Not a review. Just bafflement in the face of inanity.

[elisi]

First of all, then THIS is the best summary of #39 ever. :) (Much gratitude to shipperx for the link!)

Now I promised myself that I wouldn't write anything, but...

We have been told that the theme of s8 is 'betrayal'. During 'Anywhere But Here' Buffy was shown the final scene of this issue, and when asked what had happened was told: 'Betrayal. The closest, the most unexpected.'

I'm afraid this doesn't make sense to me. Is Buffy feeling that she betrayed herself? Well first of all she didn't know what would happen when she broke the Seed, so that's rather unlikely. Or - presuming that she somehow magically *did* know and that's why she went for the Seed rather than Twangel (that part still makes no sense. Why not kill him? WHY? WHY?) - um, where was I? Oh yes. Presuming she *did* know(*), why would she feel betrayed over destroying magic & losing her powers? She was even asked in 'Anywhere But Here' if that wasn't what she'd always wanted, plus she and all the baby Slayers sat down and let go of all their powers on purpose during Operation Sitting Duck, and seemed perfectly happy. Plus, if she's feeling sorry for herself, then that makes her as shallow as a puddle considering Giles' fate.

Which leads us back to Twangel as the betrayer, which makes her the dumbest thing in the history of the 'verse...

*sigh*

It didn't make sense in the beginning, and it doesn't make sense now. What a surprise.

(*) infinitewhale points out that Giles was trying to destroy the Seed when Twangel killed him, so that's where Buffy gets the idea! \o/

Comments

[elisi]

Honestly, my opinion isn't far off from the snark. The "she's betraying herself" theme is basically "we're going to write Buffy doing stupid stuff for several years".
That's not snark, that's just basic powers of observation.

The betrayal isn't breaking the seed. It's her having been OOC in the worst possible way from day one (and it was day one. When going back for research for the nertz-ficathon, I re-read the beginning and Buffy was quite appalling in Issue 1 where she was cutting down Dawn behind her back and completely unconcerned with what had befallen Dawn.)
You know, I remember reading issue 1 (review here, and there was one panel that was just *my* Buffy. Sadly I never saw her again. *sigh*

The closest and most unexpected betrayal was Buffy betraying everything she stood for or believed in. Why it's really horrible writing is that even after all of that, we have no idea why or to what purpose, which leaves us at Buffy did it because Joss and Dark Horse say she did.
Amen. Although we still don't know if they think the bakrobbing/helicopters/castle was a betrayal or not. (I think it was wildly OOC, but I don't know if they do...)

*deep sigh*

Your comment does a very good job of summing up all the problems. Thank you.