Better comic continuations: After the Fall vs. Buffy Season 8

[Robb Stark]

For me, the 'robots in Buffy' shark was already jumped waaaay back in S2 'Ted', where we're all supposed to believe that a guy from the 1950's managed to build a life-model decoy of himself over and over again? Using 1960's tech?
Okay, Joss, I'll buy it. 🙂

Yeah, those instances were dumb, but they weren't a gigantic robot monster rampaging through Tokyo. I agree they were ridiculous, but it just seemed so over the top to me because you couldn't just do something like that and get away with it. People notice things like that.

Also, as its been pointed out, what happens to Dawn in S8 works as a nice metaphor for what her character is going through, so it fits. 🙂

Meh, I didn't like it. I hate metaphors that are too on the nose. Plus, we were already told this story in S7, and it had a nice conclusion that even though Dawn isn't a Slayer, she's still special and means a lot to Buffy and the crew. That arc is just repackaged in a much louder way in S8.

 

[white avenger]

I think that the whole giant robot thing would have worked better if it had simply been that. A giant robot. Why go to the trouble of making it look like Dawn? How did the vampires even know that Dawn would be coming? And, without her being there their robot was just so much mobile scrap iron.

 

[thetopher]

I think that the whole giant robot thing would have worked better if it had simply been that. A giant robot. Why go to the trouble of making it look like Dawn? How did the vampires even know that Dawn would be coming? And, without her being there their robot was just so much mobile scrap iron.

Didn't the Japanese vamps spy on Buffy and co at some point?

I know that they ambushed a slayer and drained her powers, and they knew about Willow being a powerful witch.
Maybe they knew about the giant girl in their back garden. 🙂

But the 'personality profile' stuff was just dumb fun.
Again, I direct your attention to 'perfect replica Dad' built in the 60's...way more unbelievable.

Dawn being ignored by her sister was the theme in S6 and they brought it back again in S7 to show that Dawn was special. So they did it again but also to show the weird emotional rollercoaster Dawn was going through after her 'college experience', it wasn't just about her sister, it was about Dawn's first sexual encounter and how that affected her.

I thnik its weirder that Dawn was even in Japan anyway- how did she get there? Did she walk, was she teleported by Willlow?

 

[white avenger]

I thnik its weirder that Dawn was even in Japan anyway- how did she get there? Did she walk, was she teleported by Willlow?

That's my point. The Japanese vampires had no reason to think that Dawn would be coming with the Slayers, so why would they have made a robot that seemed specifically designed to match her. Also, how would they possibly have the time to build such a contraption between the time of their raid in Scotland, which would be when they would have first found out about Dawn's size, and the Slayers' arrival in Japan?

 

[Buffy Summers]

Well, if the army you're facing has a giant, and you don't, and you know ahead of time, how else are you going to take the giant out of the equation than by building your own?

I think the whole thing is dumb, but not nonsensical.

🙂

 

[Silverspike]

How about a bloody big gun? 😀

Nah, sorry I thought 'Mecha Dawn' was a yet another low point for season 8. I was utterly embarrassed to be called a Buffy fan after I'd read it.

Imo thank god Whedon didn't have a big enough budget to indulge himself like that in the real show.

 

[Buffy Summers]

How about a bloody big gun? 😀

Been there, done that. The giant robot makes sense for who those vamps were.

 

[thetopher]

The only time that the comics actually embarrassed me as a fan, was the crass abortion plot line that ended in a 'don't worry- Buffy's actually a robot' cop-out.

It really was a bad piece of writing that took up about half of S9, rather than say mecha-Dawn, which is just a set-piece for one scene. 🙂

It seems like robots are the bane of the Buffyverse's existance no matter where you turn. 😉

Thank god I can point to A&F and say 'That is a solid comic with a good grasp of character, plot and humour.' That's what saved S9 as a whole for me.

 

[white avenger]

How about a bloody big gun? 😀

Nah, sorry I thought 'Mecha Dawn' was a yet another low point for season 8. I was utterly embarrassed to be called a Buffy fan after I'd read it.

Imo thank god Whedon didn't have a big enough budget to indulge himself like that in the real show.

Well, it's fairly consistent with the entire series that "(guns) never a good idea," and only a very few select bad guys (Darla in Season 1, the werewolf hunter from Season 3, Warren from Season 7, and Simone in the comics) ever use them. ("Angel" has their own, somewhat different, firearms policy) Seriously, one vampire with a modern rifle could take out a whole squad of Slayers before they ever got close enough to stake him. Can't have anything like that in the Buffyverse!

Also, extremely strict gun control regulations in Japan. Only criminals and the Yakuza are allowed to have guns. No honest citizens, giant robots, or vampires are allowed to have firearms of any sort.

 

[ladydorotea]

Thank god I can point to A&F and say 'That is a solid comic with a good grasp of character, plot and humour.' That's what saved S9 as a whole for me.

A&F S9 was just meh from my perspective. Faith arc in S8 beats it into the dust and leaves it there. And the whole iron curtain analogy built into the return of Eyghon plot just turned me off. There were good moment now and then, but I have no desire to re-read any of the S9 books, and the first 3/4 of S8 I actually used to read over and over - to get the nuances. Same applies to S10 so far. I glance at the art with no real interest as to where the story is going.

 

[Robb Stark]

As an add on about Dawn...why did we need another "sex is bad! BAD!" metaphor?

 

[Kean]

As an add on about Dawn...why did we need another "sex is bad! BAD!" metaphor?

It was a pregame to Twilight which was another round of "Don't have sex because YOU WILL END THE WORLD."

🙄

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Robot Dawn isn't my favourite part of Season 8 but there's only so much complaining you can do when the show the comic was based on had robot demons, robot serial murder-daters and robot ninjas.

For anyone embarrassed by the robot Dawn, would love to see you explain that to someone who isn't a fan - "no I only liked the show, the comic was so over the top - giant robots? Crazy! I prefer my robots incredibly realistic, to date and murder people, to be sex objects, to be ninjas or built from scraps as the body of a demon trapped in a book and scanned into a computer!" The person you're talking to wont be taking you all that seriously, no matter the size of the robot - which is literally the only complaint you could have about that story, the show has well established robots, this one is just bigger.

As Buffy already said, they built a giant robot to directly combat a giant Dawn - why wouldn't they presume Dawn is coming with them? There is no logic in thinking she wouldn't.

 

[thetopher]

A&F S9 was just meh from my perspective. Faith arc in S8 beats it into the dust and leaves it there. And the whole iron curtain analogy built into the return of Eyghon plot just turned me off. There were good moment now and then, but I have no desire to re-read any of the S9 books, and the first 3/4 of S8 I actually used to read over and over - to get the nuances. Same applies to S10 so far. I glance at the art with no real interest as to where the story is going.

Well, I agree that 'No Future For You' was the probably the best arc of S8, but A&F still stacks up to it generally in terms of quality- I wouldn't describe it as 'meh' exactly. 🙂

I do think the Eyghon bit being one of the weaker parts of that particular storyline (along with the Spike crossover.) but overall I'd rate it both as a comic and as a genuinely good development of Angel and Faith as characters.

---------- Post added at 06:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:41 PM ----------

It was a pregame to Twilight which was another round of "Don't have sex because YOU WILL END THE WORLD."

🙄

Summers family curse.

Joyce, (romance in general- Ted, then Ripper, then dating that ends on account of blood clot.)
Buffy and now Dawn all suffer from it. 😉