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Buffy season 8-- MAJOR SPOILERS-- Twilight reveal

A bit.
Yeah I gave up on going all the way to the comic store to buy the Angel issues a while ago, so I'm now just mostly reading them via the TPBs.
Somebody posted a good rant yesterday on the SlayAlive boards about how IDW really didn't know what the hell they were doing with the title post-After The Fall. Seems they just let Kelly Armstrong have a go just because she was an established writer rather than reading or approving her actual scripts. Same for Bill Willingham; just gave it to a known name to give it some cred, despite the fact he, like Armstrong, could not write for the characters at all and really did not have a feel for the show/universe.

Especially Willingham, making blatent errors that current writers David Tischman & Mariah Huehner had to try and correct and retcon.
(Such as vampire limbs dusting when they're cut off and then having them literally grow back- this never happened in the shows, ie. the vampire 'Claw' in Buffy Season 1, and when Spike had his hands cut off in Angel Season 5)


The first TPB of the Willingham run (28-32) is fairly weak, but the second (33-38) I mentioned before, is half Willingham half Tischman/Huehner, and while still not Shakespeare, it does improve from before.
The comics are currently up to #40, and it ends on #44

Scott Tipton & Mariah Huehner's current Illyria miniseries also is pretty good, currently 2 issues into its 4 issue run.
And then there's Brian Lynch's Spike solo series, 3 into its 8 run. I've only read the first two, the first issue was great, second was very meh. But the later issues sound promising, with the appearance of Willow coming, and the explanation of how Spike ends up with a spaceship full of bugs that we see in Buffy Season 8
 
I'm very pleased with where Bs9 seems to be heading. One of the problems I had with Bs6 and Bs7 was that the shows were heading into a more epic direction. Everything had to be big, Bigger, BIGGEST and a lot of the small character stuff that I loved from the first few years was fading from the Buffyverse. I thought Bs8 did a better job balancing the character and epic stuff but still it was so vast and sweeping and I longed for something a little more intimate. I'm happy Joss is feeling the same way and dialing it down. I would really love s9 to be closer to s2 and 3. A good strong character oriented story. I can't wait to see what happens to Willow in the aftermath of Bs8.
 
Me too and I agree...after the mega-events of season eight I'm ready for a tone down and a focus on more character oriented stories. There were a few issues that did that in season eight but not enough. I am also excited about the possibility of things crossing over into Angel...no wonder Dark Horse wanted that back.


So I read issue 40 and thought it was pretty good. Joss really knows how to put his characters through the ringer! There are definitely seeds sown for season nine and we get a sense of resolution for season eight. I think we're still gonna be dealing with things. I really enjoyed the discussion between Buffy and Spike, and Angel must feel like he is the loneliness man in the world right now. Buffy seems to be totally ignoring him and I don't blame her really. Also the final panel was great. Seems like next season is back to basics.
 
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Yeah good issue, I'll post some more thoughts later. It'll be interesting to see how the new Angel series goes after seeing him in this. "If you thought he was broody before, you ain't seen nothing yet!" :D
It'd be cool if he just let Connor and co get on with their own thing (as he's doing at the mo in the last issues of IDW's run) and it just went back to Angel and a small team, ala Angel Season 1. From Buffy #40 it looked like they were setting Faith up to help him, so maybe just Angel, Faith, and someone else. Illyria perhaps.


Also, on the second to last page, who is the guy in shades with blood all over him supposed to be?
 
It was interesting to see Giles leave everything to Faith. I like her theory as to why he did that. He knew that Buffy would always be able to take care of herself. It was interesting to see her, Xander and Dawn living together in an apartment. Buffy is pretty alone right now but she realizes who she is and that's good. The guy in shades...hmm I'm gonna have to go back and see.
 
Admiral_Young said:
It was interesting to see Giles leave everything to Faith. I like her theory as to why he did that. He knew that Buffy would always be able to take care of herself. It was interesting to see her, Xander and Dawn living together in an apartment. Buffy is pretty alone right now but she realizes who she is and that's good. The guy in shades...hmm I'm gonna have to go back and see.
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Shades was mentioned in a Joss Whedon interview if I'm not mistaken. He's going to be a major player in Bs9 from what I recall.
 
So I finally just marathoned through the last 6 issues. It works a lot better when you read it all at once like that. I still don't understand why blank snapped blank's neck like that. All in all it was a pretty epic ending, but it was pretty obvious how it would end (setting up the world of Fray).

I don't know if I'm particularly excited for Season Nine, though. Going back to such a mundane world after Buffy became super-woman? Doesn't sound as exciting; and much less visually interesting as a comic.
 
Well just because it's not a bunch of world spanning adventures that doesn't mean Joss won't give it up when it comes to the visuals. At the very least it'll be as visually interesting as a Batman book anyway.
 
Well, it sounds like there won't be any more armies of millions of massive demon monsters or flying superhero characters anymore. Sad.
 
Mr Light said:
So I finally just marathoned through the last 6 issues. It works a lot better when you read it all at once like that. I still don't understand why blank snapped blank's neck like that. All in all it was a pretty epic ending, but it was pretty obvious how it would end (setting up the world of Fray).

I don't know if I'm particularly excited for Season Nine, though. Going back to such a mundane world after Buffy became super-woman? Doesn't sound as exciting; and much less visually interesting as a comic.
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Well, I'm very happy that it turned out that way. Before season 8, if you asked me if I wanted magic gone, I would have said: "NOO!" but now, I'm very relieved that there won't be any more freaky transformations, sentient universes, giant vagina monsters, and especially that there won't be any more characters acting under magical influence or possessed. Season 8 went waaay over the top with all that crap, and I'll be very happy to have a world without it, and stories that focus more on the characters than on a super-convoluted and crazy plot and stuff like the Seed McGuffin.

I loved #40, definitely one of my favorite issues of the season (second only to "Always Darkest" and followed by #5 "The Chain"), it gives a great closure to the season and seems to set up season 9 nicely. It looks like we're about to have some human villains and antagonists, including some of the (non)Slayers, which could provide some interesting conflict and moral dilemmas.
 
Overall I think season eight was great...it had some brilliant moments...borderline epic...and I think it reads best when you read all the trades. You get a better sense of the scope and feel Joss was intending. I'm kind of hoping a season eight omnibus gets released. I've been borrowing trades from the library and have only gotten a few issues myself. Really looking forward to season nine. Back to basics sounds like a welcomed option...but that doesn't mean that nothing big isn't going to happen. That wouldn't be Joss now would it?
 
Can someone explain why blank killed blank in the end? Was he possessed or something? 'Cause I thought he had been acting of his own free will the entire time.
 
^ Don't know either. Presumably that is a season nine plot point that was introduced. As was the remainder of the Slayers being pissed at Buffy. There were a ton of interesting things seeded in 40. It's going to be an agonizing hiatus.
 
Mr Light said:
Can someone explain why blank killed blank in the end? Was he possessed or something? 'Cause I thought he had been acting of his own free will the entire time.
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Blank was possessed by Twilight since the end of #38 till the moment the Seed was broken... presumably. They haven't quite cleared up if he was entirely possessed (as in, like Cordelia was by Jasmine) or if there was still some of him inside mixed with Kitty Twilight, who was in charge. The very odd personal way in which blank tried to kill...another blank*, is making me wonder. But he was certainly not in control of himself and his actions at the time.

*OMG this conversation looks hilarious... blank, blank, blank... :lol: It sounds the detective in the X-Files episode: "Jose Chung's From Outer Space": "You really bleeped up this case", "That's a bleeping alien body if I ever bleeping saw one" :guffaw:
 
I'm kind of surprised people are refraining from posting spoilers since the biggest spoiler of them all from this season was posted in the main title of the thread.
 
Admiral_Young said:
I'm kind of surprised people are refraining from posting spoilers since the biggest spoiler of them all from this season was posted in the main title of the thread.
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It just says "Twilight reveal..."? :confused:

Or do you mean that it used to say who was Twilight?

I dunno, I think the big death and the end of magic are the biggest spoilers (but look, we've already spoiled the latter. Heh.)
 
I'm meaning that it was used to say who Twilight was...and it already says MAJOR spoilers and I'm figuring the only people who are posting here now are people who have been following the book.
 
Admiral_Young said:
I'm meaning that it was used to say who Twilight was...and it already says MAJOR spoilers and I'm figuring the only people who are posting here now are people who have been following the book.
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Well, I just went with Mr Light with his 'blank blank' (and it's really fun to talk that way :p)... but one might say that the title says it's major spoilers about the Twilight reveal, which happened many issues ago - so someone might click on the thread without having read the last couple of issues? :shrug:
 
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