Top 5 Meta, Take 3 (Because it hurts my heart to leave these off)
More meta-y goodness from 2012. Because meta essays just don't get enough love. (Parts 1 & 2 ere and ere ) I had originally promised myself not to repeat authors but changed my mind. Humor me, gentle reader. Hopefully more love will mean more meta essays in future, so share the love![Click here because you know you want to...]
"Buffy and Spike Ramblings" by angearia If there is anyone in the fandom, including myself, who loves Buffy Anne Summers and expresses that love more tenderly and thoughtfully than Emmie does, I haven't met them yet. (Granted, I've only been in this fandom less than a year, but still...) How often do you come across a meditation, more prose poem than essay, on Buffy's feelings for Spike that begins with a poem from Pablo Neruda? I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving.
"Effulgent Love" by angearia Because I couldn't choose. I call this Emmie's definite statement on Buffy's love for Spike, her declaration in Chosen, and the "evolving state of her heart" over seven+ seasons. So many choice sentences and phrases that sing to my soul: Buffy shows Spike all the ways she loves in Season 7 and it culminates with her verbal declaration in "Chosen", that final barrier to her fully opening her heart again, that damaged, battered organ that's been too afraid to love ever since her father left her, ever since Angel traumatized her in Innocence and the back half of Season 2 and the more in Season 3
"Giles and the Wild Woman" by norwie2010 The journey of one Rupert Giles, how he is tested, challenged and changed by the women of Sunnydale, especially Buffy, Willow and Jenny, and how he tries to navigate the evolution "from tamer" under a patriarchial structure, "to tutor, to guide", the man who in the end steps back to support the narrative of the female heros. And if that sounds dry, never fear; norwie enlivens academic concepts with a witty style as dry as a three-olive martini.
"A Conversation that Might Interest You, Dear F-list" by local_max A direct response to norwie's meta, going deeper into the themes of power and gender, on the shifting relationships of Giles and all the women on the show, including Faith and Anya, most especially Willow; also touches briefly on the parallels between Xander and Spike in the later seasons.
"The Chosen O" by lostboy_ljI couldn't decide between all of his metas in 2012; "Buffyverse Monsters, Part 2" is worth reading just for his meticulous analysis of Buffy's conversation with Holden Webster in CWDP (yes, I just cheated and slipped in a 6th. Shhh...) But this is one of the most interesting and provocative takes on the final scene between Buffy and Spike, hence the title; lush romanticism contrasted with post-modern referentiality and a nod to Star Wars. Worth it just for the utterly gorgeous screencaps of SMG's face during that scene and every shift in her expression. I just wanna bask....
Originally posted on DreamWidth http://buffyversetop5.dreamwidth.org/330395.html