That's a pretty good summary of the main ideas.

Sunfire | October 17, 18:59 CET

I'm always impressed by Stormwreath's analysis. Interesting read. Very thoughtful.

It seems that the necessary conclusion to what Stormwreath proposes for the "She's the general, we're the army" stage of season 8 would be that Buffy learns the perspective balance between the big picture and the "individual pixels". That she turn back her egocentric views of the slayers as being superior to the rest of the world. Which reminds me of Buffy having a "superiority complex with an inferiority complex about it". I think Buffy might be transferring this superiority complex to how she views her army, except she lacks the accompanying inferiority complex at this point.

Emmie | October 17, 19:20 CET

It is indeed a rare thing to find a Buffy analysis that is so balanced and insightful at the same time. I am impressed.

Emmie, I concur; there are some possible indications of this in the current arc; it is not yet clear exactly what Willow's role is in all of this.
Of course, being merely half-way through this "season" we should expect that we are just beginning to glimpse what the season is really all about.

PaulfromSunnydale | October 17, 20:42 CET

That was a really good analysis. Also found some good arguments in there that I could have used in defending Buffy against Cameron when we had that discusion. Bummer.

MysticSlug | October 17, 21:40 CET

OK, a very wild guess. The Slayer line does end with Buffy, and perhaps Willow is involved. But it's future Dark Willow who brings back the Slayer line, starting with Fray and her brother. Something goes wrong in Willow's magic, resulting in the split between Slayer strength and Slayer memory.

Just a guess.

But back to Buffy, I get a distinct feeling that she's headed for a tragic downfall, in the Shakespearian "tragic" sense. One requirement for Shakespearian tragedy is that the central character is brought down by his own character flaws, and Buffy is very much at risk in that sense.

MissKittysMom | October 18, 01:07 CET

If that is the case, there is also the opportunity for rebirth. She lost her status as hero at the end of season two, and reclaimed it when she came back to Sunnydale in season three. I can hope it can happen again, even if that's the theme of "season nine".

impalergeneral | October 18, 01:39 CET

I really enjoyed this analysis. It really gave me perspective, and I feel I understand S8 a lot better now.

Giles_314 | October 18, 01:54 CET

A clear, well-done character development summary for Buffy. It's unfortunate that the "Buffy's written badly because she never changes"/"Buffy's written badly because she gets so OOC"/etc. is so often expressed in this fandom's view of the title character, and an actual analysis that works to get the facts out straight is always a pleasure to read.

Jav | October 18, 03:24 CET

Man. I agree with almost every single point in there.

That must mean it's amazingly, perfectly right!

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | October 18, 06:39 CET

That was really excellent. I especially liked the expanded commentary on season 4, which IMO doesn't usually get the respect it deserves.

Shey | October 18, 13:11 CET

My views on Buffy exactly! Well almost exactly if I was any good at writing words.

I feel like Buffy's (the show)always done a pretty good job at developing all the characters. The changes may not always be obvious, for instance the Scoobies don't all give up slaying and join a rock band (well Oz...), but the point is that the changes are there, subtle-like.

In a world filled with television drama and ludicrous storylines, Buffy was mostly about a young woman struggling with power and her friends who had mundane struggles of their own. The monsters and vampires and magic just gave the show bite. Haha! Right. Laughing alone. ha?

Reading the in depth analysis caused me to watch Restless and on Xander's ice cream truck there is an "ice cream" picture of a pickle on a stick which says frozen bananas. Now I wonder what the meaning of that is?

EDIT: For random trivia.

[ edited by Likewithpie on 2008-10-18 15:53 ]

Likewithpie | October 18, 15:09 CET

Seems, form what I've had the chance to read so far, well-done. I don't agree with a lot of it but that's a different issue, and largely driven by my personal dislike of Buffy as a character in so many ways.

I fearfully resonate on the allusions to classic tragedy.

DaddyCatALSO | October 18, 18:13 CET