Question If you like Season Eight better than 1-7, why?

[Buffyverse Fan]

Pretty straightforward question, if you see S8 as equal or greater quality compared to the series at large, why?

I do not. I for one was loving BS8 up until Predators & Prey but even then I felt it was nowhere near as good simply because 2/3 of the show was Scoobies hanging out, and in S8 that's maybe 5%...

Is it the medium which is missing our favorite actors? Partly, yes! Though, I'd stack After the Fall up against much of AS4.

So that's my $0.02, what's yours?

 

[AndrewCrossett]

At this point, I really have to wait to see how it comes out before I can make any assessment about season 8 as a whole.

I don't like it better than seasons 1-7, but I'd have to say that up until the beginning of this arc, I liked it just as well. The jury's still out on current developments.

I know it's different than 1-7, but it had to be. When you change the world, the world's all different.

 

[InsaneMystic]

As of now, I love syphilis more than I love S8.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Buffyverse Fan agrees: You liked BS8: P&P? Different's not always worse, AtF barely even resembles AS1, but I throroughly enjoyed both...

I liked most of P&P, though there were some problems. "Harmonic Divergence" introduced a concept (popular vamps) that made no sense to me for a long time, although it can now be explained by the Universe/Twilight manipulating humanity into pushing Buffy toward her apotheosis. "Swell" was good in a "Satsu is awesome sense" although the Vampy Cats were kind of stupid, and Satsu's change of heart at the end didn't ring true. (As we've seen since, she wasn't as over Buffy as she thought.) "Predators & Prey" was fine. "Safe" seemed kind of pointless, and both Faith and Giles seemed off. "Living Doll" was OK.

The arc was a net negative mainly because it took us away from the main storyline for more than half a year, and really undercut the momentum.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

I think Season 8 is good, I have enjoyed parts of it better then Season 6. I like that it's adapted to the medium, it had to do that, if they just translated TV scripts to Comic it would be crap.

They have to get comic book people to pick up a copy to, and comic books have always been OTT, so there's no reason Buffy wouldn't change to suit it's medium.

I liked most of P&P, though there were some problems. "Harmonic Divergence" introduced a concept (popular vamps) that made no sense to me for a long time,

If a vampire came forward in real like, MTV would be all over them offering them a reality show. I would 100% believe that. Apart from that it's just seemed to me to be another metaphor, Vampires are huge at the moment, I was talking to a friend the other day who said they would love to be a vampire, and kept saying it over and over, plus the amount of people that actually believe they are vampires.

I think they took the vampire popularity and put the Buffyverse twist on it, in a world where vampires exist they are just as popular. People can't get enough.

 

[Anya2012]

I HATE season 8. I would have stopped reading but I wanted to know who Twilight is. Now that i know, I WILL stop reading.

I HATE Dawn/Xander. She's still a kid in my eyes and they never should haven gone down that road.

Bringing Warren back was really stupid .Am I expected to believe a skinless dead guy could have a relationship?

It's not the same without Spike.

I don't like what they've done to Giles/Buffy's relationship.

 

[crazysoulless]

I love S8 but there are definitely things that would've needed to be different for me to vote it better than the previous seven seasons.

The Giles/Buffy relationship was ruined in S7. The current season has just continued through the wreckage of that fallout.

I agree that Xander/Dawn is wrong. She still acted like a child for most of this season. She still puts herself in dangerous situations to get Buffy's attention despite the fact that Dawn is now an adult (18 or 19) and knows that Buffy is the leader of a global organization and still has the weight of the world on her shoulders. I think that Xander latched onto Dawn because she is familiar in a time when his first girlfriend (Cordelia) is dead, his ex-fiance (Anya) is dead, the first woman he persued dating and kissed in two years (Renee) died, and the town that he was born and raised in and made all of his earthly connections is now a crater. Notice the fact that in Retreat he ignores Dawn reminding him that she was The Key. He wants to see her as just like him in that we are the only two "normal humans" amid all of these supernatural superheroes. Remember that Anya entered his life after she enacted vengeance on him for cheating on Cordy. It makes sense that he would bond with her over the fact that she got paranormally punished for cheating on her boyfriend Kenny.

No one said that Warren and Amy have a sexual relationship. I like Warren/Amy though the constant "her magick is my skin" reference is getting old (they better be planning something with that!). Amy is a massively psychologically damaged character. She spent months trapped in her mother's body (the body that her father used to have sex with), three YEARS trapped as a rat and kept in a cage as a pet by a witch that was powerful enough to reverse the spell two years prior, and two years trapped sixty feet underground in the Sunnydale crater having to resort to cannibalism to survive.

It really is NOT the same without Spike. But then I am utterly disgusted by the fact that since Chosen, Spike has screwed Harmony within the same hour of becoming corporeal, had Stepford-like fantasies about Fred, spied on Illyria while she bathed, and has been shagging like crazy with a mutant named Spider.

I'll eventually list the reasons that I absolutely love S8.

I was disappointed that the writers didn't have Buffy learn a few foreign langauges. She could have learned Spanish since it is spoken in so many countries and thus a lot of her Slayers probably speak it, Japanese from Satsu (it would've given them more scenes together pre-hookup) and it would've been a nice callback to Checkpoint and Quentin Travers, and Latin since her Slayer Organization has a Mysticks Division. I think that the writers in S8 have forgotten how intelligent Buffy actually is and at times write her as more youthful than she was by the end of S7. She may have been only 22 by the S7 finale but she had already been the Slayer for over seven years, finished two years at University, was a Guidance Counselor, spent five months in Heaven, was a leader of the Scooby Gang for years, etc.

I wanted a better description of the Scotland HQ. I wanted to be able to visualize every room in the castle. It could have had training rooms, dormitories, a large cafeteria, a giant library, an infirmory, an AV room, a psych ward, exercise rooms, a conference room, interrogation rooms, and containment cells. I thought that there should have been portals that connnected the other Squad HQ to the main one.

I thought it was stupid to have 10 squads. It should have been more like 20. We know how formidable even one Slayer is. There didn't need to be 20 or even 50 Slayers in a squad. Buffy could stake 7 vamps in less than 20 seconds without breaking a sweat.

I wanted to see Buffy as the one explaining to the girls how to use those guns and missiles, NOT Dawn. Buffy was an expert on weaponry before Dawn was even made flesh. Buffy is the only one in the group who has even used a gun. She may not like them but she is still an amazing shot. Did you notice how easily she shot the lock off the Ragna demon's cage?

 

[ToShanshuInLA]

No one said that Warren and Amy have a sexual relationship. I like Warren/Amy though the constant "her magick is my skin" reference is getting old (they better be planning something with that!). Amy is a massively psychologically damaged character. She spent months trapped in her mother's body (the body that her father used to have sex with), three YEARS trapped as a rat and kept in a cage as a pet by a witch that was powerful enough to reverse the spell two years prior, and two years trapped sixty feet underground in the Sunnydale crater having to resort to cannibalism to survive.

Oh dear...I didn't look at Amy from this way and I watched the show and read the series so far! No wonder she's the way she is. 🙁

It really is NOT the same without Spike. But then I am utterly disgusted by the fact that since Chosen, Spike has screwed Harmony within the same hour of becoming corporeal, had Stepford-like fantasies about Fred, spied on Illyria while she bathed, and has been shagging like crazy with a mutant named Spider.

Does that happen in Spike: After the Fall? Oh dear. I haven't read that. I know the stuff about Spider, though.

I think that the writers in S8 have forgotten how intelligent Buffy actually is and at times write her as more youthful than she was by the end of S7. She may have been only 22 by the S7 finale but she had already been the Slayer for over seven years, finished two years at University, was a Guidance Counselor, spent five months in Heaven, was a leader of the Scooby Gang for years, etc.

Yeah, it seems like they made her ditzy again.

I wanted to see Buffy as the one explaining to the girls how to use those guns and missiles, NOT Dawn. Buffy was an expert on weaponry before Dawn was even made flesh.

She was an expert on weaponry but never firearms and the like to my recollection. "Slayers don't need guns." I recall her using weapons with firepower maybe three times and twice was in the comic. That was in the issue with the rogue slayers who took over the island and I think in an issue of the retreat arc. The other time was against The Judge in season 2, of course.

That said I did wonder where Dawn pick up the knowledge, unless Xander schooled her.

 

[InsaneMystic]

Amy is a massively psychologically damaged character. She spent months trapped in her mother's body (the body that her father used to have sex with), three YEARS trapped as a rat and kept in a cage as a pet by a witch that was powerful enough to reverse the spell two years prior, and two years trapped sixty feet underground in the Sunnydale crater having to resort to cannibalism to survive.

Whoa, never saw it that clearly.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

If a vampire came forward in real like, MTV would be all over them offering them a reality show. I would 100% believe that. Apart from that it's just seemed to me to be another metaphor, Vampires are huge at the moment, I was talking to a friend the other day who said they would love to be a vampire, and kept saying it over and over, plus the amount of people that actually believe they are vampires.

I think they took the vampire popularity and put the Buffyverse twist on it, in a world where vampires exist they are just as popular. People can't get enough.

If a vampire came forward in real life, people would react like they always do when they find out (or suspect) that there are people living among them who mean them harm. They would panic.

The police would suddenly have answers regarding all those unsolved killings of people with neck wounds, drained of blood.

They, and the federal government, would certainly react strongly to the sudden news that there's a whole population of monsters living among us, who look just like us and who use us as a source of food... and pretty much always killing us, at least until Harmony came along.

In the "Harmony Comes to the Nation" webcomic, Harmony openly admitted that vampires are evil and are compelled to kill people (saying that made them better than Slayers, since Slayers kill voluntarily). In the "Carpe Noctem" webcomic, we learn that some vampires are still going right ahead and killing their victims.

And religious groups... who hold quite a bit of political power and are not quiet about making their opinions known... would certainly have a problem with a species of self-admitted evil killer demons making themselves at home among us.

There might be a few cults of dumbasses, like in "Lie To Me," who think vampires are cool, but among the general populace the reaction would be panic, and among the people in power the reaction would be to take action against them.

The existence of the Initiative, as far back as season 4 and maybe earlier, proves that the government has known about vampires and demons for quite some time, and know what a threat they are.

There's a theory that human beings keep on making senseless war on each other, no matter how cultured and intelligent we become, because nature forces us to. It's a natural means of population control and a way of keeping us from getting too far ahead of ourselves. I would say that nature has been manipulating humanity regarding the vampires in much the same way. It's easier to exterminate us if we remain calm and apathetic and in denial about what's happening.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Also, turning the entire world against Buffy and her Slayers was apparently necessary to push Buffy to become what she has become and unlock her powers. That wouldn't have happened if she'd had the support of the world's people to fall back on. It was only by putting her into the crucible of adversity and hardship that she could become Super Buffy and kick-start this new reality with Angel.

Or at least, that's what Angel is telling us, and Giles and Willow seem to agree... I guess we'll see what the truth is.

 

[Buffyverse Fan]

Also, turning the entire world against Buffy and her Slayers was apparently necessary to push Buffy to become what she has become and unlock her powers. That wouldn't have happened if she'd had the support of the world's people to fall back on. It was only by putting her into the crucible of adversity and hardship that she could become Super Buffy and kick-start this new reality with Angel.

Or at least, that's what Angel is telling us, and Giles and Willow seem to agree... I guess we'll see what the truth is.

Isn't that kind of lazy writing though? Taking your assumption (which makes as much sense as any other). Angel manipulated and plans on exterminating 6.5 billion people for the sake of Buffy and the Bangel master race?

Personally I see it as bad writing when the author launches their character into something he never was before. Same argument could be made for Boyd I suppose, but that was supposedly an act. As everyone's been saying, the only plausible motivation here would be Connor's death, but even then, I don't see it being organic for Angel to want to destroy Earth as a response.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Isn't that kind of lazy writing though? Taking your assumption (which makes as much sense as any other). Angel manipulated and plans on exterminating 6.5 billion people for the sake of Buffy and the Bangel master race?

Well, "the Universe" did. Nature and evolution don't make value judgments about the morality of wiping out a species, I guess.

We don't know that Angel realized these actions would result in the death of the whole human race. It wouldn't make much sense for him to try and minimize Slayer casualties, as he claims he did, if he knew they were all just going to die in the apocalypse anyway.

 

[Krj2501]

I can't say season is better than the best seasons of the TV series. But I would rate it(so far) as better than the worst season (which imo -is Season 6).

 

[crazysoulless]

I think that the ball was dropped in the Predators & Prey arc but only due to lack of detail. I would have compeletely believed the storyline if the writers had fleshed out everything that happened.

It was plausible that eventually the world would find out that the supernatural was real. A lot of humans already believe in angels, Gods, ghosts and hauntings, extraterrestrials, faith healing (vibrational healing), reincarnation, psychic abilities, near death experiences, the apocalypse, demons, possession, etc. You can get a degree in Parapsychology from many universities. The United States and several other countries have branches of their governments dedicated to paranormal phenomena similiar to Fringe going back decades ("psychic war" nations wanting to beat their rivals when it came to remote veiwing & precogs around the same time as the "technological war" to see who could develop better technology and get to space first).

For the Predators & Prey arc we needed to hear the religious take on the subject. We needed Buffy to have her own PR campaign. There should have been tv debates from officials and not just the simpleton Harmony.

There would be people who would side with vampires and demons. There are people who think that serial killers are cool. There are people who are against ANY war (so they would be against attacking vamps, demons) despite the fact that war is often the result of one nation or group of people defending themselves or others from an unwarranted attack. Countries battling Nazi Germany. The US after Pearl Harbor and 9/11. It reminds me of a quote from Lord of the Rings: the two towers, when Aragon responded to someone saying his need to go to battle to stop the Orcs was "war mongering" by saying, "Whether you want it or not, war is upon you".

I could just picture the ACLU taking the side of the vamps. Sometimes that group goes too far. ha ha

I would have liked to see the pro-demon side trying to pass laws to give them civil rights. The Anita Blake and Sookie Stackhouse books start right AFTER that happens. Buffy's story could have shown the DURING.

 

[racheltng]

I don't like S8 more than S1-7, but I like it as much as the TV show. I'm grateful that it exists. I still get to see the Scoobies alive and well (er, at least alive) and having adventures. I can never completely judge a season until it ends because Joss tends to set up these story threads that seem doomed to fail but work out in the end.

 

[sosa lola]

I LOVE season eight! I'm so happy to find what's up with my favorite character every month. As for compairing it with other seasons? Well, previous seasons had the actors and music, so they're one step above S8. However, I can admit I'm enjoying S8 far more than I did with S7.

The biggest reason why I'm a huge fan of S8 is that I can actually feel the characters. All the Buffy/Xander scenes for example are so perfect, I can hear SMG and NB in them. The Buffy/Willow scenes as well, the best that dealt with their issues and fallout since S6. The Giles/Faith relationship, one of S8's perfect elements, and I can see this progression so easily for their characters. I can feel Xander/Dawn in all their interactions, perhaps less when they started dating, but the same could be said about Xander/Anya as well.

I felt the characters and related to them this season much better than S7, and S7 actually HAD the actors. But it failed completely to make me connect with any of them, except perhaps Dawn and in a few occasions Anya. The Buffy/Spike storyline was amazing, but I was too upset by shutting all the characters out to make Spike/Buffy workable. When it would have been wonderful to see Spike/Buffy working with the bless of other characters.

 

[Vengeance]

It can't hold a candle to the TV show, but like the two posters above me, I'm just happy to see my favorite characters still having adventures. Some of the things I really like about S8: Willow's character, Faith (who I never was a big fan of in the TV show but I LOVE her in the comics), and hopefully soon-to-be Spike, Buffy with SUPERPOWERS, Bangel together again.

 

[Giantevilhead]

TV shows don't really translate well into comics. The problem is that the limitations and strengths of comic books and the limitations and strengths of live action television shows are pretty much the opposite of each other. Live action TV allows for a lot of small nuanced and subtle moments while it can't have too many over the top actions scenes due to budgetary constraints. Comic books are the exact opposite, they can have plenty of over the top action scenes but they are limited by length and medium in the amount of moments they can have.

There are certainly times when season 8 succeeds in capturing some of the cleverness and originality of the show but a lot of times it just substitutes depth and character development with big action scenes.