So much this. It's not just in this arc or the last either, it's pretty much throughout the whole series.
Agreed. Buffy has been systematically broken down to her least sympathetic traits through the course of 36 issues. This odd story-telling. Normally, you start with a character being at rock bottom and build them up - which is actually more re-warding for the reader. Season 7 had Spike at rock bottom and Willow at rock bottom - built them up. Here, Buffy is allegedly fine and happy in Scotland when we start...and over the course of 36 issues, she is depicted as reckless, stupid, self-absorbed to the point of being dangerous, self-indulgent, and insecure. You don't really like her all that much by the time we hit Time of Your Life - where she kills Future!Willow. By that point, she's robbed a bank, slept with a girl deeply in love with her to experiment and get pleasure out of it, moped after Xander, treated her sister as if she was just a thorn in her side, and granted permission to steal a submarine. By the time we reach Turbulence - you are struggling to like this girl and wondering what happened to Buffy of S7 or the Buffy in the TV series. I've never seen a writer systematically tear apart his lead heroine to such a degree and I think know it is deliberate - from how it has been depicted in the text, and how the editor has commented on it. Now, granted once she hits rock bottom - which I'm guessing will most likely be in issue 37 or 38, hopefully before 39...he'll find a way to build her up again - but he doesn't have much time. We only have four issues left. In the tv series - they started building her up again a lot sooner - or it felt sooner. One tv episode feels like the equivalent of four comics.
This story could have accomplished the same aims - if he constructed it differently and spent a lot less time trying to hide who the villain was from everyone. We should have been following Angel and Buffy stories concurrently from the beginning. Also it should have been done in no more than 20-22 issues. This story is 20 issues too long.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-09-06 04:03 pm (UTC)Agreed. Buffy has been systematically broken down to her least sympathetic traits through the course of 36 issues. This odd story-telling. Normally, you start with a character being at rock bottom and build them up - which is actually more re-warding for the reader. Season 7 had Spike at rock bottom and Willow at rock bottom - built them up. Here, Buffy is allegedly fine and happy in Scotland when we start...and over the course of 36 issues, she is depicted as reckless, stupid, self-absorbed to the point of being dangerous, self-indulgent, and insecure. You don't really like her all that much by the time we hit Time of Your Life - where she kills Future!Willow. By that point, she's robbed a bank, slept with a girl deeply in love with her to experiment and get pleasure out of it, moped after Xander, treated her sister as if she was just a thorn in her side, and granted permission to steal a submarine. By the time we reach Turbulence - you are struggling to like this girl and wondering what happened to Buffy of S7 or the Buffy in the TV series. I've never seen a writer systematically tear apart his lead heroine to such a degree and I
thinkknow it is deliberate - from how it has been depicted in the text, and how the editor has commented on it. Now, granted once she hits rock bottom - which I'm guessing will most likely be in issue 37 or 38, hopefully before 39...he'll find a way to build her up again - but he doesn't have much time. We only have four issues left. In the tv series - they started building her up again a lot sooner - or it felt sooner. One tv episode feels like the equivalent of four comics.This story could have accomplished the same aims - if he constructed it differently and spent a lot less time trying to hide who the villain was from everyone. We should have been following Angel and Buffy stories concurrently from the beginning. Also it should have been done in no more than 20-22 issues. This story is 20 issues too long.