Month: June 2017

That Ultimate Buffy Scene – Willow’s Long Walk

What does storytelling mean to me?

Sometimes, I have to look back at the tales that make me glad to play in the writers’ sandbox. The moments, and the craft behind them, that have burned themselves into my brain as the best ever.

And there’s nothing like Buffy… and the longest, darkest school hallway walk in history.

 

“Things are about to get very interesting”

–That was a dialogue quote that played in the ads for the sweeps story of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

–Yes, that season. The big one.

I would put a massive SPOILER ALERT here, but… well, I can’t imagine a dark fantasy reader on this blog who doesn’t know the turning point of that show-defining two-parter called “Surprise!” and “Innocence.”

But if you still don’t, readers all, you’ve had your warning. After all, omens are in the spirit of that storyline.

And second chances are not. So:

First glimpse is our heroine watching a dream of Angel, the world’s only vampire with a soul, being murdered… and fearing it’s one of the rare prophetic dreams that being the Slayer sends her. This is called establishing the, um, stake.

Especially since she’s in love with him. And how, in spite of having saved the world once already, Buffy Summers is very much a girl turning seventeen.

(Note, this was years before those books. The one word that can be spoken against Buffy is that it inspired Twilight as a pallid, pull-all-the-punches imitation of one piece of it.)

But the story isn’t only about her boyfriend. It’s got a few other threads too.

  • Willow, Buffy’s shy little friend, daring to ask an offbeat musician on a date, to their surprise party for Buffy. Sweet.
  • Xander, the long-suffering and all-too-human boy at their heels trying to get the snooty Head Cheerleader to admit how they’ve been sort of dating, between fights. Sweet and sour.
  • Computer teacher and ally Jenny Calendar getting a secret message revealing to us that she’s only been in town for one reason: to guarantee that Angel suffers. Especially by her removing Buffy.
  • And of course, the crazy-deadly (and simply crazy) vampire Drusilla receiving her own presents for her own party (why yes, it’s a theme). Namely, the severed pieces of an immortal demon called the Judge that can destroy anything remotely human with a touch, or build up his power to cleanse the planet. Dru’s first act when he reassembles is to let him vaporize one of her own vampires who almost one of his arms, and immediately squeal “Do it again!”

So all while our heroes are trying to slow down the assembly of the Judge, we can see Jenny picking some very clever moments to lead Buffy into a trap, or send Angel away on a solo mission (who else can hide the last piece of the Judge on the far side of the planet, and of course that means months away on a cargo ship…). And Buffy’s telling herself what many fans had been screaming from day one, that she should just take Angel to bed.

One narrow escape from the Judge later, she does.

And that’s what destroys Angel, and what Jenny had actually been sent to prevent: a hidden clause in The Curse that had been keeping Angel human, so that if his eternity of guilt was ever interrupted by one moment of real happiness, the soul the gypsies had forced back on him would slip away. Unleashing what an ancient vampire had once called “the most vicious creature I ever met.”

 

Why It Works

Meticulous buildup.

And, keeping so many threads fighting for our attention at once: we never did find out where Jenny would have taken Buffy if they hadn’t spotted those vamps.

All on top of the ultimate wish-fullfillment for the fans, turned inside out into the ultimate cautionary tale for any girl. (When Joss Whedon throws you a bone, it’s usually a grinning skull. One that bites.)

And then the second half of the two-parter.

All the right pressure points are hit: the first thing the restored Angelus does is to rip out a woman’s throat. The second is to join up with Drusilla, his creation, and letting the Judge find he doesn’t have one scrap of humanity to be burned with. (One guess why the Judge wasn’t written with simple weapons like poison or a thousand knives.) The third is to go back to the just-waking Buffy and rip out her heart… by keeping his secret and triggering every one of her teenage insecurities, finishing with “I’ll call you.”

So we know the world-burning demon is the minor threat now. Angelus is just getting started.

But all Buffy knows is she’s a total wreak.

Meanwhile her friends are scrabbling through the usual books, reciting more and more often how unstoppable the enemy they know about is: “no weapon forged can harm” and “it took an army.” But the guilt-stricken Jenny is nowhere to be seen. At least Xander and Willow are trying…

And Willow catches Xander making out with Cordelia, the Queen of Mean. “You’d rather be with someone you hate than be with me.”

But…

But…

Just then, when pretty much the entire cast has been given a custom-built trauma, Willow is able to pull herself up and tell Xander they still have a world to save. And then Xander—hapless, helpless, all-heart Xander who’s always failed—Xander says “I’m getting a thought.”

And THAT’S WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT.

There’s Angelus, standing in the shadows at the far end of the hallway, casually calling Willow to him. She walks trustingly toward him… and when the episode premiered it felt like it took a full minute for her to cross that hall, and that was still too fast.

Because of every twist that Joss took to tighten the screws, again and again.

Because there had never once been only one plotline in play that would let us catch our breath.

Because every one of them was aimed where they’d hurt the most.

Because by now everything and everyone our heroes relied on has been stripped away… and just now teased with that one glimmer of hope, except that Willow’s walking into the grasp of the hidden monster….

And we know that with every step she takes, no matter what comes next, nothing in this story can ever be the same again.

 

Nobody writes quite like Joss Whedon.

But God knows we have to try.

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Photo by dbnunley

Why Wonder Woman is finally the Strongest Superhero (too)

So starting this week Wonder Woman is the ultimate superhero. We should have seen it coming.

Not just the movie’s pedigree; was it really a surprise that an Oscar-winning director like Patty Jenkins could deliver where the flashy but erratic Zack Snyder had misfired? Not only that there’s a big-screen superhero who looks like that “other” half of the potential audience.

I’ve got an observation of my own.

 

Small Wonder

Diana’s always had a rough time in the comics. More than one fan calls her the top-flight hero we never really knew.

Yes, everyone’s heard of her, but for what? DC Comics likes to point out that she’s the only female superhero to be in continuous publication since the 40s… when a lasso of truth would bring out how William Marston’s contract for creating her said that he’d regain the rights if she went out of print. They definitely don’t mention some of the sad, silly eras Diana has had to go through, like giving up her powers until Gloria Steinem rescued her.

Or how in the last ten years alone, both Joss Whedon (Buffy and The Avengers) and David E. Kelly tried and failed to keep Wonder Woman projects alive.

Even as a proper superhero, who’s her arch-enemy—the Cheetah, just a woman who jumps around swinging claws? Dr. Psycho (the name about sums that one up)? Out of seventy-six years (until the last week), point to a really lasting Wonder Woman story arc, her Dark Phoenix or Long Halloween.

And Steve Trevor. Just… why?

She’s a magnificent character. She’s had some great moments over the years. (Say, telling Batman “No, I said I cannot allow it.” Or how George Perez had her lasso defeat Ares by showing him he didn’t dare trigger a Final War.) But as an A-lister, Wonder Woman was always better known for just being there as The Super Hero-Ine among the boys and for what that meant she could do, more than for she has done.

What bothers me most is the most primal thing about a superhero, at least for one of the early DCs that claim to have staked out their place first. That is, what are her powers… with the emphasis on just hers?

It matters, because that core Justice League around her have some of the best abilities ever imagined, taken up to a level no other story even tries to match. The Flash is the Fastest Man Alive. Batman is the ultimate trickster. Green Lantern has the greatest ranged weapon, or the best “power” superpower, of all. And Superman is the incarnation of raw strength. Just try to picture a gathering of great heroes without those four assets at the top of the list.

And Wonder Woman is strong, like Superman. She deflects bullets, like Superman—but with her bracelets, right? She flies, like… there have been days I’ve wished they’d say Supergirl had crashed on Paradise Island and get it over with.

(Her outfit doesn’t help either. Where the others have a distinct solid red or being named for green or say “does it come in black,” she’s got Supes’s colors too, but mixed up with an American flag. And of course there’s never been as much of it as the boys had on.)

I don’t mean to tear the character down. The problem is that over the years she’s never been built up, the way the more accepted heroes have.

Superheroes rarely start out with a high-quality story; to earn respect they need years of good adventures (okay, mixed in with some awful ones that we get selective memory about). Even their powers tend to evolve over that time, until they pretend they were always that well positioned. Spiderman didn’t start out with spider-sense or even his signature agility; Stan Lee just drifted into that is his strongest power because it was the most suspenseful way for Spidey to fight. Superman didn’t fly, once.

But over the years, nobody’s ever thought Wonder Woman needed a niche of powers that were hers; as long as they could point to that lasso as one bit of variety, they were free to let her copy more and more of Superman. (Her costume too; Flash and Lantern had theirs redesigned a few times to reach the current perfection, but Wonder Woman doesn’t need to look unique, right?)

But now that she’s got a new spotlight, let’s take a second look at where she stands.

 

A Place in the Pantheon

If Superman is the biggest, the strongest, of the Justice League (which of course outpower any other superhero anywhere), he’s also considered a bit slow and awkward. Sure he’s got his own super-speed, but he’s still got a lack of aggression and training. He’s the tank or the battleship, the clumsy knight in full armor, the bulky battleaxe.

Of course Batman is the trickster, but he’s also got the least actual power. (At least, if he weren’t amped up so many favorite stories and fan love to demand he get the best moments.) He’s the recon plane, the spy you forget you sent out until he shows up in your tent with the enemy plans, the dagger.

The Flash? All speed and only so much else, like a fighter plane or light horseman, the rapier.

Green Lantern? Artillery, the bow. (Too bad Green Arrow’s a separate character; a cosmic bow would have been so much cooler than a glowing ring.)

And there’s no specialty left for Wonder Woman.

Because she’s got them all.

Maybe not as sneaky as Batman, but she’s a true strategist and trained warrior. Fast, and with her own weapons too. And strong… DC wasted a whole movie seeing if Batman could beat Superman, but with her skills and near-equal strength Wonder Woman should take the blue boy apart.

(And that’s without the lasso that brings up his vulnerability to magic!)

Wonder Woman might be the perfect balance, the center and the leader of the whole Justice League. The sword (she likes swords), of the true hero.

It’s just a thought, from looking at the iconology.

That and, right now she deserves to lead.

 

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Photo by earldan