I agree with you about the loss when we switch from TV to comics.
And I can see why people might like AtF more than season 8. It depends on what matters to you. I can't enjoy the good things about AtF as much as I'd like because Lynch has gored my ox -- the lens with which I watched the show just isn't there. It never was the only lens. But my lens was part of the mix. No more.
Season 8 is harder to judge because it's not finished and because Joss has switched narrative technique. We don't know how many of the jarring aspects of the in media res technique will get smoothed over when the full narrative is laid out before us. But so far, I don't see that anyone's oxes are gored. Did you think Buffy was a feminist icon? You can still read her that way. Did you see her as someone with a bit of a dark side that needed cashing out? It's still there. The arguments about season 8 (by those who are still engaged by them) are very similar to the arguments people have about the show itself. That's what I mean by it being polysemic. Or as Joss would say, we all get to bring our own subtext, our own interpretive lenses. Now, maybe someone can write a post and say, here's the ways that season 8 chopped off my interpretation at the knees. Then they'd have a complaint parallel to the one I'm making about AtF. Where AtS had room for me and people who see the show in many other ways, AtF does NOT have room for me. Sniff, sniff.
That it's all comics eases the blow. I'll get over it. Since these are quasi-canonical at best, nothing is really rocked in my Buffyworld. I just don't get to sit back and enjoy the Spike/Angel comic world the way others do cause the gored ox thing makes it hard for me to much like it. The fact that Brian can be snotty on line to people who don't see things his way doesn't help much.
no subject
And I can see why people might like AtF more than season 8. It depends on what matters to you. I can't enjoy the good things about AtF as much as I'd like because Lynch has gored my ox -- the lens with which I watched the show just isn't there. It never was the only lens. But my lens was part of the mix. No more.
Season 8 is harder to judge because it's not finished and because Joss has switched narrative technique. We don't know how many of the jarring aspects of the in media res technique will get smoothed over when the full narrative is laid out before us. But so far, I don't see that anyone's oxes are gored. Did you think Buffy was a feminist icon? You can still read her that way. Did you see her as someone with a bit of a dark side that needed cashing out? It's still there. The arguments about season 8 (by those who are still engaged by them) are very similar to the arguments people have about the show itself. That's what I mean by it being polysemic. Or as Joss would say, we all get to bring our own subtext, our own interpretive lenses. Now, maybe someone can write a post and say, here's the ways that season 8 chopped off my interpretation at the knees. Then they'd have a complaint parallel to the one I'm making about AtF. Where AtS had room for me and people who see the show in many other ways, AtF does NOT have room for me. Sniff, sniff.
That it's all comics eases the blow. I'll get over it. Since these are quasi-canonical at best, nothing is really rocked in my Buffyworld. I just don't get to sit back and enjoy the Spike/Angel comic world the way others do cause the gored ox thing makes it hard for me to much like it. The fact that Brian can be snotty on line to people who don't see things his way doesn't help much.