Discussion of 8.19 "Time of Your Life Part 4" - Released 11/26/08 (Dark Horse)

I like the stormwreath theory the best of any I've heard so far. Not so many holes in logic as everything's covered. It's tight. It's worth clicking the link.
 
10/10.

i have to say something very important about season 8. although i hate delays in getting my monthly buffy fix, at least dark horse knows when they need to put more work into an issue. they done pump them out every 30 days like IDW does with angel. and as a result, the buffy series is 10 times better than the angel series in all categories (writing, inks, colors, story line, etc.).

so, thank you dark horse people for recognizing when a comic is not up to par and taking the time to make it right even if some fans might be upset with the delays.
 
nerd4hire said:
Everybody is saying the big reveal is Riley, so I guess it is, but you know what I thought when I first saw him?

Broken nose, tough guy speech patterns, muscle shirt - It's Pike!

I was wrong, of course, but I wish I wasn't. I prefer Pike to Riley.
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It wasn't the big face reveal that made me think it was Riley. As soon as I saw that stance, with the hands behind his back, feet apart, I instantly thought of a soldier at ease. Before I turned the page I said 'That's Riley, OMG!' The face just sorta cemented that.

I agree with the whole 'less answers, more questions' theory, but I still loved this arc. I don't know it it's because of Fray, or because Buffy went to the future, Buffy and Fray together, or because Buffy can now focus on helping Willow not become Dark!Willow again.

Although, I'm interested to see if anything Buffy read in those books pops up and she says something like 'I read about this in the future'.

BTW, I now feel kinda annoyed and validated at the same time. I told y'all Riley had something to do with it!! Of course, I thought he might actually be Twiligh, lol.
 
Senior Watcher said:
10/10.

i have to say something very important about season 8. although i hate delays in getting my monthly buffy fix, at least dark horse knows when they need to put more work into an issue. they done pump them out every 30 days like IDW does with angel. and as a result, the buffy series is 10 times better than the angel series in all categories (writing, inks, colors, story line, etc.).

so, thank you dark horse people for recognizing when a comic is not up to par and taking the time to make it right even if some fans might be upset with the delays.
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Well Buffy is more strict than Angel. Its dealt by Joss mostly and writers who are familar with the charecters. Compared to Angel which Joss doesnt even help write. And ofcourse every artist is different though I like Buffys better.
 
C
Chase Summers
haha, your banner signature is one of favorite exchanges of all time on Angel!
Eh, I personally find Angel's storylines more fulfilling than Buffy's currently. Feels like less stringing along and getting more to the point. I also like that it is punctual. Sure the art kinda sucks, but the story seems pretty tight. Too many questions around Buffy currently.
 
Chase Summers said:
Eh, I personally find Angel's storylines more fulfilling than Buffy's currently. Feels like less stringing along and getting more to the point. I also like that it is punctual. Sure the art kinda sucks, but the story seems pretty tight. Too many questions around Buffy currently.
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The difference between the two is that Angel After the Fall is only 17 issues while Buffy S8 is 40 issues. We're still not in the middle of S8 yet, as Joss had said, the real story starts at #21, which is an issue away.
 
C
Chase Summers
Well that makes me very happy :)
nerd4hire
nerd4hire
I forgot about that, but yeah, that's important, I think.
L
La Luna Unita
More S8? Color me happy.
Disappointing.

And unfortunately expected. Ultimately this whole arch ended up being about absolutely nothing. Over the course of four issues only two things of note happened. Dawn changed to a centaur and we find out Riley's Twilight's inside man.

AtF trumps S8.
 
Here's this thing I find curious about the 2 comic runs Buffy Season 8, and Angel: After the Fall.

As they both appeared I and others decided we preferred Season 8. Others decided they preferred Angel: After the Fall.

The Buffy 8 people expressed their displeasure with the Angel series, then they moved on, and concentrated on fanboying Buffy.

The Angel people appear to have decided moving on isn't enough, and Buffy 8 people have to be saved from their incorrect decision of loving the Buffy run.

Every issue now there's this dependable assortment of posts from the same Angel people suggesting this particular issue of Buffy 8 is horrible beyond belief, and not worth reading. It's the same people every month, and they're what I call "the Angel people".

There's still critique from fans of each series against their favorite flavor, when they see something they don't like, but the Angel people appear to feel required to cross over to make the Buffy people think there's some sort of broad disappointment with their favored series.

It's an unusual phenomena. I wonder if it's a constant amongst all of Buffy fandom, or it's peculiar to this particular board.
 
C
Clem Rocks
I hope i'm not one of "The Angel People". I prefer AtF but i still like Season 8 D=
nerd4hire said:
Here's this thing I find curious about the 2 comic runs Buffy Season 8, and Angel: After the Fall.

As they both appeared I and others decided we preferred Season 8. Others decided they preferred Angel: After the Fall.

The Buffy 8 people expressed their displeasure with the Angel series, then they moved on, and concentrated on fanboying Buffy.

The Angel people appear to have decided moving on isn't enough, and Buffy 8 people have to be saved from their incorrect decision of loving the Buffy run.

Every issue now there's this dependable assortment of posts from the same Angel people suggesting this particular issue of Buffy 8 is horrible beyond belief, and not worth reading. It's the same people every month, and they're what I call "the Angel people".

There's still critique from fans of each series against there favorite flavor, when they see something they don't like, but the Angel people appear to feel required to cross over to make the Buffy people think there's some sort of broad disappointment with their favored series.

It's an unusual phenomena. I wonder if it's a constant amongst all of Buffy fandom, or it's peculiar to this particular board.
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Oh, Buffy Season 8 has its awesome moments and issues. My only frustration is the only consistency seems to be that the bigwigs will push back release dates citing whatever flimsy excuse and then they leave us with way more questions than answers.

I could deal with more questions while the show was airing because we saw it every week and got answers, whereas we have to wait a month between issues or in some cases 10-12 weeks or so before we get our next "what the hell?" moment. I just feel like when it comes to plotting, they should make accomodations for the comic world. It's like they're still writing and trying to hook readers/viewers as if it is a t.v. show.

S8 is riding a fine line between being an enjoyable puzzle type and being this very frustrating almost impossible puzzle.

I prefer Angel the series over Buffy in most cases, but I can respect Buffy fans of S8 because I do think there have been some great and fascinating arcs so far. I just like Angel's season 6 mainly because I don't feel like as a reader, I'm being strung along. And don't get me wrong, Angel has had some pretty questionable issues. Issue 12 in particular...felt filler-y.

I think S8 is going to benefit from the stand alone arcs to come. I mean, give us a bone, but also intrigue us with another type bone (if that makes ANY sense!). 😀
 
That's fair. Now me I stopped buying A:AtF. I found it to be this chaotic, mish-mish, of stuffed in bits, where to me Buffy 8 is this magnificent, complex tapestry of hidden secrets and masterful reveals. You would just switch those descriptions around. That's fair. Different strokes.
 
C
Chase Summers
I see your point completely. My deal is just my own impatience :)
nerd4hire said:
That's fair. Now me I stopped buying A:AtF. I found it to be this chaotic, mish-mish, of stuffed in bits, where to me Buffy 8 is this magnificent, complex tapestry of hidden secrets and masterful reveals. You would just switch those descriptions around. That's fair. Different strokes.
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I agree completely about Season 8; the thing about A:AtF is that Brian Lynch has an... unconventional storytelling style that can be off-putting for some people. His dialog tends to be rather non-linear, for one thing.

I find it works better with his comedy stuff, such as "Monkey Man" and "Patchouli."

I still read and enjoy A:AtF, though. In this last issue, just getting to see Illyria in her true form was badass enough to be worth the price of admission. (And hey, being a member of Vahla Ha'Nesh, I guess that qualifies as a religious experience...)
 
C
Chase Summers
Yep, Yep I agree!
I just wonder if they're going to release why Willow wanted Buffy to kill her. Because she said "It's a long story." I wonder if we're gonna find out what that story is.
 
nerd4hire said:
Here's this thing I find curious about the 2 comic runs Buffy Season 8, and Angel: After the Fall.

As they both appeared I and others decided we preferred Season 8. Others decided they preferred Angel: After the Fall.

The Buffy 8 people expressed their displeasure with the Angel series, then they moved on, and concentrated on fanboying Buffy.

The Angel people appear to have decided moving on isn't enough, and Buffy 8 people have to be saved from their incorrect decision of loving the Buffy run.

Every issue now there's this dependable assortment of posts from the same Angel people suggesting this particular issue of Buffy 8 is horrible beyond belief, and not worth reading. It's the same people every month, and they're what I call "the Angel people".

There's still critique from fans of each series against their favorite flavor, when they see something they don't like, but the Angel people appear to feel required to cross over to make the Buffy people think there's some sort of broad disappointment with their favored series.

It's an unusual phenomena. I wonder if it's a constant amongst all of Buffy fandom, or it's peculiar to this particular board.
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Since you posted this just after me post.. I can't help but think that you mean me.

And I have to defend myself in that I like both series. In the beginning I even preffered Buffy. Slowly but surely though, I've been moving over to the Angel side. For me the definitive moment was these month's issues. We've had an interesting build-up on Buffy over the course of three issues.

The build-up in this arc has been tremendous. Which made me worry if the climax could be satisfactory. After reading the 5-page preview I had every hope that Joss had mastered it. But as it turned out when the real comic arrived the story, in my opinion, just fizzled out.

This for me is the moment to loud and clear say, Angel is better. It might still change. The 6-page preview for After these Messages looks great. And I certainly won't stop buying Buffy, because I still like it.
 
And I say Buffy is better. Better like comparing fanfic to the real thing. But what I wonder is why I don't feel it necessary to go over to the Angel thread and tell you how crappy I think it is, yet you do here. And I've been seeing this for some months. I lose track of the names but they're always Angel people. I get that impression by the amount of times I've seen the "Angel is better" comments in Season 8 threads. 2 or 3 people can make that sound like a consensus if they say it enough, and that seems to be what they're trying to do. You would know better than me if that includes you.

Whoever it is, you're not going to sway the opinion of Buffy 8 fans, you know. If we like Buffy 8, we like it. You can't just dis our fan obsession, and think we'll all of a sudden become Angel fans. Some of us don't like that series. Live with it.
 
I agree with you that people who don't like AAtF shouldn't go to that forum to dis it. Likewise people who don't like Bs8 shouldn't come here to dis it.

However, there are also people who like both series. And among them are people who like the series in general, but not every single issue. Surely, you don't think that they should only be allowed to discuss their favourite of the two? Anyway, that's just my two cents.

On a more constructive-note, cause this discussion is getting totally side-tracked, maybe you should create two sticky "I don't like this comic"-threads for all the general criticism so that it doesn't have to side-track just about every other comic thread? Maybe along with a big AAtF vs. Bs8 thread? I dunno, just an idea; trying to be constructive.
 
I agree with you that people who don't like AAtF shouldn't go to that forum to dis it. Likewise people who don't like Bs8 shouldn't come here to dis it.
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Actually no, that's not what I'm saying. I have no problem with people posting sincere critique about A:aTF or Season 8 in A:atF or Buffy 8. What I have a problem with is people with a chip on their shoulder about their particular fandom, turning it into a pissing contest with a continuous barrage of insults for no other reason than to look for an eventual opportunity to say ours is better than yours. It's tiresome.

But yeah, OK, let's get it back on topic.

You understand what I'm saying though, right? If you don't like this issue I'm interested in hearing why, but if you're just interested in pimping A:atF don't waste my time. That's my opinion.
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You know what it reminds me of? It reminds of the old days when the series was running and the Charmed people would pop in at the WB board.

But back on topic, I'll even critique. Those mystical creatures in the Scottish forest are pretty disruptive to the story flow eh? What's that all about? Is it just to show the presence of magic to make the magic versus non-magic theme relevant when they start talking that one up again?
 
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