skipping time

[thespikeofit]

I am trying to make my peace with Buffy season 8. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed the ride and at least at this point I find many of the story choices amazing for all the wrong reasons. However, trying to get beyond ‘I don’t like it’ and get into where I think it failed is the reason for this sudden glut of posts I’m putting out. I don’t know if I’ll like

Comments

[shapinglight]

Again, I feel I’d have had more sympathy for Buffy if I’d seen how she’d found herself leading a paramilitary organisation based in Scotland but I’m no longer particularly hopeful that will ever really be addressed.

Me neither. In fact, I don't think any of the things I see as a problem will ever be addressed, because Joss and the DH PTBs don't think they are a problem and never have done.

[thespikeofit]

Yeah there is this sense of cognitive dissonance when I read interviews with Dark Horse people, they don't even seem to understand why some fans are not finding comic Buffy at all relatable. I accept that I've never been a Buffy-centric fan but I really find this iteration of the character the one I'm most disconnected from.

[shapinglight]

Same here. I loved Buffy in the later seasons of the show and it really irks me to see her character trashed in this way. And irks me even more to see people who are angry about it called Buffy-bashers.

[thespikeofit]

I fear accusations of bashing to a great degree act to shut down disagreement. It's also a case of one person's bashing is another's nuanced discussion of issues. I also think that conflating dislike of what the character has done this season and disliking the character is a mistake. In many ways if you've never cared for Buffy her behaviour this season would be less problematic.

[rahirah]

You = My brain twin.

[thespikeofit]

Thanks. Sadly the more conclusions I reach about season 8 the more annoyed by it I become. Hopefully at some point I'll come out the other end and be able to feel less irritated by it all.

[salymander]

Hmmm as someone who just started reading, I just finished #14, I have to say, this illumination kind of sucks. There's really no explanation as to where everyone's been/what they've been doing up until season 8 starts? That's crazy to me because it seems like there's a solid year, if not more, in between season 7 and 8. I think you could easily fit 3 years in that gap actually.

I kind of feel like the writers are overwhelmed with the material, like there's too many characters. They want to show everyone, both old and new, and the more I read, the more I feel like it really needs to be paired down.

Um, I hope my commenting on your older posts isn't annoying :)

[thespikeofit]

No problem.

I fear that if I tried to list all the points where I thought season 8 went wrong I'd be here all day. However, I think the decision to not fill in the gap between Chosen and the start of season 8 is one of the key ones. It left me unconnected to so many of the characters but it was probably most harmful to my connection with Buffy.

I think that Joss has accepted that the decision to take the story onto such a big stage was a mistake. As you say, way too many new characters and as with season 7 and the mass of potentials the result tends to be that the new characters mostly get lost in the shuffle. Add to that the desire to bring back far too many other characters and it just became a little silly IMO.

[salymander]

Totally understand