Buffy : Season 8

The interwebs are ablaze with debate.

The forums have exploded in WTFery.

Nerds, geeks, and, yes, even the rare comic-book-reading-hot-chicks have all been talking about the same thing.

Dark Horse accidentally leaked the covers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #34… which reveal the identity of the villain they’ve been hiding since March 2007. So if you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read on, because even for fans of the show who haven’t read the comic… this is big stuff.

**SPOILERS**

The murderous masked villain named Twilight has been unmasked… and it’s an LOLCat. Buffy and the folks who visit icanhascheezburger.com are going to be devastated. The dogs, though, let me tell you… they knew it the whole time.

Except not.

Twilight is Angel.

Any fan of Joss Whedon knows that the guy loves the heartbreak. He broke our hearts with Buffy, showed us glimpses of how dark the world can get with Angel, introduced us to a cast of characters we love in Firefly, only to kill Book and Wash (sniff) in Serenity. He even ended Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, a musical with perhaps the happiest title ever, with tragedy. And, for those who saw Dollhouse last Friday… man, the couldn’t have been more heartbreaking for Topher, Echo, or… well, us. So why is it so damn surprising that Joss Whedon has turned Buffy’s lover into the new villain? To understand, it’s important to see what Twilight… er, Angel has done so far in the series.

The Long Way Home (Issues #1-4): Twilight was first revealed to be a group of folks who gave Buffy and her slayers a big problem. They rescue Amy and a skinless Warren from the crater formerly known as Sunnydale and subsequently use them to give Buffy a lot of problems. They send an army of zombies to Buffy’s castle in Scotland, kidnap Willow, kill Ethan Rayne, and shoot at Buffy and Satsu before being defeated. They’re being headed by Twilight… again, Angel, so one assumes this is all under his orders.

No Future For You (Issues #6-9): Twilight himself appears. Masked. And in a super villainous costume. He reveals that he, for this whole arc, had been manipulating Giles and Faith, as well as two of his own soldiers, Roden and Gigi. He says, “…it was about manipulating our enemies into waging this ugly war for us. A tactic crucial for bringing the age of magic to a close. By pitting watcher against warlock and slayer against slayer, we have pushed even the ‘victors’ to remove themselves from the chessboard.” Pretty evil, eh? Aso, he’s wearing three belts and what appears to be a skintight body suit under his armor and duster. Angel’s fashion sense seems to have went the route of his heroicness and left the building.

225px Twilight Geeky Reflection on the New Buffy Villain

A Beautiful Sunset (#11): Twilight reveals himself to Buffy. Not in the, “Hey, whattup, I’m Angel, gotcha bitch!” kind of way. He appears to Buffy, in costume, for the first time… and kicks her ass. Also, he throws a church at her. Through all this, he says that he just came to talk and that he’s not going to try and kill her. He pretty much tells her that the world was fine when there was one slayer, but that her activation of all the potential slayers in Chosen (7.22) disrupted the balance, and that it “falls on (him) to avert (disaster).”

Time of Your Life (#16-19): Twilight… and, this time, it breaks my heart to call him Angel… hires Warren to build a mystical missile that takes out Buffy’s Scotland base and some of her slayers. It’s never established how many died, but it looked to be a devastating blow. Also, he reveals that he’s working with Riley Finn against Buffy.

Predators and Prey (#21-25): Angel presumably orchestrated the public acceptance of vampires and the outcry against slayers, using Harmony as a tool. Because really, is Harmony smart enough to turn the entire world against its own protectors? Not so much. Angel… well, now, that’d be more believable.

Retreat (#26-30): Twilight discovers Buffy’s location and sends an army after her. Buffy escapes to Tibet, where Oz had been living peacefully after having discovered a way to send magic (and, thus, his lycanthropy) into the earth. Twilight eventually finds them and sends a massive army of human soldiers to fight them, after Buffy, Willow, and all of the slayers have been persuaded to send their own magic into the earth, leaving them vulnerable. Twilight stands by, watching the fight, refusing to pull their men out when Buffy’s actions cause Tibetan goddesses to rise from the Earth and start killing… well, everyone. When the battle is over, Twilight captures some of Buffy’s friends. Also, when it is made clear that Riley was working for Buffy all along, Twilight makes a comment that suggests that he knew this. Wuh-oh.

So yeah. Angel has manipulated people. Angel has murdered people. Angel has worn an insanely villainous costume. No doubt about it… the guy has done terrible things. So all we can wonder now is what this means.

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