Fannish things
CB and I have been watching Buffy and Angel, with him watching for the first time and me being all, "I want to watch [episode title] with you!" I think he just started this year, and we're already in the beginning of Buffy S7 and just finished Angel S4 yesterday.
It's funny because the prior seasons of Buffy make me feel nostalgic for the characters, who aren't quite as broken as they get later, but the latter seasons make me feel nostalgic for me, since I started watching live and engaging with fandom around S6. It's funny just how many posts I remember from when I was lurking around AtPoBtVS, from the ones connecting everything to Restless to all the spoilery ones I devoured.
I remember various fannish wars and arguments too, but mostly I have a large fuzzy feeling toward fandom right now. It's especially interesting going through memories as someone who just delurked and started to tentatively send out feelers, versus now, when quite a few of my best friends are from the groups of people I met on DW/LJ and I talk about it regularly with CB and we have OTW and I go to cons and etc.
I don't remember very much from my senior year of college since it was mostly being depressed, fighting with people, and being even more depressed, but I remember Buffy and Angel posts and discussions and what vids came out when and I can still tell you how my ideas about antiheroes and angst and manpain has changed just from AtPo.
And it's odd watching and knowing about all the social justice fail in the shows. I think CB gets a bit defensive when I critique at times, but he is newly falling in love with them, whereas I am the Bitter Old Fan ranting about Firefly and Dr. Horrible and Dollhouse and yet still cheers on the idea of a Joss-run SHIELD show.
Random notes, spoilers for all of Buffy and Angel
Mostly, though, it's hard to believe this was ten years ago.
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It's funny because the prior seasons of Buffy make me feel nostalgic for the characters, who aren't quite as broken as they get later, but the latter seasons make me feel nostalgic for me, since I started watching live and engaging with fandom around S6. It's funny just how many posts I remember from when I was lurking around AtPoBtVS, from the ones connecting everything to Restless to all the spoilery ones I devoured.
I remember various fannish wars and arguments too, but mostly I have a large fuzzy feeling toward fandom right now. It's especially interesting going through memories as someone who just delurked and started to tentatively send out feelers, versus now, when quite a few of my best friends are from the groups of people I met on DW/LJ and I talk about it regularly with CB and we have OTW and I go to cons and etc.
I don't remember very much from my senior year of college since it was mostly being depressed, fighting with people, and being even more depressed, but I remember Buffy and Angel posts and discussions and what vids came out when and I can still tell you how my ideas about antiheroes and angst and manpain has changed just from AtPo.
And it's odd watching and knowing about all the social justice fail in the shows. I think CB gets a bit defensive when I critique at times, but he is newly falling in love with them, whereas I am the Bitter Old Fan ranting about Firefly and Dr. Horrible and Dollhouse and yet still cheers on the idea of a Joss-run SHIELD show.
Random notes, spoilers for all of Buffy and Angel
- The worst parts are rewatching Spike from S6 on, especially because I started watching Buffy as a die-hard Spuffy fan. I still love the dysfunctional relationship between the two in S6, but I hate the rape and the subsequent attempt to redeem Spike. I was so bought into his pain after he had just gotten his soul back when the show aired, and now I just cringe at seeing the focus on his angst at his remorse for trying to rape Buffy, as opposed to Buffy's anger and pain. And I know where it's going, which is even worse.
- Grave still makes me sob every time I watch it. I wasn't depressed when it aired, but I think I rewatched it several times during the Internship from Hell and read extensive S6 commentary and S7 speculation. S6 Buffy is forever linked in my mind with depression, with a visceral identification with Buffy, torn out of Heaven, lost and confused and self-hating and still alive.
- I am sad at how much weight the romances get as the shows go on. Willow and Buffy get a few moments to bond in S6, but it's nothing like Willow and Buffy in S3. Also, Tara and Anya aren't nearly as integrated into the Scoobies as Oz and Cordelia were. The romance thing is even worse on Angel, where Fred never quite gets the chance to establish herself outside the context of romance. She's great in individual bits, but her overall arc is almost always folded into Angel's or Wesley's. And S4 Angel is terrible re: relationships among women. Cordy and Fred are jealous of Faith because she gets Gunn and Connor's attention. Lilah and Fred are jealous of each other. Fred is jealous of Gwen. And Fred and Cordy barely have a relationship. The women almost all relate to each other through the men. Even when Fred gets her own cool storyline, it's set up against Jasmine and the guys.
- It's criminal how much Gunn is underused. They keep almost giving him things to do, and I remember having so many hopes for S5 after the White Room scene.
- I had forgotten a lot of how bad the Cordy S3-S4 stuff was. "Give Momma some sugar" as she kisses the Beast?! It's also creepy how sexualized Cordy is when she is evil. Let's not even talk about various demon pregnancies and dead mothers and the many many gender issues in Angel.
Mostly, though, it's hard to believe this was ten years ago.
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