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Buffyverse Top 5 to Open Oct 20

The Halloween season is the time for recs! Fics, vids, graphics, anything and everything fandom has produced in all the Whedon fandoms will be on offer

buffyversetop5. We'll be reopening on October 20 at midnight UTC (what time is that for me?) and running through midnight November 2.

Buffyverse Top 5 session Chosen Not to Fade Away

For anyone who has questions about how things will go, please visit our information on what to post or leave one on our announcement post. Come share some treats!

Entry tags:

masterlist,
modpost

Big Damn Love Fest 2013 masterlist

It took me a while, but I finally managed to compile this :)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Meta ("Ted")
Fic: Conversations with Werewolves ("Phases")
Fic: How I Survived My Summer Vacation, Volume 2 ("The Becoming, Part 1 & 2")
Picspam and icons ("Wish")
Fic: Who am I? (Warm Champagne Remix) ("Who Are You")
Willow/Tara picspam ("Who Are You")
Picspam ("Yoko Factor")
Three drabbles ("Yoko Factor")
Fic: But It's My Destiny to Be the King of Pain ("Yoko Factor")
29 icons ("Restless")
Picspam/Lovefest ("Fool for Love")
GIFs and meta ("Grave")
Fic: A/B/O episode twist ("Touched")

Angel

Four drabbles ("Somnambulist")
Five icons("Somnambulist")

Firefly

Costume picspam ("Trash")
Fic: An Amicable Hock ("Safe")
Fanmix ("Out of Gas")

Dollhouse

Meta: It's Mr. Moviefine. He does all our subliminal tracks ("Ghost" meta)
Fic: The Last Day of 2019 ("Epitaph One")
Meta: I am Jack's Smirking Revence ("Hollow Men")
Fic: Not with a Whimper nor with a Bang ("Epitaph Two")

Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog
Fic: Fic: Dreamcolts! Or Foal for Love

Cabin in the Wood
Picspam and Meta

Huge thanks to everyone who participated, and please take a moment to leave feedback to all the lovely people who contributed.

(also, my apologies to disappearing for the last few weeks - real life got in the way a bit)

DREAMCOLTS! Or, Foal for Love (Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog)

After decades when the chickens controlled the music industry, the horses were champing at the bit. The Dreamcolts—Deena, Lorrell, and Ephraim—were young and talented and ambitious. They had the audience in their pasterns as they performed “Stop! You’re Stepping on my Hoof!” The applause was deafening.

Yet, in the end, the cash prize at Amateur Night at the A Pollo Theater went to a puny rooster act (Poultry in Motion) whose crow never even reached the third balcony. That didn’t surprise Ephraim. He knew that nobody was interested in anything except white cock anyway.

Still, even their Place result was enough to get them booked to do some Shows, and the $50 prize, added to their modest savings, was enough to pay for new costumes.

“Oooh!” Lorell said. “These bridles sure put the Equine in Sequined.”

Ephraim turned his head, straining to see his hindquarters. “Does this girth make my ass look fat?”

“No,” Deena said. “Your fat ass makes your ass look fat.”

They had always worn the same costumes, and Ephraim thought nothing of it. But one day, there was a blind item in Pal O’Mino’s Page Six column about cross-dressage, and Ephraim thought he could hear malicious whispers whenever he dropped in at a fashionable watering hole.

Then the Dreamcolts got their big break. They were signed for a Colt .45 commercial. With Clyde Sdale. Oh, he was smooth. Look up. Look down. He was the horse your horse could smell like.

Ephraim had been singing about love as long as he could remember. Now it was time to get some, to let the lady of his heart know just how he felt about her.

“You’re my cousin!” Deena said, shrinking away.

“That’s okay, baby, we’re horses, inbreeding is good! We’ll have lots of little thoroughbreds, you and me.”

Deena snorted. “I need a stallion.”

“One night only?”

But she only snickered. Ephraim lowered his head and slunk away.

He thought he was going to have it all, until he lost it all. Too much sour mash. Too many missed rehearsals. Falling down drunk on stage. Then he was out, replaced by a skinny, simpering filly who was happy to stand in the background and croon “Ooooh-oooh.” Royalties? The roosters in the executive suite said there weren’t any, all eaten up by advances and legal fees and studio time. Someone else’s name appeared on the sheet music of the numbers Ephraim had written.

Broken-hearted, broke, Ephraim fell Behind the Music. Couldn’t afford to snort those long lines of coke anymore.

He hauled himself to Deena and Clyde’s fancy barn, planning to OD. Let them find me here and take me to the glue factory. He was on the pipe, and if you think it’s easy to light a crack pipe without opposable thumbs, you don’t understand degradation.

But, at the very last moment, he lit up, then nudged the pipe over to the stable door, kicking it until the flame caught.

“Told you I wasn’t going,” Ephraim neighed, galloping off at last to ride across the nation. He felt strong enough for anything. Maybe even try England, where either you’re a Grand National winner or you’re lasagna.

Off he went into the night. Steppin’ to the Baaaad side. The rein of terror had begun.

I am Jack's smirking revenge.*

For my second endeavor at Dollhouse meta, I chose The Hollow Men, the penultimate episode. I think it encapsulates most of the messages about corporate power and corporate control that I talked about in my essay about Ghost.

For those of us who believed all through the first season that there was more going on in Dollhouse than was easily apparent, the second season was a *gift*. It was full of conspiracies, character growth, surprise twists, and more corporate meta than you could shake a stick at. It was glorious. It reinforced all my thoughts from first season and built on them beautifully. I never thought I would say this, but thank you Fox TV for giving us a second season despite the poor ratings of the first one.

I was trying to write meta on The Hollow Men, but as time dwindled it became apparent that I had said most of what I wanted to say in the essay I already wrote. Since Time was running out, I decided to do a short vid about Echo in The Hollow Men instead. (Since this is so last minute, it is rough, but try and associate the song overall with Echo and it should make sense.) See behind the cut for the video!

( Rise up in the cafeteria and stab them with your plastic forks.** )

* Yes, I am quoting Fight Club AGAIN. Still relevant!
** Yes, I am quoting Pump Up The Volume. Totally iconic and relevant too!

Current Mood: accomplished

BtVS 2.21 and 2.22 - Becoming, Part 1 and Becoming, Part 2

I chose the Season 2 finale for my episode. Both episodes are ones that have continued ot resonate with me, as a fan of the series. I saw a great many character threads end and begin in this two-parter. There was a lot of character development that would see payoff down the line...and some that I still lament to this day was tragically forgotten or underplayed.

Love it or hate it or both, "Becoming" was a powerful episode. However, its missed or slipped plot threads have always resonated with me, and I've produced a lot of fic set during and after it over the years. Generally, I like to focus on Giles, and how he dealt and adapted to what happened to him.

Here, however, I found myself with a completely unexpected plot bunny, inspired by a reread of Angel and Faith in preparation for the April issue. Whistler, despite arguably being one of the greater influences in setting the events of the show in motion, is never mentioned before or again after his appearance in these episodes, up until walking back on scene in the comics. I always thought that was a shame...and I always thought, for a guy who's all about maintaining balance and making sure good doesn't get curbstompted by evil, it was kind of a dick move.

Thus, as I often do, I wrote a little fix-it fic, maybe explaining a bit about how the Scoobies were able to rally so well when the only other guy that could teach them was either out of town or incapable of properly holding a weapon for most of the first month or so. I'm not sure about the execution - for some reason, this has always been a hard area for me to wrestle fic out of, much as I enjoy trying - but I like the idea itself, and I hope you do, too.

* * *

( How I Survived My Summer Vacation, Volume 2 )

Entry tags:

BtVS 4.16 - Who Are You?

I chose Who Are You? for my episode. Although I have other episodes that are "favorites," a scene that has always been so powerful for me is the Buffy-Faith fight scene at the end where Faith-as-Buffy has Buffy-as-Faith pinned to the floor and is wailing on her, punching her in the face and telling her how disgusting she is. I've always just ached watching this and I wanted to explore Faith's mindset at this point in the series. To this end, I've written Who Am I? (the warm champagne remix) (Buffy, Faith, unrequited Faith/Buffy, Faith/Spike).

With all of the Buffy-Faith drama, I'd completely forgotten that this is the episode with the super-hot spell that Willow and Tara do...so I've also created a W/T Picspam.

I hope you enjoy both - comments are loved and squeezed. Feel free to discuss the episode as well. :)

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fic: Conversations with Werewolves, BtVS: Phases (2.15)

Oz is my favourite of Whedon's characters, hands down. Not a popular choice, but I love Oz regardless. So, even though it's a somewhat heavy handed episode with rather weak costuming, I adore "Phases." When I chose "Phases," because Willow is fantastic in this episode and because this is the only Oz-centric episode that isn't heartbreaking, I planned to write Oz/Willow fic, because Oz/Willow is my absolute favourite pairing, but instead Oz + Buffy happened. I hate that Oz only ever seemed close to Willow, when I think he should've been friends with the others, so here's Oz + Buffy genfic, to make up for that a little.

( Conversations with Werewolves )

Oz kept expecting people to scream and run when they saw him, kept looking for fur and claws in every pale reflection in windows and panes of glass. He still looked just like he had a day ago and a week ago and a month ago, and the idea that he could hide such a terrible, monstrous secret within him, the idea that nobody could see him for what he was, was almost as fearsome as the beast inside his chest.

From where he sat leaning against a sturdy oak tree, waiting for Willow, Oz could see Buffy, leaving the school without her best friend. Buffy looked at him differently now (so did Xander, but Xander hadn’t liked Oz much in the first place, even before the wolf). Even though she tried to hide it, Oz was fluent in wordless languages, could read Buffy’s pained silences and furtive looks and enthusiastic babbles as easily as a graphic novel. Buffy would make a great comic book superhero, but she’d be an awful spy. She was far too easy to read. Buffy wasn't comfortable with Oz anymore, and that was spelled out in their every interaction. As Oz studied her profile, thinking about what it was about him that made her uncomfortable, Buffy started towards him, much to Oz's surprise, waving cheerily with a plastic grin when she got close.

“Hey, Oz,” Buffy greeted, dropping to the grass beside Oz and pulling her legs beneath her to cross them. She gave him a warm, but rather weak, smile, before breaking eye contact and looking down to watch her fingers nimbly tie blades of grass into knots.

“Buffy,” he nodded and looked at her patiently. She was here for a reason, and it was no good pushing. She would talk when she was ready. Oz had never minded silence, never seen it as the uncomfortable elephant lurking in the edges of conversations in the way everyone else always had. Silence was comfortable and familiar to Oz, in the same way idle, meaningless conversation had always felt foreign and sour in his mouth.

“I wanted to apologize,” Buffy finally said, looking up to meet Oz’s gaze. She smiled a little bitterly, and for the first time since he’d learned what a Slayer was, Oz saw just how deeply being a Slayer was part of Buffy, and just how heavy a curse that was. Being a Slayer, having the terrible power and responsibility that she had, palpably hung across her shoulders like a death shroud, weighing Buffy down so heavily that Oz was amazed she could stand so tall. Her eyes, as they met his, were ancient and piercing, nothing like the average girl she pretended to be and everything like the tortured hero of the people she had never asked to become. She had something living inside of her, just like he had, something that set her apart from all the other billions of humans, and it was mysterious and primal and deadly, all at once. And for the first time, now that he had something pounding away within his chest, Oz understood what Buffy had spent so long running from, and he understood that she would never outrun it. They weren't so different, wolf and Slayer.

“I know I haven’t been awesome about the wolf thing.”

“Yeah?” Oz commented blandly, sill puzzling over Buffy’s inner killer.

“Yeah,” Buffy chuckled wryly. “Will really chewed me out over taking this long to talk to you, too.”

“She did?” Oz snapped back to focus, feeling a warm buzz of contentement at the thought of his girlfriend looking out for him like that.

“Mmhmm. Resolve Face and everything,” Buffy affirmed. “So, here I am, ready to apologize.”

“Have at it.”

“Sorry about the whole wanting you dead thing, because I don’t really. I don’t want you dead, I mean.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“And I’m sorry,” Buffy paused, taking a deep breath and audibly blowing it back out between her lips, like a plume of smoke. “Oz, I’m really sorry that this happened to you and that I couldn’t stop it. It’s my job to protect people from monsters, and I’m so sorry that I couldn’t save you.”

Oz didn’t respond, thinking quickly. There were a lot of things to say to that, endless tessellations of words and gestures, but only one of them was right, and it was an imperative that he created just the right arrangement. Words were important, critically, dangerously so, and they needed to be considered and counted and savored before they were thrown around in handfuls.

“Okay, so here’s how I see it,” Oz answered her after a careful, steady pause. Buffy had slowly grown tenser as his silence persisted but, as Oz began his slow and measured words, she froze in place, a sharply colored snapshot in place of the blurred film of her usual careless motions. She was worried, incredibly so, that he would reject her apology, that he would hold her responsible, that she had lost a new friend, and her furrowed brow and tense hands, clasping and unclasping around each other showed it. “I’m not thrilled about this werewolf thing or anything, and I wish things were different, but they’re not. So we’ve gotta go from here.

“And I don’t blame you for this. Things happen, Buffy. You do your best. All anybody could ask.”

“Maybe you should blame me,” Buffy answered plainly, voice matter of fact and devoid of self-pity, blue eyes level and steady when they met his. “I’m the Slayer, Oz. I’m supposed to kill the monsters, not create them.”

“Maybe I’m overstepping my bounds here,” Oz replied, “so feel free to shoot me down or whatever. But, is this a me thing or an Angel thing?”

Buffy winced as if stung, drawing a hissing breath between her teeth. "Nobody ever wants to talk about Angel," she said plainly, sounding more resigned than heartbroken. "Everybody avoids his name like the plague, like they think I'll completely break down every time I hear his name," Buffy smiled wanly, tired and worn like a much older woman. "I won't, you know. I'm not made of glass. I'm actually pretty tough.

"I mean, I'm not saying I'm not upset, but I can hear his name. I'm not totally pathetic."

"Oh, I don't think you're at all pathetic," Oz smiled slightly, "I think you're pretty impressive."

"Thanks," Buffy blushed, looking down for a second, before meeting Oz's gaze again. "And maybe you're right, but not completely. I feel guilty about Angelus and how that happened, and that eats me up every single day, but this is a you thing, too.

"I'm just sorry you're going to be stuck as a werewolf for the rest of your life. It's supposed to be my job to keep things like this from happening."

"What could you have done? Stopped me from babysitting my cousin?" Oz asked reasonably, eyebrows raised a hair.

"I don't know," the Slayer sighed, "But, I should've done something."

"You kept me from killing Willow, or hurting anybody else. That's something."

"I guess..."

"I don't blame you. You shouldn't either.

"World's a big place. You can't save us all, Buffy. You had to figure it out sometime, might as well use me as your object lesson."

"I guess," Buffy sighed, not looking especially like she believed Oz. "We'll chalk this one up as a big 'screw you' to the powers that be and move on. But I still think you're too laid back about this."

"I'm a fairly laissez-faire kind of guy," Oz shrugged, thinking of how spectacularly ironic it was that he was the one talking Buffy down when he'd been on the verge of panicking all morning. Maybe it wasn't ironic so much as indicative, that even when he was in turmoil, he looked completely calm; he'd never been emotionally available, but he was reaching new heights of being closed off and emotionally internalized. Maybe it wasn't a good thing.

"No kidding," Buffy chucked warmly, "But it's good. It's what makes you good for Willow."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You two balance each other, I guess. She needs someone like you."

"I think maybe I needed someone like her, too."

Buffy smiled blindingly at him, giving him the sappy, chick-flick grin of someone watching their best friend fall in love for the first time. "I'm glad. I've been rooting for you two," she said sincerely, before her smile turned predatory. "But if you hurt her, if you do anything to hurt her, I'll reach down your throat to rip out your small intestine and I'll hang you with it."

"That's fair," Oz nodded and shuddered, a little taken aback by the imagery, as much as he appreciated the sentiment.

"Okay," Buffy laughed brightly, sounding absurdly light, as if putting voice to her problems had made them heavy as air. "And, sorry for unloading on you like that, Oz. You hardly know me and here I am, throwing all my issues at you at once."

"It's cool," Oz nodded, "I'm told I'm a good listener."

"You are," Buffy smiled gratefully, bumping her shoulder into his. "Though I'm not sure where you find the time to listen with all the talking you do."

"It's part of my charm," Oz smirked.

"I'm sure." Buffy rose to her feet, standing in one graceful motion, shaking her joints and muscles out like a cat. "I've gotta run, Giles duty, so I'll hand you off. There's an adorable redhead who's crazy about you headed our way."

"So there is," Oz remarked quietly, happily smiling in his girlfriend's direction. "Good talk, Buffy."

"It really was. Thanks again, Oz."

"Anytime." As Buffy began to walk away, Oz called out to her, while she was still just a few paces from the tree, "Thank you, Buffy."

"What for?" she asked, turning around in bafflement.

"For not treating me like a monster."

"Oz, you're not a monster," Buffy insisted. "You're just Oz."

"Three nights a month, most experts would disagree."

"Yeah, okay, you've got a furry problem. So what? That doesn't make you a monster. Are you going to lock yourself up in the cage next full moon?" Buffy asked imperiously, staring him down with hands on her hips. Oz nodded and Buffy grinned, "And that's why you're not a monster. You're choosing not to be.

"See you later, Oz."

"Sure," Oz nodded easily, turning her words over and over in his mind. It had never occurred to him that being a monster was as simple as choosing to be one, hadn't considered for a second that he would every be anything but a monster. Buffy had certainly given him a lot to think about. But soon Willow arrived, and gave Oz something entirely different to focus on.

“Hi,” Willow announced her presence a little nervously, coming to stand beside Oz under a wide oak on the school’s front lawn. Oz could faintly smell her on the afternoon air, fresh and sharp and sweet, like strawberries and cinnamon and rainwater mixed with lightening. He'd never smelled anything sweeter. "What are you doing, Oz?"

"Just thinking."

"Oh. Mind if I joint you?" Willow asked with a blush, looking nervous and excited and love struck all at once. She was beautiful, Oz mused fondly, and she didn't think he was a monster either. Willow was intelligent and smart and kind and funny and the fact that she wanted to be near him, much less the fact that she had kissed him yesterday after school, still blew him away. He didn't deserve her, but he was too much in love to leave her now.

"I'd be crushed if you didn't," Oz smiled, grabbing her hand to tug her down beside him. He pressed a quick kiss to her lips once she'd settled in, and took a moment to appreciate the perfect flush that spread across her cheeks. "Stay for a while?"

"As long as you'll let me," Willow grinned dizzyingly, and Oz idly imagined that if he hadn't been sitting down, her smile would have knocked him off his feet.

"I'd like that," Oz murmured and gave Willow a rare grin, because now that she was here, he was starting to believe that he wasn't a monster at all.

fin.

Entry tags:

Costumes in Firefly's "Trash"

The Jossverse is replete with beautiful, evocative costuming. Buffy and Willow's first year in college? Wish that was my wardrobe. Dollhouse? Worth it for the gorgeous suits alone. Here's a screencaps and comments on the costumes in the Firefly episode "Trash".

Here.

(no subject)

I've fallen under the spell of Jeremy Renner, so I did some drabbles and icons for his Angel episode. It's a minor epi,Renner is someone Angel turned years ago and he shows up in LA. The most important plot point is that Kate the cop learns Angel's DARK SECRET. He's a vampire!

Drabbles are here.

photo wes_zps39f2a622.png

BTVS 6x22 Grave - A few Giles Gifs and some thoughts and images

When I signed up for

big_damn_fest I surprised myself by picking the season 6 episode Grave, not because it was a bad episode, it was one of the best of the season in my opinion, but as a Giles fanatic I tend to choose episodes from the first three seasons.

In this episode I loved the competent, magical, ass-kicking Giles. This is Giles as he should have been.

( Read more... )

Comments/feedback/discussions welcome! Hope you enjoyed!

BtVS 5x07 "Fool for Love" Picspam/Lovefest

Fool for Love is one of my favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes ever. This is mostly because I’m a big Spike fan. Soul or no soul, with or without the chip, I’ve loved Spike since he first appeared in School Hard. For me he doesn’t need to be with Buffy, I like him fine on his own or whoever he’s with or wanting to be with. Spike’s capacity for love despite being a soulless vampire is one of my favorite things about him. It’s no surprise really that Fool for Love would be one of my favorite episodes.

Here are some of my favorite things about this episode…

Picspam, commentary and quoted dialogue under the cut…. ( Read more... )

It's Mr. Moviefone. He does all our subliminal tracks.*

So I have been thinking about Dollhouse lately and how I interpreted it and what it meant to me. I wanted to write a meta essay about it, and this Jossverse challenge came along and seemed like the perfect way, even if I had to center my thoughts on an episode or two as per the requirements. I know a lot of people were disturbed or disgusted with it and while I understand that reaction, I sort of feel like they missed the broader implications, which saddens me because Dollhouse remains my favorite of Joss's shows.

Anyway, back to the challenge. I first picked The Hollow Men, the penultimate episode, but then felt that I couldn't adequately talk about the first season just talking about that. So I added Ghost, figuring the beginning was a great place to start. As always your mileage may vary, and you may not agree with my thoughts on the series. Feel free to bring your thoughts to the discussion! All ideas are respectfully welcome.

One final note. I don’t ignore the use/misuse of sex and sexuality or the issue of consent, but they are part of the whole for me, not the center of the series. So if you are waiting for an analysis of solely that, you will be disappointed. Hopefully someone else writes that for you! (And point me towards it when they do!)

SPOILERS FOR ALL OF DOLLHOUSE, PARTICULARLY THE FIRST EPISODE GHOST!!!!

( Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes. working jobs we hate, so we can buy shit we dont need.** )

* Yes, I a quoting the movie Josie and the Pussycats. It's iconic!
** Yes, I am quoting the movie Fight Club, it is also iconic and totally related to my essay. *g*

FIC: Not With a Whimper Nor With a Bang; Dollhouse 2x13 "EpitaphTwo"

Title: Not With a Whimper nor With a Bang
Author:

aaronlisa
Fandom: Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Adelle DeWitt, Topher Brink, Dominic DeWitt, Alpha (Carl William Craft), Priya Tsetsang, Zone, Actual!Iris
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company. "Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead" was written by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen.
Notes: The title is a reference to T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men." Written for the

big_damn_fest for "Epitaph Two: The Return"
Note: I am not sure of the girl's name from the first Epitaph episode that gets imprinted with Echo's personality, however Wiki calls her as Iris, hence the use of the name above.
Warning: Character death, suicide
Summary: Not everyone is going to make it alive to face Topher's brand new world.
Word Count:1158

( Dean comes to them... )

Current Mood: geeky

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BtVS: RESTLESS! 29 icons

I wanted to do meta (but I looked up some old awesome meta and I could never beat some of that), or maybe a picspammy flaily post (I haven't done one of those in awhile!), but I ended up making icons instead (because that's what I do, apparently!). I hope you like them!

samples:

At my journal, here!

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The Cabin in the Woods

( Picspam + Meta )

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FIC: The Last Day of 2019 (or On the Edge of the Abyss); Dollhouse 1x13 "Epitaph One"

Title: The Last Day of 2019 (or On the Edge of the Abyss)
Author:

aaronlisa
Fandom: Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Mag, Zone, Whiskey, Echo, Paul Ballard, Alpha
Rating: FR13 (there's some swearing in the story)
Disclaimer: Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company
Notes: Written for

big_damn_fest.
Summary: A series of vignettes (much like the episodes) about the last day of 2019 in an post-apocalyptic world.
Word Count: 1098

( There's a part of him.... )

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2 x 11: "Ted"

ETA screencaps 3/20/13

RUNNER-UP: Best Meta (Not Fade Away) category of the Wicked Awards Round 10
banner by angelus2hot

Warning and Disclaimer : I have thoughts - and a lot of feelings - about "Ted". This is quite serious, and more than a little personal; some very triggery subjects will be discussed. I’m not kidding. If this isn't your thing, by all means feel free to hit the back button right now, and no hard feelings. If you chose to continue otherwise, considered yourself welcome as well as forewarned. But please leave your weapons at the threshhold before you come in. Then wipe your feet on the mat, and help yourself to cookies. (Or hot cocoa with extra marshmallows.) And I apologize for the formatting issues (esp re: the messed-up cut tags) but DW is being a pain in the ass. (AKA, I still don't know what the hell I'm doing.)

********************

And then there's the simple truth that when you engage in violence, accidents happen. We aren't robots. We can't turn off and turn on with the flip of a switch--and if we could, then we'd be okay with murdering people to gain our own ends. That fact that Buffy's violence is motivated by love is essential; it is both dark and light--she dances on the razor edge and she only has her instincts to guide her. -

angearia http://2maggie2.livejournal.com/33960.htmlthread=1302696#t1302696

( Read more... )

( The disclaimer? Take it seriously, and procede... )

In 1958 Lana Turner’s 14 year-old daughter Cheryl Crane stabs her mother’s boyfriend to death, allegedly in an effort to protect her mother. (The man, Johnny Stompanato, had gang connections and a history of violence behind him.) The court rules it justifiable homicide.

( The disclaimer? Take it seriously, and procede... )

***

Thirty years later another teenage girl, oldest of four siblings, reads about Cheryl Crane, admires Crane’s courage, and wonders if she would be able to do the same, if the need arose. Her (second) stepfather is a large and powerful man; her mom is barely 5’3”. Would a baseball bat be sufficient? A kitchen knife? She decides on a rusty WW1-era bayonet and hides it by her bed. Her mom finds it and removes it without a word.

In the end, it’s unnecessary anyway; her mom divorces her husband and her daughter can breathe again, a little, and home becomes a safe place to be for the first time in years. ( The disclaimer? Take it seriously, and procede... )

***

In 2012 the same girl, now a woman, finally watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time. She enjoys the cleverness and subversion of the “high school is hell” metaphors, the genre tropes and subversions.( The disclaimer? Take it seriously, and procede... )

And then the woman watches “Ted” and for a few moments, she is terrified - for Buffy, and for the girl who hid a bayonet by her bed all those years ago. Memories she’s (thought she’s made) made peace with and packed away tumble out unbidden, like an overstuffed dresser drawer. She knows that her experience is not identical to Buffy’s, after all, and there’s a relief in that; the girl she once was couldn’t fight back, couldn’t protect her herself much less her family, and never even dared to protest or sass back; Buffy can, and does. She has resources that girl of long ago, and most abused children, can never dream of - confidence, physical strength, strength of character and will, resourcefulness, as well as devoted friends who come to her aid.

But she’s just a girl, after all, a 16 year old girl operating on instinct. She’s been given a “license to kill” (demons) and almost zero guidance in how to use it. The Watchers’ Council cares nothing for her welfare, or for the countless girls who have preceded her; what matters is that the Slayer does her job properly and follows the arcane rules imposed upon her, traditions handed down through the centuries.

Ted Buchanan, as it turns out, would make an ideal Watcher by the WC’s standards, barring his use of physical violence, and even that’s not a sure thing. After all, the original Shadowmen chained a girl and forced the power of the demon upon her; the WC may be more “civilized” on the surface, but they uphold a terrible tradition. The Slayer is used, discarded and replaced when she rebels or no longer suits the councils needs. Surely more personal abuse and violations of Slayers by individual Watchers is not beyond the pale.

Likewise Ted demands obedience from a string of women, discarding and destroying them when they disobey him or are no longer useful. How many Slayers throughout time have come before Buffy (later Kendra and Faith)? How many other people has Ted hurt or killed, women who wouldn’t follow the program, in addition to the four wives in his closet? The Watcher’s Council and Ted both operate within closed systems; they may allow minor changes and adjustments so long as the original paradigm is preserved.

Of course Buffy defeats Ted, motivated not just by her Slayer instincts but the instincts of a daughter and friend to protect the people she loves. She’s the Hero, after all. And yet she suffers for her actions; social ostracization, guilt, and shame. Heros may not end up in court charged with justifiable homicide but there are still consequences to bear. (There are always consequences.)

***

Or at least there are if the Hero is a teenage girl. Violence from men is so common as to be unremarkable; violent acts committed by women are still considered shocking. (It’s no accident that at the end of the episode Buffy and Joyce agree to a rewatch of Thelma and Louise, a movie that disturbed and polarize audiences because two female protagonists commit violent acts against male characters onscreen; the same violence by male protagonists is a commonplace in movies, and a guarantee of box office sales.)

So Buffy succeeds but at a cost. Her mother is safe but heartbroken and terribly lonely, unable to even look her daughter in the eye. Whatever her personal animosity towards Ted, much of it justifiable in light of his behavior, the last thing on earth Buffy ever wanted to do was to hurt her mother. The bond between them, one that suffered fissures long before “Ted Buchanan” came into their lives, is further damaged. And yet they love one another, deeply, no one questions that, and there’s the rub. The anger and love are warped and woven into one another so tightly that what poisons their bond also strengthens it.

And so it is with her best friends, with her mentor, with everyone who comes within her circle. Violence begets violence. It stains and spoils everything it touches; it cannot be put back into a tidy little box, locked up and tossed away. We can atone for it but we cannot undo it.

But this a fictional story and in fiction, unlike real life, there must be some catharsis for the viewer, a chance to release the anxieties the story has provoked, to relax and breathe again. And so it is for the characters themselves, or at least it seems at the moment. The episode ends happily, one might say conventionally, enough. More dramatically than the story of girl with the bayonet, perhaps (real life has no resolutions, remember); but Buffy and her mother come to an uneasy, unspoken peace on the back porch, their home (women’s space) reclaimed, and they can breathe again, for a time. Rupert Giles and Jenny Calender share a passionate kiss for the first time, Xander and Cordelia giggle while Buffy averts her eyes. It’s an ending worthy of Shakespearean comedy: All’s well that ends well.

Except, of course, that we've seen the entire series, and we know too much. The moments that made us smile and cheer when we first watched are painful now. (Not as painful as the memory of that bayonet and all that it represented, but certainly poignant.) The characters onscreen have the luxury of perpetual innocence; they can’t know yet that Buffy will hesitate to kill her lover and it will cost Jenny her life, and Giles his only chance at love; that Buffy will eventually run a sword through her lover’s heart. ( The disclaimer? Take it seriously, and procede... )

And Ted’s fingerprints (do robots have fingerprints?) can be found in the final hours of Buffy’s story when Giles and “General Buffy” and their friends represent the last vestigal traces of the WC, haunted by ghosts and locked into a closed and destructive paradigm. Violence begets violence.

***

In 2012, Buffy became my Hero - by which I mean my fictional hero, my avatar, as opposed to real life heros such as my mother. (Make no mistake - in her capacity to love and endure, I consider my mother heroic.) My brothers grew up with Spiderman and Batman and Hans Solo; with countless tales of soldiers and kings throughout the ages. I had to wait until I was in my 40’s to find her.

Was it worth it the wait? Yes, it most certainly was. Yet I can’t help feel a little wistful that Buffy Summers wasn’t around in the 1970's or 1980’s; I certainly would have loved her then as I do now, if perhaps for different reasons. I can hope that in the years since that at least one other girl or boy, etched with anger and violence, haunted by dreams of murder that are so common as to be unremarkable, has felt just a little less frightened and alone because of her.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer 7x20: Touched: an a/b/o episode twist

I took a last-minute date here. I wanted to write fic (duh), but also explore the alpha-beta-omega trope. Partly for another challenge, but also because it didn't really take off in Buffyverse but has become *really* popular elsewhere. Which is intriguing.

I also wanted to do something for Touched, which is this week's BtVS ep at fantas_magoria. And Lo! It is full of two-person encounters that allow the trope to be looked at from many angles. So: a twisted semi-canon sort of fic happened! Read the ficlets and/or the notes and see what you think...

Alpha-beta-omega dynamics come in many versions, some of them very graphic body modifications. These do underlie this fic, but it's not very explicit. G-rated a/b/o if you will.

Read more here!

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Fic Link: "An Amiable Hock"

http://archiveofourown.org/works/716250

WARNING: Sexually explicit. Simon/Inara, Simon/Inara/OMC, Simon/Inara/OFC

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modpost

A quick mod note

I notice that we've had quite a lot of unannounced drop-outs in the first week, so just a reminder that if you can't post on your day, please do let me know (even if at the very last minute), and I can find someone else to cover for that day.

(and you can pick another date, or post on the free-for-all, if you like)

Thank you!