BtVS S8.15 Wolves at the Gate part IV
Jun. 5th, 2008 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazelkI was nervous about opening this final part to the Goddard arc, finding it hard work not to click on the incoming Whedonesque reviews. The issue 3 cliffhanger was obviously aiming for a “Drew/Joss you bastard” response but came closer to “Drew/Joss you idiot.” Would part four restore the dynamic duo’s bastard-fu?
Basically my problem was with the implication that Renee had been created solely to be slaughtered like just another Captain Kirk woman-of-the-week, a redshirt to love. Die she did but the manner of it was most unredshirt-like, her death was her own tragedy notKirk’s Xander’s. On TV it’s hard to make a death scene about the person actually dying without descending into little Nelldom, so definitely a win for comics. I think the part that made me tear up was Renee’s uncertainty about what was happening to her. Of course she couldn’t see the honking great stake through her heart, just feel the pain, the falling and then silence.
Buffy being afraid to fall has been a motif throughout the season from “I make a wish that I don’t fall,” through Air Willow sickness, to the way she has to steel herself to jump off tall buildings (but still does it). Satsu later makes a leap of faith (or possibly a leap of not looking where she was going) with far less anxiety, the confidence of youth? Falling and death seem to go together for Slayers, traditionally they die standing. With their stylish yet affordable boots on.
Kumiko the silent finally speaks! I think she’ll be back – Buffy stabbed her with a knife not a stake and threw her off without any green dust after effect. Why did she feel the need to give her mother/father’s name? If she’s connected to Saga whosit is Saga whosit connected to Twilight or to the snakey uber demon from Anywhere but Here? The dialogue programmed into mechaDawn suggested that the Vamp gang were in on Twilight’s surveillance ring along with Gigi and Radon.
The Goddard sure got rhythm, the timing on Buffy and Willow’s list conversation while Satsu fell was to die for. If Andrew has had the day his whole life was spent preparing for does that make him next to die?
Buffy’s orders are to kill them all. Back in the day she used to let the ones who ran away run unless it was personal. Which it is this time, for Renee and for Xander, but also the balance of power has shifted. One slayer couldn’t kill them all and probably had more effect by letting the scared ones spread the word while also not provoking an all out war she was bound to lose. Now she might not lose.
Satsu deciding to take Tokyo becomes the first baby Slayer to grow up and gives Buffy the most adult breakup she’s ever had. This l like.
So Dracula has a magic sword (it’s always a sword), which would have been a complete weapon ex machina except for the hint afforded about the true nature of the Scythe leading on to possible future plotlines. Here and now though the bigger question is why Dracula at all?
Although paired with Xander plotwise, thematically he was clearly there for the Buffy of it, power sharing, old Hollywood celebrity, all that. It could be his arc foreshadows an ending in which Buffy has to de-power all the new Slayers and let General Voll’s troops loose on them but I suspect that aspect is intended for contrast not comparison. The comparisons I think are twofold. One is in the declaration that it’s the man not the vampire that matters, a reminder that it was always the woman not the Slayer. The other is in the ability of both to form strange alliances, make unexpected connections and for sentiment/loyalty to be ultimately more important than ideology.
Basically my problem was with the implication that Renee had been created solely to be slaughtered like just another Captain Kirk woman-of-the-week, a redshirt to love. Die she did but the manner of it was most unredshirt-like, her death was her own tragedy not
Buffy being afraid to fall has been a motif throughout the season from “I make a wish that I don’t fall,” through Air Willow sickness, to the way she has to steel herself to jump off tall buildings (but still does it). Satsu later makes a leap of faith (or possibly a leap of not looking where she was going) with far less anxiety, the confidence of youth? Falling and death seem to go together for Slayers, traditionally they die standing. With their stylish yet affordable boots on.
Kumiko the silent finally speaks! I think she’ll be back – Buffy stabbed her with a knife not a stake and threw her off without any green dust after effect. Why did she feel the need to give her mother/father’s name? If she’s connected to Saga whosit is Saga whosit connected to Twilight or to the snakey uber demon from Anywhere but Here? The dialogue programmed into mechaDawn suggested that the Vamp gang were in on Twilight’s surveillance ring along with Gigi and Radon.
The Goddard sure got rhythm, the timing on Buffy and Willow’s list conversation while Satsu fell was to die for. If Andrew has had the day his whole life was spent preparing for does that make him next to die?
Buffy’s orders are to kill them all. Back in the day she used to let the ones who ran away run unless it was personal. Which it is this time, for Renee and for Xander, but also the balance of power has shifted. One slayer couldn’t kill them all and probably had more effect by letting the scared ones spread the word while also not provoking an all out war she was bound to lose. Now she might not lose.
Satsu deciding to take Tokyo becomes the first baby Slayer to grow up and gives Buffy the most adult breakup she’s ever had. This l like.
So Dracula has a magic sword (it’s always a sword), which would have been a complete weapon ex machina except for the hint afforded about the true nature of the Scythe leading on to possible future plotlines. Here and now though the bigger question is why Dracula at all?
Although paired with Xander plotwise, thematically he was clearly there for the Buffy of it, power sharing, old Hollywood celebrity, all that. It could be his arc foreshadows an ending in which Buffy has to de-power all the new Slayers and let General Voll’s troops loose on them but I suspect that aspect is intended for contrast not comparison. The comparisons I think are twofold. One is in the declaration that it’s the man not the vampire that matters, a reminder that it was always the woman not the Slayer. The other is in the ability of both to form strange alliances, make unexpected connections and for sentiment/loyalty to be ultimately more important than ideology.
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Date: 2008-06-06 09:08 am (UTC)That doesn't bother me particularly, after all one scene has to be the most memorable and this once encapsulated all the ones before it. I think she's more likely to come back than say Aiko and I'd love it if she did. Joss gives good ghost.
Thanks for the dream interpretation, I didn't know that and it makes a lot of sense. In return some previous thoughts on the significance of swords</a. (http://www.teaattheford.net/viewpost.php?id=42375)