hth | not so much a spoiler: XANDER = AWESOME (Reply)

I don't even know where to begin with my glee. Shallow-to-deep? Thematic-to-detailed? Chronologically? Perhaps I shall begin with Xander, who is OH MY FUCKING GOD SO AWESOME. I know that other people value Xander for his ordinariness, and in some sense I do, too -- I mean, I value him the way he was, all sweet and hard-working and the kind of guy you'd want to hang out and have beers with, and that you'd probably end up sleeping with almost by accident, and then afterwards you'd be a little bit embarrassed about the whole thing, but not really because of Xander per se, because Xander's cool. And then he was one of the few things I liked about s7, the way he became Den Mother/Buffy's Platonic Life-Partner and was goofy in a grown-up, My Dad is Such a Dork way, rather than his old spazzy This Is My Awkward Phase, It Has Been Going On For Twelve And A Half Years Now. So all along, I have loved me some Xander.

However, Sergeant Fury Xander? I think I exaggerate only slightly when I say that never has anything been so awesome, ever. I even love that he has kind of a thing against being called a Watcher (and yet notice how Buffy still totally calls him her Watcher, twice) -- because of course it's awkward when you realize you kind of have grown up to be your Surrogate Dad. I could not love more the way Xander is still the same joker he always was, and yet he runs Buffy's whole operation for her, all "we're go" and "ten best, not ten best-dressed." LOVE.

That leads me into the overall wonderfulness of the whole damn set-up. An international people's army of hot chicks in body armor who kill demons. I mean, hello? What's not to love? Even before you get to the part about the cool castle in Scotland, it rocks. And Joss has gone a long way toward restoring my faith in him by explaining away that crappy Angel episode where they go to Italy, which always struck me as really cheapening the character for the sake of milking laughs out of the Angel & Spike Odd Couple Hour (why am I so large with the capitalization lately?)

I like that Dawn still brings out the snitty brat in Buffy, because, you know, sisters. I particularly love the panel where Buffy's lying on her back with her head hanging off the ledge, just sprawled out comfortably, I-told-you-so-ing. Also, "sweet muppety Odin" is my new favorite exclamation. I hope to use it frequently in everyday conversation.

Thematically, s8 seems to be doing exactly what I always thought s7 was trying to do, only competently -- which is to take Buffy through that phase of your life when trying to figure out who you are and what you're all about suddenly has to take a backseat, because now other people are treating you, ready or not, like not only a grown-up, but a role model. And you're all terrified and baffled because, DUDE, you know nothing about anything, if they only knew how screwed up you are! But whether you're becoming a mother or a teacher or just the Voice of Experience, you start out faking it and gradually it becomes more true than you would have guessed. It's an interesting, fraught transitional period in someone's life, the exact kind of thing Joss is good at mining for drama. And in this comic, he does it in the *first fucking line,* ("Everybody calls me ma'am these days") with more humor and poignancy than the whole of s7 ever managed.

Now, if only when Willow comes back, she'll arrive with a marked lack of Kennedy, all will be right with my world again.