Oh, okay. I never made it to college, but if I had, English literature was one of the things I would have pursued. I want to be a writer, so it's a natural choice to study literature (and probably film.)
I agree. But you know that. 🙂
Yeah, I get that. I know they're supposed to be canon, but the franchise ends with Buffy season seven and Angel season five as far as I'm concerned.
Even Joss seemed to acknowledge that they had messed up to some degree or another with the "open letter" he wrote in season eight's finale —
"So, our endless season ends. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve thrown up a little in our mouths, but most of all we’ve learned. Not you guys—us. We’ve learned what you like, what you don’t, how this TV show translated to the world of comics, and how it didn’t quite. We’ve lost a few fans along the way and, hopefully, gained a few. I can’t say exactly how much has changed, in our lives or our work. The only thing that’s certain is this: all of us involved in this venture, without exception, have weirder-looking hair.
If you’ve read this issue, you’ve got a sense of where we’re heading for Season 9. Back, a bit, to the everyday trials that made Buffy more than a superhero. That made her us. I was so excited to finally have an unlimited budget that I wanted to make the book an epic, but I realized along the way that the things I loved the best were the things you loved the best: the peeps. The down-to-earth, recognizable people. And Mecha-Dawn. (She has a tail!) So that’s what we’ll try to evoke next season—along with the usual perils, and a few new ones, of course.
Every season of Buffy had a different intent, and a different set of challenges, from which to build. The biggest challenge in Season 8 was that many years ago I wrote a Slayer comic and set it in the far future so that it could never affect Buffy’s life. I was so young. But the challenge of reconciling the optimistic, empowering message of the final episode with the dystopian, Slayerless vision of Fray’s future gave Season 8 a genuine weight.
The mission was to deal with the consequences of Buffy and Willow’s empowering spell (the good and the terrible), steer toward a possible Fray future without undoing all the good Buffy had done (the girls still have their power), and tee us up for a very different Season 9. Some adjustments had to be made along the way, particularly when I completely changed my plan for Season 9. I changed it for the reasons stated above. No matter how interesting the world stage or mystical dimensions can be, Buffy’s best when she’s walking that alley, dusting vamps, and nursing a pouty heart.
We’re not going back to square one, but our square will definitely have a oneishness to it. It should be nice, after the wild ride that was Season 8—not always perfect, but made with love and delight that I think shine through."
P.S. I was just thinking, in terms of Buffy comics, I've also read some of the Buffy Classic line from Dark Horse Comics in the 90s and early 2000s. And some of the Tales of the Slayer (which includes a Fray story in it.) Those were much better than the season eight onward comics we got.
