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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 9, 2010 8:34:54 GMT -5
IDW does too many spinoffs, IMO. Some are good, some not so good, but they over-saturated the market to the point that I stopped even paying attention. Now I only read the main Angel title and the current Spike miniseries.
The ones Dark Horse has planned aren't actually spinoffs, though... they are all part of season 9.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 9, 2010 8:31:23 GMT -5
This is very cool... Dark Horse should have hired you to design a season 8 calendar for them.
(However, I'm not sure Kinko's will be willing to print it since they're copyrighted images.)
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 8, 2010 16:58:15 GMT -5
Hmmm. It won't happen cos its a comic and its the last issue and it only has so many pages to wrap up a 40 issue book But it's one of the most important issues in the story right now... what will Angel do now that he's fully in control of himself and realizes what he's done? It may go through his mind that redemption is now out of reach, and the best thing he can do is to remove himself as a threat to the world. He knows he and Buffy are through, and there's nothing he can ever do to fix it. But Faith was probably closer to Giles than anyone this season, so for her to forgive him and try to help him would be enough to make him want to survive, and take the loss of Buffy as part of his atonement. This could be handled in only 3 or 4 pages. It could even be done without any dialogue. This would be a good way to set up Angel's and Faith's arc in season 9. But this is me speculating on a Joss story, so it won't happen that way.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 8, 2010 16:40:09 GMT -5
Angel will now try to kill himself, Faith will stop him, and season 9 will have Angel and Faith as a team.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 8, 2010 11:41:08 GMT -5
And I guess the IDW Angel series will cover why Angel got spat out of a portal and into the Hollywood sign. Though I never quite caught whether Joss was going to tell the writers the reason, or if they were just free to make it up themselves. My take on souled Drusilla: Probably not much different than soulless Drusilla, at this point. I don't have much desire to explore soulless Dru. (Although clothes-less Dru, as we saw in the first Spike issue, is a different matter. )
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 8, 2010 11:36:03 GMT -5
Not sure, actually. I know we had a long discussion about the ethics of "sacrifice a few for the good of many," but I can't remember if we had previously disagreed about anything else. I think just about everyone disagreed with me on that. (And it turned out to be "sacrifice a few now so you can sacrifice the rest later," so I feel pretty good about it.)
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 8, 2010 10:30:13 GMT -5
Are we actually agreeing on something here? Do we not often agree? I just hope if they break up, they don't finally pull the trigger on hooking Kennedy up with Satsu. (Because there are only three lesbians in the whole world.) I'm still flying my tiny little flag, hoping for more Batsu in season 9.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 8, 2010 8:48:12 GMT -5
I'd like to know why Joss thought we'd all be perfectly happy to not get an explanation of Spike's ship and bug crew. Without proper context, things like this seem like contrived plot-convenience devices.
"And then Spike shows up with a big magic sword that kills anything it hits, and saves the day!"
"What? Where did he get that??"
"Oh, uh... I don't know. But... who cares? Cool magic sword!"
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 8, 2010 8:39:34 GMT -5
As for Willow... I predict that there will be tension between her and Kennedy. The end of their relationship has been hinted at before (I think it was Allie who said that Kennedy haters would rejoice, but not because of the obvious option (i.e. her death)), and with Willow suddenly feeling powerless and Kennedy still retaining her Slayer status, I'm seeing some resentment ahead for that partnership. Well, when things calm down a bit, I expect the first thing Kennedy will ask is "So... who's Aluwyn?" I wouldn't think Kennedy would abandon Willow if she's paralyzed, and perhaps even if she's not. Theirs is (I think) the longest continuous relationship we've seen in the Buffyverse, so it should be able to withstand quite a lot, especially considering that Kennedy knows by now that Willow is kind of a unique case. If they do break up, it will more likely be because of the sudden change in the balance of power. A lot of marriages go sour when the husband loses his job and has to rely on his wife's income for support. I hope Willow isn't paralyzed... not only because I like her, but because I think it would be an unnecessary and excessive distraction from her real problem... the loss of the magic on which she relied. It would work better if the loss of magic was itself the "paralysis" that she has to learn to live with or overcome. Adding literal paralysis into the mix would over-sell the metaphor, I think. I still suspect Aluwyn has something up her sleeve (or would, if she wore any clothes) regarding Willow. Now that I've said it, though, probably not. My speculations are almost a magical talisman against something happening.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 7, 2010 15:13:40 GMT -5
I'm hoping there will be an uptick for #39 due to the curiosity factor. It would be nice if we could get all the way through the season without dipping below 40,000 sales.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 7, 2010 11:55:00 GMT -5
That still doesn't explain why vampires became famous and why people accepted it like "it was no big deal." It is hard to swallow. But is it really harder to swallow than what happened to Los Angeles during Angel season 4, or to Sunnydale in Buffy season 7, and the response (or lack of it) by the world at large? The general populace on Buffy and Angel are treated sort of the same way as adults in the "Peanuts" cartoons. They're there in the background, but they don't have anything to do with driving or even much influencing the story. The cluelessness of humanity is something we are expected to accept through suspension of disbelief, in order to keep the stories manageable in scope. It was easier with the TV shows, where we only have to think about it for a week before it's on to the next story... with the comics we have weeks and months to let it drive us crazy.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 6, 2010 12:26:25 GMT -5
This would have been epic... I'm forwarding this to Scott. I don't know what to think of the fact that I'm always 100% wrong about where Joss's stories are going.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 6, 2010 11:45:59 GMT -5
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 6, 2010 11:35:52 GMT -5
I'll be reading, but I don't think there's been any announcement of an "Angel monthly," has there? The way I understand it, Angel's story will be a limited series within the context of Buffy season 9.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 6, 2010 11:17:31 GMT -5
I am a bit puzzled, though, as to the logic behind exactly what's happening to magic.
Breaking the Seed, Aluwyn says, cuts off our world from all others. That means any magic accessed from outside our world is lost, but any that comes from our world is kept... including any that is intrinsic to a person (Slayer and vampire powers, etc.)
I can understand that witches who call on their powers from outside would lose their magic... but isn't the whole thing with Wicca (at least as portrayed in Buffy) that they get their powers from the Earth (or Earth Mother)? And shouldn't that power originate from inside the "bottle" itself, and not have to get past the "cork"?
Maybe part of Willow's story in season 9 will be finding out how to access true Earth magic, like she was supposed to be doing, instead of relying on flashy magic of the cosmos. After all, a Porsche might go faster and be fun to drive, but a beat-up old Buick will also get you where you need to go.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 6, 2010 9:56:28 GMT -5
I know Angel didn't actually do this himself, but... If Buffy ever forgives Angel for ANY of this... I may actually throw all of my respect for her down the Hellmouth. <.< Depends on whether she ever came to believe what Giles told her about forgiveness in "I Only Have Eyes For You." Whether she'll ever forgive herself may be more on her mind right now. No more Hellmouths, unfortunately. So, I've kinda been wondering about destroying the Seed vs. removing it. In both instances, it's essentially gone. However, removing it causes the world to die, whereas destroying it merely cuts off all magic. Anyone care to give this some thoughtful fanwank, or even textual explanation? As far as we know, Aluwyn's comparison to a cork in a bottle is true. Take the cork out, and the wine will be drunk, or spill, or just evaporate. Break off the cork in the neck of the bottle and the wine remains intact, but you can't get to it.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 5, 2010 17:00:02 GMT -5
All I will say is that, as "Sanctuary" and "Orpheus" showed us, Angel and Faith are two badly broken people who tend to be very good for each other. Almost the opposite of the Angel/Buffy disaster.
Season 9 may be a journey they take together. Possibly as a romantic couple, although I kind of hope not as that would be predictable and a distraction. Angel's curse is almost certainly moot now, though I'm pretty sure he won 't be getting anywhere near "perfect happiness" anytime soon anyway.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 5, 2010 8:54:27 GMT -5
Bearing in mind that there is still one more issue in which some revelations might be made, it's interesting to compare the "Last Gleaming" apocalypse with the one described in "Fray."
There are some inconsistencies. Urkonn tells Mel that this apocalypse resulted in all demons being banished from our dimension, and that the Slayer line faded out as a result of not being needed anymore. But in season 8, it seems only those demons who were summoned by Twilight got sucked back to Hell... many others (natives of this world, vampires, and demons who had previously arrived from outside) stay.
Urkonn also says of the Slayers, "the line continued... there were girls with the power, but they were never called, never trained." This doesn't square with what we've been shown in season 8, where the magic to call new Slayers no longer exists. Urkonn himself said that "all magicks" were banished from this dimension in the apocalypse, which would mean no new Slayers.
There was a panel showing a woman's arm disappearing into a portal, with the implication being that it was the Slayer's (Buffy's). But that hasn't happened yet in season 8.
And there's no explanation as to why or how the demons and vampires (and Slayers) returned in Fray's time.
I'm theorizing that it's Willow who goes through that portal at some point, to a world (Aluwyn's?) where she can get her magic back. Then, after a couple hundred years (which may be a much shorter time from her perspective), she returns to this world with a new Seed and a new Scythe, and the magic and demons and Slayers return with her.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 5, 2010 8:07:13 GMT -5
That's definitely possible... although I think it would kind of suck if Angel gets a spot on the farewell cover and Giles doesn't.
I also think Dawn will be in the final version of the cover, in the blank space beneath Giles/Spike.
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Post by AndrewCrossett on Dec 4, 2010 14:02:44 GMT -5
1. When last seen, the Twilight Lion was walking away into the landscape of Twilight. It's kind of frustrating to think this will be the second season in a row where the Big Bad just gets to walk away with no real consequences. Will we get any more closure on what happens with that Lion or the Twilight world?
2. Considering the global catastrophes going on, with the environment going crazy and demons pouring in through multiple portals, how could things have been so calm in Venice where Amy and Warren were? This seems like something too big for even Buffyverse people to be clueless about.
3. How badly physically injured was Willow by her fall?
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