8.36: The Preview Pages

[maggie2]

So with four days left to go before #36 finally comes out, I figure I'd waste some time pondering the preview pages.  They came out on a pretty crummy day, so I was grumpy when I first read them.  Random thoughts below the cut.

1.  So this is Angel from the future, or at least from 'a' future -- one where 'we' lost the war.  The war in question was in LA, but that may or may not be a purely local deal.  At the end of the preview we find out that future!Angel has some issues with the cheerleader.

The time travel angle has been in play all season long -- at least since #10 when Buffy talked about changing things if she was in a time loop.  Time travel gives me a headache, and I can only hope this is written in a way that doesn't boil down to some "the characters get an infinite number of chances to make things right so nothing really matters" sort of a deal.  The drama of life is that we only get one shot at it (says the woman who wishes she could have a do-over on a daily basis).  

2.  I love that Angel gets smashed by the O.  More call backs to season 2.

3.  DOG shows up.  His first line is "I know I'm a dog.  What a world, right?".  Reminds me of Spike in School Hard talking to Angel about what a world it is where people buy all that Anne Rice stuff.   There are a few other places where DOG sounds Spike-ish.  Fortunately there are places where DOG sounds not at all like Spike.

4. So the world's back the way it was supposed to be.  Fortunatley this is DOG speaking which means we don't necessarily have to assume that we really are playing the "reset and redo as many times as it takes to get it right" game.  The whole idea reminds me of fanfic, much of which is about resetting the game and getting it right.  Which is a perfectly fine and enjoyable game to play -- in fanfic.

5.  Angel pushes the O back into place.  Superpowers already in place then. 

6.  Another joke about balls!  Probably just the usual joke about why dogs lick themselves.  But it'd be cool if DOG turns out to be channeling Saga Vasuki -- a female type would probably be very entertained by the situation.

7.  Mention of Wesley.  Along with Angel's reaction to mention of Buffy makes me think that future!Angel isn't from so very far in (his) future.  The loss of the war rankles, and doesn't seem to be a dim memory.

8.  Angel is twitchy about "chosen".  Immediate reference is that he's twitchy about Buffy, which raises the possiblity that she had something to do with the war that was lost.   DOG asks what they're going to do about that, which Angel takes to be a threatening remark about Buffy.  I'd love it if the subtext here is that Angel is twitchy about who Buffy chose in Chosen, and that's what he ought to do something about.  Probably wishful thinking, since honestly having the first pages be about Angel was disappointing to my Spike-centric self.

9.  DOG is waiting for Angel to feel it.   Could mean Angel's superpowers -- maybe Angel didn't notice he had them when he pushed the O back up.  But this line resonates with FDW waiting for Buffy to feel it -- the weight of her failure.  In this case, Angel could be asked to feel something of how this world has changed.  Dunno.  It's pretty open ended.

There are two possible shoutouts to LOST: DOG looks like Vicent; there's an airplane about to crash.  Certainly the preview reminded me of the un-joy of watching LOST where questions piled up faster than answers were granted.  It's the last arc!  But we knew there had to be some big back story on Angel.  A war weary Angel who has lost everything makes some of Twangel easier to understand.  The cynicism about the inevitable deaths of mortals.  The lack of concern about seeing a world lost (since he's in a world that just got reconstituted after having already been lost).  

My big wish is that DOG be related to Saga Vasuki and/or Willow.  That's a plot line that needs to be joined.  Angel listening to chaos means that the story isn't necessarily selling Angel as the poor hero who just had to become Twilgiht to save the world.  And who knows, maybe they plucked the version of Angel who'd been through the crushing defeat because they knew that was the version that would most easily be their patsy?  Could work.  But time travel and alternative universes need to be employed with care.  Makes me nervous, in a grumpy sort of a way. 

Comments

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Buffy forgiving Spike the AR and her trusting that with a soul he could be a good man seem to me two different issues. The first is personal the second is a judgement call and one that she made in the face of the evidence that he had returned to killing (in Sleeper). Like she told Xander when doubting that Holden was telling her the full truth "There's something. I-I can feel it. He's different. He's changed." This long before she saw him being penitent (that came at the end of the episode).

Buffy thinks she knows Angel at least as well as she knew souled Spike and, like pretty much everyone I can think of criticising her decision, I can imagine her thinking it wildly out of character that he might have randomly turned into a good old, evil-because-I'm-evil, tie-metropolis-to-the-tracks, golden age comic book villain," which is what the Twilight who organised and led a slayer pogrom would be. If that's impossible then what's left however improbable must be the truth.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

But that's not all that's left, is it? None of the scenarios I have of Angel have him as bwahaha evil. But that doesn't mean he's exercising anything like good judgment here. And we know from Sanctuary that Buffy is quite capable of dismissing Angel's judgment and not letting him off on his own say-so. Bottom line: if Buffy really thought "yes, dear, I know you aren't a crazed villain and therefore it must be fine that you became a figure head for the forces against me, organized them so they'd thoroughly defeat me, stood by while they killed hundreds of my girls, all so that you could get me to become what you wanted to be, so let's have some mad sex right now" I think less of her. I'd also have no idea who this Buffy is or what happened to the girl we watched on the show.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

I'd also have no idea who this Buffy is or what happened to the girl we watched on the show.

Honestly, when I read explanations for how it was perfectly normal for Buffy to dive into sex just 'cause it's Angel and that's what she does, I feel like the argument is devoid of character insight into Buffy.

I can at least squint and get on board with the idea of Buffy giving into despair and seeking refuge in the illusion of love and sex. I think the comics didn't tell this story well (from the art, to how Buffy is portrayed), but at least that sounds like Buffy to me.

The problem with the despair angel for me is that Buffy gets a tearful glint in her eye with a smile on her face when she looks at Angel. Jeanty didn't sell Buffy giving into despair, but Buffy giving into romantic love and looking happy about it.

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

The problem with the despair angel for me is that Buffy gets a tearful glint in her eye with a smile on her face when she looks at Angel. Jeanty didn't sell Buffy giving into despair, but Buffy giving into romantic love and looking happy about it.

Agreed. These are the bullshit "misty, water-colored memories" that show Buffy has totally gotten over the "oh, yeah, got your girls killed and aligned all your enemies against you, but it was all because a talking dog licking its balls told me to I love you and I want to push you!"

This is why I so often agree with King (silently in my head, at least) because he, too, sees an evil guy getting off the hook by our heroine who I hate thinking less of. The options for Buffy all have negatives attached to them - glowhypnol, despair, tru wuv made her do it - and none of these are my girl. I want to see a rejection of Twangel and what he stands for - that's what TV show Buffy would be unafraid to do. Comic book Buffy just gets misty-eyed like Barbara in The Way We Were and goes back hand in hand with the mass murderer who has been the villain the entire time.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Honestly, when I read explanations for how it was perfectly normal for Buffy to dive into sex just 'cause it's Angel and that's what she does, I feel like the argument is devoid of character insight into Buffy.
Which explanations are those? They seem to me to be the counter to arguments that Buffy wouldn't have sex with him just 'cause it's Angel and she's over him rather than straight interpretations of the text but there are enough straw men flying around for my allergies to go into overdrive so let's dust it all up and start all over again.

The problem with the despair angel for me is that Buffy gets a tearful glint in her eye with a smile on her face when she looks at Angel.
When are you talking about here (honestly curious). The end of #33 or in #35? The art in #33 was what initially sold me on the whole thing, the big head shot on the end of the last but one page that I've seen so many interpretations of but for me most recalls her response to Angel falling to her knees in Beauty and the Beasts.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Is it her intellect you think less of or her morals? Buffy had sex with Angel, she didn't knowingly sign up to any consequentialist or material world-ending philosophies, she didn't knowingly rip a hole in the fabric of reality to create a brave new one. Maybe what she did was reckless or foolish or ill-considered (and now I'm getting flashbacks to the end of Innocence which may be just what Joss intended all along).

Whatever, "you became a figure head for the forces against me, organized them so they'd thoroughly defeat me, stood by while they killed hundreds of my girls, all so that you could get me to become what you wanted to be" is just another way of saying crazed villain and hence not what I think Buffy is thinking. It looks to me as if what she's focussing on is the sense making part of Angel's account of himself where he says what he was doing was making himself a figure head for the forces already ranged against her in order to divert them from making the 206 a round 500 and much sooner. True she's not pushing him on why he didn't do a better job of it but my reading is that she's more consumed by the godawful mess she's made of her girl's lives (and I've pointed out too many times where that's textual). The allusion he makes to "while I push" gets lost in the confusion over not pushing her to soak up power from her dead friends. The bottom line is that none of this makes intellectual sense. Not to the readership but we have the luxury of being able to wait and see what the full back story is. The characters don't and rather than trying to figure out why two plus two now equals the square root of minus one they make decisions based on what does add up what makes emotional sense since intellect is no help. Who knows what the hell Angel's plan was but he's not talking like a big bad, he's not trying to persuade her that killing those girls was necessary for some greater good, he's still talking about it as an unavoidable evil, he's still talking like someone who cares that the world got messed up (apparently) by her changing it and was trying to do something, however cockeyed, to fix it. Towards the end, he's talking like someone who's just as confused and at the mercy of unholy forces as she is.