Buffy 8.18 covers and blurb

[KingofCretins]

Part III of "Time of Your Life" opens with one of Jo Chen's most beautiful, if unexpected, covers.

Jo Chen 8.18 cover

Georges Jeanty 8.18 variant cover

Blurb --

Spoiler:

A powerful enemy from Buffy's past confronts the Slayer and Fray in the future, having allied with Fray's greatest foe. Meanwhile, Dawn's gone through another bizarre change.

Thoughts on covers and blurb --

Spoiler:

Wow, Dawn is hot even when she's a horse's ass And Buffy... even with three dimensions to work with, she still can't drive

I think the powerful enemy from Buffy's past thing all but confirms what many of us already thought -- Drusilla is back, and aligned with Harth. Very impressive combination.

What could have caused Dawn to morph into a centaur, I have no idea. Perhaps Willow tries something that will shrink her, but this is the side effect?

[Ralphie]

Spoiler:

I think it is Drusilla on the cover, not Dawn

[Gabrielle]

Spoiler:

I think it is Drusilla on the cover, not Dawn

Spoiler:

Drusilla was my first thought as well!! Then when I read KoC's post, I thought I was mistaken because I have been too influenced by all the suppositions about the variant cover of episode 16 (or 17?).
But still, the summary of the issue mentions a bizarre change for Dawn, and becoming a centaur certainly counts as one... So I guess Dawn is very likely

[Enisy]

Spoiler:

More crack. To quote Xander: "Yay?"

I'm pumped about Drusilla showing up, though. She should work wonders at Harth's side. I just hope they don't kill her off or redeem her.

[Thomas]

Spoiler:

More crack. To quote Xander: "Yay?"

I'm pumped about Drusilla showing up, though. She should work wonders at Harth's side. I just hope they don't kill her off or redeem her.

Spoiler:

Well, even if she's killed, it's still really years off.

As for Dawn, is she a giant centaur or a normal, small centaur?

[Enisy]

Spoiler:

Giant Mecha Centaur, the people at Whedonesque are (very rightfully) joking.

[Heather]

Spoiler:

I'm on the side that thinks that that's supposed to be Drusilla. Chen has drawn Dawn before and it looked just like Michelle Trachtenberg so I'm not sure why this cover wouldn't look like Dawn if it was supposed to be her.

Plus, the wide-eyed, grinning facial expression? Very Dru. Now, why Dru's a centaur or why she's being represented as a centaur...I do not know. But it certainly makes no sense whatsoever if Dawn went from glowing ball of energy to normal girl to giant girl to centaur over the span of her very short life. There's no common thread. At all.

[Sacred Knight]

So, is it likely that

Spoiler:

Dru somehow traveled to the future as well, or are we simply to assume our favorite, to quote Giles, "quite mad" vamp keeps herself from getting staked for a really long time? The latter makes more sense to me, but who knows.

Also, regarding the cover,

Spoiler:

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw Dawn as a centaur (I'm assuming Dawn considering the blurb) was Willow. Not Willow, but remember the movie Willow? In any case there's a running gag throughout the movie of the main character trying to revert a powerful sorceress back to her human form, only he's just a novice himself so he changes her into a whole bunch of different animals till he finally gets it right. Makes me wonder if someone decides enough is enough and tries to work some mojo to revert Dawn's size and she's turned into a centaur instead.

[tiger_fan]

Hi. First post here. So *waves*

Spoiler:

When I first saw the centaur cover I thought it was Dru. I didn't read the blurb so it didn't even occur to me that it was Dawn until I went to Whedonesque and every one was talking about Dawn. Its the eyes and the expression that made me think it was Dru. It looks more like JL to me than MT. If it is Dawn, I also saw someone speculating that since a thricewise is involved with this than poor dawnie might be in store for another change since thrice means three. I shudder to think what's next if that's true. I think at this point it would be more shocking to see Dawn change back to normal size because it definitely doesn't seem to be on Buffy's priority list at this point. Poor Dawnie. Being a half-naked horse girl will make for some awkward situations around Xander. Although at least now she'll be able to hang out in the castle instead of just peeking in through windows and being trapped in the basement, now she can be trapped in the barn.

And for the other cover...

Spoiler:

I also thought the idea of Buffy driving in the future was funny. Its good to see that driving flying cars is just as dangerous for the mass innocents as her driving the regular ones. I just wish Willow, Xander, and/or Dawn were there to quip on the fact.

[vampmogs]

Spoiler:

To be honest I thought it was Dru as well. As others have mentioned we've seen Chen draw Dawn before and she's never looked like this (not talking about the horse part!). I guess it makes sense it was Dawn given the blurb below the picture. However, isn't it possible it could be Dru? If she's still alive in Fray's time which is a good few hundred years since where we are now, it's possible she's began to transform much like Kakistos did with his hooves?

And very cool to see that Buffy still can't drive, love the fun continuity there.

[KingofCretins]

Spoiler:

Based on the blurb, it's pretty clearly Dawn. They're going to blurb Dawn going through a big change, and then show someone else becoming a centaur? What did Dawn do, die her hair, then? I also think it looks much more like Michelle Trachtenberg than Juliet Landau -- certainly if compared to Chen's 8.04 cover. I saw it and never even occurred to me that it might *not* be Dawn. It still doesn't -- especially since Dru on the "A" cover in solicitation would be a pretty big spoiler in a solicitation, considering that the blurb still won't specify the enemy from Buffy's past. If the cover's Dru, why wouldn't it say Dru?

I also firmly reject that this is crack. We're dealing with the end of magic, which necessarily dovetails with the end of faerie -- Joss has been immersing the season in fairy tale imagery since the beginning to reinforce this. It's incredulity and fantasy itself that Twilight poses a threat to, symbolically -- the darkening of the human imagination. So we've had a giant (who even says "fe fi fo fum"), we've had fairies, we've had dwarves/gnomes, and now we'll have a centaur. It's not crack when it's in the intended idiom, surely.

[vampmogs]

I also reject the idea it's "crack as well." We've actually seen pictures of such centaur creatures in some of Giles' books. I'd bet my money on it. Just because they haven't surfaced before on the show, in no way indicates it's "crack" that they could be a part of Buffy's world. Especially when she's not in Sunnydale anymore. I was actually thinking about this and I think it raised an interesting point. I've gathered that in different regions there's different kinds of demons. It's very cool that in Europe there's more fairytale like demons than there was in Sunnydale. Especially when we already have a basis for that with the Hansel/Gretel demon of 'Gingerbread.'

XANDER: Fairytales are real.

This season, as King points out as had loads of fairytale imagery. We have a castle, Buffy's had loads of queen like imagery associated with her, she's been told she needs to "rescue the prince" and we've had a lion shaped monster chase her in her dreams. We’ve also had the “kiss of true love spell” with the sleeping beauty imagery, only in typical Buffyverse fashion it was tipped on its head with the prince actually being a woman who gave her a kiss.

I actually think it’s very cool. Fairy tales are commonly misconceived as being rather fruitless but when you look past the pretty pictures they’re actually incredibly ruthless and dare I say, creepy at times.

[EndersWrath]

Spoiler:

Based on the blurb, it's pretty clearly Dawn. They're going to blurb Dawn going through a big change, and then show someone else becoming a centaur? What did Dawn do, die her hair, then? I also think it looks much more like Michelle Trachtenberg than Juliet Landau -- certainly if compared to Chen's 8.04 cover. I saw it and never even occurred to me that it might *not* be Dawn. It still doesn't -- especially since Dru on the "A" cover in solicitation would be a pretty big spoiler in a solicitation, considering that the blurb still won't specify the enemy from Buffy's past. If the cover's Dru, why wouldn't it say Dru?

I also firmly reject that this is crack. We're dealing with the end of magic, which necessarily dovetails with the end of faerie -- Joss has been immersing the season in fairy tale imagery since the beginning to reinforce this. It's incredulity and fantasy itself that Twilight poses a threat to, symbolically -- the darkening of the human imagination. So we've had a giant (who even says "fe fi fo fum"), we've had fairies, we've had dwarves/gnomes, and now we'll have a centaur. It's not crack when it's in the intended idiom, surely.

Spoiler:

Honestly it doesn't look like Dawn or Dru, at least to me. When I saw it (before reading the blurb) I kept scanning my mind to see if I could perhaps come up with who it was before having the blurb spoil me... but I couldn't.

That centaur looks nothing like Dawn or MT. The centaur has black hair and Dawn has light brown hair. The face also seems to be a bit to small for Dawns features.

Just because the blurb says that Dawn goes through a change doesn't neccesarily mean that that cover is Dawn, I mean when have the covers made too much sense with the storyline? If S8 has taught me anything, its not to think of the covers too seriously with the actual plot. I mean Renee was on the cover for 8.15 and she died in the issue prior. There are a bunch of other things that could happen to Dawn, not just "dye her hair" ... over simplify much? She's an effing giant, there is a bunch of crap that can happen to her, this is the Jossverse for christ's sake, anything can happen. Joss and co have fooled us before with blurbs and covers so im sure their just doing that again.

But that centaur looks way more like Dru than Dawn if I had to choose.

[vampmogs]

Spoiler:

Truth be told the cover reminds me a lot more of the actress who plays Anne in 'Tudors' than anything else, it's a splitting image.

It looks me like Dru to me as well but I'm just going to say it's Dawn because logically I guess it makes the most sense. Just because of the blurb really.

Though in saying that, I don't think it's necessarily too Spolierific to have Dru on the cover because clearly she isn't Dru from our time and a lot of people wouldn't guess it.. with the hooves an' all.

And as Enderswrath said, it's also entirely possible that this is nothing but symbolic, who knows.

[KingofCretins]

Spoiler:

Michelle Trachtenberg Reference Photo #1 -- look particularly at the third picture.

Michelle Trachtenberg Reference Photo #2

Juliet Landau Reference Photo #1

Juliet Landau Reference Photo #2

Jo Chen Dawn, 8.04 cover

Jo Chen 8.20 cover

*shrug* Make of it what you will. Still looks more like Dawn to me. Certainly when taken in the context of the solicitation. Really doesn't make any sense to conceal the identity of the recurring character in the solicitation if you're putting her on the cover. And if you're putting her on the cover to sell the book, why would one put her on the cover in so unfamiliar a form that it's ambiguous at best if it's even her?

[alexa]

Spoiler:

urgh damnit Dru needs to die! Someone give me a stake I just watched Becoming recently, so the need for Dru to pay is fresh with me again.
Anyway I thought Dru was the centaur? sagittarius thing at first.. but it does look like Dawn as well. Maybe the spell to turn her back messed up.. you know like The Emperor's New Groove lol.
This coming arc looks really fun, hope they get them all out on time.. reading Allie's update was a little scary.

[Sacred Knight]

Spoiler:

Here's my odd take on the identity. When it comes to looks, honestly I didn't seeing a lot of Michelle Trachtenberg there. But at the same time I didn't and am still not seeing Dru either. It's not even close for me. The hair looking dark is the only thing I see that can be related to Drusilla, but even then I think that's only a play on the hues of this image, and the character's hair isn't black at all. With all that in mind, I first saw it, I honestly thought it was Buffy. I just thought I could see some of SMG in the facial features, so then when I read the blurb, I just then assumed it was supposed to be Dawn, and either purposely or not they made her look a lot like her sister.

[vampmogs]

Spoiler:

Wouldn't it be hilarious if it was neither Dru or Dawn?

Tiger speculated that 'Thricewise' implies "three stages" hence, the "thrice." Which actually makes a lot of sense. I really like that. We've seen in the preview panels Dawn's change starting to begin as she screams and clutches her stomach. I'm guessing it's the beginning of her transforming into this?

[Sacred Knight]

Ooo, I like that too.

[vampmogs]

Same here. Also goes with that old saying of "bad things always come in threes." It'd be the perfect punishment for her in Kenny's eyes (if he is responsible) as he'd want Dawn to pay.