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Drusilla After the Fall - Comic Review and a bit on Harry Potter
Apparently, I'm the only one who couldn't access Lj at all from Friday night until about 10 pm today? Okay, admittedly I wasn't on it from 1:30pm to roughly 8:30pm. Went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Just came back from seeing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which was as enjoyable, possibly even more enjoyable than the book. I laughed a lot during both, not during the dark parts of course. My sense of humor may be dark but it is not that dark. I remembered the book well enough to follow the film without any difficulty whatsoever, but not well enough to notice how the film veered away from it. I was, in other words, blissfully oblivious of some of the complaints others online had regarding it. This re-affirms my belief that these films work better if you have not reread or read the novels recently.
Also enjoyed the trailers. 2012 looks like a lot of fun. Sherlock Holmes made me laugh quite a bit. Sure it looks hokey as all get out, but also a lot of fun. Was told that it has gotten abysmal reviews, but Robert Downey Jr is one of those actors that I will watch read the telephone book. I'll probably rent it and not wast time or money seeing it in the theater.
Picked up comics on Friday - enjoyed the Buffy and the Drusilla one. Juliet Landau, Brian Lynch, and Frank Urru have combined forces to create a two issue Drusilla After the Fall comic in the Angel series. Sure it is called Angel, but Angel doesn't appear in it. All Drusilla. And the art is quite lovely. The writing, spot on, and it may be the best comic I've read in a while. Lynch, hate to say this, is still putting the Buffy writers to shame - possibly because he was a fan of the tv series and like most fans, has an encyclopedic/anal retentive memory regarding it? While the original writers of the tv series, seem to have forgotten quite a bit. Landau also had a hand in the story, she not only came up with the idea, she also co-wrote the script and provided Urru with ideas regarding how it should be drawn - so we are literally seeing Dru and Dru's world through the actress who portrayed her, eyes. This provides a bit of support to my view that you can't technically count the comics as canon - since you lack the actor's pov. The actors like it or not, do bring something to the enterprise.
The art in the Dru comic in my opinion is a lot better than the art in the Buffy comics. The people are easier to tell apart for one thing, and their facial reactions are more defined. Also there's a depth and perspective to Urru's paintings that is lacking in Jeanty's. Urru is more of a realistic painter, his pictures feel more filmlike or three dimensional. As an artist, I find myself admiring his work, while Jeanty's feels at times amateurish to me. It's a subjective view - I know and based on my own background in painting and art, which granted is not extensive but...is there all the same. The color scheme is alos quite brilliant, all grays, except for a spot of color here and there - Dru's blue outfit and the blue dress she takes from the woman she kills, and Dru's demon eyes and blue eyes. We are clearly in Dru's pov.
Dru herself is portrayed as both eerily sane and eerily crazy. She is a force to be reckoned with and not easily put down. I particularly love this bit of dialogue in regards to Dru, during a rather interesting cat and mouse game that she is playing with the psychiatrist who believes he is the one in control:
Dru: "Moons after my second Daddy set me on fire, I saw in my head that my Grandmum/daughter killed herself and I haven't seen my son/lover since he chose that cheerleader, but that could have been the chip in his brain."
LOL! She does not call Buffy a slayer but rather a cheerleader. Which I find interesting - because that was what Buffy would have been if she had not been the slayer. She had been a cheerleader and homecoming queen prior to her calling. Dru is also putting Buffy down. Dismissing her.
A fan asked Whedon once if it was possible that Drusilla was a potential slayer and that was why she had the dreams. Whedon paused for a moment and said, not only was that an interesting idea, but yes, it was more than possible. I have a feeling he may play with it at some point, if Lynch/Landau don't do it first.
Also Dru interestingly enough blames Spike's desire for Buffy on the chip.
Earlier they state: "She believes she is a vampire, that she has lived for 150 years, that she had a passionate love affair spanning almost the duration...she's extreemly violent anything can set her off, very unpredictable. She is over sexualized...seems confused about the line between sex and violence."
The last line hits me. It fits vampires. And it echoes Buffy's line to Holden Webster - what is it with you vampires, always the same, with the sex and the death and the violence. Sex and violence.
Spike states in Lover's Walk - that's what I'll do, I'll get Dru, chain her up, torture her, be the man she loves. And it is what he tries to do with Buffy in CRUSH and to a degree in Season 6. Because for a vampire...that is sex - it comes hand and hand with violence. The line between the two is blurred. There is not line between sex and violence for vampires. That is the whole metaphor actually - the vampire gets off on the biting - it does the same thing that a sexual act would. In Fool for Love - Buffy looks at Spike after he describes biting and killing the Chinese Slayer - with revulsion and states: "You got off on it?"
He shrugs and throws back at her: "And you don't?" He's talking about sexual thrill. Faith says the same thing - "after a good slay, I get horny." And after she fights the vamps, she grabs Xander, and fucks him, their sex scene is admittedly a violent one.
Dru's killings feel almost graceful, sexual in character. She rubs her tummy, sways as if high. Satisfied. Then dances down the hall. Skipping like a school-girl. She is and has always been Angelus/Angel's creation. Carved by him. She is his dark daughter, as much if not more his as Connor is. When I think about Angel, I see Drusilla. How can't you? The result of sexual violence. She was chaste, innocent, when he raped, drove her insane, then turned her into a vampire. Twisting her dreams into nightmares. In a way what he did to Dru is worse than anything any of the other big bads did. Creepier. The knowledge that it was what he'd planned to do to Buffy after he lost his soul, creepier still. It's like Angel when he created Dru - he carved her into a doll that he could play with and would cater to his whim.
An eternal child-woman. It's ironic that he was the master puppeteer with her, and to a degree with Spike and others such as Penn as well, when as Angel he is at times the ultimate puppet - in the hands of the Powers and WRH and fate.
The Dru comic is in the end about power...it always comes back to power. Even Angelus' acts regarding Dru were about power. Dru has power in the comic. And so do those who have taken custody of her. They are fighting, Dru and these people over her. Trying to gain control. Dru wins. She breaks their control and dances out of their custody, leaving their dead and bleeding corspes in her wake. Bristling with power.
She starts out as having none, wrapped in a straight-jacket, drugged, and trapped in a padded cell. But as the story moves forward, she gets more and more power - they give it to her, first moving her out of the padded cell, then letting her take a shower, and each time she takes advantage, yet they do nothing, can do nothing. And the woman whom she'd overheard referring to her as a colossal waste of time, someone who should be put down, Dru takes down with barely an effort, donning her nice blue dress. Stating with a demon glare - "you are a colossal waste of time".
Dru is no puppet here, no doll to play with - although they want to, she breaks free, creating chaos in her wake.
Dancing.
Welcome back Lynch and Urru, you were missed. And a great big welcome to Landau, who is as deft a writer as she is an actress. In her photos, she reminds me a great deal of her mother, Barbara Bain of Misson Impossible and Space 1999, along with Martin Landau who was in both series.
Just came back from seeing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which was as enjoyable, possibly even more enjoyable than the book. I laughed a lot during both, not during the dark parts of course. My sense of humor may be dark but it is not that dark. I remembered the book well enough to follow the film without any difficulty whatsoever, but not well enough to notice how the film veered away from it. I was, in other words, blissfully oblivious of some of the complaints others online had regarding it. This re-affirms my belief that these films work better if you have not reread or read the novels recently.
Also enjoyed the trailers. 2012 looks like a lot of fun. Sherlock Holmes made me laugh quite a bit. Sure it looks hokey as all get out, but also a lot of fun. Was told that it has gotten abysmal reviews, but Robert Downey Jr is one of those actors that I will watch read the telephone book. I'll probably rent it and not wast time or money seeing it in the theater.
Picked up comics on Friday - enjoyed the Buffy and the Drusilla one. Juliet Landau, Brian Lynch, and Frank Urru have combined forces to create a two issue Drusilla After the Fall comic in the Angel series. Sure it is called Angel, but Angel doesn't appear in it. All Drusilla. And the art is quite lovely. The writing, spot on, and it may be the best comic I've read in a while. Lynch, hate to say this, is still putting the Buffy writers to shame - possibly because he was a fan of the tv series and like most fans, has an encyclopedic/anal retentive memory regarding it? While the original writers of the tv series, seem to have forgotten quite a bit. Landau also had a hand in the story, she not only came up with the idea, she also co-wrote the script and provided Urru with ideas regarding how it should be drawn - so we are literally seeing Dru and Dru's world through the actress who portrayed her, eyes. This provides a bit of support to my view that you can't technically count the comics as canon - since you lack the actor's pov. The actors like it or not, do bring something to the enterprise.
The art in the Dru comic in my opinion is a lot better than the art in the Buffy comics. The people are easier to tell apart for one thing, and their facial reactions are more defined. Also there's a depth and perspective to Urru's paintings that is lacking in Jeanty's. Urru is more of a realistic painter, his pictures feel more filmlike or three dimensional. As an artist, I find myself admiring his work, while Jeanty's feels at times amateurish to me. It's a subjective view - I know and based on my own background in painting and art, which granted is not extensive but...is there all the same. The color scheme is alos quite brilliant, all grays, except for a spot of color here and there - Dru's blue outfit and the blue dress she takes from the woman she kills, and Dru's demon eyes and blue eyes. We are clearly in Dru's pov.
Dru herself is portrayed as both eerily sane and eerily crazy. She is a force to be reckoned with and not easily put down. I particularly love this bit of dialogue in regards to Dru, during a rather interesting cat and mouse game that she is playing with the psychiatrist who believes he is the one in control:
Dru: "Moons after my second Daddy set me on fire, I saw in my head that my Grandmum/daughter killed herself and I haven't seen my son/lover since he chose that cheerleader, but that could have been the chip in his brain."
LOL! She does not call Buffy a slayer but rather a cheerleader. Which I find interesting - because that was what Buffy would have been if she had not been the slayer. She had been a cheerleader and homecoming queen prior to her calling. Dru is also putting Buffy down. Dismissing her.
A fan asked Whedon once if it was possible that Drusilla was a potential slayer and that was why she had the dreams. Whedon paused for a moment and said, not only was that an interesting idea, but yes, it was more than possible. I have a feeling he may play with it at some point, if Lynch/Landau don't do it first.
Also Dru interestingly enough blames Spike's desire for Buffy on the chip.
Earlier they state: "She believes she is a vampire, that she has lived for 150 years, that she had a passionate love affair spanning almost the duration...she's extreemly violent anything can set her off, very unpredictable. She is over sexualized...seems confused about the line between sex and violence."
The last line hits me. It fits vampires. And it echoes Buffy's line to Holden Webster - what is it with you vampires, always the same, with the sex and the death and the violence. Sex and violence.
Spike states in Lover's Walk - that's what I'll do, I'll get Dru, chain her up, torture her, be the man she loves. And it is what he tries to do with Buffy in CRUSH and to a degree in Season 6. Because for a vampire...that is sex - it comes hand and hand with violence. The line between the two is blurred. There is not line between sex and violence for vampires. That is the whole metaphor actually - the vampire gets off on the biting - it does the same thing that a sexual act would. In Fool for Love - Buffy looks at Spike after he describes biting and killing the Chinese Slayer - with revulsion and states: "You got off on it?"
He shrugs and throws back at her: "And you don't?" He's talking about sexual thrill. Faith says the same thing - "after a good slay, I get horny." And after she fights the vamps, she grabs Xander, and fucks him, their sex scene is admittedly a violent one.
Dru's killings feel almost graceful, sexual in character. She rubs her tummy, sways as if high. Satisfied. Then dances down the hall. Skipping like a school-girl. She is and has always been Angelus/Angel's creation. Carved by him. She is his dark daughter, as much if not more his as Connor is. When I think about Angel, I see Drusilla. How can't you? The result of sexual violence. She was chaste, innocent, when he raped, drove her insane, then turned her into a vampire. Twisting her dreams into nightmares. In a way what he did to Dru is worse than anything any of the other big bads did. Creepier. The knowledge that it was what he'd planned to do to Buffy after he lost his soul, creepier still. It's like Angel when he created Dru - he carved her into a doll that he could play with and would cater to his whim.
An eternal child-woman. It's ironic that he was the master puppeteer with her, and to a degree with Spike and others such as Penn as well, when as Angel he is at times the ultimate puppet - in the hands of the Powers and WRH and fate.
The Dru comic is in the end about power...it always comes back to power. Even Angelus' acts regarding Dru were about power. Dru has power in the comic. And so do those who have taken custody of her. They are fighting, Dru and these people over her. Trying to gain control. Dru wins. She breaks their control and dances out of their custody, leaving their dead and bleeding corspes in her wake. Bristling with power.
She starts out as having none, wrapped in a straight-jacket, drugged, and trapped in a padded cell. But as the story moves forward, she gets more and more power - they give it to her, first moving her out of the padded cell, then letting her take a shower, and each time she takes advantage, yet they do nothing, can do nothing. And the woman whom she'd overheard referring to her as a colossal waste of time, someone who should be put down, Dru takes down with barely an effort, donning her nice blue dress. Stating with a demon glare - "you are a colossal waste of time".
Dru is no puppet here, no doll to play with - although they want to, she breaks free, creating chaos in her wake.
Dancing.
Welcome back Lynch and Urru, you were missed. And a great big welcome to Landau, who is as deft a writer as she is an actress. In her photos, she reminds me a great deal of her mother, Barbara Bain of Misson Impossible and Space 1999, along with Martin Landau who was in both series.
no subject
In different episodes in S2, she'll refer to Spike as Daddy,
and others, herself as Mommy. And in Crush - she makes it clear that she sees him as her son. Her boy.
Later, in several S2 Angel episodes - including the Darla flashback, she refers to Darla as Grandmum, and in the episode where she turns Darla into a vampire -she's thrilled that she gets to be Darla's mum and Darla is now her daughter.
As Dru states in Crush - she wants the "family" back again. Spike sees it a little differently - he views Angel more as his brother in arms or gandsire, Dru sees Angel as her second-daddy.
I've been rewatching the episodes and catching it. Which may be why I'm more aware of it? (shrugs)
Oh, the "lamb is caught in the blackberry patch" is very Dru and Landau is probably the one who brought it. It also works if you think about it - she's making fun of the security guard.
You are the one who is caught in the blackberry patch, not me.
And it has the sing-song creepy calm that is Dru.
As for the dancing? Actually when she kills Kendra in Becoming - there's a sense of it. They did less of it in the series - but keep in mind through a good portion of S2 - Dru was ill. Towards the end, we didn't really watch her kill people - so much as heard about it. Nor do we see her kill everyone on the train in Crush. She'd have to have moved rather fast to have done it by herself. So, we don't really see how she kills people all the time. Just in snatchs.
no subject
You are the one who is caught in the blackberry patch, not me.
Huh? I know it's very Dru. It bothered me because it was lifted from an AtS episode. The rhyme is from AtS Reunion.
As for the dancing?
The acrobatic quality found in the comic in no way compares to what Dru does in the show. Pretty much ever. She uses her hands and her eyes. She's never done a kick before on the show. That's all I was saying.
no subject
Not sure I understand why the lamb caught in the blackberry patch bugged you? Because it was lifted from an ATS episode? Why is that a problem? Repetition? People often say the same things over again. "Exactly" is a perfect example. Lately I've noticed everyone at work uses it constantly. ;-)
I just thought is was very true to her character and to the actress - who I'm pretty sure improvised it at the time. She was known for improvising little bits here and there, that they liked and let slip in.
no subject
The only other time such repetition was done so baldly was in taking the line "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it" from The Gift and having Dawn repeat it in OMWF. It made sense, but it's a moment that kinda falls flat. It's better to reimagine the words like how they do in AtS Season 4 - first with Angel's speech about "heroes show the world what it can be, so it can become what it should be" (paraphrasing) and then how when he's about to slash Connor's throat he says how he's gonna prove it to him.
She was known for improvising little bits here and there, that they liked and let slip in.
Hmm. If so, then you'd think she could have improvised something new. I'm just saying the line lost points for me due to unoriginality. Of all the words to choose, considering the incredible uniqueness of Dru's voice, to repeat words already used by her, such a specific turn of phrase - it feels lazy. Something else could have been written that worked to resonate with what Dru had done and still be original. They just didn't do that.
no subject
I have a completely different perspective. Often when something is repeated in another context, it changes the meaning. Or it changes the interpretation. A lot of writers, myself included, make the mistake of thinking we have to come up with new lines or new ways of saying things - when often what was said before stated again, in a brand new context or in a different yet similar one is more effective. Sacrificing that for originality..is not always a good idea. That said when you repeat a line constantly...it can become cliche or grating.
Buffy's line to Dawn in the Gift - "the hardest thing in life is to live in it" (exact phrasing escapes me)
has one meaning in the Gift and quite another in OMWF.
In the Gift - it is a beautiful line, and we are in Buffy's perspective. We see it as this lovely statement. Resonating.
But in OMWF - again in Buffy's perspective, it rings false somehow. It grates. It is also ironic. Dawn is more or less throwing Buffy's own words back in her face. Stating - if you want me to live in this hard world, you have to too! Coming up with a new original line would take away that emotional impact - that meaning. It would be less disturbing.
Same deal with lamb caught in the blackberry patch.
In Reunion - Drusilla states it I believe to the lawyers at WRH. Here to the security guard. The repetition of the line - underlines the fact that she knows these aren't lambs. They aren't innocent. They see her as the lamb, as the person who can be controlled. Her rhyme is ironic - it's condescending.
It's similar to her repetition of the line "You're a Colossal Waste of Time". She's making fun of them. You think you caught me? That I'm this weak thing you can control? HA.
If they came up with an original line...that might be lost.
Anyway that was my perspective on it. (shrugs)