Normally I'd agree about wanting to fix something inspiring fanfic but with Season 8 it's become a matter of most people being unwilling to touch it because it's just that bad. Not to mention it seems pretty unfixable.

There may be a great deal of resentment that we are expected to pay for plotlines so bad that if it were on tv we'd change the channel.

And with so many great writers in fandom alone , how did they come up with such dreck?! The long time between issues only adds to how badly it sucks because it would get people's hopes up that the next issue would make things better and the longer the wait the higher the hopes only to be crashed time and time again.

Quite frankly the ads for Buffy season 8 drove me away from reading my friends page and keeping up on spuffy fanfic on lj .



 

I think the comic books are a temporary problem, and I sure hope that Season 8 does not become a huge weight for the Fan Fiction writers.  Especially for the Spuffy writers, it must be difficult to keep up the enthusiasm in the mist of all this turmoil - It certainly has effected me and I am just a reader.  It feels like all the powerful story, and the very best story IMO, of the entire series is simply being swept away to accommodate the comic book style joss whedon has chosen to pursue.   Over at IDW we now have the new Spike series with the young female from Asylum who is now 22 - and if you have not seen the preview of the 5th issue in the series - let me just say it's quite a HUGE Surprise - never something that I ever imagined to see. 

What the comic books have done, IMHO, is lost The Heart and Soul of the Buffyverse - there is so little drama and demand on the readers - it's like we are simply suppose to accept any plot device or story element without it's being given any logical connection or reasonable explanation.  It keeps being stated that not having  financial restraints brought freedom to the Buffyverse - thus far all I have seen is that it is giving us a whole lot of pretty pictures and not so pretty pictures.  We have hordes of demons popping up all over the place when a few would serve the story.  We had demon vampire cats and slayers dressed in outrageous clothing, Xander hanging with Dracula and Buffy turned into SuperManSlayer.  And what did it really bring to the Buffyverse, did it make it better, more intellectually stimulating, did Buffy become more interesting because she can now fly around like SuperGirl?  Is Angel/Angelus transformed from Mr. Broody Vamp  into a compelling new version as Angel/Twangel in a fancy new outfit?  I don't see anything remotely more interesting about Buffy or Angel - except that we have all been dragged back once again to the tiresome relationship of their seasons together at Sunnydale.  We thought that ship had left the dock and sailed on to new destinations - I still love that anonymous comment regarding some nasty exchanges between shippers "it was years ago, get over it"  that I read on one of the sites. 

What I see, is that instead of the FF writers losing from all that is happening in the coming books -  this is a great opportunity to develop their own skills.  Why not delve even more into the TV Era works and create stronger FF than ever.  Get into the head of Angel/Angelus, and explore the full range of the character.  Instead of using Angel/Angelus as a "trashing boy" get into the character in a mature and dramatic exploration.  I seldom see the character in stories used with a full range of his emotional and intellectual elements.  Why not tell the story of Angel and his terrible grief he suffered with the loss of Connor.  The great characters for the AI Team have still so many stories that could be told - Gunn and Wesley are great characters that have so few stories written about them.  There are stories that could be told with The Covens working with Buffy and the Sunnydale Group. 

Where are the deep and dark stories that explore the dark side of the Bangel relationship - the emotional and psychologically  damaged girl that is willing to commit murder to save her boy friend, that's a great theme and a challenge just waiting for an experience FF writer - it would be tough to write but what a challenge to take on.  

This is a crossroads for the FF writers - the comic books can be a negative force - but I think they offer a lot more than they take away.  Primarily because I see that a lot of Buffyverse and Angelverse fans have a great deal of dissatisfaction with where the Buffyverse and Angelverse are being taken.  I have been reading the comic books all these years and  I have not really enjoyed them - I have read them because I was so hungry for more Buffy after the series went off the air.  But for me, and I suspect many other readers, we are finding very little to love .  Almost four years now of reading and spending money and what do we have for all the time and effort?  A story thus far about the origins Earth and Hellmouths - some premise that only makes sense as metaphor with Buffy and Angel being used as Sex Vessels to create new life form - as if universal forces gave a rats ass about human beings and their sexual mating process.  I say Season 8 is the down the rabbit hole version of Milton's Book III of The Argument with a added twist of The Lost Horizon and Hindu Dream Worlds teachings.

I've read a lot of positive things about Season 8, but the only thing that I know for sure, is that it only became interesting and connected with me in the Brad Meltzer arc - and it has almost all been negative and I'm going with the idea that Joss Whedon wanted the readers to be outraged and disgusted with Angel/Twangel. Same as for Buffy;  to feel a big dose of disappointment  as well  sympathy for his poor damaged Slayer that really really needs to get rid of all her emotional scars and follow the advise of that anonymous poster  "it's been years, get over it."