Re: SPOILERS: Episodes 7.3, 7.1, 7.4

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

A

clarification

about 

something

that 

Jolie

seems 

to

be

relying 

upon...


That "TV Week" interview with Marti Noxon that came out right after the
finale is now generally considered to be a hoax. If you remember
reading the "interview", the link only took you to an alleged transcript
of it that was posted on a discussion board--to my knowledge, no one
has ever seen the "actual interview" or knows of the publication it was
supposed to have been given to, so that's why people now believe it was
a very clever fake.

Unfortunately for us, this was the "interview" where Marti "said" that
Willow will have a new romance "coming on later in the season" and
"you'll never believe who it is!". Since the interview seems to be a
fake, those "quotes" are fakes, too.

The only thing we know about Willow's romantic arc is what Joss was
saying in midsummer: that she might or might not find someone else, but
that she wouldn't be dating men. So yes, no W/X ahead, but nothing to
indicate B/W, either. And I'm not talking about romantic subtext in
who goes with Willow to Tara's grave in episode 4--I'm merely
complaining that excluding Buffy from this incredibly significant moment
in Willow's life severely damages the idea of Buffy as Willow's best
friend, never mind anything bigger.

The last time that Willow broke down and cried, Xander was with her,
but Buffy was busy putting the moves on Dawn. (I've decided that the
only excuse for that craptacular speech about Dawn's being "beautiful
and powerful" was that Buffy's trying to get the girl into bed, so
that's the interpretation I'm sticking to.)

The next time Willow has a crucial emotional moment, Xander will be
there, but Buffy will be off mooning over Spike or polishing Shiny's
hair or whatever. At the moment, I'm hard-pressed to believe that
Willow could get a job reference out of Buffy, much less that they're
supposed to be friends or that they have a shot in hell at anything
romantic ever happening.

As far as possible romantic partners for Buffy, I'd put Willow at about
sixth right now, behind Spike, Xander, the new school principal, Giles,
and Faith. Perhaps the actual ep will have a good reason why Buffy
doesn't bother to be with Willow in her time of need, but until it airs,
I can't help but think that Buffy has been entirely removed from
Willow's private life.

Bring on the fic, because canon's just going to sink our 'ship, IMO.

(Actually, about the only excuse I could make for the Buffy I know
abandoning Willow when she needs her best friend like that would be if
Buffy were still angry at her, unable to forgive Willow for the evil she
did. But since this takes place after the "reconciliation" in 7.3,
apparently Buffy isn't angry at Willow--she just doesn't give a fuck.)

Okay, other stuff...

Mudrat, I doubt they could convince Eliza to sign on permanently, so I
figure they're going to kill both Buffy AND Faith off. The fact that
Faith's appearances will be at the end of the season points to her and
Buffy biting it in the finale, thus leading to the crowning of Shiny
McWhiny, the Vampire Slayer.

Remember, Joss got out of creating a third slayer last year because he
said that the line goes through Faith, that no new slayer would be
called until Faith dies. So for Dawn to be the Slayer (as it seems
Joss planned even before Michelle T signed on), Faith has to be dead.

It's been rumored that the reason Eliza hasn't returned is because she
didn't want to come back just to be killed off. Well, now they've
signed her for eight eps (3 on "Angel" plus the five on "Buffy") so she
won't JUST be killed off. But it still looks like she and Buffy are
dead meat to me.

Remember, Joss said that by the end of the season "Buffy will be a true
Vampire Slayer". That sounds like "dead" to me, since that's the
ultimate fate of all slayers, right?

Cas, I'm trying to avoid fresh spoilers, so I bailed on your post.
Sorry if you raised any points on this topic that I failed to respond
to.

Dan

who thinks it's quite easy for ME to do worse this year than last...same
writers, same show-runner, same "master plan"--same crap, as far as I
can see.