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For the Spuffy fen...
‘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.
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.
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I would, simply because I really don't view her connection to them in the early years of the show to be all that healthy, especially given how it's hammered home on the show proper how terrified Buffy was of their judgments. Of course this may come from the fact that Joss and I seem to have drastically different opinions of friendship.
No, I wasn't referring to the Xander part of her dream explicitly but more her assertions of her being afraid of herself (the dark) and being afraid to go outside. Perhaps that in and of itself symbolic of why she *has* holed up. And I think they maybe or may not be prophetic, but it still doesn't change that she doesn't seem to have anyone to talk to about them even in her group.
Ethan splainy’d nothing, he just brought her to the place where she could figure out the connections he wasn’t capable of making himself.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. I had actually returned to the journal to retract that statement proffer apologies after rereading the final playout. I *am* fully aware that my own negativity seems to be taking a life of its own with these comics.
My point was simply that she does reference emotionally significant figures from her past just not Spike and in the context of a troubled exchange with Dawn remembering Joyce is a lot more appropriate.
Very true. Dawn wouldn't fully appreciate or even understand Buffy's feelings toward Spike and Joyce is much more relevant. As mentioned below, it is somewhat interesting how absent he is in the dream sequence other than the sexual fantasies. You don't see him at all in the panel detailing her past moments and even putting the romantic angle aside, there's no way Spike wouldn't be there unless there was a reason. Perhaps there's another unseen story thread running, who knows.
The story so far begins by subtly establishing how different her relationship with the new Slayers is from the one she had with the potentials, which I think is pretty important. In terms of hints about personal relationships she seems especially close to Leah, she’s been talking with her about Dawn as well as about Slaying, in addition to the less subtle indications that the relationship with Satsu is more complicated than she thinks.
Yes, one feature I like about new Buffy is her (seemingly) more optimistic views. There's nary a hint of the abject fatalism that we (understandably) saw during S7. I agree about the hinted relationships, but my point is that they seem more casual at least in regard to Buffy's opening herself up. That could change, but it's been a long time, surely she's found some sort of kindred spirit?
You know, I really think my issue might be the timeline. This is a good chunk of time later and we see profound (and strange) changes in the other characters, but the one character who had a goal doesn't seem to have met it and it's not explained why. If this was set closer to Chosen, I'd probably be eating it up (well, not really, the art is *horrible*).
Another big problem that I think is leading to my (and others?) negativity is really the waiting. I mean, did Joss not notice the reaction to BotN after the big wait from NLM? It wasn't the writing, it was the wait.
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