BtVS S8.10 Anywhere but here
Jan. 4th, 2008 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazelkSeems the UK got the first S8 issue of the year a day early. This puzzles me but not enough to care.
I once read a theory that episode seven of every Buffy season was a pivotal one. One that would give a new meaning to all the previous action and set the stage for that still to come. Actually while that might be true of CWDP and OMWF for S5 the more obvious fulcrum would be No Place Like Home, S4 I can’t even remember and in S2/3 it was later (Innocence/Consequnces). OK scrap the numerology, every season has a turning point and that’s what Anywhere but Here represents for S8. In many ways the action follows on directly from The Long Way Home. The Chain was a true standalone and, as many have complained, very little appeared to be happening with Buffy and Co during the Faith arc. Still if I’d read this directly after the first episode it wouldn’t have had the impact it does now. What we were shown there needed time to percolate. Non-happenings drip, drip, drip through consciousness and settle ready to be picked up and flipped over (so not a coffee drinker).
I’ll start with the Dawn n’ Xander show. Closet humour with frilly Xander aside, I’d been suspecting for a while that there was something more to the Kenny story than Dawn has sex and badness ensues or ‘Buffy sleeps with Angel’ repeating itself as farce. She was definitely holding something back from Willow and it turned out to be Parker with added betrayal (I wonder if Xander remembers the fluke). Dawn shifts from innocent dupe to empowered transgressor and sets the pattern for all the other reveals.
Going back a few issuesThe Chain was a paean to the unnamed hero. Not!Buffy snatched from the safety of ‘fascist’ oppression to a brave new world of sisterhood, connection and sacrifice. As she put it herself, “Millions of people go into making a name.” People, work and cold hard cash. Batman’s conveniently a millionaire but how does Superman pay the mortgage on that Fortress of Solitude? They could have gone the mysterious W&H style benefactor route but it would have had a touch of the poor innocent blonde led astray. I’m so very very happy that Buffy’s sinister sponsor is herself.
So much makes sense now.
More with “what the hell am I doing?”
Buffy you are the dark.
The slips into defensive moral indignation:
Are you talking about the girls who are protecting the world from…
You were given a gift and you used it to hurt innocent girls? Other Slayers?
That’s how it started maybe. Girls getting killed. Or finding the world a much wilder place beyond Sunnydale, mere Scythe not cutting it. Those last two episodes of the Faith arc, it’s all there. Opens with Buffy and Willow at word play, drawn almost cartoonishly, bunches and butter wouldn’t melt while the Wiccan team look on. Just as she jumped at the vision of Willow’s corruption, of course she needed to think the worse of Faith. Faith was always the road not travelled and while Buffy set off to change the world, Faith followed the old model, lone Slayer guarding her personal hellmouth, no connections, no temptations. What of the others? Willow didn’t know but Xander must and Giles? Even if he hasn’t been told he was a businessman, has some idea of the cost of things. I think he wasn’t protecting Buffy from having to become a killer because he thought she was innocent but because she’d already started to fall.
Willow’s reaction to the death of magic was interesting (I like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
londonkds’s idea that the Frayverse is the equivalent of of Five Years Gone world in Heroes, a possible future but no utopia). Also her assertion that she could never again chose Buffy over the woman she loved. I had sensed a distance between Willow and Buffy on Willow’s side and am delighted to see Buffy know it, Willow admit it and pretty much say it “I killed Tara.” But while she lets slip momentarily that Buffy was happier not dragged back out of heaven she almost immediately spackles it over with “I chose you.” She didn’t choose Buffy, not entirely. She also chose what her friend represented, the glamour, the misery, the violence, the chance to be someone. A name.
Misc other stuff:
Buffy in the Swiss bank vault and I’m sure the red head is supposed to be Leah and isn’t that Rowena’s trademark baseball cap? Or one of Satsu’s funny hats?
Willow could still be the betrayer but not the current ‘man on the inside.’
The stone atrium of Buffy’s despair had a broken red egg-like ornament floating above the black plinth. Red seems to be a Twilight colour. Roden and Gigi’s red gemstones, red on the cover of the book, symbols carved in blood.
Espirit d’escalier is misspelt.
Does the Christian Bale thing confirm that Buffy is totally into fantasy threesomes?
So much funny.
I once read a theory that episode seven of every Buffy season was a pivotal one. One that would give a new meaning to all the previous action and set the stage for that still to come. Actually while that might be true of CWDP and OMWF for S5 the more obvious fulcrum would be No Place Like Home, S4 I can’t even remember and in S2/3 it was later (Innocence/Consequnces). OK scrap the numerology, every season has a turning point and that’s what Anywhere but Here represents for S8. In many ways the action follows on directly from The Long Way Home. The Chain was a true standalone and, as many have complained, very little appeared to be happening with Buffy and Co during the Faith arc. Still if I’d read this directly after the first episode it wouldn’t have had the impact it does now. What we were shown there needed time to percolate. Non-happenings drip, drip, drip through consciousness and settle ready to be picked up and flipped over (so not a coffee drinker).
I’ll start with the Dawn n’ Xander show. Closet humour with frilly Xander aside, I’d been suspecting for a while that there was something more to the Kenny story than Dawn has sex and badness ensues or ‘Buffy sleeps with Angel’ repeating itself as farce. She was definitely holding something back from Willow and it turned out to be Parker with added betrayal (I wonder if Xander remembers the fluke). Dawn shifts from innocent dupe to empowered transgressor and sets the pattern for all the other reveals.
Going back a few issuesThe Chain was a paean to the unnamed hero. Not!Buffy snatched from the safety of ‘fascist’ oppression to a brave new world of sisterhood, connection and sacrifice. As she put it herself, “Millions of people go into making a name.” People, work and cold hard cash. Batman’s conveniently a millionaire but how does Superman pay the mortgage on that Fortress of Solitude? They could have gone the mysterious W&H style benefactor route but it would have had a touch of the poor innocent blonde led astray. I’m so very very happy that Buffy’s sinister sponsor is herself.
So much makes sense now.
More with “what the hell am I doing?”
Buffy you are the dark.
The slips into defensive moral indignation:
Are you talking about the girls who are protecting the world from…
You were given a gift and you used it to hurt innocent girls? Other Slayers?
That’s how it started maybe. Girls getting killed. Or finding the world a much wilder place beyond Sunnydale, mere Scythe not cutting it. Those last two episodes of the Faith arc, it’s all there. Opens with Buffy and Willow at word play, drawn almost cartoonishly, bunches and butter wouldn’t melt while the Wiccan team look on. Just as she jumped at the vision of Willow’s corruption, of course she needed to think the worse of Faith. Faith was always the road not travelled and while Buffy set off to change the world, Faith followed the old model, lone Slayer guarding her personal hellmouth, no connections, no temptations. What of the others? Willow didn’t know but Xander must and Giles? Even if he hasn’t been told he was a businessman, has some idea of the cost of things. I think he wasn’t protecting Buffy from having to become a killer because he thought she was innocent but because she’d already started to fall.
Willow’s reaction to the death of magic was interesting (I like
londonkds’s idea that the Frayverse is the equivalent of of Five Years Gone world in Heroes, a possible future but no utopia). Also her assertion that she could never again chose Buffy over the woman she loved. I had sensed a distance between Willow and Buffy on Willow’s side and am delighted to see Buffy know it, Willow admit it and pretty much say it “I killed Tara.” But while she lets slip momentarily that Buffy was happier not dragged back out of heaven she almost immediately spackles it over with “I chose you.” She didn’t choose Buffy, not entirely. She also chose what her friend represented, the glamour, the misery, the violence, the chance to be someone. A name.Misc other stuff:
Buffy in the Swiss bank vault and I’m sure the red head is supposed to be Leah and isn’t that Rowena’s trademark baseball cap? Or one of Satsu’s funny hats?
Willow could still be the betrayer but not the current ‘man on the inside.’
The stone atrium of Buffy’s despair had a broken red egg-like ornament floating above the black plinth. Red seems to be a Twilight colour. Roden and Gigi’s red gemstones, red on the cover of the book, symbols carved in blood.
Espirit d’escalier is misspelt.
Does the Christian Bale thing confirm that Buffy is totally into fantasy threesomes?
So much funny.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-05 09:12 pm (UTC)<i>I guess supervillains are more fun than victims. Still wondering how she sleeps at night, though.</i>
Badly from what we know of her dreams. I wouldn't put Buffy in the supervillian category yet, I think she still believes the Slayers are working for humanity not to stay up all night and hypnotise innocent Slayers. I also disagree that she killed the demon for saying what she didn't want to hear, she killed him when he began threatening the defeat of humanity through giving away what he'd learnt about her to his equally genocidal brethren.
<i>What reaction? She made a concerned face. </i>
I was being British - she looked thoughtful, which seems appropriate. I think she could go either way when push comes to shove but this time if it's a choice between Buffy's mission and Kennedy's life she'll choose Kennedy. This makes her vulnerable to certain kinds of blackmail.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 03:36 am (UTC)No, just her outlook on life in general.
Fool for Love is only pivotal if you think the season is all about Spike
I'd say it's only NOT pivotal if you think the season is ONLY about Buffy. And even then, you'd have all the exposition on double natures, on the supernatural side as opposed to the human side, on the Slayer's death wish, etc etc etc which set the theme for the entire season. Plus, the start of the Dark!Riley arc.
I wouldn't put Buffy in the supervillian category yet
Well, she uses superpowers (and all sorts of neato gadgets) to commit acts of villainy. That's pretty much the definition, regardless of whether she thinks she's doing it for a good cause.
I think she still believes the Slayers are working for humanity
Oh, absolutely. Which makes it interesting that we haven't really seen them do much in the way of working for humanity in the comics so far; there's been a lot of scheming and internal power struggles, but very little actual demon-fighting and world-saving.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 10:53 am (UTC)It's her book as Warren said. Yes, it's a thematically important episode as is Restless but that's a different thing from being pivotal or paradigm-shifting within the season. I'm biased here because I actually think Spike's full of crap and projecting his own issues when he's talking about death wishes with that erotic curiosity spin of his. Buffy chooses death in the end because she's *so* connected to the little brat sister not because she no longer cares/gets off on it.
Well, she uses superpowers (and all sorts of neato gadgets) to commit acts of villainy. That's pretty much the definition,
Act of villiany not acts. "I told one lie, I had one drink, I robbed one bank." If that were all that were needed Buffy was already a supervillian when she and Faith broke into the sporting goods store. For me villiany requires more of process ending in a no-going-back choice of the kind Warren made after killing Katrina.
We haven't really seen them do much in the way of working for humanity in the comics so far; there's been a lot of scheming and internal power struggles, but very little actual demon-fighting and world-saving.
I disagree, particularly as on the show Buffy was not so much with the saving victims of the week as with the killing unspeakable demons before they could wreak (more) havoc or rescuing her friends and family.
The Long Way home actually begins with a mission to rescue some victims, unfortunately the 'victims' turn out to be suicide bait. Meanwhile we're told about missions to take out vampire nests and that's clearly what Robin Wood's squad are doing at the beginning of the Faith arc. Back to The Long Way and we have Willow saving Buffy and the Slayers under zombie attack than Buffy and Satsu saving Willow. In the Faith arc Gigi is s not just a threat to Buffy. She kills one girl on her fox hunt and has clearly acquired a taste for it by the way she reacts during the fight with Buffy. Then there's The Chain where not!Buffy rescues her friend from Truck!, slays vampires while in training and goes on to inspire the slug, fairy and other races to save themselves from Yamahn's onslaught. And the whole Slayer organisation is involved in stopping the Hoht army from heading up to the human surface.
Actually that last gives me an idea. When not!Buffy is given her mission there's no indication of her having access to the high tech. Could be the need to 'acquire' the stuff came from the awareness of Yamanh's army and its intentions. Stakes and swords are all very well for one on one demon fighting but the last time Slayers fought an army they would all have died were it not for the bubble-scrubbing amulet, which was probably the last of its kind on the market.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 12:00 pm (UTC)Well, it's not said that they only did it once. But if they've robbed enough money to fund an entire army, complete with castle and defensive systems, I don't really see how it makes a difference if they made one huge bank heist or several normal-sized ones.
we're told about missions to take out vampire nests
All taking place off-screen.
Back to The Long Way and we have Willow saving Buffy and the Slayers under zombie attack than Buffy and Satsu saving Willow. In the Faith arc Gigi is s not just a threat to Buffy
Like I said; scheming and internal power struggles. Amy's zombie army wasn't threatening the city of Glasgow, just the Slayers. Gigi wasn't aiming to become president of the world, just of the Slayers.
Then there's The Chain
True, but IMO The Chain is starting to look like an anomaly in the entire comic for more than one reason. A great anomaly, but still.
Could be the need to 'acquire' the stuff came from the awareness of Yamanh's army and its intentions
Nah, they had that stuff on the first page of 8.01. Though I'm still not sure if Not!Buffy even belongs to Buffy's organization, or if Giles has set up his own Slayer organization on the side...
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 03:37 pm (UTC)It makes a difference in the once is a tragedy, two begins to look like carelessness sense.
All taking place off-screen.
But still taking place as did Robin Wood's troops actions and the attack on the demons/victims in the original castle job.
scheming and internal power struggles
More like rescuing friends, family and colleagues. Neither Amy nor Gigi are part of Buffy's organisation, their attacks come from outside = external not internal.
Nah, they had that stuff on the first page of 8.01.
They had it but by then Not!Buffy was already underground. So I see a window of opportunity between her going undercover and 8.01
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 04:04 pm (UTC)"Tragedy"? It's not like Buffy robbed a bank (or 20) just by accident. She knows exactly what she's doing, she defends her actions afterwards, and she even seems to enjoy it. That's not a tragedy (except for the people whose insurance premiums sky-rocket), and it's certainly not carelessness; it's a planned and executed act with criminal intent. Possibly for a good cause, but still.
their attacks come from outside
But it's still just, from the "death to magic" angle, within various factions of the supernatural. Slayers against Slayers, witches against witches, demons against demons, giants against (ewww) bass players. Where does humanity figure into that? And how would the world NOT be better off if we got rid of the whole lot?
I see a window of opportunity between her going undercover and 8.01
OK, good point. Still not convinced, but I'll agree it's possible - though again, it's purely speculation. It looks a lot more likely that they need the gadgets to defend themselves from human enemies (as discussed in 8.07 and 8.08) than demonic ones.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 07:50 pm (UTC)Where does humanity figure into that?
I'd still count Slayers and witches as human as does Sephrilian. Eccentrically powered humans but still mortal. And it's not just Slayers against Slayers. Gigi's ultimate plan was to lady it over the human masses and Sephrillian wanted to destroy them completely. The non-supernatural (although it's questionable how large a proportion of the world that is in the Buffyverse) might well be better off without the lot of them and I'm sure Twilight is going to play that argument for all its worth to his human acolytes.