Spoiler! The meaning of the S8 Issue Titles

[crazysoulless]

I thought people might want to discuss the meaning behind the titles. Here is what I thought of the first several.

The Long Way Home = The Long Way to Angel

Angel and Spike were described in relation to Buffy as the following, Angel is her “home” and Spike is “the cabin in the woods”.

Buffy thinks during part one of this arc, “I miss my home. I miss my mom. And churros. And sex. Great muppety Odin, I miss that sex.” If we replace “home” with Angel then she starts by saying she misses Angel and ends that train of thought with missing sex. And then to make it clearer she mentally vents about the fact that she thinks Dawn lost her virginity to her boyfriend Kenny with disastrous results and doesn’t get why she can’t come to her since Buffy is “well versed” in that with the whole Angel/Angelus event. A hint at her later having sex with Angel this season?

When Buffy realizes that the underground bunker that holds Willow is two miles from the crater that was Sunnydale she says, “Well, I’m the one that wanted to go home.” The military facility was run by Twilight’s people so she was in a way going to Angel. Later in the season she may regret the events that lead to returning to Angel as well. Now it appears that there may be a time reset that really allows her to go home to Sunnydale as it takes Buffy back to Sunnydale S1. In ATM she returns in time to Sunnydale and chastises herself for romanticizing Angel’s actions.

One of the reasons that Buffy missed her home is that she could never return there. Sunnydale was destroyed. She missed her mother who was dead. She missed sex which she hadn’t had in at least two years and when she does in S8 it leads to massive consequences once again. When Buffy returns home it is to a hollow shell of the place that she knew. Is that the same with Angel? She has him again but he is the mass murderer Twilight.

The Chain

Slayers are linked throughout history. They have a Slayer collective memory and are passed down paranormal abilities and a life purpose. The Slayer Organization are supposed to feel connected to each other as sisters and comrades and of the same species. We get symbolic scenes of this with Slayers jumping out of helicopters connected by cable cords in TLWH & The Chain. Dark Willow said that Slayers don’t get strength from each other. Giles and Buffy remind Slayers while training that they are supposed to rely on each other in combat. Buffy tells Xander in ABS that she can’t feel the Slayer connection and by the end of that issue she has sex with another Slayer wanting to feel it.

“The Chain” of events that lead to the Old Ones returning and the banishment of magicks for two hundred years has already started by the beginning of S8.

No Future For You

Who is the “you” in the title? Buffy, Faith, or Gigi? Or all three? Gigi wanted to end Buffy’s future and it is her future that ends. Faith thought she had no future. Buffy’s future keeps being discussed and decided without her input and much to her displeasure. In order to secure their own futures, Angel/Twilight, Giles, and Roden try to manipulate the futures of the Slayers.

Anywhere But Here

Buffy, Willow, and Xander played the “anywhere but here” game in The Dark Ages. Here Willow & Buffy play it. In TDA the shadowy past of Giles is revealed (occult group, demonic orgies) and it leads to death and estrangement between Giles and Jenny. In ABH the questionable actions of Willow and Buffy are made evident (bank robberies, affair with a snake woman) and it leads to an estrangement between the two girls. It is interesting that when Robin asked what happened Buffy says "It was demons" and Willow adds "playing games". That has been their main issues. Buffy = feeling less human because of the demon in her, having to fight demons, and falling in love with demons. Willow = abusing magicks and treating it as a game. Buffy is part demon and Willow said she now feels less human and more like a force and this entire episode they are "playing games".

A Beautiful Sunset = Twilight

In TLWH Buffy says that the Twilight symbol looks like “a beautiful sunset”. Now in the episode called “A Beautiful Sunset” she comes face to face with Twilight. In Hush DreamRiley says, "When I kiss you it will make the sun go down" and in OMWF Spike says, "Sun sets and she appears".

Wolves At The Gate = Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing/Wolves At The Door

“I’m just an animal, right?” “No, animals I like.” We have seen several wolves in sheep’s clothing this season as well as the “good” guys transformed into other creatures. Amy was the spying cat in the Retreat arc. Dawn was a giant, a centaur, and then a living doll. Oz and Bay are werewolves. Willow was a bird and Buffy a fish. And here vampires turned into fog and bees and wolves. The saying, "wolves at the door" means enemies or people without your best interest at heart that are trying to get into your home.

Time Of Your Life = Love of Your Life

Harth asks Willow what is stronger than love and she replies, “Time. Only time.” Buffy having to run Willow through with a mystickal weapon with tears in her eyes is similar to what she had to do with Angel in Becoming #2 though it was in reverse order. She hugged Angel and then killed him. Here she killed Willow and then hugged her. Dark Willow said, “It’s not who dies, it’s who kills them.” The Powers That Be thought Angel would be the one to stop Acathla (it was meant to be his “big day”) but in actuality it was Buffy sending Angel to Hell that stopped Acathla. It required Angel to close the portal to Hell but it was Buffy’s actions that saved the day. Why was it important for Buffy to be the one to kill Dark Willow?​

 

[AndrewCrossett]

"No Future For You" is also a lyric from the Sex Pistols' song, "God Save the Queen." Buffy is referred to several times as the queen of the Slayers (especially in this arc).

That was probably the song Gigi was referring to with her dying words: "It's like the song says..."

The full lyrics to that song are interesting viewed in light of season 8 developments:

God save the queen
The fascist regime
They made you a moron
Potential H-bomb

God save the queen
She ain't no human being
There is no future
In England's dreaming

Don't be told what you want
Don't be told what you need
There's no future, no future,
No future for you

God save the queen
We mean it man
We love our queen
God saves

God save the queen
'Cause tourists are money
And our figurehead
Is not what she seems

Oh God save history
God save your mad parade
Oh Lord God have mercy
All crimes are paid

When there's no future
How can there be sin
We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in your human machine
We're the future, your future

God save the queen
We mean it man
We love our queen
God saves

God save the queen
We mean it man
And there is no future
In England's dreaming

No future, no future,
No future for you
No future, no future,
No future for me

No future, no future,
No future for you
No future, no future
For you

 

[nmcil12]

The entire season starts out with Buffy being called "Ma'AM" , the image of what very much looks like Queen Elizabeth, and the planet with the Star/Sun at the horizon. But what is interesting is that with all the chaos and cataclysmic changes - Joss Whedon ends his cycle with the One young woman, only one individual taking up the call to duty and taking hold of the ropes and chains and that "call to duty" to fight for those around you and that are part of the human world. And that one warrior inspired those with her to take up that call and fight for their own lives, together they are strong and have a chance.

That one young woman, like the others she inspired to join the fight; she did face the last and greatest darkness of all, her death. She did not turn away from the twilight and the crossroad from life to death. This may indeed be the twilight, the passing from light to dark for Buffy, Willow and all her Slayers, for Giles and all of the inner circle that have fought with her all these years. The thing is that with all warriors and people, once you truly accept your death, nothing is more powerful or liberating. But the power and liberation can serve life or death equally - you can have a Gandhi or a Hitler. I don't think Joss Whedon would have ended his cycle with "The Chain" if this theme of personal sacrifice and the dynamics of political and social power elites were not going to be significant when he attempts to resolve the season.

Sorry for the rant - not quite sure what I was trying to say. I always enjoyed reading your ideas - your titles analysis was very informative - the Buffyverse and Angelverse always makes such great use of titles.

Do you think Giles wearing the bollocks t-shirt was a clue or a mis-direction? I have felt for a very long time that Buffy had to learn the same lessons that the great Queen Elizabeth did - If she is going to be the great queen and general, she too may well just have to learn that Love does not conquer all. That first Elizabeth made a mess of her life but wanting to love men who were not worthy or her equal.

Heck, Buffy may end up having to fight "The Black Queen" like Barbarella and her Angel did.

 

[crazysoulless]

The painting in her room did seem as if it were Queen Elizabeth and then in NFFY Gigi says they are going to kill the Queen and Faith asks, "Elizabeth?" and Gigi replies, "No, not Elizabeth" and shows Faith a Buffy shrine. When Buffy was under the true love spell and her hands were across her stomach the white slip with the design on it made her look like a dead warrior Queen holding a sword.

I checked out a book on evolution and one of the chapters was about the theory Giles told the group. Teleology. Evolution with the goal of an upgrade up the cosmic ladder. It was called "The Great Chain of Being".

Another way to describe Wolves at the Gate is = Demons at the Portals/Threshold. The wolves that raided the Scottish HQ were vampires (demons) and despite all of the mystickal shields and Slayers they got passed the barriers keeping them out of the place they wanted to be in. It reminds me of the Old Ones breaking through the portals/vortexes/barriers separating dimensions and returning to Earth. The demons in WATG broke through to get the Scythe while thousands of years ago the Scythe was used to kill the last pure demon that walked the Earth after the rest were already driven out.

After These Messages We’ll Be Right Back​

The phrase means that the program you want is being interrupted but you will eventually see it again. Buffy and Angel were separated but after many years and several significant others they were reunited. The “messages” are the horrible obstacles and the beloved previews of other fixations that they experienced while separated. They were together or “part of the program” and then had months of “messages” only to be fully together again in IWRY and then separated and then kissing in Forever and then separated and that continued with their clandestine reunion post-resurrection and kissing in End of Days/Chosen, and now sex in Twilight. They broke up but kept finding their way back to each other.

Harmonic Divergence​

It is ironic that the title means to “peacefully disagree” considering that Harmony got famous from biting humans, murdered a Slayer with a makeshift stake, fed on her during a live broadcast, and happily agreed that Slayers were modern day Nazis. The response from Buffy and her Slayer Organization was not to kill Harmony or combat the anti-Slayer venom being unleashed with their own PR campaign and conference on the evil of vampires. They were horrified by her actions and saddened that the people they risked their lives defending saw them as the “villains” but they did nothing about it. They hid their natures and stayed in the shadows. It was the night creatures (vampires, demons) that stepped into the limelight.

Swell​

This has several meanings. Buffy has sarcastically used the word in the past to mean the opposite of what it is. Everything being “swell” means that everything is okay or more than okay. Swell is another word for bulge, inflate, enlarge, expand, and puff out. Spike once wrote about his first unrequited love Cecily, “My heart expands, it has grown a bulge in it, inspired by your beauty, effulgent.” Satsu felt that way about Buffy (as Spike later did) but Buffy didn’t feel it back. Satsu felt the swelling in her heart for Buffy and after being rejected she pretending that she was “swell”.

Swell also refers to the Vampycat legion expanding in numbers to attack the Slayers as well as the growing number of humans around the world that were forming negative opinions about Slayers.

Living doll​

Dawn was not born. She was created and for a purpose. Just like a doll. Another version of what she becomes with her third Kenny-inflicted transmogrification. She basically is a living doll and has been a living doll for several years. She was not transformed into Dawn Summers to completely be her own independent being. “Am I real? Am I anything?“ She was meant to house The Key essence and to be something Buffy loved enough to want to protect with her life.

Everyone thought of her as fragile and childish and immature. Glory thought of her as a precious toy that the Slayer was hiding from her. The said she felt as if the guys at Berkeley thought of her as a pretty body and not a person. Dawn wanted to prove that she was a person and was real and capable and not breakable. The Doll-maker man kept having to fix her because she would get injured (and risked her soul getting lost) trying to escape. Buffy tried to protect her because Dawn was accident prone and often stupidly sought out danger secretly wanting her older sister to rescue her.

 

[Kelsey]

Oh, God, are the comics really this Bangel centric? Thank goodness I'm not reading them. Hah, I really have nothing productive to add to this conversation besides that.

 

[crazysoulless]

The S8 graphic novels are not that Bangel-centric but with the current arc the way it is, it places the previous issues in a new light. It makes you realize that there was a lot of foreshadowing.

With a few changes I think that S8 could have been the best BtVS season. Each issue needed to be longer, more detailed. The season was not focused on just one ship. There were so many interesting storylines and new characters and added mythology and great quotes and the usual hilarious and heartbreaking moments.

 

[nmcil12]

The painting in her room did seem as if it were Queen Elizabeth and then in NFFY Gigi says they are going to kill the Queen and Faith asks, "Elizabeth?" and Gigi replies, "No, not Elizabeth" and shows Faith a Buffy shrine. When Buffy was under the true love spell and her hands were across her stomach the white slip with the design on it made her look like a dead warrior Queen holding a sword.

I checked out a book on evolution and one of the chapters was about the theory Giles told the group. Teleology. Evolution with the goal of an upgrade up the cosmic ladder. It was called "The Great Chain of Being".

Another way to describe Wolves at the Gate is = Demons at the Portals/Threshold. The wolves that raided the Scottish HQ were vampires (demons) and despite all of the mystickal shields and Slayers they got passed the barriers keeping them out of the place they wanted to be in. It reminds me of the Old Ones breaking through the portals/vortexes/barriers separating dimensions and returning to Earth. The demons in WATG broke through to get the Scythe while thousands of years ago the Scythe was used to kill the last pure demon that walked the Earth after the rest were already driven out.

After These Messages We'll Be Right Back​

The phrase means that the program you want is being interrupted but you will eventually see it again. Buffy and Angel were separated but after many years and several significant others they were reunited. The "messages" are the horrible obstacles and the beloved previews of other fixations that they experienced while separated. They were together or "part of the program" and then had months of "messages" only to be fully together again in IWRY and then separated and then kissing in Forever and then separated and that continued with their clandestine reunion post-resurrection and kissing in End of Days/Chosen, and now sex in Twilight. They broke up but kept finding their way back to each other.

Harmonic Divergence​

It is ironic that the title means to "peacefully disagree" considering that Harmony got famous from biting humans, murdered a Slayer with a makeshift stake, fed on her during a live broadcast, and happily agreed that Slayers were modern day Nazis. The response from Buffy and her Slayer Organization was not to kill Harmony or combat the anti-Slayer venom being unleashed with their own PR campaign and conference on the evil of vampires. They were horrified by her actions and saddened that the people they risked their lives defending saw them as the "villains" but they did nothing about it. They hid their natures and stayed in the shadows. It was the night creatures (vampires, demons) that stepped into the limelight.

Swell​

This has several meanings. Buffy has sarcastically used the word in the past to mean the opposite of what it is. Everything being "swell" means that everything is okay or more than okay. Swell is another word for bulge, inflate, enlarge, expand, and puff out. Spike once wrote about his first unrequited love Cecily, "My heart expands, it has grown a bulge in it, inspired by your beauty, effulgent." Satsu felt that way about Buffy (as Spike later did) but Buffy didn't feel it back. Satsu felt the swelling in her heart for Buffy and after being rejected she pretending that she was "swell".

Swell also refers to the Vampycat legion expanding in numbers to attack the Slayers as well as the growing number of humans around the world that were forming negative opinions about Slayers.

Living doll​

Dawn was not born. She was created and for a purpose. Just like a doll. Another version of what she becomes with her third Kenny-inflicted transmogrification. She basically is a living doll and has been a living doll for several years. She was not transformed into Dawn Summers to completely be her own independent being. "Am I real? Am I anything?" She was meant to house The Key essence and to be something Buffy loved enough to want to protect with her life.

Everyone thought of her as fragile and childish and immature. Glory thought of her as a precious toy that the Slayer was hiding from her. The said she felt as if the guys at Berkeley thought of her as a pretty body and not a person. Dawn wanted to prove that she was a person and was real and capable and not breakable. The Doll-maker man kept having to fix her because she would get injured (and risked her soul getting lost) trying to escape. Buffy tried to protect her because Dawn was accident prone and often stupidly sought out danger secretly wanting her older sister to rescue her.

I wonder if Dawn as the Key will play a vital part as a vehicle for opening portals - or since she takes on the Centaur form, if she will be a sacrificial healer or exchange for balance. And there is also, can't remember where I read it, but a female Centaur that commits suicide after a tragic event - I will have to try and find that story again.