Interesting. Can't wait to see what's up with Xander.

lisatwingomez | December 26, 08:40 CET

Xander has a major case of the PTSD kind. Poor Dawnie! I have a feeling her mystical immune system is on the fritz because of a certain smashing of the seed kind. It's getting so much better!

[ edited by onethsndwords on 2012-12-26 18:33 ]

onethsndwords | December 26, 09:32 CET

Wow, something's definitely up with Xander. I'm sure his behavior is linked to Giles' death, or maybe he's just fed up with all that supernatural crap he's always been fighting.

Stelian | December 26, 09:48 CET

Wow,Xander is losing it.We saw the first signs of it(possible PTSD) at the beginning of the season when he snapped at Dawn but it seems its ramping up in this arc.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday.

[ edited by Buffyfantic on 2012-12-26 19:33 ]

Buffyfantic | December 26, 10:26 CET

I wonder if this will bring up old issues for Xander and his fear of turning out like his father.

Charlie | December 26, 11:07 CET

Apparently, Buffy's "former enemy" is Severin. Looks like he's quite a threat if even Illyria & the mystical council need Buffy to help them.

Something's up with Xander. Something sinister. Hopefully it's not just a story about domestic abuse.

Moscow Watcher | December 26, 11:16 CET

I wouldn't rule out it being something as hamhanded as a domestic abuse story, and it would just infuriate me. For years, ridiculously unfounded assertions of Xander as the great abuser, all now, I'm sure, tacitly validated because he appears to have grabbed a bottle of nyquil and thrown it at a all. Which, admittedly, dick move, but I don't know from the composition how fluid and immediate his actions are meant to be. Did he just rip the medicine from her hand and chuck it? Or take it from her and then just blow up and throw it (I cited, for comparison, Tom Cruise throwing the PB sandwich at the window in "War of the Worlds"). Either way, I sincerely hope that there's an answer in here grander than "after a 15 year wait, Xander finally becames the asshat he's been accused of being this whole time".

KingofCretins | December 26, 11:40 CET

I have to admit that it's only the whole Xander mystery bit thats keeping me reading this book.

The rest is fairly uninteresting in comparison. Lets hope for a good payoff.

sueworld2003 | December 26, 11:48 CET

Or, Dawn's not getting better and he's taking it out on the medicine. Whichever it is, glad I gave up on this before the middle of S-8.

DaddyCatALSO | December 26, 12:00 CET

I think it's more of a pre-traumatic stress disorder: he's so afraid of losing Dawn (like everyone he's gotten with before) that he's just taking it out on everything he can. Also looks like he's used to being sent to the couch by Dawn.

It's getting really good now, but it's just because it's building up to the final arc. I hope Season 10 is much better.

DanielMarcos | December 26, 12:38 CET

The best I can fanwank here is that, as Dawn becomes more and more detached from reality around her (under that prevailing theory) that occasionally Xander's subconscious emotional context for her slips down to "stranger" or even "intruder", even if he still knows better consciously. Compare Buffy's discussion in "Real Me" about how "all of the sudden" Dawn annoyed her; her subconscious was reacting to the change. That's how I'm choosing to rationalize his sudden swings in temperament with her and even the (eye-rollingly obnoxious) choice by which they seem to be the most chaste couple in Buffyverse history and rarely if ever sleep in the same room it seems.

Of course, there are still basic obligations he has, IMO, and short of her being about to poison herself, nothing would justify him smacking a bottle out of her hands in frustration even if she was a stranger or intruder.

[ edited by KingofCretins on 2012-12-26 21:53 ]

KingofCretins | December 26, 12:49 CET

Xander is royally messed up. He witnessed not just Giles's death but his murder. My guess is that he is slowly losing his feelings of love and affection for Dawn because she is fading from reality. Maybe he is experiencing that loss with the PTSD and he is snapping. I never saw Xander as an abuser. IMO he's a less then perfect caring loyal boyfriend and bestie. He struggles. Now, he is just really struggling.

Sueworld2003 is right, the Dawn and Xander arc really has me excited for the next couple of issues.

I wonder how Illyria will fit in, I hope that she gets to meet San Fran contingent.

hann23 | December 26, 15:47 CET

It's a hyena spirit.

Not really.

If Dawn is fading away, Xander can't lover her so may not care how he treats her. Which would be bad in too many ways to count.

Dana5140 | December 26, 16:09 CET

Eh, so are we to assume that Willow going dark, loosing an eye, Anya's death, Renee 's death, and now facing possibily of forgetting all about Dawn's childhood did not mess Xander up. But Giles death did. Right.

dorotea | December 26, 18:04 CET

Dorotea, if it turns out to be the Giles-dead-Dawn-fading-away issues that have changed Xander, I'd say these problems would be the last he could handle since he's been through a lot for a long time as you said rather than the only things that messed him up.

Stelian | December 26, 18:32 CET

I am trying to remember the last conversation or one-liner exchange Xander had with Giles prior to Giles death, and failing. That's all. Otherwise it is still rather lame. I am sorry but I am way more interested in Illyria's reason to get involved with any kind of Consil at all.

dorotea | December 26, 19:14 CET

Calling it; Serious-seeming potentially interesting, fairly topical plot... This can only go one way...
Xander is a robot. ;)

apollo11 | December 27, 03:39 CET

If Xander is a robot, we'll have to go through a 3-episode arc of him dealing with a fake pregnancy....

baxter | December 27, 06:23 CET

Is Xander losing his magic, becoming more similiar to his father? :-(

cleveland | December 27, 06:45 CET

Xander is the last Horcrux.

Southern Brother From Another Mother | December 27, 08:08 CET

Speaking of Xander, am I the last to know about this limited edition German Season 9 cover by Franco Urru for the first tpb?

http://www.paninicomics.de/buffy---the-vampire-slayer-9-staffel-1-xander-variant-cover-signiert-i8248.html

http://www.paninicomics.de/buffy---the-vampire-slayer-9-staffel-1-xander-variant-cover-i8247.html

Simon | December 27, 09:56 CET

^No, I haven't seen it before, either.

Hope it makes it into the season nine hardcover.

pacer | December 27, 12:23 CET

I didn't speak to my Pa much before he died. I was just busy with other things, and he was busy with his things. I was wrecked, though. Makes perfect sense that Giles death would break any of the Scoobies even if they hadn't been as close/spoken regularly for some time.

Gouki | December 27, 16:30 CET

Aside from assuming the American audience was judged to be too likely to enrage at Xander getting a power cover like that, I'm curious that it's for Season 9. That's... very fascinating. Maybe it was deemed too thematically revealing? It has been the case before that Allie and others have revised or reconsidered answers deemed too spoilery. Maybe it was drawn before a part of the story was changed and decided to be pushed later into the season. But it's... very fascinating. Xander, beset on all sides by demons and vampires and whatever else, not looking in danger or under threat, but sort of... fussed over? All with a "look who's bad" posture?

This cover is the most compelling "content" drawing me toward his arc this season than almost anything that's actually happened in it.

KingofCretins | December 27, 19:32 CET

From what I can work out, the cover was done for the big German Fedcon convention where Urru and Nick Brendon were attending. It looks like the German publishers organised it rather than Dark Horse and there were only 333 copies. Some one should ask Allie in his next Q&A.

Simon | December 27, 22:27 CET

It's a fantastic cover, but since Xander hadn't figured prominently in season 9 and he hasn't worn that outfit since season 8. I honestly don't know what's up with Xander but it's not good. I'm intrigued by through idea of something mystically wrong with Dawn. There was always through potential of his dysfunctional/alcoholic family's influence to negatively affect him, but that doesn't discount his inherent goodness.

VisionGirl | December 29, 09:03 CET