Buffy : Season 8

1. Enisy: Out of curiosity, how much of #37, #38 and #39 was you (rough percentages)? Were there any scenes that were overwhelmingly written by you, or overwhelmingly written by Joss?

Scott: We did the outline together when I was at his office in May, and then I wrote the scripts. He gave me notes, and I rewrote some scenes, tweaked dialogue here and there; then when we were getting it lettered, he rewrote some of the dialogue. So it’s hard to say how much of the story was mine or his—if you asked, I could probably tell you if any given bit was his idea or mine, but my memory may not be perfect. But in the end the dialogue was probably a bit more mine than his, but a lot of him. And the stuff that was mine wasn’t necessarily my first draft, so to speak.

2. Moscow Watcher: Are you already working on season 9 and if yes, do you already have an overall plan of the season - i.e., do you know the main events, settings, confrontations, the ending, etc.? And - at which point of working on season 8 Joss has completely changed his plan for season 9?

Scott: We are working on it, but it’s still just taking shape. I’d say we know the themes and geography, we know where everyone is, and we know the basic directions for all the principle characters, and their chief obstacles. The order of those obstacles remains to be seen, to some degree. And I think we abandoned the initial Season 9 plan around issue #28 or so, something like that.

3. Morphia: Could you explain Joss’s reasoning behind writing Buffy’s decision not to invite Spike into her apartment? It seems pretty harsh that she’s seems to be pigeonholing him mentally in the same box as Angel. Is this a story point, as in, Buffy wants to get some perspective about vampires and therefore wants to keep Spike at a distance too? Or is it simply that Dawn and Xander don’t want to extend the invitation and she’s abiding by their wishes?

Scott: I don’t see how she’s pigeonholing him in the same box as Angel. I don’t think there’s an Angel comparison there. I’d say it’s more of your latter option—Xander of all people probably doesn’t want Spike in his house. But this isn’t meant to be Buffy issuing a big rejection of Spike.

4. Maggie: Hi Scott, I love this issue a lot. I have a lot of questions, but I only get one for now. So it’s just a point of clarification about #37. In what panel did Buffy’s fantasy start? Or is it meant to be ambiguous? Thanks!!

Scott: Meant to be ambiguous. That sort of gag often plays ambiguously, but it’s especially right for it to be ambiguous in this case, to reflect Buffy’s confusion about the important facts of the situation. I should mention that that part was entirely written by Joss—despite my answer above, my cowriting didn’t kick in until page 7 of that issue, I believe.

5. AndrewCrossett: Was Willow simply wrong with her theory that Buffy was getting her powers from dead Slayers?

Scott: Yeah. We had some fun with that—the idea that Willow was landing on significant wrong answers. She’s normally so darn smart.

6. Bamph: So who was the Prince?

Scott: Sorry, next!

7. drywallman: Why did Xander go down into the Hellmouth in issue 39, and more importantly why did the story need him to go down there?

Scott: I’d say the former is the more important part of the question. At one point, we imagined EVERYONE down there in that final scene, and then as it got writing, we realized everyone would be really really busy. I’ll say in my opinion, Xander went down there because at the end of the day, at the end of the world, he’s the one who most needs to be there by her side. But his specific reason for going back down there was to help Buffy, in whatever way she needed, not realizing how totally impossible that would be for him. We didn’t really need him to be down there—as you can see, he doesn’t really do anything. Well, not that you can see...

8. bonnaleah: Was the information that Whistler gave to Angel about saving the world correct, or was Whistler an agent of Twilight?

Scott: The info was not entirely correct, in that it was distorted and spun, to leave out the bad parts. Whether Whistler was a willing spin doctor, or he bought into the spin is a question that you’re left to ponder, probably until we revisit the character. But the information was not entirely correct. Angel bought into the Twilight business without know all the facts. He’s still responsible for going along with it, but he didn’t sign on for doing exactly these terrible things that he wound up doing.

9. Danny: Who is ’the woman I’ll never meet again’ that Willow references? Is it Aluwyn as the panels suggest, or Tara, or does it perhaps regard both of them?

Scott: Huh. That’s a great question. I got an answer, but I think it’s wayyyyy better if it’s open to the interpretation you threw out.

10. Morphia: Joss says in his letter to the fans at the end of the issue that he thinks letting the current slayers keep their powers upholds the positive message of female empowerment at the end of Chosen. However, since the story seems to be saying that empowering all those women upset some sort of balance and caused all kinds of trouble, I’m not sure I agree with him. It seems to me more like the story tells us that empowering women is a bad thing. What’s your reading of it? Is Joss suggesting that compromise is the most we can hope for?

Scott: You can read it that way, sure, but where does it say that empowering women is bad? The way I see it, you do something that big, and it causes ripples you can’t control. We talked about it, and what he specifically said there was the decision. Empowering all those women DID upset the balance. And it almost led to the end of the world, but it didn’t. We discussed the possibility that magic leaving the world would rob the Slayers of their powers, but felt that THAT would undermine the empowerment message too much. Just having nothing bad come of the empowerment would show say that you can get something for nothing, which isn’t very dramatic.

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http://slayalive.com/showthread.php/888-SA24-SPOILERS-Scott-Allie-Q-amp-A-for-40-*Complete*