Some random S7 Spuffy thoughts

[elisi]

Did some Buffy watching tonight... my wonderful husband took the children round to the grandparents’ house, and then once there decided that they might as well stay there for tea. Cue hours of blissful peace for me. :)

Oh, and I’ve decided that my husband will from now on be known as Mr Darcy... this was lillianmorgan’s suggestion after seeing our wedding

Comments

[cal_turner]

I've been rewatching S7 this week, and your thoughts are so very similar to mine. I love S7 Spuffy. After the passion and violence of S6 (which I also love, but in a different way), this is beautiful to watch. I love the closeness between them.

Basically I just love the quitness of S7 Spuffy - it's all in the looks and the touches and the small things. The way Buffy always turns to Spike first... the way they finish each other's sentences... I'm just a sappy, romantic shipper. :)

Oh, me too! This is exactly what I love about it. *sigh*

[elisi]

It's wonderful to share the Spuffy love! :) What did I do before I discovered LJ?

[pfeifferpack]

Oh yes, S7 and the dreams of what S8 could have been! I started to realize they were going to have Buffy actually own her feelings before she rescued Spike (and from the way Xander looked at her, he figured it out too). She barely slept and was single minded, kept saying they had to rescue Spike. She didn't talk about the need vanquish the enemy or gather the potentials...it was all about rescuing Spike. That was clearly her priority and the FE even snapped when, as Eve, it said, 'Isn't that the vampire that's been killin again?', as if to remind her and the scoobies why she should forget Spike

[elisi]

A lot of good points, but I think that Spike could see what Buffy was feeling. I'm with the_royal_anna - the "No, you don't" is an instruction! (See this post). But that is not to say that a season 8 wouldn't have been wonderful! *sigh*

[pfeifferpack]

I'm torn. I can see and be swayed to the Royal Anna's view. There are plenty of arguments for it. But, Spike not calling or going to Buffy when he returned from dust makes more sense if he was not sure of her feelings IMHO. I suppose it could play either way. He didn't know he'd be returning when he offered himself to close the hellmouth and urging Buffy to live is in character.

Kathleen

[elisi]

I actually wrote an essay a while ago about Spike's reasons for staying in LA and about his and Angel's relationship: Spike Essay.

And then a few days ago avrelia posted her thoughts on the subject: Spike in LA.

Enjoy! (And look the pretty icon I found...)

PS. I posted the Epilogue to 'Play It Again, Sam' a few days ago, just in case you missed it...

[avrelia]

There are so many great little moments there, that even reading about them gives me the happy. :)

Each episode is a big step for Spike and Buffy there - and one can talk about it forever. There is a reason why we are still here, almost two years after the show is over, right?

I kind of like the tiny moment in Showtime - when Buffy is talking about saving Spike, and Eve!Evil is (reasonably) asking why, and Buffy stops - and then - this look on Xander’s face, where he watches Buffy and understands what she cannot say, - and is more or less ok with it, too.

And Potential had so many fun moments! But for me it is not so much how Buffy cares, but that she doesn’t care what the potential or whoever would think of her and Spike, and how amazingly they work together - fighting or coaching babyslayers.

[elisi]

There is a reason why we are still here, almost two years after the show is over, right?
Oh, yes! Personally I think that the Buffy and Spike story is probably the best love-story ever to have been on tv.

And now I must go re-watch Showtime again! (Thank you for giving me an excuse!)

And Potential is an excellent episode - I even like the Dawn story-line! :)

[azdak]

It takes her a good while to tell anyone about Spike’s soul and to get him out of the basement. And whereas some just take this as proof that she’s a cold hearted bitch, I think this is quite simply because she’s scared. When it comes to Spike it was always the lack of a soul that prevented her from loving him, from treating him properly. It was her standard response to any suggestions that it could ever work. And then suddenly he takes that excuse away. There is no reason why she shouldn’t be able to love him or be with him, and I think she’s terrified. Because it could all very suddenly be very real.
I think the fact that she leaves him in the basement for so long has more to do with AR issues than fear of what his soul means. Both at the story level and in Buffy's mind, he can't be allowed to get away with that attack without consequences. I think that's also why she gets so impatient with his madness, because it would be so much easier to be able to hate him, but she can't really do that when he's so obviously broken. She finds

[swsa]

I agree. The AR is huge. And in early S7 I really do get a sense that Buffy is working at keeping that anger, because she deserves to be angry. But I do think elisi has a point as well, and that there is a great deal of turmoil over the soul. She's shaken at the end of BY, and we later find out that she freaked out and ran. So I do think there's evidence that her inability to cope with that played a role in her avoiding him, just as her anger over S6 did.

[azdak]

Oh, absolutely. And I think the soul (and the fact that he went and got it *for her*) plays a huge part in her responses in Sleeper. She feels responsible for him because she *is* responsible for him, because she helped create this new creature, this amazing anomaly. But it isn't until he's shown that the soul actually works, that it does more than make him gibber with guilt, that she feels obligated to help him. I was really taking issue with the implication that the minute he gets his soul back, she starts to worry that this means she has no more excuses for not loving him - I think she worries about a lot of other things first before she gets close to that point!

[elisi]

I love waking up and discovering discussions in my LJ. :)

But it isn't until he's shown that the soul actually works, that it does more than make him gibber with guilt, that she feels obligated to help him
That is an excellent point, and I think you're definitely right. She even asks him to show her (in 'Help' I think).

I think she worries about a lot of other things first before she gets close to that point!
And that's another good point! As you pointed out, the AR is a huge thing to 'get over' (not sure that's the right term)... I know a lot people think that she should just have forgiven him straight away when she found out about the soul, but it's not that easy (also spikewriter has shown very well in her 'Seven Years' that rushing things leads to no good!). And her relationship with Spike was very, very different from what she had with Angel, whom she helped straight away (and of course he was also dangerous). With Spike things were always more complicated.

[curiouswombat]

Mr. Darcy seems good to me!

[elisi]

Well, Speakr just proved to everyone yesterday what a wonderful husband he is, so I felt I needed to do something! ;)