SPOILERS: Scott Allie Q&A for #22 *Complete*

[Ethros]

You said there no were plans to bring "either Robin" back. In reference to Robin Wood- why?
He was a strong character in Season 7, and as the son of a Slayer and a good fighter he had a prominent place in the gang by the end of the season. Seems if Andrew can lead a Slayer cell, surely Wood can too?
Apart from a blink and you'll miss it appearance of "No Future For You pt.1" the guy seems to have been shafted in Season 8, so I just wonder *why* hasn't he ever shown up or at least been mentioned since?

[vampmogs]

Hi, I hope it's not too late for questions

This is something I've been pretty interested in when reading the comics given Xander's new buffness. We've seen Xander training to spar with Renee, and kill Toru, and fighting the monsters in "Time of Your Life". Does Joss now see Xander as more of a fighter type than he was on television, and can we look forward to Xander scrapping more during Season 8? Maybe his old buddy Riley?"

Thanks

[NotaViking]

Feb 5, 2009 23:43:50 GMT -5 sarahi said:

I've noticed that people are able to ask more than one question. What's going on with Willow's wardrobe? She seems to be changing her style around lately, an example being her overalls in Issue 20.

Willow was wearing overalls in #20 because that was early-high-school-Willow, not S8-Willow.

Scott Allie: "How could an organization with agents worldwide, seemingly unlimited funding, and both magic and high tech on their side, come up with the skills to pilot a submarine? I think they could have worked it out."

Wasn't the submarine being run by Satsu's squad alone and in secret from the rest of the slayer organisation? If it's just Satsu's squad without approval from Buffy surely they only have access to limited personnel and funding, which makes it a little harder to believe in.

[Emmie]

Feb 6, 2009 11:32:01 GMT -5 NotaViking said:

Scott Allie: "How could an organization with agents worldwide, seemingly unlimited funding, and both magic and high tech on their side, come up with the skills to pilot a submarine? I think they could have worked it out."

Wasn't the submarine being run by Satsu's squad alone and in secret from the rest of the slayer organisation?

NotaViking, I think that was made very textually clear in Swell that Satsu had not included the acquisition of the submarine in her report when Kennedy found about the sub. I think Scott's answer implies that each cell has a diversity of resources and training that could applie to this situation.

I've added your question to the list, but would you maybe like to narrow it down a bit. Right now it's something any reader could answer with quotes from the issue. And I think you intended to get at something more specific, but I'm not sure what that was exactly.

[wenxina]

Feb 6, 2009 11:32:01 GMT -5 NotaViking said:

Feb 5, 2009 23:43:50 GMT -5 sarahi said:

I've noticed that people are able to ask more than one question. What's going on with Willow's wardrobe? She seems to be changing her style around lately, an example being her overalls in Issue 20.

Willow was wearing overalls in #20 because that was early-high-school-Willow, not S8-Willow.

While that may be true (I can't remember Willow's outfit that well from #20), I'm pretty sure Willow was wearing overalls in #21. So, it's possible that sarahi meant #21, but said #20 by mistake.

[NotaViking]

Perhaps out of politeness I've made my point a little unclear. I don't actually doubt that Satsu is operating the sub in secret. The other reason that you're not really sure what I'm getting at is because we're reading Scott Allie's answer to the previous sub question differently. I'm not personally that bothered about the sub, I just wanted to clarify what was meant by the previous answer.

Scott Allie talks about the situation "worldwide" and doesn't mention cells at all. I don't see the implication that you do. As it's just Satsu's squad without approval from Buffy surely they only have access to limited personnel and funding, which might be part of why some people regard it as stretching believability. I'll add that bit in the question to try to make it clearer, but the quote from Scott Allie also needs to be included.

wenxina - Overalls do reappear briefly in #21, I'd guess it's just a little call-back to the previous issue / Willow’s past.

[Emmie]

Nota Viking, I took Allie's description of the Slayer Organization with all it's resources to extend to each cell having their own operating budget as well as their own Wiccas on staff. My understanding is that Satsu's squad has mission control of their actions and only sends in reports to HQ and Buffy. They have the power to act independently from Buffy without getting direct orders for every mission. So this means they would presumably also have an independent running budget. I think it's a bit too much to assume that Buffy is micromanaging the entire situation, financially and strategically. There's not enough time in the day for her to be running everything.

So I don't think it's a stretch to make the jump that the Tokyo squad has the Wicca staff and the resources to perhaps recruit someone who knows about Korean submarines (makes sense that resource would be somehow available in that part of the world, if you can sniff it out with supernatural powers) or can divine that knowledge through magic.

But I completely understand you wanting clarification for one of Scott's answers. I just did the same thing in my own question. I was just anticipating from how these Q&A's sometimes go that your question might not get you the answer you were seeking. I wasn't exactly sure what you were looking for and I worried that Scott might be in the same position.

[sosa lola]

I'm wondering about when exactly Dawn became a giant. Did she get huge while in college, causing ciaos and destruction to the building? When did Kenny curse her? Is there a reason why we never heard from Kenny or Dawn's friends at college? Are all these questions gonna be answered in #25?

[BlueJay]

Joss Whedon had said before that he was willing to throw out the entire Season Eight story if a new Buffyverse show materialzed. So does this mean that when he writes this comic, he looks at it as his "plan B", and saves his alternate "plan A" for something on TV?

[AndrewCrossett]

(I haven't seen this question in the Q&A archives... please delete if it's already been answered...)

We know that vampires are now popular with the general public. Does this mean that they are no longer killing people for some reason? It seems like even reality TV wouldn't be enough to cover up the fact that we have 1 cute blonde vamp on the screen, and all the others are out there killing people on a nightly basis. Presumably not everybody gets their view of reality from a TV show -- the police, for instance, or the Homeland Security department. Is there more of an explanation for this that we haven't gotten yet?

[Enisy]

Thanks, Emmie!

This one's from Maggie on the DH S/B thread:

Scott, you have an answer in your latest where you say that you aren't going to do any filler between Season 7 and Season 8. That's specifically in response to a question about whether we'll see Anya's funeral or anything like that. What I want to know is whether we should take your answer to mean that we've been told all we are going to be told about how Buffy the Vampire Slayer evolved into Buffy the Bank Robber. Do you and Joss think that this is such an organic development of her character that we should have no problem filling in the blanks for ourselves (much as we really shouldn't have any problems filling in the blanks about Anya's funeral)?

[Emmie]

I've just sent along the latest round of questions all posted above here.

[El Diablo Robotico]

Been meaning to ask this one for awhile now, but kept forgetting about it when Q&A time came up each month...

Anyway, issue #5 was unique, in that besides covers by Jo and Georges, there was a third one, done by Paul Lee, who also did the interior artwork for that issue. Was there ever any consideration given to doing the same thing for the other issues that have had guest artists? ie, a Cliff Richards variant for #10, Karl Moline for #16-19, etc.?

[unleashthecasey]

Sex!

Or, not, I guess.

Relationships! I know you can't spoil for characters we haven't heard anything about, but since I saw a thing where Georges Jeanty said Xander is going to "hook up" again this season, can you tell us if this will be with one of the women we've already seen this season, or will the lucky lady be somebody new?

PS -- thanks for doing these Q&As!

[NotaViking]

Ok, thanks, Emmie. I completely agree with most of your previous post. Satsu would have a good degree of freedom, but with a budget and I don't think Buffy is micromanaging.

[rikr0k]

Hey Scott, Whatever happened to the slayer Dana that appeared in Angel Season 5? Will she make any appearence in this season?

[ponyenglish]

Alrights, So I have a two-in-one question, if you'd permit. I do alot of work on the Buffy wiki and one of my favortie things is the hidden stuff and trivia you guys put into the stories. In Time of Your Life, you told us that there was a very subtle refference hidden in the story. I was wondering if it was the purple limo which, as purple limos go, would be a shout-out to Prince. No? Keep looking?

Second: Will we ever see Pike again? I liked him.

[tms]

OK, so today I discovered that someone made a "Buffy Killed Edward" (edward being the main vampire from twilight) t-shirt here:

www.jinx.com/men/shirts/geek/buffy_staked_edward.html?cs=6&csd=1495

Any thoughts?

[wenxina]

Feb 6, 2009 19:21:27 GMT -5 ponyenglish said:

Alrights, So I have a two-in-one question, if you'd permit. I do alot of work on the Buffy wiki and one of my favortie things is the hidden stuff and trivia you guys put into the stories. In Time of Your Life, you told us that there was a very subtle refference hidden in the story. I was wondering if it was the purple limo which, as purple limos go, would be a shout-out to Prince. No? Keep looking?

Second: Will we ever see Pike again? I liked him.

Sorry buddy, one question until your question is answered. I'm putting your first question up for Scott, save your second for next round.

[narflet]

Thanks for the title to 26...anything else you can give us? Any more upcoming issue titles, arc titles, cover hints...? We love that kind of stuff (well, I certainly do!).

Thanks, as always, for doing these (on what now seems to be a monthly basis too!). Your dedication and diligence is much appreciated.