Buffy: Season 8 #12 Comic Discussion

[Lior Knight]

Acclaimed television series writer, Drew Goddard (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Alias; Lost), takes the reins on Season Eight with his four-issue arc titled "Wolves at the Gate." The gang (yep, Dawn too) travels to Tokyo where they duel vampires with unusual, yet strangely familiar, powers.

Pub. Date: Mar 05, 2008

[michaelsummers]

This is one of my favourite non-standalone issues yet Very funny, and a good set up for this next arc.

[Lior Knight]

OK, I just read it an How? What? HOW? What on earth have Drew G. been smoking for the past 5 years??? Since when is Buffy Bi-sexual? And what's with the sitcom wannabe "Everybody walk on me naked in bed with an Asian girl"??

I can get them wanting to explorer Buffy's character even more but doing so this way makes it completely ridicules. Fist they made clear Buffy is not attracted to Satsu then she sleeps with her and later is all "Hahaha" comedy...so what? was it a joke? Is Buffy so "dried out" she would use a person who she know is in love with her? Did we not have this in season 6?

I like the bit with mystical vampires but other than that absolutely nothing. So far every issue I read felt like Buffy but this reads like a wacky fanfiction.

Hard to believe Joss approved it and I really hope next issue won't be as bad...a good story must have logic and reason behind it...throwing in something just for the sake of it is wrong not to mention confusing and unbelievable.

[The Chosen]

Mar 8, 2008 16:35:13 GMT -5 Lior Knight said:

Hard to believe Joss approved it and I really hope next issue won't be as bad...a good story must have logic and reason behind it...throwing in something just for the sake of it is wrong not to mention confusing and unbelievable.

Joss didn't "approve" it. It was his idea. I'm okay with this whole situation, I just hope to God Joss knows what he's doing....

[Lior Knight]

Mar 9, 2008 12:19:38 GMT -5 The Chosen said:

Joss didn't "approve" it. It was his idea. I'm Kay with this whole situation, I just hope to God Joss knows what he's doing....

So I read. Which I'm having hard time to believe he's use this way (make a comic relief of the situation). I do hope it would make more sense later on.

As I said, not having a problem with Buffy being Bi (I'm one myself) but I do have issues with Buffy using a person who loves her (and later having us laugh at the funny situation).

[The Chosen]

Well, like you said a few posts earlier, it's like season 6. Buffy's very VERY alone and you're right, it's wrong to use someone who loves you. But Buffy's in another rut, one where she feels like no one cares maybe? Hopefully, we'll have this character pull through. I haven't read the issue yet but I've seen the panels where Xander walks in on them, so I can't say anything about the comic relief thing. *shrug*

Like I said, hopefully Joss knows what he's doing.

[Lior Knight]

Guess so...after all there been many moments I used to judge JW's direction till I saw the big picture.

[Jess]

I just caught up with issues 11 & 12 today, and I was in complete shock when I saw the page with Buffy & Satsu in bed. Definitely not what I was expecting when Buffy told her that she wasn't gay. But I do kind of see why Buffy did it. She's lonely, and she needed someone. But, I don't see why she had to have sex with Satsu... In my mind Buffy isn't gay or bi. She's made that quite clear in previous seasons. Look at her reaction to finding out about Willow & Tara in season 4.

And I don't think Buffy really sees herself as gay or bi. She just sees her time with Satsu as one good night they had together (as she tells Satsu). So I hope this was a one time thing for Buffy, that all she was looking for was comfort. I'm sure she's a little freaked out about what happened too.

Since Xander, Renee, Dawn, Willow, and Andrew all know about it now I'm sure it won't take long for Angel or Spike to hear about it.... I wonder what their reactions would be... Also shouldn't be long before Giles or Faith hears about it either.

Also I would really like to know what is up with this season and bringing back people who were thought to be dead? First Warren and now Dracula. I don't mind Dracula being back, but I really don't like Warren being back at all. After all that time Willow spent feeling horrible about taking a human life (Warren's), it's all undone now. Well not all undone I guess, since she also killed Rack, who to the best of our knowledge was a human or part human.

All in all I think both Joss and Drew made a mistake with the Satsu/Buffy sex scene.

[Jess]

I just found a Joss quote about the Buffy/Satsu thing:

"Before fans start blogging frantically, they should know that i'm clear where this is headed. We’re not going to make her gay, nor are we going to take the next 50 issues explaining that she’s not. She’s young and experimenting, and did I mention open-minded?”

But Buffy really isn't that young. She was born in 1981, which would make her 26. Usually the experimenting age is the late teens and early twenties, not when you're almost thirty.

[Can I Be Anne?]

You know why this bothers me most of all? Buffy did this in Season 6 with Spike. She was disconnected and depressed after being back on earth after her respite in heaven. She knew she was using him, and she did it in spite of that, and in spite of the fact that she KNEW Spike loved her. She confessed all this in Season 7, in Conversations With Dead People, which Mr. Drew Goddard wrote, she admitted she "behaved like a monster" and from that episode it was clear to me that her lesson had been learned.

Here it is a year or so later, and Buffy is doing the exact same thing? Using someone, who she knows is in love with her, to “experiment” and to ease her loneliness and her feelings of disconnection. HELLO. Buffy has been there and done that. Buffy may be many things, but she is NOT stupid nor is she that mean to use Satsu that way. AND, it is totally unbelievable to me, that with all she and her friends have been through, that she would blatantly make the same mistakes again, especially when she confessed to them in CWDP.

I have no issue with the bi-sexuality aspect of this story arc. It is just WAY out of left-field and I don’t believe it for one second. I love Joss Whedon, and I feel this type of shock schick is beneath him. If Joss truly wanted to go this route, he could have done it in a much gentler way, not like a Lucy episode.

I am very upset and I just wish this entire mess turns out to be a) A dream or b) not Buffy.

[hurricane]

Eugh, im glad i boy-cotted this crap after reading issue one. I have no problem with buffy being bi, but we know she's not. Thank god for After The Fall..

[Harmony]

Mar 15, 2008 10:36:32 GMT -5 hurricane said:

Eugh, im glad i boy-cotted this crap after reading issue one. I have no problem with buffy being bi, but we know she's not. Thank god for After The Fall..

Yeah' sorry but I have to agree with Hurricane on this one

[Nolwenn]

I quite disliked the first five issues and now I must say Im relieved I've stopped bying them. The sales must be really low if they have to put stuff into it that is so unlike Buffy, there's no coherence in there, they're ruining the whole series for me.
Buffy needs to retire.

[stakey]

Personally I really liked this issue.

i already knew about satsu/buffy situation so when i did open it to that page id already gone through the shock of omgosh buffy slept with a girl but i dont have such a huge problem with it.
Its a big shock but its obviously there for a reason leading to something bigger.
I found the comedic approach to the scene really funny as well and again had no problem with it.

The new vamps are really cool as well.

oh and nolween season 8 has actually been selling immensely well so this plot hasnt been thrown in last minute to try and get more sales. As a buffy fan im sure you realize joss doesnt do these things for sales, he does it for the plot and overall arc.