Fandom is Life - Buffy Season Eight, The Long Way Home

Fandom is Life - Buffy Season Eight, The Long Way Home

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June 8th, 2007

10:04 am - Buffy Season Eight, The Long Way Home
My Buffy Season Eight comic arrived today. So thought I would do my overview of the whole arc.....not Joss friendly!

Ok, so first off, I was annoyed at the change to canon from the TV Series, especially Season Five of AtS. A lot of very good fanfic was written using the Buffy in Rome with Dawn and Andrew, dating the Immortal. So was this arc worth pulling the rug out from under us? Definitely NO!

I will suspend disbelieve in a lot of things, such that in only 18months they tracked down 1,800 slayers around the world, and have an amy of 500 slayers now. All set up in various places throughout the world, and fully equipped with weapons, Buffy herself never had I am like *shrugs shoulders*, whatever. I will believe you.

Xander is not in Africa, but with a team of slayers overseeing a computer HQ. Ok, fine.

They have lost contact with Willow, listening to Andrew, and letting him lead a team of Slayers. Since when did they trust him that much, but ok. Guess I can work with it.

Giles is pretty much on his own, in an unidentified City as yet, training and gathering information, that I can believe easily.

Didn't like the Shipper baiting either, seemed petty and cheap.

Anyway on to the real story.

First we have Giant Dawn, still not fully explained, saying that Willow is like a Mother to her. Casting this in Buffy's face, but trusting her t save Willow. When did this happen. Did I close my eyes when Willow was regaining Dawns trust in Season 7? At what point did Dawn move from being the only one in "Same Time, Same Place", to say that perhaps Willow not being at the airport was Willow's fault and not one of them. Willow has also been busy with her own life since Season 7 it seems, so shouldn't really have happened then either. When exactly does Willow become a mother figure to Dawn? That was Tara, more than anyone else

The use of portals. Never liked them. My main concern is that if Amy can so easily take both herself and Willow through one to where Warren is, then why was she trapped in Sunnydale's crater. It is Buffy who says "I am the one who wanted to go home", so why does Amy stay. Amy then takes Warren through a portal to save them. So no reason she couldn't before. Then I don't really like the use of magic, always leave too many unanswered questions, unless used very sparingly.

Next off, Warren frayed, but saved in a 4 second window before he dies by Amy, is the boyfriend, who never really died, but kept alive by Amy's magic. If he never died, how did The First take on his form? It was dead people who The First was able to impersonate, please don't say Buffy wasn't dead, she died twice, was buried and out the picture for 3 months. Willow used magic to bring her back.

They also killed Ethan, the Major has shot him through the head. What a waste of a great character, and the chance to see him maybe redeem himself as well.

The humans have banded together and pronounced The Slayers as demonic themselves. They wish to defeat them. This did bring back the core element of strong women install fear. Buffy's assertion that she will take on the humans, a little frightening, but makes me hope for a good long term story arc.

So was this arc worth the canon changes, shipper baiting, and loss a great character?

My own impression is NO!

I think that to an extent Joss has moved on from Buffy. He has come back cos there is so much interest in the characters still, and it is a cash cow waiting to be milked. But this story was not a classic.

Ok that was my impressions.
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