seraphcelene (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seraphcelene) wrote2007-03-27 01:21 pm
seraphcelene) wrote2007-03-27 01:21 pm
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Canon vs Comic: I'm taking issue with Joss and Season 8
I just read a summary of the first arc for the BtVS Season Eight comic (Long Way Home) on Wikipedia, and it included the following statement:
This series has been described as 'canon' by both Whedon and various commentators. As the creator of Buffy, Joss Whedon's association with Buffyverse story is often linked to how canonical the various stories are. Since Whedon is writing this arc, it will be seen as a continuation of the official continuity established by Buffy and Angel.
To be honest, I don't care for that statement. I'm really not interested in counting this as canon.
1) Not everyone's going to buy the comics, so I don't know that it will become part of fandom enough to be recognized as canonical.
2) I like how the story ended and I'm not interested in seeing a "canonical" continuation. I'd much rather Joss did something new or if he doesn't want to do anything new, figure out a way to get Firefly back on TV with all of the original cast.
I understand that you love something and want to keep it going, but frankly it's been so long that I feel like I've moved on from the show as something new. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that I didn't like the whole "every girl who could be a Slayer is a Slayer" idea. The beauty of Buffy and what appealed is that she was "one girl in the world." Singular. Adding Faith in the mix didn't change that but a Slayer army problematizes everything and although I can see the potential for Slayers as a mass group (I've read some really awesome fic exploring what it could mean to unleash that kind of power on an unsuspecting world), I don't feel interested in pursuing what all that could mean in a canonical timeline.
Maybe I should go buy the comic and be blown away by how well written it is, re-igniting my passion for the show. Oh, wait ... my passion never actually dwindled. So there you go. No idea how to handle it. None. Whatsoever.
Not to mention that one particular bit of information really pissed me off.
SPOILER
there are two Slayers posing as decoys of herself [Buffy] lest she become an easy target; one literally underground and another in Rome publicly partying and dating the Immortal.
So, I am to believe that neither Angel nor Spike realized that that girl dancing away in Italy wasn't actually Buffy. I don't mind the implications of this Jossing all manner of post-Chosen fic (including![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tkp's Five Things NFA or kita0610's All Ways that I love and adore), but that it's bad retcon. Oh, ha ha, so sorry. Just a joke.
This is the Dawn spoiler referred to in the comments:
Xander mentions to Buffy that she must talk to Dawn, so reluctantly she visits her sister, who is now giant-size and living in the basement of the headquarters. Buffy believes that her size was caused by Dawn losing her virginity to her ex-boyfriend Kenny, who was a Thricewise (the meaning of the terminology is unspecified). However, Dawn won't divulge anything to Buffy, instead preferring to talk to Willow when Willow returns.
I don't read the books and I know Joss considers most of them ancillary or noncanonical, and besides it's puts me in mind of fanfic writ large. Plus, I've read MUCH better fanfic than what the book sleeves and summaries of the tie-in novel promise. I've enjoyed some of the Tales of the Slayers, but all in all, canon for me is the show.
I really don't know how to react to the comics. I feel as if I should give it a try, but at the same time it seems like one more tie-in and less like a continuation of the series. I think it's just too much distance between the end of the show and the comics.
Or maybe I'm just cranky because I'm sick and congested and it's raining and I'm not at home curled up with the newest Caitlin Kiernan novel or my episodes of Angel. And I'm at work so I'm also not writing. That could totally make a body cranky, don't you think?
This series has been described as 'canon' by both Whedon and various commentators. As the creator of Buffy, Joss Whedon's association with Buffyverse story is often linked to how canonical the various stories are. Since Whedon is writing this arc, it will be seen as a continuation of the official continuity established by Buffy and Angel.
To be honest, I don't care for that statement. I'm really not interested in counting this as canon.
1) Not everyone's going to buy the comics, so I don't know that it will become part of fandom enough to be recognized as canonical.
2) I like how the story ended and I'm not interested in seeing a "canonical" continuation. I'd much rather Joss did something new or if he doesn't want to do anything new, figure out a way to get Firefly back on TV with all of the original cast.
I understand that you love something and want to keep it going, but frankly it's been so long that I feel like I've moved on from the show as something new. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that I didn't like the whole "every girl who could be a Slayer is a Slayer" idea. The beauty of Buffy and what appealed is that she was "one girl in the world." Singular. Adding Faith in the mix didn't change that but a Slayer army problematizes everything and although I can see the potential for Slayers as a mass group (I've read some really awesome fic exploring what it could mean to unleash that kind of power on an unsuspecting world), I don't feel interested in pursuing what all that could mean in a canonical timeline.
Maybe I should go buy the comic and be blown away by how well written it is, re-igniting my passion for the show. Oh, wait ... my passion never actually dwindled. So there you go. No idea how to handle it. None. Whatsoever.
Not to mention that one particular bit of information really pissed me off.
SPOILER
there are two Slayers posing as decoys of herself [Buffy] lest she become an easy target; one literally underground and another in Rome publicly partying and dating the Immortal.
So, I am to believe that neither Angel nor Spike realized that that girl dancing away in Italy wasn't actually Buffy. I don't mind the implications of this Jossing all manner of post-Chosen fic (including
tkp's Five Things NFA or kita0610's All Ways that I love and adore), but that it's bad retcon. Oh, ha ha, so sorry. Just a joke.This is the Dawn spoiler referred to in the comments:
Xander mentions to Buffy that she must talk to Dawn, so reluctantly she visits her sister, who is now giant-size and living in the basement of the headquarters. Buffy believes that her size was caused by Dawn losing her virginity to her ex-boyfriend Kenny, who was a Thricewise (the meaning of the terminology is unspecified). However, Dawn won't divulge anything to Buffy, instead preferring to talk to Willow when Willow returns.
I don't read the books and I know Joss considers most of them ancillary or noncanonical, and besides it's puts me in mind of fanfic writ large. Plus, I've read MUCH better fanfic than what the book sleeves and summaries of the tie-in novel promise. I've enjoyed some of the Tales of the Slayers, but all in all, canon for me is the show.
I really don't know how to react to the comics. I feel as if I should give it a try, but at the same time it seems like one more tie-in and less like a continuation of the series. I think it's just too much distance between the end of the show and the comics.
Or maybe I'm just cranky because I'm sick and congested and it's raining and I'm not at home curled up with the newest Caitlin Kiernan novel or my episodes of Angel. And I'm at work so I'm also not writing. That could totally make a body cranky, don't you think?