Post a day-ish meme: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Feel free to suggest other topics you'd like me to talk about here in the comments or on the main post! Fandom, real life, headcanons, unpopular opinions - it's up to you!
heresluck asked: Things you miss most about Buffy -- show, character, or fandom, your call. :)
There’s a lot I miss about Buffy. I miss the funny, wonderful, strong, flawed, memorable characters. I miss the found family they were together. I so dearly miss the rhythm and clever wordplay of their banter. (I still quote Joss’s shows a lot: chocolatey goodness, insane troll logic, fire bad tree pretty, unmixy things, good arms to have, a vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend, Manchester bloody United...) I miss the way tropes could be inverted, that things were rarely quite what they seemed within the show from that very first moment with Darla as the not-so-helpless blonde. I miss how deeply the emotions ran in the show, how it could be funny and desperately fraught all at once. Things mattered. I miss how inventive it was, from the musical episode to “Superstar” to delightfully quirky big bads like Drusilla, the Mayor, and Glory. I definitely miss the intensity of the fandom, back when I was truly mono-fannish and so was the entirety of my very chatty friends list; that was such a rush of enthusiasm, expression, and community. It was my first fandom, and it was a vibrant and amazing one full of smart and creative people. I was so fortunate to have found it.
The thing I miss the most from Buffy as a show, though, is the trust I had in Joss and the writers. I mean, there were definite low points and failures in the writing, but in general most things that happened were deliberate and had repercussions. Emotional arcs were long, intense, and real. Even throw-away details like Anya dressing as a bunny for Halloween ultimately had bigger meanings. It was a show with a deep inner mythology, long-term arcs, and an awareness of more than a joke for a moment. “Restless” (4x22) is such an excellent example of that kind of long-term thinking with the writing. Buffy was crafted. It was planned. It was meant to be watched and appreciated by a careful viewer.
It’s not a flawless show, for sure, but I feel fortunate at being drawn into fandom for a series that was ultimately so well-written in general. I miss being able to trust that a little detail probably means something instead of it being forgotten - or not! or overturned! - in the next episode. I miss feeling safe - in a way, I mean, people were going to die - buckling myself in and going along for the ride, because I knew the writers had a clear map of where they were going. There were detours and bumps in the road, but I could trust that we’d get there in the end and that the path would make sense and be worth it. I didn’t realize how rare that was until I became fannish about other shows, watched them just as closely... and felt the difference.
heresluck asked: Things you miss most about Buffy -- show, character, or fandom, your call. :)
There’s a lot I miss about Buffy. I miss the funny, wonderful, strong, flawed, memorable characters. I miss the found family they were together. I so dearly miss the rhythm and clever wordplay of their banter. (I still quote Joss’s shows a lot: chocolatey goodness, insane troll logic, fire bad tree pretty, unmixy things, good arms to have, a vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend, Manchester bloody United...) I miss the way tropes could be inverted, that things were rarely quite what they seemed within the show from that very first moment with Darla as the not-so-helpless blonde. I miss how deeply the emotions ran in the show, how it could be funny and desperately fraught all at once. Things mattered. I miss how inventive it was, from the musical episode to “Superstar” to delightfully quirky big bads like Drusilla, the Mayor, and Glory. I definitely miss the intensity of the fandom, back when I was truly mono-fannish and so was the entirety of my very chatty friends list; that was such a rush of enthusiasm, expression, and community. It was my first fandom, and it was a vibrant and amazing one full of smart and creative people. I was so fortunate to have found it.
The thing I miss the most from Buffy as a show, though, is the trust I had in Joss and the writers. I mean, there were definite low points and failures in the writing, but in general most things that happened were deliberate and had repercussions. Emotional arcs were long, intense, and real. Even throw-away details like Anya dressing as a bunny for Halloween ultimately had bigger meanings. It was a show with a deep inner mythology, long-term arcs, and an awareness of more than a joke for a moment. “Restless” (4x22) is such an excellent example of that kind of long-term thinking with the writing. Buffy was crafted. It was planned. It was meant to be watched and appreciated by a careful viewer.
It’s not a flawless show, for sure, but I feel fortunate at being drawn into fandom for a series that was ultimately so well-written in general. I miss being able to trust that a little detail probably means something instead of it being forgotten - or not! or overturned! - in the next episode. I miss feeling safe - in a way, I mean, people were going to die - buckling myself in and going along for the ride, because I knew the writers had a clear map of where they were going. There were detours and bumps in the road, but I could trust that we’d get there in the end and that the path would make sense and be worth it. I didn’t realize how rare that was until I became fannish about other shows, watched them just as closely... and felt the difference.