Ah...you must have missed the rumors that there's supposed to be a "huge" reveal in issue 12, so big that comic vendors have been told to order extra comics and warned it will sell like hotcakes.
Most of us, myself included, are thinking the reveal must be who Twilight is - we can't think of anything else. And let's face it a new character being revealed as the big bad or avatar, while potentially interesting, is hardly going to sell out comic books. No - the only things that sell comics books are well the same things that sell newspapers or make us tune in to tv shows - someone getting killed, someone we thought dead being revealed as alive or someone we know and love being revealed as the bad guy. Sad but true. And yes, I've read and watched one too many serials in my life time. ;-)
That's why people placing bets that Twilight is either Xander, Riley, Caleb or Spike or Angel. The reason they are picking Xander, Spike, Angel, Riley and Caleb is that all of these characters have seen Buffy's moves up close and personal. She makes a swing with the Scythe and Twilight states - like I haven't seen you do that before? Leading us and Buffy to believe that she's fought this guy in the past or at the very least he's watched footage of her fights.
Personally, I think only Riley and Caleb are remotely plausible out of that group for numerous reasons - even if the other choices are a bit more fun.
If it weren't for Angel After the Fall - I'd have listed Spike or Angel as potential candidates, but fortunately or unfortunately depending on your pov those characters are completely off the table due to 1)Brian Lynch's excellent Angel After the Fall, 2) rights issues and 3)well, Whedon already promised that he wouldn't do anything to screw up IDW's Angel stories and would use those two characters sparingly if at all. Granted it's plausible that Buffy S8 is taking place long after the Angel miniseries, but revealing that Angel is Twilight or Spike is - could hurt whatever IDW has planned or the Angel miniseries sales. Whedon can't and won't do that, he's already said as much numerous times. Plus...he doesn't own the rights to Angel, so anything he does with the character or any of the characters in the Angel series - he has to get permission first from IDW to do it.
Riley on the other hand is a plausible and good candidate. Also a tad more fun from an emotional angle than Caleb or a previously unknown entity. What do we really know about Riley? Very little. Anything could have happened to him between AYW and now. Plus the character has always been linked to the military. Is a leader. And has issues with demons and magic. I'm somewhat surprised that Riley has not made an appearance yet - considering every time the military has come up in Buffy, Riley is usually mentioned. Plus - the Initiative was covert ops - and Riley when he left Buffy went back to covert ops - or top secret work. (Remember she does the phone call to the florist shop to ask for help with Spike, gives up, and runs into Riley's men in the basement of the old Initiative, which she'd thought had been abandoned?) There's no reason why it can't be Riley. If it were Riley, the character would be a lot more complex than the other bad guys have been and a lot harder for Buffy to fight.
A lot of people have guessed Xander. And while I think Xander is a fun choice for a lot of reasons - he's really not a very plausible one. Unless of course we want to throw all logic out the window or the writer wants to jump through a series of hoops justifying it. Why? Xander can't be in two places at exactly the same time. Sure this is fantasy and you can play with time a bit, but that is stretching things. Especially since Xander unlike Buffy, Willow, Giles, Andrew, and even Dawn has not had any unexplained absences that we know of. And..unlike Riley, we know quite a bit about Xander. He has no motivation for joining the military and going against his friends. He's happy where he is. And he hasn't been shown as either a leader or a strategist - so much as a support system. Riley on the other hand has.
Ohhh fun - Guessing Who Twilight is
Most of us, myself included, are thinking the reveal must be who Twilight is - we can't think of anything else. And let's face it a new character being revealed as the big bad or avatar, while potentially interesting, is hardly going to sell out comic books. No - the only things that sell comics books are well the same things that sell newspapers or make us tune in to tv shows - someone getting killed, someone we thought dead being revealed as alive or someone we know and love being revealed as the bad guy. Sad but true. And yes, I've read and watched one too many serials in my life time. ;-)
That's why people placing bets that Twilight is either Xander, Riley, Caleb or Spike or Angel. The reason they are picking Xander, Spike, Angel, Riley and Caleb is that all of these characters have seen Buffy's moves up close and personal. She makes a swing with the Scythe and Twilight states - like I haven't seen you do that before? Leading us and Buffy to believe that she's fought this guy in the past or at the very least he's watched footage of her fights.
Personally, I think only Riley and Caleb are remotely plausible out of that group for numerous reasons - even if the other choices are a bit more fun.
If it weren't for Angel After the Fall - I'd have listed Spike or Angel as potential candidates, but fortunately or unfortunately depending on your pov those characters are completely off the table due to 1)Brian Lynch's excellent Angel After the Fall, 2) rights issues and 3)well, Whedon already promised that he wouldn't do anything to screw up IDW's Angel stories and would use those two characters sparingly if at all. Granted it's plausible that Buffy S8 is taking place long after the Angel miniseries, but revealing that Angel is Twilight or Spike is - could hurt whatever IDW has planned or the Angel miniseries sales. Whedon can't and won't do that, he's already said as much numerous times. Plus...he doesn't own the rights to Angel, so anything he does with the character or any of the characters in the Angel series - he has to get permission first from IDW to do it.
Riley on the other hand is a plausible and good candidate. Also a tad more fun from an emotional angle than Caleb or a previously unknown entity. What do we really know about Riley? Very little. Anything could have happened to him between AYW and now. Plus the character has always been linked to the military. Is a leader. And has issues with demons and magic. I'm somewhat surprised that Riley has not made an appearance yet - considering every time the military has come up in Buffy, Riley is usually mentioned. Plus - the Initiative was covert ops - and Riley when he left Buffy went back to covert ops - or top secret work. (Remember she does the phone call to the florist shop to ask for help with Spike, gives up, and runs into Riley's men in the basement of the old Initiative, which she'd thought had been abandoned?) There's no reason why it can't be Riley. If it were Riley, the character would be a lot more complex than the other bad guys have been and a lot harder for Buffy to fight.
A lot of people have guessed Xander. And while I think Xander is a fun choice for a lot of reasons - he's really not a very plausible one. Unless of course we want to throw all logic out the window or the writer wants to jump through a series of hoops justifying it. Why? Xander can't be in two places at exactly the same time. Sure this is fantasy and you can play with time a bit, but that is stretching things. Especially since Xander unlike Buffy, Willow, Giles, Andrew, and even Dawn has not had any unexplained absences that we know of.
And..unlike Riley, we know quite a bit about Xander. He has no motivation for joining the military and going against his friends. He's happy where he is. And he hasn't been shown as either a leader or a strategist - so much as a support system. Riley on the other hand has.
TBC