#i've never seen her in anything than buffy

[ennaih]

Not Every Film I Watch In 2024

16. Bones (2001)

#bones #bones (2001) #2024filmgifs #my gifs #tw: blood #that was a lot of fun #i enjoy ernest dickerson's visual sensibility so much #and the sense of humour #and the race commentary #that got so goofy in the final act #which you just gotta go with #pam grier was so fab #and bianca lawson too #i've never seen her in anything than buffy #i can't believe that was michael t weiss in a fat suit #and i only realised in the last act #man no wonder the flashbacks looked so much like Malcolm X #Ernest Dickerson was cinematographer on that and i never knew

[olderthannetfic]

ONTF, you're older than I am, you're highly media literate, maybe you'll know: what was the appeal of the Joss Whedon style of writing to begin with? Everyone whateverishly wording their phrasey bits in that very Whedon-y way never did anything for me, positive or negative, and the constant need to have comedy during serious moments or interrupt a serious moment with either snark or a remark that nods towards tropes diffuses the tension to the point where I can't get invested. None of his characters ever felt capable of having sincere moments like most characters in other things I watch, and the few moments of that they did have would get undermined by one of the aforementioned flaws.

I do think the "omg worst writer EVER!" crowd is a bit much, because I've seen things so bad that Whedon looks like Shakespeare by comparison. But my half-sister, who is 25 years older than me and thus in her late 40's, swears Joss' style is revolutionary and deep. And frankly I've been wrong about a lot of media I used to hate and I'm open to the idea I'm missing something. It's super likely given my limited media exposure, though I am admittedly trying to work on that and branch out into more genres of media and more formats so I don't become that 'guy who has only seen Boss Baby thinks every movie has Boss Baby vibes' meme.

So. What am I missing? What's the context I'm missing and the key here that will allow me to appreciate the appeal of and enduring fandom for Whedon's work? I am admittedly a fandom baby but I am willing to learn.

--

I mean... I despised him from the get go, other than the Buffy movie, which I still quote that death scene from regularly, so I'm probably not the best person to describe what's appealing about his style.

But one-liners during action are a common taste even if I'm fonder of the sorts of homoerotic 80s trash Ruthless Reviews used to cover.

Ironic distance is also popular and easier to swallow than earnestness for a lot of people.

However, I do think Buffy's original audience was connecting with it emotionally. Look at the part where Buffy's all upset after the most clownishly 1980s take on loss of virginity and heavyhanded metaphors for guys being jerks that just made every writer involved seem excessively middle-aged and out of touch Giles asks if she has any idea what could have happened to Angel. For people who weren't going to high school in 90s California, that bilge was apparently very moving. Certainly, there are parts of Buffy where the quips die down for some actual emotional moments.

People like style. Something that commits to being aggressively stylized will often stand out from the bland clones that surround it. Look at Wes Anderson (another creator I don't particularly like). Whedon's godawful faux-witty dialogue did sound different from other things on TV at the time. He also lets women say some of the one-liners, which is sorely missing from most media.

But mostly, he was formative for a lot of people, and I had to live through many, many years of them earnestly entreating me to give his shitty writing another chance because this time I would somehow connect with this sex-negative parasite and his casting aesthetic that I didn't find hot or interesting.

(I like dumb and campy things. I just like them to star a bunch of body builders from New Zealand, not waifs.)

People always hold up the things they imprinted on as more revolutionary and deep than they seem in retrospect. In Whedon's case, his already obnoxious style suffers from having been copied so much since, but even if he weren't famous or popular, if you were talking to that one person whose adolescence was defined by their love of him, they'd say all this same nonsense your sister does.

[coraniaid]

I understand why it happens, but it's kind of striking how quickly fighting vampires on Buffy goes from being something that only the Slayer can do at all ("she alone will stand against the vampires", as the opening narration tells us in the first two seasons) to something only the Slayer can do well (meaning that other people can try but they'll risk getting hurt or letting vampires escape), to something that only the Slayer can be trusted to do properly (even if it might seem superficially that other people are doing okay) and then finally to something so mundane that pretty much anybody can do it, with or without any special powers.

The pair of mid-season 3 episodes I've reached during my current rewatch (Gingerbread and Helpless) almost feels like the last time that the writers will really take seriously the initial premise that being able to fight vampires is not something anyone can be expected to manage if they just put a little effort in. Both of them feature as plot points the idea that being able to fight vampires makes Buffy somehow uniquely special (which is perhaps one reason why Faith doesn't appear in either one of them). And yet, if anything , they already feel a little anachronistic at this stage in the show's history.

In Season 1 or early Season 2, the idea of Joyce accompanying Buffy on patrol as a sort of impromptu mother-daughter bonding event would have felt ridiculous (and not just because Joyce had no clue that Buffy was the Slayer or that vampires even existed) and it's clear in Gingerbread that we're still meant to think that it is. But it's a little harder to accept that when we've seen Buffy going on patrol while casually chatting with Willow just a couple of episodes earlier, or when we know that Willow, Oz and Xander spent all summer fighting vampires without sustanining any significant injuries. If it's okay for them, why can't Joyce tag along while Buffy's on patrol? (It's presumably not going to lead to her trying to burn her daughter at the stake every single time.)

Equally, the test that the Watchers' Council subject Buffy to in Helpless -- in which she is robbed of her powers and forced to fight a vampire without them -- is meant to be cruel and arbitrary. But by Season 7 the writers will decide that expecting a bunch of teenage girls with absolutely no special powers to be able to fight vampires is, in fact, a perfectly reasonable thing to do. And as the show progresses, more and more people without powers will do just that. Indeed, the conclusion of this very season will upend the show's premise by having Buffy's classmates take on a small army of vampires at their graduation ceremony.

In fact, vampires as a serious threat at all become increasingly rare in the show, starting from around this season. This season's main vampire adversary Mr Trick has been relegated to a subordinate role after less than a full episode on his own devices, and this is a role he will only manage to keep for a few more episodes. Despite a fun first appearance, Trick has never really managed to make an impression in the way that the Master or Spike or Drusilla or Angelus did. I'm honestly not even sure when exactly Buffy first learns his name. This season's Big Bad, the Mayor, is the first primary season villain not to be a vampire, and in fact no vampire will ever get to play this role again.

(Vampires in general start to become so quotidian and non-threatening that by Season 7 the writers resort to the rather embarrassing measure of introducing a brand new special type of really dangerous vampire, with decidedly mixed results.)

I might be missing a couple of names, but I think the list below covers every single speaking vampire character that appears in more than one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Darla (first appears in Season 1, last appears in Season 1)

The Master (first appears in Season 1, last appears in Season 3)

Angel (first appears in Season 1, last appears in Season 7)

Luke (first appears in Sesaon 1, last appears in Season 1)

The Anointed One (first appears in Season 1, last appears in Season 2)

Spike (first appears in Season 2, last appears in Season 7)

Drusilla (first appears in Season 2, last appears in Season 5)

Dalton (first appears in Season 2, last appears in Season 2)

Lyle Gorch (first appears in Season 2, last appears in Season 3)

Mr Trick (first appears in Season 3, last appears in Season 3)

Wishverse!Willow (first appears in Season 3, last appears in Season 3)

Tom (first appears in Season 4, last appears in Season 4)

Harmony (first appears in Season 1, first appears as a vampire in Season 4, last appears in Season 5)

Sandy (first appears in Season 3, first appears as a vampire in Season 5, last appears in Season 5)

And what's striking about this list is that we have, less than a third of the way through the show, already met almost everybody on it. The only two recurring vampire characters with speaking parts who haven't appeared at least once already as of The Wish are Harmony (who we've met, but not yet as a vampire), Sandy (who we'll meet as a human in just a few episodes), and 'Tom', a character so unimportant I had to look his name up on IMDB because it is never spoken in the script for either of the two episodes he appears in. (He's one of Sunday's goons who's later captured by the Initiative, if you were wondering.) More recurring vampires have already appeared for the last time than are yet to appear, with still a hundred episodes left to go.

Yet, at the same time, (unnamed, mostly harmless) vampires will actually appear in almost every episode of Buffy until the show ends. Season 3 is actually the first season of the show to feature a vampire on-screen in every episode. The season where vampires appear least is actually the first: there are four episode of Season 1 with no vampires at all, and only three other episodes where that's true (one in Season 2 and two in Season 4). Perhaps that's why Season 1 is able to take them seriously as an obstacle.

Buffy will continue to be a show where vampires feature heavily after this run of episodes, but it won't ever really be a show where the audience is expected to find them particularly menacing. Even in The Zeppo, the very first episode after these two, it feels telling that the supernatural threat Buffy is worried about Xander being exposed to -- and the dangerous enemies she and the other Scoobies fight in the background while we follow Xander around town -- are demons, not vampires. Because as much as the show wants us to think that Xander is the "Jimmy Olsen" of the group, by this point it's stretching credulity to suggest that even he would be seriously troubled by something as unimpressive as a mere vampire.

#btvs #buffy rewatch 2023

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I will never understand the notion that Zuko was the only one to support to Katara or that Zuko supported Katara more than Aang. Like that’s objectively false.

As someone who likes lots of hero X villain ships, and plenty of Good Girl X Bad Guy ships in particular, let me explain: it's just a popular cope/lie to justify hating on the good guy that is either part of a love triangle, and thus the bad guy's rival, or the only real love interest for the girl in cases of "fanon love triangles" like the Kataang VS Zutara one.

Lots of people who like that kind of dynamic, or simply rooting for the bad guy, are, for some reason, uncomfortable with the fact that these dynamics can get (and sometimes forever remain) messy, toxic, unhealthy or downright abusive, and that the bad guy is, in fact, bad and will do evil things to harm the hero, even if they are canonically in love (and again, the romance sometimes isn't even canon to begin with).

So they try to fix that "problem" by pretending the "evil love interest" was the only one that actually cared, and either never did anything to genuinely harm the romantic lead or did so much good stuff that it balances it out.

Meanwhile the "morally correct/default choice" is always demonized and talked about as a character that is not only boring, but also secretly selfish, controling, uncaring and/or abusive, yet the writers refuse to acknowledge is not the saint they claim he is. That is done solely to make the "bad guy" look better in comparison. Only twice in my life have I ever seen the "good guy" in the love triangle genuinely be as bad as the fandom says they are - Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother and Riley Finn from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Pretty much every other time I've seen fans use that argument? It was total bullshit.

That's literally all there is to the nonsense 'argument' of "Zuko cared about Katara even when he was still a bad guy, but Aang acted worse than he ever did all while being the hero the show never calls out." It's disregarding canon almost completely and creating an alternative version of the story that goes out of it's way to glorify Zuko's every action, while demonizing Aang, solely for the sake of saying "Therefore Zutara should have been canon and endgame instead of Kataang."

That's why they talk about nonsense like "Zuko was the only one to ever help Katara with chores during camp, while Aang expected her to be do everything by herself just because she's a girl." It never happened, but if it had it'd make Zutara look better than Kataang, so they just convince themselves that's what happened and repeat it to everyone else.

You'll never understand the logic in these arguments because there is none to be found in the first place, and you can't reason with these people because they simply don't care what happened in the show. They only care about their version of Avatar. The "Zuko" and "Aang" they describe in their fics, metas and headcanons are completely separate from the actual Zuko and Aang.

#anti zutara #pro kataang #pro aang

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

why don't you like buffy seasons 4 and 7?

The Statement

Anon's actually referring to an offhand comment @therealvinelle made in this post.

And actually not what they said. She noted she has problems with both, but season 4 was still very well written, and season 7 was the one that was less so.

As we tend to agree on these things I can clarify that they're far from bad I've seen shows where any season, their best seasons, are still worse than those seasons of Buffy by far. I was able to watch through all seasons and have done so multiple times, there's many shows I can't and don't finish.

But they're not as good as the rest of the show in my opinion and season 7 especially so. Season 7, unlike the others, actually was hard to finish and kind of just... was there.

Why No Season 4?

Season 4 is very much written like a season that's finding its footing and trying to navigate how to coexist with the spinoff show that had just started, Angel.

And a lot of the problems start and end with Angel.

Angel has a bad habit of taking fan favorite characters from the Buffy cast that they feel Buffy can survive without. We suddenly lose Wesley, Cordelia especially, later Spike and Harmony, and Angel himself. The thing is that Cordelia is a real loss in that she's a very big part of the supporting cast, she gets a lot of the funny lines, a lot of the Scooby but not quite interactions. The show makes up for it for soon introducing Anya as her powerless human self, who takes up a similar role for a while, but it then has to introduce her character and a similar love interest arc with Xander.

We also get the Angel Easter Egg episodes where he either makes silly cameos (showing up for an episode only to never do anything and just be referenced all the time while the B plot rages) or we get episodes where "wow, you should have watched Angel last night, it was super important and things happened, and it was important, but we're not making the show self-contained". The season, because it is well-written, does work with it but it's not great.

Then we have the more major problem in that a lot of the story arcs, settings, and everything else they'd depended on went away the previous season. Cordelia's gone so Xander has no more love interest in her or in Willow who's still dealing with the Oz fallout, there's no Oz (though I should note I do not like Oz) which means that the Willow Oz thing is done, Angel's now gone for realz which means Buffy's will they won't they thing with him is now a won't and they have to offically replace the love interest even though they clearly don't want to, Giles has to be involved somehow but he can't hang around the school all the time when the kids aren't there.

So, we have a season where no one's really sure what to do with themselves. We get Buffy together with Riley, Willow has a very messy grief over Oz and then gets together with Tara entirely off screen, Xander is now with Anya, Giles is around.

Now, all of these are good plot threads, I do actually enjoy the growth of characters in season 4, but the problem is that because of all of the above it's kind of all over the place. Combined with filler of Buffy wanting beer in an episode, it's just a giant mess of Oz coming back, then not coming back, Willow's exciting gay offscreen love interest, and even more Xander relationship problems.

It's watchable because it's all very well written, some of the best lines come from season 4, but it's a mess.

And then we get the Initiative, which as a big mystery of the season is just... bad. It's just bad. Yes, Spike is a gem in the season and the chip is a great plot device, but the Initiative itself is not very interesting, our first big bad of Maggie is eaten almost immediately, then we barely see Adam and when we do... He's really boring.

I will say that there are individual parts of other seasons I like much less than season 4 but it's a mess of a season.

Why No Season 7?

Now this season really didn't know what to do with itself.

Narratively, the show should have ended at season 5. It was a great conclusion, everything was pretty much wrapped up, and we had our death for Buffy. However, it didn't end.

Now, I say this loving season 6. Season 6 is a great season with some of the best writing in the series, horrible and extremely dark, but very good.

But it's hard to go anywhere after it because the big bads of season 6 were the characters themselves. It was Buffy entering this toxic relationship, Willow's road down addiction and power, Tara having to leave, Giles having to leave, Anya and Xander falling apart, it's all about the gang and the villains are just three losers who 2/3 are just misunderstood weebs who don't quite realize what they're doing.

So, we get done with that, learn that we ourselves can be just as bad as any villain, and then we get a lot of lore and a lot of characters I just hate. We get all the Slayers being watched, we get a love interest slammed in Willow's face so that you don't think that her bisexuality was just a season long, and Kennedy is the worst, god she is the worst. We get the First Evil, while admittedly is intangible and has to manipulate others, but to make up for that we have uber vampires and uh Nathan Fillian as an evil priest guy who never really gets explained or dealt with. Angel's crammed back in, once again, in case you started shipping Spuffy too much over the past few seasons in another kind of ridiculous cameo to literally hand Buffy the deus ex machina MacGuffin which will sacrifice Spike so that he can go to his new show.

Spike and Anya just sort of die just so they can kill somebody.

And the whole thing's just messily written in trying to introduce many new characters while wrapping things up with the old cast, new love interests all over the place, and trying to recover from season 6 so that these characters can work with each other again.

I easily put season 7 as my least favorite season.

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffy the vampire slayer meta #meta #opinion

[hello-nichya-here]

Just watched final episodes of Buffy and my spuffy heart is insanely happy about Spike's speech in touched and how Buffy finally seems to understand just how much she means to him.

And you right, the Bangel kiss was so forced and Buffy basically told him to get out of her show 'cause she had a new man lmaoooo

Spuffy in "Touched" is on a whole other level of greatness. Everything about Spike's speech to Buffy is perfect.

For starters, Spike told off everyone for being absolute dicks to Buffy and daring to kick her out of her own home and wander through a completely apocalyptic Sunnydale by herself. Not wanting to go along with her plan was one thing, but stabbing her in the back like that was horrible - and Spike calling them a bunch of sad traitors was PERFECT (plus, him giving Giles a piece of his mind after the plot to kill him was so satisfying).

Spike is just so sweet to Buffy during the entire conversation - with the ocasional "You're insufferable for not believing how awesome you are" and "Want me to kill Faith for you? 'Cause I would totally kill Faith for you."

(Compared to the time Angel told Buffy to get out of his show because he had a new slayer girlfriend, and it's just soooo clear who Buffy and Angel should be dating instead of each other XD)

The most important part of the speech is not even how it makes Buffy understand the depth of Spike's love for her, but how, like he said, he truly understands her like no one else did.

"I love what you are, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength, I've seen the absolute best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman. You're the one, Buffy"

Spike was Buffy's sworn enemy, reluctant ally, willing ally and supportive friend, toxic boyfriend, sweet boyfriend she mistreated, and now he is her champion, the one that will help her save the world - again. OF COURSE he knows her in a way nobody else did.

Him calling her "the one" - both as in "his one true love" and "the chosen one" - is also perfect, because Buffy's entire conflict is feeling she will never have a fullfiling life, with meaningful relationships, because, like the first slayer said "The slayer doesn't walk this world" and "death is your gift." She fears she's too much of a hero to be a person.

And then in comes Spike. The dude that regularly calls her just "Slayer." The guy she's treated worse than she ever treated anyone else (including herself, which is saying a lot) BECAUSE of her struggly to deal with being the Slayer AND in love with anyone, let alone a souless vampire.

And he just embraces both sides of her. The kind, vulnerable girl longing for connection. The ruthless, powerful hero that doesn't need anyone. He LOVES both sides of her.

But, more importantly, said love is at it's most selfless on that moment.

"I'm not asking you for anything. When I say I love you, it's not 'cause I want you, or 'cause I can't have you. It's got nothing to do with me"

It doesn't matter that Buffy isn't perfect, that she mistreated him in the past, that she feels she doesn't deserve him. Hell, it doesn't even matter if she can't reciprocate Spike's feelings (even though we know she does). He still loves her, and his love will always be hers regardless of anything and everything.

Spike is being incredibly honest and vulnerable in this scene - and it allows Buffy to finally accept not only his love for her, but to give him her heart too.

I've already said over and over that I don't think Seeing Red worked, but my God, it is such a big deal to have Buffy ask Spike to come to bed with her after it, especially since the episode deliberately compares it too all the other couples in the show having sex. It's the proof that she has not only forgiven him, but also managed to fully trust him to never hurt her again (remember her saying to Giles "You sent away the one person who's been watching my back" and her chosing him as her champion instead of Angel).

But THE thing that makes me insane about this moment, and that the Spuffy fandom surprisingly doesn't talk about nearly enough, is the implications of their conversation about their night of cuddles.

Everyone is always going on and on about how that was the best night of Spike's life, and how that would have been his moment of "perfect happiness" if he was under the same curse as Angel - yet I haven't seen nearly enough people going crazy over tha fact that Buffy then confirms to Spike that SHE FELT THE SAME WAY, IT MEANT JUST AS MUCH AS IT DID TO HIM.

Buffy went through hell that night, as being pushed away by all of her loved ones confirmed her worst fears - and it was still what led to her moment of "perfect happiness" just because Spike was there to support her through it all. She even goes as far as saying she only got the weapon that will help her defeat the bad guy because of the strength Spike gave her that night.

Also, the way she gently touches his face during that talk, AAAAAAHHHHHHH!

Anyways, they are soulmates and if you don't agree, you're wrong.

#asks #spuffy #spuffy meta

[kaizsche]

You are such an incredible writer, but you’re also an amazing gif maker! So, what’s your favourite gif set that you’ve made this year? Also, what is the fic that you’re most excited to write in the new year? Thanks for being such an incredible friend Kai 🥰

(literally me seeing your ask and am i copying q's answer to her own ask? the answer is yaaaaaaaaas.)

i don't really see myself as an AMAZING gif maker and an INCREDIBLE writer so to hear all these compliments from you is just straight up melting my goddamn heart vis. *teary-eyed emoji cos im in pc*

so to ask your... well... ask, i haven't been kind of productive this year, both in writing and editing stuff so i can't say i have a wide selection to choose from, but here's my ultimate fav gifset. like fr.

which predictably is a gifset from your fic which i've gotten so much interaction on and just having you message me about this was just... it honestly made me cry so yeah...

the freaking 'i know you have a lot of fic planned this year' just cracked me tf up. like... you and q know i go all ramble kai on anything resembling my fic ideas so you know what i already have in store next year...

first off, i am sooo excited to finally enter the spuffy writing fandom so there's that. i already have like 20+ spuffy wips in my docs rn but the most excited i am for next year are these two, i think: (and i'll be letting y'all take a lil peek of them)

sun and moon

“Who are you?” The Slayer demanded. Buffy could hear the restless fear simulating his heart and the cautious steps he took to back away from her. Smart Slayer. So he has honed his skills then? Knew she was different from the other vampires he dealt around the small town. Buffy grinned wickedly. It’ll be fun to dance with this one. “I kill your kind for sport, Slayer.” She let her words stew in the air, watched him put the pieces together—inch by agonizing inch.

spuffy dark fic (warning has possible incest!)

Joyce's heart stopped completely. Because standing at the door, a boy, her son she hadn't seen in years stood before her. Joyce had wanted to believe he changed—hair longer and tied at the back of his neck, still dressed in his boarding school's uniform but a few sizes bigger than she had first seen him—it was his eyes that gave him away.  It was cold and unfeeling. He regarded her as if she wasn't his mother, as if she was nothing to him at all. "Joyce."  "William—" She watched his gaze snap over her shoulder and at once, the piercing cold melted into warm fondness as did the trembling tension in his body. "Hello, cutie." "Will!"  Buffy barrelled past her, leaping in his arms and she wasn't afraid, she trusted him to catch her. William staggered a few feet back from the impact, wrapping one arm across her waist and the other held her bottom to prevent her from falling. "You're here. You're really here."  William held Joyce's gaze, a muscle in his jaw twitching as if to dare her to scold him—to remove him once more out of his Buffy's life.  "Never gonna happen, love. I'll be here forever. I promise."  Buffy sighed happily, enjoying the feel of his warmth, his hands on her. Joyce sighed in resignation, turning away from the challenge in his eyes.  "It's cold outside. Come in." At this, William grinned. "Thanks, mum."

last but not least, how could i forget tvd?

take my breath rewrite (kolena + klena) i mean how can i ever resist kolena theyre like my main otp. i go batshit crazy for them.

Elena gravitates towards the lake, stares at her reflection in the water. Hates her face and her blood more than she realizes. She loved her face and her body once upon a time. Now, all it ever does is haunt her every step and shadow surrounded by men who knew every crevice of her body. They knew her better than she ever did. (It is the face that launched a thousand year curse, damning the girls that carried it. Reduced to nothing but objects in a man’s eyes. Katherine was right. I am always right. She hears her taunting giggle and sees her twin’s knowing smirk. I told you so. Nothing could ever bring more joy to her evil doppelganger than proving that she was right.)

kolena roommates au (this was actually inspired by a spuffy fic i read LOL)

"Okay, 20 questions." "Go." "Who's your favorite?" "Favorite who?" Kol groaned. "Favorite Mikaelson sibling," and looked at her bashfully, like he was expecting her to… say his name? "Rebekah." He yelled out an indignant cry, "What a load of bollocks! You're telling me, after everything we've been through, I'm still—" "You are a favorite," She cut him off.  "Really?" He gaped at her, astonished.  "My least favorite." She bit hard on her tongue, seeing the sheer disappointment and anguish encroaching on his face. And somehow, his voice had gotten louder, belting out at a higher register than Mariah Carey. "I rank lower than even bloody Niklaus?!"

i do hope to be as productive as i was in 2022 when it comes to publishing fics cause i'll really wither and die if i don't manage to publish these four.

special fic mentions:

the song of wandering aengus

banish air from air

only, helen (tentative title)

and from your lips she drew the hallelujah

& special user mentions for just being there for me (listening, suggesting, reading) when i was going batshit crazy over my fic ideas. you're all wonderful ppl and i'm glad to have you in my life <3

@katherineholmes @qvnthesia @finnismyoriginalsin

thank you so much for this ask, vis <3 love ya 5ever

#katherineholmes #writing woes #woe is me... me is a writer? #gif stuff #writing stuff #kaizsche's asks #kaizsche #btvs #tvd #spuffy #kolena #klena #my plans for 2024 #here's to hoping these 4 see the light of ao3 #feel free to wallop me if it doesn't #annoy me in my asks... or something

[mejomonster]

Okay so I'm watching: she likes to cook and she likes to eat

And I've got to say

It's Beyond refreshing, beyond kind to my heart, just so absolutely lovely that one of the women is allowed to enjoy eating a lot, wants to and needs to eat a lot, and she's considered wonderful for it! She's a wonderful sweet person who eats for energy, and for good yummy food, and eats plentiful, and just.

It is absolutely DEVOID in media, to see a woman have big (or even tiny portions) and eat with the simple joy of nourishing yourself and bonding with your loved ones and enjoying tje meal. Where a diet is never mentioned (in pretty little liars theyd occasionally show food to indicate X was on a diet or binging). It is absolutely DEVOID in media to see a woman facing absolutely no negatives for eating like a normal person does every day, and in fact to revel in that simple good aspect of life we all have daily.

It is also absolutely DEVOID in media to see a woman who's tall, who doesn't wear makeup, who dresses ordinary, who's not Hyper Femme (cause let's be real media absolutely loves turning even their most "butch" characters into conventionally skinny makeup wearing hair styling characters if you even get to see someone less than high femme most of the time, and the "ordinary" woman on screen is skinnier and in more dressy clothing and fancy hair and makeup then most ordinary women in real life... in real life, most women I know look like this girl who loves to eat! They wear ponytails simply done, clothes they wore to work on their feet, no makeup). To see her through loving eyes, the gaze of the other woman who CHERISHES her so much? It's so nice. It's a slice of reality instead of shows making this fake cookie cut Polished reality. The cook is so happy to have met her, and I too would be. I also have been. We've all likely met sweet kind people like her. Or been her. That's closer to my reality then so many women I see in shows.

It's also... I personally feel like it's made with the intended audience OF queer women. The girl who likes to eat, she buys pads for the cook who's having a rotten day, she comes over to help her, and THAT is a kind of peak sweet thing a friend or lover could do but I've seen a million shows and movies that would rather do anything than mention the word pads. (Just like a million shows that'd rather do anything but put in a woman who simply eats and enjoys it and does not destroy herself if someone is biased against her, put in a woman who doesn't wear makeup or cater in any way to a look that would appeal to the male gaze or whatever, just. This show does so much that like??? If I had a REAL CRUSH or was hanging out with friends in my life, THIS is what it would be like. This feels closer to my life experience and things I'd hope to experience than anything I ever saw on pretty little liars or buffy the vampire slayer or a bunch of other shows with women as leads).

It's just. Really really nice to feel that actual good things in life, usually avoided or even shamed in media, are depicted in this show comfortingly and kindly and positively.

#rant #lb #she likes to cook and she likes to eat #its also very warm to your heart like Our Dining Table is and like Koisenu Futari are

[fairydust-stuff]

Heathers, Buffy dark comedy AU for Halloween.

So I was thinking about how Buffy was the popular girl changed by being the slayer.

What if Heather Chandler is a slayer due to season 6 creating multiple slayers with forty-year-old Xander and Cordelia acting as her Giles in 2010.

I'm thinking of a combo of the 2018 reboot in terms of the Heathers as a whole mixed with the eighties movie and a sprinkling of a few musical traits.

Heather Chandler

2018 Heather C has a lot of baggage and i think a lot of her characterization was very interesting. She is more feral than previous heathers. (She uses a cigar and hair spray on JD and nearly fries his face off!) So I think she could work as someone who slays vampires.

I also want to add some elements from the eighties movie. She's never seen in anything but red. And she does get taken advantage of/ used by others.Probly perfers Mov cocktails to stakes as weapons.

Heather Duke

The genderqueer icon of the 2018 reboot with the sassy one liners. But with their 80's movie/musical role as Heather C's punching bag. Rather then the favorite role. With them bearly makeing the cut as a heather due to being a gay nerd deep down. Their intelligence makes them quite the threat ,when it comes to dastardly plans aginst the forces of darkness.

Heather Mcnamara

Looks like her 2018 reboot self, but with the sweet, niave personality of the eighties movie/ musical. She can be mean but does it as part of the group and or joins the crowd in mocking someone. But on her own she is not going to be cruel. Also restoreing her staus as Chandler's favorite friend, right hand. Yes, she's also a cheerleader! And her flips come in handy aginst demons.

Veronica

She could be another member of the team. But, I'm leaning towards her getting turned and becoming the Heathers personal Angelus/ Faith. All the darkness and resentment from both 2018 and eighties Veronica coming to the surface. She'd be worse then JD knowing all their insecurities. She'd weaponize the crap out of their former friendship.

(I like the idea of her killing JD, i've had it with cool guys like you indeed! Because Vamp Veronica realizes JD is an abusive shit whose useing her.) Vamp Veronica still wants to distroy the system of westenberg.

Bonus, if its partically the Heathers fault Chandler made her get out of the car and walk home alone. Duke and Mcnamara never spoke up aginst this.

#heathers #buffy the vampire slayer #heather duke #xander harris #heather chandler #heather mcnamara #heathers 2018 #veronica sawyer #peathers

[flaringgoosebumps]

I may just be reiterating what was said in this post (please read that one first) but anyway,

"Why do people want two teenage boys together so bad?"

This question only seems to come up about queer pairings, people don't seem to go out of their way to shame shippers of mlw pairings, especially in times where they should. For example, since literally forever and even in stranger things, there are sex scenes or implied sex scenes with teenager characters. The concern only arises with the mere idea that there would be a queer couple merely kissing or hell, even holding hands.

While I relate to everything @hey-its-bucky said, I have more reasons why I want Byler to be canon. Not just because queer people past, present and future, deserve to be represented and humanized and for their experiences to be validated but also!!

Queer representation in movies and tv are genuinely so boring! While I appreciate that we are getting representation, it is crumbs in comparison to what we could have. I'm tired of the whole shtick of a story centering about a young queer person trying to figure out who they are, in normal settings lol I don't find that appealing, it's not my ideal form of entertainment. I want Byler to be canon for selfish reasons.

I want a canon queer couple with proper build up in my niche interests! I want them to exist in horror and sci-fi and be treated just as important as cishet couples.

I deeply enjoyed fear street because while it did center around a few queer characters, it didn't center about them finding out they were queer. It centered around some fucked up supernatural shit trying to kill them and a girl desperately trying to save someone she loved. And we got a good ending! I want more of that!

I've seen very few queer pairings or characters in shows I've watched and a majority of them didn't get good endings

In Buffy the vampire slayer, Willow found out she was gay in the middle of the series and fell in love with a girl named Tara who also became a main character and they killed her off. Then they gave Willow a girlfriend that kind of felt rushed but that could be me being biased because they killed my girl!

Aubrey Jensen in MTV scream, was in love with her gf who was murdered in 2nd episode, then it's revealed she did some questionable things because she had a crush on her childhood friend (who didn't return her feelings) and they gave her a gf by the end of her story arc but it wasn't someone we saw build up with like??

There are shows I haven't even seen and I know their queer pairings are severed the same way.

Stranger things has the appeal of a lifetime! It's not a show that marketed itself as queer, but they planned for Will to be gay from the jump. They are building something and if they're building what we think they're building. It will be a game changer.

This is one of the most popular shows that is out, it is virtually inescapable even if you've never shown any interest in it or anything like it. If they make Byler canon, it would be a coming of age queer love story epic sci-fi saga. As far as I know, that hasn't been done before on film.

If they follow Leigh Janiak's lead with queer story telling, it would hopefully be the first of many stories that humanize queer people, and more than that, make us the hero, give us a happy ending, final girl(person lol) endings, romantic storylines on par with cishet people in the sense that it was planned out and executed in a specific way instead of just throwing someone in there and hoping that's enough crumbs for clout.

Representation matters for a multitude of reasons but Byler specifically, isn't just about representation to me. It's about good story telling and if they intended on making Will gay since they began writing and let that be the center of his character arc for an entire season and don't plan on letting him have the happiest ending possible with the guy he's in love with, what the hell was the point of bringing attention to it at all? Narratively. What the hell would be the point of that? Also what would be the point of building milkbones just to break it down so easily? Why would they go out of their way to do this to the characters they spent years on crafting just for no pay off?

The strangest thing would be if Byler wasn't their plan in the first place lol

#byler #byler rant #byler brain rot #Queer representation #byler endgame

[coraniaid]

Is there any actual evidence at all for the often-repeated claim that the "original plan" for Faith was that she'd kill herself in the middle of Season 3? I see people online assert this as fact a lot, but it seems so tonally inconsistent with the rest of the season (and, honestly, with Buffy itself) that it's really hard to imagine it was ever seriously considered. Yes, characters on the show briefly contemplate suicide -- Angel, Jonathan, Spike and Buffy herself for just some examples -- but to actually have a teenage character kill themselves seems like it would be much darker than anything we ever see on the actual show.

I can definitely believe that there wasn't any original plan for Faith -- that initially Eliza Dushku signed up to play the role for five (or however many) episodes while the writers were still figuring the arc for the season out. And I can believe that that there were was some original plan to have her written out of the show some other way (running out of town after Finch dies, for example, the way her character initially plans to in canon).

But this seems such a specific claim, and I've never seen anyone even suggest where to look for supporting evidence. It's always just stated as something we "know" to be true. Is it from the DVD commentaries, or an interview, or what? Where does this idea come from?

#btvs

[onenerdroaming]

My first media review in ages! I know I said last year I'd get to Legends and Lattes as soon as I was in a headspace to write about the stories I listen to when hiking, but I'm not going to lie, saying I would review it and then forgetting about it entirely basically is my review of that book. All set up and no pay off.

Today's review is the new audible original audio drama: Slayers: A Buffyverse Story by Christopher Golden and Amber Benson.

Before anything else we have to talk about the frankly confusing discourse I've seen around Slayers. I have been following all of the new comics coming out connected to BTVS so I've honestly been shocked by this "Buffy is being disrespected and erased" discourse? There is one current long term ongoing series. This series is called The Last Vampire Slayer, and is about a world where all of the Scoobies as well as all of the Slayers save for Buffy were brutally killed years ago. Now an older jaded Buffy has to deal with a young Slayer (the only one she knows of who was not killed upon being called) who has tracked her down to beg to be trained by Buffy. Before it became an ongoing series, it was a miniseries about the young slayer talking Buffy into training her (the fact she is Willow and Tara's orphaned daughter got Buffy to decide to keep the kid from dying), which I will admit is all I read because that was all I needed to know that series really wasn't for me. I'm not a fan of that level of dark and gritty.

Honestly, the whole "Buffy is being erased" thing feels like a game of telephone being played with second hand information.

People of course tend to point to the short miniseries that recently came out where Faith arrives in Sunnydale in a position of power. The Scoobies look to her as the person in charge, because just before she arrived in an effort to try and help Buffy with her magic Willow accidentally took away Buffy's powers. This leads Willow down the path of becoming Dark Willow, and once the comic establishes Faith in her confident established position, the powerless Buffy saves the day from Dark Willow and gets her powers back in the process - reinforcing for the millionth time that Buffy doesn't need her powers to be the best at this (as in she figures out what is happening, tracks Willow down, gets Faith to act as her backup, and then saves the day). Oh, also that comic ends with canonical Buffy/Faith, Xander/Spike and Willow/Tara so color me confused about why the fandom hated it so much.

Before that we had a few other comics all of which were, of course, centered around Buffy, including a long running ongoing (the main Boom! Buffy comic) essentially about how Buffy was the best Vampire Slayer across the multiverse, where there is a massive battle across the multiverse with many different Buffys (complete with musing about how one writes Buffy in plural so truly all spellings including Buffi are valid here) and multiple multiverse traversing characters make it clear that Buffy is special because she is so important in so many worlds.

Ok, so all of that said - and here is the key thing that confuses me - this is an audio where the main draw is the original BTVS cast are reprising their roles.

Buffy fans know that neither Sarah Michelle Geller nor Allison Hannigan have ever, ever, in the history of BTVS supplementary materials, played their roles. Not for the PS2 game Chaos Bleeds (where literally every other member of the cast played their character), not for the never actually picked up or aired animated series, not for the Season 8 motion comics. This is something Amber Benson (who was in Chaos Bleeds) and Chistopher Golden (who wrote Chaos Bleeds) would most assuredly know from the start of the plotting process. It is also possible they were asked and said no - all of that said, truly the chances of either of those actresses appearing was less than zero.

That means there were two options - recast them the way those prior projects did (which dragged alllllll of them down and would muddy the whole ORIGINAL CAST RETURNS appeal) or write a story that makes sense without them (or Xander, but truly fuck him and I am glad to report he's only name checked like one time in the entire story). So of course Buffy does not appear in the story (although a wild drinking game would be to take a shot every time anyone talks about how amazing she is. In the story itself Cordelia demands that Spike, Clem, Giles and Indira stop talking about how great Buffy is all the time because it was getting old). This also means that as amazing as the cliffhanger at the end was, it felt more like a massive bone being thrown to the fans for the purpose of fanfiction rather than setting up any future story, since obviously they will NOT be able to continue with the set up plot due to casting concerns.

Ok - so now to review the audio itself. I will confess, I was not a fan of Spike's narration at the start of each episode. But my irritation with him evened out as the story went on and the cast moved past Spike and Clem. I loved the fact that our new character Indira is a massive fangirl, there to endlessly exclaim over how cool Buffy is as she tags along. I loved the way the alternate universe was used to explore different versions of the characters we know and love. Cordelia as a jaded Slayer with PTSD was fascinating, as was Anya as the lone witch left on the side of good freaking out over having to face down her best friend. Evil Tara and her relationship with Dru was of course an absolute delight. But of course the role that most impressed me - and the only actor in the audios who sounded 100000% exactly the same as she did back when the show was airing - was Drusilla. Wow, talk about an incredible performance from Juliet Landau. I also really loved the role Clem played in the audio, it was so great to have him fleshed out more and playing such a key role in the cast.

Actually ok, I lied a bit, another actor's voice was fairly unchanged and immediately recognizable. That of course was someone I was not excepting to hear and I actually shouted when that character popped up because well... with the amount of success that actor has achieved I didn't think they'd be here. But through the power of their personal friendship with Amber Benson, there they were! That was a really fun surprise cameo and I am not going to spoil who (although if you are curious this actor's inclusion in the cast is listed on the internet).

There were a few such cameos - the audio did a great job folding in those fun little reward moments for Buffy nerds. Also it gave us Anyanka as a yappy dog? I did not know I needed to hear Emma Caulfield Ford play a vengeance daemon as a tiny dog, but I am so glad this audio gave it to me.

I don't want to spoil too much of the story, but I very much had a blast listening to this, and would highly rec. it. As much as I really really really loved the ending and would love to read a million fics exploring what happens next in that universe, I am pretty sad that it is unlikely we will be getting the story the cliffhanger implies.

Truthfully I really hope this audio is not a one off and we can look forward to more Buffyverse audios in the future. Plus, who knows, maybe if they are successful enough even SMG may one day get involved (although I feel that really is a long shot).

#slayers a buffyverse story #I wrote this having just got home from a hike so I am sure it is terribly written but I'd rather just post it then fret over it

[nevergonnabemuchmorethanweather]

What's your favorite and least favorite thing about each main character on BTVS and Angel?

I can really only answer this for BTVS. I have seen Angel, but not recently, and it just doesn't resonate with me the way BTVS does. Turns out, when there's no Buffy, I don't care.

Buffy:

I love so much about Buffy Summers that it's hard to pick a true favorite trait. I'm going to go with her intelligence because it's so often overlooked even though, in many ways, she's the smartest character on the show-- and the one who actually uses her brain when everyone around her is being utterly irrational and falling for every trick in the manipulative villain handbook.

My least favorite thing about her, by far, is what a doormat she can be sometimes. It's so frustrating watching her take so much shit from her friends and family and forget her own strength over and over.

Giles:

This is difficult to articulate, but I like that Giles chooses to be one of the good guys despite clearly having the capacity not to be, and how his own moral grayness gives him an understanding of the nuances of human nature that the others lack.

My least favorite thing about Giles is his emotional cowardice and immaturity. He does so many harmful and downright stupid things trying to run from his feelings. He never quite learns to put on his big boy pants and deal with his issues, and his being decades older than the rest of the cast makes it really glaring.

Willow:

I love it when Willow cuts down to the core of a situation and exposes everybody's bullshit. Her rant to Giles and Angel in Reptile Boy, reading Faith for filth in Choices, and shutting Parker down in Beer Bad are some of my favorite moments with her.

My least favorite thing about her is that she's actually incredibly self-centered and entitled a lot of the time. She expects the world to stop for her when she's in pain and when she thinks she's right, she's not interested in what anyone else has to say or silly things like basic human rights and autonomy.

Xander:

His bravery. Despite having no powers and no particular skill set, he ends up accomplishing some pretty impressive things through sheer balls and determination, and it's hard not to respect that. Trust me, I've tried.

My least favorite thing about him is almost everything else about him, but I guess that's kind of cheating. If I had to sum it up into one trait, I think I'd say it's his blatant hypocrisy that bothers me the absolute most. He doesn't even try to live up to the standards he sets for other people.

From here on out, my take on who is and who isn't a main character is going to be pretty arbitrary. For instance, I'm not including Tara, even though I adore her, because I couldn't think of anything bad to say about her and that probably means she wasn't fleshed out enough to be a true main character. If I skip a character you wanted my opinion on, I'm always open to more Buffy asks!

Dawn:

Her loyalty. My girl does not mess around when you mess with the people she cares about, and she doesn't play that 'don't take sides' crap. If you hurt someone she loves, you're going to hear about it. I know, I know, Empty Places, but she was clearly being manipulated there and if you look at her behavior overall, she's absolutely a ride or die and I love it.

Her expectations, especially of Buffy, are extremely unreasonable sometimes and it causes a lot of misery all around. I don't count it against her too much because it's a pretty normal teenager thing, but if there was one thing I could change about her, it would probably be that.

Angel:

His insight. He's very good at channeling his own emotional turmoil and self-loathing into understanding others-- usually Buffy, but not always.

His martyr complex and constant self-sabotage are super annoying. Though I love him, I do totally understand people who can't deal with his Man Pain.

Spike:

Devotion. I have all sorts of problems with him but he does have a capacity for sacrificial love that transcends all else-- including soullessness and demonic influence.

And my least favorite thing about him is really just the flip side of that same trait. He's simultaneously creepily obsessive and eye-rollingly sentimental and dramatic.

Thanks for the ask!

#btvs #buffy summers #rupert giles #willow rosenberg #xander harris #dawn summers #angel #spike

[morganoperandi]

So, I had never seen or used ChatGPT before, but I figured I ought to familiarize myself with it, considering all the kerfuffle surrounding AI and the fact that I work in Education. Here's what I've found:

ChatGPT is a potentially fun and useful tool, but it's also dumb as a brick.

Like, I would never want to use this to write a whole story or a script. But, as a writing prompt exercise? I can see it's value.

I tossed it a few challenges. It turns out that you can have multiple "chats" going and what happens in one does not carry over to another. I gave it multiple scenarios of "What if the Power Rings from the DC Universe ended up in the Marvel Universe?" In one version, it made Spider-man a Green Lantern, Thor a Yellow Lantern (named "The Fearful Thor"), and Black Widow a Star Sapphire (named "Red Widow"). In another chat, it suggested the following list:

Me What color lantern rings would different Marvel characters get?

ChatGPT Interesting question! Let's see...

Iron Man: Yellow (Fear) - Tony Stark has often struggled with fear and insecurity, especially regarding the safety of the world.

Captain America: Blue (Hope) - Cap embodies hope and inspires others with his unwavering optimism and sense of duty.

Thor: Green (Willpower) - The God of Thunder has incredible willpower, as seen in his determination to protect Asgard and Midgard.

Hulk: Red (Rage) - The Hulk's power is fueled by rage, making him a perfect candidate for the Red Lantern ring.

Black Widow: Indigo (Compassion) - Natasha Romanoff has a complex past, but her experiences have cultivated a deep sense of compassion for others.

Doctor Strange: Violet (Love) - Strange's journey often revolves around love, be it his relationships or his commitment to protecting the universe.

Black Panther: Green (Willpower) - T'Challa's strong will and determination to protect Wakanda make him a fitting Green Lantern.

Spider-Man: Blue (Hope) - Spider-Man is the embodiment of hope, even in the face of personal struggles and challenges.

Scarlet Witch: Indigo (Compassion) - Wanda Maximoff's story is one of tragedy and empathy, making her a good candidate for the Indigo Tribe.

Deadpool: Orange (Avarice/Greed) - Deadpool's love for money, chimichangas, and his materialistic tendencies align well with the Orange Lantern Corps.

This version, I actually like a little better, but it differs quite a bit from the other version and I've noticed that ChatGPT is far more likely to reference characters that have movies about them than any of the even slightly more obscure characters.

In yet another, I asked "Would any Marvel heroes use the Yellow Lantern Ring?" and it responded "Heroes using a power based on fear is a bit of a paradox, but in the world of comics, anything is possible!" And ultimately suggested Dr. Strange. It also suggested either Norman Osborn or Loki for the Orange Ring, this time.

So, the way you phrase the question can definitely change the answer it gives.

Also, when you ask it to write a scene, you get quite a lot of "They would not say that!" moments. The scene it wrote of Batman adopting Spider-man was fairly strange and stilted and the scene it wrote of Captain America going on a date with Wonder Woman had them just leaving in the middle of an epic battle to go have dinner!

The dialogue it wrote between Dean Winchester and Buffy Summers was a little better, but it's scene of Tom Paris meeting Nick Locarno was simply not good.

Now, areas where it excelled were in simpler tasks. I asked it to write an e-mail regarding a graduation issue and, aside from some missing specifics, it actually wrote a better version than I had come up with.

Similarly, when I spelled out the ideas I had for a TTRPG, it was able to fill in some of the blanks in a way that I quite enjoyed and hadn't come up with and fit the theme I was going for.

All in all? I'm going to keep using it, but I would warn against relying on it heavily. Most of what it writes, especially if asked to do something creative, barely meets what I would consider a first draft, but it can be a fun jumping off point.

#morgan original #thoughts #ChatGPT #AI #long post

[jennycalendar]

I dont think I've ever seen the take that Buffy's completely in the right in DMP? The reason people focus more on how the Scoobies reacted badly is because by the end, it is framed like Buffy was the only one at fault and is only one who has to apologise and feel guilty whereas it doesnt even seem like Xander or Willow (esp Xander) think they did anything wrong? And the narrative supports that completely when like you said, everybody IS wrong, but the writers dont acknowledge anyone else's culpability in the conflict

see i'm kinda also looking at this episode not just as a solo isolated incident but as something that's setting the stage for buffy's decision to not tell these people about angel returning, and in order to do that, there really can't be any kind of catharsis for her at the end of this. there has to be an emphasis on the isolation that she's feeling and the fact that it isn't resolved, so i wouldn't say she's presented as "at fault" so much as she's presented as "alone" in a way that feels a little new for the show. usually before this we've gotten to see the kiddos come back together at the end, but this isn't really that.

also like -- what would willow be apologizing for? she has genuinely no idea what's going on with buffy, because buffy still has not told her about the angel stuff at this point in time. i just don't see a situation where the episode can end with buffy being apologized to, simply because the narrative NEEDS her to be isolated so that her decision to not tell everyone about angel is justified. there is still so much information missing on buffy's side of the argument, and she is making a choice to withhold it, in something that (like the scoobies!) is half a very understandable and human reaction to deep profound trauma, and half a decision that is contributing to a quietly widening rift.

i truly think that the place where this episode trips up is not necessarily the scooby response/the way their anger is framed, but the fact that joyce's decision to tell buffy to get out and never come back is neatly painted over. i feel like WITHOUT that from joyce, or at least without joyce's incredibly shitty and genuinely horrific justification for it, there could be at least some degree of debate re: whether or not buffy's decision was a bad one, and that's the lens that i'm looking at this through. the show really wants to kinda muddy the waters and be like "was it cool for buffy to leave like that? she was hurting so much, but there are consequences to that hurt, and her conviction that she will not be understood is in some ways true but in some ways hurting people she loves," which i think is such a fascinating and cool way to explore all of these characters! to have all of them be wrong!

BUT BECAUSE they had buffy's MOTHER tell her to leave and not come back, it's like ... there is no question in this situation re: who is at fault for this. joyce told her traumatized teenage daughter to leave and proceeded to berate her traumatized teenage daughter FOR LEAVING when she came back. to have her friends acting as though buffy is at fault feels weird under those specific circumstances. it's this situation where i see and love what the show is trying to do, but its determination to obfuscate joyce's role in buffy's decision and present her as someone who is a victim rather than the literal cause of all of this to begin with...for me, that's the problem, not the way that the scoobies are framed in their frustration with buffy.

i think that this entire episode would work so beautifully without the role that joyce played in buffy's decision. because if she'd just skipped town after losing angel, and if joyce had never actually SAID "you don't get to come back" but they'd had a heated, angry conversation that had ended poorly, then, yeah, this episode would have done exactly what it set out to do! but joyce's role in this is minimized in anne and then completely erased here.

#asks #meta #there are problems! but the problems are not the scoobies. the problems are joyce

[dontwarnthetadpoles]

I'm obsessed with the new Disney film Prey (minor spoilers to come) that has been released this month, to the point that i've already rewatched it many times for many reasons, but the most important is it's impossible for me to not interpret it as a passionate and long love letter to BtVS.

I know that the film is a new "opus" in the Predator franchise but the influence of Buffy is so much everywhere (she spent her time killing all kind of predators on BtVS), that this story could have been easily used to completely reboot my favourite vampire show, if the intent to resuscitate it was still in the air.

Let's be clear i'm not usually a fan of crossover, i saw the first Predator film but wasn't into it because there was no reason for me to bother with so much testosterone, when the Alien franchise offered me years before an heroine like Ellen Ripley.

But Prey is a new concept: i watched the gifs on Tumblr and was immediately and intensely attracted to the vibe of the film, without knowing anything about it.

The landscapes alone (the story takes place in the Northern Great Plains in North America in 1719 so a very wild and breathtaking environment, with seemingly endless sweep of prairies, forests and mountains) are to die for.

But it's really the cast that makes it worth: an ensemble cast of almost only native americans (Comanche people) with as main character a teen heroine (between 16 years old and 18 years old), named Naru and her amazing dog Sarii. They are both at the center of a story that focus on her fight to survive and to protect her community/tribe from a monster coming from space.

A predator looking constantly for new preys, acting with the strength and ferocity of a wild animal and the intelligence of a human hunter, while being also equipped with the most advanced technology (heat sensor, an unbreakable field that can cut heads and many more weapons).

The script shows very well Naru's progression: how she develops her real even solid hunting skills and tools that aren't, despite her training, enough to convince her tribe that she could be a hunter like her brother that everyone admires.

The plot is driven by the question of her ability to eventually come at the top of the chain of all the different kind of predators that the film presents. Will she convince her community that she has the capacity to lead them in the many other fights coming for survival, against the european settlers (and possibly more monsters from space), that are deliberately reducing drastically their habitat and their access to the food?

The most exciting part being how i can make connections with Buffy. This story was already more or less contained in the seasons 3 and 4 of the tv show.

It's like Buffy from the episode Helpless - the version of our heroine without supernatural powers but with better coordination than she had in the episode and still ressourceful - had met Beer Bad/cave Buffy for the fashion sense and they both become one and jumped into the world of Pangs.

But instead of fighting the Chumash people, she would be a part of them and would lead them to fight the colonial and patriarcal system of the white settlers (The Initiative) and the cyber monster half human/half demon that they created: Adam.

The monster of Prey The Predator has nothing in common with humanity, but he strangely reacts in very human way sometimes. And of course he shares with Adam the same physical strength, size and weight, same taste for evisceration with sharp blades and a deep need to hunt and be at the top of the food chain, if only to dominate (but not necessarily to eat).

The cherry on the top/the highlight of those endless parallels and patterns: the fact that season 4 is the season that introduced the first slayer Sineya, and brought Buffy to the roots of her power and how the line of slayers was created.

Naru is "born" (as a hunter) from fighting a demon/monster never seen before but unlike the first slayer she's not sacrificed, forced to take the demon blood and become one of them to equal its strength and kill it. Naru chooses to hunt/fight the monster as a part of a ritual that all the hunters of the tribe must follow to earn their place.

Taking the monster's blood in this scenario would be a sign of victory and social prestige (and it's the reason why she at first wanted" to hunt something that could hunt her" before her journey became a revenge tale against the white men and the monster).

Like i said if anyone wanted to reinvent the origin of the entire line of slayers, it couldn't have been a better beginning.

I didn't think it was possible to get me so hooked about a possible reboot but this film raised the stakes to a new level. All of sudden, i find myself wanting a new BtVS prequel (show or film). Desperately. And i'm even ready for a new cast, as long as it's as good as this one (i've seen criticism of Prey cast and all i have to say is that it's pure racism in my book: they totally own their part, and are more real and credible that you can dream them to be).

Prey really deserves by itself all the praise and hype it can get: it's probably the best action film of the year.

But for a Buffy fan, it's a gift and one so much more exciting because it came out of blue, is so completely unexpected. I didn't need a new obsession but i really needed this new obsession and now i need more of BtVS too.

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #crossover #parallels #prey #review #disney movies #long post