Buffy's character has been put into a very dark light. I actively like this. Buffy has always been a little bit self-righteous. The next step in her story had to be the place where her moral certainty gets battered. I doubt we leave it here; she'll build back up, and will be a richer character for the journey. Is it OOC that Buffy has fallen in the manner we see her fall here? I'll ponder that a bit more below. But the fact of her fall isn't a problem for me.
Buffy isn't retrievable at all given that these mistakes have nothing to do with being self-righteous, her personality or her character. Buffy has never thought she was always right about everything. That was a main character point in S6 and S7. This commentary in the comics seems more dedicated to activating the slayers--Buffy thought it was right, apparently no one else did. There is no bridge-gap between that and this any more than there was Willingham's Spike to Whedon's and Lynch's. None.* You can't come back from something when you don't know how you got there, how you go from not beating evil by doing evil to bankrobbing, blackmail and usery. All you end up with is a hypocrite, one that didn't feel about about those mistakes.
Buffy being punished again for sex.
Buffy gets punished for having sex with 'bad boys'. The issue with Joss in this is he catered to Bangels for years and now wants to smack them in the face, presumably. As a storyteller, he had every opportunity to send that message to a much broader public, never did. Instead he's going back on a more mature end to both relationships for a rather sexist diatribe on the subject. He's preaching, basically, not telling a story if that's the case.
*The fact that there isn't an explanation leads me to believe another shoe will drop. We're told why Willow cheats, why Dawn did, even why Angel did what he did and how they came to those decisions. Not so much for Buffy, which is odd. Hints at a wish in the first dream might suggest an accidental Faustian deal or someone did something to her. The bits about puzzle pieces as well. To me, her lying on the ground like that is a little over the top for just a betrayal.
I think Norwie is onto something that Buffy has to die. Not in the sense of actually dying, but I think there are lots of indicators she'll be cast away at the end. That is her nightmare. You have Willow's rather out of nowhere hinting that she wouldn't bring Buffy back again in ABH. We know magic is going away, probably when the Seed breaks and Spike suddenly pops up with a trans-dimensional ship and we know he'll be around a lot in S9.
My guess is the Seed is destroyed and the spell/wish/whatever on Buffy gets removed, she becomes aware and is left trapped in another dimension.
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Buffy's character has been put into a very dark light. I actively like this. Buffy has always been a little bit self-righteous. The next step in her story had to be the place where her moral certainty gets battered. I doubt we leave it here; she'll build back up, and will be a richer character for the journey. Is it OOC that Buffy has fallen in the manner we see her fall here? I'll ponder that a bit more below. But the fact of her fall isn't a problem for me.
Buffy isn't retrievable at all given that these mistakes have nothing to do with being self-righteous, her personality or her character. Buffy has never thought she was always right about everything. That was a main character point in S6 and S7. This commentary in the comics seems more dedicated to activating the slayers--Buffy thought it was right, apparently no one else did. There is no bridge-gap between that and this any more than there was Willingham's Spike to Whedon's and Lynch's. None.* You can't come back from something when you don't know how you got there, how you go from not beating evil by doing evil to bankrobbing, blackmail and usery. All you end up with is a hypocrite, one that didn't feel about about those mistakes.
Buffy being punished again for sex.
Buffy gets punished for having sex with 'bad boys'. The issue with Joss in this is he catered to Bangels for years and now wants to smack them in the face, presumably. As a storyteller, he had every opportunity to send that message to a much broader public, never did. Instead he's going back on a more mature end to both relationships for a rather sexist diatribe on the subject. He's preaching, basically, not telling a story if that's the case.
*The fact that there isn't an explanation leads me to believe another shoe will drop. We're told why Willow cheats, why Dawn did, even why Angel did what he did and how they came to those decisions. Not so much for Buffy, which is odd. Hints at a wish in the first dream might suggest an accidental Faustian deal or someone did something to her. The bits about puzzle pieces as well. To me, her lying on the ground like that is a little over the top for just a betrayal.
I think Norwie is onto something that Buffy has to die. Not in the sense of actually dying, but I think there are lots of indicators she'll be cast away at the end. That is her nightmare. You have Willow's rather out of nowhere hinting that she wouldn't bring Buffy back again in ABH. We know magic is going away, probably when the Seed breaks and Spike suddenly pops up with a trans-dimensional ship and we know he'll be around a lot in S9.
My guess is the Seed is destroyed and the spell/wish/whatever on Buffy gets removed, she becomes aware and is left trapped in another dimension.