W/T comic -WannaBlessedBe

[chelehel74]

I must say the comics seemed to blow it in terms of good conflict this season that was never explored on screen and couldv'e been done wonderfully in the comic genre.



There was so much Anya/Xander stress.

Obvious Tara/Willow stress.

Dawn stress over the girls.

Anya going back to a vengence demon.

Giles in England - even if Ripper does happen for TV what was his first few days in England like.



I thought that they rushed to the end of season 6 stuff and that the current plot including Pike although an interesting idea should have waited a few months before reaching that point.



Although going back to before season 1 is an interesting three or four month distraction to comic fans I think in general they rushed it and lost the chance to tell some great stories that never got to be told in the midst of chaos this season on the show

[urnofosiris]

I have not read these comics yet unfortunately. I would have liked to see a smoochie, but as long at it is clear they are a couple it is fine by me. I am curious to know how much leeway Amber Benson and Chris Golden had when writing these comics. Perhaps there was some censorship looming over them or maybe they never did consider having them kiss.

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Tara: "uh Willow?"

Willow: "No dancing naked, huh?...It just won't be the same."

Tara: "That's all right, we can save it for later" ----From Wilderness, the newest WT comic written by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden

[chelehel74]

The second issue is light on loving looks and hand holding and more about stoping the destruction.



More of an adventure issue than a "how cute/angst" issue.



There wasn't much room for the kissing.



Although note the duel black eyes spell our girls do together about half way through

[Indygo]

The dual black eyes was interesting... as was the "Forget" spell Willow used to make everyone from then on not see the Altar of the Green.



It was interesting they used the "Forget" spell specifically, because in the show that spell grew to have such negative implications. Here she used it to protect something precious from human eyes, and at Tara's suggestion.



Indygo

[chelehel74]

Another way that Amber and Christopher again picked up an ME's favorite tool - dropping hints of things to come. Although in this case it's all already happened for us the TV viewer.



I look forward to a hope that the Dark Horse comic will eventually bring the audience in on the stuff we all feel we missed out on as the Scruffy's were enjoying there screen time.

[Indygo]

*sigh* I can't see that happening. In many ways the comic book industry is even more conservative than TV.



And I'd say this will be the last of the Willow/Tara centred comics. And even Willow herself won't pop up much in the Buffy comics for a while. With the move away from the show thematically even the remaining scoobies will be hard pressed to get a look-in.



Indygo

[caged heart]

I just want to make a little happy post because I have the best girlfriend in the whole world. I haven't been able to find Pt. 2 anywhere near me, so she went to a comic book shop on St. Mark's Pl. in NYC & bought me both the photo & art covers! She is bringing them to me when she comes to visit in 2 weeks. It will be worth the wait because she found them just for me even though she thinks that kind of stuff is really lame.



(This random happy post has been brought to you by a sleep deprived Ava)

[GuyCBrownlee]

Did'nt I read somewhere that they were going to diverge from the t.v. timeline at some point soon?

The new writer spoke in an interview that he wanted to "steal" these characters and "make them his".

They already *did* do this with the Angel comic..

Not likely, but maybe the new writer will ignore the events of "seeing red" entirely..

[xita]

I finally got around to it.



Here you go, some scans

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Tara and Willow

Accept NO subsitutes

[tommo]

I'm a little disappointed in this second part, to be honest. It seemed to me to be very violent; what with Willow's first reaction to be to "burn" the spirit of the forest.



I was also rather confused with the forget spell that Willow cast after killing the spirit of the forest; particularly, I think, because Tara was in that picture with her and was so clearly affected by that. I'm not wholly impressed with that idea, to be honest.



I found this part of the comic to lack the intimacy of the first part, especially between Willow and Tara, and then Willow Tara and Dawn. In fact, Dawn appeared to be the only one of the three who was open to rational thinking.



I dunno; I love Chris and Amber writing together and god knows, they get the voices of the characters down perfectly. But this part just didn't hit the same spot as the last one. Not sure why.

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"Squish. Squish. Squish."

[Warduke]

Thanks for the scans xita.

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Mozilla : There's a new browser on the block.

[VampNo12]

Thanks Xita for the scans, because if I wait for my comic guy to get this comic, I might never see any of the panels in part 2. I kinda agree with you Ruth, (although I can only give my opinion based on limited knowledge of what others have said about this comic, as well as seeing the scans). It does lack the intimacy (regardless of the lack of kissage), and I am a little troubled with the "forget spell", as well as Tara having black eyes. Really I think it would of worked a little better if they focused the action of part 2 in part 1 instead, and then had part 2 coming full-circle with the intimacy of part 1 (but that's only my opinion). Thanks again for the scans !

[Scout]

Thanks for the scans, Xita.

[Indygo]

Quote:

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I am a little troubled with the "forget spell", as well as Tara having black eyes.

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Yeah, that had to have been the artist's choice to do that, because there's nothing in the spell that really warrants that. The black eyes thing was always meant to symbolise whenever dark/black magic was being used, and I actually got the impression that it only really happened to Willow, seeing as Amy never got the black eyes thing doing magic either.



The "Forget" spell was misnamed I think, and thus gets confusing. "Forget" is really that playing with your mind stuff that Willow did in Season 6, whereas what they're referring to here is a spell more like the one Willow mentioned earlier in the comic, the "Don't notice me" spell. It's supposed to be the same spell that's on the house, which is what gives Tara the idea.



In no way in the story was magic supposed to be as nagative as using the black eyes and the "Forget" spell makes it feel, IMHO...



Indygo

[Indygo]

After reading the new Wilderness comic I immediately came back and re-read my copy of WannaBlessedBe. There are so many reasons why this comic was better. The depiction of Willow and Tara is from earlier in their relationship so all of the S6 darkness that caught up with them isn't present. The artwork by Terry Moore is outstanding (as most of his stories are, ask anyone addicted to his "Strangers in Paradise" series). The characters just have a closeness that is perceptively missing from the new W/T comics.



Indygo

[caged heart]

Woohoo, I just won a WBB photo cover off eBay. Pretty decent price too. Now I'm just working on getting an art cover.

Really looking forward to getting this as the general consensus seems to be that its much better than Wilderness.

[SJ]

Thanks for the scans Xita.

[Garner]

Since I brought it up I would just like to say that I didn't think both of them having the black eyes was a good idea. It shows that Tara may be getting corrupted by the magics that Willow is using and I don't really see that happening. I can see that a destructive spell powerful enough to destroy the forest king would necessitate dark magic that would cause Willow's eyes to go black, that makes sense. Still, I did like that most of the time they were casting magic together and obviously more powerful in tandem than apart. I just wish that the show had remembered to use this more.



I also took the spell cast on the alter as one of divert attention rather than forget. Even if it was a forget, that doesn't bother me as much as it does show that any magic can be used either with positive or negative results and the intent is more important than the actual spell itself. Still, I thought the jump to the strange house was a bit sudden and would have liked to have seen a better transition there.



Overall the story is limited in intimacy by the inclusion of Dawn, only so much they could do infront of her and feel comfortable about as well, and the increase in action going on. As has been said it is hard to kiss or be close while combattin the forest god. I didn't find that too big a deal, but I would have liked to have seen some tender moment at the end. Maybe Willow or Tara regreting the need to burn the forest king and the other comforting her partner. Some sort of wrap up that brought the pair together in a more intimate manner. Than again with Dawn present the options for that may be limited. I was not disappointed entirely, but still much prefer the first comic for pacing and I still enjoyed the art in that one much more.



Garner

[Indygo]

Man, sometimes Ebay just makes me mad. I often think we should designate someone to bid for any kitten who wants to one to prevent kittens from bidding against each other and driving the prices up! A lot of people have made huge profits on this comic in the past six months.



Indygo

[Cipher]

I just ordered my copy but it hasn't come yet so I haven't seen part 2 yet (hopefully next weekend).

Quote:

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Originally posted by Indygo

Yeah, that had to have been the artist's choice to do that, because there's nothing in the spell that really warrants that. The black eyes thing was always meant to symbolise whenever dark/black magic was being used, and I actually got the impression that it only really happened to Willow, seeing as Amy never got the black eyes thing doing magic either.

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I agree with your interpretation and that perhaps the dark-eyes (I don't say "black eyes" because that sounds like they got punched) was a mistake and not consistent with canon usage of dark-eyes on the show.



But I believe Amy did have dark-eyes multiple times in prior seasons, particularly when casting the "rat" spell on Buffy (in Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered) and later on herself (in Gingerbread). She might also have had dark-eyes when casting the love spell in BB&B but I don't remember for sure. Her mother, Catherine, had dark-eyes when casting her final spell which ended up trapping herself in the cheerleading statue in The Witch. So there was precedent for dark-eyes before Willow's first time in Tough Love, and it's been fairly consistent in when it's been used. In Smashed most of the magick Willow and Amy were casting was well within their own power without having to draw particularly on dark magick, so it makes sense that neither had dark-eyes when "playing around".



I don't know if Tara might have ever played with darker magick in the past (though she didn't seem to have gone very deep before meeting Willow, so my guess would be "not"), but I got the strong impression that she has known not to pursue such things--perhaps from bad experiences in her past, such as the speculation that dark magick might have played a part in her mother's "problems"--and would not use the sort of magick that would be signified by dark-eyes nor draw on the quick-and-easy power that dark magick represents (depending on how you think about the meaning of dark-eyes). So dark-eyes on Tara seems rather out of place whether the dark-eyes was out of place for the magick used or the magick was out-of-place for them to use.



The artist (or whoever did the storyboard) probably thought it'd look cool as indicating strong magick without obsessively analyzing the series the way some people have (who, me?) and without having the inside-info on the rules of when dark-eyes is used on the show.

[browneyedgirl]

Thanks for the scans Xita, it's much appreciated

"l remain as I have been for quite some time...A carefree single lesbo, lookin' for love" Max, Go Fish.

[Cicca]

I'm not sure if it's intentional or if I'm just not looking at it properly, but the "ice" spell before that has strange eyes too. Opaque blue and green. That stood out to me and I'm not sure what it means. maybe I'm just not used to comic art!



I agree that part 2 could have stood a bit more lovey stuff.

so what is love then is it dictated or chosen does it sing like the hymns of 1000 years or is it just pop emotion

[Indygo]

Ahhh Cipher you are quite right! My bad. Amy has done the dark eyes, and yeah they have been used consistently. I guess that's even more evidence that the effect should never be used for Tara.

Quote:

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I got the strong impression that she has known not to pursue such things--perhaps from bad experiences in her past, such as the speculation that dark magick might have played a part in her mother's "problems"--and would not use the sort of magick that would be signified by dark-eyes nor draw on the quick-and-easy power that dark magick represents.

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Sounds like a wonderful premise to explore on Pens! But I agree with your interpretation of Tara's character. In my own fiction I have always stopped short of Tara using anything dark. I too believe she would consider it and reject its use, knowing what she seems to know about what it can do.



This comic seems to take an easy road... it was an effective image so they used it, without much thought to the character implications behind it.



Indygo

[Garner]

Indygo you are probably right that it was done for the imagery and that's about it. I did notice the slightly more colorful eyes on the ice spell but that may have been just coloring more than anything else.



I also tend to think Tara may have used the darker magic once, figured out what it was and then stopped. She should know better than to go too far down that road. I've always thought that she should know enough light magic to end up with an effect that turns her eyes all white instead of black. That is something I was working towards in one of my fics that I haven't gotten back to in a while.



Sometimes I do wonder how much of a series artists watch or know about when they do the art for the comic version. Probably not as much as most of the hard core fans. Oh well.



Garner

[urnofosiris]

Thanks for the scans Xita, they looks great.

I am looking forward to reading this comic, I love the drawings actually. As for the black eyes, they do not bother me at all. I never liked the assumption that black/dark equals evil/wrong or whatever, too black and white for me. It is what they were stressing in Season 6, all for the sake of making Willow evil, whatever, I think Amber Benson and Chris Golden could have done a far better job of that entire season with their eyes closed.

This story appears to be action packed. I don't mind the lack of intimicacy too much, from what I have seen so far there are some subtle and not so subtle moments that leave no doubt as to the nature of their relationship. I would not mind another comic which focusses a bit more on their romantic side though, heh.

--------------------

Tara: "uh Willow?"

Willow: "No dancing naked, huh?...It just won't be the same."

Tara: "That's all right, we can save it for later" ----From Wilderness, the newest WT comic written by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden

[tommo]

Having given this some thought and a revisit to the story as a whole, I really think you have to read it in one sitting. Both parts are so inherently linked that you can see the strands leaking from one part to another. The romantic jokey sexy stuff was mainly housed in the first part; while the stronger relationshippy type stuff was generally explored in the second part. I was particularly impressed with the part when the spirit hit Tara and ripped her skirt, and that seemed, to me, to be the driving force between Willow's anger at him.



And there's the essence of balance as well; proving once again how well Willow and Tara work as a couple. Willow wants to dive right in there with the action and defeat the spirit, while Tara has a greater understanding of the faerie world and the mysticism around it, hence her comment about time passing them by so quickly, or having no credence in the woods.



All in all, yes, I was a little disappointed by the second part, but you know, given that most of the "action" was held therein, it wasn't so bad at all. The black eyes thing was just...well, it indicated that both Willow and Tara were drawing on a lot of power. I think the show has tainted most of us when it comes to looking at black eyes.



But I still felt like the ending was a little rushed, and I have to wonder if that forget spell was intentionally used. I mean, that really evoked memories from the show for me, and the generally bad connotations with a forget spell. Bah. I hate that.

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"Squish. Squish. Squish."

[Indygo]

Quote:

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And there's the essence of balance as well; proving once again how well Willow and Tara work as a couple. Willow wants to dive right in there with the action and defeat the spirit, while Tara has a greater understanding of the faerie world and the mysticism around it, hence her comment about time passing them by so quickly, or having no credence in the woods.

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That I can definitely come on board with. It did highlight the way they complement each other, probably better than the show did this season simply because the on the show the emphasis was always on showing how different they were and the conflicts between them. There is a constant feeling of "coupledom" in this story we can be grateful for, despite the lack of physical intimacy at times.



Willow and Tara working as a team, using their strengths and making up for each other's weaknesses, that was absolutely the strength of this comic, despite other problems I may have had with it.



Indygo

[littlesplinters]

being abit of a comic freak I recently bid on ebay for WBB signed by Amber - I must say I got abit addicted cos I really wanted it and actually paid £60 for it - but it is truly FAB. I don't know if I paid over the odds for it as I haven't checked out what people are paying for the comic, it si the photo cover by the way.

[KISMIC]

Ohh Ebay is disgusting. The prices are unbelievably high and even if you can afford it and getlast bid in you still don't have a gaurantee that you'll end up receiving what you pay for...Bad, BAD experiences with that site. I had a gorgeous Amber photo, signed but it never came through.


$60 for a comic : Anybody remember the days that a comic cost a maximum of $5?!?

[Kieli]

Hey Indy....that's what I WAS doing for a little bit....bidding and then giving any Kitten who wants a copy of WBB. I still have two extra Art Covers if anyone wants them. Already bagged and boarded. I agree with KISMIC that it's bloody ludicrous that Ebay bastards shoot the prices up so high. I have a couple extra copies of Wilderness 2 as well so...if anyone wants a WBB copy that they see on Ebay and just can't afford the high price, email me and I'll do my best to outbid some of these people and get you the copy you want. If you're a kitten, I'll only just charge ya $3.00 for the shipping/insurance. The comic will be free.



Toni

Love is tricky. It is never mundane or daily. You can never get used to it. You have to walk with it, then let it walk with you. You can never balk. It moves you like the tide. It takes you out to sea then lays you on the beach again. Today's struggling pain is the foundation for a certain stride through the heavens. You can run from it but you can never say no. It includes everyone."--Amy Tan "The Hundred Secret Senses"