Okay, after my re-read I should clarify, its not the
Spuffy stuff that's awful. Just almost everything Buffy and Andrew said was so utterly stupid and/or morally confused it made me grind my teeth.
Buffy came across as a horrible hypocrite and Andrew...I really just want him to die already.
A lot of the issue was good though, or at least it was a satifying conclusion to the first part of the story.
- The Soul Glutton was okay, nice to get a demon who can rant and rave a little bit so Buffy can quip at them (I mean her quips were pretty
terrible- I've seen a lot better written if fan-fic, but still)
The fighting/action was okay but I do hope we see an end to 'Buffy fighting giant monsters' this season, because its already getting a little old. Plus the way the demon died ('I'll suddenly commit suicide and try and take you with me!') was a weak climax.
- Willow was easily my favourite character here, firstly using her brain to logic out where Andrew would be and then her heartfelt confession that she
always thinks about using some new spell or other to bring Tara back was entirely in character. I hope this may signal her intentions to finally move on from Tara- the girl was clearly the love of her life but enough time has passed (3 or 4 years rather than 8 months...) so that she can find love elsewhere.
- Giles is still the exposition king of the Scoobie gang and I dug his dinosaur dressing gown. Did somebody buy that for him? In fact, where does Giles get his 'old fashioned school boy/Harry Poter' clothes from in California. London I could understand, but in San Francisco?
- Spike's self-analysis of his pre-soul motivations I found to be pretty spot on. Pre-soul Spike's love wasn't true love but maybe an echo of true love, like something he remembers or wished to have from his human days. His love for his Mum, and his love for Drusila were obsessive and unhealthy, just like his love for Buffy was self-destructive (and destructive to her to a degree). Nice to see the character is
finally evolving, at least in one direction.
Plus I like that this has made all that IDW nonsense finally and firmly non-canon (where Spike briefly lost his soul and was still 'good' but felt hollow
)
- Buffy saying that 'souless Spike wasn't so bad' is just...insultingly stupid to her character. He slaughtered half of Europe Buffy, he tried to kill you a bunch of times, he tried to rape you. He was very bad, and it makes you sound brain-dead to claim otherwise.
I also noticed how she said 'He...you' when she was telling Spike about the good. So she can distinguish between Good and Bad Spike when it comes to all the evil deeds (from last issue- 'you're not the same person...') but doesn't distinguish when it comes to all the good deeds?
Which is it? Because at best that's a weak, confused argument (that I've heard MANY times before) and at worst its utterly hypocritical. If this is how truly confused the writers are about how to treat Spike and Buffy no wonder the fans can't stop arguing.
But Buffy gets worse- she compares her selfish, absentee Dad to souless Spike. Her Dad, who presumably DID help raise and provide for her until she was sisteen, is
unfavourably compared to a mass-murdering demon.
An incredibly harsh and distorted view of her Dad imo. Or does she really hate him that much now. Does she really have such a rose-tinted view off souless Spike? Urgh.
'There was always good in you Spike. So strong that it didn't need a soul to come out.' I mean, what can I say to something so blinkeredly stupid?
Spike got a chip, a severe behavioural modification device in his brain that
curbed his murderous impulses with pain. Add to that a couple of years of trial and error morality in which he did some pretty terrible things (betraying the Scoobies to Adam, putting Riley's life at risk to get the chip out, threatening to feed Buffy to Dru, trafficking in demons of mass-destruction. Does Buffy remember none of this?
) and during that time he started to show some good qualities. (Because he loved Buffy- even after her death- he protected those that were important to her, like her friends and Dawn . Though that did stop when he started shagging Buffy)
Buffy seems to cofuse an evil demon who is capable of doing good/noble things, with somebody who has intrinsic good
in them.
Anyway, that's enough of Buffy's...unique world view. The other problem with this issue is Andrew.
I was puzzled as to why Andrew thought of himself responsible for Tara's death. Katrina's? Sure, I'd buy that. Jonathan's? hell yes fifty times over. But Tara- but it became clear what his motivation really was.
Btw- the scene where Andrew 'reasoned' as he wrote in the book was...his wording of the spell was awful and had the potential for so much horrible abuse and magical problems in the future. ('I'll ressurect Hitler to full health! Wow, that was easy.) Idiot.
Willow explaining clearly, and with conviction, why bringing Tara back would hurt
Tara. Andrew's response? 'You can't stop me.' Selfish. Little. Turd.
Because it wasn't about Tara, it was about Andrew. While he was whining about 'feeling alone' and how 'he feels left out' it became obvious its not about doing good for anybody apart from himself.
It could be argued that Buffy being back in the world was good for the world and although Willow was being partly selfish in her motivations she was trying to bring back the slayer. She didn't know better (she thought Buffy was in some hell dimension and all the others agreed)
Giles' soul was in the clutches of Eyghon, which Angel figured out from reading his journals, and so decided to ressurect him. There was also a selfish element but rescuing Giles from a demon because of a youthful mistake the watcher made was basically noble. More importantly it was not a quick fix, it took time, planning, effort and Faith's help to complete.
Andrew's solution is absolutely a quick fix, and his motivations are entirely ill-thoughtout and selfish (he doesn't know Tara at all- did they even meet? No.) and his plan is illconcieved and dangerous. Even if the soul-glutton hadn't been there it still would've been a disaster to attempt.
And then we get to the ending- where Willow
apologises for making him feel bad. I mean, c'mon!
And Buffy's forgiveness speech entirely misses the point. (plus it's far far too neat and simplistic. Simply knowing that you did wrong has
never been enough for Buffy)
Forgiveness isn't about just 'fixing' something, it's about hard work to win back trust, making an effort and fighting not because it will make
you feel better, but because it's right.
(This btw is being perfectly illustrated in the Faith part of A&F arc without needing to be spoonfed to the reader.)
Forgiveness has to be earned, to a degree, but it also takes time. It also should never be garrateed as much as Andrew obviously wants it to be.
What has Andrew done to earn his place with the Scoobies? Jack-shit is the answer, and he's screwed up badly as recently as the year before by violating Buffy and putting her life in danger for
very flimsy reasons.
Man, I hope Andrew gets brutally murdered by robot-Jonathan. What an utterly pointless character.
