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archipeligo's review
4.0
Spoiler
Ophelia Reyes, Secretary of the Supernatural, announces that they now are able to drain magicals of their magic. All unmagiced individuals will be allowed to go free. Many magicals object to this; non-humanoid and vampires would all be wiped out and are outraged. Buffy, Willow, and Spike withdraw to discuss their escape plan, the new information about the magic collection machine, and this new announcement. Willow comforts a bunch of baby Wiccas, encouraging them to think about the offer and implying that she is also considering it. When everyone leaves, Calliope stays behind and kisses Willow. Willow tells her to settle down, saying that, when they're each unpowered, Calliope might not need Willow anymore. Calliope implies that her feelings go behind just needing Willow's instruction.
At a press conference, we meet Ms. Wise, the Press Secretary, announcing the first batch of unpowered magicals. Riley and Sam talk to Buffy about being unpowered, but she is very upset with them. Calliope, now unpowered, and Willow say goodbye. Chaos breaks out inside the Safe Zone as people bicker about whether or not to accept the change. Willow, Buffy, and Spike talk about being unpowered. Buffy cannot accept the idea of not being powered and Willow asks her what would be her identity as a non-Slayer. Who are they without their unique skills and powers? Are they just a computer nerd and a cheerleader?
Willow and Buffy get unpowered - a physiologically painless process with enormous interior repercussions. Spike and Buffy part and Spike tells her he loves her, but asks her not to say it back until they are reunited. Buffy is unable to wield the Scythe as easily as she used to. The two move in with Xander and Dawn and are being constantly watched by drones. While out on a run, Buffy comes upon a man harassing a young Wicca. She steps up to defend her and the man calls Buffy out on being powerless. They fight and Buffy holds her owns, but takes quite a few blows. She pummels the guy into unconsciousness and then, realizing hat she did, weeps. Dawn tends to Buffy's wounds and they realize that unpowered-Buffy won't heal like powered-Buffy did.
Willow runs into Calliope, who is now seeing someone else. They promise to make a coffee date.
Riley and Sam show up to whisk Dawn and Xander out of the country. The upper Brass are clearly up to something and they want to move them out soon. Buffy and Willow turn them down and "the Plan" begins. Riley sends off a text and a mysterious shadow drops down onto the drones outside and destroys them. Enter Faith.
Riley, Sam, Buffy, Willow, and Faith drive to the Safety Zone base. Sam and Riley say they are bringing it citizen consultants. Now unpowered, Buffy and Willow pass through the scans easily and Faith is written off as a loaner from the Slayers' Guard. Once everyone is dropped off, Riley and Sam cause a distraction by driving through the gate and Willow, Faith, and Buffy climb the fences to get to the building where the drainer is. They're intercepted by Jordan and company. Faith gallantly charges in to take them all on. Willow and Buffy get to the door, but it is guarded by two Slayers. Buffy, even unpowered, takes them on while Willow locks herself in the room with the drainer and gets her powers back. She repowers Buffy and the tide turns. The Slayer army is defeated. The women turn their attention to the building which is powering the force field surrounding the Safety Zone. Willow takes it out with one powerful spell and the magicals all escape in a swarm. Spike joins the women and everyone heads back to the hotel room where Xander and Dawn are bunked up.
On the news, the Scoobies watch an accusation that vampires, lead by Vicki, attacked a town and killed 2,000 residents. They travel to Austin to confront her and Vicki tells them they the vampires were herded to a town filled with bodies. Buffy tells them about the government's plan to launch satellites, which will drain magic from everyone nationally and maybe internationally. "Without Magic, the undead ... are just plain dead." Vicki agrees to help the Scoobies. Buffy asks her to lead the vampires East as bats, mist, bees, whatever, revealing herself to the security cameras once a day while the Scoobies go to the source.
The Scoobies break into a structure on Land's End, San Francisco called The Pandora Project. They run into a part-living, part-mechanical, part-magical octopus and, with further exploration, realize the project isn't like the Initiative, which tries to make demon/human hybrids, but rather more insidious. Project Pandora is attempting to put magic into specific items: animals, wood, metal. Magic is just being drained and used as they want. They run into a human construct, who we later learn is Rudy Diaz. Rudy volunteered for this project after an IED took his arms and legs, but he was made into this monster. He begs to be released and Spike obliges. The Scoobies return to Dawn and Xander's room to research what Willow found. They believe the Vice-President is the one leading this crusade against magicals with Joanna Wise, the press secretary, and Ophelia Reyes, the secretary of the supernatural, helping. They decide to kidnap the VP and cast a spell on Xander to look like the VP. Then, they'll cast a spell of truth-telling on the VP to find out what's happening. This goes well, until Xander/VP has to hold a press conference and soon begins to talk himself into trouble. The Scoobies find the VP isn't the one in charge, but are unable to get him to tell them who is, because of a silencing spell. They switch Xander and the VP back and retreat to discuss.
Buffy pushes to get Spike and Dawn out of the country. If the magic-draining satellites are launched, they will be killed. They refuse and the group agrees to work together.
They attack the Paradise Project and storm their way inside. They come across Ophelia Reyes and are prepared to fight her, assuming she's the one who has been in charge, until they are all blasted aside by Joanna Wise. It turns out Wise can use magic, but is very weak and, through enhancements, has worked to make her body a receptacle for magic. She's prepared to collect all of the world's magic and be the most powerful creature there is. Everyone teams up to battle her, until Wise releases the Zhaohuan dragon who originally attacked San Francisco. Willow goes off to fight the dragon, but not before re-imbuing Buffy with the power of all the Slayers. Faith falls back and, extra-powered, Buffy attacks Wise. They battle with Buffy pushing Wise back. Willow struggles to keep the dragon away from the city and, as Buffy continues to slam Wise, Wise blasts Buffy aside and, using a drainer, drains the dragon of all its magic, becoming enhanced. Spike is grievously injured, trying to distract Wise and Faith drags him off. Willow rejoins the battle until, at Buffy's urging, she flies off to repower the dragon. The dragon promptly eats Wise, reabsorbing its own magic and leaves the dimension.
Buffy repowers Faith and everyone returns home. Willow agrees to continue teaching baby Wicca, but there's no sign of Calliope. She opens the door to Jordan and company who have come to Buffy to beg for their powers again. Buffy says that, when she originally gave out the power, she was tired of being The Chosen One and wanted to shed that burden. Now, she is sharing the power, but is remaining The Chosen One. If Jordan and company abuse their power, Buffy will take them down. Now repowered, they leave.
On the roof, everyone gathers for burgers and chats. As Spike and Buffy sit to watch the moon rise, Buffy tells Spike that she didn't forget and that she loves him, too.
waveycowpar's review
5.0
I thought the first half was good!
The government has rounded up magical beings and are building a machine to drain their supernatural powers.
Humans and demons are given the opportunity to relinquish themselves of their powers in order to leave the safe zone (which is within the Grand Canyon).
Buffy and Willow take the deal and lose their powers.
This leads to one of the most painful moments of Buffy history. Buffy sees a man picking on a woman. She intervened but he knows she was a Slayer and now isn’t. They fight and she holds her own, but then gets beaten up and later cries behind a tree while government drones watch. It’s like when she turned 18 and the council temporarily took her powers, but even more heartbreaking.
Then Buffy and Willow (with Faith’s help, and Riley and Sam for a bit) break into the Grand Canyon facility and steal back their powers. They release the prisoners.
A village is wiped out by camps near the camp. But it was a government set up and ploy to use their device to steal magic from anyone who has it. This would mean Spike, Angel and Dawn’s certain death.
Buffy and co. Investigate and find a high ranking US government official behind it all. She gives all the surrendered power to herself and draws on the dragon again.
Then Buffy takes back the powers of all the Slayers on earth. She has 1,000 Slayer’s power in her, including Faith’s, and can defeat the bad guys.
One girl in all the world again!!
She later restores Faith’s power and then the Slayers that worked in the Grand Canyon facility, and were crap to Buffy, come knocking for their power back. Buffy gives it to them after they promise to use it right and it seems like Buffy will be the lead slayer again, watching out for all the others.
The government has rounded up magical beings and are building a machine to drain their supernatural powers.
Humans and demons are given the opportunity to relinquish themselves of their powers in order to leave the safe zone (which is within the Grand Canyon).
Buffy and Willow take the deal and lose their powers.
This leads to one of the most painful moments of Buffy history. Buffy sees a man picking on a woman. She intervened but he knows she was a Slayer and now isn’t. They fight and she holds her own, but then gets beaten up and later cries behind a tree while government drones watch. It’s like when she turned 18 and the council temporarily took her powers, but even more heartbreaking.
Then Buffy and Willow (with Faith’s help, and Riley and Sam for a bit) break into the Grand Canyon facility and steal back their powers. They release the prisoners.
A village is wiped out by camps near the camp. But it was a government set up and ploy to use their device to steal magic from anyone who has it. This would mean Spike, Angel and Dawn’s certain death.
Buffy and co. Investigate and find a high ranking US government official behind it all. She gives all the surrendered power to herself and draws on the dragon again.
Then Buffy takes back the powers of all the Slayers on earth. She has 1,000 Slayer’s power in her, including Faith’s, and can defeat the bad guys.
One girl in all the world again!!
She later restores Faith’s power and then the Slayers that worked in the Grand Canyon facility, and were crap to Buffy, come knocking for their power back. Buffy gives it to them after they promise to use it right and it seems like Buffy will be the lead slayer again, watching out for all the others.
caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review
5.0
Okay they're still letting that George whoever do art for an issue or two which just doesn't make sense cause Rebekah Isaacs is soooooo good! But there are a few incredibly moving scenes in this volume, so much so that they make up for the art I don't like in one of the five issues and a finally revealed villain who's not that interesting. Namely, when Buffy, having given up her superpowers to escape an internment camp for people with magic, has a run-in with a guy who's harassing a woman. She moves in to protect the woman, fights this huge beefy guy (sans slayer powers) -- at first you think she's lost the fight, and then she's winning and losing control and beating the shit out of the guy, and breaking down in the park afterwards about what she might have done. Then Faith arrives out of the blue to help Buffy ("What up. Everyone down with the revolution?") just when Buffy needs her most. 😢 Plus, Spike and Buffy are just too cute together. (B: "I didn't forget, y'know." S: "Mmm, forget what?" B: "I love you too.") ❤🧛♂️
stephgrani's review
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
calistareads's review
4.0
The previous volume was a better story, but this gives a good conclusion to what was set up. It feels rushed and it seems they could have drawn this out for another volume, but they wrapped it up neatly and quickly. They figure everything out super fast. I guess 2 volumes was enough for them, but 3 might have worked better. Giles is not in this one as he is in his own story arc at this time. We also don't see as much of Xander and Dawn as usual.
Willow throws around some big magic again in this one. I think she is possibly my favorite character. At this point we have lost many of the little characters that showed up in this series and it's down to our core scooby gang.
I thought this was a good storyline over-all and I'm glad I have stuck with this series. There is only 1 volume in Season 12 and that is the finale. It's all about done for the slayer, until the TV series shows up and brings a new gang together. The Buffy verse is a fun world to be apart of.
Willow throws around some big magic again in this one. I think she is possibly my favorite character. At this point we have lost many of the little characters that showed up in this series and it's down to our core scooby gang.
I thought this was a good storyline over-all and I'm glad I have stuck with this series. There is only 1 volume in Season 12 and that is the finale. It's all about done for the slayer, until the TV series shows up and brings a new gang together. The Buffy verse is a fun world to be apart of.
sparkleboymatty's review
4.0
This wasn't my favourite issue but in the end it was good, if a little anti-climatic. Dragon was cool.
libraryanned's review
4.0
3.5 stars. Good conclusion to the story, but I wanted more from the season after really enjoying season 10.
daisymoon's review
4.0
This season could have been longer, and would have been better if it had. We could have seen the consequences of those new laws, we could have met new characters, seen more of the old ones (I mean, basically this was a Willow, Buffy and Spike story more than anything) and dwelled a little more on the meaning of the story. But it still was pretty good.