Canon Watch (Spoilers for current issue)

[alexa]

In Buffy 5, The Chain, we we see this image.

There's a disturbing entry in Wikipedia concerning the upcoming IDW maxi-series Angel: After the fall. The consensus seems to be that series will be considered canon. The previous IDW Angel comics were not considered canon. Wikipedia tells us a character from the previous non-canon Angel series will appear in the upcoming canon one. They suggest this now transfers canon status to what we previously thought of as non-canon.

Up until this point, what has always added power to the whole idea of a canon Buffy is the idea Whedon is in control of what is and isn't canon. Is he losing that control? Will the line between what is and isn't canon in the Buffyverse become so fuzzy we can no longer distinquish what Buffy canon is?

Wikipedia is problematic because it can be edited by anyone. So we could go in and change that to say 'it may or may not be canon' 😉 There's a scandal over here in Australia (it's an election year) because people in the Prime Minister's office have been changing the details of certain events to suit themselves.

But anyway your post seems very post modern N4H, lol reminds me of being at university. Everything means something, or everything means nothing, and it's all the same, etc. Still I also think finding out what is canon is important to the continuity of the Buffyverse, it's something not many series have. And this doesn't mean we're loosing sleep over it 😉

Also I kept that image of the slayer line in the quote because I noticed something while rereading the comic the other day. The scythe (I forget it's proper name) is only featured with slayers after the first, and not with the Buffy decoy.

 

[nerd4hire]

There's a guy who created a scanner that discovers who's been editing what Wikpedia articles. Click Here for some of the edits which have been made by people with questionable motives.

I haven't invested the time to figure out how to work it yet. One of these days I will though. I want to find out if it's IDW comics who are making that claim their old non-canon comics are suddenly going to become canon when Angel: After the Fall comes out.

But trust me you're preaching to the converted if you're saying Wikipedia articles should be taken with a grain of salt.

My point in mentioning the Wikipedia claim of new found canon status attributed to non-canon stuff is it's something worth noticing just in case it starts to become a trend.

 

[nerd4hire]

I'm going to try something different this month. I'm going to try not to say anything controversial, and to back claims up with illustrations, so I don't screw up.

***

Faith and Wood wind up in Cleveland after Sunnydale. Faith refers to Wood as her ex. They can still make contact by phone.

We see more slayer gizmos. They appear to like to rappel. That bridge illustrated below is an actual bridge in Cleveland.

There are now officially Vampire kids in the Buffyverse.

Another thing that's official now. Giles is the Watcher's council now. He appears to have custodial power over what appears to be their sizable financial wealth. (Edit This is contradicted in later issues. Apparently the slayer operation is not financed by the Watchers. We still have no good estimate of how much wealth is in the Watcher organization, or even how much of what might there, Giles has access to.)

There's another phrasing for the amount of slayers Buffy created in Chosen. "About two thousand". Some are problems.

The first character who identifies himself as a warlock appears in the Buffyverse. (Or did Ethan Rayne. I'm not 100% sure.) Such a mystical personage can work for Buffy's new nemesis, The Twilight.

This one might be useful to future fanfic writers. Xander still has his Sunnydale Swim Team Tshirt.

OK, now this one's important. I'm going shout it in bold so at least one person will hear me.

FAITH IS NOT GAY! Unless Lady Genevieve Savidge, or some other hotty turns her, in the future, she's not even bisexual.

 

[Rowan Hawthorn]

There are now officially Vampire kids in the Buffyverse.

Actually, has been since the Annoyin--- er, Anointed One.

The first character who identifies himself as a warlock appears in the Buffyverse. (Or did Ethan Rayne. I'm not 100% sure.)

Only thing I remember from Ethan on the subject is his referring to Giles and himself as "a couple of old mystics," in "A New Man."

 

[nerd4hire]

Oh right, the "Annoyin--- er, Anointed One". There was a thread here a while ago where they were arguing about vampire kids in the Buffyverse, so I posted that for them. I actually don't remember what their issue was. I kind of skimmed through it.

 

[goldenboy]

Xander at one point claimed to be a warlock (er, um...man-witch, heh).

 

[nerd4hire]

Issue # 7

Faith has been taught sophistication by Giles to the point she can blend in at a blueblood ball. It's another talent she now has.

Season 8 Faith is still wrestling with her conscience.

I always thought of Faith as Death Metal, but apparently she's into Amy Winehouse. I guess she could be playing a part, but I didn't get that impression.

Faith has an alias - Hope Lyonne.

Faith tells Lady G a story about her mom and dad. She's in her alias, but one suspects there's truth behind the story. She mentions her mom's drunkeness which we know from Enemies is true of Faith's mom. The thing is we don't know anything about Faith's real dad, but she insinuates as her alias her dad may as well have been a ghost, meaning (by my interpretation) he was never around.

 

[Angel's vision]

Sounds to me like she has bitten off quite alot and has to chew very carefully!

The ending was very much Joss leaving you guessing and I have a feeling Faith is gonna need to remember Angel's words more than ever as she'll face a challenge
to her redemption.

 

[alexa]

Yeah it's almost like you need Angel to pop in at some stage with Faith stories. I suppose that wont be happening though 🙁
I think her Dad might be dead.. but not around is a good guess also. I've heard of Amy Winehouse but don't know if I've heard her stuff before.. what's it like?

 

[goldenboy]

To me, Amy Winehouse is basically 60s soul music. Really pretty retro, but with kind of modern vocal flourishes mixed in.

I can see Faith getting into that. I imagine her being into garage rock/punk stuff too.

 

[goldenboy]

Always wondered what band was playing on Faith's boom box in Graduation Day, Pt 1 (right before the big Faith/Buffy smackdown). It was by Spectator Pump (Sunday Mail)

 

[nerd4hire]

No Future for You: Part Three

Another character is introduced to the Buffyverse. Giles describes him as a "freelancer". He's a dwarf in possession of what appears to be a mystic hammer (the hammer of Hamner). This introduces Giles connection to mercenary mystical beings other than witches and warlocks in his home country and the idea they can work together.

Another one of Faith's favorite bands

There was a thread here posing the question, does Faith get the slayer dreams. For the time period of this comic series at least...

Speaking of slayer dreams...the movie ties them to puberty, but I don't think BTVS ever did. Another thread here questioned the possibility of pre-pubescent slayers. That doesn't seem possible now.

OK so I thought the question concerning the funding of Buffy's army was settled in a previous issue. I thought it was Watcher money. Apparently I could be wrong.

Remember when Anya said a witch had to be at a certain level to teleport? The Warlock Roden is at that level, so he also is a character worth noting for canon value.

Teleporting can make you puke.

 

[nerd4hire]

No Future for You

Oh wait a minute now. I missed one from last issue. If Roden refers to Buffy as "the last of the first", where does that fit Faith in? This adds support to the argument we sometimes hear that the slayer line passed back to Buffy as a result of Willow's resurrection spell in the Bargaining.

But on to issue # 4.

The thing I noticed about No Future for You regarding the canon of the Faith character was there wasn't so much anything new as stuff was highlighted, and expanded upon. I've heard the suspicion before that Faith has daddy issues, but Vaughan makes it clear. She says of the Mayor "He might have been a snake, but he wasn't a dog", and later, "Everybody thinks he was, like, exploiting me, or whatever, but that's not how it felt...Even today it's hard not to look back at my time with that guy, and feel anything but loved"

As was already mentioned Faith gives her alter-ego Hope a Father who is always away, and doesn't care. Faith sees a little of herself in the way Gigi has latched onto Roden as a father figure.

I think she learned from the experience. Through her empathy with Gigi Faith has a self-revelation.

At the end of the story Faith suggests she is going to direct her life to helping troubled slayers. Giles suggests they team up, and it goes like this.

In other words, Faith as she is now can accept Giles as a partner, but not as a father figure.

Speaking of Giles, there's a statement of hard feelings existing between Giles and Buffy. The message board chatter I'm picking up seems to feel it goes back to the disagreement between the two in Season 7.

Regardless of the origins, as it stands now Giles and Faith are banged around, beat up, and together as equal partners.

Chalk up another human kill for Faith. She kills Gigi, but it's pretty much an accident.

And Giles too. He kills Roden. This one's no accident.

Blows his head clean off.

Faith didn't accept the passport and the pension offered her as part of the deal to off Gigi, but I'm going to assume it's there if she needs it.

The Big Bad of Season 8 is introduced. He, She, It's called Twilight. Discussion and a pic HERE

 

[The Chosen]

Just outta curiousity, how did Gigi die exactly? Like a play-by-play please.

- TC

 

[nerd4hire]

Check out the preview HERE

That sets it up. Faith and Gigi continue to fight. Faith tries to make Gigi see she's being used by Roden. Gigi won't have any of it, and just gets more angry.

Here's the final blow.

Leading to the accident.

and the death of Gigi.

 

[Allycat]

Out of curiosity, will AAtF events also get posted in the Canon Watch??? Or will it get its own Canon Watch?

 

[nerd4hire]

Well...to be honest, I do this one out of fannish affection, and a fanatic belief in the canon of Buffy Season 8. I therefore want to share that with the membership so they have access to information on the main points of canon whether, or not they can get to the actual comic. The hope is people who want to discuss issues of canon elsewhere on the board have access to the basic developments in S8.

Here's the problem. I personally don't feel any of that for A:ATF. I just don't feel inspired to put forth the effort necessary to keep a canon thread for it up to date.

If you want to do one. Go ahead. If you can keep it up to date 2 months in a row, I'll stake it.

 

[GATEGOD]

I actually felt bad that Gigi died :*( after all she was just listening to that creep Roden.
Who giles managed to kill almost instantly ... yea. Still glad it happened to him.
But Gigi's death was so sad, not just because she died but because Faith killed her, and she wasn't even trying to.
:cry:
Everything bad tends to happen to Faith, and she never means to really do half of the things she does.
Killing the guy in season 3 .. accident, killing gigi..accident.
Well... then she killed everyone after the accident in season 3 lol, but still it all started because of accidents.
Really sad, atleast now she's going to try and help people like herself. : king :
Hope that doesn't take away anything that makes her cool and 'Faith like'

-

One thing I don't get is why Buffy was such a b$%ch and just jumped to the conclusion that Faith had turned again, they did fight side by side at the end of season 7, what changed??

 

[greetings]

Thanks so much for posting this. I can't get the comics, and I've been really wanting to know the basic points of what's being going on since I heard Joss said it counted as canon. I felt like an unworthy-fan not knowing, and this was really helpful and concise. Cheers!

 

[sosa lola]

I, too, am only passionate about BtVS. I still read After the Fall, but I'm not as passionate about it as S8.