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shadowkatAs I write this review first in my head then on the page, it occurs to me that I can't win. I'm going to piss someone off, most likely royally. My flist, those who actually are still into the comics or are reading them in some format or other, is split down the middle. Writing a review on this issue is a bit like when I wrote about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Sarah Palin during the infamous 2008 American Election (lost a few friends over that one, here's hoping I learned from my mistakes). Actually as you may have gathered from reading the discussion threads - writing a review of issue 40 is a bit like writing a review of the NY Yankees and posting it to the NY Daily News and the Boston Globe right before the Yankees meet the Red Sox in the World Series. Like I said? You're going to piss off someone.
As for those of you who aren't reading the comics and could care less? Eh. Don't worry, this is most likely my last review on the topic, and my last post on Buffy for that matter. (Although I'm not making any promises - this journal is called spontaneous musings for a reason.) We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.
At the comic book store - I did ask, out of curiousity, how well the Buffy comics were doing. According to St. Marks Comics in Brooklyn Heights - pretty damn well. It has a devoted following. They were shocked when I said people in the midwest were having difficulty finding them and that subscriptions had dropped. From their perspective - Buffy's always sold incredibly well. Make of that what you will.
Okay, a couple of gentle reminders: I'm not flocking, filtering or screening this post or the comments. And yes, I'll be making fun of the comic book in much the same way that I make fun of all of the comic books that I read. No, I did not like it that much - so this is not a positive review. There's a lot about this comic that bothers me. And I'll be unpacking some of that in the review. Like all my reviews - it's not edited or betaed. There will be errors and I reserve the right to edit at a later point.
So...if you decide in your ultimate wisdom to risk commenting on this post, please refrain from insulting me or anyone else who comments on it. I don't care if you think we are talking out of our butt or have insane troll logic. Respect our opinions - even if it is the polar opposite of yours and seems to have come from the planet Mars or maybe Neptune. I know how some of you guys love to argue, but let's keep it civil. It's not like this is commentary on a major political election or the World Series, it's just a somewhat cheeky review of a comic book.. Note - if you continue to ignore this caveat after I've warned you, I may delete your ass. Okay? Thank you.
Buffy Issue 40 - Last Gleaming Part 5 - Coda or Answering the Wrong Questions (What Happens When a Writer Loses His Muse)
1) Detailed Comic Review - or I read Buffy so you don't have to.
"The Trouble with Changing the World is..." - The theme of this series and this issue appears to be that you can't really change the world that much. Whedon apparently feels depressed about his attempts to write strong powerful female characters and that it hasn't really empowered women or changed things. I'm not sure what planet he's living on but it's not the same one I am. I see changes. Major ones. But we shall get to that. This is a line by line critique.
We enter a book/coffee cafe in San Francisco, where there's a sunny girl with blond hair, a cute uniform, and a name tag (oh look it's Penny! Oh sorry, that 's the Big Bang Theory (a situation comedy taking place in San Francisco- in an alternate universe, Buffy and Penny would most likely be buds). And if you look closely she is wearing a name tag, just in case we can't figure out that it's not Penny. My bad.)
Buffy voice-over (which apparently only pops up in Whedon scripted issues, although I could be wrong about that.) "I know. This looks bad, right? I'm back to waitressing." [Actually, it looks like a severe lack of imagination on the writer's part. Let me think...what would be a logical occupation for a slayer who has killer fighting skills to do? And is in top physical shape? And spent the last four years training people on how to fight supernatural creatures? Hmmm. Oh, I got it? How about a P.E. teacher? Or an aerobics instructor? Or a kung-fu/black belt teacher? Or Self-Defense trainer? Or a security guard? Or a body guard? Or a circus performer? And by the way they make more money than a waitress at a coffee shop.(well maybe not the circus performer). Another bit - this, waitressing, is a typically "female" occupation in Hollywood films, stories, etc. All the occupations and roles in this comic are "traditional female ones" bordering on cliche. Buffy == of course is a waitress at a coffee shop with a cute hair-do with big guys commenting on how she handles those big trays (I've seen waitresses handle more than that, but that comment is always made). Also the coffee shop doesn't appear to have male waiters - highly unrealistic considering it's a coffee shop catering to a decidedly male gay clientel. Dawn is (as far as I can tell) unemployed and letting Xander "take care of" her. We aren't told what she's studying. The girls are all "clutzs" or described as "clumsy". The weapon is a stake. And the only one with an army is a man. ]
"Plus side, I'm not clinically depressed (well one wouldn't blame you if you were, personally I'm guessing you should have a bit of PTD (post-traumatic stress disorder) going on...which would be interesting actually, but that's just because I'm obsessed with it at the moment) "or wearing a hat with a chicken on it" (that's only because burger king and KFC protested - true story, they did, they told UPN that Whedon had to change that bit, everything else was fine), "so this would be my best service-industry job to date "(possibly the lowest paying, since I can't imagine coffee shops pay more than Denny's. But I may be wrong about that. Why isn't this girl tending bar - great place to spot and kill vampires. Plus much higher tips. And she could sleep during the day. Whedon - a coffee shop waitress? Can you be any more cliche? No offense to the people on my flist who do this for a living.)"Lotta cute guys too." (With incredibly short arms, big heads, and big hands...and hardly any shoulders, sorry perspective bugs me). "Cute guys who are into other cute guys" (well if you like big head and tiny bodies - Jeanty's eye for perspective is bit off here.), "but it's still nice after living in girltown all that time." (yes Buffy has traded Lesibian town for Homosexual town. And apparently prefers male company, because of course male company is better than female company! I can see her point, but it grates after all the other bits.)
Just in case we don't get the hint, the Scottish slayer with the hat and peasant skirt trips Buffy. (Okay maybe it's not the Scottish slayer, but it looks like her. Wasn't she killed in the big fight? Guess not.) And Buffy being super-coordinated manages to catch the tray with her foot not spilling anything. (They are not paying this girl enough. She can serve coffee and do headstands at the same time.)
"Lotta clumsy people in San Franscico. All of them girls." [Apparently Buffy's slayer army is still pissed at her. Can't think why. Oh, wait they are about to tell me. Also note - yet another comment about girls in the derogatory sense. That's the fourth in the space of less than two pages.]
Is it just me or are we spending a lot of time talking about things that I already know the answers to or have already been addressed multiple times in multiple different ways? Just me then.
Just in case we can't figure out why Willow dumped Kennedy, we get a conversation about it.
At any rate...if you've seen Wrecked, you know the conversation already. It's more or less the same one.
Now we get Buffy's nightmare - which is basically Twangel killing Giles and Giles dying again. Then Twangel, sorry Angel now, looking really confused about the whole thing. As if he wasn't present during any of it. Still unclear on what Angel was mentally present for and therefore culpable and what he wasn't. Can a character be culpable for constantly being manipulated into killing people and destroying the world? I think they lock those people up in insane asylums for life? Oh well, it does have a nice corollary to her nightmares regarding Angel in the S3 BTVS epiode Anne I suppose. (actually this whole issue feels very similar to that episode.)
Dawn pokes Buffy awake. Okay here's the big Dawn/Buffy bonding conversation. Which again doesn't really tell you anything you don't know.
First of all, let's clarify something that's been annoying me in regards to every recap I've read to date - Buffy is NOT crashing on Dawn's couch - she's crashing on Xander's (or if you prefer XANDER and Dawn's couch - since they are ahem, living together). Xander has decided to support Dawn, who has gone back to school. Xander has a job. Buffy has a job. Please note - Dawn does not to our knowledge hold a job. If anything he implies she does not have one, because she's in school, not even one working at a coffee shop or bookstore. Dawn has never had a job. Dawn has never worked, well outside of a very brief gig with Anya, but that was to pay off the amount she stole from Anya. In short Dawn basically sponges off others while she goes to college, which would be justifiable if Dawn were a) from a rich family, b) had a father who was supporting her (who according to everything we've been told is most definitely not), c) did not have an older sister who has no money, has struggled to make ends meet, spends most of her time fighting demons and vampires and possibly is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and had to drop out of college to pay for Dawn. Does Dawn get a job? No. I mean you can - that actually is who works in coffee shops - kids going to college to pay their way (not highly effective method of paying one's way but they usually have people like Xander supporting them while they are doing this, so it doesn't matter). So, to say Buffy is crashing on Dawn's couch is not true. Dawn didn't pay for the couch and is not married to Xander (as far as I know). Also, it should be noted that Buffy is actually working and has a job. Two. By day she makes money which I'm guessing contributes to Dawn's tuition(?) (unless Dawn lucked out and is going tuition free at some public university - is that still possible? I think they tried to overrule that a while back which resulted in a huge protest?) and rent (can't imagine it pays for much) and food (probably just that), and by night she kills vampires which keeps Dawn and Xander safe.
Xander clearly has another high profile construction job. And promptly leaves for it. We get very little of Xander in this issue, except for the fact that he has convinced Dawn to move in with him, they are definitely a couple, and he is working construction. My hero. Now my difficulty with Dawn and Xander is the same difficulty I had with Cordelia and Connor. Or for that matter Buffy hooking up with Giles. But I'm also incredibly amused by the fact Whedon did it - particularly since I'm willing to bet that Noxon and Fury would have been squicked by it, as would Nicholas Brendan and they would have talked him out of it - had thDis been on tv. (Nick Brendan actually said as much in his blog - stating quite clearly in response to Xander/Dawn - Ewww.) How do I know this? Because they were squicked by Dawn/Spike in Bargaining and Buffy/Giles ships. They say so in the commentary.
Now to be clear: It's not the age difference that bugged them or me for that matter. It's how Whedon chose to build this relationship - which is built as a paternal/big brother mentoring a little sister/adopted daughter that he is helping raise. Note - when Joyce Summers dies, and Buffy is tasked with taking care of Dawn, Xander increasingly takes on a paternal role - notably in S7 - where he pep talks Dawn, and listens to her, and guides her as Giles did for Buffy. The dialogue exchanges are similar. In the comics - this becomes even more clear - with both Buffy's initial dream sequence, where she thanks Xander for being her paternal help for Dawn, and in later issues. Xander's relationship with Dawn is a bit too similar to Gile's with Faith. Hmm, maybe Giles slept with Faith. Would certainly fit the pattern.
The other problem with Dawn/Xander - is Xander is the big cheese. He's older, wiser, and stronger than Dawn. Unlike his relationship with Renee - where they were actually equals or even Cordelia and Anya. Dawn is dependent on Xander - on his money and his physical strength. Yet they are the most stable relationship. And a point is made in the conversation that follows that Dawn has abandoned the fight for her schooling - so she's not even assisting, not that she ever really was. She was constantly being saved in the comics. (And people say Whedon isn't a feminist. I really have no idea why anyone would say that.)
Finally...this is a very cliche and predictable. But the Dawn/Xander relationship has been cliche and predictable from the start. It does not pose any interesting questions or change anything. It's not subversive in the least. Unless you think an older guy dating and setting up house with a girl that is the kid-sister of his best friend and he helped raise is subversive? No, Buffy shacking up with Connor would be subversive. But this tale dates back to Gidget and well half a dozen other 1950s and 1960s tv shows. Hardly new turf. Actually, the X-Men did more or less the same story a while back. Oh...I always saw her as my kid-sister or my friend's sister...now she's all grown up and I'm in love! (Personally? I liked Dorothy Dunnett's take the best in the Chronicles of Lymond with Lymond and Phillipa- it was built well and the most convincing.) Also, it's a common theme in the series - Buffy hooks up with older men never men her own age, and Dawn hooks up with older men. *cough*Daddyissues*cough*.
Now Dawn asks if Buffy misses the War. What a dumb question. Wait, she clarifies - she means being a leader.
We go see General Voll (I'm guessing this is still Voll. He looks more or less the same, no new cast changes.)Voll doesn't seem all that happy with what happened. Depressed more like. Apparently being put out to pasture doesn't sit well with him. So he dejectedly pushes a button on the elevator to leave the military compound - only to be shot by Simone the Rogue Slayer (who I almost forgot about). How Simone managed to infiltrate the compound, no idea. Or how she got out without anyone noticing.
We jump to Giles funeral - which I'm guessing is a flashback, we aren't exactly told one way or another.
Giles leaves everything but the Vampyr book that we saw in Season 1 to Faith. This includes the money, the flat, the farm and the horses. (So what - Giles is wealthy? If this is the case - why in the hell was Buffy working at the Doublemeat Palace or at all? Why wasn't Giles paying her a living stipend so she could focus her time on slaying? Some watcher. This guy has tons of money, is being paid by the council (Buffy even made sure he got back-pay in S5) and I'm guessing a good portion of that dough came from the council - and Buffy's doing menial labor to afford to live? The best he can do is write her a check for bad plumbing? Also, what exactly is he getting paid to do exactly? Research? Somewhat ineffectively by the way.)
Next up is a conversation with Spike. They've neatly juxtaposed the Spike/Faith(Angel) tale.
Spike knocks on Buffy's window, and she opens it. I only know this is Spike - for the dialogue, the blond hair and the blue eyes, otherwise I'd think it was Andrew. Yes, Jeanty is drawing Spike like Andrew now.
That actually read "shippy" to me. Although oddly out of character for Spike. It felt off somehow. Probably just me. Lots of monologues and speechifying in this thing. And about stuff we already know. Yes, yes, it's Buffy's fault. Yes, yes, Buffy feels guilty. Yes, yes, Buffy must pay.
Buffy voice over again - Alone, every night. I guess I got used to having an army around me, and now I'm ... (actually she had the same complaint in the first issue of this series and at that point it was more interesting and far less depressing). Dawn at this point decides to disgust Buffy and me by making noises of having sex with Xander.
Buffy: Thinking about getting my own place, like really soon. (Has got to be awkward listening to Xander and Dawn get it on...considering. But on the other hand, they had to watch Buffy shag Angel to outter-space and back, after almost being killed by the Dude. (Twangel not well the Dude from The Big Lebowoski, although I can see how one might get confused.) So Dawn's certainly entitled. Just wish it didn't have to gross me out. This is odd. The only sexual relationship in this series that worked for me was Satsu and Buffy. (Note:I'm not counting Willow and Kennedy - since we rarely see them together). Dawn it turns out is just doing it to tease Buffy into going out on patrol - would serve Dawn right if Buffy didn't come back and got killed. But, hey, at least it was a tease, and we didn't actually have to see Jeanty's artistic rendering of it. (Yes, there is a god, dear readers.)
Buffy voice-over: If I didn't know Dawnie, better, I'd swear she was doing that on purpose. (You clearly don't know her. Sadistic creature your sister.) Don't mind getting out though - the night air, the city beneath me...this feels right. (ah, maybe not so sadistic - getting Buffy out is a good thing.) Feels like home. (Until she gets attacked by a bunch of slayers who aren't calling themselves slayers because they justifiably hate her for well shagging the guy who tortured and killed their sisters, almost destroyed the world - no, wait, that's not the reason they hate her. That would actually make logical sense. Who am I kidding. This is the whedonverse. No, they hate her for saving the world and destroying the seed of all magic, because it did what exactly? Stop slayers like themselves from being called? Or stop the Wiccans from practicing magic? Not quite clear on this.)
And we get another speech. "You betrayed us..." (But we are saved having to hear it, I'm guessing Whedon got tired?) Instead Buffy gives us her version.
Buffy: I betrayed the cause. I cut off the line of slayers. (--long sidebard about them not calling themselves slayers anymore. Don't want to be associated with me.---) I destroyed the wiccan community, tainted the earth, let all my friends down...Jesus..do they think I don't already know? (Okay, destroying the seed did all that? So women are no longer empowered. They don't get power?) Buffy refuses to fight them, they insist, Buffy easily beats them. (See - she should be teaching kick-boxing not serving coffee.) She tells them if they don't leave her alone, she will fight them. (Pointing out that kicking their ass just then, wasn't really fighting them. Sigh. This is so old hat.) So that sucked. And as bad as it feels to take out my own girls...I know there's more coming -- and not just cause Spike's playing cub reporter. I know because that's how betrayal works. (Actually it would have happened anyway. This is a horror story that appears to be endless.)
And we see the potential villains for season 9 - Willow looking at Aliwuyn Saga Vasku, who Buffy robbed her of. Tinkerbell the fairy who is flying up from the grating (not sure what her beef is - maybe the end of all magic is the end of her kind?). Simone - who has killed Voll and some fat guy and is now gunning for Buffy (but wasn't she always).
"Sometimes I'm not even sure which part was the betrayal. Everyone's got their own version. I'm pretty sure it was boinking Twilight, but still (you'd be right on that score, that's what I think too. Although why you boinked Twilight still doesn't quite play for me. But then I never quite bought the whole Xander/Dawn/Buffy triangle either - and you sort of have to, in order to buy into the whole boinking Twilight. )There's a picture of some bleeding guy with glasses who looks like a demented John Lennon as played by John Barrowman. Maybe he's the Immortal? Maybe the whole Twilight bit killed Buffy's double in Italy and he's seeking revenge? (No wait, that was a fanfic I read. I doubt Whedon will go there. )
She fights a vampire.
"The trouble with changing the world is...you don't. Not all at once. You just inch it forward, a bit at a time and watch it slip back like the greek guy with the rock (apparently Whedon can't spell Sisyphus either. And I thought that was the theme of Angel? And Firefly? Way to borrow from yourself). And you hope that when you're done, you've moved it up a little changed it just enough you hope. Let's go to work."
So ends S8. Buffy's back to square one. Men rule, women...fight in the shadows, hiding their strength. (I got that from the Good Wife, which actually handles this particular theme in a far better manner, far more realistically, and with more shades of gray. This rendering is a tad black and white for my taste.)
This story feels a bit too familiar. I've seen and read it before. It's status quo. People dislike change. They prefer S1-3 and want those seasons repeated ad naseum. Change is uncomfortable and painful. They fight against it. And whine incessantly about it. Particularly Hollywood, and the male power structure that sits behind it.
This is a reminder of how short-sighted the Hollywood power structure is and men who write comic books with their male pals, while their wives stroke their colossal egos. About a year or so ago, an amazing thing happened. Cathernne M. Valente beat Joss Whedon for Best Web Series - for her YA novel, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Her Way Through Fairyland with a Ship of Her Own Making. Whedon was up for the typical guy piece entitled Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog. What was wonderful about this is Valente - a fan of Whedon, who got her start writing fanfic, has managed slowly over time to build a nitch for herself in fantasy and sci-fi. Most recently she did an online comic of one of her fantasy stories, Deathless. Another success story - Felicia Day - wrote a best-selling web-series entitled The Guild and did a comic off of it. Shondra Rhimes, a Whedon fan, wrote and directed and ran an emmy-winning tv series about female surgeons on network tv - which has been on for Seven years and is critically acclaimed in its seventh season and will most likely outlast the series Whedon did, which inspired her. Last year, a woman won the Oscar for Best Director for an War Film, The Hurt Locker. And soon, a woman will write the script for the Buffy reboot, which with any luck will be directed by a female director.
The thing is? The world is changing Mr. Whedon. More and more women are writing comic books, tv shows, and films. Julie Plec is executive producer and co-show-runner on Vampire Diaries. Nikita - a show about several strong women is doing rather well. JK Rowlings wrote the best-selling Harry Potter series and Stephanie Meyer did Twilight - the other Twilight.
Hillary Clinton ran for President. And almost got the Democratic ticket. She is now, Secretary of State - the second woman Secretary of State.
I work as a Contract Administrator for a Railroad - which back in the day was a field only available to men.
Is the US sexist? Yes. But it's getting better. So much better. Comics are still fairly sexist and this one is no exception, but there are comics out there that aren't. Gail Simone. Elena Casagrande.
Rebecca Issaks. The author of Persepolis. To name a few. Janet Evanovich is writing them now as well. Women are breaking into the boys club. Mariah Hueher is another one. And Felicia Day.
So, actually, the world does change a lot and sometimes all at once (look at the iphone and the internet - which is by the way freeing up the concourse for brainy women). And it does happen gradually too (We have a black president - something I did not think I'd see in my lifetime). And you do empower others. (In ways you don't even understand.) Books like the Buffy comics really aren't realistic depictions of what is happening, they are just one writer's narrow and somewhat limited perspective from the ivory tower of Hollywood. A skewed magic mirror of celebrities and party cheese.
2. Review of S8 generally speaking and Whedon's letter to fans
I read Whedon's letter to his fans...which made me roar with laughter. In it he thanks Scott Allie for being, get this, the reason why there are editors and.. the best season show-runner ever - keeping track of the big picture and the minutia. (Hmmm... Apparently the main role of an editor, according to Whedon, is to write the story while the writer is unavailable and tell the writer how great he is. And take all the heat on fan-forums, while the writer is applauded. ). Reading Whedon's letter makes me realize that Whedon doesn't see the flaws in his work. That there were far too many writers involved (too many even for him to count or thank apparently), and that Brad Meltzer was a master of structure (couldn't tell from the comics, but hey he might have been if he knew what was happening between his arc and Long Journey Home). There are so many things wrong here..
*Whedon had his editor write the culminate arc of his story, and only took time out to write the coda
*Whedon did not think it necessary to inform the other writers, outside of Brad Meltzer, who the villain was or what the main story was.
*Whedon did not think it necessary to clue Brad Meltzer who wrote the climax and big reveal what happened prior and what was going to be written between the intro and that reveal or how he was going to wrap it up.
Those are just off the top of my head.
I entitle this review answering the wrong questions or what happens when the writer loses his muse.
This whole story or Season 8 if you prefer feels very derivative to me. The questions the writer poses and answers aren't questions that haven't already been answered over and over again. The plot makes little logical sense - so the coda in some respects feels off, like it's been pulled from another tale. The characters seem to go in circles. And do not grow. (Well outside of maybe Faith - who was never front and center, and we only got five issues on anyhow). No real change happens in this story..except maybe the Xander/Dawn relationship - which was so last year anyhow. The writer does what he's always done which is take his characters from high point to low point to high point to low point, but without any clear evolution. It's hard for me to care what happens to these people. They don't appear to do anything "new" or different. The writer isn't taking any real risks with either his verse or his characters, instead he just puts in a bunch of special effects. In some respects this story reminds me of AVATAR - lots of hype, little substance, although to be frank - AVATAR had more substance. Which is saying something.
Does Buffy realize her mistakes? Do we learn why she did what she did? Do we learn why Angel did what he did? Do we know what happened to the other slayers? To OZ? Or Why Spike is still in a dirigible with insects, why he's in one to begin with? Do we care? The questions regarding Spike and Angel may actually be answered by Lynch and Mariah. But not by Whedon.
I have to make dinner. I've spent too much time on this already. More than I planned. And it is long enough. Also I'm not sure who if anyone will bother with it. Was it a waste of time? Did I even add anything new to the party?
I hear there's a season 9? For those who want it? I wish you well, you deserve happiness. This reviewer won't be along for the ride. Because the writer appears to have nothing new to show or tell me. It's as simple as that. But I'll be reading your reviews should you choose to post them to see if that remains the case.
As for those of you who aren't reading the comics and could care less? Eh. Don't worry, this is most likely my last review on the topic, and my last post on Buffy for that matter. (Although I'm not making any promises - this journal is called spontaneous musings for a reason.) We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.
At the comic book store - I did ask, out of curiousity, how well the Buffy comics were doing. According to St. Marks Comics in Brooklyn Heights - pretty damn well. It has a devoted following. They were shocked when I said people in the midwest were having difficulty finding them and that subscriptions had dropped. From their perspective - Buffy's always sold incredibly well. Make of that what you will.
Okay, a couple of gentle reminders: I'm not flocking, filtering or screening this post or the comments. And yes, I'll be making fun of the comic book in much the same way that I make fun of all of the comic books that I read. No, I did not like it that much - so this is not a positive review. There's a lot about this comic that bothers me. And I'll be unpacking some of that in the review. Like all my reviews - it's not edited or betaed. There will be errors and I reserve the right to edit at a later point.
So...if you decide in your ultimate wisdom to risk commenting on this post, please refrain from insulting me or anyone else who comments on it. I don't care if you think we are talking out of our butt or have insane troll logic. Respect our opinions - even if it is the polar opposite of yours and seems to have come from the planet Mars or maybe Neptune. I know how some of you guys love to argue, but let's keep it civil. It's not like this is commentary on a major political election or the World Series, it's just a somewhat cheeky review of a comic book.. Note - if you continue to ignore this caveat after I've warned you, I may delete your ass. Okay? Thank you.
Buffy Issue 40 - Last Gleaming Part 5 - Coda or Answering the Wrong Questions (What Happens When a Writer Loses His Muse)
1) Detailed Comic Review - or I read Buffy so you don't have to.
"The Trouble with Changing the World is..." - The theme of this series and this issue appears to be that you can't really change the world that much. Whedon apparently feels depressed about his attempts to write strong powerful female characters and that it hasn't really empowered women or changed things. I'm not sure what planet he's living on but it's not the same one I am. I see changes. Major ones. But we shall get to that. This is a line by line critique.
We enter a book/coffee cafe in San Francisco, where there's a sunny girl with blond hair, a cute uniform, and a name tag (oh look it's Penny! Oh sorry, that 's the Big Bang Theory (a situation comedy taking place in San Francisco- in an alternate universe, Buffy and Penny would most likely be buds). And if you look closely she is wearing a name tag, just in case we can't figure out that it's not Penny. My bad.)
Buffy voice-over (which apparently only pops up in Whedon scripted issues, although I could be wrong about that.) "I know. This looks bad, right? I'm back to waitressing." [Actually, it looks like a severe lack of imagination on the writer's part. Let me think...what would be a logical occupation for a slayer who has killer fighting skills to do? And is in top physical shape? And spent the last four years training people on how to fight supernatural creatures? Hmmm. Oh, I got it? How about a P.E. teacher? Or an aerobics instructor? Or a kung-fu/black belt teacher? Or Self-Defense trainer? Or a security guard? Or a body guard? Or a circus performer? And by the way they make more money than a waitress at a coffee shop.(well maybe not the circus performer). Another bit - this, waitressing, is a typically "female" occupation in Hollywood films, stories, etc. All the occupations and roles in this comic are "traditional female ones" bordering on cliche. Buffy == of course is a waitress at a coffee shop with a cute hair-do with big guys commenting on how she handles those big trays (I've seen waitresses handle more than that, but that comment is always made). Also the coffee shop doesn't appear to have male waiters - highly unrealistic considering it's a coffee shop catering to a decidedly male gay clientel. Dawn is (as far as I can tell) unemployed and letting Xander "take care of" her. We aren't told what she's studying. The girls are all "clutzs" or described as "clumsy". The weapon is a stake. And the only one with an army is a man. ]
"Plus side, I'm not clinically depressed (well one wouldn't blame you if you were, personally I'm guessing you should have a bit of PTD (post-traumatic stress disorder) going on...which would be interesting actually, but that's just because I'm obsessed with it at the moment) "or wearing a hat with a chicken on it" (that's only because burger king and KFC protested - true story, they did, they told UPN that Whedon had to change that bit, everything else was fine), "so this would be my best service-industry job to date "(possibly the lowest paying, since I can't imagine coffee shops pay more than Denny's. But I may be wrong about that. Why isn't this girl tending bar - great place to spot and kill vampires. Plus much higher tips. And she could sleep during the day. Whedon - a coffee shop waitress? Can you be any more cliche? No offense to the people on my flist who do this for a living.)"Lotta cute guys too." (With incredibly short arms, big heads, and big hands...and hardly any shoulders, sorry perspective bugs me). "Cute guys who are into other cute guys" (well if you like big head and tiny bodies - Jeanty's eye for perspective is bit off here.), "but it's still nice after living in girltown all that time." (yes Buffy has traded Lesibian town for Homosexual town. And apparently prefers male company, because of course male company is better than female company! I can see her point, but it grates after all the other bits.)
Big head Bearded guy to Buffy : You got that okay.
Buffy: You're gonna ask me that every time, aren't you.
Big head Bearded guy who looks like Whedon: Well it's big and you're little. [Some day I need to meet Joss Whedon just so I can deliver that same line to him while I'm looking down at him. Whedon from photos is about 5'4 if that. I'm 6 ft. **Note: Whedon feels the need to have someone say this to Buffy in just about every episode. Wood said it in Lessons. Jenny said it in Prophecy Girl.]
Buffy: In four months have I ever spilled a drink? [Yes, Buffy is that rarity amongs women and definitely not a clutz and has killer coordination due to her slayer superpowers - we get it. What boggles the mind is why you can't come up with a better job for her than a cliche that is in every tv series from here to the UK. And they say, too much tv warps the brain.]
Just in case we don't get the hint, the Scottish slayer with the hat and peasant skirt trips Buffy. (Okay maybe it's not the Scottish slayer, but it looks like her. Wasn't she killed in the big fight? Guess not.) And Buffy being super-coordinated manages to catch the tray with her foot not spilling anything. (They are not paying this girl enough. She can serve coffee and do headstands at the same time.)
"Lotta clumsy people in San Franscico. All of them girls." [Apparently Buffy's slayer army is still pissed at her. Can't think why. Oh, wait they are about to tell me. Also note - yet another comment about girls in the derogatory sense. That's the fourth in the space of less than two pages.]
Kennedy: What did you expect? (I don't know - that you and Willow would live happily ever after, with you fighting and Willow going back to school and becoming an awesome computer wiz.) You sucked all the magic out of the world. (except the magic that gives Buffy and Kennedy superstrength and enables vampires to keep on trucking...but hey, let's not be picky. The writer merely simplified his universe so that he could match it up with the much more dystopic Frayverse. Besides super-powered witches are passe.)
Buffy: I didn't have a choice...(To be honest that plot was so confusing, that I'm not entirely sure what your choices were..)
Kennedy: Willow could have beaten them back. You weren't up there. You didn't see. (Apparently Kennedy does know what they those choices were...although if I remember correctly Willow wasn't doing such a swell job beating back the vagina demons (for want of a better word) or was she creating vagina demons to beat back vagina demons? (the jury is still out on that one) I could be wrong about that - the beating them back not the vagina demons. Seemed to me - all she was doing was making things worse - so much so, that Xander (and Giles) were ready to destroy the seed himself. Hey, if Xander (or Giles for that matter) destroyed the seed - would that have made everyone mad at Xander (or Giles) and all men?)
Buffy: No I was underground, watching Giles die. (Actually watching Twangel, who you decided was your one true love (silly girl) kill Giles. But hey, same diff.)
Kennedy: You want the whole history lesson? The one where that's your fault too? Where you superliterally fucked (I'm sorry but I'm not going to use weird symbols for a word that is clearly fucked and do the British versions of the comic get the actual word fucked? Are there different versions of this comic? OR is it the same? I'm guessing the same?)
Buffy: Okay, all my fault, let's enjoy that reality but Willow needs you now. More than ever. She's lost her powers. How can you just leave.
Kennedy: Missed it again, genius. Willow dumped me. (Yeah, Willow's playing with a full deck.)
Is it just me or are we spending a lot of time talking about things that I already know the answers to or have already been addressed multiple times in multiple different ways? Just me then.
Just in case we can't figure out why Willow dumped Kennedy, we get a conversation about it.
Willow: It was coming. She couldn't see it. And she'd never admit it if she did, but...Kennedy liked being with a superhero. (No, Willow, it's you who thinks you need to be a superhero for anyone to want to be with you. Xander and OZ did a real number on you back in high school - neither got intrigued until you got all witchy. And it did not help that Tara was much the same way - Tara fell for you when you were magical. Poor Kennedy. But, unfortunately all of this turf has already been tread upon - you'd think Willow would have figured it out. But no. I'm highly tempted to go to Buffyscripts or whatever it's called and pull up Willow's dialogue with Buffy in Wrecked, but instead of doing that - I'll just refer you to my old meta on the topic, because honestly I don't feel like rehashing the same discussion all over again. So go here: 1)http://shadowkat67.livejournal.com/444538.html#cutid1 and 2)http://shadowkat67.livejournal.com/446994.html#cutid1 and here http://shadowkat67.livejournal.com/443565.html#cutid1 and finally here:http://shadowkat67.livejournal.com/438475.html#cutid1.)
At any rate...if you've seen Wrecked, you know the conversation already. It's more or less the same one.
Willow: But she (Kennedy) still got the fighty. All the slayers that were called before you destroyed the seed are still slayers. (At least that answers one question - which was bugging me. Do the slayers that Buffy empowered still have their power? Yep.) There's no army. (wait, no army? No...no army of slayers because they can't forgive Buffy for cutting off the line or because they can't forgive her for shagging the guy who was hunting them down and torturing and murdering them? I'm guessing the latter? In which case, can't say I blame them. Anyhow there's still a "male" army with guns and submarines...) And no new slayers being called. (Well, that's proven wrong in the Frayverse when Fray gets called...so just for now. Which you know, not exactly a bad thing. It's not like you don't have quite a few already. Nor do you exactly know what to do with the ones you've got.) No magic. (So apparently magic isn't what is keeping Angel and Spike kicking, and all those other vamps rampaging about, or Buffy super-powered. Good to know. Care to share what is? Oh, wait, Willow's talking about her magic or the earth magic that she could access...got it.)
Buffy: Kind of went off on a tangent there...kind of the same one every time we talk. (Nice to know I'm not the only one experiencing deja-vue here.)
Willow: Kennedy likes power. (Actually Willow you like power. That's what attracted you to Tara, Kennedy, and to Buffy in the first place. They had power, which you wanted.) And not the power to program computers. (which you really shouldn't disdain...considering...look at Zuckerberg (the guy who invented Facebook).)
Buffy: That's a pretty neat power (oh look Buffy agrees with me), though. Make good money...computers are becoming quite popular with the young people nowadays (Isn't Buffy 25? I'm never quite sure in these things. They are as bad bloody soaps - the writers can't do basic arithmetic. These characters stay 25 forever. I have no idea how old any of them are supposed to be. Technically - Buffy turned 30 this week, but...I can't tell if that's true in the comics.)
Willow: You made everything different Buffy. (No, that was a group of crazy writers - Buffy just did whatever they told her to do, even if she thought it was insane troll logic at the time. Sort of like in S7 - "Scythe? There's a Scythe now? And it's always been lying around the Sunnydale vineyard, with an old woman sitting about in tomb in the Sunnydale cemetary who knew where it was...where were you Ms. Guardian - when Glory was attacking me?" and now - "Seed"? There's a Seed in the Hellmouth? Which the Master was supposed to be guarding, which was why he came here and got stuck? And we didn't know about this because..?" I mean it's not like Buffy had much guidance here - the writer threw mcGuffins at her from left field and told her to deal, without, mind you explaining what they were supposed to do. Which wait - wasn't Willow's original and main purpose to help with the research? Bad Willow.).
Buffy:Wasn't that the idea? (Buffy like me isn't sure what Willow's talking about here. There's less vampires, no external demons, no Twilight, no end of the world...and they aren't being hunted. Plus still lots of slayers.)
Willow: Not this time. Not this way. (Okaaay...) I know you need me to tell you it's not your fault, it's gonna be okay. I know you thought you had to do it. (Not exactly like she was being given any other options here. Protect the seed - watch the universes clash, give the seed to Twilight, watch her universe crumble and live in new one with her honey, destroy the seed, watch new universe go by-by, and live in old one. ) But the world is less. It doesn't even know it yet. But it's lost its heart. (Except up until issue 35 no one knew, including I suspect the writer, that this heart even existed? If it was sooo important why is it just coming up now? Bloody convenient if you ask me. Yeah, I know, applying logic to Whedon is a scarey thing.)
Buffy: Is that worse than being destroyed? ( Remember who you are talking to here, Buff.)
Willow: Not yet. Eventually, I think it will be. (I don't know...how was it exactly better with magic and exactly what magic is gone? This has not been clarified people. (Well unless you count interviews with Scott Allie and George Jeanty - which, uhm, no. I shouldn't be expected to track down their interviews in order to figure out the factual plot points in a comic book written by Whedon.))
Buffy: You've given up magic before. (Actually, no. She pretended to. Or have you forgotten? And it only lasted five or six episodes...I think. Would have to go back and check. This was the big mislead of S6 - where the writers attempt to fool the audience into thinking that Willow won't go crazy with magic and it's just a crack addiction. Ah.. the good old days.)
Willow (in case you have forgotten): This isn't an addiction. (Could have fooled me). Don't even pretend I'm still that little girl. (Then stop sounding like her. Willow - you even have some of the same dialogue.).
Buffy: And don't take my mista--my actions out on Kennedy! or Yourself. Come on. I'm rooting for Kennedy here! That deserves special consideration. (Considering Buffy hates Kennedy, I'd agree. Oddly Kennedy has grown on me. She has spunk. And no, not that kind of spunk - get your head out of the gutter please. Thank you. Moving on.) And possibly a plaque. (Not to be confused with plague. Easy to do trust me. And that may be going a tad far...(regarding plaque not plague although I guess it works for both)..not sure you deserve either, Buffster, Kennedy's not that bad. )
Willow: You...You're never not you, are you? (And who is she supposed to be Wills? The Queen of Sheba? I mean come on...how long have you known her? I guess that statement's supposed to mean that Buffy's self-absorbed bitca? Or it means that she's telling Willow what to do based on how she feels about it? ) The fact is...there's someone else. (Gee, I wonder who.) I didn't realize it - or I kidded myself -- for a long time but now (see told you Willow had a thing for power, it's not Kennedy. I mean who is more appealing to you - all powerful snake lady or super-powered slayer? The metaphor by the way is not exactly...how to put this...pro-female. Willow has the hots for a trickster, a negative female mother goddess with a snake tale (used often to connote male genitalia), and the subconscious or female anima - snake eating own tale. While Kennedy, a feminine lesbian with the ability to throw a guy against a wall, and has physical stamina is dumped. And this is all bracketed with the you know you just can't change the world...and they say Whedon's not a feminist.)
Buffy: Uhhh (now to give Buffy credit - Willow is touching Buffy's face in a rather gentle and somewhat suggestive fashion, as she states this...and how in the hell is Buffy supposed to know Willow has the hots for a snake goddess - outside of that brief bit in Anywhere But Here - I vaguely remember it and that's only because I looked at the pages recently.)
Willow: It's not you. Dumb-ass. It's someone I'll never see again. (Sigh. A moment to feel sorry for Willow and Saga Vasku (the snake goddess with the big tits and phallic tale)'s doomed romance.)
Now we get Buffy's nightmare - which is basically Twangel killing Giles and Giles dying again. Then Twangel, sorry Angel now, looking really confused about the whole thing. As if he wasn't present during any of it. Still unclear on what Angel was mentally present for and therefore culpable and what he wasn't. Can a character be culpable for constantly being manipulated into killing people and destroying the world? I think they lock those people up in insane asylums for life? Oh well, it does have a nice corollary to her nightmares regarding Angel in the S3 BTVS epiode Anne I suppose. (actually this whole issue feels very similar to that episode.)
Dawn pokes Buffy awake. Okay here's the big Dawn/Buffy bonding conversation. Which again doesn't really tell you anything you don't know.
First of all, let's clarify something that's been annoying me in regards to every recap I've read to date - Buffy is NOT crashing on Dawn's couch - she's crashing on Xander's (or if you prefer XANDER and Dawn's couch - since they are ahem, living together). Xander has decided to support Dawn, who has gone back to school. Xander has a job. Buffy has a job. Please note - Dawn does not to our knowledge hold a job. If anything he implies she does not have one, because she's in school, not even one working at a coffee shop or bookstore. Dawn has never had a job. Dawn has never worked, well outside of a very brief gig with Anya, but that was to pay off the amount she stole from Anya. In short Dawn basically sponges off others while she goes to college, which would be justifiable if Dawn were a) from a rich family, b) had a father who was supporting her (who according to everything we've been told is most definitely not), c) did not have an older sister who has no money, has struggled to make ends meet, spends most of her time fighting demons and vampires and possibly is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and had to drop out of college to pay for Dawn. Does Dawn get a job? No. I mean you can - that actually is who works in coffee shops - kids going to college to pay their way (not highly effective method of paying one's way but they usually have people like Xander supporting them while they are doing this, so it doesn't matter). So, to say Buffy is crashing on Dawn's couch is not true. Dawn didn't pay for the couch and is not married to Xander (as far as I know). Also, it should be noted that Buffy is actually working and has a job. Two. By day she makes money which I'm guessing contributes to Dawn's tuition(?) (unless Dawn lucked out and is going tuition free at some public university - is that still possible? I think they tried to overrule that a while back which resulted in a huge protest?) and rent (can't imagine it pays for much) and food (probably just that), and by night she kills vampires which keeps Dawn and Xander safe.
Xander clearly has another high profile construction job. And promptly leaves for it. We get very little of Xander in this issue, except for the fact that he has convinced Dawn to move in with him, they are definitely a couple, and he is working construction. My hero. Now my difficulty with Dawn and Xander is the same difficulty I had with Cordelia and Connor. Or for that matter Buffy hooking up with Giles. But I'm also incredibly amused by the fact Whedon did it - particularly since I'm willing to bet that Noxon and Fury would have been squicked by it, as would Nicholas Brendan and they would have talked him out of it - had thDis been on tv. (Nick Brendan actually said as much in his blog - stating quite clearly in response to Xander/Dawn - Ewww.) How do I know this? Because they were squicked by Dawn/Spike in Bargaining and Buffy/Giles ships. They say so in the commentary.
Now to be clear: It's not the age difference that bugged them or me for that matter. It's how Whedon chose to build this relationship - which is built as a paternal/big brother mentoring a little sister/adopted daughter that he is helping raise. Note - when Joyce Summers dies, and Buffy is tasked with taking care of Dawn, Xander increasingly takes on a paternal role - notably in S7 - where he pep talks Dawn, and listens to her, and guides her as Giles did for Buffy. The dialogue exchanges are similar. In the comics - this becomes even more clear - with both Buffy's initial dream sequence, where she thanks Xander for being her paternal help for Dawn, and in later issues. Xander's relationship with Dawn is a bit too similar to Gile's with Faith. Hmm, maybe Giles slept with Faith. Would certainly fit the pattern.
The other problem with Dawn/Xander - is Xander is the big cheese. He's older, wiser, and stronger than Dawn. Unlike his relationship with Renee - where they were actually equals or even Cordelia and Anya. Dawn is dependent on Xander - on his money and his physical strength. Yet they are the most stable relationship. And a point is made in the conversation that follows that Dawn has abandoned the fight for her schooling - so she's not even assisting, not that she ever really was. She was constantly being saved in the comics. (And people say Whedon isn't a feminist. I really have no idea why anyone would say that.)
Finally...this is a very cliche and predictable. But the Dawn/Xander relationship has been cliche and predictable from the start. It does not pose any interesting questions or change anything. It's not subversive in the least. Unless you think an older guy dating and setting up house with a girl that is the kid-sister of his best friend and he helped raise is subversive? No, Buffy shacking up with Connor would be subversive. But this tale dates back to Gidget and well half a dozen other 1950s and 1960s tv shows. Hardly new turf. Actually, the X-Men did more or less the same story a while back. Oh...I always saw her as my kid-sister or my friend's sister...now she's all grown up and I'm in love! (Personally? I liked Dorothy Dunnett's take the best in the Chronicles of Lymond with Lymond and Phillipa- it was built well and the most convincing.) Also, it's a common theme in the series - Buffy hooks up with older men never men her own age, and Dawn hooks up with older men. *cough*Daddyissues*cough*.
Dawn: Nightmare?
Buffy: What else?
Dawn: Is this the one where Angel and Spike get it Awwn?
Buffy: Worse. Like True. (Yeah, I'd have to agree - issues 34- 40 have been worse than Always Darkest Before the Dawn...wish we'd known that at the time. There's something to be said for waiting until the entire series has been published before buying it.)
Dawn: It's every morning, you know...you're like an alarm clock.
Buffy: I'm sorry. I will get a place real soon.
Dawn: No, it's good. (should be, considering Buffy didn't kick you out of her castle even though you were a Giant pain in her arse. And make you work for a living.) We don't have an alarm clock. (hee - funniest line of the entire comic. That's a great comeback line.)
Dawn: And I like having you around. (obviously, or you wouldn't have stayed in that castle.)
Buffy: Me too. Even if you have abandoned the fight for your "schooling" whatever that is..(Huh? Okay, Buff, just because you chose to be a college drop-out and Willow dropped out of college, doesn't mean Dawn should - unless of course you are paying her way...then I completely see where you are coming from. This begs the question - did Dawn get a scholarship? Inquiring minds want to know. Or is her tuition free because she's a California resident and going to a state school?)
Dawn: Please everybody knows I was the Scrappy-Doo of that gange. (still are in my opinion. And yes, that about sums it up. Although I admittedly liked you in S5 -7. S8 was when you began to get on my nerves.)
Buffy: No! You weren't -- Giant you was pretty Damn handy. (How exactly? Oh right in Tokyo. Is it just me or does anyone else think that Whedon would kill to do a remake of Land of the Giants?)
Whatever happened to mecha-you? (this is Whedon talking not Buffy. Buffy wasn't into Giant Dawn, Whedon was into Giant Dawn. Buffy saw Giant Dawn as a pain.)
Dawn: Besides no more fight. (eh, you wish.)
Buffy: No more gang. (deja-vue big time. They said the same thing at the end of S6, actually this feels a lot like the S6 ending, Lesson's beginning.)
Buffy: Still plenty of vampires though. (fancy that). And vampire wannabees (can they still become vampires? That question has never been truly answered. Yes or no? And please provide "Textual" backup. I don't want speculation (ETA: this includes whatever Allie or Jeanty state in some interview on the internet). I can do speculation on my own. Or interpretation for that matter.)
Thought that craze would pass.
Dawn: Are you kidding? Have you watched tv lately? Or a movie? Or a greeting card? (Kinda busy, working, fighting vamps, trying not to have nightmares - not everyone has had your cushy life, pet.)
Buffy: At least Harmony's show got canceled. (Yay! No more killing slayers on reality tv. Still doesn't answer my question though.)
Dawn: She's doing Dancing with the Stars. (Apparently Harmony is the Bristol Palin of the Buffyverse, who knew?)
Buffy: Balls. (so Buffy actually does use Giles and Spike's curse words?)
Now Dawn asks if Buffy misses the War. What a dumb question. Wait, she clarifies - she means being a leader.
Dawn: Not the war part. Being a leader. I mean with an army. You got to be what you were born to be. A leader. Without them. You're back to being bossy. (Actually I never thought of Buffy as all that bossy. Dawn yes. Buffy no. Dawn also is incredibly whiny - and Buffy keeps telling her to get over it and take care of herself. Which isn't exactly bossy. Sorry the whole sister vibe is lost on me. I was raised with a younger brother - brother's don't whine, they are stoic and kick you for whining.)
Buffy: I don't know. No. That was nightmare. It's just...everybody else woke up. Forgot the nightmare. So I'm back to living it alone. (I don't know, you were going on about how alone you were in issue one of this series way back in 2007. There's just no pleasing you. Although I get it. I don't understand Xander though - he's so wishy-washy. He joins the big fight when they are in a castle, he has cool outfits, cool equipment, and it's fun. But when there's no money and it's just Buffy alone in the dark with vampires - he's back to pretending it's not a fight for him anymore. Same deal with Willow - if it's cool - she's there, if it's not, she's out. I noticed this dichotomy in S6 vs. S7 and S5. In S7 they are all - oh we have to fight with Buffy. In S6 - when Buffy actually needs them, no, no, we don't want to help, we have our own more interesting lives to lead. Gee, with friends like these who needs enemies. Although that is actually quite realistic. Depressing, ain't it?)
Dawn: Not alone. (She sits down next to her sister and hugs her.) Not till Xander and I get sick of you. (Actually I don't think you or Xander have the right to kick Buffy to the curb, considering all the crap she's done for you with little payback. I mean - Castle, Destroying the Seed, paying your way...hello. Sure there was the whole Twangel shagfest, but as far as I can tell that didn't hurt you that much.) Then you're on the street. Bossy-pants. (Personally, if I were Buffy, I'd hitch a ride to Rome and become a personal body-guard, maybe even look up the Immortal who is supposed to be frolicking with the other me, but that's just me.)
We go see General Voll (I'm guessing this is still Voll. He looks more or less the same, no new cast changes.)Voll doesn't seem all that happy with what happened. Depressed more like. Apparently being put out to pasture doesn't sit well with him. So he dejectedly pushes a button on the elevator to leave the military compound - only to be shot by Simone the Rogue Slayer (who I almost forgot about). How Simone managed to infiltrate the compound, no idea. Or how she got out without anyone noticing.
We jump to Giles funeral - which I'm guessing is a flashback, we aren't exactly told one way or another.
Giles leaves everything but the Vampyr book that we saw in Season 1 to Faith. This includes the money, the flat, the farm and the horses. (So what - Giles is wealthy? If this is the case - why in the hell was Buffy working at the Doublemeat Palace or at all? Why wasn't Giles paying her a living stipend so she could focus her time on slaying? Some watcher. This guy has tons of money, is being paid by the council (Buffy even made sure he got back-pay in S5) and I'm guessing a good portion of that dough came from the council - and Buffy's doing menial labor to afford to live? The best he can do is write her a check for bad plumbing? Also, what exactly is he getting paid to do exactly? Research? Somewhat ineffectively by the way.)
Buffy: I didn't come to contest the will Faith...
Faith: But you gotta be asking everyone else is...Xander practically stared a hate-beam through me and that's just with the one eye. So, straight up - I don't have the answer. (That's good, because I do. This one is obvious. Faith got the money because at the time Giles wrote up the will - Buffy was living in a Castle, had special funding (apparently Giles didn't know about the bank robbery? ) and didn't need his help - except with the research. Granted way back in S6 - he should have helped a bit more and in particular in S5, but hey, that was then, this is now.)
Faith: I got a theory is all. He thinks you're stronger than I am. (No, that makes no sense. I'm not sure where you got that from.) I'm not blowing smoke. Pretty much means he thought I was a puss which irritates the hell out of me, but..(why would he think you're a puss? Because you didn't want to kill Gigi? ) Hah! Got it! He must have figured I needed more help. So I get the money, the flat, the farm, the horses...
Buffy: You get horses? (poor Buffy, she always wanted a pony. You'd think Faith could let her have one, for old times sake.)
Faith: And you get this one crappy item. You know what that says? It says you're the slayer...
(Sigh, the cheesy book from Season One.)
Faith: You're the only slayer. You always were.
Buffy: Then I really did fail. (not exactly, you empowered people. You just made the mistake of shagging Twangel is all. No idea why you did that...)
Faith: I don't wanna watch you blubber, B. Your "everybody into the pool" empowerment trick brought down the First, but it also put a lot of girls through the meat grinder. (Actually it didn't. They would have gone through that anyhow. It's how they chose to handle the power, much as it was how Faith chose to handle it. That's on them not Buffy. People need to own their mistakes in life not blame others. ) I spent a lot of time trying to put some of them back together. (When exactly? Gigi?
How'd that go for you? See - this happened off stage and it was interesting. It had interesting questions - such as how we own our actions, how we handle power, and what power means on an individual basis. It's not like they couldn't have explored it - as opposed to that weird issue where Giles and Faith fight a monster being feed slayers by a bunch of Watchers in Victorian Germany or the Pgymallion four issue arc where they set Faith up to charm Gigi in Victorian England which was actually now, but in the Whedonverse - Europe stays in Victorian times while America is all 21st century.) Guess that training should come in handy now.
Buffy: Faith are you sure you can handle...
Faith: I'm sure of dick, except that I'm the only one willing to handle. You can't look at him. Everyone else wants his head on a pike..me..I'm all about forgiveness. [And we get a picture of a battered Twangel, sorry Angel now, in a catatonic state in Giles' house, make that Faith's.] (Yeah, yeah, I get it Faith, if first you don't succeed in redeeming Angel, try try again. Well, that is until Angel stakes someone you desperately love...and we'll see. Sorry. I'm all about the staking. Let's back up a bit...Angel's not human. He's a 245 and counting year old vampire. ie. HE's already dead. Who to my knowledge has attempted to end the world at least five times, albeit a few of those were either by accident or inadvertent, but still. Forgiving Angel is a bit like forgiving Hitler or Charles Manson, there comes a time in which we all just have to let go and do what needs to be done. The guy isn't human. He's lived past his time. He really can't contribute anything. And he keeps trying to kill everybody. Why is he still alive? And if you're keeping him alive, why bother slaying the other vamps? Shouldn't we just have a redemption camp for all vampires? I get that we shouldn't apply logic but - the guy has killed more people than Hitler.)
Next up is a conversation with Spike. They've neatly juxtaposed the Spike/Faith(Angel) tale.
Spike knocks on Buffy's window, and she opens it. I only know this is Spike - for the dialogue, the blond hair and the blue eyes, otherwise I'd think it was Andrew. Yes, Jeanty is drawing Spike like Andrew now.
Spike: Oi. (Remind never to complain about fanfic writers using dialect and slang again.)
Buffy: Are you parked on the roof again? (apparently this is a recurring thing?)
Spike: If you'd invite me in, I wouldn't have to crawl about, would I? (considering he invited her and her gang into his ship.)
Buffy: Not my house, blondie bear. (so it's a house? Xander apparently has money stashed somewhere. Or is making big bucks on that construction gig. San Fran ain't cheap.)
Spike: I've Begged you not to call me that. Reminds me of that moron who -- among other things -- has completely ruined Dancing with the Stars this Season. (Apparently Spike is not a fan of Harmony, any more than I am.)
Buffy:Did you come here for any reason at all?
Spike: Rumblings pet. While you're gadding about serving cappuccinos, I'm keeping my ear to the ground. (actually cappuccino's are passe, it's lattes now or frappoccinos). Somebody's coming for you. (aren't they always. This gal never gets a break.)
Buffy: Who? (does it matter. I'm sure you have a list somewhere of all the people you've pissed off. Spike and you could compare notes.)
Spike: I haven't actually got that yet. (Spike has apparently taken over the role of Giles in the Buffyverse. He not only provides confusing exposition but also is the provider of cryptic warnings. Wait, was that Giles or Angel on the latter?)
Buffy: Wow. Thank God you've got my back. (And now Whedon's using the same dialogue he used in Welcome to the Hellmouth and most of Buffy's interactions with Angel. Apparently it was Angel who provided the cryptic warnings. Got to love the symmetry and the repetition. Nice and comforting that.)
Spike: Well, who else does right now? (Good point.)
Buffy: Don't worry about me. Giles left me this super-useful book. (yep, same dialogue, except it was Giles has this super-useful book. Which come to think of it, was never very useful. It seemed to be lacking key things like Scythe's, Guardians, Key's, and Seed's - but hey, at least it told her how to kill vampires.)
Spike: Look I know everybody thinks you're a useless bint that ruined everything right now...
Buffy: why did we ever break up? (You were together? I thought that was just meaningless sexcapades. Or are we talking about that weird pseudo/not relationship during S7? Need some help here. This reminds me of the throw-away line in S7 - "why does everyone still think I'm in love with Spike?" In which the audience responded - with a collective - Huh? )
Spike: But I know the truth. You were faced with decisions no one has to make. Attacked. Controlled. By forces no one comprehends (including the writer) And you pulled your people through. (well except for the 200 slayers killed, possibly OZ, Bay, their kid, and Giles...but hey whose counting.) So honestly? Fuck anybody who thinks they could've done better. (I wrote fucked. Whedon wrote f#%&. Just so we're clear.) The world was on Fire. (That's an understatement). The world always is on fucking fire and you're always right in the thick of it and the only difference this time is that people actually noticed. (Spike certainly likes to make long speeches...wait he's not done.) So they judge. And they carp, and debate. But put the scythe in their hands and they'd shake like a trifle on a train. (Now he's done...apparently he's also taken on Xander's role of giving long cheerleading speeches. Hmmm, guess we don't need Xander any more either. I don't know about anyone else? But I preferred evil Spike's speeches, they were funnier and shorter.)
Buffy: I broke the scythe.
Spike: Yeah, I didn't really get what that thing was. (Neither did I to be honest. But according to the last issue - it apparently is the only thing that can destroy the seed of magic and empower the slayer line. Oh and it can make mincemeat of Turok-Han otherwise known as Noodles the Vampire. That's about all I got.) The point is...
Buffy finally breaks down in tears: Got it.
Spike: What's wrong with you? (Is it just me or was he more empathetic when he was soulless and evil?)
Buffy: Nothing! Good talk! Come again!
Spike: You're weird. (Well, yeah, she shagged the bad guy and almost destroyed the world.)
Buffy falls in the window. Apparently Spike brings out the clutz in Buffy, good to know.
Spike: I live in a dirigible run by insects. (Sigh, apparently the end of magic didn't change that.) And you're still particularly weird.
Buffy: Got it! You're still not invited in. Bye Now! (She desperately wants to get rid of him for some reason.)
That actually read "shippy" to me. Although oddly out of character for Spike. It felt off somehow. Probably just me. Lots of monologues and speechifying in this thing. And about stuff we already know. Yes, yes, it's Buffy's fault. Yes, yes, Buffy feels guilty. Yes, yes, Buffy must pay.
Buffy voice over again - Alone, every night. I guess I got used to having an army around me, and now I'm ... (actually she had the same complaint in the first issue of this series and at that point it was more interesting and far less depressing). Dawn at this point decides to disgust Buffy and me by making noises of having sex with Xander.
Buffy: Thinking about getting my own place, like really soon. (Has got to be awkward listening to Xander and Dawn get it on...considering. But on the other hand, they had to watch Buffy shag Angel to outter-space and back, after almost being killed by the Dude. (Twangel not well the Dude from The Big Lebowoski, although I can see how one might get confused.) So Dawn's certainly entitled. Just wish it didn't have to gross me out. This is odd. The only sexual relationship in this series that worked for me was Satsu and Buffy. (Note:I'm not counting Willow and Kennedy - since we rarely see them together). Dawn it turns out is just doing it to tease Buffy into going out on patrol - would serve Dawn right if Buffy didn't come back and got killed. But, hey, at least it was a tease, and we didn't actually have to see Jeanty's artistic rendering of it. (Yes, there is a god, dear readers.)
Buffy voice-over: If I didn't know Dawnie, better, I'd swear she was doing that on purpose. (You clearly don't know her. Sadistic creature your sister.) Don't mind getting out though - the night air, the city beneath me...this feels right. (ah, maybe not so sadistic - getting Buffy out is a good thing.) Feels like home. (Until she gets attacked by a bunch of slayers who aren't calling themselves slayers because they justifiably hate her for well shagging the guy who tortured and killed their sisters, almost destroyed the world - no, wait, that's not the reason they hate her. That would actually make logical sense. Who am I kidding. This is the whedonverse. No, they hate her for saving the world and destroying the seed of all magic, because it did what exactly? Stop slayers like themselves from being called? Or stop the Wiccans from practicing magic? Not quite clear on this.)
And we get another speech. "You betrayed us..." (But we are saved having to hear it, I'm guessing Whedon got tired?) Instead Buffy gives us her version.
Buffy: I betrayed the cause. I cut off the line of slayers. (--long sidebard about them not calling themselves slayers anymore. Don't want to be associated with me.---) I destroyed the wiccan community, tainted the earth, let all my friends down...Jesus..do they think I don't already know? (Okay, destroying the seed did all that? So women are no longer empowered. They don't get power?) Buffy refuses to fight them, they insist, Buffy easily beats them. (See - she should be teaching kick-boxing not serving coffee.) She tells them if they don't leave her alone, she will fight them. (Pointing out that kicking their ass just then, wasn't really fighting them. Sigh. This is so old hat.) So that sucked. And as bad as it feels to take out my own girls...I know there's more coming -- and not just cause Spike's playing cub reporter. I know because that's how betrayal works. (Actually it would have happened anyway. This is a horror story that appears to be endless.)
And we see the potential villains for season 9 - Willow looking at Aliwuyn Saga Vasku, who Buffy robbed her of. Tinkerbell the fairy who is flying up from the grating (not sure what her beef is - maybe the end of all magic is the end of her kind?). Simone - who has killed Voll and some fat guy and is now gunning for Buffy (but wasn't she always).
"Sometimes I'm not even sure which part was the betrayal. Everyone's got their own version. I'm pretty sure it was boinking Twilight, but still (you'd be right on that score, that's what I think too. Although why you boinked Twilight still doesn't quite play for me. But then I never quite bought the whole Xander/Dawn/Buffy triangle either - and you sort of have to, in order to buy into the whole boinking Twilight. )There's a picture of some bleeding guy with glasses who looks like a demented John Lennon as played by John Barrowman. Maybe he's the Immortal? Maybe the whole Twilight bit killed Buffy's double in Italy and he's seeking revenge? (No wait, that was a fanfic I read. I doubt Whedon will go there. )
She fights a vampire.
"The trouble with changing the world is...you don't. Not all at once. You just inch it forward, a bit at a time and watch it slip back like the greek guy with the rock (apparently Whedon can't spell Sisyphus either. And I thought that was the theme of Angel? And Firefly? Way to borrow from yourself). And you hope that when you're done, you've moved it up a little changed it just enough you hope. Let's go to work."
So ends S8. Buffy's back to square one. Men rule, women...fight in the shadows, hiding their strength. (I got that from the Good Wife, which actually handles this particular theme in a far better manner, far more realistically, and with more shades of gray. This rendering is a tad black and white for my taste.)
This story feels a bit too familiar. I've seen and read it before. It's status quo. People dislike change. They prefer S1-3 and want those seasons repeated ad naseum. Change is uncomfortable and painful. They fight against it. And whine incessantly about it. Particularly Hollywood, and the male power structure that sits behind it.
This is a reminder of how short-sighted the Hollywood power structure is and men who write comic books with their male pals, while their wives stroke their colossal egos. About a year or so ago, an amazing thing happened. Cathernne M. Valente beat Joss Whedon for Best Web Series - for her YA novel, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Her Way Through Fairyland with a Ship of Her Own Making. Whedon was up for the typical guy piece entitled Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog. What was wonderful about this is Valente - a fan of Whedon, who got her start writing fanfic, has managed slowly over time to build a nitch for herself in fantasy and sci-fi. Most recently she did an online comic of one of her fantasy stories, Deathless. Another success story - Felicia Day - wrote a best-selling web-series entitled The Guild and did a comic off of it. Shondra Rhimes, a Whedon fan, wrote and directed and ran an emmy-winning tv series about female surgeons on network tv - which has been on for Seven years and is critically acclaimed in its seventh season and will most likely outlast the series Whedon did, which inspired her. Last year, a woman won the Oscar for Best Director for an War Film, The Hurt Locker. And soon, a woman will write the script for the Buffy reboot, which with any luck will be directed by a female director.
The thing is? The world is changing Mr. Whedon. More and more women are writing comic books, tv shows, and films. Julie Plec is executive producer and co-show-runner on Vampire Diaries. Nikita - a show about several strong women is doing rather well. JK Rowlings wrote the best-selling Harry Potter series and Stephanie Meyer did Twilight - the other Twilight.
Hillary Clinton ran for President. And almost got the Democratic ticket. She is now, Secretary of State - the second woman Secretary of State.
I work as a Contract Administrator for a Railroad - which back in the day was a field only available to men.
Is the US sexist? Yes. But it's getting better. So much better. Comics are still fairly sexist and this one is no exception, but there are comics out there that aren't. Gail Simone. Elena Casagrande.
Rebecca Issaks. The author of Persepolis. To name a few. Janet Evanovich is writing them now as well. Women are breaking into the boys club. Mariah Hueher is another one. And Felicia Day.
So, actually, the world does change a lot and sometimes all at once (look at the iphone and the internet - which is by the way freeing up the concourse for brainy women). And it does happen gradually too (We have a black president - something I did not think I'd see in my lifetime). And you do empower others. (In ways you don't even understand.) Books like the Buffy comics really aren't realistic depictions of what is happening, they are just one writer's narrow and somewhat limited perspective from the ivory tower of Hollywood. A skewed magic mirror of celebrities and party cheese.
2. Review of S8 generally speaking and Whedon's letter to fans
I read Whedon's letter to his fans...which made me roar with laughter. In it he thanks Scott Allie for being, get this, the reason why there are editors and.. the best season show-runner ever - keeping track of the big picture and the minutia. (Hmmm... Apparently the main role of an editor, according to Whedon, is to write the story while the writer is unavailable and tell the writer how great he is. And take all the heat on fan-forums, while the writer is applauded. ). Reading Whedon's letter makes me realize that Whedon doesn't see the flaws in his work. That there were far too many writers involved (too many even for him to count or thank apparently), and that Brad Meltzer was a master of structure (couldn't tell from the comics, but hey he might have been if he knew what was happening between his arc and Long Journey Home). There are so many things wrong here..
*Whedon had his editor write the culminate arc of his story, and only took time out to write the coda
*Whedon did not think it necessary to inform the other writers, outside of Brad Meltzer, who the villain was or what the main story was.
*Whedon did not think it necessary to clue Brad Meltzer who wrote the climax and big reveal what happened prior and what was going to be written between the intro and that reveal or how he was going to wrap it up.
Those are just off the top of my head.
I entitle this review answering the wrong questions or what happens when the writer loses his muse.
This whole story or Season 8 if you prefer feels very derivative to me. The questions the writer poses and answers aren't questions that haven't already been answered over and over again. The plot makes little logical sense - so the coda in some respects feels off, like it's been pulled from another tale. The characters seem to go in circles. And do not grow. (Well outside of maybe Faith - who was never front and center, and we only got five issues on anyhow). No real change happens in this story..except maybe the Xander/Dawn relationship - which was so last year anyhow. The writer does what he's always done which is take his characters from high point to low point to high point to low point, but without any clear evolution. It's hard for me to care what happens to these people. They don't appear to do anything "new" or different. The writer isn't taking any real risks with either his verse or his characters, instead he just puts in a bunch of special effects. In some respects this story reminds me of AVATAR - lots of hype, little substance, although to be frank - AVATAR had more substance. Which is saying something.
Does Buffy realize her mistakes? Do we learn why she did what she did? Do we learn why Angel did what he did? Do we know what happened to the other slayers? To OZ? Or Why Spike is still in a dirigible with insects, why he's in one to begin with? Do we care? The questions regarding Spike and Angel may actually be answered by Lynch and Mariah. But not by Whedon.
I have to make dinner. I've spent too much time on this already. More than I planned. And it is long enough. Also I'm not sure who if anyone will bother with it. Was it a waste of time? Did I even add anything new to the party?
I hear there's a season 9? For those who want it? I wish you well, you deserve happiness. This reviewer won't be along for the ride. Because the writer appears to have nothing new to show or tell me. It's as simple as that. But I'll be reading your reviews should you choose to post them to see if that remains the case.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 05:42 pm (UTC)It's what bugged me the most about the comics as a whole. There's a subtextual pattern emerging in Whedon's work that is disquieting, particularly for someone who keeps insisting he's a feminist. It's that men give women power. You are empowered through or by us. As opposed to you have equal power to us, and have power in spite of us. We gave you the power and now you have the chance to go beyond us and become better.
Very patronizing. I kept thinking, okay, maybe I'm wrong...but the comics, this issue in particular, underlines that pov and capitalizes it. Making it difficult not to see the same theme radiating through all of Whedon's other work from Firefly through Dollhouse. Even Angel and Doctor Horrible. Which is why I find it so wonderful that Catherynne M. Valente's web novel - The Girl Who Circumvented Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making beating out Whedon for a Hugo for best web project. It is also why I will not buy or read or watch anything else Whedon does.
There's better writers out there, and better stories - that I haven't read yet. I've wasted far too much time on Whedon's.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 06:10 pm (UTC)I'd have to agree. It's sad, really, and a confirmation of an adage - I forget where I read it - about stories closing off potential narrative avenues the longer they go on. At this point, it's impossible to interpret BtVS in the way you could in the earlier years, as the bearer of a potentially positive message. It's all negative now, and in a way that flies in the face of reality. It's taking away rather than adding, and I've no interest in that. (Likewise, I couldn't even bring myself to give much of a hoot about either Firefly and none at all about Dollhouse, because I'd already detected the trend in his writing, which pretty much spoiled it for me.)
But on a more positive note, thank you so much for the rec on the Valente's story! I hadn't previously heard of it, so I'm heading over to her site to read it right now. Yay!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 11:55 pm (UTC)You're Welcome. Although, I don't know if it is still available for free online or not. I think she's actually published it complete with illustrations.
She also has an online preview comic called Deathless up - which has beautiful artwork.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 08:23 pm (UTC)My mother taught me: "Don't waste Your time reading good books - there are so many best books out there."
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 08:56 pm (UTC)But isn't the defining feature of most of Joss's heroines - Buffy, River, Fray, Echo in particular - that while they may originally have been given power with strings attached by a male-dominated structure, they learn how to reject those ties, stand up for themselves, take control of their lives and use their power to make the world a better place according to their own wishes?
Women learning to take control of their lives away from those who would dominate them doesn't really sound like an anti-feminist message to me...
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 09:27 pm (UTC)Buffy, to its everlasting credit, on the whole avoided this problem, but it's there in every other Whedon work, and now also in s8. (See Twilight - who gets power just because - versus Buffy who has to be brought as low as can be before she gets corresponding abilities. Why? Well the only answer is: Because she's a woman. She needs to prove her worth. Or something. I don't claim to understand s8.)
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 09:44 pm (UTC)Angel also had to be brought as low as could be to come into his power. He gets after been thrown through a portal from a world or a future where LA had been destroyed because he failed to save it. The difference that's his story gets told in 4 panels instead of 40 issues because it's not his book - his character is subordinate to Buffy's, he serves her arc. All of which I find quite satisfying from a feminist point of view.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 10:01 pm (UTC)The victim who fights back is a powerful story, surely? It's definitely one that clearly has a lot of appeal to Joss: after all, the whole original concept behind 'Buffy' was a protest against the way women are always the main victims in horror movies, and his desire to turn the tables for once. 'Dollhouse', in its conception, was similar; a protest against the way Hollywood and the star system objectifies its actors and (especially) actresses, turning them into fantasy figures for mass consumption.
But I really don't think that being attracted to a story of people fighting against victimisation is a celebration of that victimisation, or a statement that it's necessary before you can be empowered. (Though mind you, if someone is empowered despite not facing any conflict or challenges in their life - how interesting or dramatic a story would that make to show to an audience? :-) )
Buffy's power wasn't given by men - she owned it herself. Part of her struggle was learning how to do that. Even in 'Get It done', I'd say the moral was that the Shadowmen thought of her as their creation, but Buffy proved that she was her own woman - and rejected their attempt to give her power on their terms and with their strings attached.
Twilight - who gets power just because - versus Buffy who has to be brought as low as can be before she gets corresponding abilities. Why?
I'm under the impression that Angel was brought low just as Buffy was, but it was mostly off-camera and only hinted at in flashbacks. (When he arrived in LA and expected to see it in ruins.)
I'd also argue that the storyline pretty much demonstrates my point. Twilight - whose gender is unspecified but was working through a male agent - wanted to empower Buffy to serve his/her/its own agenda. Buffy rejected that agenda, and eventually rejected the power she'd been given as well. I think we're supposed to cheer as she prevents herself from being victimised and fights back, not applaud the victimisation itself or see it as "all that women deserve" or something. That seems an uncharitable view of the story. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 10:45 pm (UTC)The victim who fights back is a powerful story, surely?
Oh absolutely. But when the victim is always a woman, it becomes problematic. We even have a Joss 'type' - the fragile brunette who isn't all there, and who's a victim (Dru, Fred (for a while), River, Caroline). Some of them fight back. Some of them are too broken.
Though mind you, if someone is empowered despite not facing any conflict or challenges in their life - how interesting or dramatic a story would that make to show to an audience? :-)
Buffy seems perfectly interesting and dramatic. And - to choose a more recent example - River Song is endlessly fascinating!
I'm under the impression that Angel was brought low just as Buffy was, but it was mostly off-camera and only hinted at in flashbacks. (When he arrived in LA and expected to see it in ruins.)
Yeah, I still think that was badly done.
Buffy rejected that agenda, and eventually rejected the power she'd been given as well. I think we're supposed to cheer as she prevents herself from being victimised and fights back, not applaud the victimisation itself or see it as "all that women deserve" or something. That seems an uncharitable view of the story. ;-)
She was attacked in every way by a powerful (overwhelmingly male) organisation. She received spuerpowers without understanding why, she was then 'glowhypnoled' into having sex, which nearly destroyed the world and caused a new reality to be born, leading to her having to undo the root of all magic and cause no new Slayers to be called. I'm not sure how that's empowering. As far as I can tell, she was played by everyone and forced into drastic actions that she (and the rest of the world) is now having to live with for the rest of her life.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 01:37 am (UTC)forced into drastic actions that she (and the rest of the world) is now having to live with for the rest of her life.
I'm pretty sure that's the moral of S8. Grand dramatic gestures are emotionally satisfying, and may even serve a purpose as symbols and rallying cries, but they have a big downside. They stir up oppoosition, lead to suffering by people caught up in the process, andhave a corrupting influence on those who carry them out. Robespierre was once an idealist who opposed the death penalty, but when he came to power he sent thousands to the guillotine in order to defend the Revolution. To defend her Slayer Army, Buffy robbed banks. Same principle. :) HOWEVER, the big moral of issue 8.40 is not "Therefore, grand gestures are evil and wrong", but rather, "Don't be discouraged by setbacks, because they're inevitable. Progress is best made step by step."
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 11:27 pm (UTC)You can't take me down! You can't make me your victim! I slay you!
Which is a trope made popular by James Cameron - notably in Terminator, the film that Whedon has stated in many an interview influenced him and taught him how to write a movie. And it is worth noting that Whedon is a horror writer and horror writers tend to be obsessed with victims.
That said. What's bugging me is ...how to explain - I'll try to do it using your words:
that while they may originally have been given power with strings attached by a male-dominated structure, they learn how to reject those ties, stand up for themselves, take control of their lives and use their power to make the world a better place according to their own wishes?
See that's my problem. They originally have been given power with strings attached or in the case of Buffy/River/Fray and Echo directly as a result of the male structure. The man gave them the power.
Sure it's great and swell that they reject those ties. But it's a bit like saying God made Eve from Adam's Rib then she moved past him.
Note - man and woman are not on equal footing.
Another example...a few days ago, a male coworker addressed an email to me and a vendor with the word "MRS" in front of my name. Which annoyed me, since I am not married and I did not want my marital status to be an issue. He apologized. But here's the thing that many men don't get - do you realize that there is no way we can tell your marital status, unless you tell us outright? But for women up until Gloria Stienmen et al came up with the word MS. - our status was known by it.
Women learning to take control of their lives away from those who would dominate them doesn't really sound like an anti-feminist message to me...
The truth is? We don't need to anymore. Some women perhaps. Many in some countries. BUT not all. I have never been dominated by men. I did not need to learn how. And I resent the implication that all women do. It's patronizing. BUT...while I resent it, I do understand why that implication is there - it's in all our media, it permeates our society. Hollywood in particular pushes it. But it is a lie.
It's not feminist.
Feminism is about equality. Both genders being on equal footing. Not about overcoming one's dominance over the other. And not about one giving the other gender power. In some respects the tv series the Good Wife - delves into this subject far better than I can here.
The problem with the trope - "the girl gets power from the guy and then shoves it in his face, proving she can overcome it" (which is at the heart of everything from Caprica to The Terminator), is you can't get past the first part of that sentence - the girl gets her power from the guy.
What unsettles me with the comics, and to a degree with several of the versions of La Femme Nikita (Alias, Dollhouse, and the original TV show) - is the male structure remains intact - she doesn't overcome it, she either joins it or becomes part of it, much as Buffy does - she never quite asserts her equality.
Willow - the only female character who obtains power from a non-male source and does not have to overcome male dominance - is rendered powerless and with a tragic trajectory towards evil. Willow is never quite given the chance to be an equal with the male structure. Instead of becoming the Guardian, equal to the Watchers, she is taken down completely. While Buffy who got her power from a rape enacted by a bunch of male wizards/shamans on the first slayer - is stuck within their structure, yet continues to have power. And Dawn is living off Xander (as far as we know, I don't see anything textually to state otherwise), and Buffy is waiting on men. My difficulty is there is nothing to counteract it - nothing here for me, personally, to relate to.
What I see are female victims, asserting their power, and getting knocked down repeatedly.
Where's the feminist message there? I'm sorry I don't see it.
I wish I did.
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Date: 2011-01-24 11:56 pm (UTC)The power doesn't come from the male structure though. The strings do but not the power. River was a genius before the Alliance took her. So was Fred. Dru had the sight. Even echo had something that was special about her, something she could do that the men of Rossum couldn't. These women had power that men (the Alliance, Professor Seidel, Angelus, Boyd) envied and twisted to a form they thought they could control. Like Buffy told the Shadowmen "you made her kill for you because you're weak" Slayers only work for the watcher's council because they choose to given that the alternative is to let the world go to hell, It's a kind of blackmail possible because there is only one. Buffy changed that and that change still holds at the end of S8 in spite of everything else that happened.
Willow still has the power she began with, the power over the machine. She no longer has the magicks but neither does Roden, neither does Giles, neither does the Council, neither does W&H, neither do the banished hordes of unspeakable and largely male coded demons. Buffy is waiting on men and women both, Dawn is in school (Berkely wasn't it?) while Xander never made it past High School. In a few years he'll be living of her earnings as she comes into her own so it is a give and take relationship. He was the person who listened to her as a giant, she was the one with the wisdom to play Cassandra while he was geeking out over Buffy's new powers.
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Date: 2011-01-25 02:03 am (UTC)The truth is? We don't need to anymore. Some women perhaps. Many in some countries.
Isn't that the thing, though? There's no Grand Feminist Solution to Everything (beyond the level of simple statements of principle) because the needs of women in different classes, races, nationalities, religions, etc all vary. Just because one idea doesn't apply to all women everywhere doesn't mean it can't be feminist.
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Date: 2011-01-25 03:46 am (UTC)Agreed. Sorry, should clarify...I'm trying not to sound like the self-righteous hypocritical jerks that I can't abide. Really am. ;-)
I don't see Whedon's story as a "feminist solution". Nor do I think he does, to be fair. I know he has said as much himself.
And I can't really state that there is such a thing as a Grand Feminist Solution. I think gender politics are far more complicated than that - and murkier. To define it in black and white terms is - I think - problematic.
My difficulty with Whedon's message in the comics - is it feels condescending and patronizing. He appears to be saying you poor little girl, you can't the world in one day, you have to be strong, and maybe someday if you work really really hard - you can have what I do. (Mileage may vary on this - I admit it can be seen more than one way - but that is how it is and it has been coming across to me for quite some time now.)
His solution - is for women to take down the abuser or to take on traditional roles, and do the non-traditional bit in the shadows where it doesn't effect him.
Echo? Echo is broken down and remade by a guy. Then is incredibly powerful because she rejects him, and then takes another guy into herself - and makes him her conscience, another part of her?
It's not feminist to me. It bothers me.
While you can argue and I have argued it - that Whedon is deliberately choosing the small boned, little adolescent girl as his heroine - because he wants to show us that the person we underestimate, we think is powerless is in reality powerful.
He does this by raping, beating her, and destroying her first.
She is powerful because of what she has been through. That may not been the intent, he may actually be going for the other interpretation - in spite of all of this, I am powerful. Do what you will! I have power. BUT...the problem is, the other interpretation is equally valid, that River is superpowered because she was tortured, which invariably justifies the torture.
It's like what I said in a separate thread a long time ago to another poster - while discussing Dollhouse, if you repeat the rape enough times, all we see is the rape.
There's been a string of flicks - I call them revenge flicks, starting with Extremities starring Farah Fawcett, and ending with a Jodie Foster one most recently - where the female character is violently raped or beaten, she comes back tough as nails, empowered, but the message can be read that she is empowered by the rape.
I think Whedon's story of Buffy was more effective - when her power was a legacy.. before it was explained. The explanation that it came from what amounted to a rape of the First Slayer - disturbingly similar to the one that the Union Corp Scientists perform on River...which gave her power and made her into what can best be described as a violent and somewhat autistic individual, unable to connect fully with others, forever damaged - is not a positive one. Nor do I believe it is supposed to be. It's a horror trope - that pre-exists Whedon, goes back as far as Ripley in Alien and Aliens, or even further still. There's a pygmallion aspect to it - which grates.
For me? I think I'd find this story more digestible if that was not in it.
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Date: 2011-01-25 01:03 am (UTC)I think that's the point she's trying to make. They're all given power... by men. There's something patronizing in that set-up.
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Date: 2011-01-25 01:54 am (UTC)Buffy wasn't given her power by anyone; she received it as a heritage, a magical gift. The Shadowmen are no more responsible for her power than my great-great-(x50)-grandparents are for mine. The Watchers' Council tried to control her; she won free of it.
River was a genius, an athlete, a dancer, before the government ever tried to use her talents for their own ends. They didn't give her power; they put power into her body but tried to make her incapable of using it of her own volition - she was triggered by codewords, and too insane to do much for herself otherwise. With the help of her brother and her own efforts, she made the power her own. (It's interesting that the vid elisi linked has lots of images of River being imprisoned or put into a box, but not the scene which was her actual last scene in the show - flying free out of the storm.)
Fray's power was all her own, in the same way as Buffy's, but again Urkonn and his demonic patrons tried to use her for their own ends. Unsuccessfully.
Echo had an inbuilt talent or ability which, again, the Dollhouse tried to use for its own ends, but she didn't let them. Like River, she overcame her conditioning, but her basic ability to retain imprints wsn't anything given to her by men. Or by Adelle.
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Date: 2011-01-25 02:26 am (UTC)I watched Firefly a little but never the DVDs since it was cancelled (didn't like it. The world-building never made any sense to me), but wasn't River somewhat mentally messed-up due to torture and weren't there maurading raping Reivers{sp} around?
And I really have nothing to say about Dollhouse as I was completely skeeved that the whole thing was set up around metaphorical prostitution (that, given Whedon interviews was intended to be even more overt and absolutely literal prostitution) that I never bothered watching more than two episodes.
It may not be uniform, but there's enough that's bothersome there to raise a few eyebrows.
(As an aside, why does so much of Joss's work involve either prostitution or sex as prelude to (often world-destroying) destruction? I don't really understand that).
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Date: 2011-01-25 04:26 am (UTC)They didn't give her power; they put power into her body but tried .... (I couldn't copy the whole quote without running out of space)
From what I remember, it has been a while since I watched - River's brain was "augmented" by the scientists. She was provided with the ability to kill, physical skills, and inhibitions were removed in certain areas. She was turned into a sort of weapon. Prior to her taking - she was not Ms. Kung-Fu. What they did to her - turned her into the Kung-Fu weapon. Then they implanted code-words etc - in order to control that ability. Think Professor Walsh and what she was attempting to do with Riley and Adam - except there, at least, the victims were big guys as well as Spike (which was subversive) and the scientist was a woman (liked that twist). That is not the case in Firefly.
While I like your take on the tale, that was not what I saw when I watched it. I admittedly tried very hard to see it the other way and managed to convince myself that was the way I saw it, pushing into the back of my mind or aside what I stated above - which had been pointed out to me by others online at the time. But after Dollhouse, S7's Get it Done, and now the Buffy Comics, not to mention Doctor Horrible? I can't help but see what I stated above. And I'm sorry to point it out...because I don't want to ruin others enjoyment. It annoyed me - when people kept pointing it out to me. Also, it can be seen and interpreted both ways.
Fray's power was all her own, in the same way as Buffy's, but again Urkonn and his demonic patrons tried to use her for their own ends. Unsuccessfully.
I disagree, the source of Fray's power came from the same demon that was forced inside the First Slayer without her consent (a rape) - that demonic power is forced inside each slayer. But I see what you are trying to say - if for example your great-grandfather was the product of rape, that does not make you the product of rape. And you are absolutely correct. But that analogy does not fit here for me - because we aren't talking about Buffy herself or about Fray. We are talking about the slayer power inside them which neither asked for and was forced upon them via this ancient ritual ages ago, a rape. It is a curse. IT comes with nightmares - which in this case are given to Fray's half-brother.
And it comes with powers that require the girl to go out and slay monsters alone. She can't have a life. And is constantly hunting monsters.
Fray's power is not the slayer power. Any more than Buffy's is.
That was given to them by men. Against their will. Neither wanted it. IT's not a gift, it's a curse.
But they are shown as kick-ass and taking on the traditional male role with it. Demonstrating the strong powerful traditional hero role provide to a man, can only be theirs if they are raped, beaten or given that power by men. They can't have it on their own. It would be VERY different - if River was powerful without ever being captured by the scientists, or if Buffy got her powers from an electrical storm or a spider bite or inherited it from someone who was naturally born with them - that God gave the power to, but that was not the case. It's not like Van Helsing or even Giles - who in a way choose their calling and do their work without this demon power that has been thrust on them without their choosing. No in Whedon's world - the power, with the exception of Willow, Tara, Amy, and Jenny (look what happened with them), must be forced on the girl as a curse by guys, and she manages to reject them and make it work.
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Date: 2011-01-25 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 08:28 pm (UTC)Ironically, that's also implied in the standard feminist story. The one where women are always and everywhere oppressed until something changes in the west. Either women in the west are made of awesome -- or there was a change in the social space made by men. I don't see how you escape the dilemma: either men empowered women in the west; or western women rock. (Yes, liberation has spread, but it starts in the west).
I should say that I think the standard feminist story is crock and that gender relations are far more complicated than feminists want to think. Women and men construct social spaces together, and that's always true. I also think that Joss's take on this is more complicated -- but Stormwreath picked up that flag.
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Date: 2011-01-25 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-26 01:34 am (UTC)I generally agreed with Stormwreath's comment on this point as well.
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Date: 2011-01-25 12:55 am (UTC)