My Buffyholism is Showing

The fics are divided into chaptered stories, one-shots, and drabbles. They are then subdivided by pairing. I've provided links to the various archives on which the fics appear.

LJ = my Livejournal
AO3 = Archive of Our Own
TSR = The Spuffy Realm
BSV = Bloodshedverse
FFN = Fanfiction.net

Use whichever site you prefer.

( Under the cut )

Been a while, hasn't it? Between a new job and classes starting and my internet connection being wonky, I got behind. But now I'm not!

So let's do this. Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered!


Mission Statement:

This series is intended to outline the feminist text of each episode so as to provoke and encourage open discussion. It's not so much about making value judgments about events and/or characters but about analyzing the series from a feminist framework so as to see what patterns and themes emerge.

Rules:

1. If you do not consider yourself a feminist or do not see the point of dissecting a TV show from a feminist perspective, this is not the meta series for you. I don't mean this in a hostile way, however the intended audience of this series is feminists who want to turn a critical eye to the show.

2. This meta series is written well beyond a 101 level of feminism. If you are new to feminism, I ask that you please take a look at this blog for an introduction to concepts that will be discussed heavily here.

3. If you begin to feel yourself getting defensive on behalf of a character (or the show), take a break from commenting. The outlines as posted are not meant to condemn either the characters or the show, but to contextualize the dialogue and events within the patriarchal cultural in which they reside.

4. BtVS is a constructed media. The characters are not actual people but are written, dressed, and directed by a team of outsiders. Criticizing a character for, say, having sex could be a sexist insult or it could be a legitimate criticism of the writers who chose to go that route with the storyline. There are nuances here when discussing a television show, and I ask that everybody be careful about exactly what's being discussed. A couple helpful terms are Watsonian and Doylist. "Watsonian" indicates that the discussion is taking place within the Buffy universe as if the characters are real people. "Doylist" indicates that the discussion is focused on the construction of the narrative and, as such, deals with the decisions of the writers and/or producers.

5. The key goal here is open discussion. I'm not presenting you guys with any brilliant insights; I'm just laying out what's in the episode. Feel free to discuss or disagree with me and others. Also feel free to answer other commenter's questions. The comment section is an open floor.

( 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered )

Newsletter peeps! Please don't link to this post! Thank you!

Individuals, if you're writing an entry in response, you are free to link.

This may not be the most popular of entries. Ah well.

shadowkat67's post about fannish history and Mark Watches spurred thoughts.

I'm largely enjoying following along with Mark Watches. It's something of a nostalgia trip, though he holds fairly different opinions than I did (and do).

But...I'm left feeling weird.

This guy, he's very good at marketing. Kudos to him.

The Mark Does Stuff thing doesn't look like his full-time job, but it is providing some money. He has merchandise, including t-shirts and e-books of his blog posts. He also uses his experience maintaining the community on his LinkedIn profile, so it's providing him job experience.

I feel weird cause...I don't feel at all comfortable doing any of that. Merchandise? Huh? Selling e-books of past posts? Eh. Putting this journal on a resume? WTF! No way! Though I suppose I did get some money when I got published in Whedonistas, so maybe I'm being a huge ol' hypocrite. Huh.

And yet, Mark isn't subjecting the series to much in the way of in-depth analysis. He's reacting emotionally for the most part, which is fine. It's how I first watched the show. Thing is, we're eating it up, not so much because it sparks new understanding of the show, but because it nostalgically reanimates our love for the series.

The guy has an audience simply to consume media and post fairly short reactions to it.

That's so WEIRD.

I don't know what to make of it. I think the attraction is that it validates fandom's love for the series. I've heard that he disliked Twilight, but I think even that plays into the genre fandom's hatred of Twilight (which typically appeals to non-genre fans, from what I've seen).

I guess I feel weirded out by the comparison between what Mark is doing and what us other fans are doing. A lot of us put a lot of hours and energy into our fandom, whether it be with graphics or fanfic or meta or whatever. We don't receive any professional or financial compensation because it's a labor of love. Not so with Mark. He's found a niche in the blogosphere with a built-in audience and he's working with it.

That's smart on him.

But it makes me feel a bit on the dumb side. Hrm.

My thoughts, they are conflicted, you guys.

There are a variety of endings.

Some are disappointing, like DW's S6 ending (for me and I ain't arguing about it).

Some are infuriating, like Xena's ending.

Some make you go, "Huh. Yeah, that's perfect for the show," like Buffy's ending.

And then some make you go, "OMGOMGOMGOMG WHAT DID I JUST WATCH THAT WAS BRILLIANT OH GOD MEDIA ORGASM AUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!"

That's the Utena ending. I cry. Every. Freaking. Time.

Vids and squee under the cut. Needless to say, spoilers. Massively.

( Oh? We're gonna live together happily forever? Great, but what about Himemiya yo? )

I think I'm gonna be able to post Chapter 11 of Influence of Demons this upcoming weekend. *preemptive happy dance*

In other ficcy news, I had an idea for a fic wherein a post-NFA Spuffy reunion is complicated by an appearance by Owen from S1. However, instead of getting all into a Spike-Owen rivalry, the two bond over a mutual love of poetry. I am completely stupid when it comes to poetry, though, so I could never write this fic.

Also, I want an all-human AU where Spike is a pirate and Buffy is a naval officer. There's a cliche treasure plot with Spike being enlisted to help guide Buffy and her crew to the X. Romance and adventure ensues.

Also also, I've always wanted a fic where Hank Summers shows back up and has to be introduced to the Buffy/Spike pairing. I know a couple fics that have done something like this, but I want more. I think I have a kink for characters being introduced to the weird world of the Slayer.

It's that time!

I have a couple prompts over there already. One for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and one for David Brin's Glory Season. Long shots, I know. I should sign up for Yuletide next year or something. (I decided the Swastika Night prompt I had in mind was too much of a long shot to even post)

Now click the banner and go! Write about zee ladies!

Because I'm aware that a new Buffy comic came out today and that it's contentious and I don't want to get mired down in the whatever, consider this a blanket ban on comic mentions in the comments to this post. I don't know how it could be related, but I'm playing it safe. Don't mention the comics.

elisi had a post about Mark Watches Buffy and, you know, watching Buffy.

Some of the comments to her post get into the analysis aspect of Buffy fandom and how Buffy, as a show, is ripe for it due to metaphors and such.

It made me think, as things often do. Buffy isn't actually what got me into the mindset of dissecting media for happy funtimes. I cut my teeth on an anime, Revolutionary Girl Utena (which you guys have probably seen me refer to before).

( Navel-gazing about Utena, Buffy, and meta! )

Hey, I've been crossposting from Dreamwidth for over a week. That totally qualifies me for a compare n' contrast post, right?

My thoughts:

On the Dreamwidth side:

1. This is the most minor thing, but I love the "choose random icon" button. I use it all the time now. And then I giggle when it chooses a completely inappropriate icon with which to reply to someone. "Oh! I was replying with squee to this person, but it chose an angsty!Willow icon. Hee!"

I dig it.

2. Some of the DW-only poll features are very nifty. Especially the ability to create completely anonymous polls. I don't have immediate plans for it, but it may have come in handy in the past.

3. It's up when LJ is down. They're also good at providing service updates whereas LJ sucks at that.

4. Less SPAM. I'm able to actually allow anon comments on the DW side. I had to turn them off on LJ over the summer cause I kept getting SPAM while I was in the hospital and it made me angry with a morphine rage. So I turned that shit off.

On the Livejournal side:

1. As another minor thing, I so miss the tag chooser thingy and also the autofill for my music from LastFM. I have a shit memory, so being able to use the pop-up with my tags is very useful for me. And if the Music entry doesn't autofill whatever I'm playing, I'm tempted to lie if I'm listening to some crap music. LJ KEEPS ME HONEST.

2. I stopped reading my DW reading circle or whatever it's called. Cause...well...there's not much DW-only stuff. DW gives me DW. LJ gives me DW+LJ. So I get everything covered by reading my LJ flist. I tried joining some DW comms but 1) I'm not a big comm person; 2) There aren't many really active ones on DW.

3. I understand the purpose of the "subscribe" and "access" distinction on DW, but it really just makes things a bit too muddled for me. On LJ, I friend back most everybody who friends me. I do use filters to trim down my default flist and some personal entries, but mostly, anybody who friends me has access to the flocked post. I don't mind this. My journal's more public than private, so I don't really need the distinct categories.

On DW, though, since those distinctions exist, I feel awkward granting access to people, because it seems to come with a social expectation that they do the same back. But what if they don't want me to have access? What if they just want to subscribe to me for the meta? But then I give them access, so they feel awkward if they don't reciprocate?

I've mainly just reciprocated whatever people do to me first on DW so far, but most people have gone ahead and subscribed and granted access. So it's effectively like the LJ flist anyway, just with some redundancy. I'd prefer the flist concept, personally.

Um...okay, that's it. I know Dreamwidth is supposed to be ~MAGICAL~, but I've only picked up on minor differences between the two services. Or at least, minor differences to my process of doing things. And DW's openness ultimately hurts it. By allowing crossposting and such, it keeps people on the LJ side.

Heads up that some people discuss Dreamwidth with the implication that the "goal" is to get everybody to move over. I have no such goal. I'm gonna use whichever service works best for me and the peeps who follow me. I'm not married to Dreamwidth, so I don't particularly care if people gravitate over to it or not. LJ has the advantage for my needs right now, but since I can crosspost from Dreamwidth, I don't have any problem doing so to accommodate the DW-only folks. Though I'm gonna tentatively predict that the episode polls will move back over to LJ.

Alright, guys. Again, this is being crossposted from Dreamwidth. Once under the cut, click the link and take the poll with your OpenID (unless you have a DW account). You may have to go through the one-time process of linking up your OpenID with Dreamwidth.

On the status of the polls on Dreamwidth, last week's poll had a 70% participation rate. That's, honestly, more than I was expecting, but not as much as I'd like. We're gonna do the polls on Dreamwidth this week and the next, but if participation doesn't pick up, the polls will go back to the LJ side of things. I don't want to put people off.

If you have any strong opinion on the issue, feel free to let me know in the comments. I am at your service, and I'm trying to work out the best option for all the poll-takers here. Dreamwidth does have some nifty poll features, but they're not worth it for me to lose a bunch of you over.

Okay! That all said! We're doing Real Me this week! It's Dawn! Get excited! Or grumbly! Your choice!



( I still have that cold. It sucks. )

So, you know how people always point out a few scenes as examples of Buffy pulling away from Riley in S5? I wanted to sit down and examine those scenes and show how Riley's perception (Buffy pulling away) didn't quite match what was actually going on.

In doing so, I think I actually managed to key into some interesting parts of Riley's arc. This pleases me, as the Riley meta I'd been working on fell by the wayside (I just wasn't happy with how it was coming out).

You'll notice, at first, Riley's perceptions match pretty close to reality. However, as the episodes go on, there begins a shift, pretty much around the time Joyce falls ill. More and more, the incidents reflect more of what's going on with Riley rather than what's going on with Buffy. The tragedy after ITW, of course, being that Buffy ends up shouldering the blame.

I think this progression is interesting in of itself, so I'm gonna lay it out there for you guys. Comments? Always lovely.

( This gets lengthy so it's below a cut )