Buffy : Season 9

We’re going ahead with the rules established in the last Q&A session with Scott. To borrow Wenxina’s words, since he expressed it so well:

Everyone is free to submit ONE (1) question at a time. Again, we’ll be limiting the Q&A to a total of 30 questions. I’m going to collect 15 questions, and then close the session until the answers come back. I’ll then reopen the session for new questions, or follow-ups if deemed necessary.

Since we have a limited number of questions, let’s not squander them on spoiler-baiting. While I understand that it’s hard to resist, I reserve the right to not include those, if spoiler-baiting seems to be the only function of the question. An example of a spoiler-baiting question would be "When will Connor show up in A&F and will he and Angel have a long and heavy talk about how Angel could be willing to leave him on a dying world while he and Buffy traipsed off into paradise?"

I’ll also be selective about clarification questions. Too often, this has become a fan exercise in demanding answers for things that are meant to be interpreted, and the material is there for that. An example of a topic oft-repeated would be "Does Angel remember ordering the execution of the "spike" guy in "Retreat"? Can he be held accountable for the massacre on the Tibetan mountainside, pitting depowered Slayers against soldiers?" Such questions are better asked in the relevant discussion threads, as they’re provocative and discussion-worthy. These Q&As are not meant to be tools to help you prove a point.

Continuing in that vein, let’s avoid shipping questions during this session which typically boil down to rooting out an answer to prove who Buffy loves the most/will be with in the end.

As usual, rudeness will not be tolerated. Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to seeing your questions. I’m also accepting questions and questions about questions at emmie[AT]slayalive.com.

Please try to be thoughtful and creative with your questions, looking beyond your favorite character or your favorite ship to other areas which get less attention but are nonetheless fascinating and would make for intriguing discussion. It’s pretty amazing that we get to have access to the creators of the Whedonverse comics, so let’s try to bring our best to this Q&A.

The floor is now open!

1. Wenxina: We know the female cop’s name from the a script page released a while back, but when is she going to be named in the text? It seems like her name shoulda popped up by now (her partner, Dowling has been mentioned by name at least twice now)... Just checking, just in case. Didn’t want to end up with another Soledad (Slayer who tried to kill Harmony in S8) situation where a major player’s name gets forgotten.

Yes, her name pops up in the dialogue in the next couple issues. One can infer that Dowling is the more important character ...

2. AndrewCrossett: Jumping back to issue #1 for a question: at Buffy’s party, Spike at one point looks out the door and says something to the effect of "buzz off, mosquito, I only hire roaches." Who or what was he talking to?

Did he see a bug, or is something weirder going on? It’s a mystery ...

3. Shirty: Can you tell us the status of the season 8 big collected edition?

I cannot, at this time.

4. Morphia: Back before AtS season 5 Joss stated there would never be a male slayer. Now suddenly there is. What made him change his mind?

Are you talking about Severin? Much remains to be seen about him. Or the character Jane and Drew are gonna introduce later in the Season? Even more remains to be seen about him ... But we have seen Harth, in our future, so we’ve definitely got men exhibiting aspects of the Slayer. I dunno the quote from Joss, but the thing we’re doing with Jane and Drew was all worked out at his house with him, so he’s on board.

5. Bamph: Georges Jeanty has already confirmed Robin Wood is returning in issue 6.Is this just a one-shot appearance or could he potentially make some more in season 9 and is he a character who could crossover and drop by Angel & Faith to see his ex and meet the other vampire iwth a soul?

Anything is possible ... which is to say Robin does not die in the issue Georges just drew.

6. Sky: Hi Scott, a question about Spike. Spike’s personality in season 9. Will it resemble Spike’s personality from Buffy seasons 2,4,5,6,7, Angel season 5? Or mix some of those. Will he have a funny side like in As5 and a soft gentle side like Buffy season 7?

I think he has the funny side, but he’s been focused on some downer stuff so far, to be sure. Certainly the goal is to make him consistent with what’s come before. There are certain aspects of the character that, in my opinion, have matured past where he was in Angel Season 5. All a matter of opinion, though. He’s definitely not meant to be season 5 Spike, or Season 2.

7. KingofCretins: Hey Scott. Question for you, and if you’re game, one to even poll the various writers, artists, editors, and Josses that work on Season 9 and "Angel & Faith" — of all the shows you guys have worked on and/or just loved, can you name the characters in those other series’ that remind you most of the characters in the Buffyverse? I’m obviously a big Xander fan, so that’s my biggest curiousity, but I’d love to know for any and all characters — how much Faith do you guys see in, say, Kate Austen? Or how much Buffy in Veronica Mars? Who is "the Xander" or "the Dawn" to you guys when you watch things like "Vampire Diaries" (hi Andrew Chambliss!), "Lost", "Heroes", "Veronica Mars", etc.?

Interesting question. I like it. I don’t know most of those shows, so let me share two things that I can share. Last Christmas I wanted to give my girlfriend something she’d been asking for. She always wished that Rob Thomas had continued Veronica Mars as a comic. We know Mr Thomas had talked to DC Comics about a VM comic, but alas. So for Christmas, I wanted to do one page of a Veronica Mars comic, which I’d write, and get friends of ours to draw, color, and letter. I started watching Veronica Mars on the sly, without her knowing, so I could get enough of a grasp to write one page. Eventually she caught on that I was watching it, but I downplayed it, and we were cool. I kept watching. We neared Christmas without me figuring out what to write. Fortunately her birthday is in January, so I got her something else for Christmas and kept going. I talked to Sierra Hahn about it, and she helped me get there, but I was still struggling. Then one night watching the show on Netflix, I got busy doing something else, and listened to the show in the background. And ... ding! ... I heard it. I went into work the next day, and I said to Sierra, "Veronica Mars is just Buffy without vampires." And she said, "Oh, you didn’t know that ...?" Having made it all the way into Season 3, I realized that the epitome of the show, the soul of the show, was Veronica and Logan hating each other. So after all that, I wrote a page set in Season 1. So I think Veronica is in many ways Buffy, and her computer chick has some things in common with Willow, but I don’t feel like Logan is remotely any of our guys in Joss’s shows.

My son got it much faster than I did. One night he woke up while I was watching an episode of Season 3. He crawled into my lap, and looked at the screen, and said, "Is this Buffy?" I told him no, and he said, "Then who’s that pretty girl?"

Another little anecdote I found interesting. I’ve heard the producers of Dexter refer to characters like Miguel and Arthur as Big Bads. In fact, former show-runner Clyde Phillips, who deserves a lot of credit for the quality of Dexter, talked about the Big Bad in an interview in which it sounded like he thought no one had heard the term before. When I talked to Drew Greenberg about his stint on Dexter, he felt that the folks running the show were generally unaware of Joss’s work—although there are many ways in which I feel you can see the Whedon influence at work in the show in very positive ways.

Doesn’t answer your question, but probably the longest you’re getting from me this time. Weird.

8. Stoney: Hi Scott. Thank you for doing another batch of Q&As so soon for us. I have, what I hope is, a straightforward query, will the breaking of The Seed have any direct effects on the mythology of vampires, such as their ability to sire etc?

I agree, that is a very straightforward query. Yes, vampires will be generally affected by the destruction of the Seed.

9. Sosa Lola: Will there be any follow up about Xander and the slayers in his squad?

Sorry, this may not fully answer your question, but Xander’s very unhappy about how things went down in Season 8 and is trying to put it behind him, put everything behind him, and live a life. That will be his focus, and we won’t be bringing in a lot of the other Slayers from Season 8—really want to focus on the core characters. There definitely could be a storyline where we bring back some of those girls, or one of those girls, but we don’t feel like that would achieve the goal of the new Season.

10. drywallman: Hello Mr. Allie. I just have one question; whats up with Xander and Dawn refusing Buffy when she needs their help? It just seems so uncharacteristic for the guy who has always been there when Buffy needed him. I get that he and Dawn have their own stuff going on right now but its still very disappointing.

It is definitely disappointing, but they have their own shit to deal with, and a certain amount of selfishness might be at work. Which brings us to ...

Click on the link :

http://slayalive.com/showthread.php/2259-Q-amp-A-with-Scott-Allie-for-Buffy-Season-9-2