I AM, THEREFORE I PROCRASTINATE: BUFFYVERSE TOP 5 NOW OPEN + MY FIRST BUFFYVERSE ICONS FOR 2014

[red_satin_doll]

Buffyverse Top 5 is OPEN today through January 19th for recs of any fan-created Buffyverse works either started or continued during the past year. (Check out the posting guidelines here.)

As I'm still kicking myself for missing the October Classic round, I'm determined to participate in this round with some meta and vid lists, especially as most rec lists consist entirely of fanfics. I'd also love to do an artwork rec list, or at least hoping other folks will be similarly inspired to do so as fanart. Meta , videos and artwork need love too! That said, I'll probably rec some of my favorite female-centric stories as well, because this has been a rich year IMO.

ETA: petzipellepingo just posted a top five meta recs list!  BLESS.

Searching for vids and meta from 2013,  I noticed that fannish activity is scattered or diffuse: fiction on LJ as well as ff.net and AO3: gifsets/animations and artwork on tumbler: meta (nonfiction) of all types including rewatches, analysis, love letters to the Buffyverse & et cetera scattered on Blogger, Wordpress, and various websites scattered hither and yon. This fandom isn't "dying" by any means, IMNSHO - it's alive and well and living on the internet.

And now for something completely different: my first (visual) love letters to the women of the Buffyverse for 2014. For the longest time I couldn't figure out how to make text that was actually legible in iconson the Photobucket editing suite. I played around a bit and finally came up with a few things today I'm halfway pleased with, although I'm still not satisfied with the sharpness of some of these. Feel free to take any you like but give proper credit as always. ADVICE, FEEDBACK & CONCRIT IS WELCOMED AND ENCOURAGED.

1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

The first two of these I think of as "mini-metas" in icon form:
#1 from Band Candy: I'm intrigued by how much of the Summer sisters' personalities come from their parents, especially Joyce - including a proclivity for kinky sex and bondage games. Just sayin'. The Summers women like sex; it's unfortunate that Joss and the writers' hang-ups prevent a truly empowering sex-positive message for women. *le sigh*

#2 came about when I realized a few months ago that the destruction of the Buffybot in "Bargaining Pt 2" called back to Spike's promise to Dru in "School Hard"; but I couldn't bring myself to use the image of the actual moment the 'bot was pulled apart by the demon gang. I also realized that there are some intriguing parallels between Dru and Buffy as "madwomen", "seers", symbolic mother figures, and as Angel and Willow's "masterpieces" that I think deserves further exploration.

And of course #10 because there aren't enough Tara icons and I love that image, that moment from Bargaining. Like Buffy, Tara is a woman who overcomes the fear and shame of believing she's a "demon", finds astonishing layers of strength, is a protector at heart and "filled with love".

Comments

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

That sounds fascinating. So part of the reason you'e calling the dopplegangers is that they look like, or in the case of the First, can look like Buffy? Because an article on School Hard suggests Spike as a doppleganger for Buffy or actually says that Spike is Buffy.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I'll cut and paste from my meta because I'm lazy: http://red-satin-doll.livejournal.com/5173.html
"First things first: a doppleganger ("double walker") is simply an exact "double or look-alike" of any person. The double cannot be explained away by an optical illusion or reflection in the mirror, they are not an identical twin, and generally seems to have a physical presence and is glimpsed by the person themselves or someone who knows them. In other words, not a double seen only in a dream or hallucination, but seeming to have a real physical presence."

Also check out this wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelgänger
"In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger or doppelganger (/ˈdɒpəlˌɡæŋər/; German: [ˈdɔpəlˌɡɛŋɐ] ( listen), look-alike, literally a "double goer") is a paranormal double of a living person....."In contemporary vernacular, the word doppelgänger is often used in a more general sense to identify any person that physically ‒ or perhaps even behaviorally ‒ resembles another person without regard to the word's original paranormal meaning."

Buffybot and the First are literal dopplegangers; and the traditional definition includes the notion that the person being duplicated (or others who know them) actuallly sees their own doppleganger; that is, that the two exist on the same "plane" on Earth. For the meta specifically regarding Vamp Xander I broadened the definition a bit:
"Vamp Xander is not technically considered a doppleganger because he never is...transported to [the real Sunnydale, unlike Vamp Willow in Dopplegangland], merely an AU version of Xander, a "what if?" variation.....But...if a doppleganger is a double glimpsed by the person or someone who knows them, and if from a Doylian standpoint, the viewers function as residents of Sunnydale and friends to the Scoobies, even though as spectators rather than participants; or, going a bit further, the various characters represent "us" through our identification with them and so we as audience members are actually "in" the story as participants, then for us the AU versions of the characters are also "dopplegangers", even if the Scoobies themselves are not aware of them."

By this definition Buffy has four dopplegangers over the course of the series, including Wishverse!Buffy and NA!Buffy; but for my notes on Buffy's dopplegangers I'm focused on Buffybot and the First because they are so thematically rich on their own.

suggests Spike as a doppleganger for Buffy or actually says that Spike is Buffy.

Your link doesn't take me directly to the article on spikecentricity so I can't argue it directly, but a doppleganger - a look-alike - is not the same thing as one character being a metaphorical "mirror" for another. (Mark Fields in his blog "Fragments of my Imagination" for instance analysizes btvs in terms of all the characters representing a part or aspect of Buffy.)

I think in the early seasons Buffy has several "dark mirrors", characters who are projections of herself, people she could have been in different circumstances, or the show creates parallels: Darla (WTTH and Angel), Dru and Spike as parallel to Buffy and Angel, Cordy as the girl Buffy was in Hemery High, Angel and Spike as sharing "liminal space" with her; Giles in his sacred duty and his reluctance to play the role; and of course especially Faith in S3. S4's Who are You marks the moment when the role of Buffy's primary "Dark Mirror" is handed off decisively from Faith to Spike in terms of BtVS before Faith goes off to AtS; and Spike remains her primary dark Mirror until S7; then the First takes over that role. But even in S6, Willow/Dark Willow plays that role to an extent as does Warren - the creator of the Buffybot, as the leader of his own little "Scoobie Gang" who decides to make Buffy the enemy he must defeat. And Glory in S5 represents another dark mirror to Buffy: "Spordelia" ramped to nuclear levels.

(It's a good bit more complicated than that; but as much as I love canon Spuffy S7 I'm resistant to the efforts to make the show and Buffy's story ALL. ABOUT. SPIKE.)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

*laughs* It is true that the analysis I was pointing to is very Spike-centric. But I do like the points made there.