Season 8's impact on the series

I just started reading the summaries in these posts because I haven't started to try to hunt down the comics yet, but they are making me not wanting to read the comics. I have read the "The Long Way Home" summaries and they all sounds like utter nonsense and not at all like the characters and writing of the show. Though maybe that was the point. That said, I'm not a comic reader at all, so maybe I just have to get used to the outlandishness.

I think you should read them and see for yourself if you like them or not. That's when you'll know if you like them or not. 🙂
 
I think you should read them and see for yourself if you like them or not. That's when you'll know if you like them or not. 🙂


Ooooh, ok, fine, I will give them a try. Assuming I can find them - can they be bought via internet sites? I was looking on Amazon and could only find DVDs.
 
Ooooh, ok, fine, I will give them a try. Assuming I can find them - can they be bought via internet sites? I was looking on Amazon and could only find DVDs.

You can order the trade paperback from Amazon:

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Long-Buffy-Vampire-Slayer-Season/dp/1593078226[/ame]
 
After watching season 6, I think season 8 is pretty tame, when it comes to upsetting things. Buffy had space sex with her naive brain dead ex and almost destroyed the world? Still not more upsetting than a suicidal Buffy having sex with a murderer in season 6.


As I recall, Buffy's naive brain dead ex is also a murderer. And their sexual acrobats had a far more negative impact upon the world than Buffy having desperate sex with Spike in S6.
 
Does season 8 come in novel form? I haven't read it yet and I'm still deciding if I want to or not....

I kind of like the way things ended, but then again I really hate that it's over and I want more but I'm not sure about comics....

GrrrArghhh help.
 
Does season 8 come in novel form? I haven't read it yet and I'm still deciding if I want to or not....

I kind of like the way things ended, but then again I really hate that it's over and I want more but I'm not sure about comics....

GrrrArghhh help.

No, it's a series of comic books. If you want I can PM you a link to a forum that has transcripts like the TV show for S8 if comic books aren't your thing.
 
Well given that I enjoyed season 8 for the most part, I don't think that it taints the television show in the slightest. I won't pretend to like every aspect of it but then I don't pretend to have enjoyed watching Bad Eggs or Life Serial either, so nothing new there.

I just started reading the summaries in these posts because I haven't started to try to hunt down the comics yet, but they are making me not wanting to read the comics. I have read the "The Long Way Home" summaries and they all sounds like utter nonsense and not at all like the characters and writing of the show. Though maybe that was the point. That said, I'm not a comic reader at all, so maybe I just have to get used to the outlandishness.

I think that season 8 needs to be enjoyed as a whole before you get a real feel for it. I've recently reread the whole thing and it holds together very well when read from start to finish, without a month or more between chapters. Give it a try.
 
Ooooh, ok, fine, I will give them a try. Assuming I can find them - can they be bought via internet sites? I was looking on Amazon and could only find DVDs.

Does season 8 come in novel form? I haven't read it yet and I'm still deciding if I want to or not....

I kind of like the way things ended, but then again I really hate that it's over and I want more but I'm not sure about comics....

GrrrArghhh help.

It's not in one whole volume yet, if that's what you mean. I think that if they did that, they couldn't fit them in one single volume, there's too many. But the trade paperbacks (TPB) have 4 or 5 issues in each volume. I personally like reading them that way better than individual issues. The one-shots are included as well, and some web-only comics.

Also, check out your local library- you might want to start reading them that way before you decide you want to purchase. My library has all the volumes except the final one- has it even been released yet? I read a lot of season 8 via my local library, until recently when I decided I wanted to purchase them.

This has a list of all the issues and the volumes that collect them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_Season_Eight
 
If you didn't actually read the whole thing, don't pass such an extreme judgement on it. That's like watching "Seeing Red" through "Grave" and saying Season 6 sucks.

Those episodes often do make me say I don't like season 6 when asked and I've seen the whole thing more than once. Its like hell for me to try watching most episodes starting around Hell's Bells. It definitely lowers my rating of the season. I don't even like anyone except Tara and Dawn* starting around mid season and Tara dies. Even before Hell's Bells, the tone is very similar and I stop liking the characters a lot before it really goes south for them leading into the finale. You can really get a sense of the overall season from those final episodes. If you didn't like those because of the tone of them, there is a very good chance you wouldn't like the rest of the season.

*I sympathize with a teenager being pretty much raised by a group of very young adults who are all spiraling downward. The people who are setting examples for her in how to deal with life and relationships are falling apart in front of her face.
 
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Tained? No way, I mean, we are talking here about a show with things like Adam, Malcolm, mind-controlling demon eggs, orgasm inducting wall, cavemen beer, invisibility gun, love spell jacket, lovely old lady with a penis monster inside her head...really, space shag doesn't even stand out. Buffy was always goofy ( in every season, I mean ) Anyway, season 8 puts certain scenes in a different light, now that we know for sure that Buff plays for both teams ( Hello, Kinsey scale ) now that the subtext thing is basically canon. I was watching "New Moon Rising" ( Buffy/Willow "Oh!" scene ) the other day and I was like "OK, so she's freaked because she has also considered women or is...wait, is she freaking jealous?!" I know that was the shipper in me speaking but hey, thanks to season 8 it's not that unjustified any more. And yeah, I didn't like Master/Warren come back, but again, it had been done with Angel, Spike and...Buffy herself, so I'll just shut up. Season 8 is OK, give it a chance.
 
VisionGirl
VisionGirl
Love this post! :)
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racheltng
[No message]
It hasn't tainted my view of the television shows because I don't consider them canon. It has tainted my view of Joss considerably. While I always saw him as a flawed writer--all writers are, no one is perfect--I could at least like his work even though there were problems because he seemed to care. S8 is nothing a hacked together storyline that they couldn't even follow issue to issue, just gimmick after gimmick to make readers wonder what was going on and then never delivered. Don't get me started on the characterizations. Joss sailed the whole verse down the river for a wank. It's like the end of It, all the buildup only to find the big bad was a space spider.
 
It didn't taint the series at all for me. While I didn't think S8 was perfect, I liked it well enough, and I'm looking forward to Season 9 in a few weeks.
 
Season 8 and ATF were the first comic books that I had read on a steady basis since my college days with the exception of the "Death/Return Of Superman" arcs, ant it took awhile to adjust to Buffy and Angel in the new format. So far, I've found them enjoyable overall, but nowhere near the level of entertainment that the live action shows were. I don't think that I'm alone when I say that a decent animated series with art and voices that more closely resembled the actors would have been far more desirable. The comics are the only game in town, though, so I guess I'll have to renew my subscriptions for another year.
 
@WhiteAvenger- an animated series? I'd be too afraid they would gear that more toward the teens if they did that. The comics of both series continued the more adult themes of the latter part of both shows. And I'm not just saying that 'cuz of the Space Frak! And I have seen animated movies/series that DO interest me, I just worry when they start talking "animation".

I do wonder if a canonical continuation of the 'verse in novel form would have been better artistically, or received better. But Joss does have some background in comics, so it makes sense that he would continue Buffy in this mediu
.
 
Another Season 8 fan here. I actually liked Season 8 more than Season 7 or most of season 6. I think it was easier for me because I read most of it in TPBs. The serialized format is difficult because there are such large breaks in the action. You lose some of the momentum between issues.

For those of you who have just read the summaries, you really should try the actual comics. When you read the actual dialogue, the voices are there. The plot is a bunch of malarky, but there are great character moments that just won't come across in a summary.
 
VisionGirl
VisionGirl
Love this. Especially the difference between reading issues and TPBs.
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sosa lola
[No message]
It definitely has tainted it for me. The Highschool Years and AtS are very significantly less enjoyable for me due to that guy's presence now, and S2 has actually stopped being my favorite season of BtVS (S6 is very firmly my fave now, there's not even a contest). And I doubt I'll ever waste 45 minutes of my life watching "Amends" again.

To me, S8 absolutely is the Shark Jump of the verse.
 
Nothing to do with each other. One season doens't taint a whole series. I don't like season 8, but I certainly don't let it affect (or ruin) the rest of the series. I do see it as canon. I don't want to, but I feel like I have to. But there were less good seasons before and they didn't change my whole perspective on the series.
 
I haven't gotten to read the comics yet 🙁 So boo ;_; From what I have read, no, it has not ruined the series for me, but I think season 9 looks to be fantastic.

As for Dragon Ball GT. It's not seen as canon to DB/Z so forget about it 🙂
 
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