That would be awesome, Bil. I hope that's kind of how it plays out, because without Matt Wagner/Dave Sim volumes of text within the comic, six issues isn't really enough to introduce a Big Bad, let alone have various antics trying to kill it or avoid being killed by it, research things in libraries and magic shops, and eventually kill it.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for that scenario, though, as comics often overlook the value of a god build-up and just want to get to the meat.

That would be especially execrable, given he was with Angel for the next year.

Oh, I didn't interpret "after season 7" to mean "immediately after." Unless the comic is going to show Xander in Africa, and Buffy dating the Immortal in Italy, and Willow in... Peru? Wherever the hell she was.

I guess, why waste energy on continuity when you can just have a character say, "Gosh, can you believe it's been a whole year since Sunnydale was destroyed?" and move on.

I didn't interpret "after season 7" to mean "immediately after."

In my head the next season would start where they usually started their next seasons--the fall.

That would be especially execrable, given he was with Angel for the next year.

Oh, I didn't interpret "after season 7" to mean "immediately after." Unless the comic is going to show Xander in Africa, and Buffy dating the Immortal in Italy, and Willow in... Peru? Wherever the hell she was.

In my head the next season would start where they usually started their next seasons--the fall.

My, ahem, issue would be that any appearence by Spike would give us de facto knowledge that SOMEBODY survived NOT FADE AWAY. Bonus demerits if they give Spike any form of amnesia to avoid addressing the question.

Spike totally survived Not Fade Away. I'm not sure why I'm so convinced of that, though.

I could totally buy that, but I'd rather not know officially from the only official source. That's definitely one of those things that plays better in the imagination.

Spike totally survived Not Fade Away. I'm not sure why I'm so convinced of that, though.

Even if I agreed (and he was in much worse shape then Angel), either they have to address the question, which gives me answers I don't necessarily want to know, even if they are coming from Joss, or they avoid the issue somehow, which I can't imagine as being anything other than a lame copout.

I think it's interesting how avidly people don't want to know. I don't think that continuing the story in comic book form is anywhere near as satisfying as doing it on the small screen. But I don't have a problem with knowing how it all turned out.

They're all alive right now, in a Heisenbergy Schrödingerish sort of a way. But Joss can open the box, no problem for me.

In my brain:

Illyria not only survived, but fucked up the W&H army right good, and promptly disappeared to brood and mourn Wesley in cryptic but eloquent paragraphs under a gloomy sky somewhere.

Angel probably died, but the alleyway was such a mess of dismembered limbs and ichor and the dust of many, many vampires that nobody will ever know for certain. His possible dust is tucked away neatly in Schrödinger's box, and my brain reserves the right to un-dust or never-dusted-in-the-first-place-ify him if a plausible and entertaining scenario presents itself.

Spike died, but the prophecy that Angel signed away fell on him; just because Angel had the power to give it up (although maybe he didn't; I haven't opened the box yet and looked inside) doesn't mean he had the power to un-prophesy it. It had to happen to someone, and since Spike was the only souled vampire around who'd played a key role in an apocalypse or two, it conveniently happened to him. So the morning after the battle, he was bewildered and mildly horrified to find himself not killed in battle but instead alive, mortal, bruised all to shit, desperately hungry, and somehow transported back to the London alleyway where Dru bit him over a hundred years ago. The neighborhood has changed considerably, all his joints are screaming in pain, the scar on his eyebrow has reopened and won't stop trickling and itching, and he has no money and no cigarettes. He hasn't figured out exactly what's happened yet, but he's already royally hacked off about it.

Gunn is dead. I don't want him to be, and my brain worked like a mad thing on any number of last-minute-escape scenarios, but in the end even the best of them was just too wanky. I'm very cross with my brain about this.

My brain doesn't necessarily need to see any of this played out, though. It will, however, happily devour all six issues of S8 Buffy.