You know what? Amy's Boyfriend is gonna be Warren. Skinned Warren. He wants revenge on Willow I can garauntee. Warren could have easily been brought back to life by Amy. It works, I'm right, I win. haha.

Hey all. I'm new here. So hi. You seem like a nice bunch of chaps and chapettes.

I got this today and ... wow. I want to shout to the heavens about how awesome it is. Instead I'll just post here until my heart is content.

There's just so much to love about this. It was far better than (the good) #1 (although that might me because I was so spoiled for that). But Giles! Andrew! Star Wars! Spike! Dark dream sequence!

I loved the romantic Xander Buffy stuff. Some people will complain but I thought it was a really perceptive bit of characterisation. I never believed that Xander was fully over Buffy; there's gotta be some feelings still there. It's great to see that dealt with. And how did everyone interpret this? Are we supposed to assume they had sex once (or more) before? Or is that just part of the dream?

I loved that the reason that Dawn's a giant probably isn't because she slept with Kenny. I love that Xander only has 2 of those suits and still wears pyjamas with ducks on them. I love the word formidabler. I love the 'I used to be' intros and the fact that the zombies were wearing kilts. And the kiss of true love plot. I love how Scottish the lint is.

God, this was fantastic.

Ok but criticisms. I'm disappointed with the unGilesness of Giles. He's really just an interchangeable British librarian-type here. But it was made up for by the great drawing of Willow whose entrance, by the way, was awesome. I can't say enough good things about that costume. It's perfect.

In fact, in general I'm not thrilled about the artwork. I don't normally read comic books so I'm not pretending this is an expert opinion. Also, I'm sure that what he does is hard to do. But I really do wish the characters were closer to the actors. I've been reading Astonishing X-Men and that art is amazing. I sort of wish Buffy was more that photo-realistic sort of art than the comic booky stuff in these issues. Do you peoples feel the same or am I ignorantly whining?

I've also gotta say ... what is up with that girl's feather earring? The girl that has a thing for Xander.

In #1 in one panel she has an earring and then in the next she doesn't.

And now in this issue it changes ear!

Maybe she's the Big Bad of the season. She'll defeat the Scoobies with her evil power to make her earring vanish or switch ear.

Well seeing as she got run through with a sword by a zombie, I think we're shot of her now.

UnpluggedCrazy, thanks much for the Wikipedia link. Are you going to do this for every issue? I really hope so because I'm right there with Caroline, I'm not really into comics. But I'm dying to follow the story. And I'm also going to have to get mine by mail.
While Hawaii is technically part of the U.S., if you live on an outer island, like me, there are definite availability problems with certain things.

Yes, I plan on doing this for every issue.

I'm a member of WikiProject: Buffyverse, and in the March/April role call, I made clear that my primary interest was in writing the plot summaries for the comics--not that that means anything, 'cuz it's first come, first edit. But so far I've been first come.

To chime in more on the Buffy/Xander thing...

I agree, while the big brother thing definitely happened, he never truly got over her, not even when he was with Anya. Remember that time that Buffy was wailing on Puffy Xander, and then gave Puffy Xander a hug? "This is the day you choose to hug me?" Yeah, a joke for sure, but that speaks of more than just the Xand Man's typical jokiness. It always reminded me of the feelings that he had/has for her.

It works. A little jarring, but it works. We shall see how Joss, that tease, goes with it...

By the way, not sure if I liked this better than #1. Upon further rereadings, no, it is not messy, like I originally stated. A little all-over-the-place, a little convoluted even, but not messy. I also agree about the unGilesness of Giles. That kinda bugged me.

But in a way, this was actually much more like an episode of the show. For some reason, I think when it was revealed that General Voll is working with the baddies, I was like, "Yup, may be a new format, but the same rules apply..."

Haha yeah. Although I'm not convinced she's dead. All that work setting her up as a romantic interest just to kill her that quickly? But I suppose that does have precedents with Jesse and Doyle. We'll find out in a month I guess.

Few thoughts since the .com thread's off the front page ...

I sort of agree UnpluggedCrazy, for me the dialogue wasn't quite as punchy this issue, though still good and very funny in places ("...exponentially prefixy", "You know I only have two of these outfits" etc.). I liked the structure though, it felt like Joss was being playful with us and really using comics and I thought the story was more substantial this issue (as you'd expect really).

Re: Xander's "you are the dark" line, well, the Sun lights the dark BUT so does the Moon. Willow's reveal shows her backgrounded by Moon, and the Moon has traditionally meant female power, Athena/Diana, and wisdom which leads to ...

Buffy makes a habit of taking the traditional angle (e.g. fairytale 'sleeping beauty' needs Prince Charming to rescue her) and turning it on its head. Out-there-crazy speculation but is it possible Willow harbours a secret 'desire' for the Buffster or could provide the needed kiss in some other way ? Or better yet, Buffy finds a way to do it herself (which is what I suspect will happen anyway, just more in keeping with The Message).

(though Buffy also says "That's what I meant" in response to dream Xander's statement as in, she's afraid of herself, maybe afraid of losing herself in the 'leader role' again as she did in S7 ?)

The Giles architecture has those Byzantine domes and spires so could be Eastern European or Near Eastern so Russia or Turkey are both consistent IMO. There's also a statue of someone on horseback shown so I wonder if it's actually meant to be a specific place (the look of it reminds me of pictures of St Petersberg which has a fairly famous statue of a 'bronze horseman' as shown here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Surikov_horseman.jpg ). That picture, BTW, is of 'Decembrist Square' in St Petersburg, so named because there was an attempted revolt there in December 1825 to take Russia from royal rule towards a freer system. Again, might mean nothing, it's easy (and fantastic fun ;) to get carried away with the speculation but are the Slayers maybe being set up as revolutionaries ?

Incidentally UnpluggedCrazy, Buffy is shown both in her dream and in real life as 'spread eagled' diagonally rather than in the traditional cruciform. Might mean nothing but that is the St. Andrew's cross, so named because when martyred Andrew supposedly chose to be crucified that way rather than as Jesus was because he felt himself less worthy. St. Andrew, possibly not by coincidence, is the patron saint of Scotland and his X-shaped cross appears on our national flag (The Saltire).

What the hell, let's push it till it breaks ;), in Greek Andrew means 'man' and (ale)Xander means 'defender of man'. Make of that what you will ...

(nice wiki too, BTW ;)

Also, "But that's so ... literal" made me smile. Seems apt for an issue with at least a couple of nods back to Season 6 given the oft-voiced complaint about Willow and the 'magic crack' ;).

(and we only see Xander's potential love interest stabbed, we don't see her 'run-through' or definitively killed so I personally doubt that's the end of her)

Very, very interesting about the St. Andrew cruciform. I was not familiar with that.

Hrm...I'm now thinking of editing the Wikipedia page to represent that...

Nice Greek translation thingy. I love analyzing this stuff way too much!

Though I don't think Willow's going to wake Buffy from her dream, at least not with the kiss of true love.

I agree that Buffy/Xander is too incest. If the story goes this way, I'm out.