SPOILERS: Scott Allie Q&A for #28 *Complete*

[AndrewCrossett]

Why did Amycat choose to disappear so dramatically in front of everyone instead of being more discreet? She not only confirmed to the Slayers that they'd been infiltrated, but tipped them off to the fact they're about to be attacked. Is this just more of Amy's horrible sense of strategic timing, like with the catacomb attack?

[NotaViking]

In "Harmony Comes To The Nation", Harmony actually admits on TV that vampires are evil and that they kill people. How can the public still believe that vampires are the good guys?

[buffystar]

Just reread "Long Way Home, P. 1" and something just popped up. Did Joss decide from the very beginning of Season 8 to have the Slayer in "The Girl in Question" be a decoy and real Buffy be in Scotland. Or did he want to have it follow the episode with real Buffy in Rome, but decided to change it later on?

[sosa lola]

Will there be at least someone or a group of people who aren't fooled by the whole "Vampires are good. Slayers are bad"? Because the whole world believeing that is not really realistic.

[slayerette]

You said Joss knew Xander and Dawn were going to get together pretty early on, he just wasn't sure when it would happen. In the last few issues they've been attached at the hip, so was their kiss in this issue the first instance of them actually taking it to the physical level? Or have they been at it for a while off the page? If that's the case when did they start being couple-y?

[BlueJay]

Since Season Two (except for Season Seven), there's always been an episode that celebrates Buffy's birthday. So to follow tradition, is there an issue like that planned? Buffy's birthday is on January 19th, and for next year, her birthday falls on a Tuesday. HOWEVER, the 20th will fall on a Wednesday. Maybe Joss can reference her birthday in #31 and if it's released on Jan 20th 2010, it'd be PERFECT! Her birthday doesn't even have to be central to the plot!
(....Just throwing it out there...)
But please consider it.

[Emmie]

Sorry, Scott, but this is going to be a long one. Season 8 is full of storylines that the fandom is hungry to have explored more - When will Spike appear? And Angel? What about the Decoy? And the Immortal? What happened between Chosen and The Long Way Home? What led to Buffy becoming a bank robber (her mindset, motivation)? Most of these are treated as unimportant and pushed to the side. That they're not relevant to the main thrust of the storyline and space is tight in telling that story and doing it justice.

Which brings me to the choice to have 'humanity discovers vampires and likes them' as a secondary storyline. The storyline in itself is so complex and carries so much potential to be explored, that many fans find it odd that it's pushed to the shadows. And because of it's complexity, it's been hard for fans to breeze by it with assumptions and just accept it as what's happening without further exploration. Fans wonder why humanity is accepting vampires across the globe when they're obviously evil and killing people, why everyone is so easily accepting. The story of humans discovering vampires and Slayers is complex, yet it's been boiled down to its most basic function to tell the main story.

What's your take on this balance of maintaining a focused story (keeping it close to Buffy) versus not filling out the secondary storylines of Season 8? Where do you draw the line between keeping the story tight and perhaps losing the audience's suspension of disbelief when storylines meant to be taken for granted and accepted simply aren't?

[The Girl In Question]

So Xander and Dawn are now together. This has been developing for awhile, but at the beginning of Season 8, Xander and Renee had a romantic thing going on there. She was my favorite new character, so I was rather upset when she was killed off so early, Now that I see Xander with Dawn so quickly after he lost Renee, I wonder: What was the point of Renee's existence in the series? What was she supposed to add to the story?

[bamph]

This might be a tough question to answer since it might delve into spoilerish territory.How much of Buffy's interest in Xander in this issue is because of genuine interest in him and how much of her interest is because she might be feeling needy and he's the only viable and available guy she has in front of her right now,or so she thought before seeing him and Dawn?No offense to Giles or Andrew by the way.If Angel and/or Spike were there with her by her side throughout season 8,would she be looking at Xander with this type of interest now?Or is this sort of question going to be dealt with some later on such as in Joss's one-off in #31 or Brad Meltzer's arc?

Totally understand if you can't say much.

[lmblack21]

Hey there.

I don't usually ask questions too often since I am happy enough to just read the comics and read the questions and answers others provide but this Q&A has prompted me to ask one of my own. I hope it's not too spoilery or asking for too much, it's mainly revolving around a concern I have regarding the idea of Dawn/Xander and Buffy/Xander, leading into the possibility of a triangle with Xander and two sisters.

I find the idea horribly icky, to be honest. The idea that Xander - if anything comes of Buffy's feelings for Xander - would have been with every major female character besides Joyce and Tara is bad enough. Stud Xander of Buffy90210. (Count them, Xander/Cordy, Xander/Willow, Xander/Faith, Xander/Anya, now Xander/Dawn and possibly Xander/Buffy?) But the idea that there might be a triangle involving Buffy and her own sister over Xander is really bothering me.

It's not something I even truly considered until you told someone in this Q&A that, yes, Buffy does have feelings for Xander.

So my question is, has this been a concern raised with anyone? I know the idea of Buffy/Satsu raised concerns with some of the writers because it's been mentioned before. But has there been a discussion about the implications and squick factor involved in potentially having a triangle situation with 2 sisters, and with Xander's romantic history with every other female?

I am trying to just let the story unfold and trust in it, and Buffy has always had an element of soap opera to it, but this seems very likely to damage a lot of relationships and characters and that concerns me.

And this is probably too far into spoilery territory, but how far do you see a triangle being played out like this?

-Luc

[CowboyGuy]

Scott, thanks for being so good to us! My question is, can you tell us the title of Issue 31?

[AndrewCrossett]

Now that they've been discovered, the Slayers have no reason to suppress their power anymore. Is their continuing "power"lessness just due to the fact that they don't have time to refocus and get it back before Twilight attacks, or have they permanently sacrificed their Slayer magic?

[Witchy]

Hi!

My question is about International release of the books, I'm not sure if this new season has been release in other countries. Do you have anything to do about it? or is completely different area in Dark Horse? Any plans about a spanish translation for Latin America?

Thanx!

[Emmie]

Just sent in the most recent batch of questions!

[thomas]

Are there any significant things happening with Faith between now and the end of the season?

[Maggie]

I have to admit I'm disappointed by your answer to Emmie, which leaves me to wonder whether it wasn't misleading to call this season 8, which implies that it is a sequel to season 7, when the intent was instead to jump to a "new and fresh" story. But leaving that aside and taking the story as is, I want to try again with a variation of what I think Emmie was trying to ask about the balance between tightness and our ability to follow the story. How are we to judge what Buffy is up to if we have no idea why she thought an organized army was necessary in the first place, or what sort of justifications she gave herself when she crossed the line into bank robbing. This is a story about Twilight trying to undermine Buffy's sense of moral certainty and yet you tell us that it is irrelevant to the story to know enough about Buffy's choices to be able to judge the extent to which they are morally dubious. Back to Emmie's version of the question, it's hard to make sense of the slayers' situation when it's hard to believe that the world could just decide that vampires are cool. Are you confident that at the end of the run we'll have enough of the background to understand the story that is being told here on its own terms?

[AndrewCrossett]

I'll now fulfill my monthly duty and ask: is there a title yet for Brad Meltzer's arc that you can share?

[bamph]

Something I've been wondering about.Twilight wants to end all magic.Amy is a witch and is basically addicted to magic if you go by season 6 and magic is basically the thing keeping Warren around.So my next question is,why would they be onboard with working with Twilight and helping him end magic when they themselves are almost defined by magic especially Amy?It doesn't make sense when you think about it unless Twilight promised them something in return for there aid or they're just too dense to really get what Twilight wants to do.Will,why Amy and Warren are with Twilight given there magic reliance be brought up at some point?

[slayerette]

I hope this is okay,and if it's not I apologize in advance. It's sort of a question and a response to the answer to my last question. Wow, that sounds convoluted. Anyway...

I can only speak for myself and not the rest of fandom, but you make a valid point about leaving details out, in order to keep the story as open as possible. I never thought about it that way before, especially with "little" details. Some of this stuff doesn't FEEL important to the story, just important to fans who like to know exactly how/when/where things are happening, or who want answers that prove or disprove a theory (for example, that D/X have been together since the end of "Living Doll").

I can see why big questions such as "Where does Angel's timeline fit into Season 8" or "Was Buffy on her way to spill her guts to Xander" wouldn't be spelled out now in case the story calls for it later. That makes total sense to me. I never really imagined that something small like how many months it's been since season 8 started or in my case whether or not this was D/X's first kiss could change as the story progresses. I sort of took it for granted that every tiny detail is mapped out in the writer's head before they put pen to page. Like Jane Espenson could tell us on what day of the week this issue took place if you asked.

Long answer short, I see where the creative team is coming from, and I'll try to just let these details be explained later if they need to be explained at all.

So here's a related question, when you are doing these Q&A's or interviews, how do you decide what's okay to spell out and what should just be left alone?

[BlueJay]

Probably too late for this season, but has there been talk of doing a Halloween-themed issue in the future?