the world, she might as well *be* on another world.

Or as she put it herself: "The thing about changing the world... once you do it, the world's all different. Everybody calls me 'ma'am these days. (...) Here at command central, not so much with the hilarious. More with the 'what the hell am I doing?'"

And: "I miss my home. I miss my mom. I miss the gang. And churros. And sex."

I think Buffy's well aware of how weird her new life is. Not that she can let it show on the outside, of course, becuse she's a big girl (and a Leader) now.

[elisi]

I'm going to talk about Doctor Who for a moment, but trust me, it's relevant.

The great thing about The Tardis is that it can go *anywhere* - anywhere at all. But the factor that makes it brilliant is that there is the possibility that you could turn a corner and see it yourself. It intersects with our world, takes ordinary people into the extraordinary. Buffy was in many ways the same. She was an extraordianary person, in an ordinary world. People go on about 'Sunnydale forgettyitis', but that was partly there so we could keep the illusion that Buffy was part of *our* world. She went to school, she went out clubbing, she had to get a job to pay the bills. That was our key to her, the thing that made us identify - all the monsters were metaphors. And although I loved S6, I know a lot of people hated the fact that the supernatural took a backseat and that the problems were mostly RL related. Now we have the opposite situation. Buffy is so far removed from a normal life that I quite simply can't connect with her. Sure she still has problems with *people*, but that's not the same. She's a supernatural person in a supernatural world.

Anyway, I will address this specifically in my 'Shadow Puppets' review. (You can also see this comment.)