If you avoid season 8, Why?

[Don]

(I realize the s8 board isn't the best place for this thread, but where was I going to put it? boards s1-s7?)

This is basically a thread for all those Buffy fans that love Buffy, heart and soul (and nobody questions that--if you found this site, you care enough to do so) but just don't care for Buffy season 8 at all.

Why don't you want to give season 8 a try?

1) You don't like the idea of comic books?
2) You're much more comfortable with the idea of things ending at "Chosen?"
3) You don't have a comic store near your house, so even if you did want to catch up, you simply couldn't?

The reason I ask is because, like it or not, season 8 is cannon--season 8 matters just as much as "prophecy girl" or "band candy" or "restless" or "dopplegangland" or "tabula rasa" or any of my (and your) other favorite episodes. Deciding not to read season 8 is, essentially, making the decision not to tune into the latest season of Buffy.

I want to make it clear that I'm not questioning anybody's fandom, here--that would be stupid, and I like to believe I don't waste my time on stupidity--however, every so often somebody will weigh in on a thread and say something like, "well I don't read s8 so who cares?" and I just want to know why not.

As lame as season 8 has been at times (basically all of 2009), it's still Buffy--we can't erase all the lame things that happened during the series (not many happened, i know, but that stupid dummy episode in s1 comes to mind... I've seen every episode of Buffy at least once all the way through except that one because it's just so boring) but nobody would ever deny that that episode was an episode of Buffy. However, there are legions (maybe an over-statement) of Buffy fans that would just as soon write off season 8 completely.

How do you reconcile your refusal to accept season 8 with your undying devotion to the story and its characters?

 

[Nix]

For me i'd love to be able to follow s8 but I just don't get along with comic books. I don't like comic books and don't like spending lots of money just to read a couple of pages of comic. I'd be the same if Lost or 24 stopped airing for free on tv and moved into comic format.

 

[Frketson]

For most fans its the whole change of format and due to that the feel and events that happen buffy change.

Stuff like

Spoiler

Buffy flying, warren being alive, magical missiles, cute dolls that kill people, vampires being popular, centar gawn, giant dawn, lesbo buffy, angel being twilight.

All those things and more would just never happen in the show. Thats why a lot of fans absolutely HATE season 8.

I dont mind it, its got some total crap like predators and prey and retreat. But i actually really liked no future for you and wolves at the gate.

 

[Flannen]

For me, the show ended with Chosen really. I keep up to date with what happens in the comics, with things like the identity of Twilight, but I have never had and never will have any intention to read them. It's not got anything to do with the format or anything really. If this was how the show had continued on television, with these plot lines, I think it's safe to say I would have stopped watching. So I have no problem with the fact not reading them is the same as not tuning into the latest season, because I probably wouldn't be. It's just not Buffy for me and even though it might officially be canon - it isn't for me.

If the thing I love most about a show is taken out of the equation, I lose interest pretty quickly because it doesn't provoke the same feelings and emotions. And I know the format has nothing to do with it because my favourite show ever just started a new season without the two people that made the show for me and, like with season 8, I've tried it but there's too much missing and rather than stay involved half-heartedly, I'll just stick with what I love. 🙂

 

[BillyidolwannaB]

The writers have taken sillyness too far just because they can. They're not bound to an extent by reality anymore, so they just went crazy. And bringing

Spoiler

Tara and Warren

back? Come on. I'm happy with the 7 tv seasons.
And the OP sums it up perfect ''as lame as season 8 is, its still Buffy canon'' so, if it wasn't canon would people buy it? Doubt it. Which tells me something.

 

[Nix]

Please can we keep this thread spoiler free or use spoiler tags around the spoilers.

 

[BillyidolwannaB]

And s8 so does not matter as much as prophecy girl or tabula rasa.

 

[Amanda108]

As long as the person acknowledges that they're canon (because for the last time: canon is not something that can be picked! It violates the definition. Canon is canon - there aren't varying degrees. So, yes, it does matter just as much as any episode of Buffy), I don't really mind if they don't keep up with them. Same as if they wanted to stop watching with season 6/7/5/4. Though, I think it's a little weird.

However, what strikes me as stupid: I don't know if there are any of these people on this board, but I've seen a lot of them on Livejournal. People who aren't happy with Chosen or Not Fade Away, people who complain and whine that the show isn't on "“ but then don't even mention the comics. If you loved and missed the show that much, wouldn't you happily accept it when it came back, no matter what form it came in? I'm not saying you'd like the new storyline, just that you should stop complaing that there's no new material when there actually is.

 

[BillyidolwannaB]

I love and miss the show ALOT. But to just put up with any mediocrity! i wont do it. Sometimes i get the feeling some joss fans would be happy no matter what he done to s8.

 

[ubi4soft]

Until last week and especially last "Joss talk" I wasn't very much interested in S8. I've read about them, I've read them, except for who might be Twilight never talked about them, nor praise nor bash, but now I plan to buy the last 2 TPB (Twilight and the last one in S8). The shipping costs for me are very high (twice than the comic for "Last Angel in Hell" for example).

 

[AndrewCrossett]

A lot of people don't like season 8 because they were expecting it to be like a season of the TV show put down on paper. But that's not what Joss is doing... he's making a comic book rather than a TV show now, and he's writing it like a comic book.

He's said he enjoys being able to do anything he wants without budget constraints, and without a network telling him what he must do and what he can't do.

Comic books simply have a different, bigger scale than TV shows. You can't have page after page of characters sitting there talking.

Also, the scope of the story *had* to get bigger after the events of "Chosen." When you've just destroyed an entire town to save the world from destruction, and you've got hundreds or thousands of Slayers running around the world, things are gonna get bigger.

But a lot of people just can't make the transition, or don't want to. That's their choice. The only thing that bothers me is when they rip Joss for telling his own story, or the readers for wanting to know what happens next to Buffy. Because it doesn't matter how many people use "it's non canon" as a synonym for "I don't like it"... it is canon because it's Joss, it's what's "really" happening now to Buffy and her friends, and I for one couldn't stand to know the story was continuing and I was missing it.

YMMV.

 

[Kean]

To be honest I don't think we can really comment on how silly/ridiculous S8 is until it is a finished work i.e. the end of this year. I have re-read S8 this week and I have to say it is a much more satisfying and enjoyable read than going from issue to issue every month. It feels like the Buffyverse, it's quippy and poweful and laced with methaphor just as the show was. They arcs flow much better (although I will admit issues 21-25 leave alot to be desired) and you can feel the momentum of the build up, you get swept along with it. Things that we cried fowl on when they were happening i.e. Batsu, make absolutely perfect sense when the season is read as a whole.

I have had my doubts about S8 but right now I feel like I could no more dismiss what is happening on the pages of these comic books than I could any of the episodes.

 

[GrrArghx]

But that was what was so beautiful about Chosen. Just the like end of Normal Again it left you thinking and wondering, and you could make up anything you wanted and let your imagination flow about what's happened since Buffy went off of the air.

Besides that, like others have said S8 it just out there totally. I probably wouldn't have watched Buffy anymore either had all of this stuff happened on TV.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

I would like to read it, just I live in stupid country and they don't seel it here. And my parents don't let me to shop online because they don't feel comfortable about leaving their credit card number online. So I'm addicted ro recaps.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

I would like to read it, just I live in stupid country and they don't seel it here. And my parents don't let me to shop online because they don't feel comfortable about leaving their credit card number online. So I'm addicted ro recaps.

Have you asked in a bookstore if they can order the trade paperbacks for you?

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Have you asked in a bookstore if they can order the trade paperbacks for you?

As I said, this country is really, really lame. Once I asked them can they order comics from amazon because they do that with books, but they sad they don't have it in stock. I'm gonna go this month again to ask.

 

[Chris2]

I haven't actually read s8, so take this post with due skepticism, but I have kept up with the plot and I'd agree with the posters above that say it's just too far out there. A lot of the plot developments (e.g.

Spoiler

Warren's return, Buffy's one night stands with Satsu, giant Dawn versus giant mechanical Dawn in downtown Tokyo - I mean *really*...

) just seem ridiculous, and given that I hated s7, I certainly wasn't inclined to read it just because it was more Buffy.

 

[xaphania]

It's a mixture of things for me. I don't like the comic format, I tried to read some and found it difficult to follow and even to tell who some of the character drawings were meant to be.

I think some of the plot points are absolutely ridiculous -- and be honest, if you read them in a fanfiction, you'd call troll and laugh it out of fandom.

I know that it's 'canon', but it's not my canon. My canon ended with NFA.

I'd read fanfiction by one of the great fic authors out there over the comic books any day.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

As I said, this country is really, really lame. Once I asked them can they order comics from amazon because they do that with books, but they sad they don't have it in stock. I'm gonna go this month again to ask.

It should be easier to order the books... the comics in collected format... than to order the individual month-by-month comics. The monthly comics are only available for a few weeks, but the books are available as long as they stay in print.

Volume 1: The Long Way Home
Volume 2: No Future For You
Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate
Volume 4: Time of Your Life
Volume 5: Predators & Prey

Volume 6: Retreat (coming in... March, I think?)
Volume 7: Twilight (coming probably later in 2010)
Volume 8: title unknown (coming probably in early 2011)

 

[Willow-Tree]

I don't get how people are complaining about Season 8 being too different from the televised Buffy.

Season Four was different - they were in college, Cordelia and Angel weren't there, Oz left, Anya and Tara came, Riley and Spike became a more important part of Buffy's life, etc.
Season Five - We lost Joyce, Dawn came, etc.

I mean... Joss is just experimenting, just like he has done in the past. Who knows -- maybe Season Nine will be just like Season One?