SPOILERS! Preview Pages For Buffy #34.

[Kean]

I'm not really surprised by Xander's initial reaction. He is a totally different guy from what we have seen in the show, he is lightyears more mature and understanding. I think he has gone straight to the assumption that what is going onwith Buffy and Angel is out of their control. The immediate talk of magic being at play by Willow would also bolster that assumption.

If he blwos up I think it will only be after speaking to Buffy OR once this "real" history of the universe is revealed.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Yeah, Xander's first reaction was that Buffy has been captured or magically controlled by Twangel, and needs to be rescued. Giles, who seems to know what's going on, mentions "forces at work" here. But Willow seems to think "love and passion" are the forces at work, just as they have been since the beginning.

It's not clear whether Willow is saying that the "love and passion" are artificial outside forces here (and always have been), or if she thinks Buffy's love for Angel is some sort of compulsion that she's helpless against, even to the point of forgetting her friends and her mission in a matter of minutes.

 

[Kean]

Yeah, Xander's first reaction was that Buffy has been captured or magically controlled by Twangel, and needs to be rescued. Giles, who seems to know what's going on, mentions "forces at work" here. But Willow seems to think "love and passion" are the forces at work, just as they have been since the beginning.

It's not clear whether Willow is saying that the "love and passion" are artificial outside forces here (and always have been), or if she thinks Buffy's love for Angel is some sort of compulsion that she's helpless against, even to the point of forgetting her friends and her mission in a matter of minutes.

I'm of two minds with the meaning behind Willow's words. At first I thought she meant that love and passion coupled with whatever force is at play was a potently powerful but on subsequent readings I'm getting the impression that the love and passion that Buffy and Angel share is something separate and actually more powerful than this mystery force.

I know which one I would prefer but we'll just have to see what happens.

She hasn't forgotten anything. Whatever Buffy is doing with Angel is all but an interlude. She believes and trusts what he has told her. Whether she was right or wrong in that trust remains to be seen. Lets not tar and feather her just yet. Her intentions are pure, we can't comment beyond that and quite frankly it isn't fair to.

I'm sick to my back-teeth of all this Buffy bashing.

Willow has been sneaking off for secret sexytime with the demon snake lady. Xander mourned Anya with Dracula. Hell, Buffy mourned Heaven with an unsoulled Spike.

Why we are calling for Buffy's head now, when we actually know nothing is beyond me.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

I'm sick to my back-teeth of all this Buffy bashing.

Well, it's hard not too considering the choices she has made! I hope to GOD she is under an influence, I really do.

Willow has been sneaking off for secret sexytime with the demon snake lady. Xander mourned Anya with Dracula. Hell, Buffy mourned Heaven with an unsoulled Spike.

True, but this is Twilight we're talking about here.

My head is just spinning.

Why we are calling for Buffy's head now, when we actually know nothing is beyond me.

I know. But it's hard for us not to "jump the gun". We dissect things. We try to find answers. It's what we do. 🙂

Xander and Dawn is wrong on so many levels. I dont even have the right words for this BS. Buffy and Xander is fine by me but Xander and Dawn is just stupid and total out of character. I dont like Dawn. Did i mentioned that?

I have to disagree. I used to be very anti-Dawn because I too felt it was OOC for Xander. But then I re-watched Season 7, and I thought about it, and it kind of makes sense. Xander and Dawn have a lot in common. She's always loved him, and he admires her. It makes sense they'd hook up. A long time has passed since season 7 ended. Dawn and grown up. Give her some credit. She deserves a guy like Xander.

It's Bangel I'm worried about right now.

They are making love and the world ends. The blood of all these dead slayers getting you really horny huh Buffy? Just great. I really hope Buffy lost her mind and the control over her body.

You echo what I was saying a month ago. It's hard not to judge Buffy for her actions at this point, but as Kean said, we do need to wait and see how it all ends before we thrown season 8 in the toilet. We owe Joss that.

The next issue is going to be awesome or just hilarious.

Well, I see nothing funny about how the story is unfolding at this point. I sure hope it's awesome, though.

I´m tired of these questions.

I want answers! Now!

I´m going to hate the 2 month break after 34*.

Ps: Pregnant Buffy. I still believe in my theory.

I concur.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

"They get groiny with one another, the world as we know it falls apart."
--Cordelia Chase, "I Will Remember You"

 

[Kean]

Well, it's hard not too considering the choices she has made! I hope to GOD she is under an influence, I really do.

My stance on this is that if we are gona condemn Buffy for her poor choices this seasons then it should start at the beginning of this season and be fair about it. Alot of her actions have been truly horrific but have been given excuses but kissing Angel is absolutely unforgivable? I find this incredibly sexist.

True, but this is Twilight we're talking about here.

Yes, and we are talking about mass, unrepentent murders in Dracula and S6 Spike. I genuinely cannot fathom the distinction between them and Twilight. If it's a death count tally then Dracula and Spike are easily miles ahead of Twilight in that respect.

I know. But it's hard for us not to "jump the gun". We dissect things. We try to find answers. It's what we do. 🙂

So do I and I have been guilty of jumping the gun too but I feel we are being incredibly unfair, hypocritical and sensationalist with this issue, especially when we know SO little. Maybe the lack of knowledge is why fandom is reacting this way.

 

[InsaneMystic]

Yes, and we are talking about mass, unrepentent murders in Dracula and S6 Spike. I genuinely cannot fathom the distinction between them and Twilight. If it's a death count tally then Dracula and Spike are easily miles ahead of Twilight in that respect.

I'm not gonna comment on Xander/Dracula (I only read the recaps here and not the comic themselves, so I don't feel competent to judge there) - but for going sexy with soulless, unrepentant Spike we have to give Buffy credit for her major clinical depression clouding her judgment.

If Buffy's mind is intact while doing Twangel (which we still don't know for sure... I actually hope for her that she indeed IS bonkers in the brain area - then again, I've always considered Bangel to be a none-too-sane relationship to start with, so Buffy may easily have the "not legally responsible due to insanity" card up her sleeve here 😛 ), this is infinitely worse than sleeping with Spike in S6, IMO. Where S6 Spuffy was "merely" insanity, S8 Bangel with Buffy in control of her faculties is open-eyed corruption.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

I think what makes this seem so wrong is the callousness involved.

Spike and Anya were both mass-murderers when Buffy and Xander decided to hook up with them... but neither of them had actually managed to kill anyone they knew personally. That shouldn't matter from a strictly ethical perspective, but from a practical perspective, it does matter. Most humans simply don't have the same empathy for the lives of people we don't know, as we do for our friends. That's a survival trait... if we cared so much about every life, we'd never be able to do anything but grieve.

In this case, though, Buffy is getting it on with a man responsible for directing and overseeing the deaths of hundreds of her own friends and colleagues. These are people she knew personally. People who looked up to her, even idolized her. People who depended on her and trusted her absolutely. People who gave their lives to help further her vision of fighting for good. And she responds to their killer by... yelling at him for all of thirty seconds, then giving him nookie.

Yes, I know he's given her some sketchy, unsubstantiated disclaimer about how he didn't really kill anyone even though we saw him do so, yada yada yada. Is he claiming that he didn't direct that army of demons to attack the Scotland base, killing dozens of Slayers? Is he claiming he didn't stand there commanding the army that killed dozens more in Tibet? Or that he didn't give Warren the OK to fire that missile, or Amy to send those demons into the catacombs in Rome? Was it someone else who ordered that lab tech put to death in Mongolia? How much murder does one get away with, exactly, before one stops being on the side of good?

All we really know about him is that sometime between AtF and now, his motto changed from "We help the helpless" to "They're mortal. They had to die sometime."

The fact is that minutes ago, Buffy was very justifiably and correctly accusing Angel of being a mass murderer of her friends, and now she's making out with him and probably more. There is no possible interpretation of reality in which that doesn't disgust me.

Angel coming at her with what basically amounts to "I did it all for you, baby. I did it for us" fails to improve things much, I'm afraid.

So yeah, there's more story to come. I would think there might be some twist that will make it all OK, but really, when has Joss ever been interested in making it all OK?

 

[ToShanshuInLA]

Buffy was under a "thrall" with Dracula. She was severely depressed in season 6 (and who wouldn't be?)... She wasn't in her right mind either of those times is the point. If she is now then I can of course see why people are pissed off. But yeah, we don't know everything yet.

EDIT: Also, pretty much what AndrewCrossett said I concur with!

 

[Buffyverse Fan]

Buffy was under a "thrall" with Dracula. She was severely depressed in season 6 (and who wouldn't be?)... She wasn't in her right mind either of those times is the point. If she is now then I can of course see why people are pissed off. But yeah, we don't know everything yet.

You make a good point, but...

As many pointed out here, look at BS3! Angel wasn't much of a Champion early on, and he was one moment of happiness away from being the #1 serial killer on Earth again. He was the guy so vicious that the Master & the Beast were in awe.

Yet not only did Buffy keep him alive, but she kept him a secret, furthering the danger to her friends and the world at large.

Stupid? You bet. Love? Definitely! Out of Character? Not even a little bit...

 

[AndrewCrossett]

My belief is that Angel is under the influence of a being or force called Twilight -- the balance of dark and light -- that considers Balance (not "Good") to be the ultimate necessity. All existence is a constant battle to keep one side from defeating the other. When Angel decided in season 5 that the fight, not the victory, is the important thing, he must have attracted Twilight's attention.

But that's never been Buffy's MO. She fights to win. And while Twilight may entice her down the path of balance for a while, I think eventually she'll find the mission again. Banishing all the demons will be her way of telling Twilight where it can shove its "balance." On the way to that point, though, there will be rifts opened that probably won't be able to close anytime soon, if ever.

Of course, that will open up a whole new can of worms, since there are consequences to destroying the balance. Hence season 9 with its "grand scale."

 

[Buffy4ever2k10]

Is banishing all demons really come to past or is it just another parallel universe or something?

I mean banishing all demons sounds interesting but what about Spike,Dawn(dont know where her magical power came from but could be a demon aswell)Angel and even Buffy is part demon. They all would be bansihed too.

Very confusing.

 

[Buffyverse Fan]

My belief is that Angel is under the influence of a being or force called Twilight -- the balance of dark and light -- that considers Balance (not "Good") to be the ultimate necessity. All existence is a constant battle to keep one side from defeating the other. When Angel decided in season 5 that the fight, not the victory, is the important thing, he must have attracted Twilight's attention.

But that's never been Buffy's MO. She fights to win. And while Twilight may entice her down the path of balance for a while, I think eventually she'll find the mission again. Banishing all the demons will be her way of telling Twilight where it can shove its "balance." On the way to that point, though, there will be rifts opened that probably won't be able to close anytime soon, if ever.

Of course, that will open up a whole new can of worms, since there are consequences to destroying the balance. Hence season 9 with its "grand scale."

Aside from Angel's "Champion" status, why would a force like that pick him?

Personally, I think Giles, Spike, Lorne, or Ghost!Wes would be a far better pick. Angel struggles when he has to get his hands dirty in the morally ambiguous muck. Those four on the other hand are more invested in that type of thinking.

 

[Buffy4ever2k10]

Lorne(read his one shot) and Ghost!Wes are gone for good this time. Spike changed a lot since Season 7 and AtF. Giles on the other hand is just strange and his behaviour is totally unpredictable.

The unknown force needs Angel because of his love to Buffy. I guess they are magicaly connected. It´s just not only love. It´s more than that and we hopefully find out more about it in issue 34.

I´m the only one who is tired of all these magic stuff? I really miss the old scoobies. Just the old gang and Spike dusting vampires and slaying demons. Good old times.

These days everything what happends is through magic or some unnatural power. *sigh*

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Aside from Angel's "Champion" status, why would a force like that pick him?

Because of his connection to Buffy. I expect what Giles tells us about the "secret history of Slayers and vampires" will shed much more light on that.

 

[Kean]

Because of his connection to Buffy. I expect what Giles tells us about the "secret history of Slayers and vampires" will shed much more light on that.

I think Jeantry's comments in the Q&A for this issue give us the best indication of this. Apparently we should be heeding Mohra's words "Together you are powerful. Alone you are dead."

It seems the end of days spoken about in IWRY has come into play.

Also, he spoke about drawing alot of monsters for issue 35. Anybody else wondering if this could be the Battle of Starbuck?

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Also, he spoke about drawing alot of monsters for issue 35. Anybody else wondering if this could be the Battle of Starbuck?

#35 seems a bit early for that, but I think it might be the event that creates the realization that it has to come to that.

I wonder what Jeanty meant by being so emphatic that a lot of people will be upset by what happens with Buffy and Angel.

 

[Kean]

#35 seems a bit early for that, but I think it might be the event that creates the realization that it has to come to that.

I wonder what Jeanty meant by being so emphatic that a lot of people will be upset by what happens with Buffy and Angel.

Yeah, I was thinking it was early but Allie said we have time for that battle to happen so maybe it is the beginning of it? Something like that.

He said people will either be happy about the redefination of B/A or they will hate it. My thinking was that people will hate it because they 1) aren't Bangel and more specifically Spuffy, 2) they are Bangel and don't like the new direction the pair are taken in or 3) are neutral and plain just don't like the storyline.

 

[white avenger]

Okay, I'm not saying this while looking through my Spuffy colored classes here, but just what is going on with Willow's "OF COURSE! Twilight is Angel," and "I don't think you want to find them right now." She's just realized that Angel is the one responsible for killing hundreds of Slayers, as many or more soldiers, and god only knows how many innocent bystanders AND she is fully aware of what happens when Buffy and Angelus get sweaty together, and she's saying that they shouldn't disturb the happy reunion? Bangel is one thing. Believe me when I say, I can live with Bangel. But has Willow now joined Buffy in the cuckoo's nest? Now, wait a minute, I just realized something. BEN ISN'T GLORY, ANGEL IS! And we've all been sucked down into hell.

 

[Kean]

^^I've been saying for awhile that Willow knows a HELL of a lot more than she has let on.