Everybody Loves Links

[red_satin_doll]

ETA: MORE PRETTY PICTURES!  I'm incorrigible. Sue me.

*** infinitewhale has posted a short but provocative meta about Buffy's dream in "Dead Things" and her own self-identification within the dream, briefly touching on the late-season Buffy & Willow parallels, and how Tara protects both women in OAFA. Hits my (bitter)sweet spot on about nine different levels. He was worried no one would want to read it, or that he couldn't write about the subject properly as a man. To which I say - nonsense, on both counts. If this fandom has reminded me of anything, it's that our shared humanity trumps gender differences unless we allow those differences to stand in our way.  Also, meta like his allows me to talk about subjects of great interest to me, while still preserving my commitment to focus on the ladies here on my journal. (I'm sneaky that way.) ETA: rebcake informed me this meta is f'locked. Oops. Sorry. Ask nicely to friend him and don't please embarrass me, kids (because I can manage that on my own just fine, thank you.)

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*** fray_adjacent12 was inspired by recent conversations between myself and kikimay re: the Summers sisters and the women of the 'verse, to create a new set of female-centric icons, including the scene from "Family" that I've grabbed, lots of lovely Tara-centric icons, Dawn, Faith, Buffy in S7. kikimay confessed that the phrase "not in blood but in bond" comes from Thor/Loki movie fandom. a track by composer Hans Zimmerman for the Sherlock Holmes movie soundtrack. (Ugh) Too late, kiddo, it belongs to OUR fandom now. The Buffyverse's chosen families rule everything.

Off-topic but I feel like saying it anyway: Amber is such a gorgeous woman, isn't she? Every time I watch her in the show I think it's too bad no one in the costume department knew what to do with the body of a goddess, damn it.  (There, I said it.)

Fray has also posted her very first poll (yay!) in the service of Buffyverse evangelism: "If you were trying to introduce someone to BtVS and only had 2-3 episodes to show them, what would you choose?" Personally, I went with option #1 - start with WTTH and proceed chronologically. Not that I'd try to influence your answer or anything.

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*** Speaking of Tara, polls, and OAFA (yes, I did; weren't you paying attention?) mcjulie posted her OAFA episode poll.  Two things to keep in mind: Tara, in all her gentle AND badass glory, and...Clem! Everybody in fandom loves Clem! Love the comics, hate the comics, early-seasons fan, late-seasons lover, what-have-you: he's the one thing in the 'verse that we can all happily agree upon. World peace is at hand. You're welcome.

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*** eilowyn is wondering if anyone would be interested in a meta she's working on re: Buffy and trauma. I say HELL YES - but that's just me. The post is f'locked btw but if you're not friends with her ask nicely, because she's worth getting to know.

Comments

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I sometimes forget about her since Dru was the one who actually killed her, but Spike still victimized her.

Yeah, Dru's role was relatively passive (not that it's any less evil); she's still housebound/bedbound at that point, and Spike is the one "going to market" to bring home her supper; he has to have been the one to lure her (probably flirted with her, then bound and gagged her.) Sheila's nothing more than fresh meat to them.

S2 is extremely psychosexual in a lot of it's themes and tropes, not necessarily to the good, but then vampires always have been ever since Bram Stoker - linked to negative views of female sexuality. The monster and the woman are linked in the popular culture because female sexuality is "monstrous". This happens to be the episode where Xander pulls a tampon out of Buffy's purse at the Bronze and Spike says "I smell the blood of a nice, ripe girl." Not exactly subtle.

Buffy could fall back on the excuse that Spike was a different man because of the soul.

The thing is the show paints it as self-defense, and maybe this is no different from my contention in my Ted meta that Buffy had a right to fight for her life. But I think as in DT they went a little overboard for emotional effect, but they assumed in both instances we'd have sympathy for the perpetrator not the victim. So that's on Joss for approving it and the writers.

The thing is, in one instance(a portion of) fandom has sympathy for the victim and in another for the perpetrator - because it's Spike in both instances. Ultimately fandom prioritizes him in any situation - and the show oddly enough follows suit, by making his redemption more important, bigger and shinier than Buffy's; by making him the one who saves the day thanks to his sacrifice and the amulet from Angel. In the shooting script it's implied that the Slayer Spell is what actually unlocks the amulet's power and Spike is then connected to the new Slayers - he feels their pain as they are injured - but that doesn't come across in the episode itself.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Ultimately fandom prioritizes him in any situation - and the show oddly enough follows suit, by making his redemption more important, bigger and shinier than Buffy's; by making him the one who saves the day thanks to his sacrifice and the amulet from Angel.

I wonder how much of that was the writers giving fandom what it wanted, and how much of it was based on the writer's feelings independent from the fandom.

In the shooting script it's implied that the Slayer Spell is what actually unlocks the amulet's power and Spike is then connected to the new Slayers - he feels their pain as they are injured - but that doesn't come across in the episode itself.

I didn't know that. That's a cool detail that I wish they'd kept in.