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Buffy Season Eight: Twilight, Part 2

Twilight: "This isn't just another fistfight, Buffy. This is history."

Synopsis:

And we're still in Tibet. Xander is trying to make Buffy feel better with snacks, encouragement and logic. Buffy feels that since she's sucked the power from all those dead slayers, it makes her a vampire. (Gee, foreshadow the next few scenes much?) Xander gives her Pa Kent's encouragement speech from Superman I. Willow remotes in as a big giant head and says they're losing time.

Later. Willow and Amy sit in a circle of candles and prepare to reveal Twilight's HQ, which Amy hid three seconds in the future.

Back to Twilight's HQ, where Twilight is joking about killing his three captives. Giles recognizes Twilight's voice. Faith attacks Twilight and gets nowhere except injured. Giles tells us that Twilight is invulnerable, has super strength and super speed, and can fly. Twilight says Giles knows where this is headed, that every watcher wonders if his slayer might be "the girl" -- and obviously, Buffy is "the girl." Giles does indeed know what Twilight is talking about; it's the reason Giles was traveling all over the place during the run of season eight. Twilight says that because Giles kept it to himself, Buffy has no idea what she has become.

Andrew, suited up as an amalgam of Captain America, Luke Skywalker, Punisher and Batman with a tricorder from Star Trek and Iron Man's repulsor glove, attacks Twilight unsuccessfully. Buffy arrives at super speed and zips off with Twilight, who removes his mask.

Twilight is Angel.

Buffy is not happy to see him, and takes off toward the woods. Angel tells her from a distance that he is not Angelus and knows Buffy can feel that he's not. She throws a massive stake made of a sharpened uprooted tree at him and it disintegrates.

She's furious that he caused the deaths of her slayers. Angel says he was trying to minimize the damage, and it could have been much worse. He says her superpowers aren't because of the dead slayers, and his has nothing to do with the slayers, either. It's what they've earned and what they need. As Buffy attacks and Angel doesn't fight back, he says that what he did as Twilight was to distract the bad guys and to focus Buffy, to push her to what she's become, that the two of them are connected. That there's a reason they fell instantly in love back in season one. Buffy starts to actually, physically glow with joy, and they kiss.

Willow, Satsu and Xander hear a sonic boom. Apparently, it's far-off superhero sex. Really?

Review:

Just screw up the entire Buffyverse, why don't you?

Angel as Twilight? I got spoiled a couple of issues ago, and it ticked me off so much that I stopped reading, much less reviewing. I was deeply into Buffy and Angel as a star-crossed couple back in the first four seasons of the series, but after Buffy got older, it felt like it was a teenage obsession, their relationship had always been too unequal, and that it made sense that when she became a woman, she moved on. And I'm not talking about her affair with Spike, either; it's not that I think she belongs with him. I just stopped buying into the idea that Angel was Buffy's soul mate, so to speak. And now he is? No, no, no.

And let's spend the entire episode talking about this incredible, important thing -- and then not tell us what it is. I haven't read any future issues yet so I don't know what's coming, and frankly, I'm fairly certain there isn't any explanation that will fix this situation for me. Twilight/Angel did some horrible, horrible things during the course of the series; he even just threatened to kill Giles, Faith and Andrew, and I don't think he was kidding. Yes, I just re-read the entire series up to 31 so I could write coherent reviews of the last nine, and there were no obvious character goofs; Twilight knew Riley, reacted to a mention of Spike, didn't know Andrew, expressed romantic interest in Buffy, etc. etc. Twilight as Angel sort of works from a story standpoint. Except for the evil. And that's a big exception.

Okay, I'm going to stop ranting now and move on to the next issue.

Bits and pieces:

-- The subtitle of this one was "Chapter Two, the Master Plan." Except we still don't know what the f#*%ing master plan really is.

-- 206 slayers have died. That's too many.

-- I have not been reading the Angel season six comics. Is there a conflict?

-- I have to give Joss Whedon credit for choosing the name "Twilight" as an in-joke that apparently no one got. We should have been thinking about teenage Bella and her Edward, and jumping to the obvious conclusion.

Quotes:

Xander: "You're not taking their powers -- you're -- you're getting their power when they die. Like Highlander or Rising Stars."

Willow: "Still a rat."
Amy: "Still a bitch."

Twilight: "Andrew... did you just hit me with a frisbee?"

Buffy: "You listen to me, Twilight -- my god, is that really the name you picked? Twilight? Y'know, I lived that idea first, right? And my vampire was so much better."
Angel: (taking off his mask) "I missed you, too."

Again, I am so very extremely not happy with this. But I'm still determined to finish reviewing the series,

Billie
---
Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.

8 comments:

  1. I haven't been reading the comic version of Buffy, because I feel like it's a bit detached from the actual show, but having Angel as Twilight? It's horrible.

    I though giving Spike a soul at the end of season 6 was a screw up, but this just takes the cake.

    Oh well, I guess I can just keep watching Bones and pretending that David Boreanaz is still Angel, but in FBI form. It's a lot better than the mess that is Angel as Twilight.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dang it, my comment was sent through my old, old, OLD accounr.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When it was first leaked that Twilight was really Angel I initially thought it was either another silly internet rumour or a sneaky piece of misdirection.

    Then it turned out to be true and like everyone else I was not happy at all.

    But that was nothing compared to my reaction to what followed that revelation. Seriously, what the frak was Brad Meltzer on when he wrote this? Buffy discovers that the Big Bad responsible for the deaths of hundreds of slayers is her ex and what does she do? She has super-powered sex with him!?!?!?!

    The truly sad part is this isn’t the worst of it. There are more horrors to come.

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  4. I did not read any of the comics, only Billie's reviews.
    (and a basic overview of Angel's seasons 6).

    Billie, you wrote that Twilight did not knew Andrew, but Angel met Andrew at least twice, in Angel's fifth season.

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  5. Daniel C W,

    Yes, I know they actually did meet on television. But there is a continuing joke throughout series eight that Twilight doesn't really know who Andrew is. What they were going for was that Andrew didn't make much of an impression on Angel, or Angel didn't think Andrew was important.

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  6. WTF? Angel is Twilight? And that makes Buffy want to have sex with him? Beyond ridiculous.

    I'm the biggest 'Bangel' out there, but reintroducing Angel as Buffy's soulmate in This way? Way to completely wipe away 8 and a bit seasons of Angel's characterisation. No version of Angel or Angelus would behave in this way.

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  7. Daniel CW,

    There's a joke in the series that no-one can remember Andrew's name. Buffy couldn't remember it for a while at first.

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  8. If you think Angel-as-Twilight is bad now, just wait. We're one issue away from the end of Season Eight and I have no real idea what his motivation was. And the more they try to explain it, the more I think it doesn't jive.

    Keep in mind that I say this as someone who has liked Season Eight overall. And I'm a major Bangel guy, so the idea of the two being 'officially' soul mates should make me happy. But none of it makes much sense in retrospect.

    ReplyDelete

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