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Post by mattitudev2 on Jun 5, 2008 15:57:36 GMT -5
Having Dracula around felt sort of pointless and odd to me in the first 3 issues of this arc, but he was an absolute and total badass in this issue; having him in it was suddenly awesome. I don't want it to happen right away, but I'm sure we're going to eventually end up encountering him again at some point throughout the series.
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Post by maverickmadge on Jun 5, 2008 16:01:55 GMT -5
OMG this issue was one of the best in my opinion. It was very Buffy and epic! It was definatley almost finale like for me.
Everyone was included in this one! Satsu, the red read hair girl, Andrew, and Dawn was just prouncing around.
Yes and Drac DEF had really good development in this. I wanted him stay too. I got the issue this afternoon and read the rest in A&W eating a mama burger. I really like how it ended too with Dracula giving Xander space, and Xander saying he will kill him if he calls him master again, lol SO GOOD! I loved how Buffy and Satsu had sex again! it was in typical Buffy fashion!
I REALLY liked the beginning of this series when the beggining of how they dealt with the Asian vampires introoding into their gates. I actually think Buffy SHOULD be a lesbian. I have a friend who is VERY similar to Buffy in personality and guy history and she's with a girl now. I really like it. Thumbs up for me
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Post by buffyfan21 on Jun 5, 2008 16:10:48 GMT -5
As with issues past, this issue did not disappoint. I think this was a great arc as a whole, and Goddard did a bang-up job of bringing it to a close. Poor Xander. I felt really bad for him this issue. He is certainly looking the worse for wear, in my opinion. First losing Anya and now Renee, how much more can he take? He just looked so lost and alone there at the end. I think Jeanty did a great job of conveying through art, what Xander was feeling. You could really see the sadness and hurt in his eyes, really get a sense of that hollow emptiness he no doubt feels innside. One of my favorite parts this issue was the Buffy/Willow "scene." I loved how the two of them were bantering back and forth like old times. Their dialogue made me chuckle. Sexual tension perhaps? Hehe. When I got to the page with the "Dawn bot," I couldn't help but laugh. It all seemed a little too corny to me, but I totally loved how the bot was making fun of Dawn. "I whine a lot." Haha, priceless! And of course, gotta love Andrew. I am a little unclear as to what Willow was up to at the end there. Is she being a naughty mistress demon summoner again? I hope not. If so, that would certainly not bode well for the scoobies. I guess we will just have to patiently wait and see how that plays out in future issues...I hope we will get some answers soon. Well, these are just some of my thoughts on the issue. Overall, great story, great arc, as always. P.S. Oh, and the scene between Buffy and Satsu, one word - HOTT!!! I suppose it is a good thing that she is staying behind for a while, might guarantee that she sticks around a little longer.
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iloveromy
Descendant of a Toaster Oven
[Mo0:10]
Posts: 684
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Post by iloveromy on Jun 5, 2008 16:14:06 GMT -5
I wonder if we will ever see MechaDawn again. You know, like Buffybot.
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balesthebloody
Wise-cracking Techno Genius
"Angel's gettin' some! Good on you mate!"[Mo0:0]
Posts: 733
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Post by balesthebloody on Jun 5, 2008 17:25:26 GMT -5
Well I won't get this until next week! Comic shop didn't get but FOUR copies! I mean WTF?!?!?! They called Dark Horse and they said the issue was on back order. I mean how do you not print enough comics of their best selling series?!?! Especially the end issue of an arc.
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watcher
Novice Witch
[Mo0:0]
Posts: 211
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Post by watcher on Jun 5, 2008 19:40:26 GMT -5
The last panel with Xander still has me convinced that we are going to be seeing a much darker Xander in the future.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Jun 5, 2008 22:16:29 GMT -5
Best issue yet. Best arc yet. In fact, if you consider the entire thing (8.12 thru 8.15) as one full episode, it probably cracks my top 10 favorites for the entire 8-season run. I've been a HUGE Drew Goddard fan right from his very first episode--my second-favorite writer, after Joss himself--but I have to admit, there were a couple of things about this arc that had me doubting him early-on (mostly having to do with Dracula). Boy, do I feel silly about that now. The Good:- The Saffy resolution (I like 'Saffy' better than 'Batsu', so I'm sticking with Saffy). Satsu didn't die, or turn evil, and they left on good terms, which, in the Land of Whedon, is about as close as two characters are ever going to get to a happy ending (and yay for break-up sex! ). I guess this probably crosses Satsu off the list of suspects for the mole, as well. I say "probably", 'cause there's always the possibility she was co-opted by Twilight before joining up with Buffy, then met her, fell in love with her, and this is her way of getting out of the situation so that she doesn't have to inform on her anymore and risk hurting her. But that seems pretty unlikely. I'm definitely looking at Leah and Rowena with a suspicious eye now... - We'd already seen it in the preview last week, obviously, but Renee's inner monologue during her death was heartbreakingly well-done. - "I often let boys take advantage of my weak emotional states." "No, I do not!"- "My giant-sized teammate is fighting a mechanized version of herself on the streets of downtown Tokyo. I’ve been preparing for this day my entire life!" Best Andrew moment EVER!! - The entire Buffy/Willow conversation. - And, well, pretty much everything else not listed below. The Bad:- Bad character design on Toru and Raidon--they looked way too similar to Dracula. It didn't much matter in the first three issues, but here, in the chaos of the big fight scene, it got a little hard to follow. It was only after several panels that I realized Drac was in maroon, Toru in white, and Raidon in dark blue (I think; it's been a few hours now since I read it). - This arc made me totally fall in love with Satsu and Renee, and now they're both gone. Renee's death was done well and I'm sure it'll serve a purpose in the story (particularly with regard to Xander), and Satsu got about the best exit she could possibly expect... I just wish she could've gotten the same sort of exit, but several more issues down the line. This arc was the best yet, and "No Future for You" was the second-best. Anyone else find it kind of funny that Joss's issues (esp. "The Long Way Home") have been the weak-link in the season so far? Any fans of the "The Dark Tower"? Read Buffy's (and Satsu's) last orders in the battle... the Slayers have become something far more dangerous in how they deal out justice -- they've become Gunslingers. Ooh, me! Me! Big-time DT fan. And yeah, nice catch--I totally see the similarity. Are you reading the DT comic series Marvel's doing?
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Post by Emmie on Jun 5, 2008 22:23:34 GMT -5
Anyone else find it kind of funny that Joss's issues (esp. "The Long Way Home") have been the weak-link in the season so far? I thought the same thing a few days ago, but when you think of Long Way Home as the season opener I'll give Joss a pass. All the season openers are burdened with the responsibility of setting up the main themes, re-introducing the characters, and introducing new villains. It's a tall order and frankly none of the season openers are my favorite episodes for the entire 'verse. Even the best season openers like 'City of' and 'Conviction' that happened to be written by Joss don't make my fav top 10 or even top 25 list.
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dane5by5
Wise-cracking Techno Genius
[Mo0:0]
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Post by dane5by5 on Jun 5, 2008 23:11:54 GMT -5
Anyone else find it kind of funny that Joss's issues (esp. "The Long Way Home") have been the weak-link in the season so far? I thought the same thing a few days ago, but when you think of Long Way Home as the season opener I'll give Joss a pass. All the season openers are burdened with the responsibility of setting up the main themes, re-introducing the characters, and introducing new villains. It's a tall order and frankly none of the season openers are my favorite episodes for the entire 'verse. Even the best season openers like 'City of' and 'Conviction' that happened to be written by Joss don't make my fav top 10 or even top 25 list. Yeah. I agree with you. The only first episodes of the season that I would consider a favourite is "Bargaining" and maybe "Buffy Vs. Dracula" and they were both written by Marti Noxon.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
Robo Pimp-Daddy
"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Jun 6, 2008 0:59:53 GMT -5
Anyone else find it kind of funny that Joss's issues (esp. "The Long Way Home") have been the weak-link in the season so far? I thought the same thing a few days ago, but when you think of Long Way Home as the season opener I'll give Joss a pass. All the season openers are burdened with the responsibility of setting up the main themes, re-introducing the characters, and introducing new villains. It's a tall order and frankly none of the season openers are my favorite episodes for the entire 'verse. Even the best season openers like 'City of' and 'Conviction' that happened to be written by Joss don't make my fav top 10 or even top 25 list. I get your point, and agree with it: season openers are hard, and it's probably not a coincidence that some of Joss's weakest eps are season premieres ("Lessons" and "When She Was Bad" are probably the worst offenders). But that isn't really the problem I have with "The Long Way Home". It's things like bringing Amy and Warren back (two characters I had no desire to ever see again, and hope that was the last of them), the "funny"--and I use sarcastic quote marks--reveal of Willow being fine after everything Warren did to her... and what exactly was Amy's main goal when she snuck into Buffy's room? She put the Sleeping Beauty spell on her, but then she also tried to stab her thru the heart, and it seems only the mystical protection that they'd put on Buffy saved her life... unless Amy actually knew about that protection, and just wanted it to look like she was trying to stab her... And the whole deal with Ethan took up an awful lot of space if the only payoff was Buffy learning Amy's darkest fear (her mom), so I hope there will turn out to be more to that as the season goes along. It's fine right at the start, but the further it goes along, the more it strikes me as being really unfocused and sort of all over the place.
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Post by hunter233 on Jun 6, 2008 2:15:28 GMT -5
I just realized something. This finale sort of supports those people in the "Twilight is Xander from the future" camp. With yet another love lost to the world of magic, perhaps he's been pushed past the breaking point?
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Post by charlesgunn on Jun 6, 2008 4:25:43 GMT -5
I've enjoyed reading everyone's response to the issue. After reading the entire arc, all I have to say is that I hope Goddard is coming back for Season 9. I've been a fan of his since Buffy Season 7 and Angel Season 5. I also hope that he writes for other comics, I think he has a knack for writing for this medium. He has been successful in both TV and film so I hope that he continues to impress.
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Post by xmadxscientistx on Jun 6, 2008 6:50:08 GMT -5
I just realized something. This finale sort of supports those people in the "Twilight is Xander from the future" camp. With yet another love lost to the world of magic, perhaps he's been pushed past the breaking point? If that were true, why didn't he just go back in time and save Anya/Renee?
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stakeout
Innocent Bystander
[Mo0:0]
Posts: 15
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Post by stakeout on Jun 6, 2008 9:16:33 GMT -5
Loved this issue. My letter made it in this issue!!! I wrote that 9 months ago lol
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
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"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
Posts: 1,199
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Jun 6, 2008 11:31:21 GMT -5
I just realized something. This finale sort of supports those people in the "Twilight is Xander from the future" camp. With yet another love lost to the world of magic, perhaps he's been pushed past the breaking point? If that were true, why didn't he just go back in time and save Anya/Renee? There are some holes in the futuristic-Xander theory, but no more so than any of the other suspects for Twilight. He's still who I'm goin' with, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least of it turns out not to be him...
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barryshaft
Novice Witch
Sometimes I shouldn't say words...[Mo0:0]
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Post by barryshaft on Jun 7, 2008 4:12:58 GMT -5
Good issue. Not my favourite but that's probably because this is the first issue that really had things in it that I just didn't like at all. My faults with it were mainly how silly it was. I know everyone's laughing their asses off at MechaDawn but I pretty much think that was the most ridiculously stupid thing Season 8 has done so far. I've always been against Giant Dawn and this is pretty much the reason... stupid jokes that make absolutely no sense with what's going on in the plot (Dawn was randomly teleported into battle not ten minutes before and now there's a giant robot version of her? Ha ha...quite clever.) Also Andrew's inclusion into the scenario (while chuckle inducing) was also quite ridiculous as well. The jokes in this issue just fell flat for me sadly. Thankfully my complaint with the art went unfounded, while the opening of the issue is pretty cartoony I think Jeanty actually pulled out some of his best art for the final pages.
Aside from the Giant Dawn and the bad jokes I quite liked the places this issue took us. Willow's past is insanely interesting and I can't wait to delve into that a bit more. Buffy and Satsu did reach a nice resolution to their situation. Willow and Buffy's talk was pretty classic (ok, those jokes didn't fall flat) and addressed a bit of what's been going on with them. Dracula was fairly badass but the art somewhat obscured said bad-assery... I think a darker take on Drac's actions would have been a bit cooler then the cartoon-ish framing of everything (and man Jeanty's really got to stop leaving his faces blank in wide shots...it's his style I know but it looks awful). Xander got very little to do and that was perfect. As much as this issue somewhat centered around what he was going through, he remained a silent background player. I think this was a nice touch and it leaves a lot of room to delve into this in later issues (though with Time of Your Life coming up we may not see Xander all that much for a while). Xander is definately going to a darker place and I really hope I'm wrong in seeing the Twilight symbol somewhat clearly etched into his shirt on the last panel.
The last page was just beautiful, every frame accomplished just a bit of character development for it's subjects.
Like I said, I quite enjoyed the issue but it's really the only issue that's faltered any since No Future For You started. I dug it, but I also can't blindly look over what distracted me about it either. A solid 7 out of 10 from me.
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Post by Emmie on Jun 7, 2008 7:48:32 GMT -5
I know everyone's laughing their asses off at MechaDawn but I pretty much think that was the most ridiculously stupid thing Season 8 has done so far. I've always been against Giant Dawn and this is pretty much the reason... stupid jokes that make absolutely no sense with what's going on in the plot (Dawn was randomly teleported into battle not ten minutes before and now there's a giant robot version of her? Ha ha...quite clever.) Also Andrew's inclusion into the scenario (while chuckle inducing) was also quite ridiculous as well. The jokes in this issue just fell flat for me sadly. MechaDawn does border on the ridiculous...okay it jumps headfirst into the ridiculous pool. But the one thing I will argue is that the Tokyo vamps had plenty of time to notice Giant Dawn from as early as Issue 12 (maybe earlier if they had been surveilling the castle) so they had more time to build a giant robot than just 10 minutes. Sorry the jokes fell flat for you, they had me rolling. But I do see how these inclusions might qualify the comic as bordering on (and I hate this term) crackfic. Also I personally love that Andrew's geek knowledge actually proved useful in a fight - it's a nice turnaround that I've seen before in other stories. Xander is definately going to a darker place and I really hope I'm wrong in seeing the Twilight symbol somewhat clearly etched into his shirt on the last panel. Image-y goodness to compare: Sorry for the blurriness of Xander's panel, but I re-sized it. I'm not seeing a huge similarity besides the arch with one open end, that appears to be reversed on Xander' shirt. What the heck is that on Xander's shirt? It looks like a cartoony car or a whale in front of the sun between two lines of giant teeth? Ya that's the best I've got. I open it up for discussion.
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Lukee
Ensouled Vampire
Brilliant is my middle name tbf[Mo0:14]
Posts: 1,137
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Post by Lukee on Jun 7, 2008 7:54:38 GMT -5
At the start of the arc i was like OMG this is just not how i felt Buffy Season 8 was leading. I thought Buffy and Satsu was beyond stupid, the Tokyo vampires was just meh and Xander/Renee/Drac was just blah... But now i totally take it ALL back! I still don't like Buffy/Satsu's 'thing' but i understand it'ish Xander/Renee and Dracs 'thing' was really nicely written and planed out. Although i would have liked to have seen a little more of the Tokyo Vamps action i guess. I reallly realllly liked Dawn in this issue. She sounded like she had grown [no pun intended] much more. She was sounding more like Buffy to me then she has done before i think. When she told the slayers 'we don't run' and all that it was like seeing a younger more in tune with how the world works Buffy. Then the robot Dawn was funny. I wasn't excepting that. But i do have a problem with it having a tale i think they should have left that bit out. It added more cheese to something that was a happy amount of cheese. Willow and Buffy's talk was really funny and very Buffy/verse. Drac was brilliant i feeling in this issue. Although I'm still a little confused about him but i guess thats the whole thing about him i guess. Xander.. omg when Drac gave him the sworded to kill Toru i was like omg I'm going to cry! But i was on the bus so you know it would have been embarrassing but i could feel my self tear up a little Xander is just not getting a break not that I'm complaining it makes more story lines for me to read but still aww poor guy. Didn't think Buffy and Satsu had to do it again in the end really.... Willows past is just getting to me even more now. I need to know!!
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Post by wenxina on Jun 7, 2008 9:17:28 GMT -5
barryshaft: MechaDawn was pretty over the top, but as Emmie pointed out, the Japanese vamps had from at least #12 to notice Giant Dawn. In fact, I'd argue way before; they had to do recon work, and understand the Slayer stronghold (i.e. weak points, entry points, barricaded places, where the Scythe was kept, etc). In fact, if there really was a mole (and I believe there probably was one since the vampires had an open invite), Giant Dawn was probably public knowledge since forever. Also, in #14, there is a reference to the robotics division, which, granted back then, had me scratching my head. I now take the robotics bit to mean the team that made and prepped MechaDawn.
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El Diablo Robotico
Ensouled Vampire
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"Surely you have heard about our great victory over the Devil's Robot."[Mo0:3]
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Jun 7, 2008 14:37:06 GMT -5
barryshaft: MechaDawn was pretty over the top, but as Emmie pointed out, the Japanese vamps had from at least #12 to notice Giant Dawn. In fact, I'd argue way before; they had to do recon work, and understand the Slayer stronghold (i.e. weak points, entry points, barricaded places, where the Scythe was kept, etc). In fact, if there really was a mole (and I believe there probably was one since the vampires had an open invite), Giant Dawn was probably public knowledge since forever. Also, in #14, there is a reference to the robotics division, which, granted back then, had me scratching my head. I now take the robotics bit to mean the team that made and prepped MechaDawn. Exactly. Seems like a lot of people (here and on other sites) are complaining about how ridiculously unbelievable the idea of MechaDawn was. I thought it was funny, but I was also in the "oh, gimme a break " camp at first. But then when you think about it, it was shown in 8.14 that Toru fully expected Buffy and the others to come after the Scythe, and he was prepared to fight them. He appeared to be a very thorough, intelligent opponent, so he would've done his homework on what he'd be up against, and they most likely would've known about Giant Dawn even before 8.12 (it's not like she'd be hard to spot, even from miles away from the castle), and anticipated that the slayers might use her as a weapon. Maybe not, but it couldn't hurt to be prepared. There were probably several things they could've done to counter her, and one of those was to build an opponent her own size to keep her busy. That all makes perfect sense to me. The part that, at first, bordered on ludicrously-silly for me was that they'd build it to look like and act like Dawn. Why? Why bother? What advantage is there in that compared to just building one with a generic appearance and personality? But then I figured that anything they could do that might freak Dawn out, un-nerve her, and cause her to not fight as well was probably worth a shot. And they clearly didn't go to too much trouble to really make it look like her--the likeness is very basic and rudimentary. Also, I don't think they had a whole lot of inside info on Dawn's personality in programming it to act like her: "I enjoy blue jeans and irony"; "I cry a lot"; "I often let boys take advantage of my weak emotional states". Aren't those things that could apply to at least 50% of the teenage girls in the world? There's nothing there that really sticks out and makes me go, "Wow, they sure knew a lot about her and had her pegged." It was very obviously done as something that was supposed to be funny and silly and nothing more than that, but there's still enough logic behind it to make me believe it's not a ridiculously impossible plot element...
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