Essay needed

[sombrefan]

Looking for a neutral essay on season 8 to link to at Whedonesque. Would really need to look at the pros and cons of having a season in comic book form, take on board all sections of fan opinion and analyse the story arcs and characters. Ideally it should not be accused of bias but I appreciate that might be difficult.

If that's not possible, then if you know of a feature on season 8 in the form of argument and counter-argument then that would be a winner too.

Comments

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

stormwreath usually has milder reactions to season 8 (his religious explanation for "Twilight" was a very original take), while angearia has always had reasonable critique of the comics, though her opinion has definitely turned sour recently. She tried to remain optimistic until the latest arc, and she's probably your go-to girl for a feminist critique of Season 8, and really explains why so many female Buffy fans feel so betrayed by the way the comics have been aimed towards the male comic reading audience. She also articulates the pacing and storytelling problems plaguing the format change, and has the literary criticism background to back it up. 2maggie2 has been more critical of late, but she remains positive, and moscow_watcher has even-handed critique and gets a lot of discussion on her posts. I think the best match-up would be stormwreath on the "pro" side, with angearia on the "con" side, if they're available. They're both excellent at keeping the discussion civil and reasonable, so it won't denigrate as so many conversations on the subject can. We really can have reasonable critique on LJ, and it is an environment we feel comfortable with.

[simonf.livejournal.com]

Mulling it over, I think a pro/con email session published as an article would work best. But I'll take any good even handed essays I can get get.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

You know, if I had to put us on a spectrum from negative to positive, I think it'd be:

moscow_watcher -- myself -- 2maggie2 -- stormwreath

Interestingly, 2maggie2's and my positions switched because of the last arc. I was more positive up through Retreat and Turbulence while Maggie was increasingly negative. stormwreath has been unfailingly positive while moscow_watcher typically views the proceedings with a fair degree of cynicism.

I'd say 2maggie2 is the closest to being evenhanded at the moment (not including myself because I'm in a very negative frame of mind about the past arc) except she's abstaining from giving any negative critique until the story is finished. So an absence of critique doesn't quite work for me in terms of evenhanded. And also feminist critique doesn't as much enter into her analysis of the comics where as I think the events of Chosen make a feminist critique all the more central to the story.

If by evenhanded one means saying what works and what doesn't, I'm not sure one such critic exists. I'd say Maggie and I have both given the closest to equal praise and criticism in the long run of Season 8 however. Pointing out what's failing, appreciating what's succeeded.

[gillo]

This discussion on TheCaritas is quite balanced and links to angearia's essay. Or angearia's post, which isn't really an essay but has a lot of good discussion.

[simonf.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I really appreciate your efforts to reach out to the folks at LJ on this stuff. Would it be OK if I friended you? Your last post made me think I'd want to write an essay pretty much exactly like what you are looking for here. So I'll have something up on my LJ tonight. I don't know if it will be useful, but I've been as much on the fence as anyone. (Though Emmie is right that a lot of my critiques get bracketed with a "but we need to see the whole story before we can really judge" disclaimer).

[simonf.livejournal.com]

"Would it be OK if I friended you?"

Sure thing :).