Are the Books Part of the Buffyverse?

nerd4hire

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OK suppose you and me are discussing some obscure bit of Buffology such as, "how is the slayer line passed on?" or "why are vampires so flammable?". What can we use as a reference?

Let's go though it. I'll tell you my opinion. You tell me yours.

1. ATVS/BTVS: Until someone can convince me otherwise I'm going to consider these as the Bible.

2. Fray: Joss Whedon wrote this comic book miniseries, and connected it to the slayer legend. I'd say you'd have to consider it. On the other hand Joss has told us there are discrepencies between BTVS and the 8 parter. He promises to address them in an upcoming sequel to Fray and Angel 5.

3. Tales of the Slayer: Joss Whedon wrote an episode of this illustrated book. That episode, for sure, would have to slip into the Buffyverse somewhere. I personally would be willing to slip the other episodes in as well. If Joss is participating in the book, I say it validates it.

4. The Novels: I say no. I don't see the books as being a valid reference to the Buffyverse, any more than fanfic would be. Yes, I have heard the publisher claim she received notes from Joss at some point or another. I have no idea what were in those notes. I do know this though: In the famous 10 page IGN.force Joss Whedon interview, Joss disavowed any connection to the books, other than monetary reward. He says he doesn't even read them, and has nothing to do with what's said in them.

5. The Buffy Comics: I honestly don't know. Joss hasn't written any of them to my knowledge. Other BTVS writers may have. They are by Dark Horse comics which is the same company Joss writes Fray for.

6. Interviews: I'd say. Sometimes yeah. Sometimes no. Sometimes maybe. I've heard comments from the ME staff that turned out not to be true. Sometimes the buffyverse evolves away from their statements, such as when Marti Noxon insisted there could only be one slayer. Many times they're joking. Those guys don't say LOL. I've heard it rumoured, and I think it's possible that disinformation is sometimes spread to confuse spoilers.

So that's my opinion on the subject. What's yours?
 
Uh, yeah, apparently... I don't know too much about them, but here's a link to the Dark Horse search page on Angel:

Angel from Dark Horse

Apparently there's also an issue # 3 coming out of something called Tales of the Vampires February 11, 2004 and it sounds pretty wild.

The writers of the legendary television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunite for this chilling five-issue series, masterminded and overseen by Joss Whedon himself!

In this issue, Drew Goddard pokes fun at the King of Vampires, Dracula. Jane Espenson looks at the bond between a vampire father and his aging son, and Joss Whedon continues his ongoing story of young watchers in training as they meet their first vampire.
 
The thing is, even Buffy and AtS themselves contradict rules they have laid down from time to time (I can't think of an example right now, but there definitely are a couple). But with some excusing and over-complicated explaining you can definitely take everything in Angel and BtVS as canon.

The books- definitely not. They are, like you said nerd4hire, just published fanfic. However, you make a decision whether to include events from the books in your version of the events within the Buffyverse- i.e. different people can create their own Buffyverses, and no one's is more correct than anyone elses. It all depends on the context of the Buffyverse that you are talking about.

I think Fray can be taken as part of the Buffyverse. They were created by Joss, and are definitely meant as a companion piece to BtVS. Even if the discrepencies are not explained to us, we can still make an explanation for ourselves- it's not exactly hard to imagine the changes from Buffy - Fray happening - as we know, anything can happen in the Buffyverse!

Tales of the Slayers- this probably can be used as reference in the Buffyverse. It had a bunch of show writers working on it, including Joss, and the stories are so damn good it would be a shame not to include them!

As for interviews, it's a tricky one. I suppose we could take what is said in interviews as correct until it is disproven. Comments that have been made that clear up issues in Buffy S7 (e.g. Jane Espenson's about Conversations With Dead People) should be taken as correct, because God knows S7 needs some clearing up!

Hope some of that made sense 😉
 
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