BtVS S8.13 Wolves at the Gate II

[hazelk]

It starts out laughing and ends screaming. This issue also does funky things with colour. Muted mauves for the Dracula’s mansion, neon lit purple stalking the streets of Tokyo, old versus new.

So from Renfield to Butterfield, how much do I love this latest incarnation of Dracula? The dark and O so bitchy queen, the fallen movie star, tottering around Sunset in a drunken haze. After Andrew’s version of events you begin to wonder whether anything is real. Is Dracula even a vampire or is the whole thing a glamour? Vlad of Oz hiding behind the curtains of legend, trading souls for motorcycles. We know this Dracula can bite, he bit Buffy once, but latterly is all bark and bluster. No Albanians were harmed in the making of this episode.

The new guys talk less (Kimiko hardly talks at all) and cut straight to the gore. They have Dracula’s ancient magicks but they don’t vamp pretty, pretty much bypass the whole seduction schtick and are genuinely scary.

There’s a lot milling around here. De Milling around even. If Dracula’s power is all smoke and mirrors how much is Buffy’s? She gets the same star treatment Dracula once did but new girl Aiko dispatches a whole troop of kabuki demons (loved the little platform feet and sumo stomachs) without so much as a scratch and sets off on her next assignment cooler than Kool-aid in violet shades. It’s effective in giving her depowering and subsequent slaughter an emotional kick but until then she was making Buffy look almost maiden auntly. Which was at least a less negative characterisation than the glimpse of Frau Buffydant that followed. The other scoobies fare little better. Willow is all prurient curiosity but unable to call a spade a dyke, Xander in semi-thrall to a racist old drama queen who Renee doesn’t fall for at all.

The cumulative effect is a subtle change of focus, such that when Willow says “we’re the army and Buffy’s the General and that’s never going to change” she sounds about as reliable a narrator as Andrew on a good day. Things are changing. In earlier issues scenes of new Slayers being mentored were shot from the point of view of Buffy or Giles or Andrew. This time we’re looking up at Andrew from the point of view of the young Slayers, hearing their conversations drowning out his teachings. Similarly, in the control tower the Slayers working the consoles are foregrounded, we have to peer over them to see Buffy instead of having the eye drawn straight to her as when she and Willow were discussing funding in the Faith arc.

It’s always about power so what happens when they take yours? Dracula without his is reduced to Norma Desmond status, remembrances of close-ups past. Aiko reverts to girl being slaughtered in alley. Alone. Take away all Buffy has, well we know what happens when it’s Buffy the girl but Buffy the Superstar? Take away the army’s power, is physical strength all that binds them? With no weapons and no hope can they still be friends?

Comments

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

No Albanians were harmed in the making of this episode.

Unless you assume that Dracula's insta-rejuvenation is due to him grabbing a quick bite... worked for Gary Oldman.

until then she was making Buffy look almost maiden auntly... The cumulative effect is a subtle change of focus, such that when Willow says “we’re the army and Buffy’s the General and that’s never going to change” she sounds about as reliable a narrator as Andrew on a good day. Things are changing. In earlier issues scenes of new Slayers being mentored were shot from the point of view of Buffy or Giles or Andrew. This time we’re looking up at Andrew from the point of view of the young Slayers, hearing their conversations drowning out his teachings.

This is an excellent point, and one that makes me wish I could take the Dracula storyline remotely seriously. The idea of the new generation of Slayers being... well, a new generation, and as such likely to overtake their elders without understanding completely what they've been through and why the world is what it is, has popped up now and then in the comics. And while I hope it doesn't come down to anything as black and white as Buffy vs the new slayers (which would essentially make the message of "Chosen" "giving power to women is dangerous") it's an interesting angle. Unfortunately, I can't help feeling that given what Buffy has been up to so far in s8, having the new kids on the block ignore her might not be an altogether bad idea... but so far, most of them seem way to caught up in the myth of Buffy (as they interpret it) to ever want to do that. Again, I'm getting this image of Buffy standing on a balcony in front of thousands of followers, telling them she's not the messiah...

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

getting this image of Buffy standing on a balcony in front of thousands of followers, telling them she's not the messiah...

As we recently learned, though, she is a very naughty boygirl. (Or from her perspective... she does what needs to be done, regardless of the cost. That's a lesson that can have uncomfortable consequences if other people learn it too.)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Unless you assume that Dracula's insta-rejuvenation is due to him grabbing a quick bite... worked for Gary Oldman.
Can I quote Andrew on this one?

I don't think they're taking Dracula seriously but that's kind of the point. The way the Italian crack and Illyria tragic sections of TIGIQ both danced around the theme of moving on.

I'm getting this image of Buffy standing on a balcony in front of thousands of followers, telling them she's not the messiah...

They should totally do this. Maybe as a dream sequence. With outfits.

But seriously I think it would be a pretty accurate statement of the state of Buffy, although she may not quite realise it herself yet.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

I'd seen the Dracula-Buffy comparison, but the Buffy-Aiko contrast is a good thought to highlight. Two issues ago Buffy was talking about Satsu as her likely successor, but now she's slapping her down in public for daring to make suggestions. Perhaps the idea of being supplanted is nice in theory, but something to be resisted and avoided in practice? Just like, I assume, the thought of spending her life partying in Rome and going shopping for shoes was attractive after 'Chosen', but in the end Buffy's conscience and her belief that only she could do things right drew her straight back to the Slaying.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I think the slapping down of Satsu was meant to be about not being seen to favour her but also fueled by two-way users guilt. I also don’t think it’s a typical Buffy/team interaction – it wasn’t just Satsu who looked shocked. But whatever the context it was way too harsh and she (Buffy) really ought to explain herself if there ‘s ever an opportunity. I liked how Willow handled the whole thing, objectifying Buffy rather than idolizing her is good for Satsu right now.

I think Buffy will find any eventual handover of power difficult but I don’t think she sees it happening for a long time yet. By the end of her second year of Slayerdom she’d already saved the world, died, been institutionalised and expelled. I suspect a little ‘don’t know they’re born’ syndrome but it must be scary how fast they’re all coming on, how to keep one step ahead?

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, why didn't I think of Sunset Boulevard? You ROCK. ::embraces your analysis::

We were struck by how different this Dracula is, that his dialogue in particular was nothing like the guy we met in S5. We put it down to bad writing choices, an attempt to make a villain funny when that's Xander's job -- Dracula's supposed to be his straight man (thank you, I'll be here all week). But your interpretation snaps it all into place. He's not funny ha ha, he's funny pathetic, just like Norma Desmond.

I loved how his servant looks just like Peter Lorre.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Peter Lorre, yes! I knew he looked like someone. Now I can hear the voice.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

What's especially funny to me is that he looks like the Warner Brothers cartoon version of Peter Lorre more than he looks like Peter Lorre himself.