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shadowkat[Am downloading the Lady Gaga CD - Fame Monster, which I got for Christmas, while writing this. Also got Doctor Horrible -from kidbro. (It amuses me no end that the only Joss Whedon DVD's that my family has gotten me are Dr. Horrible and Firefly, and years ago, Toy Story on VHS. Buffy and Angel - I had to buy for myself, or someone else gave them to me. I enjoyed Doc Horrible and Firefly - but I'm not in love with them - ie. not fannish. That said, I probably would have bought them eventually...so am rather glad they saved me the trouble.)Joss Whedon fan? Me? Nah. I just happen to have read and or seen just about everything he's done (and I mean everything - including stuff most fans have never heard of), and bought quite a few of it. But I'm don't consider myself a "fan". Honest. Well, maybe an incredibly critical one? Also am a bit brain dead after first day back at work - and a bitterly cold one at that. So cold, it took a full hour for my legs to stop tingling after I arrived home and I'd worn wool slacks today.]
Every week, Rocketship, the neighborhood comic store, lists their picks of the week. Usually these are the comics that intrigue the comic geek owners, and are customer/critical fav's. Haven't seen the Buffy comics or the Angel one's for that matter make the picks, at all. Until this week - when Willow made it. Had a nice chat with the gal behind the desk - yep a comic store with female clerks. A rarity that. Usually it's a beer belly guy with a beard, who looks like he hasn't left his basement or the store for that matter in the last decade, and often wearing a stained t-shirt. This time, it was a twenty-something gal with short black hair.
After Willingham, and the mess that was Retreat, I ventured into the Willow comic: Goddesses and Monsters with a touch of trepidation and extreemly low expectations. Was pleasantly surprised. Granted Karl Moline is not my favorite artist, but I prefer him to Denham, Stephen Mooney, and Georges Jeanty. He draws lips really oddly, everyone looks like they've eaten lemons. But, at least the characters have expressions, you can tell them apart, and are recognizable - without looking like they've been reproduced from a photograph. Plus the framing is easier to follow and less jarring. I've come to the conclusion that Willow may be the easiest character to draw or at least differentiate. The red hair, green eyes (although I think Hannigan's may actually be brown?), and the funky clothes...help a great deal. That said, Moline does a lovely Willow. I also liked several of his panels quite a bit. And Joan Chen's cover should please Willow/Aluwyn shippers everywhere. It is like all of Chen's covers, a work of art. I keep wishing she could do the comics, but it would take forever.
The story is not overly complicated - it's basically what Willow was doing when Angel called Giles for help way back in Angel S5, Hole in the World. Remember? Giles told Angel that Willow was not available, somewhere in the astral plain or so Kennedy had said. It is also the story of how Willow met Saga Vasuki (the snake woman or trickester, the Goddess of the subconscious, of the lies we tell ourselves to stay sane, of chao and fun - ie. Willow's Spike. We all need a Spike. Makes life more interesting.) In Jungian thought - the snake eating its own tale or chasing its tale is the subconscious self - the part we repress or suppress.
Willow is taken on an interior journey of sorts - to the heart of herself, peeling away each layer, much as we might peel away the layers of dreams...including her carnal and current love for Kennedy (the slayer, the ken doll, Tara's opposite in female form), until Willow confronts her alleged guide, the snake woman, Saga Vasuki, stating you are not my guide, this is not real - and another layer is peeled back to reveal the goddesses of wisdom and power aligned in front, water, life (tree), animus (werewolf), earth, light, logic, balance...all stand in front of her. They provide Willow with a choice of guides - stating she must already have one in mind.
What I like about Joss Whedon is that unlike other writers, he seems to like to explore the inner psychological workings of his characters along with their inner emotional lives, and adores trickester characters or ambiguous characters who are neither black nor white, order or chaos, good or evil. Straight-up heroes apparently bore Whedon as much as they bore me, because all you can really do with them is knock them down.
There's a rather brilliant little bit of dialogue between Saga Vasuki and her black knight - that more or less clarifies this:
Black Knight: "Aluiwyn, you are saga vasuki - you thrive on chaos. You'd love to see her corrupted. Aluwyn, you know I love you because of that spell you did that time, but I stand with the forces of order. She turns back or she dies."
Saga Vasuaki/Aluwyn: "Always with the black and white thinking these demi-gods. "Order" "Chaos". As if they aren't intertwined like lovers. As if the universes don't depend on both."
And of all the characters in the Buffyverse - perhaps Willow understands this bit the most. As she has stated to Xander on more than one occassion - it's not that simple. Where Xander is black and white and almost colorblind in his reliance on boundaries, rules and an endzone. Willow sees the rainbow. It is afterall Willow who re-curses Angel with a soul, while Xander simply wants him dead. And it is Willow who coaxes Xander into not letting Spike off himself. As it is Willow who finds the way to help Anya.
Which is why, when given a choice, Willow chooses Aluwyn as her guide not Tara, the obvious choice. For to choose Tara would either mean that her guide was merely taking the form of Tara (thus a lie -an illusion) or that Tara was not at peace (she would only be there at the force of Willow's will, and not by her own choice - making Willow and Tara's love itself the lie) - either way - Tara's presence would be a lie, but it would be a lie that Willow told herself, another manipulation, another way to make Willow feel better about herself. Sometimes the worste lies, the hardest ones to face, are the ones we tell ourselves. As Willow tells the goddesses - "I lied" - I wanted Tara, but I lied to myself about why - it's not to learn, it's to lose myself in her, she is my order, my light, my journey complete.
So instead she chooses the guide that lies as well as Willow herself. Someone who lies, but is not the lie.
Willow: "I'll know if you lie."
Alluwyn - "I always lie."
Willow: "That's how I'll know."
Knowing the lie ahead of time is different than believing in it. She knows what Saga Vasuki is, because that is what Willow is - both dark and light, order and chaos wrapped together.
Much as Buffy's guide had to be Spike...a trickester of light and shadow, a liar, who had a wacky way of divining the truth...Willow's must be Aluwyn.
Whedon makes it clear in his stories and this is where he differs from the writers at IDW,
that each character is in conflict, neither hero nor villian. As he stated once to Seth Green during a commentary of Wild at Heart - the trick in creating an interesting villian is to remember they are not a villian in their head, they are the hero, they are the lead. Just we are the heroes and leads in our stories. The lies and halftruths that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better at night - fascinates Whedon, and he continues to peel them back as he does here - with Willow.
The comic contains the pop-culture references and self-deprecating wit missing from a good portion of the Retreat arc - such as a rather nice joke at the overuse of Alice in Wonderland by pop psychology. Instead he grabs Harry Potter, which while derivative, is as one character, the wheel-chair bound, Miss Muffit, relates, a nice change of pace. And it also references once again the dual agents - chaos and order - not light and dark or good and evil, but order and chaos, less simply categorized. For both are needed. Order - as we've seen via Twilight or Wolf Ram and Hart can be as evil as chaos. The Trickester swings both ways, enjoying the chaos, but half in love with the order.
A fun read for the frustrated psychology/mythology major inside of me. Reminding me once again, why I keep reading Joss Whedon's stories, and why I enjoy them as much as I do, and why of all his characters, my favorites continue to be the trickier ones...Spike, Willow and of course Buffy.
Art: B+
Story: A
Overall: A-
Every week, Rocketship, the neighborhood comic store, lists their picks of the week. Usually these are the comics that intrigue the comic geek owners, and are customer/critical fav's. Haven't seen the Buffy comics or the Angel one's for that matter make the picks, at all. Until this week - when Willow made it. Had a nice chat with the gal behind the desk - yep a comic store with female clerks. A rarity that. Usually it's a beer belly guy with a beard, who looks like he hasn't left his basement or the store for that matter in the last decade, and often wearing a stained t-shirt. This time, it was a twenty-something gal with short black hair.
After Willingham, and the mess that was Retreat, I ventured into the Willow comic: Goddesses and Monsters with a touch of trepidation and extreemly low expectations. Was pleasantly surprised. Granted Karl Moline is not my favorite artist, but I prefer him to Denham, Stephen Mooney, and Georges Jeanty. He draws lips really oddly, everyone looks like they've eaten lemons. But, at least the characters have expressions, you can tell them apart, and are recognizable - without looking like they've been reproduced from a photograph. Plus the framing is easier to follow and less jarring. I've come to the conclusion that Willow may be the easiest character to draw or at least differentiate. The red hair, green eyes (although I think Hannigan's may actually be brown?), and the funky clothes...help a great deal. That said, Moline does a lovely Willow. I also liked several of his panels quite a bit. And Joan Chen's cover should please Willow/Aluwyn shippers everywhere. It is like all of Chen's covers, a work of art. I keep wishing she could do the comics, but it would take forever.
The story is not overly complicated - it's basically what Willow was doing when Angel called Giles for help way back in Angel S5, Hole in the World. Remember? Giles told Angel that Willow was not available, somewhere in the astral plain or so Kennedy had said. It is also the story of how Willow met Saga Vasuki (the snake woman or trickester, the Goddess of the subconscious, of the lies we tell ourselves to stay sane, of chao and fun - ie. Willow's Spike. We all need a Spike. Makes life more interesting.) In Jungian thought - the snake eating its own tale or chasing its tale is the subconscious self - the part we repress or suppress.
Willow is taken on an interior journey of sorts - to the heart of herself, peeling away each layer, much as we might peel away the layers of dreams...including her carnal and current love for Kennedy (the slayer, the ken doll, Tara's opposite in female form), until Willow confronts her alleged guide, the snake woman, Saga Vasuki, stating you are not my guide, this is not real - and another layer is peeled back to reveal the goddesses of wisdom and power aligned in front, water, life (tree), animus (werewolf), earth, light, logic, balance...all stand in front of her. They provide Willow with a choice of guides - stating she must already have one in mind.
What I like about Joss Whedon is that unlike other writers, he seems to like to explore the inner psychological workings of his characters along with their inner emotional lives, and adores trickester characters or ambiguous characters who are neither black nor white, order or chaos, good or evil. Straight-up heroes apparently bore Whedon as much as they bore me, because all you can really do with them is knock them down.
There's a rather brilliant little bit of dialogue between Saga Vasuki and her black knight - that more or less clarifies this:
Black Knight: "Aluiwyn, you are saga vasuki - you thrive on chaos. You'd love to see her corrupted. Aluwyn, you know I love you because of that spell you did that time, but I stand with the forces of order. She turns back or she dies."
Saga Vasuaki/Aluwyn: "Always with the black and white thinking these demi-gods. "Order" "Chaos". As if they aren't intertwined like lovers. As if the universes don't depend on both."
And of all the characters in the Buffyverse - perhaps Willow understands this bit the most. As she has stated to Xander on more than one occassion - it's not that simple. Where Xander is black and white and almost colorblind in his reliance on boundaries, rules and an endzone. Willow sees the rainbow. It is afterall Willow who re-curses Angel with a soul, while Xander simply wants him dead. And it is Willow who coaxes Xander into not letting Spike off himself. As it is Willow who finds the way to help Anya.
Which is why, when given a choice, Willow chooses Aluwyn as her guide not Tara, the obvious choice. For to choose Tara would either mean that her guide was merely taking the form of Tara (thus a lie -an illusion) or that Tara was not at peace (she would only be there at the force of Willow's will, and not by her own choice - making Willow and Tara's love itself the lie) - either way - Tara's presence would be a lie, but it would be a lie that Willow told herself, another manipulation, another way to make Willow feel better about herself. Sometimes the worste lies, the hardest ones to face, are the ones we tell ourselves. As Willow tells the goddesses - "I lied" - I wanted Tara, but I lied to myself about why - it's not to learn, it's to lose myself in her, she is my order, my light, my journey complete.
So instead she chooses the guide that lies as well as Willow herself. Someone who lies, but is not the lie.
Willow: "I'll know if you lie."
Alluwyn - "I always lie."
Willow: "That's how I'll know."
Knowing the lie ahead of time is different than believing in it. She knows what Saga Vasuki is, because that is what Willow is - both dark and light, order and chaos wrapped together.
Much as Buffy's guide had to be Spike...a trickester of light and shadow, a liar, who had a wacky way of divining the truth...Willow's must be Aluwyn.
Whedon makes it clear in his stories and this is where he differs from the writers at IDW,
that each character is in conflict, neither hero nor villian. As he stated once to Seth Green during a commentary of Wild at Heart - the trick in creating an interesting villian is to remember they are not a villian in their head, they are the hero, they are the lead. Just we are the heroes and leads in our stories. The lies and halftruths that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better at night - fascinates Whedon, and he continues to peel them back as he does here - with Willow.
The comic contains the pop-culture references and self-deprecating wit missing from a good portion of the Retreat arc - such as a rather nice joke at the overuse of Alice in Wonderland by pop psychology. Instead he grabs Harry Potter, which while derivative, is as one character, the wheel-chair bound, Miss Muffit, relates, a nice change of pace. And it also references once again the dual agents - chaos and order - not light and dark or good and evil, but order and chaos, less simply categorized. For both are needed. Order - as we've seen via Twilight or Wolf Ram and Hart can be as evil as chaos. The Trickester swings both ways, enjoying the chaos, but half in love with the order.
A fun read for the frustrated psychology/mythology major inside of me. Reminding me once again, why I keep reading Joss Whedon's stories, and why I enjoy them as much as I do, and why of all his characters, my favorites continue to be the trickier ones...Spike, Willow and of course Buffy.
Art: B+
Story: A
Overall: A-
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 05:13 am (UTC)Whedon makes it clear in his stories and this is where he differs from the writers at IDW,
that each character is in conflict, neither hero nor villian. As he stated once to Seth Green during a commentary of Wild at Heart - the trick in creating an interesting villian is to remember they are not a villian in their head, they are the hero, they are the lead. Just we are the heroes and leads in our stories. The lies and halftruths that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better at night - fascinates Whedon, and he continues to peel them back as he does here - with Willow.
This is my favorite thing. The way stories work to make us feel better, but at the expense of seeing our own truths.
It'll be interesting to see if that element is front and center for the last ten issues of this run.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 05:15 pm (UTC)This is my favorite thing. The way stories work to make us feel better, but at the expense of seeing our own truths.
Mine too.
It'll be interesting to see if that element is front and center for the last ten issues of this run.
Yes, I'll be curious to see the degree of influence Whedon has over Bret Meltzer's arc in the series. I'm admittedly leery of Meltzer, but he could surprise me. And going in with low expectations is never a bad thing. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 01:27 pm (UTC)'Goddesses and Monsters' does seem to be one of those "love it or hate it" issues, and I do wonder if a pre-existing interest in mythology or psychology is what determines which group you'll fall into.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 05:11 pm (UTC)What I always found amusing in the Buffy series is how Spike would provide an uncomfortable truth, and Buffy or someone would state - we can't trust Spike. And Spike would lift an eyebrow and say somewhat calmly,
that's right - I always lie.
Whedon apparently likes irony. The liar tells us the truth, while the one we trust, the truthsayer is the liar. The biggest liars in the series, ironically enough, were Giles, Tara, Jenny, and Angel. (Who Buffy and Willow initially trusted to tell the truth.) While the one's who told the truth the most were Cordelia, Spike, and Anya.
I remember in Lessons commentary, Whedon stating that what interested him the most was not who sent the vengeance spirits, but the fact that Buffy was lying and keeping things from people again. And it is Spike who is upfront with the gang and reveals they'd met in the basement, Spike who tells the truth, while Buffy lies.
'Goddesses and Monsters' does seem to be one of those "love it or hate it" issues, and I do wonder if a pre-existing interest in mythology or psychology is what determines which group you'll fall into.
Oh, I think it definitely makes a difference. I was tempted to start my review with the following caveats: If you are a fan of the character, Willow,
love mythology and psychology, and into subtle/nuanced metaphors...you'll most likely like this issue. If you don't like any of the above, you won't.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 11:14 pm (UTC)And Joan Chen's cover should please Willow/Aluwyn shippers everywhere. It is like all of Chen's covers, a work of art. I keep wishing she could do the comics, but it would take forever.
I and others were actually uber-critical of the cover for two reasons. The disproportionate neck that bordered on grotesque and the porn-sized breasts. But other than that, yes, lovely.
I really enjoyed your analysis, in particular this:
Which is why, when given a choice, Willow chooses Aluwyn as her guide not Tara, the obvious choice. For to choose Tara would either mean that her guide was merely taking the form of Tara (thus a lie -an illusion) or that Tara was not at peace (she would only be there at the force of Willow's will, and not by her own choice - making Willow and Tara's love itself the lie) - either way - Tara's presence would be a lie, but it would be a lie that Willow told herself, another manipulation, another way to make Willow feel better about herself. Sometimes the worste lies, the hardest ones to face, are the ones we tell ourselves. As Willow tells the goddesses - "I lied" - I wanted Tara, but I lied to myself about why - it's not to learn, it's to lose myself in her, she is my order, my light, my journey complete.
So instead she chooses the guide that lies as well as Willow herself. Someone who lies, but is not the lie.
I think this is the best expressed explanation of Willow's decision that I've read. Either Tara as guide would be a false truth (echoing Wesley's refusal for Illyria to look like Fred) or she's really Tara and Willow has taken Tara from heaven like she removed Buffy. Either way, it's unacceptable to Willow. And I love how she's reached a place where she refuses to lie to herself nor be selfish in this manner simply because in her heart of hearts, she'll always love Tara. But her journey with Tara is complete. It's a lovely close, I think.
It's a great story, simple and yet deep and thought-provoking. I'm impressed Whedon managed to do so much with one issue, but then again maybe not.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 03:08 am (UTC)