Interesting. Not sure I can answer this comment in the way that it deserves, but I'll give it a try.
One final comment on the subject of Spike's importance to Buffy. Of course, I agree with you that he was important at the time. If Joss hadn't thought so, or had listened to the fans who shouted loudest (the Bangels), Spike would have had a minimal role in season 7 or possibly just come back as a villain. Having said all which, I still think Joss considers Spike's story with Buffy to be over and that she already has all the people that really matter to her around her, ie. Willow (in particular), Xander and Dawn. Not being a big 'core four' fan (or 'core three' as I suppose it is now, since Giles has been more or less written out), this has greatly reduced my enjoyment of the comic right from the start. Buffy and her friends are back in this odd, incestuous little huddle and to me, that seems like a big step backwards, but I don't think Joss sees it that way at all. He sees Willow and Xander as being the two people who are most important in Buffy's life. Everyone else - even Angel - is a thing of the past. Ephermeral. And that includes Spike. I don't believe Joss has a big role for him in the story. I don't believe he even has a small one.
But we'll see.
Also, while I agree with you about the moral ambiguity of Angel in his own show being quite deliberate and Lynch having either totally failed to grasp it or chickened out of showing it in the comic, I don't think the same is true of Buffy. I do think Joss meant to show her as flawed and human, but I don't think he ever set out deliberately to show her as morally ambiguous.
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Date: 2009-01-14 09:46 pm (UTC)One final comment on the subject of Spike's importance to Buffy. Of course, I agree with you that he was important at the time. If Joss hadn't thought so, or had listened to the fans who shouted loudest (the Bangels), Spike would have had a minimal role in season 7 or possibly just come back as a villain. Having said all which, I still think Joss considers Spike's story with Buffy to be over and that she already has all the people that really matter to her around her, ie. Willow (in particular), Xander and Dawn. Not being a big 'core four' fan (or 'core three' as I suppose it is now, since Giles has been more or less written out), this has greatly reduced my enjoyment of the comic right from the start. Buffy and her friends are back in this odd, incestuous little huddle and to me, that seems like a big step backwards, but I don't think Joss sees it that way at all. He sees Willow and Xander as being the two people who are most important in Buffy's life. Everyone else - even Angel - is a thing of the past. Ephermeral. And that includes Spike. I don't believe Joss has a big role for him in the story. I don't believe he even has a small one.
But we'll see.
Also, while I agree with you about the moral ambiguity of Angel in his own show being quite deliberate and Lynch having either totally failed to grasp it or chickened out of showing it in the comic, I don't think the same is true of Buffy. I do think Joss meant to show her as flawed and human, but I don't think he ever set out deliberately to show her as morally ambiguous.