Here is where you can discuss chapters 9-16, pages 109-198, of Slayer!
Nina shielded from reading about "William the Bloody" because too scary and Wesley in terms of being a terrible Watcher, booted from the Council.50 words or less, how were Spike and Wes referenced?
- Ah, Leo. The most Mary Sue characters I have read in ages. He is just perfect. I really want him to do something stupid or make a fool of himself, because now he is so YA trope-y that I just dislike him. I would have rather had that he returned and became her watcher and that they become friends. Then, in the second book or third book they would have fallen in love. You can keep the poem thing in, because it makes Nina more relatable, but eh. I hate insta-love.Her anti-Leo stance is a bit tiresome, because we all know it’s going nowhere. But I guess we need it there. It does make sense. It’d be dull if she just fell for him again immediately.
Ugh, Nina’s mom is really awful. It reminds me of Wes’ terrible, if fake, dad. I’m guessing Nina’s mom will at some point turn around and have reasons for being the way she is and it’ll all be explained, but I kind of hope not. I kind of like that she’s such a raging bitch.
- I really, really want her to be evil. I have a feeling that the story will turn it around and reveal that the mom was amazing in the end after all. I am really liking the conflict between Nina and her mom, as well as, Nina having to hide that she is training. It added some needed tension.Seriously though, with Nina’s mom keeping secrets even from the Council – I kind of want her to be a bad guy. Please, please, make her a bad guy.
- I am really starting to like Nina as a character. I love her conflict with wanting to heal things and destroy them at the same time. She is defintely growing on me.“I wont let him see what my mother obviously sees: That I’m weak. That I don’t deserve to be a Slayer. That no one needs me to be one.” It’s a bit teen angsty but I like it and it feels genuine for the character and how one would feel after such a rejection from ones mother. More of this please, I really feel for Nina.
- I like him well enough. He feels like the Joyce of this story at times, as Joyce acted as the 'mundane' and was not used to all the stuff that happened in Buffy's life. Cillian is, in my opinion, fulfilling that much needed role.Again, I like Cillian. It’s a bit forced at times but I like the levity he brings.
- I am glad they did this, too, because I was afraid that it was all going to be 'The Watchers are amazing blah blah blah...' while the show made it clear they weren't that great.I do appreciate that from the legacy of Btvs White has remembered one crucial aspect – the Watcher’s Council are dicks. Even from the inside it seems. Gees. the way Artemis is treated, as an ‘assistant’, Nina being the medic, Imogen the babysitter. Even when they’re decimated to such a low number, they still have time to be assholes.
- I think this is part of Nina's growth. The Watchers are anti-Buffy and Nina has been brainwashed in that way, but I think a big part of her arc will be that she will change her mind about Buffy and the Watchers. I am looking forward to see where they are going with it.I like that Nina has been raised to be a Watcher because it is interesting to get the Watcher perspective on things, like when she’s thinking about the difference between killing things in self-defense and actively choosing to kill something and she thinks - “Watchers have to make calls like this all the time. And Slayers don’t even make the call. They just act.” 192 – this feels very much like a Council perspective and not a Slayer perspective. I feel like Buffy, or Faith for that matter, throughout most of the series would very much have argued that it was them all along making the call.
My guess is editor. The writing isn’t bad and the references seem forced and inorganic, as if she had to fill a certain quota or was told to add them later. Even if the author was a superfan they’re a bit much and could no doubt had been done in a better way/lessened. I think she had to put them in there because they wanted a super clear Buffy connection.The story is finally picking up and again there is more than I like than dislike.
What I disliked:
- The references died down, but sometimes they are so shoe-horned into the story that I wonder where these came from. I wonder if this is coming from the editors or the author? It seems so out of place?