Thanks for the link to aycheb's review-- I rather enjoyed it also.
The time thing can always be easily misused to "fix" almost any story-telling problem, and I'm hoping such isn't the case here (used badly, that is-- we already know time-travel is part and parcel of this season's story).
My short (sorta) explanation would be along these lines: We are now in an alternate time path, with Buffy's death after the goddess dropped her the locus or pivot point.
In the original time stream, Buffy died in this battle and stayed dead. Willow (who didn't die in the battle) plots a way to reverse things, and meets the serpent woman. In the first time stream, this was their first meeting. The serpent woman provides (directly or more likely indirectly) a means to this end, but to keep the cosmic balance (for lack of a better term) someone else with great power must die to bring Buffy back. Willow volunteers, and eventually, in the far future, gives her life.
The time stream gets reset, and only Willow and the serpent woman remember the old one, so now what we have been watching in Season 8 is the new stream. Willow continues to interact with SW, and things get nudged along further in the new, desired direction. This time the battle in Tibet ends with Buffy dying but being reborn/resurrected. Perhaps the goddess was in on the deal. No matter-- we are now in the new timestream, and all future events will radiate out from this new locus.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-11-07 09:53 pm (UTC)The time thing can always be easily misused to "fix" almost any story-telling problem, and I'm hoping such isn't the case here (used badly, that is-- we already know time-travel is part and parcel of this season's story).
My short (sorta) explanation would be along these lines: We are now in an alternate time path, with Buffy's death after the goddess dropped her the locus or pivot point.
In the original time stream, Buffy died in this battle and stayed dead. Willow (who didn't die in the battle) plots a way to reverse things, and meets the serpent woman. In the first time stream, this was their first meeting. The serpent woman provides (directly or more likely indirectly) a means to this end, but to keep the cosmic balance (for lack of a better term) someone else with great power must die to bring Buffy back. Willow volunteers, and eventually, in the far future, gives her life.
The time stream gets reset, and only Willow and the serpent woman remember the old one, so now what we have been watching in Season 8 is the new stream. Willow continues to interact with SW, and things get nudged along further in the new, desired direction. This time the battle in Tibet ends with Buffy dying but being reborn/resurrected. Perhaps the goddess was in on the deal. No matter-- we are now in the new timestream, and all future events will radiate out from this new locus.