Fairie Queens, Flying Fatalities, and Wicked Words

[red_satin_doll]

My cup runneth over: Thank you to the voters at whedon_elite Challenge 126 and slayerstillness Challenge 52 for voting for my icons, to starry_night for the Mod's Choice, and to tempertemper for her gorgeous Willow banners (B - F)!

Congratulations to fassy, sweet_lyri, crazy_cordy,  emmatheslayer  and tempertemper for their wins in both challenges!

  A - B

More banners and icons after the cut....

    C - D

   E - F

Entries for whedon_elite Challenge 126 "Weapon of Choice": "For this challenge you have to icon your characters with their symbolic weapons. Doesn't need to be physical weapons, e.g. vampire with fangs, witches using magic, etc.".

1 - 4


Entries for slayerstillness Challenge 52 "Free-For-All"
5 - 9

Alts/Extras:
10 - 12

13 - 18

 19 - 24

25 - 29

Texture Resources: lookslikerain: 1, 7, 10, 23, 25 - 29; whitebamboo: 9, 21; jordannamorgan @ wolfbane_icons: 25, 26, 29
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Atahualpa, Fourteenth Inca, 1 of 14 Portraits of Inca Kings (el tirano Bastardo, Atahualpa), (Peruvian, mid-18th Century(?), artist unknown): 5, 19 - 20

Beta: Muse-Goddess extraordinaire velvetwhip

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All artwork by yours truly except where otherwise indicated.

Comments

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

She would be a bit like Queen Elizabeth, terrible and amazing at the same time. Plus gloriously ginger. I honestly love this aspect of Willow so much. She's the "intellectual one" (And yet she's very deep in terms of emotions)

THIS. THIS reminds me why the S10 comics are such a waste overall. How do you make all these fascinating characters so terribly boring and flat? Willow breaks things off from Aluwyn because - because she's suddenly "Yay monogamy!" She's not in a relationship with anyone else to start with! Willow started out shy and timid, her arc has explicitly been about testing the limits, testing the boundaries of her power, of what she can do. Willow at this point in my mind should be all about further growth and experimentation, not puritan "normativity".

She also has very pretty hair in the second half of S3 and I love her make-up style!

Oh yes! Her hair is somewhat similar in length in Choices, the episode where she goes toe-to-toe with Faith, as in mid S6 - and her dress in that ep is echoed in her OMWF dress. I remember how I loved that dress on her and there was something about it that visually symbolized a shift in her sense of self.

[kikimay]

I honestly liked the idea of Willow and the big snake lady. XD I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I did. Aluwyn is ancient and cunning. She's kinda like a female!Loki and that could be fascinating for a character like Willow. I do love cunning and shifty deities who you should really not trust but eventually end up working with. WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL.

Oh, I ADORE the OMWF dress and THOSE SHOES! So freaking beautiful and elegant. Willow, of course, had three whole seasons of her dressing up like a little girl, still I like how in S3 she starts to seem more adult and sexy at times, mostly because of her make-up and hair.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I honestly liked the idea of Willow and the big snake lady. XD I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I did. Aluwyn is ancient and cunning. She's kinda like a female!Loki and that could be fascinating for a character like Willow.

I think the character is an intriguing idea, if done right. Unfortunately Gage's sensibilities seem entirely too pedestrian - as proven by the fact that he's tossed the character away on the flimsiest pretext. Willow may be technically a lesbian but the entire scenario is so heteronormative.

Like I said, the guy would be perfect working someplace like Hallmark greeting cards.

still I like how in S3 she starts to seem more adult and sexy at times, mostly because of her make-up and hair.

I think at times they really overplayed her childishness especially in terms of her clothing. Like the yellow overalls in Phases. Or the pink fuzzy sweater in Dopplegangland. They had to go that far to make the point that Willow was a relative innocent? Sometimes the show was very on the nose.

I suspect that, as with Sarah and Michelle's wardrobes, Willow's increasing sophistication probably had a little to do with Aly's own fashion sense. Especially her shoes (on HIMYM she was often wearing gorgeous boots). I get the feeling that almost all the actresses in the Buffyverse really had to fight for their characters on some level or another.

[kikimay]

To be fair to Gage, I actually believe that even Whedon didn't know what to do with Aluwyn or maybe he had some plans and after the S8 debacle he just panicked and forgot everything about those. It's true that Aluwyn didn't fully express her potential and for that I'm sad. I like shifty snake people. But yeah, Gage came up with the most stupid and heteronormative motivation. Bored now.

Willow's wardrobe is unbelievable for a 16/17 years old girl who isn't struggling for money, but I believe that they were trying to make a point (Willow being the nerd and everything) Thing is even nerds don't use those pink fuzzy stuff - again, if they have enough money to buy something decent. But '90 fashion is sometimes deep mystery, especially considering that Cordy and Buffy were supposed to be the fashion police and sometimes their outfits were terrible.