Discussion of Buffy 10.04 "New Rules, Part 4" - Released 6/18/14 (Dark Horse)

Buffy Summers

Buffy Summers

Yataro
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Sineya
Writer: Christos Gage and Nicholas Brendon
Penciller: Rebekah Isaacs

Getting help from Dracula seemed like a good idea, until he stole the Vampyr book"”and Xander! Now Buffy, Spike, Dawn, Willow, and Giles must save Xander and retrieve the book before it's too late. Dracula has already begun to study how the lack of magical rules can work in his favor ...


Source: Wikipedia

Woot Nick Brendon!

🙂
 
Nicholas Nrendon! Didn't know he wrote for the comics, or is this a first time?
 
I wasn't as crazy about this issue as I was the first 3. There's some great lines and moments, but also a LOT of 4th wall breaking and I could have done without the ending. Sometimes it's nice for story to just be concluded and not dragged up again.
 
This was my favourite episode so far. I liked the humour and was moved by the pathos of Xander and Dawn. To have something like that happen to their relationship - and here's Xander thinking Dawn doesn't love him because of his actions in Season 9. I'm not a great fan of Lil' Giles, but I did find myself laughing at the cleaving/cleavage spell joke - bad me ! I don't know what lines Nick Brendon is responsible for, but I'm definately enjoying the warmth of the character interaction and wonder if that might be part of the package that Nick brings to the mix.
 
The implications of the power of the Vampyr book are very interesting. For instance, all vampires could be given souls. They could be made drink apple juice instead of blood. The songs of Justin Beiber could be the only thing to kill them. Angel's soul could be secured. The ability to make new vampires could be done away with. The possibilities are endless.
 
Oh, I liked this. 🙂

Liked seeing the Scooby gang working together to track down Xander and regain the book- things were finally actually happening- there were stakes (heh, pun. 🙂).

Love the Giles/Willow interactions, with her being the focused mature one trying to guide his impulsiveness/impatience.

- 'Spell of cleavage'. Okay, that was funny. 😀

-'Dark Willow? So I'm a trope now!' 🙂

-Loved the Buffy/Dawn sister stuff, some of the strongest dialogue between them since the start of S8, loved seeing that closeness. Brilliant
And Dawn sort of 'resetting' her emotions was both logical (sort of, given what we know of the spell used to create her) and poinant, like the revelation that she felt like she was remembering losing her Mom all over again. 🙁

-Deep Ones exist! Cthulhu exists! That's awesome and needs to be explored more. Like, right now!

- The Book rejecting Andrews ideas was funny, as was Spike's subconscious 'toadying' to Drac and his growing irritation at it.

Nice nod to the Old Ones and the return of Illyria (hopefully)- not sure about another face-off with Malakor so soon after the last time (but I might be remembering that wrongly.) but so far its a strong finish to the first half of the arc. 🙂
 
Yeah, the issue was a bit whatever, but only cuz it felt very much like a middle piece.

But overall it was fantastic, I like the overall story and the writing is fantastic!

"Dark Willowing" being a saying, is something you can all suspect to hear me say around the boards now, absolutely love that! Whats so great about that is, how language was used in BtVS was so important, and this was one of the first things to feel really like the show language-wise, it felt like natural Buffy-speak as opposed to last season where we got a lot of writing what they think Buffy-speak was. Gage is killing it this season!

The book spitting back Andrews words was hilarious.

And again we got loads of interconnected moments between the characters which is what we've been begging for since season 8 issue 1!

Kean said:
The implications of the power of the Vampyr book are very interesting. For instance, all vampires could be given souls. They could be made drink apple juice instead of blood. The songs of Justin Beiber could be the only thing to kill them. Angel's soul could be secured. The ability to make new vampires could be done away with. The possibilities are endless.
Click to expand...

I can't work out if I like this or not, I hadn't realised the book was so literal that physically writing in it would have an affect on magic. I had the impression that magic was going to be formed by what was happening, so it could be very very interesting!

I too wish they hadn't brought back Malakor so soon. I actually like they they are addressing it again, as it seems like it's something that could be a really interesting place to explore but it was just wasted in last season, but then addressing it so soon seems a bit odd, but I assume it's going to just be a way to bring Illyria back somehow!
 
I enjoyed this issue, but it worries me. Holy cow was the Dawn/Xander story derivative, just WOW!

I didn't pick up on the "I love you," "no you don't" being a rehash of two very significant moments: Buffy/Spike, Buffy/Riley. But now Dawn's whole "I'm not the same since you brought me back" is SUCH a waaay too similar to Buffy's BS6 arc, it's ridiculous. Yes, it's different in that Buffy just mistook her beginning of life crisis for a loss of humanity, where Dawn may actually have had her emotions reset, but in implementation, they're insultingly similar.

I don't follow superhero comics, but I know they've been around for decades, and even if they do fall into rehashing stories, I must believe Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine have more than ten story arcs each that aren't derivative of their own history. It's very concerning that they're falling into this during the 10th season overall/3rd comic season...

Kean said:
The implications of the power of the Vampyr book are very interesting. For instance, all vampires could be given souls. They could be made drink apple juice instead of blood. The songs of Justin Beiber could be the only thing to kill them. Angel's soul could be secured. The ability to make new vampires could be done away with. The possibilities are endless.
Click to expand...
Good point! It opens the door for some error done to the book causing the messed up/worse rules of magic in Fray's time.

Kean said:
The songs of Justin Beiber could be the only thing to kill them.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that just has an effect on their ears similar to sunlight on their flesh.
 
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Another good issue for me. I think I'm just enjoying the strong line up for this season and the dialogue that goes with it. I'm glad to see Malakor again. I always enjoy seeing the flashbacks and delving into the history of the Buffyverse. I'm hoping we'll see something that sheds some light on The Powers That Be.

Not so keen on the Magic Book. Problems being created and solved by jotting them down will wear thin quickly but I'm alright with it for a little while.
 
I have to side with the folks who were not as happy with issue 4 as with the previous 3. It is remarkable that the same happened with most of CG's arcs in A&F S9 ( from my PoV). He usually had strong/amusing openers and decent continuations, then fizzled with most of the climaxes/finales. And out of that entire run of that series I liked his standalones, (or at the most double issue arcs) the best. The thing is, I seriously dislike the all-powerful Vampyr book plot, I also find too much of Xander-Dracula puns rather annoying (discretion is the better part not only of valor but of the storytelling as well), and finally I find Giles-the-all-horny-little-boy trend cringe-worthy; mainly because Rebekah draws Giles so young that it feels like excessive sexualization of a pre-teen. (For example, if that was a 12 year old girl imagine your reaction on her staring at mens strained crotches all the time vs young Giles and the boobs running joke.)

Dawn's emotional reset was the only part of the issue that I rather liked. It gives if not entirely perfect, then at least passable explanation to her sudden renewed Spike friendliness: she can remember the basic events of S6 but her emotions have been reset back to having childish crush on Xander - likely the same happened with her emotional baggage regarding the blondie.
 
ladydorotea said:
Dawn's emotional reset was the only part of the issue that I rather liked. It gives if not entirely perfect, then at least passable explanation to her sudden renewed Spike friendliness: she can remember the basic events of S6 but her emotions have been reset back to having childish crush on Xander - likely the same happened with her emotional baggage regarding the blondie.
Click to expand...

I haven't read the issue, so I should really just keep my mouth shut, but if this theory turns out to be true it seems like a lazy way to get Spike back in Dawn's good graces rather than having them deal with their issues in a mature manner.

Again, that's just my kneejerk reaction to hearing these second hand spoilers, so feel free to ignore me. 😱
 
ladydorotea said:
I have to side with the folks who were not as happy with issue 4 as with the previous 3. It is remarkable that the same happened with most of CG's arcs in A&F S9 ( from my PoV). He usually had strong/amusing openers and decent continuations, then fizzled with most of the climaxes/finales. And out of that entire run of that series I liked his standalones, (or at the most double issue arcs) the best. The thing is, I seriously dislike the all-powerful Vampyr book plot, I also find too much of Xander-Dracula puns rather annoying (discretion is the better part not only of valor but of the storytelling as well), and finally I find Giles-the-all-horny-little-boy trend cringe-worthy; mainly because Rebekah draws Giles so young that it feels like excessive sexualization of a pre-teen. (For example, if that was a 12 year old girl imagine your reaction on her staring at mens strained crotches all the time vs young Giles and the boobs running joke.)

Dawn's emotional reset was the only part of the issue that I rather liked. It gives if not entirely perfect, then at least passable explanation to her sudden renewed Spike friendliness: she can remember the basic events of S6 but her emotions have been reset back to having childish crush on Xander - likely the same happened with her emotional baggage regarding the blondie.
Click to expand...

It's not exactly the same with teenage boys and teenage girls though is it?
Teenage boy hormones hit hard when it comes to growing up and women, (especially the magic of boobs...) whereas girls tend to develop crushes on older boys- they don't stare at mens crotches- it's just not the same thing.

To be honest this is the first Giles hormone joke I've seen since A&F, if they miimize it to onece evey five or so issues I'll be relieved. 🙂

This is a Giles/Dracula arc, obviously. So their using up all their Xander/Drac material this time around- I guess its personal taste.

Agreed about Dawn's emotional problems, it mirror's Buffy's S6 arc a little bit, but its been handled way more subtely (i.e- much better)

I could do without a revived Dawn/Spike friendship though, that particular 'ship has sailed. 🙂
 
See, my problem with Giles vs boobs is that he is not supposed to be even a teen, he is like 12. The main reason being - the writers wanted to put a stop on even remote fantasy of anything Buffy-Giles. Yet they slam along with 12 year old boy hormones/sexual fantasies ( apparently to ogle Faith or a random vampire is OK cause you know, no father-daughter bond ), which feels rather weird to me. And RI draws him looking like he is 10. 🙁
Besides, it is a double entendre with pre-teen boys ogling grown women being funny, yet pre-teen girls ogling men being ugly. I honestly think it is kinda ugly both ways, and faintly exploitative.
 
thetopher
thetopher
I don't particularly like it either.
Yeah, Giles is meant to be on the cusp of 12/13- which is the right time for some boys to develop sexual feelings, but certainly not all.

I didn't find it that weird with Faith- I suppose because the sexuality/bad girl stuff is part of her character, it was a couple of off-colour jokes, and probably contributed to Giles wanting to distance himself from Faith...or parts of her at any rate. 🙂
(Although having said that about the Faith/bad girl stuff- when's the last time she even had a 'relationship'? Wood? That was way back before S8 even began- so she's down right chaste compared to Buffy...)

But Giles and any of the Scooby's or Buffy...I shudder to think. 😱
I really hope they tone it down a lot going forward and focus on his immaturity/lack of patience and attention- that's actually worth focusing on.
 
thetopher said:
-Deep Ones exist! Cthulhu exists! That's awesome and needs to be explored more. Like, right now!
Click to expand...

I'm not paying that much attention to the S10 comics right now, but I'd like to know more about this. Would someone be willing to summarize what we've been told?
 
Dawn, Spike and Buffy are hitting the streets looking for Xander and they find some 'Deep Ones' (Spike nmes them as such.)- frog-like demon-things while in a 'demon's only establishment' like the ones they get in LA.

As for Cthulhu, he's seen, sorta, in flashback to the time of the Old Ones, and is also referenced by a Deep One (as in 'I swear to God!') because that's who they, as a race, worship, according to the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.


C'mon, who doesn't waana see Buffy vs. Cthulhu!
 
This season as of this issue feels way too farcical for my taste, and Willow is so incredibly annoying - inversely proportional to her importance in the storyline so far. I really wish they would start Buffy over with a new team somewhere lol
 
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