My entries for Round 1 of btvsats20in20, plus extras: (The not really-real) Buffy Summers

[red_satin_doll]

ETA: bangel_4e notified me that my original entries for NS+Mono and Artists Choice 1 were not qualified so I've switched them out. Let me know what you think.

My first-ever 20in20 entries for Round 1 of btvsats20in20 were inspired by the Jo Chen's Cover art for "The Chain"; so I decided to claim Buffy Summers as my subject (no surprise) but with a twist: the "not really-real" versions that populate the Buffyverse: impersonators, dopplegangers, alt universe versions; Buffy reimagined in her own and in other people's dreams.

All icons made by me in ipiccy and Photobucket. Many thanks to bangel_4e and spikesredqueen for their patient and tireless hand-holding.





    Teasers

10 Themes
Strong	Favorite Moment	NS+Monochrome	Comics	Blending
Earth Tones	Provided Texture	Ex.Close Crop	Smile	Focused
5 Category |BLACK AND WHITE
Cat 1	Cat 2	Cat 3	Cat 4	Cat 5
5 Artist's Choice
AC 1	AC 2	AC 3	AC 4	AC 5

Alts and extras to be posted separately.

WANT? TAKE, HAVE, ENJOY! - But give proper credit always!
DO NOT alter, claim as your own or repost to other websites without my permission.
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Comments

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[kikimay]

Personally I appreciate Angel or Spike centric fics (And Spangel XD) and I also understand the need to explore these characters. I also wrote only about them. It's just that I dislike when their stories are all about reforming the Whedonverse (As Angel the big hero and Buffy the evil Slayer or so) Why can't we have Buffy as the hero?

There are many Spuffy fanfics who deal with these characters exceptionally well. Unfortunately there are also Spuffy (but general het fanfics) who put the characters in "tradional" roles: Spike the hero and Buffy the damsel. But, you know, it's all about searching good authors (And in my f-list there are many)

FYI your Illyria icon is freakin' scary. As it probably should be. Is that an illustration from the comics?

I think so. I can't really say from what comic, but I loved it because is kinda scary. Illyria is a scary character.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[endeni]

Oh I love them too! (And Wesley fics!) What I meant to say it's just that you don't have to put Buffy down to do that, do you? ;) (ETA: Well, unless you're doing a purposely AU thing in which the bad guys are the heroes of their own story I guess, which is always interesting to see in fanworks.)
And I totally get that the "tradional" roles are often the problem. *nods*
Yesss, Illyria is like a demon terminator, what's not to love? ♥

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[kikimay]

(I meant to read a meta of your about Illyria, but I can't find it and, as always, I don't have much time. Did you read about Illyria like Terminator queen Elizabeth? I would love to see that XD)

Personally I like male-centric stories. I watched True Detective, which is VERY male-centric. At the same time I like complex and interesting female characters like Buffy. I appreciate Angel, Spike, Wesley fics but I don't see the point of putting Buffy down or put the blame just on her to let the male character shine. (As for example, fics who put all the blame for the wrongness in S6 on Buffy's shoulders) To me they are: OOC, because so often Buffy plays the evil witch role and she's not like that, patriarchal as shit, because they take all the Buffyverse premises and subvert them. What do you have with a subversion of a subversion? Simple: traditional male and female roles. What a revolution.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[endeni]

Well, some time ago I linked here at red-satin-doll's journal the meta Illyria: Queen Elizabeth meets The Terminator by paratti, were you talking about that? It's so awesome!
/What do you have with a subversion of a subversion?/ - Yes, my point exactly! *nods*

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[kikimay]

Oh that! Hopefully I will read it at some point. Thanks!

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I don't see the point of putting Buffy down or put the blame just on her to let the male character shine. (As for example, fics who put all the blame for the wrongness in S6 on Buffy's shoulders)

*nods* A little nuance would be ever so much appreciated, thank you. You do see the same thing with SG vs Spike or Angel or whatnot fics. One side is entirely bad and wrong, the other noble and good.

And after three years of it in the comics "Bad Buffy! No biscuit! Shame on you for trying to save the lives of all those girls who were being hunted down and slaughtered one by one!" I'm convinced that they are not meant as a parody of fanfiction tropes. They're just bad fanfiction themselves.

What do you have with a subversion of a subversion? Simple: traditional male and female roles. What a revolution.

YESSSSSSSS. THIS NEEDS TO BE SAID. OFTEN.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Well, unless you're doing a purposely AU thing in which the bad guys are the heroes of their own story I guess

But we already have a trope/tradition for that in western storytelling: the anti-hero. (Which has become a meaningless term at this point anyway.)

I'm not at home right now so I don't have the link to Foz Meadows' brilliant meta on Orphan Black and the female anti-hero (which explores this trope in terms of gender and briefly mentions Buffy and Spike in the context.) brilliant, and should be required reading.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[endeni]

Oh, did a little googling, this you mean? http://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/gender-orphan-black-the-meta-of-meta/ Indeed it seems very interesting, thanks for the rec! I'll read it right away! ;)

/But we already have a trope/tradition for that in western storytelling: the anti-hero./ Oh, you're right. *nods* I was thinking more along the lines of fairy-tales, you know, taking a traditional villainous character and subverting the tale by telling his/her side of the story, I read a few awesome ficlets like that, like The Sea Witch Sets The Record Straight by ursulav and Unfortunates by ChokolatteJedi (with podfic read by Dunderklumpen) telling the story of Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's it. Everything Foz writes that I have read is great but that meta is SUPERB. Hits every nail on the head.

I read a few awesome ficlets like that, like The Sea Witch Sets The Record Straight by ursulav and Unfortunates by ChokolatteJedi (with podfic read by Dunderklumpen) telling the story of Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

Ok! giving a voice back to the "witches" (the female villains), I didn't understand what you meant and thank you for the recs. It's interesting that your examples are female villains. The core of Foz' meta is the lack of female anti-heros; whereas male anti-heros are plentiful. (Spike, Angel, Rambo, etc)

This reminds me of an assignment we had in a high school lit class when we were reading Medea, each student had to pretend to be a lawyer in a courtroom and decide to either defend or prosecute Medea as if she were on trial, and give an arguement. I was the only person out of 30+ who chose to write an argument in defense of her.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[endeni]

Oh yes, I loved Foz Meadows's last year "Buffy Rewatch: Relationships" meta and I'm prepared to love their Orphan Black meta as well. :)

Yes, I guess I was thinking of female antiheroes. *nods* "Giving a voice back to the witches" is a perfect way of explaining it. Like the musical Wicked telling the story of the Wicked Witch of the West. And other modern fairytale retelling like ABC's Once Upon a Time and the new Maleficent movie.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[endeni]

/This reminds me of an assignment we had in a high school lit class when we were reading Medea, each student had to pretend to be a lawyer in a courtroom and decide to either defend or prosecute Medea as if she were on trial, and give an arguement. I was the only person out of 30+ who chose to write an argument in defense of her./ - Oh, this made me think of an awesome Greek Mythology ficlet I read (what can I say, I'm full of recs today...), The streets ran red by pprfaith which tells the story of Clytemnestra, plus there's a bit of Cassandra as well. - With podfic by reena_jenkins. ;)

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Oh, this made me think of an awesome Greek Mythology ficlet I read (what can I say, I'm full of recs today...), The streets ran red by pprfaith which tells the story of Clytemnestra

I read that this morning THANK YOU for that rec, it truly is gorgeous. And given my mood right now, totally appropriate.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[endeni]

Eheh, hooray for bad-ass Greek ladies! So glad it made your morning better. ;)

Here, have a few more recs along the same "heroes of their own story" lines:
From the wolf's eyes by billtheradish - A Little Red Riding Hood retelling from the Big Bad Wolf prospective.
The Spring Bride by waldorph - A really fascinating Snow White re-imagining from the "Evil" Queen's POV. - Also with podfic by luzula. ;)

BTW, this afternoon I read Foz Meadows meta and, as expected, it was super-interesting! Thanks again for the rec! ;)

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

this afternoon I read Foz Meadows meta and, as expected, it was super-interesting! Thanks again for the rec! ;)

My pleasure.

THANK YOU FOR THE RECS!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Hey I red billtheradish's story and am halfway through waldorph's - both of the so good. You rec THE BEST STUFF. Honestly. That Big bad wolf story? It starts out in a way like all those Spike-centric stories I've read in which he's the hero and then quietly subverts my expectations. The author doesn't write the wolf as a misunderstood poet who wouldn't hurt a soul. They write the wolf as a wolf, with a wolf's understanding of the world.

And I have to thank you because I read one of pprfaith's Buffy/Loki one-shots from last year - I had no idea they wrote that pairing and they've been writing Buffy for ten years - as a hero, and the woman I recognize. Fantastic characterization. Can't wait to dive in for more (and I'm not even familiar with current Marvel superhero fandom other than, Tom Hiddleston plays Loki and I've seen Iron Man.)

Re: THANK YOU FOR THE RECS!

[endeni]

Yay, you're very welcome! *hugs* Thanks so much for telling me you enjoyed those stories, I'm always a bit afraid that I'm spamming people with all the recs... :D
Oh, and I'm surprised you didn't come across pprfaith's Buffy stuff before, you're in for a real treat then. ;)

Re: THANK YOU FOR THE RECS!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness hon, everything you've rec'd to me has been SUPERB. I told Kikimay about the Buffy/Loki story because I knew she'd love it.

And have you seen all the links in my posts? It's what I do *lol* So no, no worries at all, not when the material is so good.

you're in for a real treat then.

Right now that sounds lovely. There are so many people out there active online and not just in this fandom, its impossible for me to know all of them. But more Buffy lovers out there? Yes please.

Re: I have to rant I HAVE FEELINGS

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Why can't we have Buffy as the hero?

Because the template for that - for her - doesn't exist, it isn't ingrained in our consciousness in western culture for thousands of years. We're having to create it afresh, in a manner of speaking.

And I think infinitewhale had a point about Buffy being the character in the horror movies who was meant to die, to be punished - the bitch. That's true of Cordy as well.

But, you know, it's all about searching good authors (And in my f-list there are many)

*nods* I'm really selective about who I read because it's not just entertainment it's a matter of trust and safety for me as a Buffy fan. there are writers who treat both characters with respect - and this is also true of Bangel writers and Buffy/Giles writers - any pairing really. IT CAN BE DONE.