Keep Her Safe (Buffy, Willow, Tara, Dawn artwork from Round 8 btvs20in20)

[red_satin_doll]

I've been woefully unable to produce anything new the past few days but fortunately I still have some hidden goodies to share. These are the banner versions of my "Family" icon for btvsats20in20 Round 8. These images made me decide on Season 5 as my claim for Round 9 (and I have ONE - count 'em, ONE! - icon finished.  Um...yay?)

Click all to see full-size. You'll like, I hope?:

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When I was working on my Family icon for the last round I happened to notice how nicely the images from Tough Love and Spiral happened to match up. Season 5 was all about Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn for me, so I loved the congruency and parallels here. At the very last I added Joyce's words to Buffy from Listening to Fear, which ties the image together visually, emotionally and thematically. (Joyce is so very underused throughout the entire series; ironic that her presence is more powerful in her absence after the Body.) It's a reminder of what tied all four of them together and bond them to each other - in blood and in bond.

I love the way Dawn and Tara's light brunette locks blend together as their hair falls past their shoulders; how Buffy's hand seems to be an extension of Willow's arm; the way red from the background of the Tough Love image glows like a spot of blood on the side of Dawn's head and Buffy's fingers (a happy accident for me), echoing Dawn's real wound, Tara's shirt, and Willow's hair.

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3 My icon for Round 8; I made it after I cropped the large banner and realized it could just fit the icon format.  I can't decide which of the square banners below I like best - they each have their charms - , so I'll let you decide:

Click to see full-size:

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These image demonstrates how Season 5 complicated the roles of "heroes" and "damsels" (as it did so often); Tara was Glory's victim but also a hero, choosing to sacrifice herself, returning the favor Buffy and Dawn extended to her when they clamed her as their own ("Family"). Dawn enters the show as Buffy's damsel to be protected, yet defended her mother and fought the demon in "Listening to Fear", and was ready to throw herself from the Tower in Chosen until Buffy intervened. Conversely there are many times during that Season when Buffy and Willow, a powerful Slayer and Witch with years of experience fighting evil, are left to watch helplessly as people they love are harmed or die.


Yes, I got teary-eyes making these. I'd forgotten what Season 5 had been all about for me when I watched it: these four characters, my beloved girls, rag-tag heroes fighting against hopeless odds. The "femininity" and domesticity of Season 5, the sense of family; how happy I was to see Joyce get a bigger role onscreen and my hopes were ripped away. It was the season that my love for Buffy Summers became absolute; she passed from being a character I was interested in to being mine, a part of my heart.


I love all four of these girls fiercely - in part because of how fiercely they love each other. Not "perfectly", not in a LIttle-House-on-the-Prairie-Hallmark-card way; real, deep, messy "weird love".

All artwork here by me 2015; enjoy but do not hotlink, archive elsewhere without my permission, post to other sites or claim as your own.