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Another Review on Buffy/Satsu
Oh, you didn't think I'd get into comix mode and not talk about today's issue of Season Eight, did you? Hell, the bloody New York Times talked about today's issue, and I am about twelve million times more qualified than them to write about Buffy. Particularly this issue, because not only does being a fangirl give me street cred, I'm about to do something I only save for the most relevant and important of times: I'm busting out the Membership Card. Oh snap. If you know me, you know this just got real. If you don't know me, this just got real.
For serious, guys, if you have any interest in reading this series at all, or if you haven't got this far yet, stay the hell away from this post.
SPOILERS!
Let's just get to the chase: throughout the various story-arcs of the Season Eight comics, Satsu, one of the several thousand Slayers that Buffy called into service via Willow's beaucoup-du-mojo as the climax of the TV series finale, falls for the title character in question. Buffy learns of this, is flattered, and in the previous issue, she and the junior grade Slayer have a heart-to-heart about the fact that she just doesn't swing that way.
AND THEN. I stop by Amazing Fantasy after work, chat with my friendly neighborhood geeks, go home, sit down in the comfy chair, put up my feet, get into the story, turn a page, and promptly scare Meg, who thought my "AAAAAA WHAT THE ****?!" was actually indication that something was wrong in the real world. Here's why:
[Picture of Buffy and Satsu naked in bed]
Ok, so I've sputtered, I've stared, I've rambled, I skimmed through the explosion on Whedonesque and I've pondered long and hard about this. Here's my two cents.
At first glance, I was ready to scream "FAN SERVICE!" and punch somebody at Dark Horse in the face. One of my hugest pet peeves is the misogynistic tendency modern media has to show two women kissing in order to boost ratings. It's insulting and demeaning, and I am so sick of it. Did they really think they could pull this? I'd expect this kind of bullshit from DC, but from the Buffyverse? To put this in the proper context, we are talking about the series that had a HUGE influence on the pop-culture view of same-sex relationships in its heyday. Who among us didn't see Willow and Tara and think, "Oh my god, they're lovely and all their friends love them and they're like me"? Sexuality in Sunnydale, regardless of what flavor it may be, has virtually never been about ratings (although it certainly didn't hurt), and was always done with sensitivity and intelligence. How could the comics, which are every bit a pure and good extension of the television series, stray from that noble path? My next thought was that this wasn't something my heroine would do. I mean, come on, as an expert on the topic, I can tell you right now that Buffy is the straightest girl in the history of straight girls. If nothing else, it's the only thing in the world that can account for Riley.
But then I actually read the panels. The dialogue was so in character that I could practically hear Sarah Michelle Gellar dubbing over it. It was smart, it was funny, and it was anything but clichéd. I read it again, showed it to Meg, and read it again. It was sweet. It was sad. It was touching, and it worked.
I'll say it again. It does work, and here's why.
Let's start by looking at the woman herself. Buffy's character development is one of the best examples of the spirit of the Hero's Journey (an explanation of my view on this requires you to have a good deal of time, patience, and coin with which to buy drinks). She is a flawed character, as every true hero should be, and it makes her eventual rise to the by-proxy position of Slayer General all the more epic. She may be a damned cunning strategist on the battlefield, but in her personal life, she's rather a noob at times, particularly in the bedroom. She has never had a good healthy romantic attachment (as blindingly sexy as she and Spike were, healthy and good that was not). That doesn't mean she's a glutton for punishment. She just always tries something new, tries to grow and change. Look at the men she's been with. They've all been as different as night and day, and rightly so. Once Buffy breaks away from a pattern, she never goes back to it. She's a fighter; she learns from her mistakes.
Now, going from this, let's look at where she is in the comics right now. She's risen so high that she doesn't have a moment to let go (her talk with Xander about this in last month's issue killed me). She has become The Slayer, and she has no time to be Buffy anymore. Xander's off leading Mission Control, Willow comes and goes as her goddess self chooses (which I love, by the by), and Giles, the father figure in Buffy's life, is estranged from her for reasons that aren't clear. She's got two thousand Slayers at her command, and she is utterly alone.
So in enters Satsu - somebody outside the inner circle, somebody who hasn't known her since high school, somebody she's had fighting at her side, somebody she trusts and whose company she enjoys. All of a sudden, this new friend expresses interest in pursuing something more. It's not her cup of tea, but then again, the attention is welcome, and god knows she could use a bit of comforting companionship amidst the never-ending war zone that is the life of a Slayer. I don't care which team you play for, I can see that as a mindset most people can at least wrap their brain around, if not imagine themselves in.
The thing that clinched this for me is the pillow talk scene the reader enters on. A relationship with Satsu would've been highly suspect to me, and an "Oh my god, this was such a mistake" scene would've felt ugly. This was just right - two people who shared a beautiful moment together, and are completely content to leave it at that. Satsu doesn't expect anything more, Buffy is glad of the time they spent together. There is in each of them respect, fondness, and appreciation for the other, which sometimes is every bit as touching as romance. It's stuff like that that makes it a story, and not a cheap tactic to sell more issues (take notes, DC).
HOWEVER. I must say that while I am glad that Buffy had a nice night for once, my heart bleeds for Satsu. My fellow similarly-persuaded ladies out there know that there is not one among us that didn't go through the painful Straight Girl Rite of Passage. You fall for a straight girl, you become friends, you finally are honest with her, she decides to give it a try, she thanks you for the trouble and goes back to the boys, you smile and wish her well while your heart quietly breaks. I feel this is the part of Satsu's story we will never see. Then again, though we do not know her as well as the characters from the show, she seems like a mature girl with a good head on her shoulders. The mutual respect and understanding suggests to me that this is a lovely experience that both of them will remember very fondly, and I'm sure Satsu will take her part in it with a note of pride. Oh, she's going to pine something fierce and have many a wistful night in an empty bed, but she'll be just fine. Poor thing.
It's stories like this that make this comic series so great. In a flimsy little monthly, I went through a bevy of emotions and ponderings that have lasted the whole night. Joss Whedon, bastard that he is, is a truly great storyteller, and having Buffy veteran Drew Goddard at the writer's desk for this one made it come through triumphantly. I love these characters, I love the whole story, and I loved (yes, I loved) this little piece of it.
Read this comic.
(On a side note, if you're interested in the article from the New York Times, here ya go. There's a fine interview with the man himself that further solidifies for me that this issue really works, but I found the writing of the article unsatisfactory. Referring to Spike as just "another vampire" in regards to his relationship with Buffy is like saying the Titanic was "a sunken boat". The following comment made me cry noob: "Buffy sleeps with a fellow slayer. And, oh yeah, she's a woman." Bwuh?! ALL Slayers are women, you buffoon, that's a crucial part of the mythos. Christ on a crutch, with all the fans out there, couldn't they have found somebody better to write this thing?)
Oh, you didn't think I'd get into comix mode and not talk about today's issue of Season Eight, did you? Hell, the bloody New York Times talked about today's issue, and I am about twelve million times more qualified than them to write about Buffy. Particularly this issue, because not only does being a fangirl give me street cred, I'm about to do something I only save for the most relevant and important of times: I'm busting out the Membership Card. Oh snap. If you know me, you know this just got real. If you don't know me, this just got real.
For serious, guys, if you have any interest in reading this series at all, or if you haven't got this far yet, stay the hell away from this post.
SPOILERS!
Let's just get to the chase: throughout the various story-arcs of the Season Eight comics, Satsu, one of the several thousand Slayers that Buffy called into service via Willow's beaucoup-du-mojo as the climax of the TV series finale, falls for the title character in question. Buffy learns of this, is flattered, and in the previous issue, she and the junior grade Slayer have a heart-to-heart about the fact that she just doesn't swing that way.
AND THEN. I stop by Amazing Fantasy after work, chat with my friendly neighborhood geeks, go home, sit down in the comfy chair, put up my feet, get into the story, turn a page, and promptly scare Meg, who thought my "AAAAAA WHAT THE ****?!" was actually indication that something was wrong in the real world. Here's why:
[Picture of Buffy and Satsu naked in bed]
Ok, so I've sputtered, I've stared, I've rambled, I skimmed through the explosion on Whedonesque and I've pondered long and hard about this. Here's my two cents.
At first glance, I was ready to scream "FAN SERVICE!" and punch somebody at Dark Horse in the face. One of my hugest pet peeves is the misogynistic tendency modern media has to show two women kissing in order to boost ratings. It's insulting and demeaning, and I am so sick of it. Did they really think they could pull this? I'd expect this kind of bullshit from DC, but from the Buffyverse? To put this in the proper context, we are talking about the series that had a HUGE influence on the pop-culture view of same-sex relationships in its heyday. Who among us didn't see Willow and Tara and think, "Oh my god, they're lovely and all their friends love them and they're like me"? Sexuality in Sunnydale, regardless of what flavor it may be, has virtually never been about ratings (although it certainly didn't hurt), and was always done with sensitivity and intelligence. How could the comics, which are every bit a pure and good extension of the television series, stray from that noble path? My next thought was that this wasn't something my heroine would do. I mean, come on, as an expert on the topic, I can tell you right now that Buffy is the straightest girl in the history of straight girls. If nothing else, it's the only thing in the world that can account for Riley.
But then I actually read the panels. The dialogue was so in character that I could practically hear Sarah Michelle Gellar dubbing over it. It was smart, it was funny, and it was anything but clichéd. I read it again, showed it to Meg, and read it again. It was sweet. It was sad. It was touching, and it worked.
I'll say it again. It does work, and here's why.
Let's start by looking at the woman herself. Buffy's character development is one of the best examples of the spirit of the Hero's Journey (an explanation of my view on this requires you to have a good deal of time, patience, and coin with which to buy drinks). She is a flawed character, as every true hero should be, and it makes her eventual rise to the by-proxy position of Slayer General all the more epic. She may be a damned cunning strategist on the battlefield, but in her personal life, she's rather a noob at times, particularly in the bedroom. She has never had a good healthy romantic attachment (as blindingly sexy as she and Spike were, healthy and good that was not). That doesn't mean she's a glutton for punishment. She just always tries something new, tries to grow and change. Look at the men she's been with. They've all been as different as night and day, and rightly so. Once Buffy breaks away from a pattern, she never goes back to it. She's a fighter; she learns from her mistakes.
Now, going from this, let's look at where she is in the comics right now. She's risen so high that she doesn't have a moment to let go (her talk with Xander about this in last month's issue killed me). She has become The Slayer, and she has no time to be Buffy anymore. Xander's off leading Mission Control, Willow comes and goes as her goddess self chooses (which I love, by the by), and Giles, the father figure in Buffy's life, is estranged from her for reasons that aren't clear. She's got two thousand Slayers at her command, and she is utterly alone.
So in enters Satsu - somebody outside the inner circle, somebody who hasn't known her since high school, somebody she's had fighting at her side, somebody she trusts and whose company she enjoys. All of a sudden, this new friend expresses interest in pursuing something more. It's not her cup of tea, but then again, the attention is welcome, and god knows she could use a bit of comforting companionship amidst the never-ending war zone that is the life of a Slayer. I don't care which team you play for, I can see that as a mindset most people can at least wrap their brain around, if not imagine themselves in.
The thing that clinched this for me is the pillow talk scene the reader enters on. A relationship with Satsu would've been highly suspect to me, and an "Oh my god, this was such a mistake" scene would've felt ugly. This was just right - two people who shared a beautiful moment together, and are completely content to leave it at that. Satsu doesn't expect anything more, Buffy is glad of the time they spent together. There is in each of them respect, fondness, and appreciation for the other, which sometimes is every bit as touching as romance. It's stuff like that that makes it a story, and not a cheap tactic to sell more issues (take notes, DC).
HOWEVER. I must say that while I am glad that Buffy had a nice night for once, my heart bleeds for Satsu. My fellow similarly-persuaded ladies out there know that there is not one among us that didn't go through the painful Straight Girl Rite of Passage. You fall for a straight girl, you become friends, you finally are honest with her, she decides to give it a try, she thanks you for the trouble and goes back to the boys, you smile and wish her well while your heart quietly breaks. I feel this is the part of Satsu's story we will never see. Then again, though we do not know her as well as the characters from the show, she seems like a mature girl with a good head on her shoulders. The mutual respect and understanding suggests to me that this is a lovely experience that both of them will remember very fondly, and I'm sure Satsu will take her part in it with a note of pride. Oh, she's going to pine something fierce and have many a wistful night in an empty bed, but she'll be just fine. Poor thing.
It's stories like this that make this comic series so great. In a flimsy little monthly, I went through a bevy of emotions and ponderings that have lasted the whole night. Joss Whedon, bastard that he is, is a truly great storyteller, and having Buffy veteran Drew Goddard at the writer's desk for this one made it come through triumphantly. I love these characters, I love the whole story, and I loved (yes, I loved) this little piece of it.
Read this comic.
(On a side note, if you're interested in the article from the New York Times, here ya go. There's a fine interview with the man himself that further solidifies for me that this issue really works, but I found the writing of the article unsatisfactory. Referring to Spike as just "another vampire" in regards to his relationship with Buffy is like saying the Titanic was "a sunken boat". The following comment made me cry noob: "Buffy sleeps with a fellow slayer. And, oh yeah, she's a woman." Bwuh?! ALL Slayers are women, you buffoon, that's a crucial part of the mythos. Christ on a crutch, with all the fans out there, couldn't they have found somebody better to write this thing?)
I'd go into detail but Im not very articulate grrr.
As is the way of the fandom. 
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