Discussion of Buffy 9.02 "Freefall: Part 2"- Released 10/12/11 (Dark Horse)

[Hale Caesar]

Issue two is out, discuss!

Overall, this issue was "meh", I really enjoyed Willow telling Buffy that she will have to deal with the fallout of the Seed. Buffy getting arrested was cool and the two cops are great characters, hopefully we get more from them. I really don't like the direction with Spike, he's starting to be like Season 7. Spike is a badass, he shouldn't be hanging out with Buffy making witty jokes, he should be in the dark and dangerous places finding answers, hopefully he steps up later in the season (it's still very early)

Did Dawn and Xander kick Buffy out of their apartment? Wow...the Scoobies are worse off than I thought. I hated that moment, I think as her closest friends they should be there to comfort her, not leave her homeless. And the ending was okay, I liked the idea of the guy "killing" vampires, but not Buffy's reaction of him taking her job. And that guy who snuck into Buffy's room? Pretty cool

Overall, I would say this is below average. A little disappointed with some of the plot points, and I felt Xander and Dawn were very OOC (or just being jerks). I would definitely say "Angel and Faith" has been the better book so far though

 

[Moscow Watcher]

According Allie's Q&As for #40, Joss has abandoned the initial Season 9 plan around issue #28 or so. Pretty close to "Harmonic Divergence" in which the world found out about vampires. So far, it looks like the season will be about the consequences of vampires going public as much as about the the destruction of the Seed. Because it looks like Joss decided to up the ante and to turn the killing of a vampire into... well, a real killing. With a fresh corpse. Very interesting.

It's not clear so far if Severin has an inner, physiological ability to "burn" the demon out of a vampire's body or he uses some technology. If it's a technology, it becomes especially murky, because in that case everybody would be able to kill vampires and demons quite easily. Just imagine a situation in which everybody can (and have the right) to kill Lorne. But most likely it's Severin's innate ability. Still -- creepy and reminds of inquisition and burning witches on a stake.

Detectives Dowling and Cheung's situation is quite delicate. They know that Buffy kills other vampires, but, as long as she dusts them, it's not a crime, right? It becomes a crime only when they have a vampire corpse on their hands. An interesting case of double standards - or should I call it double think?

Buffy's new moral quandary is really Joss-worthy. People live next to another species who look more or less like them; who apparently work for human employers; who appear on television; who can't get away from Earth even if they want to. Is it okay to kill them?

So far, it's unclear where the story will go; but it's a new, intriguing premise. For a long time, vampires and demons were metaphors of human fears and frustrations. It's hard to face our fears; should we destroy them or should we learn to live with them without letting them to destroy us?

Plot-wise, it's interesting that in this issue Severin has switched from killing girls to killing male vampires. A coincidence? Or he did it to make a good impression on Buffy? I don't trust the guy; so far he looks like an Angel-lite: a handsome impeccably dressed stranger.

Buffy and Spike have two scenes together. I like that the writers develop their relationship slowly. There is a lot of potential there.

Xander and Dawn's decision not to hide Buffy from police is a plot point that demands suspension of disbelief. I'd love Spike to invite Buffy into his ship so that they could fly as far away as possible until the police solves the case. I know it won't happen - but I look forward to the next issues.

 

[Icarium]

What I learned from Buffy 9.02:

- Buffy paying her student loans was not a joke.
- A detective would check the missing persons reports from 1941 even when the victim looks 30 at most.
- Slayers now can be arrested for slaying the poor persecuted vampires
- Xander and Dawn refuse to aid and abet Buffy, never mind that Xander has done that for Spike, Andrew, Faith, etc. Of course, the whole situation could have been resolved with a simple "Buff, you do realize this would be the first place they would look for you after your own apartment" but this wouldn't have been angsty enough, I guess.
- Willow thinks keeping demons away from their home dimensions is a bad consequence of breaking the Seed. Earth to Willow -this also means the demons who wanted to come to Earth to kill people will not be able to do so now. How is that a bad thing again?
- Severin, can defeat a crowd of vampires just by turning on his superpower. And here I thought that we would have at least issues of Buffy not being totally outshine in the vampire slaying department once Willow got nerfed.

Detectives Dowling and Cheung's situation is quite delicate. They know that Buffy kills other vampires, but, as long as she dusts them, it's not a crime, right? I

Why the heck not? Since when a crime is crime only when there is material evidence? It's either wrong to kill vampires or not.

Buffy's new moral quandary is really Joss-worthy. People live next to another species who look more or less like them; who apparently work for human employers; who appear on television; who can't get away from Earth even if they want to. Is it okay to kill them?

So far, it's unclear where the story will go; but it's a new, intriguing premise.

What's new about that premise? Demons as Star Trek aliens has been the case all along in AtS. If in five seasons Joss never bothered to explain why it's okay to kill demons sometimes and not in other cases, I doubt he will do it now. It's all a matter of plot convenience.

 

[Moscow Watcher]

What's new about that premise? Demons as Star Trek aliens has been the case all along in AtS. If in five seasons Joss never bothered to explain why it's okay to kill demons sometimes and not in other cases, I doubt he will do it now. It's all a matter of plot convenience.

It's new for BtVS, I think. Of course, Clem was a friendly type of demon, and Anya was a demon with a soul - but it was somewhere in the background. And now it looks like an important theme of the season.

 

[Icarium]

It's new for BtVS, I think. Of course, Clem was a friendly type of demon, and Anya was a demon with a soul - but it was somewhere in the background. And now it looks like an important theme of the season.

And we didn't have a bunch of friendly demons invited to Anya's wedding...oh, wait we did. Been there, done that. If Whedon really wants to go for "demons are people too" he needs to do his homework and explain why it's okay to kill them quite often while it's never okay to kill humans. He won't do it because if there are no demons to kill there would be precious little for the protagonists to do, so I think the idea is silly in the extreme, especially since it all began with Harmony's retarded reality show.

 

[EVIL UU]

That was

...Eh

I think that...eh whatever, here are some things that just don't seem to make any bloody sense:

Student Loan. It was established in season 3 that Joyce would pay for Buffy's education, the college money problem has never been brought before, ever, even among Buffy's financial crisis in season 6. Yeah, that is some quality writing right here ladies and gentleman.

Magic-less world. Think about it - Vampires still have to be invited to enter and I assume that they still don't like crosses and holy water. Even if they somehow were before, houses, crosses and holy water are NOT magical, because there's no magic in the world. So the magic that stops vampires from entering a house uninvited and makes bad things to their skin when contacted with crosses and holy water is INSIDE them. It's all cool except vampires are older than houses and they are definitely older than holy water, crosses and the linked religion ( merely 2000 years ) I guess that Wizard did it.

Slaying a vampire is apparently not a crime, it makes sense, because they are dead. So the next big question - how do you hire a dead person that has absolutely no rights, like Harmony? If you can kill something without any consequences then it pretty much has no rights whatsoever. And how do you legally hire a demon to collect student loans, are they citizens now? I guess they have to be, well, way to piss off the real illegal immigrants. It's extreme and I'm kidding, but still, nonsense.

Severin is more powerful than any Slayer ever, he doesn't even need a stake. So...why were there Slayers in the first place if there are more powerful creatures that hunt vampires and are on the side of good guys?

And why did Buffy escape from the police station? No charges were pressed at all. God, is she 12?


Never thought I would say that but I miss lesbian sex, mechas and Dracula...

Slayers now can be arrested for slaying the poor persecuted vampires

I think that she was arrested for being connected to Severin's bodies, that's what they seemed to say on the TV. Or not, since everything has to so damn ambiguous I'm not even sure any more.

 

[The Scourge]

So Buffy the Vampire Slayer is now doing the 'demons are people too!' story-line? It might have been interesting if Angel hadn't already done it first.

 

[VisionGirl]

Just got done reading it quickly, and I have to say that I'm relieved. It was much better than the previous issue. I'm intrigued by the demon who rummages through her room.

I wonder if Severin is a demon stuck here from another dimension. Does anything we've read say that he's human?

Dawn & Xander kicking Buffy out totally sucks and makes no sense- they've "aided and abetted" plenty of times before. This thing about then wanting a normal life is not going to work out of course! It's just a matter of time until they're back in the middle of the fight. I hope anyway.

I cringed when I read this: "If I hadn't gotten caught slaying him....". Terrible grammar.

I'm missing the pop references BtVS and even season 8 are known for.

I was so pissed at the ending of #1 that I really wanted her to kick that demon's ass!

OK, who's the "one-armed man" that Xander references?

 

[zianna]

OK, who's the "one-armed man" that Xander references?

I think it's the movie "The fugitive" with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Ford plays a doctor whose wife was murdered by an one armed man and the police believes he has done it, so he escapes and tries to find the real killer.

 

[Reddygirl]

We don't know about Joyce's education fund for Buffy. It's possible everything was used up during Joyce's illness and Buffy got a loan during season 5 that ended up getting thrown into the household kitty eventually.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Must say, I'm not thrilled by the majority of these reviews. Kinda makes me not excited about this issue. I'm sort of that this point in the series where I eventually got to with Gossip Girl, where it got to a point where the show got so bad that the only aspect I remained interested in was Chair, and even that waned once she started dating that Prince guy. At the point, Spuffy is really all I'm interested in. The story is old hat, they're recycling old themes, and everyone is acting OOC. Greeeat. What happened to going back to the basic as Joss said? The Scoobies are estranged, Buffy is homeless, and there's no magic? Giles is dead. I don't like this once bit.
Joss and Co, stop with the experimenting! This show has always been about the emotional lives of these characters. The fantasy stuff is just metaphor. I want to see Buffy confident, independant, slaying vamps in alleys with Spike and her friends by her side.
Buffy needs a face-lift. It needs to evolve, not just keep falling back on the same premises.

 

[sosa lola]

I have reread the issue again after a few hours of sleep, and here are my humble thoughts:

The art: Wow, so much improvement from the last issue, especially how Jeanty is drawing Buffy. She looks far more beautiful in #2 than she did in #1. The Satsu hairstyle didn't really suit her. I love the close-ups, there are so many Buffy close-ups I loved, there's that one with Spike from the previews, and I love the one with Xander looking away with his mouth in the shape of an O.

Buffy: She's trying to fit in in the new magic-less world. It's gonna be hard being a slayer in a world that considers vampires persons with rights. I sympathized so much with her in this issue: she feels Willow is being unfair to her, but doesn't fault her for it, it was a big blow when Spike agreed with Willow considering she usually relied on him to be on her side. I'm not sure she understands what Willow wants from her and that's frustrating her. On top of that, when things get tough, she goes to her family asking for shelter and gets kicked out. That's gotta sting.

I do think that while Buffy is complaining a lot about everybody having a normal life, she's not really doing anything to have one herself. She deals with the conflicts of her life irresponsibly that I think Xander was on to something when he mocked her life plans. She knows she needs to go home and figure out how to pay the demon, but she chooses to go out and slay. She knows she should stick around at the police station and call a lawyer, yet she runs away making things worse for her. She's being irresponsible.

Not to mention that Buffy obviously blames her irresponsibility on her being a slayer. She thinks that if she wasn't a slayer, she'd be much better off in the world and will probably get on well. Being a slayer isn't the problem, the problem is Buffy running away from the hard real life to a life she's used to and is good at: slaying vampires.

Xander and Dawn: I have read everybody's opinions about this, but I still think Xander and Dawn were being jerks. All Buffy asked them was to crash in their apartment for a night, not to investigate and do Scooby research stuff on what's happening. They could have given her that, after all, they are her family and family should be there for you. They could deal with their couple quarrel the next day.

Willow: After being so impressed with her in #1, I have completely lost her in this issue. I can't shake the feeling that she's just using the demon's homeless predicament to further guilt Buffy about breaking the seed. I find myself completely on Buffy's side here, but I'd be proven wrong with future issues.

Spike: I liked him the best in this issue. He was the only one who clearly cares about Buffy and acts to help her. From giving Buffy suggestions to how to pay the demon, to trying to reason with the demon about Buffy's student loan, being there for her when no one is, and promising her to try and find out who's after her.

I don't think that Spike should be in the same level with Xander and Dawn because he didn't suggest Buffy could hide in his bug ship. At least Spike had showed his willingness to help and I'm sure if Buffy asked, he'd open his ship for her. And Spike isn't a relative or a long time best friend. Two years had passed since he and Buffy had seen each other and he's willing to be there for her when she needs him. That's a true friend.

 

[Kean]

I continue to be very meh about this comic. For the first time since I started watching Buffy,when I was ten years old, I feel like I have outgrown Buffy, the character. Which is ironic, since now is the first time Buffy and I have been basically the same age (I'll be 24 next month).

I can sympathise with Buffy's feelings but I don't empathise with them, I don't appreciate them and I feel like I can't root for her while she is insisting in asking "Why me?" instead of "What can I do to move on?".

On top of that, I've just personally gone through the whole 20s WHAT DO I DO WITH MY LIFE...AAARRGGGGHH!!! thing and I truly do not want to go through it again with Buffy.

I want to see Buffy fighting, not sulking.

 

[Moscow Watcher]

I want to see Buffy fighting, not sulking.

I hope it's temporary. Joss loves big changes in characters journeys.

Season 8 started with Buffy fighting, having power, being the leader. We all know how it ended.

I hope that her sulking at the beginning of the season is a prelude to her triumph in the end of the season.

 

[The Scourge]

I'm suddenly very grateful that Joss's involvement in Angel & Faith is limited.

 

[Tome]

It was definitely better than the first issue, but I'm still not impressed. The first arc of S8 was much better, imo. I did enjoy the Spike & Buffy banter, tho. Oh and Xander kicking Buffy out? Yea riiiiiiight, 'cause that make sense! Altough I'm not surprised by Dawn wanting her out... Empty Places anyone? *sighs*

 

[brinkster130]

I was not the least bit impressed with this issue; the whole thing was off and boring. The only thing I found mildly interesting was Serverin. I hope Buffy stops sulking soon and gets back to work.

 

[white avenger]

I have to say, I'm not getting any real warm fuzzies from either series at the moment. Angel is doing the old resurrection thing (you would think that after Fred, he would have learned that the payoff is never worth the price) while Faith basically just stands back and watches and worries. Buffy is lost in a fog somewhere (maybe that's why they relocated to San Francisco) with financial worries and friends who really don't have a clue what she's going through, and Spike is pretty much the only one that she feels that she can level with. All they need to do now is have the two of them tear a house down in the throes of belated reunion sex, and we'll have a total Season 6 reboot.

 

[Reddygirl]

I guess I'm in the minority but I enjoyed the first two A&Fs tremendously and I'm just loving Buffy's season 9.

 

[racheltng]

I have always been a major comic supporter, but I don't think I can do this anymore. I'm just not getting enough momentum from this season. I'm going to wait until the TPBs come out. Sorry.