Season Nine Discussion

[Fhithich]

A place to discuss Buffy's final season!

[Amin]

Im pretty new here... so forgive me if this is a stupid question:

There isnt gonna be any more Buffy??? 

[CK]

Nope. There's a movie that follows up after this called "Original Syn". And I believe Buffy and friends are set to appear in Lee's special project, "Rangorak", which involves some final battle of epic proportions and wraps up MZP'S Jossverse.

[Monster Zero]

That is correct. That won't happen until next year - we need the final seasons of Faith and Slayer Academy to wrap up first.

[Amin]

Well... the episodes are still there so i can read them. 

Thats always something! 

[Raul Bloodworth]

My review of the virtual Season Nine:

(click to show/hide)

After the turgid televised Season Seven and the brilliant virtual Season Eight, where would Buffy the Vampire Slayer go this season?

I'm extremely happy to say that it went to some different and unexpected places, which ended up working both in favour of and against the show. I'll go into detail about all of it below.

First of all, the characterisation. Still spot on, though I never liked Jackson. I tolerated him, much the same way I did Riley - he's the Guardian? Why can't we have another normal character, like Xander?

Second, the season opener. I am SO glad this show didn't do a Whedon and fix a major character issue in the first episode, like Anne. Happy, Happy Life is arguably my favourite episode the season, because it dealt with Buffy dealing with Dawn's death in a unique way. Buffy doesn't get over it instantly, leaving time for emotional development over the course of the season.

Anya's pregnant! A ranting, sardonic, to-the-point and pregnant former vengeance demon made for some inspired moments. I always loved Anya, and her final episode, The Offering was absolutely perfect - the other contender for best episode of the season.

I wasn't a fan of The Caretaker, though I liked him more in Original Syn. The Circle just irritated me, like a bunch of little squabbling kids would. Kane seemed like a Sloane rehash at times. I did like Jody and Max, however - even Sofia grew on me a little bit. I liked her better here than in Slayer Academy.

The arcs? Well, Willow becoming a goddess was a good one, not playing out the way we expect. I liked the idea of The Circle's giant chessboard of people on the Earth, however - very inspired. Amy's return is a complete contrast to her return in the canonical Buffy: Season Eight comic, which was a relief.

But Jackson. Some have argued he's a complete Mary Sue and I have to disagree. He's just another Riley is all.

A cliffhanger ending? How very Abrams of you.

The verdict: Full of great episodes but also tainted with the occasional shoddy one, this season is more impressive than it is terrible.

[Lukey]

Luke’s Review of ‘Happy, Happy Life’

Our gang never get a break, besides over the summer hiatus, so I’m not giving myself one either and am diving straight back in with my reading.  I plan to read one episode of Buffy, Angel, Faith and Kennedy each day.  That’s the plan at least.  We last saw the gang facing off against Dawn until Jackson killed her to save Buffy’s life.  How are the gang coping with that ending?  Let’s find out.

A lot has happened since the end of season eight.  Buffy and Jackson are engaged, as are Xander and Anya.  How long is this after season eight?  Also I really dislike Buffy and Jackson being engaged, I don’t feel like it’s in Buffy’s character at all, just a personal thing though, there is nothing to actually say she doesn’t want to get married it’s just I never saw her as the marrying type.

There are still some action lines in dialogue but I got used to separating them when reading season 8 so it’s not that big a deal but it’s still noticeable.

I love the memory wipe and the fact that no one remembers Dawn.  It’s getting harder for everyone to remember what happened but for Buffy bits of it are bleeding back through.  I’m guessing it’s gonna be rough seas for her and Jackson once she remembers that he killed Dawn.

The scene with Buffy in the graveyard with the vampire was awesome.  We already know that a lot of demons and vampires know who she is from ‘Buffy vs Dracula’ so it always used to grate against me when a lone vampire would take her on.  Do they all really think that they will be the one to take her down?  But yeah I loved this scene.

Now it’s revealed that the core gang remembers about Dawn besides Buffy.  She must have been in a bad state if the only option they saw was changing her memories.  She’s not gonna be happy when she remembers, it’s going to be bad.

I feel really bad for Buffy in that final scene.  I’m glad she knows the truth and we know she gets through it and how it all turns out in the end.

[Lukey]

Luke’s Review of ‘What May Come’

I love the scene with Xander in Anya’s body with Andrew and Andrew asks him how many fingers he is holding up and is then amazed when he knows the answer.  I love Andrew, he’s awesome.  More of him please.

I liked the fact that we had no bad guy in this episode.  It makes a nice change.  I don’t really have much to say about the episode though.  I did enjoy it and Buffy is finally coming back round after speaking to another side of her personality.  Xander and Anya’s feelings were explored a little more and they seem to be back on track again.  The episode went by pretty fast which is always a good indication.  It wasn’t as good as the season opener but wasn’t bad either.

[Lukey]

4 months later and I'm back with the reading

Luke’s Review of ‘Contrition’

Not much to say about this episode, it felt very much like filler besides the meeting between Buffy and Jackson which felt a little lacklustre.  I know the season gets better so I’m looking forward to actually getting into it.

[Lukey]

Luke’s Review of ‘Sticks and Stones’

Demon children are very creepy and the image we have here of them burning body parts is suitably nasty.  I still don’t like Jackson and Dan is even more annoying.  Andrew and Anya were great as always, rewrite the season so Anya lives and give them their own show!

Angel showing up was kinda annoying, I was never a fan of the crossovers, the only one I enjoyed was in Angel’s ‘I Will Remember You’.  They just don’t do anything for me.