Re: L.W.Look at 8.1 (Spoilers) Part Eight. -- ATPo Discussion Forum

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Date Posted: 09:13:29 04/25/07 Wed
Author: Age
Subject: Re: L.W.Look at 8.1 (Spoilers) Part Eight.
In reply to: Age 's message, "Re: L.W.Look at 8.1 (Spoilers) Part Seven." on 09:12:10 04/25/07 Wed

So, what�s it all mean, the question posed in the final panel? Wow, the ultimate human mystery. Who asks a question like that anymore and in a comic book no less? (Well, yah that�s not really the question being posed here, but I think it�s implied.) The placement of the image Buffy and Xander are viewing on the next page here spells a connection to the content of the panels above, a clue for the reader. However, the colours of the panel suggest a world of black and white where everything seems easy to understand because everything is fit into nice easy safe concepts. However, the symbol itself is confounding for the moment, suggesting that the easy way just won�t �cookie� cut it. Life is harder than the easy bake world of black and white would suggest.

Turning the page, ignoring the adverts. Sorry, uh, reading the ads then proceeding to the next bit of the story.

The reader sees blue again: command central; however there is a purplish aspect to the blue unlike the greener hue earlier:male/female together. The panels are a mixture of vertical and horizontal. In contrast to the horror of the guy left alone on the previous page, Xander and Buffy are together talking things out casually, (much less casually than the overwhelming AAAAAAHHH!) humourously humanizing again, as Xander did earlier talking to Renee, central command. Hey look, it�s almost like home: Xander�s got his feet up and Buffy�s munching on a sandwich. No, wait, it�s still slayer business (what�s the expression: eat, sleep, breathe.) The two are at least having some fun with the symbol. Although the frown joke does actually highlight the idea that at command central it�s not so much with the hilarious. Yes, Buffy really must be far from home for in Sunnydale how could any sunset be beautiful? Does she see a sunset because it�s diametrically opposed to the word Dawn? They are both right about Xander not being her watcher: he acts more like her brother, admonishing her to act like a sister to Dawn. No wait, it�s feeling more like home �Dawnie�s in trouble�must be Tuesday�back in the crater that used to be Sunnydale! Yah, just like home, Buffy can relate to her new slayer sisterhood, but she has to be prodded by her brother seer to see her own sister. As she leaves to do this, the final panel loses its overall hue to show the action in a clearer light (Buffy seeing herself clearer?) with the picture diagonal to represent Buffy�s feelings of awkwardness speaking to Dawn. Less facetiously, this is the nearest the reader has come to seeing the personal so far; it�s still not personal, but the levity helps these new military leaders get through the day far away from home. Also, if Buffy can see a sunset as beautiful she hasn�t lost her human spirit.

This more relaxed scene between Buffy and Xander continues the theme of shared power and value that the activation of the potentials got going last season, shared power that relies on trust. The idea of family then comes to mind� (Note the name behind Xander�s shoe and below the projector: HAL. It�s a possible reference to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. If nothing else it emphasizes the futuristic aspects of this new organization and to their more global reach. Moreover though the film warns against reliance on technology through the malfunctioning HAL computer, at its heart the film is about human potential and growth.)

Talking about growth�the reader turns the page to find yet another member of the Summer�s personal family up close and personal. Unfortunately, unlike Buffy who is moving forward (at least in her slayer mission) in her close up, the reader sees huge Dawn, taking up two pages and four sisterishly side-by-side arranged panels that emphasize how stuck she is by contrast to Buffy�s movement through the four panels. Buffy�s movement is firstly towards Dawn, beginning at her feet and furthest from her head, then nearer, but still resting on the railing, a barrier between them, then �touching� the image of the arm of her sister while her head is through the barrier/railing and near to Dawn�s head; then it�s away and out the door. Buffy�s journey around Dawn, because she never comes onto the grass where Dawn is, suggests the disconnection between them. This conversation has probably happened before, and it�s why Xander had to prod Buffy to have yet another one.

Dawn�s surroundings here are none too pleasant, brick walls. It�s like a prison. Here the reader learns that they are in Scotland where it�s a cold far cry from warm Sunnydale. If it�s Scotland and they are out on the moors, then the scenery is meant to emphasize the harshness of not taking the easy way out, but also perhaps the flat open emptiness of a personal life that still has to be filled, but also the potential still to do this: Dawn�s own attempt at a personal life through dating has brought her back to what is slayer business.

I don�t know exactly what Dawn is supposed to represent here. Generally there�s a reiteration of the basic idea that a problem not dealt with gets bigger. Certainly her size suggests that she doesn�t feel she fits in here. But her being stuck accompanied by her size may stand for an aspect of Buffy that�s being neglected in order to keep the slayer business going. Is Buffy just as stuck with her decision to activate the potentials? Is Dawn�s unsuccessful attempt at a personal life meant to represent Buffy�s feeling that she can�t have a personal life and be slayer boss at the same time? Whatever it is, I wasn�t that impressed with the storyline. I thought that Dawn was maturing well last year especially in episodes like �Potential.� Also, is her yellow top meant to symbolize that she�s afraid to go on and got herself in this condition on purpose? One last thing, is it significant that Dawn�s supposed to be in America but isn�t?

Turning the page: if Dawn does represent a psychological dimension of Buffy (which the first panel tends to suggest through the inclusion of a huge angry Dawn) and she�s opened up somewhat to her, and if the castle central command is the office, then having just been with Dawn and then stepping outside (of the slayer business realm) must mean that Buffy is opening up to her own personal feelings which have, metaphorically, been banished to the exterior to make way for slayer business; and continuing that logic, the vast empty landscape represents her loss; while her feelings are perhaps symbolized by the pastel red. Here she is on the outside, isolated among the moors, a tiny silhouette against the huge dilapidated castle, the office of her duties, and against that which she�s lost, as she tells us through her introspective narration just what she misses. As Dawn suggested through her reference to the temperature of the place, Buffy has come to cold and isolated spot in her life. But she�s no time for such concerns now, she�s got to suck it up because she�s a big girl now�a notion contrasted obviously by how small she looks against the landscape and the castle. Ironically Buffy, amid a whole slew of sister slayers may be the most alone she�s ever felt, as the bleak and daunting landscape �overshadows� her in the final panel of the next page, she shown only again in silhouette standing high in the castle away from the land as she looks longingly over its emptiness, unable to fill it/her personal life because she must stay in the office of her duties. It�s again not about what she wants, but what she knows she must do. Wow, sounds like the beginning of the series.

End of part eight.

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Replies:

Re: L.W.Look at 8.1 (Spoilers) Part Last. -- Age, 09:16:42 04/25/07 Wed
- Re: L.W.Look at 8.1 (Spoilers) Part Last. -- Jane, 12:17:53 04/30/07 Mon