Spuffy Meta Recs #1

[Tranquillity]

Not strictly Spuffy Meta, but 2Maggie2 is doing a series of posts looking at each episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, starting at season one (naturally). She and her co-contributors have some really interesting insights into the episodes and they make some really amazing links to future eps and events - and they are only up to season 1! Plus they are Spike-centric in their thinking which is a bit of a bonus.

Here is a link to the index page (from where you can access all the posts to date):
http://2maggie2.livejournal.com/23547.html

 

[xaphania]

This isn't entirely meta, more of a love letter to Spuffy, but it's a good read. Makes you feel all warm with Spuffy love.

I just don't understand. You don't have to like that Buffy loves him, but seriously? From the moment he confesses about his soul in the church until the moment she saves him from the First in "Showtime," she is falling in love with him. And then when she looks up at him in "Showtime"? Her eyes swimming with tears and her whole heart just right there in the way she looks at him? GAH. That is love, y'all. From then on, I don't doubt whether she loves him.

But anyways, I said don't listen to what she says. Think about how she brings Spike into her home. Think about how she feeds him from that bag of blood (that scene gives me chills. This is the girl-turned-woman who wrinkled her nose when handing Spike a mug full of blood back in S4, and now she doesn't flinch when he's all vamped out and it's just that gross bag!). Think about how she nearly dies fighting the ubervamp to get to him. Think about how she keeps him near her. Think about how she touches him again and again and again. (Who else does she touch that season? Not many people.) Think about how she runs to him and lets him hold her. Think about how she touches his cheek. Think about how she only seems relaxed and herself when she's with him.

I think part of the issue is that people are judging Buffy-in-love by the way she was with Angel. Which, frankly, is silly. She was a teenager! It was her first love! And it was the typical, dramatic, over-the-top love of a girl trying to figure out how to be a woman. And she was so young, then. So heartbreakingly open with her emotions. So trusting. She had no problem saying that she loved.

Full post: http://penny-lane-42.livejournal.com/159631.html

 

[Moscow Watcher]

New meta on Buffy and Spike:

Buffy and Spike are effulgent love by Angearia

http://angearia.livejournal.com/185085.html#cutid1

An excerpt:

Buffy is a character torn between two identities she struggles to integrate, the lone warrior Slayer and the perky "just a girl" cheerleader. Spike is a character who bridges the divide between the Other (the shadow, demons) and the Self (the light, humanity); a demon who retains a sense of humanity upon turning into a vampire, the ability to love, and through loving Buffy and his own determination, he fights back for his soul, reuniting both Other and Self within him. He is a guiding star for Buffy, who fears she's losing touch with her own humanity and turning hard as stone because she's the Slayer. Spike helps Buffy reconnect to her humanity. Spike who "like this world" and who lives every moment to the fullest. Spike who's so emotionally open because he's incapable of existing without wearing his heart on his sleeve.

 

[nmcil12]

I know this is going to be a stupid question, so sorry. But what is a Meta?

so glad you asked - thanks

---------- Post added at 01:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 AM ----------

I love meta! I think I'm addicted to it. here's something I wrote a while ago (I've posted the link before so some of you may have read it already but it never hurts to re-pimp).

CHECKPOINT | Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel Exegesis

I'm addicted right along with you - some excellent recommends here.

 

[Tranquillity]

Here are a couple of new ones:

An Ode to Spike in Season 8 (although it is actually more of a list of awesomeness)
http://2maggie2.livejournal.com/29855.html#cutid1

And also a look at Spuffy in season 8

Leaving aside the lack of reunion talk, Spike and Buffy are just very real together. He sobers her up and gets her to focus on the disastrous part of her bestest day ever. They have a rhythm with their mutual snarking. He's the one who can tell her the truth about what's going on. People don't like the compare and contrast, but that's part of the point as far as I can tell. On the one hand we have airy-fairy stuff between two morons who just destroyed the world and who keep saying they don't really know each other; on the other hand we have an actual connection between two people who are focusing on the problem of the world being destroyed. That's the Spuffy framing of the contrast between the two relationships. It's set out clearly here

.

for more - http://2maggie2.livejournal.com/30479.html#cutid1

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

There's a book called "The Five Love Languages" about the five different ways of giving and receiving love. There's been a lot of discussion on LJ regarding how this relates to S7 Spuffy.

gabrielleabelle posted some nice picspams illustrating this idea;


http://gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com/273029.html?view=10724485#t10724485

---------- Post added at 10:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 AM ----------

Here are a couple of new ones:

An Ode to Spike in Season 8 (although it is actually more of a list of awesomeness)
http://2maggie2.livejournal.com/29855.html#cutid1

And also a look at Spuffy in season 8
.

for more - http://2maggie2.livejournal.com/30479.html#cutid1

I just read this and it's good. It make me feel a lot better about what's going on in Season 8. I definitely recommend it.

 

[StarSlayer]

I don't know if this really qualifies as a meta, since it's more like an analysis of "Chosen." The author simply expresses his thoughts on the episode (which was written before AtS s5 began), but there's a lot of things he says that I absolutely love.

Buffy learned that people have choices. She can't make Dawn not fight or Xander for that matter. She shows her faith in Willow but she doesn't push. She leads the Potentials to water, but she doesn't make them drink. That's what power is, the power to choose. But for every choice there's a consequence. And sometimes you just have to deal with the choices others make and respect them. Sadly, this is what Angel must deal with when it comes to Buffy's choice.

I really liked how Boreanaz just showed Angel's devastation when she realizes that she doesn't want him as her champion. It's what he's always fallen back on. The Powers chose him as their champion. He's the only vampire with a soul. In "Angel" he learns the first statement might have been manipulated. And now he discovers that the other thing that he's taken as fact and taken for granted may no longer be the case.

Actually three in that Buffy no longer sees him as her only love. That's been a given. In canon. No longer. Angel's just been supplanted as the sure thing in Buffy's life. And when he learns that, the playful façade drops. Now he has to make his peace with the lost opportunities with Cordelia and Connor and the compromises he has made with Wolfram and Hart. He had his chances and he didn't take them.

But he still can't quite let go. Until Buffy gives him a glimmer of hope so that he can.

Strange. Angel needs a hope of a future with Buffy and Spike is content with giving her hope for the future. It seems that Angel is slipping into the selfish love that Spike transcended.

So the first vampire with a soul is regressing while Spike hits the zenith of his evolution. There's a new champion in town and the old one has to go back to the drawing board, learning a few new lessons along the way. Or so it seems at any rate.

Hands have defined Spike and Buffy. Hands were used on each other in brawl after brawl until the brawl turned into a dance. In the closing song in Once More With Feeling, Spike and Buffy are the only ones who have their fingers interlaced, much like their final moment together. In Dead Things, the door scene focused on their hands being separated by the door, but their attachment still evident through the barrier. Then in Potential and beyond things changed, the hands held each other, caressed, fondled, stroked.

In Primeval, Buffy learned she was the hands of the Scoobies. In Spike, she found her equal, proved in mythic, symbolic fashion by the way she reached for his hand, interlaced them, and wordlessly swore her devotion to her equal. Now it is Buffy who is reaching for Spike.

The fire blazes forth as they are finally joined. In action. In spirit. In love.

She risks the pain, like the First Slayer told her she must, and forges strength from it. Her face glows in something perhaps not unlike how she felt when she was in heaven. This is her heaven on earth, seeing his beautiful soul full of love. It startles her, its brightness. It warms her. It heals her. It sends her into ecstasy.

And he stares in awe as her wounded soul is revealed to him. And in that moment he knows. Purposely, he looks exactly as he looked when she freed him from the First's cave. It was a revelation then, and it becomes truth now.

Buffy hasn't expressed love that often and when she has, always there has been a portent of tragedy. Her voice expresses such. Desperate. Sad. Painful. But not now with Spike. She is a child again in that moment when love was new and anything seemed possible. Her voice is hushed when she tells him what he has longed to hear. Her face beams with happiness and the fear and doubt has been replaced with acceptance and peace.

And he surprises and amazes her once again in his selflessness, denying her love. Taking the burden of his life away from her so that she may live. Buffy has known no greater love and it's doubtful she ever will. Spike and Buffy's love is exalted on high. Made sacred.

More muted celebration and remembrance, some typical Xander sarcasm, and Buffy is still looking wistful and sad, mulling over the sequence of events, probably asking herself why Spike wanted to die alone. Then she gets the answer. "What do we do now, Buffy?"

Anything we bloody well want to. He gave her back love. He gave her back life. Once she told Willow to carpe diem. Willow's going to follow it to the letter as a goddess with Kennedy at her side. Andrew gets a new lease on life, a chance to continue to make a difference. Faith has a chance to find something new and wonderful with Robin. Xander can take the harsh lessons he learned with Anya and grow even more. Dawn will continue to grow as a young woman. Giles will go to Cleveland.

It's Buffy's turn now. To live. To grow. To love. Just as Spike wanted her to. Carpe diem.

Here's the full article. The website in particular has a lot of amazing analyses of many episodes, particularly with Spuffy 🙂
http://www.btvs-tabularasa.net/episodes/season7/tallgent/7-22tallgent.html

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Ten Reasons Why Buffy Is Better Off With Spike Than She Is With Angel

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

soulunsung agrees: I love this!
StarSlayer agrees: Brilliant! I loved every word
zobothehobo agrees: LOVED it!
Tranquillity agrees: Awesome list

I'm glad you liked it, all! 🙂

 

[Moscow Watcher]

I'd love to rec two interesting Spuffy links:

Blackfrancine wrote a wonderful ode to our favorite ship:

http://blackfrancine.livejournal.com/8667.html#cutid1

An excerpt:

Because I am"”an apologist for the dark shippiness, I mean. I love the secrecy. I love the sublimated feelings. The sublimated ~love, I would argue. I love the desperation and the NEED. I love the hate. The self hate. The misdirected hate toward the other person. I love the complication and the fear and the tension and the anger and the hurt and the passion and the desire and the fleeting moments of peace and comfort, and I love that the peace and comfort recedes when the other person is gone. I love the brief flickers of easiness between them. And I love the bristling against that easiness. I love the dreams of making tender love in between pure white sheets. And I love the realities of wordless, vacant-eyed sex behind a dumpster in an alley, in a club surrounded by people, in the front lawn. I love the sex and I love the violence. And I love the conflation of sex and violence. I love the sparks of creation that come out of the destruction. But I also"¦ I also just love the destruction. I love the idea that love can destroy. I love all of it.

And as much as I love the darkness in this relationship"”what draws me deeper and deeper into it is the light. I love that these two are partners"”right from the beginning. That their relationship is founded on an unlikely trust. And an unlikely egalitarian understanding. And I love that the show reminds us that this"”this partnership, this equality"”is always there. Even when there's selfish love and sexual violence and objectification. The images of their partnership still pop up. They clasp hands, lift each other up. They fight shoulder to shoulder. They defend each other's lives and each other's honor.

And I love that they overcome all the darkness. That they do find a way to really lift each other up and to heal each other. I love that they find a way to love each other in a way that each of them needs. Because that is selflessness.

Vamp_Mogs asked:

My heart and my head do not see eye to eye on this and if I want to watch Spuffy in S6 and fully appreciate that relationship for what it is (which is mutually abusive) then I have to keep it at a certain distance. The impression I get from the Buffyforums thread (and other discussions elsewhere) is that a lot of fans may have this unmixy reaction with S6 too? It seems like a lot of people really want to view their relationship objectively and make a real effort to but this comes into conflict with how they really feel. Am I just imagining this or can a lot of people relate?

http://vamp-mogs.livejournal.com/2268.html

Comments are very interesting.

 

[StarSlayer]

Well, I've done it. I've started an LJ. And I've posted my first meta (part I at least). In this meta, I'm really tackling the question of whether Buffy loved Spike because there's no doubt she did. Hope you enjoy! 🙂 Part 2 should be posted in the next few days.

http://fttstar07.livejournal.com/1075.html#cutid1

 

[prophecygrrl]

Well, I've done it. I've started an LJ. And I've posted my first meta (part I at least). In this meta, I'm really tackling the question of whether Buffy loved Spike because there's no doubt she did. Hope you enjoy! 🙂 Part 2 should be posted in the next few days.

http://fttstar07.livejournal.com/1075.html#cutid1

Awesome! I'll be sure to read your metas! Can you give us a head's up on the Back Steps if you write any more? I don't have an LJ, but I love reading your Spuffy thoughts. 😀

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Hi, fellow Spuffies! I'm here to self-pimp. I have created a brand-new LJ community,

"Chosen Words: a Buffyverse Drabble Community."

Please join if you are interested in reading and/or posting drabbles.

http://community.livejournal.com/chosen_words/

That said, Starslayer, I'm so looking forward to reading your meta.

My rec for today is http://angearia.livejournal.com/208443.html#cutid1, a review of #40, and Spuffy is discussed:

Spike meanwhile shows his support and the snark between the two is on fire. If Kennedy provided the point of view that Willow could've beat back the invading demons and saved the world, Spike presents the point of view that Buffy did what was necessary to save the world. She faced impossible odds and she “pulled her people through.” Spike's still got the faith and, in my opinion, he's seeing the practical reality of the situation (and his hilarious bad taste in television never fails to make me laugh—Spike watching “Dancing with the Stars”—of course he'd be watching that and no doubt yelling at the judges).

 

[StarSlayer]

Gum Gnome33 agrees: Just read part I! Great job so far! You're so right about the eye contact; it really speaks volumes.

And I have another idea for a meta on that topic too. 🙂

So, part 2 of my analysis is turning out longer than expected, lol. It's turning out to be a season 7 analysis broken up into sub-parts. For the sake of not cluttering up the thread too much, I'll wait until all the parts are done and then post them here. 🙂

 

[Moscow Watcher]

"Ask me again why I could never love you!" . Coalitiongirl muses on the episode "Seeing Red".
http://coalitiongirl.tumblr.com/post/4807174201/ask-me-again-why-i-could-never-love-you

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

"Ask me again why I could never love you!" . Coalitiongirl muses on the episode "Seeing Red".
http://coalitiongirl.tumblr.com/post/4807174201/ask-me-again-why-i-could-never-love-you

Great rec! Thanks for posting.

And here is The Point. And I find it abhorrent that the creators feel the need to shove that in our faces, to remove Spike's potential for redemption in favor of forcing this Point where everything turns ugly out of nowhere.

All I have to say is this;

WORD.

Oh, and if that amount of time wasn't long enough to convince you that Buffy and Spike are Bad News? Commercial break. Sit in horror for another few minutes, kay?

Ha. This made me laugh.

And then we get the eponymous line, the "Ask me again why I could never love you!" Because that's what this entire scene is supposed to be about, sports fans. Buffy can't love Spike because he's an animal who'd go to far when uncontrolled. Spike can't be a man as long as he doesn't have a soul. We've spent too many seasons being taught the wonders of the soul to have it undone by one pesky little peroxide-haired anomaly"¦so instead of bringing it to a logical conclusion that fits all that's come before, we instead get a Big Moment that's more about getting Spike to a place where he believes that he needs a soul than about Spike and Buffy.

This is it. This is the whole crux of the issue. It's like she says, the scene is a 'forced lession' and it's unrealistic and wildly out of characterr for both Spike and Buffy. Clearly contrived.

Remember when Joss said that there would never be a "very special Buffy"? I guess he changed his mind, because this episode is almost as bad as one from 7th Heaven - full of moral lessons and 'movie of the week' vibe that rubs me in all the wrong ways.