|
Post by wenxina on Jul 10, 2010 8:27:54 GMT -5
It's okay. It's not like you'll manage to keep him anyway. He's a man-slut. We can band together and form a revenge club! You don't say... he managed to insert a verse from his mistress' song into his vows...
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 9, 2010 19:36:46 GMT -5
well congrats for that EWR! ;D B=Better than everyone else! that's how i think of it!! Your logic does not resemble our earth logic.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 8, 2010 22:47:00 GMT -5
Since your series will take place before the "Twilight" arc (possibly pre-S8, for that matter), do you feel like you're limited by where the story can go? Also, on that same note, were you given an approximate timeline so that your story will presumably not contradict the main events of S8?
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 8, 2010 15:47:43 GMT -5
I guess we may see why this is in #36, given that the one preview page we have so far seems to be quite exposition-heavy, and it does explain some of Angel's motives. September is really far away, no? Gah!
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 8, 2010 7:29:33 GMT -5
Anger, before the pleasure. To get her to her ascension, he had to focus her anger. The sex came after the ascension.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 7, 2010 19:55:02 GMT -5
Oh c'mon, Sky. Just send in your entry, and then offer up some cash for that first Spike piece... you know you want to.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 7, 2010 17:08:56 GMT -5
I spent nearly all evening putting together my new hamster cage which was a nightmare and I thought it was never going to be finished. Finally all done but my little hammies got stuck in the super posh wheel and couldn't find their way out so I have put them back in their old cage as am worried they may get stuck in there in the night and have no food or water Silly hamsters...
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 7, 2010 14:28:57 GMT -5
@ac: Your conclusion about the significance of the goddesses is pretty much what I arrived at post-#31. Up until that point, given Jeanty's claim that Espenson had researched the goddesses quite extensively, I was hoping for a bit more than "big, colorful monsters to fight". (Although I would certainly do Faith. ) Psycho-Faith or Reformed-Faith? If the former, get the safeword. Just in case.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 7, 2010 13:01:44 GMT -5
Please read the original post for submission guidelines.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 7, 2010 12:59:16 GMT -5
Technically, the whole thing with taras and boddhisatvas are the by-product of the merging of older religions with Buddhism (mostly Tibetan and Hindu elements), and not an essential part of Buddhism in its native form. But, look, I understand your point. All the taras, goddesses/etc are just facets of the one universal truth. That has always been my understanding (again, raised nominally Buddhist, with my mom's patron goddess being Quan Yin, the goddess of mercy @ one of the many boddhisatvas). All that I'm saying is that in introducing three separate forms and facets, each form is distinct. So while enlightenment can be attained through any of them, the path through the blue tara is not the one, since the goddess that picked Buffy up was not Ekajati. Other than that, we're not really in any disagreement at all.
That said, I'm not sure if Twilight's little speech about having Buffy turning her own sword against her was anything more than "evil villain speak". He was talking to his minions at that point. But Angel really doesn't seem to know that much about Twilight. If he somehow knew about how Buffy's ascension would play out, he would have been waiting in Tibet for her, instead of trying to find her. How much he really knew will probably come up soon enough. From the preview page from #36, we know that he was told that he needed to be the focus of Buffy's anger, that she couldn't know, and that the emotion had to be pure.
Also, Willow already learned astral projection. She was technically dabbling with the astral plane as early as in S4 ("Who Are You?"), and as recent as "Turbulence", she was using it to communicate with the Scoobies while she was goddess hunting. The entire purpose of heading to Tibet this go around was to learn to suppress magic, not learn astral projection. Buffy's newfound power was apparently predestined from the moment she changed the rules in "Chosen". So it's not as if Buffy somehow learned more than Willow. Being a mere witch, albeit a very powerful one, apparently doesn't compare to being some kind of new species of god.
As for Andrew secretly being a spy for Spike... that's a pet theory, no?
And hey, I'm not saying "Do away with "Retreat"!" It's not my favorite arc, but only from the execution standpoint. Thematically, it was powerful.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 7, 2010 10:59:41 GMT -5
Noted and added.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 7, 2010 8:23:00 GMT -5
If you don't receive a confirmation e-mail from me, please either post here, or send me a PM. Apparently there have been some problems with submission, and that worries me. Keep those entries rolling in!
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 7, 2010 7:31:59 GMT -5
The blank speech bubble in space is as much a truism as it is a sight gag. Anyone with any understanding of basic science should get it. So for me, it wasn't so much funny as it was a "Well, at least they got the physics of sound waves right". If you're already out of the moment, the entire thing doesn't read true. But if you're still in it, the issue becomes a melding of "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Smashed".
As for needing the actors to ground the moment, I can see that being important. Which is why it still works for me. Because I essentially have the cast doing reps in my head when I read. And #34 brought the human drama. Giles finally coming clean. Giles plotting to potentially kill Buffy. Buffy and Angel destroying the world in their oblivious sexacapades. And by your definition of what accounts for human drama, there's plenty of that in #35 too. Especially in the discourse between Angel and Buffy. It's all about choices here. Why Angel's making the choices he is... well, perhaps we haven't seen the last of it (I hope not, and that page of the #36 preview supports that).
The last couple of arcs have largely reflected the plotting turmoil. Remember when we were going to run into #41? That uncertainty suggested that things weren't quite plotted out clearly, and thus, things got bloated. "Retreat" wasn't as streamlined as it needed to be. Certain beats that needed to be covered never made it, because of the pacing, and ended up in "Turbulence" instead, which was Joss attempt to reign things back in. And he gets it... sure there are three rampaging goddesses, but the meat is the dialogue between Xander and Buffy. Joss knows his audience, serves them their meat and potatoes (or tofurkey). And the goddesses... pfft... afterthought. Kinda like Doc being all badass, easily defeating Spike on top of the tower, only to have Buffy push him off as if he were a mild annoyance.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 6, 2010 23:01:02 GMT -5
I have no issue accepting that in Buddhist teachings, each colored Tara is a separate facet of the same quality. Thus, in this case, we have three separate entities, all separately named, and in teachings, representing different facets. Which is why I'm arguing against the blending of the facets, because in this case, they are made to be distinctly separate. And so, all I'm saying is that the Blue Tara=/=Remati. Because that title is ascribed to Ekajati, who just about always appears to look like the pink goddess (barring when she appears blue and has something like 24 arms). I'm quite happy that Jeanty was quite respectful when translating these goddesses to paper, not taking many liberties, other than censorship (they are rather naked) with their design. Jeanty has drawn Tara before in a panel in #27. Yes, it's just a panel, but Jeanty practices drawing new characters all the time, to make sure that he's able to do it. Other than that, he's done at least two headsketches of Tara for people who purchased his sketch books. Click HERE and HERE. So no, I don't think Jeanty was referring to the goddesses when he said that he had been practicing.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 6, 2010 21:53:34 GMT -5
Jeanty was very literal with his depictions of the goddesses. Typing in "Ekajati" into Google brings up more images of the pink goddess than any other depiction, despite her title as the Blue Tara. And while I understand that there is a lot of melding in terms of eastern religious beliefs, when it comes to literal drawings of them, I don't for a second doubt that the Remati was the blue one (since she's always blue anyway), Vajrayogini the red one, and Ekajati the pink one. And while i would love to believe that the choice of goddesses was a specific thematic element (covered this in my review HERE), I'm not confident that they weren't merely used as a plot device. I would love to be mistaken on this one. However, bottom line is, I can accept that Buffy may have achieved some kind of enlightenment while suspended some 50 feet up in the air, but that should have been covered some, instead of merely left up to interpretation. And in any case, she wasn't peering into the giant eye of Ekajati, but rather Remati. Which is not to say that there was no transmutational possibility... these goddesses are afterall different embodiments of the various spiritual aspects of Tibetan-Buddhism.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 6, 2010 18:54:32 GMT -5
Guys who feel the need to scratch/shift/fix/move about/jiggle their junk every 30 seconds. Seriously, what's the matter down there? I swear, no one has castrated you, especially not in the last minute or so when we were having a conversation. I understand the occasional need to move things about. Heat, humidity, and bunching are not very comfortable things. But if it's quite literally happening every 30 seconds to the tick, I just want to reach for some masking tape to secure things. Or bind their hands behind their back.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 6, 2010 18:47:04 GMT -5
As far as I know, there hasn't been any news about collecting "Better Days" into a HC at the moment.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 6, 2010 17:22:46 GMT -5
Larger arc and significance for Cordy? That would be my guess, but perhaps some people are more privy to the inner workings of the show runners.
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 6, 2010 7:58:22 GMT -5
Received your entry. Nine more days... get those entries in!
|
|
|
Post by wenxina on Jul 5, 2010 23:15:23 GMT -5
Remati (also known as Palden Lhamo) is the name of one of the three goddesses summoned. And like most eastern religions, gods and goddesses have multiple facets, which are often emphasized in different contexts. That said, there is no denying that the blue goddess is Remati. Of the three goddesses, Remati is the only one that's often associated with "wrath", whereas the other two are often ascribed transmutational qualities. In fact, Ekajati is the one that's also known as the Blue Tara. And yes, her coloring is usually described as being blue as well, but she is often depicted as pink or some similar shade. Moreover, Ekajati is also described as having "a split tongue or a forked tongue and a single tooth. She is dressed in a skull necklace and with a tiger and a human skin. She is surrounded by flames representing wisdom." This description matches the pink goddess, not the blue one. In fact, check out this picture of Ekajati: Looks pretty much exactly like the pink goddess.
|
|