Post by Emmie on Jan 13, 2010 13:59:32 GMT -5
SPOILER NOTICE
Twilight's identity is openly discussed in this Q&A.
[/size]Twilight's identity is openly discussed in this Q&A.
Dark Horse Editor, Scott Allie, and writer of Exurbia and Solomon Kane is back for another Q&A to celebrate the release of Buffy Season 8 #31 Turbulence written by Joss Whedon and penciled by Georges Jeanty.
Remember to please submit one question per post and do not submit another question till the pending one has been answered.
If you want to participate, but you're not interested in registering at this time, you can e-mail your questions to emmie@slayalive.com and I'll submit them for you with credit. Again, we'd really love people to actively join in, but I'm hoping to encourage any fan out there with a great question to feel free to share it.
If this is your first time participating in the Q&A, please take a look at past Q&A's as your question might have already been answered.
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1. AndrewCrossett: Haven't gotten to the comic shop yet, but here's a question: Back in A Beautiful Sunset, Twilight told Buffy “you have brought about disaster, and it falls to me to avert it.” Nothing the Slayers have done up to this point could be defined as a disaster, and usually one “averts” something that hasn’t happened yet. Is there an element of time displacement at work here? (I know, I know... “Seven,” right?)
Scott Allie: Yeah, kind of seven, but also, I think your question answers itself. The Slayers haven't done anything, that you can see, that qualifies as a disaster; but Twilight didn't say s/he (are we doing that?) was trying to repair damage done. When you knock over the first domino, someone looking from the right angle can tell the last domino in the line is going down long before it actually falls.
2. Neil: Maybe foolish at this point, but is there a chance that the Twilight isn't the real/ present-day person but someone impersonating him or using his image or alternatively from another timeline/dimension ?
Scott Allie: Let's pretend I don't know, but that I do know Joss real well, and know what happened over the last week. If it were as muddy as that, would we have shit our pants so publicly? When we promised that the story is more complicated, we don't mean that we're replaying a trick that we already did in the middle of the season.
3. bamph:
I'm sure you know that the leak that Angel is Twilight has cracked the Buffy fandom.I think most of us are waiting to see how the story actually plays out.As you've said in interviews,there is a lot we don't know and wrong questions are being asked.We know Angel is Twilight but we don't know why or how and what that actually means.But right off the bat I've got to ask since there is that fear and I know you can't say much at this point but I have to ask.Should Angel fans be concerned that their favorite character is going to be damaged beyond repair and should Buffy/Angel shippers be in a state of panic and lining rooftops in preparation for their ship to be killed and closed for good?Buffy/Angel came back from the Angelus arc of season 2.Can Buffy/Angel come back from this too and can Buffy/Angel shippers still have the hope End of Days/Chosen gave them when this is all over?
Again,I know you can't say much but any comments would be appreciated.
Scott Allie: Angel fans more than anyone need to hang in there and see what this really means about the character. And no one understands Angel better than Joss. In that, I believe he's incapable of ruining the character. If I explained the story to you in a paragraph, you'd say, I dunno if I buy it. But when you read the upcoming issues, I think you'll be swept up in events the same way the characters are, and it will make sense.
4. iloveromy: Anyway, I'll avoid any obvious questions that will most likely get asked and jump to a marketing question that you can maybe answer. Now that things have changed for you all, have you had any meetings about how to push the upcoming issues as an event vs just simply a surprise? Has Dark Horse got any cool surprises - marketing wise, in store for us? I guess the question doesn't have to pertain to issue 33 if something else is on the horizon. Sorry if the question was bit vague or hard to understand.
Scott Allie: Oh, yeah, absolutely. We had the best surprise I've ever been involved in with a comic, and someone screwed it up. I'd much rather have that than a great marketing opportunity, but we'll deal with this. Sadly. Some of you saw those very crass-looking excerpts from my letter to the retailers. On Wednesday of last week, our Marketing department had their weekly conference call with our distributor, Diamond, and they were talking about Joss's issue coming out, and Brad Meltzer's arc coming up. Our Marketing Director hinted that not only do we have a huge opportunity with Brad coming on board, but we have a major surprise coming. Diamond said that either me, Joss, or Brad should write a letter to retailers to compel them to get onboard. We did something similar before Buffy #12 shipped—told retailers to stock up, because something was coming that would put the title in the headlines, but we couldn't tell them what it was. It of course was Satsu. So I wrote a similar letter to retailers, pimping Brad and the upcoming surprise reveal of Twilight. I wrote that letter Thursday morning. Then the spoil happened. Part of my Friday scramble was rewriting the letter—instead of saying there's a surprise coming that will sell books, I said the cat's out of the bag, everyone's buzzing about Twilight's identity, and that, combined with issues written by Joss and Brad should drive people into the stores. Then, after a sleepless Friday night, at 7 a.m. I did a rewrite, advising them to not spoil the surprise for readers who didn't know, and to not spread around the covers that had leaked. But by then it was too late, and the second letter was the one that got distributed. But yes, guilty as charged. With this fantastic surprised ruined, the loss to the narrative integrity, we're trying to find a benefit elsewhere. However ... scanning back over your question ... I guess none of this qualifies as cool.
5. lmblack21: I am equal parts thrilled and terrified about Angel as Twilight. He is easily one of my favorite characters, not far behind Buffy herself. And I still love with a probably not healthy attachment, the B/A relationship. I was perfectly happy to get more comics without B/A because I was happy enough with the hope of "someday" we got in "Chosen". So the terrified part is what it means for Angel the character and, secondarily although no less importantly for me, the B/A relationship.
On the flip side, I've always longed to have Angel play a part in Buffy again - I just didn't *expect it*. So that is the "thrilled" part.
I am trying very hard to adopt a wait and see approach based on what you've said - that we don't have the right questions, that there is so much more to come, etc. I also loved hearing you still refer to Angel as the love of Buffy's life and the fact that Joss felt it was "a given" that he would have to show up in the comics. (All of that falls into the "thrilled" part.)
I swear, a question is coming, I'm just trying to figure out how to ask it without asking for spoilers - someone up thread has already sort of asked what I was going to initially.
I guess my question is this, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be way too spoilery for you to actually answer, but perhaps you can find a way to offer some assurance without spoiling...
I am stuck on your assertion that asking if Angel is redeemable or will be likable again is the wrong question to ask. Because unless something HUGE happens, it will always be at least one of the right questions to ask.
Let me put it this way. Let's say that Angel/Twilight is doing what he's doing because he honestly believes it's the right thing to do. Even if that is the case, his methods have been evil. Not good. So there would have to be some talk of redemption for him. Not to mention, the way he's talked to Buffy has been very un-Angel like except for the line "I never did like seeing you cry." (I mean, him saying he'll not kill her now? Odd, to say the least.)
So my question to you is, do you believe that what we don't know really WILL remove that question as one that needs to be asked or will there just be bigger questions that take precedence? Because that is not the same as saying it's the wrong question completely, ya know?
Yes, I worry. But I'm also on the edge of my seat waiting each reveal so that's saying something.
Scott Allie: I love these characters too, buddy. I love them because they're epic heroes, and because they're flawed. Buffy has shown some compromised morals in what she's done as leader of her army. It's gonna take a lot to understand what's really going on with Angel. I'd said in a pre-spoiler interview or Q&A that Twilight will not get revealed on the last page of an issue, but basically in the middle. By the end of that issue, I cannot promise that things will make sense. You might not be satisfied by the end of the next one. But I do think Joss deserves your trust, and is working hard to maintain it.
6. collex: Next year, in 2011, Buffy(the in-verse character) is going to turn 30 (she was born in 1981). I the comics timeline doesn't really jive with the real world, but do you think a special "Buffy celebrate her 30th birthday (a big milestone in life)" could be a possibility, even if it's non-canon or out of continuity?
Scott Allie: That's an interesting idea. Maybe something in the gap between Season 8 & 9. We'll have a lot to celebrate middle of next year.
7. trunktheslayer: Is the Scythe going to be relevant in the series again? Obviously it was major at the end of season 7, and the Wolves at the Gate arc, but is it just going to be Buffy's signature weapon from here on, or will anything special happen with it (either information about it/its history, or something in the present story)?
Scott Allie: The scythe counts, for sure. Sorry, nothing more at the moment ...
8. bamph: Joss just confirmed that Spike will be appearing in the second part of his CBR interview.
Joss, I want to wrap our Buffy talk with what will hopefully give fans one more spoiler as far as the future of the series. After we'd mentioned we'd be talking to you, a reader named Remmy wrote in saying that, of all the characters in the Buffyverse, Spike was his favorite, and he wondered if, with Angel back in play in "Season 8," could something for Spike be too far off?
You know, like Angel, he's somebody we wanted to keep our mitts off of for a while. And, like Angel, he's incredibly important to Buffy. So do I have plans for Spike? I don't think anybody's going to gasp in horror when I say, "Yes." What are they? I don't think anybody's going to gasp in horror when I say "I'm not going to tell you!" [Laughs]
But again, it's a question of leaving everything that IDW is doing – and I'm not aware of everything they're doing, and I haven't read a lot of the stuff – and giving just enough [on our end] so it'll jibe with whatever they're doing. It's not like Spike's going to turn up and now he's a werewolf. He'll still be Spike, and we won't constrict them from doing whatever stories they want.
You know, like Angel, he's somebody we wanted to keep our mitts off of for a while. And, like Angel, he's incredibly important to Buffy. So do I have plans for Spike? I don't think anybody's going to gasp in horror when I say, "Yes." What are they? I don't think anybody's going to gasp in horror when I say "I'm not going to tell you!" [Laughs]
But again, it's a question of leaving everything that IDW is doing – and I'm not aware of everything they're doing, and I haven't read a lot of the stuff – and giving just enough [on our end] so it'll jibe with whatever they're doing. It's not like Spike's going to turn up and now he's a werewolf. He'll still be Spike, and we won't constrict them from doing whatever stories they want.
And in the letter column for the new issue.
I don't think anyone ever said that Buffy doesn't know Spike is alive.It hasn't played into this story,so we haven't talked about it,but one must assume a lot of conversations have taken place off-panel,including conversations with Andrew.
Can you give your thought on Joss's comments about Spike's appearance since he will be showing up and was there any truth in the letter column today in your answer in relation to this?
Scott Allie: I was surprised Joss admitted that Spike was coming. In the lettercol, which was written wellll before the spoilers happened, I was still trying to be vague and vamping about anything like this. But the truth is, we simply haven't addressed the question of Spike yet in the comics. What Buffy knows or doesn't know about him, or any of what happened in the final season of Angel is a bit of a question mark right now. Soon to be answered, as you now know ... But in terms of my response in the lettercol, I was trying to be pretty vague and speculative. And any appearance that might hypothetically be definitely coming with Spike, that script is not yet written.
9. Skytteflickan88: Another fan made me question Kenny's powers. I always assumed he could alter his apperance at will, but another fan thinks his apperance as a boy is a illusion, and he pointed out that "Kenny the Thricewise was some sort of hideous monster, but Dawn saw him as a hot guy. Look in Issue #25, last 3 pages."
I always assumed that he changed back to human form for one panel, then changed back to the monster.
What is the truth?
Scott Allie: Yeah, he changes back and forth—he's really the monster, but he can appear as a kid. Like when Andrew met up with him at school. And noooo, that didn't mean Andrew was in love with him. Kenny mostly wears a mask. But that line from #25 that you quote, written by Doug—Joss and his writers use magic largely as metaphor, right? So the idea that Kenny can appear to Dawn as a handsome guy instead of a hideous thing is a lot like Angel being some dreamboat during the courtship, then turning into a psycho the minute they had sex. Yeah, he literally turned into a soulless vampire, but the reason it's so poignant is because of how it mirrors our real experiences.
10. AndrewCrossett: I am that rare breed... a Batsu shipper. Buffy dismissing her relationship with Satsu as a "phase" seems to pretty much close the door on any further development in that regard. Is that true?
Scott Allie: I was frankly a little surprised by that word too, and if it were another writer I might have questioned it. I'm surprised that Buffy seems as done with it as she does, but I do know there's no room for their relationship to get explored much this season, with everything else coming. But I also know that Joss isn't done with Satsu. He sees more in her character than just what's happened with Buffy.
11. wenxina: Hey Scott. #31 was awesome... some great character moments there. But, as much as it pains me to say this, there is a gaping continuity error between #30 and #31. Someone brought this up last month, and you said to wait for #31 to see if it made sense. Unfortunately, it doesn't really. At the end of #30, a bunch of Slayers, Giles, and Willow are shown to be corralled by armed soldiers. However, only Giles, Faith, and Andrew seem to taken in #31 (it's also possible than an unknown number of Slayers were taken too, but they were not shown prominently in #31, whereas the three named characters were). And many of the Slayers are still in the temple, along with Twilight's wounded, instead of being herded. And Riley tells Buffy that "nobody won", but by all appearances, Twilight won the battle in #30. Will this be made to work somehow? Twilight mentioned something about a confounding spell... did that spell work on the soldiers as well, and allowed several of the captives to escape?
Scott Allie: No, you're right, I'm sorry. Willow should not be among the captured, and that's getting fixed for the trade. But an unknown number of Slayers were taken prisoner–there were a lot of girls, and many were killed, and many were captured, and many retreated. But the Willow thing was a total goof. And I think the "nobody won" thing is as much a statement on war as it is a comment that neither side has won the war completely yet—otherwise Buffy and Willow and everyone else would be captured or dead, right? But Willow—that was a mistake. By the time Georges was drawing #30—by the time he's drawing the last issue of any arc—we're down to the wire, which is why we require that month off between arcs.
12. neowhobaz: I know Brad Meltzer's Arc is called Twilight but is the main focus of the Arc something less obvious like Buffy's powers and the regrouping of the scoobies or is it exactly what it implies?
Scott Allie: Pretty much what it implies. With a notable assist from the interwebs, this arc answers the questions about what Twilight is. But the arc also does deal with getting characters back together, examines her powers—but the most important thing is cracking open the Twilight question.
13. Hey Scott, is the First evil appearing in the comics?
This is my theory.
The first true nature of power which lies in its ability to deceive, torment and manipulate others. Which Angel would be the ultimate weapon against Buffy of manipulate her.
If i recall the first can merge with certain beings, imbuing them with superhuman strength, stamina and durability, so it could happen that the first give him the power, so that could explain his power and strength and the abilities to fly.
I might be wrong. But thats the fun of reading season 8 we have theories.
Scott Allie: Yes. You might be wrong, and it is fun to have theories.
14. vampireinrug: Scott, I've got an idea for how you could collect the "Tales of the Vampires" oneshot as well as the "Willow" oneshot. You could release a number #0 trade paperback for the as-of-now uncollected stuff that happens prior to, and behind the scenes in season 8. In addition to the two s8 oneshots, you could include "Antique" and "Tales" since the Fray stuff and Dracula stuff also happens prior to season 8 and is pretty relevant. If need be you could pad it out with some of the webcomics or hell, "Broken Bottle of Djinn" if you had room for it. I think all this would be a cool intro to the stuff prior to "The Long Way Home." What do you think?
Scott Allie: Good idea, but we've got other ones. But what you're doing is exactly the sort of thinking we put into composing the trades and hardcovers.
15. collex: The cover for Issue 34, apart from the appearance of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, seems.... wrong somehow. (Spoiler just in case)
What I mean is, they are both very romantic and sweet, but I couldn't think of a less romantic situation than what's going on right now. So, does the style and feel of the covers have anything to do with the content inside? Maybe in a darkly ironic way? Or are they just beautiful covers?
Scott Allie: Beautiful covers, and great fan service! If we hadn't #$&%ed that @#%$ up!
16. vampmogs: Last Q/A you talked about maybe having to do another one-shot and that you’d like to focus it on slayers outside of Buffy’s organisation. This isn’t so much of a question as it is a request but is there any chance we could get an issue focused on one of the new S8 slayers instead? A lot of fans have been discussing this lately and they’d really like to see an issue devoted to Leah or Rowena (or both) because a lot of us like them – but we don’t know a lot about them. I think it’d be a great opportunity to find out more about these girls and give them some back-story. You could do an issue about ‘a day in the life of a slayer in Buffy’s army’ or maybe just some quick back stories on their origins and what being a slayer means to them. I guess to make this more of a question – “Why is it that you’d prefer to do a new slayer outside of the organisation rather than concentrate on one of the existing slayers instead?”
Scott Allie: Joss suggested that very thing on Tuesday. Hence my response re: Satsu above. Here's why this wouldn't be my first choice for the July fill-in—by the way, there will be a July fill-in. We will have a 2-month break between #35 & #36. Sorry. Schedules. Killing. But one of the things I want to do with the oneshots is address the most pressing questions that we aren't able to in the monthly. While I know you're interested in Ro and Leah and Satsu, and I'm glad for that, you can basically see what's going on with them. I think to understand the full Twilight effect, vampires in vogue and Slayers as pariahs, you might still need to see a little more of what goes on with them out in the world away from ground zero. Hence the book Becky and Vee did last year, playing out vamp popularity in a social setting. And Jackie Kessler and Paul Lee's current TotV story on MDHP, showing how vamps are adjusting to the new status quo. I feel like that's a bigger, more important unanswered question than what's it like being a soldier in this army. I'd love to also do stuff with Rowena, etc., and if that's the story Joss outlines for me I'll be happy, but I think people are scrunching their noses at us more over the vampire popularity thing than this. The one established Slayer that I suggested to Joss we feature in July—Simone.
17: tigerfan: In this issue, the BX talk about their feelings for each other was an interesting one. Xander seems to come away thinking that Buffy only has feelings for him because she saw him kissing Dawn, but what we saw in the comic suggest other wise. Will this issue ever come up again between them? Dawn doesn't exactly seem happy with her sister right now, so it makes me wonder if this really the end of BX feelings for each other and if this matter wont become growing issue for Dawn.
Scott Allie: This is definitely going somewhere. But the climax of Season 8 is rushing at us, and this conversation between Buffy and Xander has put the issue to bed for the moment. But this has been part of the subtext of our story since the first episode of the show, no? It ain't gone for good.
18: Joe: In the #32's preview, Willow's on the phone with Satsu (so we can assume she wasn't captured), but they mention Andrew, Faith, and Giles as if they're also not captured. We see in #31 that Twilight has them. Is this the works of Twilight's confusion spell, or were they somehow rescued in between? I thought the "confusion" spell was meant for them just to forget about them.
Side note: I asked you last Q & A if Willow being taken hostage by Twilight's army at the end of #30 was a mistake, you told me you thought it might be but that I should get back to you on that after I read #31. It appears it was a mistake but it's completely ok because #31 was the best since TOYL.
Scott Allie: Side note: Thanks. And while I did a crap job of answering on this issue last time, I do think we've dealt with it right—relying heavily on the confusion spell—now. There was a really good narrative reason to stall anyone noticing the absence of those three primaries. You might scoff and say how could they not notice, but read #31 and #32, and I think you'll see that with everything happening, and so many survivors to deal with, and so many fallen, Will and Satsu's game of telephone was an apt metaphor for communications in the aftermath of Retreat. (Chris, can I say "aftermath"? Thanks.)
19. collex: Scott, I want to know why you decided to spoil the reveal on the cover of the TPB (assuming you did before this week)? You know many people doesn't read single issue before reading the TPB, so why consiously spoil the surprise for them? Sure, the cover is beautiful ( one of my favorite so far. Buffy seems, well in trance or in pleasure), but I still wonder why spoil it for the casual reader.
Scott Allie: We wrestled with that. We felt that when Twilight is revealed in #33, it'll be a big enough deal that anyone who really cares about or knows Buffy will at least hear that that character is back in the series, at least before the trade paperback comes out. In the debate about what we should have or shouldn't have done when the #34 covers leaked, I said that it was Georges's cover that sealed the deal for me that the cover was blown—you saw Twilight unmasked, but in costume. The trade cover is not as spoilery as that. It shows the characters together, but I think there's plausible deniability, for people who had not already heard who Twilight was, that the cover merely states that that guy is in the book again. We hope that Jo's cover is interesting, evocation, and open to interpretation.
20. bamph: In the new issue we learn that Twilight has captured Faith, Giles and Andrew. All three have a interesting connection to Angel. Angel saved Faith's soul. Angel was refused help by Giles with Fred. Andrew spoke for Buffy in Damage and The Girl In Question where he learned where he supposedly stood with Buffy and her group plus that she was dating his enemy although we know she really wasn't. Considering Angel is Twilight, should we read anything into Twilight's choice of prisoners?
Scott Allie: No. His minions captured the ones they were able to, and then he singled out from the herd these three. If Dawn was captured, she'd be in that room with Twilight right now waiting to hear the master plan.
21. AndrewCrossett: Something that alarms Angel fans as much as the things he's done, is the total lack of empathy he's displayed while doing them. He's done or tried to do terrible things to the Slayers, Buffy and Willow, and humanity in general (the vampy cats, the "cool vampires" meme). We know Angel might be willing to do terrible things in the name of preventing a much greater catastrophe, but it would tear him up to have to do so.
His attitude has been utterly cold-hearted, arrogant, and even occasionally gleeful ("I want to see what happens"). And he's admitted that he knows Buffy and the others are fighting for good. It's a terrible moral situation Joss has written him into. Will as much care be devoted to explaining his heartlessness as to explaining his actions?
Scott Allie: I thought you were gonna ask something I couldn't answer. But the answer's yes. A lot of thought, a lot of conversations continue to go into how to balance everything you're about to find out. Right before the big spoil happened, we'd just rewritten a couple lines of a finished lettered (not yet published) issue in order to balance what you're talking about.
22. Emmie: Is the Chen cover for #34 an homage to anyone? Or perhaps you can discuss the concept behind it - is there more going on behind the surface of the romantic image? Some fans who are casual Buffy fans and casual Twilight fans (Meyer's Twilight) have noted it reminded them of Edward and Bella.
Scott Allie: Do I really have to say this ...? Edward and Bella remind you of Angel and Buffy, not the other way around. C'mon, guys! But no, Jo's cover isn't an homage. We described the vibe we wanted to come across, and Jo gave us a series of sketches. If I remember this one correctly, it's the very rare occasion when we rejected all the first sketches and asked for another round. I think that was this one. Only happened once in all this time, I think, but I think it was this one.
23. XanderFan: Scott, you said a while back that you thought Xander probably had the second biggest/best (can’t remember) arc in Season 8. Now that 8.31 is out, can you say if you were referring mostly to getting to that talk with Buffy and being with Dawn, or is there hope that he still will play a big part in the endgame with Buffy and Twilight?
Scott Allie: Well, the part of Xander's arc that I love is the relationship stuff. Despite previous comments about who Buffy's true love is, I WISH for her sake she could wind up with Xander. I wish that could happen. But she'll never have it together enough to make that work, in my opinion. So for Xander to say to her what he said in #31 makes me happy for him. I want only the best for him and Dawn.
24. Charles: You've said you're one of the biggest Xander fans on the comics and I believe other writers have kicked around the idea of a Xander-centric mini-series. I know DH is at the moment considering a look more at other slayers but how about the obvious? Can we finally get a Xander one-shot similar to Willow's that fills in some of the gaps regarding his character? Like what happened to his family after Sunnydale or something similar?
Scott Allie: Well, I personally love Xander, but I don't think he's the best protagonist for a comic. What you're asking for would be a valid thing to tackle in a comic, but it's not really what we're doing with this one. Although man, even as I'm typing these words, something's crystalizing for me. But like I say, he's not really much of a protagonist. He's a great supporting character. Emphasis on support.
25. bishopcruz: I know this issue was a week late, does that mean that 32 will come out on Feb 13th now, or is it on Feb 6 as I originally saw it listed?
Scott Allie: Um, February 3, I believe. Christmas messed everything up. Our printers take two weeks off, would you believe it. So We would have had to get #31 done two weeks early to have it go on sale the first week of the month, as usual. So we decided, with the Willow oneshot falling into the middle of December, it was fair to schedule #31 out a week. But we're back on track, first week of the month, with #32.
26. Thomas: Will the other "Angel" characters (Gunn, Lorne, Connor, Illyria) be acknowledged at any point after Angel is revealed to be Twilight? I'm curious to know how they feel about their team leader doing the things he's been doing.
Scott Allie: I'm gonna use my no comment card.
27. wenxina: This is entirely a book-keeping question. From what you've told us so far, it sounds like Brad's arc is now finalized at four issues. Or did I get that wrong? Coz the most recent solicitation released (yes, that one) still listed #34 as "Part 3 (of 5)". Nifty idea about a Simone-centric issue, though. Would be very interesting to see things from the perspective of a Slayer that defected from the Slayer Army to form her own renegade band of Slayer Supremacists.
Scott Allie: Brad's doing four, correct. That three of five is a typo, sorry; we were at some point unsure if Brad would need five issues, but we never meant to say anywhere that he was getting five. If only that were the biggest %#$&-up we suffered on #34 ...
28. Skytteflickan88: I’m curious about how you guys can use the IDW characters without telling IDW, but still expect there to be no continuity issues. What if Spike loses and eye in an issue of IDW and he gets deeply depressed, but a few days later, you release a comic where Spike has a eye, and is very non-depressed.
How do you guys avoid something like that happening?
Scott Allie: I don't want to address continuity questions between the companies right now. We're trying to work some things out. This is a totally fair question, and I know we put readers in a weird place, and I can only say I hope you're satisfied when you've read the stories.
29. Hellbound Hyperion: When Joss and Brian planned After the Fall, did Joss do so with Twilight's identity in mind?
This might be a hard one for you to answer directly, but it's bugging the heck outta me so I had to ask somebody.
Scott Allie: Yes. He had it in his mind, in that he already knew it. He didn't tip Brian off, though.
30. Joe: Will Oz and Riley be sticking around for the last couple arcs? I know Oz has no intentions of leaving Tibet, but it doesn't look like Buffy and gang is going anywhere either.
Scott Allie: Remains to be seen.
31. Sosa Lola: I heard about Spike showing up in S8, and I have a small request for Joss. One of the reasons I disliked S7 was how Spike isolated himself from all the other characters, except for Buffy. I'd love to have Spike interact with more characters in S8, especially Xander and Dawn. But mostly I prefer Xander. Xander and Spike have always been great on screen and it would be interesting to see them in panels. I'm aware that there might be no space for that, but I'd really appreciate it if you mention it to Joss.
Scott Allie: I agree about the Spike/Xander dynamic, but I can't answer on this. But I guess it's a request, not a question, so ... noted.
32. Stormwreath: Way back in the first arc, we saw that General Voll had the Twilight symbol scarred into his chest. But the scar was really old and faded, as if he'd had it for years and years... as if he became a follower of Twilight in the years when Buffy was still in Sunnydale.
I'm not going to ask anything spoilery, just one simple question: is my interpretation of his scar being such an old one correct?
Scott Allie: So much remains to be seen about what Twilight really is.
33. Stormwreath: Scott - the blurb on page 2 of each comic giving us the story so far. Do you write that, or does Joss, or does the writer of each individual arc?
Scott Allie: Sierra writes it and runs it by me and Joss, and sometimes we tweak it.
34. vampireinrug: Scott, I'm wondering why the government of the Buffyverse hasn't done anything about the sudden popularity of vampires. We know that the government is well aware of the supernatural world. All the way back in season one those FBI dudes took Marcie, not to mention that the Initiative dates all the way back to World War II, and the Initiative clearly did not like, or approve of vampires. Given this, why aren't the authorities doing something about it? Will this get touched upon in the story?
Scott Allie: This is the problem with a story on this global scale, is there are a million and one things that come up that could be addressed, that you simply don't have room to address. The vampires are in vogue, and they're keeping a low profile, per Harmony's advice. So I'm not sure what the government would do. I'm sure it would be ineffective, whatever it was!
35. Emmie: Well, my question above re: the Bella/Edward homage-esque cover was more wondering if it was an ironic view considering the fact that the last thing I'd expect Buffy to do is want to cuddle with Angel lovingly after discovering his mammoth-sized betrayal - seems like an oversimplification of teenage love, hence the Bella/Edward infantilized level of emotional maturity. Which is to say Buffy and Angel are more complex emotional individuals and on that note...
Angel has created his own distinct mythos on Angel the Series that set it apart from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One of the biggest differences was his struggle against the literal higher being forces of Good and Evil - the Powers That Be and the Senior Partners. These 'deities' are connected with the question of Angel's role in the world (See: The Apocalypse with a capital "A") but they were never explicitly acknowledged in the BtVS. Has there been consideration given into bringing the Angel-specific mythos (Shanshu prophecy, Senior Partners, Powers That Be) into Season 8? Is Angel's mythos explicitly relevant to the story of Season 8?
Scott Allie: It is, but probably not as much as diehard fans of the Angel series would want.
36. AndrewCrossett: One of the big hang-ups of Buffy fans who don't like season 8 is that they think the scale is too big, leading to stuff they consider silly or self-indulgent. It's hard to get them to accept that comics are a different medium than TV, with a different kind of storytelling, and that Joss & Friends are writing a comic here and not a series of TV storyboards.
How close has season 8 been to the story Joss had planned to tell if he'd done an 8th season of the TV show, or a movie? Aside from "special effects budget" issues, is this pretty much where he always intended the story to go?
Scott Allie: > I think it's fair to say it's not very close. Just like if instead of Season 7 he'd been told to make a 2-hour big-budget film, the comics took him in another direction. Remember the first Angel series that I did a long time ago? Joss had given us a little bit of direction when we first started it, but he was busy running two shows, and didn't give us a lot to go on. A year or two later, he said he wanted to write an Angel four parter with Brett Matthews. For that, he wanted to redefine Angel, different from the TV series, to make him a great comic-book character. Those four issues were the most hands on Joss has ever been with an Angel comic, and the point was to do something appropriate to the medium. In Season 8, I don't think he's trying to appeal to "comics readers," per se, but he's trying to appeal to the comic reader in himself, to create the kind of comic he'd want to read. He loves TV, so when he makes a TV series, he tries to make one that works according to his aesthetics there. But had there been a Season 8 on TV, I doubt that this particular character would have come back as a costumed villain named Twilight, or that we'd have SHIELD-quality tech, or that the Slayers army would have gone up against part of the US Army. Frankly, I don't think, had there been a Season 8 in his future, he'd have ended Season 7 like he did, just as I know that if there were gonna be another season of Dollhouse—or simply the rest of this season!—that in the last couple weeks we [VAGUE SPOILER] wouldn't have seen these particular characters die. What I mean is, if an eighth TV season had been in his future, I don't think he'd have ended Season 7 with the creation of a Slayer legion, about to be turned into a Slayer army.
37. bamph: Given that Angel is Twilight and Spike is showing up.As editor,what does it feel like jumping in full force now on the shipper issues in the story?You've got the hardcore Angel fans vs. the hardcore Spike fans and the Buffy/Angel shippers vs. the Buffy/Spike shippers.You've got both sides fearing for how their character is going to be treated and come out of this.You've got both shipper groups still arguing and fighting over those issues. The Twilight identity and news Spike will be in the story has ratchet up the tensions between both sides even more.Some examples being.
1)Lack of trust in how Joss is going to use Spike and Angel and how they are going to come off.There is already some of that with Twilight being the Big Bad of the season.
2)The arguments between the two shipper groups about whether Buffy loves Spike or is actually in love with Spike romantically like she is in love with Angel.Basically a firm definitive answer to the,"I love you","No, you don't. But thanks for saying it."
3)Angel being evil must mean Spike is riding in to help Buffy save the day and validate the Buffy/Spike ship over Buffy/Angel and one ship is going to be coming out of this in better condition then the other.The Angel being the bad guy clears the way for Buffy/Spike in the future argument.
4)Fear one vampire or the other is going to take over the story.Something non-fans of Spike and Angel and the two ships are fearful of too.
You've been involved in the Buffy fandom for years now.Given some of your experiences,how does it feel to be having Joss actively taking the story into this powder keg of a situation and as editor,do you have any concernes about it?
Scott Allie: I don't have any concerns, and he's not taking it into those directions. The whole notion of "shippers" exists separately from anyone involved in the actual creation of the stuff. And I definitely have faith in Joss's ability to handle his own characters. These are all JOSS'S characters, no one else's. Well, Fox's. Anyway, I know people are gonna freak out. They'll freak out more about the story before they read it than they will when they've read it, so I don't know what I can do to deal with that. Well, we could write the story wrong, we could always do that. Knowing that one of those characters was gonna be unmasked in #33, and appearing on the cover of #34, I could've said, Well, I don't want to upset anyone, I should probably figure out how to get the other guy into #33 at least a little bit, and then get him on one of the covers of #34, to keep that fair. And I know there's at least someone reading this thinking, "Of course you don't care about that, YOU hate ______." But I promise, no matter which one of these vampire hunks were to show up first, it wouldn't even cross my mind to attempt equal time. Bad storytelling. But with the polarizing effect these characters have on a certain segment of the fanbase, yeah, I know there's gonna be mad shippers. Is it not inevitable?
38. Sosa Lola: Some fans are scared that with Angel and Spike showing up, the other characters will be pushed to the background (exactly like in the last episodes of S7), will popular characters like Xander and Giles, who tend to get neglected a lot, still have important roles in future issues?
Scott Allie: The dynamics are gonna change. Giles has been pretty much in the background all season. He's got some good stuff coming up, but he will tend to be overshadowed by vampires, yes.
39. lmblack21: Riley has been around and been a pretty big part of the comics. I'm so happy to see he hasn't been retconned into being evil and he often seems sort of....wistful as regards Buffy.
My question is, are we going to find out what happened to Riley's wife and how he came to be working with Buffy again? The lack of any information here seems odd, to say the least.
Scott Allie: There probably isn't room left to address that. Riley's played a nice, key role in the season, but in terms of importance or time on the page, he's gotta be somewhere behind Amy. So no, we haven't got plans to dig into his backstory, of how he came to be in his role in Season 8.
40. wenxina: Tracking along with my previous question, where is Joss in terms of turning in his scripts for his grand finale? I know you said that it'll probably be cutting it tight, even with the two months off, so that means that he should be turning in scripts around now-ish? Last I read on your Twitter sometime last week-ish, you were looking at Georges' pages for #33 (that good huh?), which does sound like things are tight.
Scott Allie: We don't even have #35 yet! Yeah, it's a little tight, but it's fine—#35 isn't due yet, so no one's late.
41. martodd: Will the Angel/Faith relationship be explored? They were really close in Angel season 4 and Faith did an amazing thing for him. I really loved the idea of them being best friends who can always understand each other. Will that be shown in the issues to come? Whatever his motives are… will we see Faith trying to understand?
Scott Allie: That gets addressed, although, like everything else, not to everyone's satisfaction.
42. Hellbound Hyperion: Is Twilight's ideology intricately connected to the Slayer mythos - far beyond simply "destroying magic would end the Slayer line"?
Scott Allie: What he's doing has everything to do with the Slayer mythos, yes.
43. neowhobaz: I know you've been mentioning Season nine alot recently with mentions of how it might be shorter and a smaller group an all. I was just curious how far apart the gap between the end of season 8 and the beggining of season nine might be realistically since there's still a good 8 to 10 months of season eight on the horizon?
Scott Allie: Right now we're thinking roughly 6 - 7 months. We're trying to juggle a lot of concerns about how to get it going again, but my hope is that there's a new issue #1 in time for San Diego 2011, Dark Horse's 25th anniversary. For me, there'd be no better way to celebrate.
44. Midnight Butterfly: I think it was mentioned earlier that if any other one-shots are to happen they will likely focus on Slayers around the world who have not appeared in Season 8.
If this is to happen, do you believe it will be a one-off comic or a mini-series? I would love it to be a mini series. I was also thinking that if this was to happen do you think we will see any of the Slayers who become slayers at the end of Season 7 - for example the girl playing baseball and the woman being beaten up by what seems her husband?
Scott Allie: Not exactly—I don't think I said that they're likely to focus on other Slayers; I think I said that that's where my thoughts are at. But in conversations with Joss we've talked about doing this, and some other options. There was one direction along those lines that he really liked, and then a couple other possibilities, along the lines of previous oneshots, and some other things. Hopefully in the Q&A next month I can give you more info, but nothing right now. I will say that some of the comments and questions in this month's Q&A have given me more ideas about what to do for July. Here's to you, Slayalive, pander, pander. But it's true. Some good questions that can only be explored in a comic, not here.
45. buffycomic: What was the reason for the change in graphic design layout of the Book for #31? A new typeface is used on the cover for the Title "Turbulence" as well as on the credits on the left hand side... also the inside cover page no longer uses that cool image of the thorns and leaves and bird from the last thirty issues, instead it shows a version of the Jo Chen cover with brown hues and transparency?
(Also, how come the page that features Twilight speaking to an unconscious Giles, Faith and Andrew... the typeface is the same as the normal dialogue spoken by everyone else, but in past issues Twilight's dialogue used an unusual typeface.)
Scott Allie: Hey, who snuck in two questions!?!? For the first, re: the new cover and inside cover and letter col design—Heidi, who'd been the designer on Buffy from the beginning, moved on to freelance graphic design, leaving Dark Horse. I requested and was lucky enough to get Tony Ong, the designer on Umbrella Academy, to take over Buffy, and I thought it was a good time to give the book a fresh coat of paint. Tony had done the TV Guide-style ads we did last year. I think Tony took over the book on #29, but we figured we'd make the change at the beginning of an arc. The Willow one-shot showed the first new direction with this sort of thing—I loved what Tony did with the Willow title treatment on the cover. We talked about abandoning everything from the previous design, but ultimately realized that that L-shaped frame really is nice for Jo's covers, so there's not that much text covering up her artwork. You'll continue to see that on her covers; for Georges, since his covers are often as much about the concept as the drawing itself, we wanted to be able to patch Tony into that concept, and change it up every issue. Tony contributes a lot to the Umbrella Academy design pages, and he'll be doing a lot on Georges's front covers, which you've already seen in #31. With some upcoming covers, like #35, Tony's contribution is as essential to the art as the inker or the colorist. As for the IFC, I'm glad you liked that cool image with the thorns, etc., but I never felt it really belonged to Buffy. Wasn't bad, but wasn't uniquely appropriate. The new inside cover is simpler, but I like it. As for Twilight's font changing, that's explained with a simple line of dialogue in either #32 or #33, but the change in font is sort of a plot point.
46. Emmie: I'm a diehard Season 8 fan. I think that's pretty obvious for anyone who knows me around here. Which means I'm often the defender of Season 8 in fandom. I spend a lot of my time making sense of the comics, but I have to admit that I believe one of the weaknesses of Season 8's story is exposition. Buffy robs a bank - the context of it doesn't matter. There is no exposition. Yes, many of us can come up with a likely scenario, but then someone else can come up with another scenario just as likely that completely changes the way it went down and how it shapes Buffy's character. The reason I bring this up is that it seems like we're losing essential parts of the story -- the exposition -- because of lack of space. Not knowing about Riley's background and how he came to work with Buffy feels like a gaping hole in his character arc for this season. What makes Buffy the Vampire Slayer special is that the characters are three-dimensional and this sort of background information could be expressed even in asides or throwaway lines (e.g. how someone calls Riley "corn-fed" and we know it's a reference to him being from Iowa - thus we know he is from Iowa).
I think one of the reasons fans keep asking for side stories that delve into the characters of Season 8 (Satsu, Kennedy, Riley, Simone) is because of these unanswered questions never put to rest by adequate exposition. And it now seems like they're always going to be unanswered...
Yes, good stories need a fine balance between actual plot and the exposition, but exposition is needed to give the action of the piece it's proper weight and context. It's beginning to feel like characters' actions in Season 8 are lacking the exposition to anchor them down in the context of their motivations which leads to a lack of depth for their character arc, a disconnect between their present actions and their past. And what worries me most is the upcoming Twilight arc.
Will the exposition of Twilight's origin be a central focus? Or will fans still have unanswered questions about Twilight's motives?
Scott Allie: I see what you mean about Riley. I don't believe that will be a problem with Twilight. I think the problem with Riley is that we waited long enough to really clarify that he was a double agent, so we couldn't tell you any earlier how he came to be in that position without giving that away; and now that it's all out there, we're not gonna drift into Riley flashbacks, because the focus needs to be on the main characters as we head into the climax—and, at the risk of offending the Biley's (?!?) in the audience, in Season 8 I don't count him as in the top 5, probably not top 10 characters.
47. AndrewCrossett: The question of "canon" has reared its head again with all this business with squaring things up with the IDW comics. The usual (but not universally accepted) definition is that anything Joss writes or supervises is canon, and everything else is stuff done under license from Fox -- official, but not canon. "Canon" is the stuff that Joss himself considers part of *his* story, and that will be recognized as part of the history of these characters when he writes about them.
The usual list of comics canon is: From Dark Horse -- Buffy season 8 and the ancillary webcomics; Tales of the Slayers; Tales of the Vampires; Fray; Buffy: The Origin. And from IDW, the After the Fall comics he plotted with Brian. (Issues 1-17 and 23).
Are there any other Dark Horse comics we should be accepting as canon?
Scott Allie: Nope, those are them. Obviously all our Serenity stuff is canon, but in terms of Buffy, I think your list covers it. I don't count as canon those early comics we did with Jane and Doug, before Joss was working directly with us, like Ring of Fire and Haunted. With the old Buffy comics, of which I did a LOT, the goal was to do stories that fit with canon, that didn't conflict with anything, and which would never call your attention to their non-canon status. That goes for everything in the Omnibuses with the obvious exception of Origin. But maintaining that dance between canon and non-canon got so difficult toward the end that I launched back to Year One, and told stories that I was pretty sure Joss would never contradict, only because I knew he'd never flashback very much. For those Year One comics, I talked to him about what I was gonna do, and he told me it was okay, nixed an idea or two. But the concept of canon in licensed comics has really evolved in recent years. Season 8 has a lot to do with that, and a lot to do with comics like Jericho, and IDW's Star Trek Countdown—nothing like this was being done ten years ago. Well, maybe something was, but not to this extent.
48. tigerfan: I'm going to play off Sosa Lola's question about popular characters like Giles and Xander being pushed into the background because of the vampires and you answered for Giles, but how about Xander? I gotta admit, the idea of these characters being overshadowed makes me wanna go into headdesk mode.
Scott Allie: As a big Xander fan (and Giles, for that matter), I'm proud and happy with Xander's role and presence and arc in Season 8. I was talking to a Buffy reader last night who said that the conversation between Xander and Buffy in #31 had been coming since Season 1, and I think that's true. And I'm really happy with how Joss led up to it, how a couple scenes from Jane really got us there, and how Joss wrote that scene in #31. That scene is, I think, a big reason why readers responded so well to #31. With what Xander's gone through, with what he's done, and with what he just articulated about his relationship with Buffy, I don't think you can say he's shortchanged by Season 8, even if he doesn't have another huge development in the next nine issues. Not to say that he's going anywhere. But I know that any single thing we do is gonna make someone bang their head on a desk. I mean those desks no ill will, but I can't help them. And yes, Xander might be overshadowed by other events and other characters; Xander might have less time on the page and less significant development than other characters.
49. bamph: I know for a fact that there are Buffy fans who don't really follow the fandom on the interweb and they don't know about the Twilight leak. I ran into one this week at the comic store and no, I did not spoil her. But this raises a good question. Twilight's identity has been spoiled online but is there a hope to try to keep it a secret for the non-online fans until issue 33 comes out?
Scott Allie: Yes. Having realized that we overdid our response to the leak, we've changed course, and hopefully it will be contained. We're still going to conceal the spoiler covers in the Previews catalog, as we'd always planned and had taken painstaking efforts to affect. Unless someone %#$&s that up. We're trying to adopt a spoiler-free stance with promotion over the next few weeks. We can't control what the press and other websites do. But one of our plans in the immediate wake of the spoiler was a series of ads that would highlight the drama of the confrontation between Buffy and the unmasked Twilight. We had specific images picked for that, but we've changed course, and we're going back to focusing on promoting the fact that Twilight gets unmasked, and that it causes a huge $%storm. Some of you, thanks to the spoiler, have ideas what the $%storm's gonna look like; those who weren't spoiled will hopefully be intrigued by our vagueness. But we want to do everything we can to make sure that anyone who hasn't spoiled yet doesn't find out who it is until they read Buffy #33. I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to March 3, when you all would turn to page 12 and see who it is—all the responses positive and negative, the fury of the shippers who'd feel slighted, the questions that it would pose, the people who wouldn't believe it. That was gonna be a lot of fun. I was considering canceling my Slayalive Q&A for that issue so you'd have to wait for #34 to get any response about what it meant. Having talked it over with Joss and Brad and many of you, I really think that no one is more disappointed about this than me. So if a few hundred or a few thousand of you still get to experience that surprise the way it was intended, I will be very, very happy.
50. martodd: What about Cordelia? To be honest, I didn’t really liked her appearance in After These Messages... . Buffy said something like “One day she will be dead.” like that was all Cordy ever did and like she deserved it.
In earlier answer during this session you said that Angel’s mythos could play some role in the future issues. Does Cordelia have a chance of being at least mentioned, since she is a part of the Powers That Be?
Scott Allie: Not spoiling further on the question of old cast members appearing. I just got a great surprise myself tonight. But that should tell you there are still some surprises in store for all readers.
51. Whedon Fan: With the Willow one shot only answering a few of the questions about Willow and her new found power can we assume that this could have potentially been part 1 with other issues centering Willow following it later on in the year? I know others will love to see more about her and perhaps one shots on other charatcers such as Giles or even Faith and what the new dynamic of season 8 is like for them. As always thanks very much, we all appreciate the time you take for us to answer these questions.
Scott Allie: We do have a little more to say about Willow's magic before it's over. But we're probably only looking at one more oneshot within Season 8.
52. iloveromy: Companies like Apple and Dell are introducing new tablet hand held computers to try to change the use of print media. From someone working in the comic book industry, do you see this technology appealing to how you could potentially create and distribute your product?
Scott Allie: It WILL affect how we sell our books, for sure. I'm not looking forward to it, because I'm old fashioned and love books as object—I take a lot of pride and interest in how a book looks and feels in your hand, so I don't look forward to the day when this is all digital, but I believe it'll come sooner than later.
53. vampireinrug: Looks like it has fallen to me to ask the question nobody else will. The fandom has all been wondering about it ever since BTVS season one. Do vampires need to go to the bathroom? Season 8 is starting to wrap up and the topic hasn't even really been explored yet!
Scott Allie: Wow, one more place where we've dropped the ball ... Dammit. Sorry. No spoilers.
54. cant: We see Willow can heal injuries, she healed her own lobotomy so why cant she heal Xander's eye (you know make it grow again or something)?
Scott Allie: Funny, I was just thinking of that the other day. It hadn't occurred to me before, but suddenly I realized there's no reason, besides Joss's great love of Nick Fury, why she can't do that. Maybe she's still mad at him for not going for it back when she was young and hetero and could've used the validation.
All right, thanks everybody!