Thinking like the enemy - WWTD?

[OkinawanSteel]

What would Twilight do? Some Twilight related questions to you all:

Are there any suspicious incidents so far that you believe Twilight may be, at least in part, responsible for?

What do you envision Twilight's endgame scenario to be? Exactly what situation is he trying to manipulate everyone into before he moves in for the kill?

What moves do you expect Twilight to make soon?

You are Twilight. What moves would you be making to step up tensions between everyone? Or, what moves you like to see Twilight make?

Just some rough questions, answer whatever you like, I just fancied a discussion on the latest Big Bad.

In answer to the last question, I'd really like Twilight to continue his clever tactical warfare, instead of all-out attacking his enemies. I'd like him to gradually increase his meddling. I think it would be great if he cleverly brought a lot of unresolved history up to cause further problems among everyone. For example, (of course it's a Faith one, sorry, my brain seems permanently stuck in Faith mode ) say Faith plays at least a fairly significant role in this story (which I'm assuming both her and Giles will. They're pretty important/powerful characters, and storyline-wise they have Roden's book, and Giles suggested they'd be back for the war, didn't he?)

What better way to exacerbate tensions between Faith and Buffy than to bring back the Jackal knife? Say Twilight acquires it, and somehow plants it inside the castle (or wherever they may be by then, and somewhere Buffy and Faith both are.) Perhaps accusations start flying as to how it got there. Even if they both accept that neither of them are in any way responsible for it being there, it's bound to stir up all their issues with its presence alone (esp. if it's still caked in Faith's blood).

Just a quick, off the top of my head example, but moves like that are what I want to see him make. Sly, simple, but extremely effective. I'm actually now hoping that we don't find out who he is for a good while. Whilst they can't drag it out forever, as that would be extremely frustrating, I really love the scenario, especially if he's making moves that show deep knowledge of their personal histories. The "he knows every intimate detail about us, but we know f*ck all about him." angle is awesome, and much more frightening and potentially more upsetting than just wondering why a certain person has betrayed you, in my opinion.

Anybody got any thoughts on these questions, or Twilight in general?

[Vampire in Rug]

Are there any suspicious incidents so far that you believe Twilight may be, at least in part, responsible for?

Everything Twilight has done so far, he's left his mark behind. So unless he's recruiting the shapeshifting vampires, I don't think he's done anything suspicious where we don't know for a fact that he was involved.

What do you envision Twilight's endgame scenario to be? Exactly what situation is he trying to manipulate everyone into before he moves in for the kill?

The world wothout magics and slayers. Possibly want's demons and vampires gone too, although he has at least a few working for him. We really don't know much about this guy so it's kinda too early to say.

What moves do you expect Twilight to make soon?

Make Buffy doubt herself morally, or make her friends doubt her morally and thus divide the group dynamic. Already Giles and Buffy aren't speaking, Willow and Buffy are on shaky grounds. I think we'll get quite a few red-herrings before the traitor is revealed.

You are Twilight. What moves would you be making to step up tensions between everyone? Or, what moves you like to see Twilight make?

Fly into BHC while everyone is asleep and kill Buffy. But then we'd have no story

In answer to the last question, I'd really like Twilight to continue his clever tactical warfare, instead of all-out attacking his enemies. I'd like him to gradually increase his meddling. I think it would be great if he cleverly brought a lot of unresolved history up to cause further problems among everyone.

I like Twilight and what he's doing. But I hope Buffy's next big bad is someone who just wants to kill her. Someone who wants to kill her outright and not screw around. Angelus screwed around way too much and wasted several opportunities to kill her. Adam and Spike teamed up in season 4 and almost acomplished... causing the scoobies to bicker about stuff. Bwahahahaha! Glory could have killed the scoobies anytime throughout season 5 but Tara was the only one she did any damage to. W&H and Darla want to "corrupt" Angel as opposed to outright kill him. And Holtz wanted to emotionally cripple Angel the same way that Angelus did to Buffy. I think it would be interesting instead of continuously upping the emotional ante, to have a villain who wants nothing more than to kill our hero.

[vampmogs]

I actually don't think Twilight is the biggest threat. Remember in 'No Future For You' when Buffy had a dream about the lion looking demon chasing her and killing her, and the reference to the queen? And remember the giant monster in her dream during 'The Long Way Home' when Buffy states "I know you" before it burns her?

Either Twilight has the ability to get inside Buffy's head some how, or.. to quote Angelus;

"The Beast has a boss"

[KingofCretins]

What would Twilight do? Some Twilight related questions to you all:

Are there any suspicious incidents so far that you believe Twilight may be, at least in part, responsible for?

Well, there hasn't been much to draw from, but I do think he has his fingerprints all over this theft of the scythe. It just can't be coincidence -- Twilight's people call Slayer's a "master race", Twilight himself says he plans to bring the end of magic and specifically tells Buffy that the spell was the wrong thing, and now a gang of vampires steal the weapon that made that possible? We already know he has magical allies obtained through intimidation and deception, such as Roden, Genevieve, Warren, and Amy (who didn't even know they were working for him).

What do you envision Twilight's endgame scenario to be? Exactly what situation is he trying to manipulate everyone into before he moves in for the kill?

Based on his victory in "No Future For You", I'd say isolation and disaffection are the goal states. He wants the villains confused and ambitious and the heroes jaded and self-doubting. Honestly, whatever he's setting up... it feels like that scene in V for Vendetta when V is setting up the dominos while the inspector describes what he feels is happening in voiceover. I do think that, whatever he's setting up, once he feels the pieces are where he needs them to be, things will begin happening very quickly. I expect that's what Joss meant in his Newsarama interview about (non-plot Season 8 spoiler)

Spoiler:

Issue #21 being when the season really begins to get rolling in terms of the unfolding plot.

What moves do you expect Twilight to make soon?

There's a "mole" and/or a "traitor", and I expect that Twilight's going to have to pull the trigger on that soon -- either extract, abandon, or "push the button" (i.e. have that person or persons begin taking apart the BHC and its inhabitants with extreme prejudice).

Based on the blurb for 8.15, that might tie into one of my theories for

Spoiler:

the "massive hit" the Slayers take, which was (aside from the spell being reversed), that the BHC might be destroyed.

You are Twilight. What moves would you be making to step up tensions between everyone? Or, what moves you like to see Twilight make?

Honestly, he's the most psychologically engaging villain in a major work of fiction since Grand Admiral Thrawn from the Timothy Zahn "Heir to the Empire" trilogy or Khan Noonian Singh from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But, if I had a mole in that castle, I would make damn sure that Slayers thought the very worst of the relationship developments going on. Sow mistrust at every turn. I'd also want them to sabotage, very carefully, various missions or assignments to make it look like Buffy or Xander screwed up. I'd get some magical mischief going on, too -- botched spells here and there, things that people who don't know her are going to blame on Willow.

I actually don't think Twilight is the biggest threat. Remember in 'No Future For You' when Buffy had a dream about the lion looking demon chasing her and killing her, and the reference to the queen? And remember the giant monster in her dream during 'The Long Way Home' when Buffy states "I know you" before it burns her?

Either Twilight has the ability to get inside Buffy's head some how, or.. to quote Angelus;

"The Beast has a boss"

You know, I had a theory for this as well since 8.09, one that I doubt Joss would actually go with, but still resonates with me as a pretty significant idea. Twilight, after all, sounds like a pretty reasonable, civilized man. He's an example of Willem Dafoe's technique (quoted by Joss, on a "Firefly" commentary) of being a villain -- "everybody thinks he's righteous". He thinks he's doing good. He might be getting played himself. An inversion of the Beast and Jasmine. In Season 4 of Angel, it was the Lawful Evil manipulating the Chaotic Evil into doing its agenda. What if Twilight is the Lawful Evil being manipulated by the Chaotic Evil?

Like I said, with Joss being who Joss is, it might not mean anything, but do you know the name of the geological formation in Wyoming where we've seen Twilight keep as his home or sanctuary?

The Devil's Tower.