Your thoughts are similar to my thoughts. I've been really...um, haven't been able to really form coherent thoughts to post myself on issue 7.
I do wonder though if the switch did happen the night at the party and this is a whole metaphor on growing up and making bad choices and losing yourself to those choices. Maybe Buffy isn't pregnant, or maybe she is. But I do think this going to be about Buffy regaining agency and I'm happy to know that Spike is going to the person that helps her find herself in the end (I think). What that means for them romantically, I have no idea. But in the end if I can say that Spike ultimately helped Buffy in a way no other has helped her and we get no more Spuffy after season 9 I will be content enough to feel satisfied with it.
But, on the flip side, when Buffy does regain her agency/herself/etc, what will happen? Because if the story is to continue Joss is going to continue bringing Buffy pain. I can only see the season ending in two ways, happy ending/Buffy's story ending with season 10 being transitional (maybe if she's pregnant, time jump where the story becomes about Buffy's child) or basically waving in a new era of Buffy storytelling (because I find it hard to think of them continuing telling Buffy's story with out spreading the butter too thin, "Buffy the 90 year old vampire slayer, will she finally marry!?"). Or ultimate suckage, like Buffy being flung into another dimension (she finds herself and is finally ready to tackle the whole new world of regular life but metaphorically she is literally flung into a whole new "world" where she learns to adjust, etc. Or something other utterly depressing thought. At least Allie said no one dies.
As for Spike/Spuffy...I'm still at a loss. Sometimes I feel like a happy ending/beginning is waiting for them and sometimes I feel like season 9 will be the last we'll see of our ship in canon.
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I do wonder though if the switch did happen the night at the party and this is a whole metaphor on growing up and making bad choices and losing yourself to those choices. Maybe Buffy isn't pregnant, or maybe she is. But I do think this going to be about Buffy regaining agency and I'm happy to know that Spike is going to the person that helps her find herself in the end (I think). What that means for them romantically, I have no idea. But in the end if I can say that Spike ultimately helped Buffy in a way no other has helped her and we get no more Spuffy after season 9 I will be content enough to feel satisfied with it.
But, on the flip side, when Buffy does regain her agency/herself/etc, what will happen? Because if the story is to continue Joss is going to continue bringing Buffy pain. I can only see the season ending in two ways, happy ending/Buffy's story ending with season 10 being transitional (maybe if she's pregnant, time jump where the story becomes about Buffy's child) or basically waving in a new era of Buffy storytelling (because I find it hard to think of them continuing telling Buffy's story with out spreading the butter too thin, "Buffy the 90 year old vampire slayer, will she finally marry!?"). Or ultimate suckage, like Buffy being flung into another dimension (she finds herself and is finally ready to tackle the whole new world of regular life but metaphorically she is literally flung into a whole new "world" where she learns to adjust, etc. Or something other utterly depressing thought. At least Allie said no one dies.
As for Spike/Spuffy...I'm still at a loss. Sometimes I feel like a happy ending/beginning is waiting for them and sometimes I feel like season 9 will be the last we'll see of our ship in canon.