Mathieu
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Post by Mathieu on Apr 21, 2008 13:54:16 GMT -5
Hi everybody! I am new on this board. I actually claim to be the greatest BTVS fan in the world but as I'm sure everybody claims that exact same thing around here, I'm not gonna fight on my very first day of posting! But I'm ready to put up a fight anytime later on to prove you all I definitely am the best Buffy geek of our dimension. I am just wating for the Shaman to sort out what team I belong to before starting to build an army. Ok, just being silly now. Sorry.
As a matter of fact I want to ask you guys a question about Willow's new powers. So far I read the twelve first issues of season 8 and it seems that she has the ability to fly, pretty high in the sky in a supermanish way. I recently rewatched Season 6 and 7 and I do remember her floating in the air and having bricks fly around to get her hands on Andrew and Jonathan who were in jail at the end of Season 6 (amazing episode by the way), but she was Evil Willow at that time and she had just absorbed lots of black magic. I don't remember her flying around Sunnydale in Season 7. That being said I know she was trying to hold back her powers during last season. Anyway, how come she has such a power in Season 8? It seems a bit far-fetched to me, too much like superman or something.
However I do enjoy so far the new plots they are setting in the comics. They are doing a great job.
PS: Sorry if that question has already been brought up in another thread!
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Magician Named Gosh
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Post by Magician Named Gosh on Apr 21, 2008 14:01:41 GMT -5
I'm a huge fan as well, but I don't really know how to answer the question. I'm kind of curious about that myself. I'm sure someone around here has a theory (because Buffyverse fans just love to start out sentences with the phrase "I've got a theory...") Also...Welcome to the Forum.
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Post by hitnrun017 on Apr 21, 2008 14:03:46 GMT -5
Welcome to forum! The flying is not explained, yet, anyways.
I haven't been a fan of all the magic in Season 8, it's probably the only thing that I really don't like about it. The flying just came out of no where! There has just been too much, especially in The Long Way Home. I wasn't even a big fan of it in the show. I liked when spells weren't used that much, only to solve a problem every now and then, but it just got old after awhile, especially in Season 7, when they used a "Locator Spell" basically every episode.
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Magician Named Gosh
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Post by Magician Named Gosh on Apr 21, 2008 14:07:10 GMT -5
Sometimes it was like "Yay! Magic!" and sometimes it would just be like "C'mon guys... can't we just kick it old school?"
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Post by themaleslayer on Apr 21, 2008 14:11:01 GMT -5
I miss computer Willow, but then again Magic Willow is necessary.
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Post by Wyndam on Apr 21, 2008 14:13:14 GMT -5
Well I just look at it like this:
It's been about 18 months since Chosen, and Willow has been off doing her own thing for most of that time. I'd imagine she's spent a lot of it learning what she was capable of and becoming very conformable with magic once again. Her final spell in Chosen was a doozy, and I am pretty sure that opened a flood gate of sorts that allowed her to tap into that extreme power she had always had a lot more easily.
That's how I look at it at least.
And welcome to the forums!
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Mathieu
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Post by Mathieu on Apr 21, 2008 14:16:47 GMT -5
Yeah, me neither. I didn't really like the whole I'm gonna pull off a spell and solve everything theme that was going on in Season 7. And everytime Willow would just turn black and (almost but not quite) evil for a second. It got old eventually. Even though I totally loved Evil Willow in Season 6. But hey, I like what they did with her character in Chosen.
As far as her ability to fly is concerned I believed there was some good explanations and that I'd just missed something somewhere... but glad to see I'm not the only one being puzzled. So I'm waiting for some "I've got a theory..." comments!
I am an innocent bystander by the way (only two posts). How cute. Thanks for the quick replies too.
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Post by wenxina on Apr 21, 2008 14:28:24 GMT -5
Here's an indicator of how far Willow has progressed, magically. Since you just rewatched S6, this should be pretty fresh. Do you remember when Willow does her spin-vortex thing right after killing Warren? Anya says something to the effect that even though Willow's uber-powerful, a witch at her level can only travel by air... which is all flashy and nice, but nowhere as fast as teleportation, which Anya can do. Then she teleports off the warn the surviving nerds. Well, for one, if Willow can already travel by air then, I'm guessing the flying was toned down for budget reasons. Two, in #10, Buffy asks Willow why they couldn't just teleport there, instead of flying. Willow says something to the effect of not knowing exactly where the place is; implying that she now has the ability to teleport. So she has way surpassed her skill in S6-7. Also, she teleported Buffy back after her encounter with Gigi and Faith... this wasn't an exchange spell as in "Get It Done" in S7, but an actual teleportation one. As S8 takes place quite a while after the events of "Chosen", I'd disagree that it came out of nowhere, but rather, it's just not be shown.
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Mathieu
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Post by Mathieu on Apr 21, 2008 14:35:29 GMT -5
Maybe it didn't come out of nowhere... but my feeling is that she now is too powerful -I can't believe i just said that- because there is pretty much nothing she cannot do. Who would like to be around someone who is as powerful a witch as she is, knowing she can fly around, teleport and skin anybody anytime she likes! See how Andrew was afraid she would be able to read his mind in issue #12?
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Post by Skytteflickan88 on Apr 21, 2008 14:41:13 GMT -5
i have to admit, i miss the time when we had to watch them struggle. Willow can heal from a lobotomy in two secs, Xander is in charge, Dawn has sex and buffy has an army. I mean, sure, they're still our loveable geeks, but i miss the old times.
I really wich that season 8 could have started a couple of months after season 7, not 18 months.
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Post by hitnrun017 on Apr 21, 2008 14:45:27 GMT -5
Here's an indicator of how far Willow has progressed, magically. Since you just rewatched S6, this should be pretty fresh. Do you remember when Willow does her spin-vortex thing right after killing Warren? Anya says something to the effect that even though Willow's uber-powerful, a witch at her level can only travel by air... which is all flashy and nice, but nowhere as fast as teleportation, which Anya can do. Then she teleports off the warn the surviving nerds. Well, for one, if Willow can already travel by air then, I'm guessing the flying was toned down for budget reasons. Two, in #10, Buffy asks Willow why they couldn't just teleport there, instead of flying. Willow says something to the effect of not knowing exactly where the place is; implying that she now has the ability to teleport. So she has way surpassed her skill in S6-7. Also, she teleported Buffy back after her encounter with Gigi and Faith... this wasn't an exchange spell as in "Get It Done" in S7, but an actual teleportation one. As S8 takes place quite a while after the events of "Chosen", I'd disagree that it came out of nowhere, but rather, it's just not be shown. Hmm..... I do you see your point. I just hope it gets expained somehow. I see your point that it's progressed, but the fact that there is no explanation is what bothers me, but that's probably just because of the type of person I am. I think I remember Joss saying that they'd get into where Willow was.
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El Diablo Robotico
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 21, 2008 14:45:56 GMT -5
The one use of magic in S8 so far that really bugged me is in #4 when Warren is carving Willow up like a Sunday roast, and then poof!--she's fine. Felt like a really lame cop-out. Not that I wanted Willow to be forever horribly disfigured, but instead maybe have something stop Warren before he can really begin. Or better yet, don't bring Warren back into the story in the first place!! I believe Joss said in an interview recently that the flashback panel showing naked-Willow with that snake-woman-creature in #10 would have some significance later on, so maybe she learned more from her, and became even more powerful because of it...
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Post by wenxina on Apr 21, 2008 14:51:40 GMT -5
i have to admit, i miss the time when we had to watch them struggle. Willow can heal from a lobotomy in two secs, Xander is in charge, Dawn has sex and buffy has an army. I mean, sure, they're still our loveable geeks, but i miss the old times. I really wich that season 8 could have started a couple of months after season 7, not 18 months. But then people would complain that the putting together of an army, or even the new homebase would be boring. General rule of thumb: drop the audience into the thick of it and they'll catch on fast enough. Kind of like what Buffy did in S7 and dropped the Potentials into a vamp nest. Granted it was 1 vampire, but still... that's gotta get the adrenaline pumping. There's still struggling going on. Buffy's still trying to find that connection, to both her slayers and well, someone else... and well you know how everything kinda blends together. Dawn's having sex... but since when was that a mark of not having to struggle? She had a boyfriend who treated her well, but she decides to throw it up in the air for a one-night stand with a bass player (I can't really remember what instrument he played). Why? Could be that Nick made her feel hot. Could be she wanted to try something new. Point is, she's feeling bad in a big way (I slay myself with my lousy punnage). Xander... the man still can't get asking a girl out right. And I'm not sure if dating a Slayer makes him demon free. The Slayer was created after all by imbuing a girl with the heart of a demon. As for Willow, she still struggles with her dark side. There's still that guilt about choosing Buffy over Tara, and from what it looks like, her thing with Kennedy hasn't been all that smooth-sailing. And Giles... still trying to decide if he's relevant as a Watcher. I think they've all got plenty of struggles... some old, some new. Maybe not in the exact same context as before, but I'd say that there's drama enough in their lives. Now all that needs to happen is a goth vampire gang stealing the Scythe and deactivating slayers. Wait... that's been done.
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Mathieu
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Post by Mathieu on Apr 21, 2008 14:55:11 GMT -5
That moment in issue #4 kinda bugged me too. Willow was actually being tortured, and we all know that in the Buffyverse every action has consequences and it turns out that she could heal in a second!! Even if we didn't actually see what Warren did to her, she was probably badly hurt, it even looked like he was trying to pop her eyes out (yukky I know). Too easy. And I admit I even didn't get what had just happened in the first place, I had forgotten about her new healing powers. I was disappointed by Warren's return anyway. It didn't make sense after the First could take his form in Season 7. Even Joss Whedon admits he made a mistake. A rookie mistake in my opinion.
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El Diablo Robotico
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Post by El Diablo Robotico on Apr 21, 2008 15:10:29 GMT -5
I was disappointed by Warren's return anyway. It didn't make sense after the First could take his form in Season 7. Even Joss Whedon admits he made a mistake. A rookie mistake in my opinion. Yeah, but at least you can excuse it by saying "Well, maybe he was dead for a few seconds and then Amy brought him back to life", similar to Buffy drowning and then being revived at the end of S1. In Buffy's case, it was long enough to cause the mojo that controls the Slayer line to call the next Slayer, so in Warren's case it could've been long enough to allow the First to take his form. What I really don't like about it (aside from the fact that I never liked Warren and had no urge to ever see him return) is that it takes some of the emotional weight away from "The Killer in Me". It just doesn't quite resonate for Willow thinking she killed a man the way it does when she actually killed a man. S7 really didn't have much in the way of strong, character-based stories to begin with, and TKiM was really the only one Willow got all season, so to cheapen that makes S7 feel even weaker than it already was...
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Post by Jinxieman on Apr 21, 2008 15:29:41 GMT -5
Willow has had the ability to heal in a second since the end of season 6...she healed Buffy in the hospital. I think in season 7 after her encounter with Knarl she didn't want to tap into that power to heal herself so she was using a more Gia friendly form of magic then what she did with Buffy. I think now that Willow has mastered her magic far better than she had in season 7 and is not as afraid of it any more she was able to tap into that same kind of magic she used previously to heal herself, and since she had gone to that "refuge" place she was able to heal herself as if she were a bystander rather than the victim and heal even her damaged brain because her conciseness was kept safe in her "refuge."
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Whedon Fan
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Post by Whedon Fan on Apr 21, 2008 15:37:27 GMT -5
Willow did float im season 5 when Tara's family comes to visit to take Tara home and at the end Willow and Tara dance and they are both floating. I'm assuming Willow would ahve been able to do some of the things she can do now in season 8 if she wasn't holding back the whole of season 7. She probably learned and remembered alot t of the things from when she was Evil Willow, she absorbed alot of magic knowledge out of nearly every book in the magic shop.
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Post by Wyndam on Apr 21, 2008 15:40:22 GMT -5
Maybe it didn't come out of nowhere... but my feeling is that she now is too powerful -I can't believe i just said that- because there is pretty much nothing she cannot do. Who would like to be around someone who is as powerful a witch as she is, knowing she can fly around, teleport and skin anybody anytime she likes! See how Andrew was afraid she would be able to read his mind in issue #12? See I actually like how Willow has been portrayed so far in Season 8. In Season 6 she was waaaay too powerful for her own good, but so far we have only seen her use her magic when it was necessary (fighting Amy, helping Buffy fight the army guys, healing herself, bringing Buffy back from her Faith-strangle-athon, etc.). This shows just how drastic she has changed over the course of a year or two. Even when her eyes went all evil when she was fighting Amy, she shrugged it off and had no worries about it (like she did in Selfless). So now Willow has this insane amount of power, and yet she knows what its purpose is now and how she and her friends can benefit the most from using it. If I was Buffy, Xander, Giles, anyone, I would want Willow right there at my side.
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Mathieu
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Post by Mathieu on Apr 21, 2008 16:05:13 GMT -5
Willow did float im season 5 when Tara's family comes to visit to take Tara home and at the end Willow and Tara dance and they are both floating. I'm assuming Willow would ahve been able to do some of the things she can do now in season 8 if she wasn't holding back the whole of season 7. She probably learned and remembered alot t of the things from when she was Evil Willow, she absorbed alot of magic knowledge out of nearly every book in the magic shop. How could I forget about the end of that episode? I just loved that part when Willow and Tara were floating in the air in the middle of the Bronze (and nobody was even noticing by the way!). It was one the most romantic things on the show.
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andy369
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Post by andy369 on Apr 21, 2008 17:42:44 GMT -5
"I've got a theory.. That she's a demon. A flying demon.. Nah something isnt right there"
omwf
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