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canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 6 months

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PROPAGANDA

CORDELIA CHASE (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL THE SERIES) (CW: Pregnancy)

1.) (downs an entire bottle of vodka and slams it back on the table) SO. CORDY. Cordy started off as a supporting character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At the start she was your typical high school mean girl character, but as the show went on we got to see more depth to her character: her insecurities, her courage, her capacity for incredible acts of kindness. Then after the third season she moved into the show’s spin off, Angel, where from the beginning she was basically the show’s secondary protagonist. Her and Angel were the two mainstays of the show’s main cast, she gets the most episodes centered on her out of all the characters aside from Angel (and yes, I’ve checked), and we really got to see her grow from a very shallow and self-centered and kind of mean person to a true hero who was prepared to give up any chance at a normal life to fight the good fight while still never losing the basic core of her character. There were some… questionable moments like the episode where she gets mystically pregnant with demon babies and things got a bit iffy like halfway through season 3 where the writers seemed to run out of ideas for what to do with her outside of sticking her in this romance drama/love triangle situation with the main character but overall, pretty good stuff right? THEN SEASON 4 HAPPENED. In season 4 she gets stripped of literally all agency and spends pretty much the entire season possessed by an evil higher power, and while possessed she sleeps with Angel’s teenage son (who BY THE WAY she had helped raise as a baby before he got speed-grown-up into a teenager it was a whole thing don’t worry about it) and gets pregnant with like. the physical manifestation of the higher power that’s possessing her. it’s about as bad and stupid as it sounds and also is like the third time cordy’s got mystically pregnant in this show and like the fourth mystical pregnancy storyline overall (you will be hearing more on that note in other submissions I’m so sorry). after giving birth she goes into a coma, in which she remains for the rest of season 4 and the first half of season 5. SPEAKING OF WHICH DON’T THINK SEASON 5 IS GETTING OFF SCOT FREE HERE. yeah so in season 5 the show just FULLY starts trying to erase cordy’s existence. she gets mentioned ONCE in the first episode and then never again until halfway through the season where she wakes up, helps out Angel for a bit and encourages him in his fight against evil, and then goes quietly into that good night and dies so it can be all sad and tragic. I’d call it the worst fridging of all time but even THAT feels generous because the whole point of fridging is killing off a female character so a man can be sad, and after Cordy dies basically no one’s even sad about it because the show immediately goes back to pretending she never existed. she is not mentioned ONCE in the two episodes after she dies. in the whole stretch of time between her death and the end of the season she gets mentioned exactly four times. again, I counted. anyway the fun twist to all of this is that all of this happened because the actress who played cordy got pregnant before season 4 and joss whedon was so pissed off about this affecting his plans for the show that he decided to completely fuck over her character and then fire her and write her out of the show. so cordy’s a victim of both writing AND real life misogyny!! good times!!

2.) OH SO MANY THINGS they menaced by giving her terrible hair cuts, making her seem like she’d get together with the guy she loves (and who loves her back) but instead she was killed and when she was brought back, she got possessed by an evil entity who used her body to give birth to itself. afterwards she was in a long coma and died. her character was so throughoutly assassinated

3.) She got demonically pregnant TWICE - there was this real sense of a womb/ability to get pregnant as like, a place for evil to get in. She got positioned as femme fatale and evil mother. The actress basically got fired for being pregnant, and when she agreed to come back for a single final episode she specifically said they could do anything but kill off the character. Guess what happened

MISA AMANE (DEATH NOTE) (CW: Imprisonment, Torture)

1.) Misa is treated so phenomenally poorly by the writers of Death Note. She is devoted enough to Kira’s cause to sacrifice half her lifespan for the additional power to see people’s names just by seeing their faces (you need a face and a name to kill someone with the Death Note), and she takes the time to understand everything about it. She, a random civilian, is able to find Kira all by herself by being clever, and she’s very devoted to Kira and Kira’s cause. You would think this would earn her some respect and make her a force in the narrative in opposition both to L’s lawfulness and Light’s god complex (because Misa is a true believer, while Light is some dude with a god complex and a willingness to commit mass murder to further it), but no, the moment she meets Light she falls hopelessly in love with him (not just Kira according to her), pledges her loyalty to him, and agrees to mindlessly follow him, with her sole condition being that he can’t date other girls (and if he tried to, she’d kill the other girl; note how this is not a threat on LIGHT’S life) and has to date her and at least pretend to love her. You would think, again, that these would become problems that potentially fuck Light over, but they are mild inconveniences at best. And, despite her ability to find Kira and only get found out by bullshit trace DNA and pollen nonsense that she, again as a random civilian with no knowledge of forensics that honestly sound SO FAKE (really, trace pollen from something that is super rare and exists near her apartment but few other places? Trace pollen that got in the shit she put together INDOORS? Come on, that’s SUCH bullshit, and SO contrived), had no way of knowing existing. Because she DID circumvent all the ways she’d incriminate herself that a normal person would know about, but because they got her on the SMALLEST SHIT, they’re like “oh, she’s an idiot.” And it’s not in a “oh, look at these guys, underestimating her” way, it’s in an “oh yeah, they’re 100% right, she’s an idiot” way.

EVERYONE in universe regards her as an idiot, both when she’s just known as the Second Kira and once her identity has been found out. The creators in a bonus book rank her knowledge at 3/10 and her creativity at 4/10, which is SUCH bullshit when all of her plans (the few ones they let her have) make creative use of her powers and talents. Like, she sent a video into a tv station that contained a journal entry that had multiple dates on it, with one being clear bait for the police to approach, one being irrelevant, and one containing information that only someone with a Death Note would understand, and she uses this to indicate a time and place they should meet. Except she doesn’t meet him there, she dresses up in a plain outfit and wig that look NOTHING like her and sits and watches the crowd, waiting for someone to walk by who is missing the date of their death above their head (an indicator that that person has a Death Note), and then goes home and researches him online. That is objectively clever! Even if the cops were there, which they were, they would never notice her (and they didn’t) or figure out that she got the information she needed. HOW is that not creative? HOW does that support her being an idiot? Light tricked a woman (Naomi Misora, who deserves her own entry) into giving her his name one time in a way that almost gave him away, and that was regarded as sooooo clever, but this is stupid? Ohba, explain. Matsuda, who I love dearly but also who has never a plan half as clever or interesting as hers, gets knowledge at 4/10 and creativity at 5/10. It’s misogyny, there’s no other reason that makes sense.

And when her anonymous videos that she used to draw out Kira mention the shinigami and notebooks very subtly, in a way the police wouldn’t understand, Light is like “Second Kira, you IDIOT”, but meanwhile, when Light had a victim mention shinigami in a note written before they died for the sole purpose of fucking with L, the narrative is like “Oh, look at him, he’s so clever mentioning shinigami when L has no way of knowing how important and real they are.” The double standard of it all!

Also, ok, so, the reason L dies is because Misa’s shinigami Rem fell in love with her and wants to protect her, even if it results in Rem’s death (which it does because a shinigami dies if they kill someone for the purpose of saving someone else). However, Misa is not involved AT ALL in getting Rem to go through with this. Light manipulates Rem into doing it, and the fact that this also doesn’t bite him in the ass, even though Misa and Rem were friends, is INSANE. Their logic is clearly that obviously Misa would never rebel against Light because it’s not like she has an internal life and feelings outside of devotion to Light, and if she did, she couldn’t do anything because she’s an idiot, so it’s not worth exploring. God forbid she have agency and be a force in the narrative, even though it would make the story more interesting and complex. She doesn’t even need to be super smart for that! The creators THEMSELVES rank her social skills, charm, and initiative at 10/10, and she gets to use them all of one (1) time. They just keep not letting her do things, and it’s at the expense of their story EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Also, after this, she’s gives up her Death Note (which means she loses her memories involved with being a Death Note user) when Light tells her to, and then she’s just written out of the story, with the exception of her looking sexy, being a jealous girlfriend, and being implied to die, even though TWO shinigami died for her and thus gave her their lifespans. Yeah, she halved one of those, gained the other, then halved that again, but she should have gained more than a total of, like, eight years from that! But no, Light’s story is done, so why would Misa survive when he didn’t?

That’s not to mention the weird fetish-y way she was tied up when imprisoned. She wasn’t in her normal clothes that she had been apprehended in, no, she was put in this raggedy, white straightjacket-looking thing, with a blindfold and her arms crossed over her and fastened behind her back. She was kept on some slab and set upright for FIFTY DAYS. Like, look at this shit:

Meanwhile, Light, who was also imprisoned, kept his regular clothes and only had his arms tied behind his back normally. The only difference in the powers they were assumed to have is that she could kill with just a face. So why the weird outfit, huh, Ohba, Obata? And, like, they sell FIGURES OF IT in the real world, people can BUY her in this outfit and DISPLAY it, and it is CLEARLY because they think some Death Note fans would find it arousing. And if the whole show was just fetish shit in all directions, then, sure, fine, go for it, but it is JUST her in this moment! And, like, if it was supposed to show something about L and how he’s kinda fucked up like that, you would think it would, like, come up again or something but it gets a fleeting mention ONCE and then THAT IS IT. Why do this, literally why??? Like, how high did they get off their own misogyny to come up with this?

I just. I can’t with how they treat Misa, I CANNOT. Like, I know they love to jerk off Light and talk about he’s sooooo smart and clever and charming, but this goes beyond putting her down because they want to lift him up. They put her in to cause some chaos a couple of times, pull some fetish shit, provide the method for killing L (but not do it herself or even play any active role at all in it), and then they’re done with her. She’s a convenient tool to the writers, not a character, unlike most of the male characters whose emotional reactions to Light’s bullshit come back to haunt him. For example: the way his responsibility for his father’s death and his dismissal of his father during his big confession lead Matsuda, who had liked Light but had a stronger emotional connection to his dad, to shoot him in a way that stops Light from using his Death Note scrap to get out of being surrounded after being definitively revealed to be Kira. And like, I love that moment for Matsuda, it’s great, my favorite scene in the whole show, but why don’t Misa’s emotions and bonds get to drive her to action in a way that is inconvenient to Light? Fine, she has unending devotion, why not have THAT do anything either? And it’s because this is the same type of treatment all the female characters in Death Note get (although Misa gets it worse by a country mile), being a POTENTIAL to MILD problem for Light and/or a person to use the Death Note in his place but little else, or someone to get kidnapped, it makes it clear that Misa’s treatment here is due to misogyny that infects the whole text, and it just. It rankles.

2.) Despite having the potential to be an interesting character (unhinged death note who doesn’t have excuses for killing people like Light does, actual connection to her Shinigami), she just gets reduced to Light’s plaything and fangirl, literally keeling over backwards for him. She ends up having nothing to do in the story, being reduced to this hollow shell of what she could have been, with her only personality trait being that she’s obsessed with Light, even after he routinely ignores her and even cheats on her. Every woman in Death Note gets put on the sidelines so the male characters can take the spotlight, but Misa easily has the biggest wasted potential of any of them.

3.) Left as flat, annoying, and obsessed with a guy who treats her badly the entire series. Could have had a lot more development but she just gets treated like an idiot at every turn despite HER INTRODUCTION including a pretty clever plan actually. As the series goes on it feels like they make her less and less intelligent just to justify why she’s keeping the exact same dynamic with light. Honestly the more i think about it the weirder that gets.

I don’t think it’s a problem in itself to have a character who isn’t especially intelligent or is easily manipulated or is an obsessive fan, and you can make really interesting stories using characters with those traits. But DN just did not do that, and honestly I think if Misa was written a bit smarter (not necessarily super detective chess nonsense smart, just having actual fucking agency and being able to come up with plans of her own) the series would be way better for it. You get a whole new dimension to the conflicts and scheming if she’s acting on her own terms, or trying to help and doing something unexpected, or just generally having another character with a death note and complicated ties to the main characters and actual human agency. Like even STAYING obsessed with Light she could have been so much more and the specifics of her motivations could be explored in more interesting detail than just making her a rabid fangirl even having spent enough time with the object of her obsession that the dynamic should have evolved.

She’s in a classic of the “so misogynistic it turned out gay” genre and like good for the gays i guess but holy shit she got done so dirty. She deserved better and DN would have been not only better in the “don’t be a jerk towards entire groups of people” sense but also probably better as a drama intrigue situation if the authors had a crumb of respect for her.

Also due to the story events she’s set to die pretty young and this is barely addressed? It’s a sidenote really and a lot of people die but Rem is the only one who gives a shit and their reaction is not focused on for long. I will not start about her and Rem because that will make this much much longer and is relevant more to why i like Misa than to why she got fucked over. (But hey it’s kinda fucked that she definitely did have people who supported and cared for her and they all got stripped away and it’s not even played as fucked up that this woman has no support network save for one guy who would kill her in a heartbeat if he thought it would help him and also that Misa can’t fully see the people who do care about her until it’s too late and this is never played as dark and serious in a series that thrives on being dark)

It’s just really really obvious that the authors do not see or write her as a person.

tl;dr SHE’S THE SECOND FUCKING KIRA and she gets treated like a PROP for most of the story. gets downgraded to scenery actually later in the story

actual tl;dr: introduced with an interesting plan and motivations worth exploring, slowly has her undeveloped personality steamrollered further and is treated like a tool and a prop for the rest of the series.

#polls #round 6 #week 11 #new #cw pregnancy #cw torture #cw imprisonment

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evilwickedme · 8 months

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The last episode of every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the exception of season 6, was also designed to be the series finale, because they never knew if they were going to get renewed. The season 5 finale is triply so; not only did they not know if they'd get renewed, they actually got cancelled by the network and got picked up by a different one.

But also season 5 was just straight up intended to be the series finale; they were putting in hints and foreshadowing as far back as season 3, especially in the various prophetic dreams throughout s3-5.

In Graduation Day Part 2, the season 3 finale, the dream that Buffy has that leads her to defeat the Big Bad also has Faith saying, "Little Miss Muffet counting down from seven three oh". 730 days being two years, and therefore the amount of time that passes between the season 3 finale and the season 5 finale. Then, in Restless, the season 4 finale, which is essentially one long dream sequence, Tara says to Buffy, referring to a clock that says 7:30, "oh that's all wrong", referring to the fact that since it's been a year, we're now down to 365 days.

In s4e15, This Year's Girl, Faith and Buffy share yet another prophetic dream, in which Faith alludes to "lil sis coming"; I'm assuming the people who were watching at the time thought it referred to Faith as being a metaphorical little sister, but of course we now know it was referring to Dawn. Tara, in Restless, also refers to her: "Be back before Dawn," she says. Dawn Summers gets introduced in the next episode, the season 5 premiere.

Plus, when you actually start The Gift, the season 5 finale, it actually opens with a previously on that summarizes the entire show so far; season 7 doesn't do that with the actual series finale.

All this to say, they put in a lot of effort here, and they did a good job. It just sucks that this would have been a terrible series finale.

Not to say that this is not a great episode; I think that it's pretty universally agreed that this is one of the best episodes of the show, and Buffy is one of the best shows ever made. But thematically? This was a terrible place for Buffy's story to have ended.

Buffy's depression is alluded to as early on as the season 2 premiere When She Was Bad, where she's clearly having some kind of episode, but it's brought up again and again throughout the seasons. There's a clear visual similarity between the season three premiere Anne and s6e3 After Life that really makes it clear that her depression started way before season 6, The Depression Season:

Both in Anne and in After Life, Buffy is positioned incredibly similarly, completely isolated from the works around her - in Anne because she's run off to LA and is physically far away from her friends and family, and in After Life because she came back from heaven, but no one knows that - with the sole light source positioned so we cannot properly see her facial features. This is a visual representation of her depression. In Anne the room is still brightly lit by the sun, signifying that there is still hope, and of course, although she doesn't know it yet, by the end of the episode she'll be ready to return home. In After Life, however, the only light source is extremely weak moonlight, because this is only the beginning of Buffy's journey towards healing.

That said, Buffy's depression (and associated feelings of helplessness) is brought up in season 5, especially as we get closer to the finale, such as the entire events of The Weight of the World, the penultimate episode.

All this to say, Buffy canonically has depression, and although it isn't explored in depth until season 6, it is absolutely present and informs her character and choices. And the fact that if the show had ended with The Gift, the show would have ended with a suicide? It's just horrific to me.

(Yeah, I know it's positioned as a sacrifice rather than a suicide, but killing Dawn would've also been a sacrifice; in the established context of her depression, it is a suicide.)

This ending specifically negates the main throughline of the show of being the Slayer being a metaphor for becoming an adult, with the show closing on giving up, essentially not growing up. Dying, by definition, leaves you frozen in time. Vampires can't change, because they are dead bodies. Buffy, in her grave, cannot change, because she is a dead body.

If we take this as the intended ending, if we take this as the ultimate preferred ending as I've seen a lot of people in the fandom do, then the show ends with Buffy letting Sunnydale consume her, leaving her unable to actually grow. It's just not satisfying to me and I don't think it's a good way to close the show.

So I'm really glad we got season 6 and season 7, to work through her depression, get some quality spuffy stuff, and for Buffy to literally destroy Sunnydale instead of the other way around. It's just a much better way to close the story in my opinion.

#buffy summers #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #depression #cw suicide mention #buffy meta #gail speaks

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grace--le--domas · 3 months

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PJO- Some Show Recommendations for the showrunners if s2 is greenlit

Season 1 was kinda...boring? Honestly, that is the last thing I expected a PJO adaptation to be. The books aren't perfect, but they are fun! There is friendship, adventure, humour, all while still the characters grapple with some pretty serious stuff. The show (except for the first two episodes and the finale) feels stiff.

Show is too exposition-y, the pacing is off and it of course breaks the cardinal rule of show- don't -tell.

Thankfully, the concerns are easily remedied. Coming of age stories are a dime and dozen, and I think that the showrunners could actually learn from the TV shows and movies of past. So, I compiled some recommendations for them :) Read on if extensive analysis is your thing :)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer- Honestly, this is theee coming of age story. It follows Buffy (the chosen one), as she navigates high school, college and eventually adulthood, along with slaying vampires. And instead of a sullen main character, we as an audience are treated to a sassy, take-no-prisoners variant of the chosen one trope. There are so many similarities between Percy and Buffy- both are loyal to a fault, sarcastic and stubborn. They understand that they cannot escape their respective destinies, but they'll be damned if they don't see things through their own way. Both are brave to a fault, and adore their found families. The writers could take some inspiration from BTVS and Buffy's character arc (to an extent). Bonus- BTVS has great examples of melding humour in serious situations.

2. Mission Impossible Series- This one might be a bit controversial, but hear me out. I know most people consider the MI films popcorn flicks-and they are- but most the movies in the series are paced excellently. There is a sense of urgency in MI films- which was severely lacking in the PJO show. Have a deadline, let me feel anxious for these kids.

MI also has some excellent action scenes. And before you say, well PJO is not an action series, I would like to say that I agree- but the beauty of adaptating something is that you get to change things. Well paced action sequences, even if they are about a minute or so, are necessary break up the exposition dumps. It breaks the monotony. It makes you feel afraid for these kids, who are running from one dangerous situation/monster to another.

3. Dune (2023)- Thematically, Dune is vastly different from PJO. I am including it in this list for several reasons- editing, cinematography world building and sound editing.

To put it bluntly, I don't feel connected to the world of the PJO series at all- which is a shame because it is an incredible world! Greek mythological creatures co-existing with the modern world! Modern myths! Greek gods!. But it is all introduced in the most boring, exposition-y way possible.

The cinematography doesn't shine until the last episode. I want interesting shots, fluid camera movements- just anything that breaks the monotony of scenes. For example- I loved Poseidon's introduction, why wasn't this type of cinematography present in the rest of the series. Shoot the gods differently, make use of different camera compositions. Experiment a little for god's sake.

Coming to sound, yeah this one was the most disappointing of all. There are no memorable sound motifs, which is a shame because sound can convey so much more than words in certain scenes. I say Harry Potter music and you instantly think about the charcteristic symphony. This is missing sorely in the tv show.

Sidenote- I would have chosen Nathan Barr as the music composer (missed opportunity Disney). Look up his work, and you'll understand why I said this.

Coming to editing, yeah the editing is clunky at best. That is all I have to say about that for the moment.

Let me know if anyone wants a part 2 :)

#percy series #percy jackson tv show #percy jackson and the olympians #PJO #PJO tv series #pjo spoilers #percy jackson #annabeth chase #grover underwood #disney #percy and annabeth #pjo #disney plus

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except4bunnies · 10 months

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@chrisoels tagged me to list 9 of my favourite shows, that was fun – thank you 💛 Here they are in no particular order:

1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer. To me, it’s perfect. I got my handle from it. I watched it with a dedicated group back in the days and alone and still have some merch and some research literature lying around though the poster of the musical episode is gone.

2. Superstore. It’s funny until it isn’t. Not a weak season and a perfect ending. I’m invested in all the characters. Binged it through the pandemic.

3. Derry Girls. Pure 90s nostalgia and Sister Michael. And Michelle. And the wee lesbian.

4. Orange Is The New Black. So many women, so queer right from the start. Didn’t like every season or every development and Piper and Alex are a toxic mess. But still, I’m in love with them.

5. Mord mit Aussicht. Not where I grew up but a bit like where I grew up. The quirks of rural life.

6. Popular. Ryan Murphy’s (I think) first endeavor. Before Glee and all. Weird, funny and short-lived. It gave fanfiction the wonderful pairing of Brooke and Sam. (Fun fact: One fan story features a queer bar in a small greek village that I thought was entirely fictional until I danced years later in said village and said bar and recognized the name and the place.)

7. Golden Girls. I totally credit Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia for some of my skills in maintaining friendships and living together.

8. Grace and Frankie. Another smart and warm hearted show about friendship and family (and getting older).

9. Tatort. Because of Tatort Hamburg and Julia Grosz. (And Falke. And me getting back into writing and getting to know lovely folks along the way.)

#buffy the vampire slayer #tatort #golden girls #derry girls #grace and frankie #orange is the new black #mord mit aussicht #popular #superstore

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thepunkmuppet · 8 months

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a comprehensive list of all the Implications (TM) of the WishVerse that were never explored. enjoy.

so in case you forgot: buffy never came to sunnydale in season 1. the master took over sunnydale and made xander and willow his deranged vampire sidekicks. buffy fights the master and her, cordelia, angel, willow and xander all die. almost all these points are going off the branching timeline where giles didn’t destroy anya’s pendant and the wishverse kept going.

larry is a “white hat” working with giles, oz and nancy. he has dyed black hair. I think it’s safe to assume that larry is out in this universe, and apocalypse or no apocalypse I love the idea of these three being a found family friend group just like buffy and the scoobies. also love the idea that oz and larry were in love but that’s just because I am insane lmao. anyway larry is out as gay and friends with oz with surrogate father figure giles… yeah that just makes me happy. I would love to see his season 1-3 growth in coming out and becoming a better person / not a bully similar to cordy. and shittily dying his hair black.

were spike and dru there during the season 2 period? did the master kill them? did the white hats kill them? did they leave? WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM????

the mayor, adam, glory and the first would likely still happen on top of all the vampire apocalypse stuff. the trio could be dead or vampires and dark willow obviously would not be able to happen. does giles fight these threats, collecting various child fighters over the years?? no idea. do they succeed?? no idea.

dawn doesn’t exist because buffy is dead. I wonder who the key would have taken the form of, perhaps she would be faith’s sister…???

what’s the status of jenny calendar?? joyce?? tara?? amy?? no one knows!! I just hope they didn’t meet too grisly of ends. the idea of leather-clad apocalypse vampire versions of all these badass women intrigues me though…

did anya remain a demon?? destroying her necklace would reset the timeline back to normal, so I guess she must have done. my anyiles heart says giles thought “I could fix her” and fell in love with a vengeance demon who doomed reality but that might just be wishful thinking (no pun intended).

angel investigations simply doesn’t exist. angel and cordy are both dead.

connor would not exist because darla would not be brought back (I wonder if jasmine would find some other way to bring about her birth??)

lindsey would have both hands intact and he and lilah would likely stay at wolfram and hart, and neither would die unless they were caught in the crossfire of vampire apocalypse stuff.

gunn would stick with his crew in LA and would likely fight the master at one point, not to mention even more vampires than usual, and without superpowers would likely die eventually.

angel investigations would never run wolfram and hart, meaning illyria would have to find a different host body. if it was lindsey or lilah that would be awesome.

pylea would stay the same and suck forever because cordy would never go there.

lorne is flourishing and loving life running caritos. he’s probably better off for it tbh. the wishverse says gay rights!!!!

in terms of wesley, faith and doyle, I recommend this amazing fic. it really speaks for itself, it’s awesome!!

its unclear as to who would be called after buffy. is it a person to person thing or simply a timing thing?? would it be kendra, faith, or someone else entirely? as I said this is explored in the fic I linked, but still interesting to discuss.

season 7 would be very different. we don’t know what slayer is currently around and we don’t know if that would change the first’s plan or the ending with all the potentials becoming slayers. no idea. kennedy would not be important thank god.

fred is still in pylea.

if you can think of anything else, please do share in notes!!

#buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #angel the series #ats #buffyverse #wishverse #cordelia chase #buffy summers #btvs angel

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fluffyspuffy · 17 days

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I’m obligated by law to post about this since it’s (I believe) only the 4th fic to actually make me cry real tears. That honor goes to the second story in the series (and very nearly the third). The first story isn’t super spuffy, but is obligatory reading due to how amazing the relationship between Spike and Dawn is in it.

The prose seemed a little off to me for quite a bit, but that’s probably just my ADHD talking since I did start to get used to it and then I didn’t even notice it eventually. The story was fantastic and made me stick it out despite having to reread paragraphs when I got lost. I think that’s what made it all the more shocking when I just suddenly started crying during an earlier chapter in ‘Blood Kin’. I didn’t see it coming and it hit me hard.

If you like the potentials (and OC potentials!) and if you like Dawn and some wacky vampire shit - this is the fic for you. It’s got some excellent hurt/comfort which is my food of choice. So much hurt/comfort throughout and I just adore it. The Spike characterization was my favorite- some side characters felt OOC on occasion, but was still immensely enjoyable.

It’s also epic! I love epic long fics. Right when I thought I’d read all the big Spuffy ones, here comes this series. Kept me well fed for days. Wild how I’ve been in this fandom for so long and always seem to miss the huge things.

I’d stop at the 4th story, unless you’re a greedy little masochist (like me!) and just need to read all there is no matter how much it will break your heart. This last story would have also been amazing, I can tell. Unfortunately, as the author is no longer with us, there isn’t even a tiny hope that more will come. I’m so glad that she got to leave us with this beautiful story

tl/dr: Read this! It’ll make you feel things. If you like safe and completed fics, stop at part 4.

Here’s a very brief summary of each part:

1: Spike and Dawn friendship rebuilding

2: fun with SITs (slayers in training) and a better season 7

3: vampire politics and relationship drama

4: more vampire politics and spike trying (failing) to hold it together. Fun t-shirt slogans. Stop here if you want an ending.

5: astral projection and heartbreak. ‘This is all there is, there isn't anymore.’ Incomplete, does not end in a good place.

#spuffy #spuffy fic recs #I usually stick to EF but sometimes it feels like the well is running dry #tried out AO3 again and found this gem #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs fic recs #btvs fic #spuffy fic #btvs #rambly fic rec #can’t string together any thoughts #absolutely feral over this #oldy but a goody #if you hate dawn for whatever reason that I will never understand- skip this #spike & dawn #probably more than spuffy #still love it

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coraniaid · 2 years

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I’d somehow managed not to really think about just how few actual adult women there were on Buffy the Vampire Slayer until reading today's Insect Reflection essay. But I messed around a bit with J. Freedland's Buffy speaking times dataset some more afterwards, and it really is striking, isn’t it? Not just how rare they are, but what invariably happens to them.

The five adult women on Buffy with the most speaking time over the seven seasons of the show (not counting vampires or demons, and defining "adult" as "anyone who, throughout the whole of the show’s run, is too old to be in high school") are as follows:

Joyce Summers appears at rank #11 on the list (with about as much speaking time over the whole show as Giles manages in just Season 2). Joyce appears in over 50 episodes over several seasons. Then she dies.

Jenny Calendar appears at rank #22 on the list (with about a third as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles). Jenny appears in 12 episodes over two seasons. Then she dies.

Maggie Walsh ranks #36 on the list (with about 14% as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles). Professor Walsh appears in 9 episodes in Season 4. Then she dies.

Gwendolyn Post ranks #68 on the list (with about 6% as much speaking time over the whole show as S2!Giles). Mrs. Post appears in a single episode in Season 3. Then she dies.

Catherine Madison ranks #106 on the list (with about 5% as much speaking time as S2!Giles). Catherine appears in a single episode in Season 1. Then she ... okay, technically she doesn't die, I suppose. (At least until the school blows up later.)

That means 40% of the "top five" only appear in a single episode. Combined, they have about a third as much speaking time as Giles over the full run of the show. And not one of them survives the series. Honestly, I'm not even sure whether Catherine Madison counts, as most of the time she's on screen she's pretending to be her own teenage daughter. (If you don't count her, the next adult on the list is Doris Kroeger, Dawn's social worker, at rank #123, who also appears in just a single episode .... but at least is still alive at the end of it?)

Not making the top five: Olivia Williams appears in three episodes across season 4 -- although only in a dream sequence in the last of these -- but she doesn't speak much in any of them. Olivia only ranks #218 on the overall list (one space below Diego/Marvin from Lie To Me, if you want an idea of just how low down the list that puts her).

For contrast, the top five adult men (also excluding vampires or demons, so not counting either Angel or Spike) are Rupert Giles (overall #4), Riley Finn (overall #10), Robin Wood (overall #19), Principal Snyder (overall #27) and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (overall #29).

All of whom, you might note, appear in more than one episode (and all but one of them survives their time on the show too). Also appearing in more than one episode are Hank Summers and Ethan Rayne and Quentin Travers and Principal Flutie and Allan Finch and multiple others. And as I said, that top five excludes Angel or Spike, both of whom have (much) more speaking time than Drusilla or Darla or anyone else who might have made the list without the humans-only restriction.

#btvs #I don't really have a conclusion beyond 'this is pretty depressing'

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baltears · 3 months

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idk how else to describe this like i think the kind of traditionalist/hyperliteral read of buffy not catching feelings for spike until late s5/s6 just misses the level of iron grip buffy keeps on her feelings. apropos of nothing other than seeing this read one too many times and im not up on my buffy meta scholarship so forgive me if im making the same points everyone and their mother has been making for the past two decades

keeping tight control over her feelings is not something buffy started doing after a certain point, it's a behavior she has coming into the pilot bc we see that at that point there's already a level of emotional distance between her and joyce (not only re the slayer stuff and the later retconned-in betrayal & invalidation trauma from being thrown in an institution when she tried to tell her parents the truth, but also for instance the intensity of buffy's distress over the divorce). she already has a home life consisting of not voicing most of her difficult and 'close to the chest' emotions. when she tries to be genuine in a way that asks for space for her frustration or anger or more 'selfish' feelings, this is often not met with understanding (worth mentioning that giles does a MUCH better job on this than joyce for the most part, but other characters including willow and xander respond poorly a substantial number of times). as a result she is well practiced at suppressing emotions that are too inconvenient or complicated to feel acceptable to verbalize, so she tends to just kind of whistle past things that feel hard to tackle until she reaches a point where she can no longer bear to ignore them. this is a core part of her canon characterization that is also visible at many points in buffy's relationship with angel (s3 comes to mind, when she spends a good chunk of the season operating under the convenient belief that they're in a functional platonic friendship when she subconsciously knows they are still too hung up on each other for that to be feasible). so like we know this is something buffy does. it is not at all unusual for her to feel things that she keeps beneath her conscious awareness + does not allow herself to process and admit to having felt until well after the fact.

this takes me to the oft cited point that from the first time she interacts with spike, there is a different vibe happening than is typical for buffy and vamps. it just feels very obvious to me that from basically minute one (or maybe more accurately from their first fight, when she isn't so much on the back foot) she registers him on some level as a person who happens to be really interesting and hot, but has a fairly easy time of it keeping this feeling out of her conscious awareness bc 1) he's also an unsouled vamp, meaning she can choose to dismiss his personhood as nonexistent and his personality as mere performance or game-playing (ie he is not a 'real' person, therefore the relationship need not be acknowledged as 'real' either – taken to extremes in s6 when she has to actively abuse him and continually reaffirm his lack of humanity and lack of worth in order to sustain the self-told belief that she doesnt see or experience his personhood and doesnt feel a human connection with him), 2) they're mortal enemies, 3) he likes to be really annoying on purpose + as a vampire also has a baseline level of generally acting like a bit of a creep, and 4) for much of their relationship she has other romantic objects on whom she can more acceptably focus her attention (insert reference to spuffy being a queer coded relationship here).

i think this state of noticing-slash-not-noticing persists from 2.03 through s3&4 and into season 5. by then she is so good at studiously ignoring how weird and flirtatious and intense their dynamic has always been that the revelation that spike is now acting very obviously like hes in love with her, to the extent that someone else could notice, takes her totally by surprise. getting more specific idk how else one could possibly explain how her ass was acting in something blue pre-spell, like i absolutely canNOT see buffy behaving like that around any other vamp literally ever. they were both being so unceasingly annoying with their creepy little flirty back and forth that both giles and willow were completely over it and just wanted them to shut up and stop paying so much attention to each other. ig the point im getting at is i think it's weird and dont get it when ppl seem to read buffy's character as if shes basically just saying the things she feels and vice versa rather than like regularly and even habitually lying to herself, bc i just don't think that's in line with the character that we're shown. buffy SAYS for a very long time that she doesnt care about spike and basically says and does everything possible to deny that she has any attachment to him at all, but frankly i think the level of aggression and frequency with which she expresses variations on that sentiment in and of itself gives the lie to that idea. anyways i think she was down bad pretty much immediately and just took a very long time to let herself notice

#spike was too obvi but i feel everyone knows that bc its even more impossible to ignore w him. mr bloody thorn in my bloody side <3 #imo he partly had an easier time coming to grips w it because vamps are all relationship anarchists but thats another post #btvs #spuffy meta #i don't wanna be the one

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sunnydaleherald · 12 days

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The Sunnydale Herald, Thursday, May 2

Buffy: Vampire issues. Did Mr. Whitmore notice I was tardy? Xander: I think the word you're searching for is 'absent'.

~~Bad Eggs~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Accomplice (Spike, Dawn, PG-13) by VeroNyxK84

Under Anesthesia (Spike, M) by MadeInGold

Our Mr. Wilson (Crossover with Leverage, T) by nival_kenival

Running Out of Time (Buffy/Faith, T) by MadeInGold

Like Summer Rain (Spike/Riley, NR) by enbywitch

Second Skin (Spike, NR) by Enigmatist

Clan (Spike, NR) by Enigmatist

[Chaptered Fiction]

Something Lingers, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by goodbyetoyou

The Watcher, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by In Mortal

Meow, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by CheekyKitten

Waiting for You, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by honeygirl51885

A Ripple In Time, Chapter 17 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by CheekyKitten

Secret Obsession, Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Maxine Eden

To All We Guard, Chapter 21 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Simmony

Stab in the back, Chapter 21 (Buffy/Spike, AO) by MelG_2005

Specs, Chapter 16 (Crossover with Batman, FR21) by batzulger

What the Drabble? Vol. 2, Chapter 20 (Buffy/Spike, PG) by VeroNyxK84

Sweet Dreams (Or A Beautiful Nightmare), Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by goodbyetoyou

The Blue Eye of the Storm, Chapter 21 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by MaggieLaFey

Out For A Walk... Bitch, Chapter 17 (Buffy/Spike, AO) by MaggieLaFey

Massacre at Carabon Hill, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Myrabeth

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork:Interrupted by CoffeeHunt

Banner:He Bit My Lip, and Drank My Warmth by Harmony99

Banner:The Surface by Harlow Turner

Banner:Ripples in the Glass by Harlow Turner

Banner:You Got Me Trapped in Your Mind by Harmony99

Banner:Do You Love Me Babe? by Harmony99

Banner:With The Warmth Of Your Arms You Saved Me by Harmony99

Banner:Hold Me Close by Claire

Banner/Poster:Reverie by VeroNyxK84

Artwork:Buffy Anne Summers by isevery0nehereverystoned

Artwork:Some Buffy fanart I drew earlier by pocketsizedann

Moodboard:Angel by awinterrosesstuff

Gifset:spuffy + pop culture references. by slayerbuffy

Gifset:BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | 2.03 "School Hard" by whatisyourchildhoodtrauma

Gifset:4x13 | “The I in Team” by clarkgriffon

Gifset:You really don't care what happens a year from now? Five years from now? by ptieuca

Video: Buffy, The Vampire Slayer - If I Can't Say A Word (Karen Clark Sheard) by Boo Harder

[Reviews & Recaps]

Once More with Feeling, A Buffy Analysis Video by KnotXaklyRite

What would you do if you were INVISIBLE?! | Buffy the Vampire Slayer 6x11 "Gone" | Normies Reaction! by The Normies

Normal Again: Buffy 6x17 Reaction by Dakara

The Re-Watcher's Council | "The Dark Age" Buffy the Vampire Slayer S02E08 Spoiler Review by LGRN - Entertainment

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER S7 EP3 SAME TIME, SAME PLACE 2002 REACTION VIDEO REVIEW FIRST TIME WATCHING by Reel Reviews With Jen!

[Community Announcements]

Call For Banners - Sign up by Seasonal Spuffy

[Fandom Discussions]

still thinking about Faith's entrance on S1 ATS by juanabaloo

Always devastated to remember that so many people hate season 1 of Buffy by spikes-left-eyebrow

[On Xander's character] by justafriendofxanders

[fuffy are idiots to lovers] by antlerslayer

[Ask] Top five Buffy characters you'd want to have seen more of by coraniaid

10 Harsh Realities About Buffy's Character [Cont.] by multiple authors

Giles of the P.T.B. by multiple authors

What If: Giles didn't take Buffy's powers away? by multiple authors

One of my favorite scenes of the show seems to confuse some viewers by Hamblerger

Anthony Harris, Mr. Maclay, Catherine Madison. Who is the most terrible parent out of these 3? by multiple authors

Are they your idea of the bad boy, good girl, forbidden romance cliché? by multiple authors

Favorite MOTW by multiple authors

Who’s smartest: Giles, Willow, Wesley, or Fred? by multiple authors

Giles’ condo/Jenny by multiple authors

Rewatching 'School Hard' - What was up with Angel's act? by multiple authors

Seth Green leaving Buffy by multiple authors

5x15…… misery, pain and more misery by multiple authors

5x18 is soooooo good by multiple authors

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Publication: Sarah Michelle Gellar Would Take a ‘Call’ From Dolly Parton About a ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Reboot (Exclusive) via Us Weekly

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

#btvs

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canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 7 months

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PROPAGANDA

NATASHA ROMANOFF (Marvel Cinematic Universe) (CW: Forced Sterilization)

1.) Was reduced to “chick who fights” and wasn’t given any characterization at all outside of that up until Winter Soldier, the third movie in which she played a major role. Her sideplot in Age of Ultron revolved around dating Bruce, whom she apparently related to because she felt like a monster for not being able to have children (we’re never shown why she actually wants them, it was the first time she’d ever mentioned it), she was the only original Avenger to die before the final battle in Avengers: Endgame and her death was mostly used to give the other male Avengers a reason to fight on. Most of the movies she was in, she spent in a cat suit that was halfway unzipped. I think there are maybe four movies in the entire MCU where she interacts with another named female character. In general, she’s a super interesting character who was super underdeveloped despite being in a ton of movies.

2.) Due to being forcibly sterilized and not having a family of her own, she concludes that when someone has to sacrifice their life For The Greater Good^tm, it should be her (who has spent the past few years as a –if not The– leader managing the security of a superpowered, post-disaster Earth), instead of her guy friend (who has spent the past few years committing war crimes while hiding from his entire support network) because he had a family (that disappeared due to Magical Scifi Bullshit and Might come back if they succeed on their quest) that has been fully capable of supporting themselves while he’s been away secret agent-ing in the past and aware that he might not come back one day from his dangerous job.

Out of universe, there was very little merchandise of her (even in group shots) and it took ages for her to get her own movie in the Everyone Has Their Own Movie Or Three franchise.

3.) She was fridged to upset all the men in endgame and didn’t have a word spoken of her after her death unlike Tony who got a whole funeral.

CORDELIA CHASE (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL THE SERIES) (CW: Pregnancy)

#polls #round 3 #week 6 #new #cw forced sterilization #cw pregnancy

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hepaidattention · 8 months

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I made it a challenge to myself to watch all the teen dramas, and I think I have finally watched them all (at least the classics). Since I have finished all the teen soaps, I think I shall rate them with my bias opinions (this is 2010s and later only)....

#1: Teen Wolf. I debated adding the supernatural ones to this list, but alas I had to. This show is #1 because it embodied everything teen drama with actually good acting, an iconic villain (Void!Stiles) and a ship I would die for (Stydia). this show had everything the teen dramas were hoping for, there is an actually lovable main character, an even more loved best friend, and an epic story of romance and saving the world every day while still in highscool. what more could you ask for?

#2: since supernatural teen soaps are in this, Buffy the Vampire Slayer will always have my heart. This show went beyond teen angst and became a much deeper, emotional show as it matured with the audience, but it will forever be a classic and would make #1 if it weren't for the whole deeply moving and painful season where Buffy grappled with wanting to be dead and trying not to hate her friends from tearing her away from heaven.

#3: Gossip Girl. This show had everything a teen drama could ask for. Rich people, more rich people who just acted like they were poor but they lived in a giant apartment in Brooklyn, love triangles, back and forth will they or won't they, and the best mystery of the 2000s: who is GG??? the best part about this show was I loved to hate every character on this show, and it made me even more invested every episode.

#4: The OC. This might come to a shocker to most, but this show (though was a little too serious sometimes) was the only teen drama I watched where they had almost as much humor as they did angst. Summer and Seth were the soul of this show, truthfully, and it was the only teen angst show that had me loving every character by the end. It embodied the essence of highschool teen drama shenanigans like any TV show would attempt and misrepresent and I forever will love it for it.

#5: The Vampire Diaries. This show gets #5 for iconic stats only, if I'm honest. However there's something about tvd that makes me want to rewatch just about every new month. With the most iconic couple, Damon and Elena as a plus, theres still the epically annoying love triangles, it's poor acting, and the never ending amount of necks these vampies snapped. this show will always baffle me for its pull on ppl (me included) with some of the most annoying main characters to exist leading most the show. The entire TVD franchise is attached to this, because I refuse to add any of the other spins offs in this list.

#6: One Tree Hill. This show, if being rated for this soap opera plots alone, would've been #1 on this list. One Tree Hill was the embodiment of pointless fighting, ridiculous plots, and epic love triangles. Nothing beats how this show idolized basketball, and how it demonized a dad that never had any real reason to be such a horrible dad. like seriously, why did he hate Lucas sm??? it was never really ever explained. For me personally, this show made #6 merely because I'm a girl who loves a good ship, and there was never a ship I was ever truly invested in for this show. Naley was lovely, but I never could get too invested in any of these characters. They were always very 2 dimensional and had very little growth (aside from Nathan and Brooke, obviously).

#7: Veronica Mars. This show honestly belongs up there with BTVS with its witty dialougue, interesting and dramatic myteries, love to hate characters, and the epic love story that is LoVe. however it gets knocked down to 7th place due to its lack of an ending and then the creator's absolutely ruining the entire show by giving us one more season with the worst ending to exist (and I've seen HIMYMs ending).

#8: Dawson's Creek. This show is a mix of hate and love for me, though it does hold a special place in my heart. It belongs higher up the list for its wordy dialogue, perpetual declarations of love and the meaning of life, and its never ending love triangle. I loved Pacey, Joey, Jen, and Jack very dearly in this show. They all were precious characters who all grew up tremendously (especially Jen and Pacey). and of course, Pacey and Joey's love story might just be one of the best ones in all of teen dramas. however, it gets demoted down to the lonely number 8 because I simply just did not like Dawson. Sadly, it being called Dawson's Creek, he was quite a regular in the show, too. even plots usually circulated around him most episodes. He was self righteous, selfish, narcissistic, a manipulator, and truly he never changed until the final episodes. I always thought I hated Elena in tvd, but at least with Elena she meant good. Dawson wanted nothing but his way, and most of his actions (like his hate for Pacey) were purely because he was a whiny baby that hated that he didn't get what he wanted. I mean, Pacey and Joey were literally fighting about telling him - on their way to tell him in that very moment. Joey was the one who didn't want to tell Dawson the most - and yet Dawson spent the rest of the show (until the final episodes) hating his best friend for simply loving someone Dawson decided he had dibs on. Joey and Pacey were the only thing that kept me watching, since Jack and Jens plots were few and far between the longer the show went on.

#9: This placement really is just for all the other teen dramas I left out, especially for the shows that were an odd mix of drama and comedy, or never really had any opportunity to fall into any of the classic teen drama trends. some honorable mentions would be Freaks and Geeks, Gilmore Girls, Degrassi (I just refuse to watch Degrassi, tbh), Charmed, and 90210.

#10: and last and most certianly least, Pretty Little Liars. I hated this show, and truthfully never finished the last seasons. I just skipped and watched the finale because I became so irritated with every aspect of this entire series. However, it's start was good, and I will always remember the thrill of watching the first season and trying to peice together just who A really was.

#just me #oth #the oc #tvd #dawsoms creek #btvs #teen wolf #tw #one tree hill #buffy the Vanpire slayer #teen dramas #teen drama rating #the vampire diaries #gossip girl #gg #veronica mars #ptl

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cescalr · 8 months

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New tag game: list ten of your childhood ships!

tagged by @babybeale <3... forever ago. Uh. Whoops!

[I will also state my current feelings regarding the ship, and I'll go into as little or as much detail as I feel like <3 I'm also. I have a sieve brain. I'm trying to remember what the fuck it was I shipped as a kid lmao. Anything I shipped, say, pre 2016, I think should count? ftr that means I was 14 or under when I shipped it.]

Nina/Fabian, from House of Anubis;

They're still cute. Better than what they pulled in the last season ;-; fabian and mara...... why...........

2. Sam and Freddie, from iCarly;

This show was just. Not good at writing romance. At all. It was bad at it. But I am very smart and know better than them (/joke) so I could do seddie justice. Er. Maybe trying to do that right now, actually. Shh.

[also, friend; jade and beck is so complicated, you're right. A fun mess, but still a mess lmao. Me and my rarepairs was always a fan of stuff that never ended up being canon though. Might as well put it next, I guess? Looking at your 3.... when it comes to icarly; we could not possibly have had more different opinions on the matter <3 lmao]

3. Tori Vega / André Harris;

I haven't watched it in years so I do not remember why! But I do remember that I did. I think. Don't - don't quote me on anything ever.

4. Willoz - from buffy the vampire slayer;

No gifs for them :( :( :( love them still so very much <3

5. Honestly, I'd steal your number 5 bestie, 6Teen was great. In the spirit of obscure animated TV shows, though - and It's been so damn long I forgot the names of some characters, had to look up the guy's name, lol - Zero and Vin from The Invisible Network of Kids. It left a profound impact on my psyche because they did something really fucked up in the last episode, plus left us on a cliffhanger, and then the show got cancelled </3 rip. Haven't watched it in a decade or so. No idea if it holds up, but I was super invested in these kids doing spy work and experiencing insane levels of trauma that would be ignored come each new episode </3. I was literally 8 years old <3. It has a TV tropes page and the entire show is availible on the Internet Archive, of all places, sooooooo I may browse. For nostalgia's sake. There are literally zero gifs available for this one, because. I mean. No shit.

7. Didn't watch any of that continuity - only got so far as Tracey Beaker Returns... alas. Anyway, my pic for 7..... hm. Sigh.

Stiles/Lydia, Teen Wolf.

This ^ is NOT romantic! she slams her mouth onto his in the middle of a panic attack. Babe. No. No. Regardless; I don't like it </3. They really. Oh god they really fucked up this one. Like a lot. Plus, they both just ended up with much better canon ships (stalia, marrish) that then got shafted for this mess to be the endgame and then the movie breaks them up anyway!!! OFFSCREEN!!!! they didn't even last 2 weeks!!!! fuck!!!!!!!! I don't like them. But I used to. Playlist, for proof. I feel like this counts, because I shipped them when I first watched the show as it aired (I was 10 when the show started), but I did still ship the pairing until well into my teens (16 or so) before I wised up (the show made them very bad in a really boring way. Not that they weren't bad before. Love how they both do things that are otherwise reprehensible but the show frames them as romantic for some fucking reason </3 I was like 13 when I saw this kiss on screen. They're lucky I did research and didn't just take it at face value or I could've gotten some really bad ideas about what's healthy in a situation like this!).

8. Zikki (Zane/Rikki), H20: Just Add Water;

Season 3 does not exist <3 [also, the way they wrote the 'cheating' plotline was fucked up. That woman planted one on him!!! he did not consent!!! Why are we supposed to be blaming him for being sexually harassed in the workplace!!! No!!!]. Still ship them fr fr.

8. maf;lkasjd;f yeahhh. Think if you watched friends as a kid, it was inevitable you'd ship rosschel, the damn thing was pushed so hard. Stand in regretful solidarity;

For really obvious reasons (being that it is rosschel); hot damn no I do not!

9. Harry and Ginny, Harry Potter.

Ignoring the horrendous movie adaptation, when I read the hp books I basically just defaulted to shipping whatever was canon. Luckily for me, the canon hp ships are actually pretty good ones! If you ignore the canaries in the room. (I. Do not. Famously. Well. Infamously.) As for Hinny, whilst its a garbage ship name, the pairing itself is pretty great <3

10. kaljdflkasdt thank god I don't remember jack shit about watching glee for the first time! the sieve brain is a blessing in this one occasion. I've already mentioned in another (tagged <3) post my vaguely-relevant hsm ships, though, so..... hmm. What should I pick.... let's think.... I'm kidding. I don't need to think.

Shoker is a major missed opportunity in ME, and I've been mad about the choices for my fem!shep for YEARS because. Look. Kaiden she did not cheat on you. You left!! You accused her of being evil and fucked off after she was resurrected!! what else was she supposed to think other than 'guess he doesn't want to date me anymore. Rude.' And. You could have sex with Jack but not romance her, that was locked to male characters >:| biphobia [Jack can have sexual relations with women, but her only real connections are to men. Rude!]. And, Liara in my games always turned herself down for romance because she assumed my shep wanted to date Kaiden because she's not a total dick to him and there's no way for me to clarify otherwise, also people making assumptions :/ not great. Plus Li becomes the shadow broker and it's a whole thing, so that doesn't really work out narratively for me anyway. Can't romance Miranda. Can't romance Tali (wouldn't anyway - Tali/Garrus <3). Refuse to romance Garrus that is just so platonic a dynamic it's not even funny. Jacob cheats and dips, so fuck him. Like... all of the fem!shep romances are terrible (or Trainor, I guess, but she's... kind of. Nobody. She's Just There. Sorry. It's not narratively interesting enough for me.) and Joker was right there and augh. Augh! Still ship. Still mad about it. Hatboy Project is doing the lord's work! I salute thee soldier in thine endeavours. Waiting to replay LE until it's been finished <3.

If anyone wants to pick this up, go for it!

#took me so long i think you went through two url changes lmao #tag game

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st-eve-barnes · 1 year

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Rules: list eight shows for your followers to get to know you better.

I was tagged by @marthawrites and @ewanmitchellcrumbs, thank you ladies!

Buffy the vampire slayer: always my nr 1. I remember when my husband tried to get me into this show and I wasn't feeling it. A show about a teenage girl slaying vampires and falling in love with one, it all sounded very lame to me. But then we watched an episode on tv together, it was "Hush" (every Buffy fan knows enough now lol) and it just changed my opinion completely. That episode was so creepy, so funny, so well written from start to finish. I knew I had to see more. I fell in love with the rest of the show pretty quickly. Some episode are still some of the best tv I've ever seen (The Body!) and now we rewatch it every 1-2 years and I'm still not sick of it. Anyone who hasn't watched it yet please go give this masterpiece a chance.

Friends: I know it's a cliche show but I just adore it, I grew up with it, I've loved these characters for years and I will continue to love them. Another show I like to rewatch every few years. (I'm still very disappointed adult life isn't like it is in Friends lol)

Battlestar Galactica (the 2004 version): hands down best sci fi show for me because it's so much more than a sci fi show. This is so well written, the character development is probably the best I've watched in any tv show. I remember watching it for the first time and just being on the edge of my seat with every episode. Also love that this is a story with a beginning and ending that just feels completely finished, full circle, something that is rare these days.

Ally McBeal: I'm sure my age is showing in these choices lol, but this show shaped me as a young adult. I wanted to be Ally and tackle adult life the way she did, she made me feel it was okay to be a little crazy. The show is just so original, I loved the music as well (I used to buy all the Vonda Shepard cd's lol) and it was so sentimental and melancholic, if you wanted to have a cry you knew you could do it with this show. I haven't rewatched it in a long time so I don't know how well it stands now but I may just have to see for myself soon.

Stranger Things: I know the show gets a bad rep cause it's so overhyped but it's genuinely just an amazing show. I've been on board since season 1 and every season just gets better for me, I mean I already loved it and then they gave us Eddie! :) But seriously, it's just the perfect mix between mysterious horror/sci fi and that 80's nostalgia that takes me back in time. For those how haven't watched it yet, forget about the hype and just watch it.

Haunting of Hill House/Haunting of Bly Manor: yes, I'm listing them both cause I can't really choose. I love ghost stories and I love them even more when they revolve around love (as the show says, a ghost story is a love story) They are both so hauntingly beautiful and sad, the perfect mix between creepy and romantic. And that quote: "I loved you completely. And you loved me the same. That's all. The rest is confetti." has me in tears every time.

Extraordinary attorney Woo: It's still a pretty new show and it only has one season but I have to put this one in here because it is such a gem. I think it's the best way I've ever seen autism portrayed in a tv show. All characters are brilliantly written and the show, a K drama which isn't always my thing, is just so heartwarming and lovely to watch. Definitely recommend!

The Boys: If you're MCU tired (like I am) this show is the biggest breath of fresh air in the superhero genre (and also a big Fuck You to all the other superhero movies/shows). Bold, bloody and disgusting and anything but family friendly lol I was hooked after one episode and I'm still hooked 3 seasons later. This show dares to go where others don't and I just find it hilarious and so on point!

(Oops, that turned out longer than I intended, sorry! lol) I'm tagging @aemondmama @aemondx @neonhairspray @josephfakingquinn @arcielee @lauraneedstochill @jasonsmirrorball @aemonds-wifey (feel free to ignore)

#my fave shows #buffy the vampire slayer #Friends #battlestar galactica #ally mcbeal #haunting of hill house #haunting of bly manor #extraordinary attorney woo #the boys #stranger things

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empressawesomecoolness · 4 months

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Doctor Who: The Ultimate Speedrun Marathon - Series 3 (2007)

The semester’s keeping me busy but trust me I’m still trying to keep this speedrun going and get caught up on everything before May, so I’m glad to say I finally finished Series 3 yaaaaayyy! It was a lot of fun, especially in how it carried over from Series 2 into 10’s adventures with a new companion after Rose. Aight let’s get into it…

General Thoughts

Right off the bat, I loved Martha as a companion. Similar to Sylvester McCoy, I was familiar with Freema Agyeman from her stellar work on Sense8, so I was already a fan of her’s as soon as she popped up on screen. She’s got her own brand of intelligence and spunk that bounces off of 10 really well. Don’t get me wrong, I love that Rose was carried over from Eccleston’s tenure into Tennant’s, but I believe that Martha meeting 10 as he is for the first time in this series was beneficial to them building a better chemistry. Also, it’s great and refreshing to see the Doctor get his first black female companion in the show’s history. Overall, probably one of my fav companions so far, if not my favorite.

Not much to add in regards to David Tennant’s performance as the 10th Doctor, but I’ll heap praise anyways. He’s just as charismatic as he was last season, never phoning it in for even a second. All of 10’s big emotional and personality quirks can really be chalked up to Tennant’s clear love of the material, which was also apparent in the previous two Doctor actors I’ve covered thus far.

Besides the Doctor and Martha, Series 3 also had a really big moment that I was pleasantly surprised to see be built up so well: the return of The Master. Last time I saw that character in this speedrun watch-through, he was ‘90s Eric Roberts doing his best impression of an effeminate man. I was wondering how he’d inevitably return after his fate in the TV movie, so I genuinely felt the rug pulled out from under me when he was revealed to have been hiding right under my nose as Professor Yana in Utopia. Derek Jacobi played both the unassuming professor and the menacing Master really well, so props to him. As for his almost immediate successor, John Simm as the 7th Master, I must admit…. not really my thing. I will admit he had some great moments that made me truly hate him (which in turn made me like him more cuz well y’know he’s the villain duhh), but the over the top flamboyance just gave me major BBC Sherlock Moriarty vibes. idk, again I still haven’t seen the classic series in its entirety yet, so maybe that’s just how the Master is, but I’m inclined to believe Stephen Moffat is the common denominator in this specific characterization. Despite my criticisms tho, Simm’s chemistry with Tennant was really fun. Much more dynamic than the complete diva Paul McGann had to act off of.

Favorite Episodes

• Blink

• The Shakespeare Code

• The Lazarus Experiment

• Human Nature

• The Family of Blood

• Daleks in Manhattan

• Evolution of the Daleks

• Utopia

Favorite Moments

• The entirety of Blink was a really clever well done treat for me. It felt a lot like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it just played with Doctor Who’s version of time travel so well and to such great effect. The Weeping Angels are now some of the Doctor’s most iconic foes, which is well deserved because they are super memorable and scary as fuck. Also it was funny to see baby Carey Mulligan here lol

• The moment Professor Yana reveals himself to be The Master was so crazy cool. Like just a few seconds earlier when he started acting weird and jaded I was thinking “holy shit is he the Master he’s gotta be the Master” and I was right 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

• I appreciate that Martha mentions how William Shakespeare doesn’t look exactly like he does in the famous portraits we have of him. It’s still kind of a topic of speculation as to what exactly he looked like in his youth, so I liked that she’d pick up on that.

• “Come on. We can all have a good flirt later!” “Is that a promise, Doctor?” “Oh, 57 academics just punched the air.” I love this show

• They should induct Blink into the National Film Registry for preservation just for the introduction of the phrase “wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff” alone

• Captain Jack Harkness (great to see him back btw) is THE FACE OF BOE????????????????? not sure how to feel about that. points for creativity tho

• tryna just chill and watch The Lazarus Experiment then BOOM!!!!! MARK GATIS JUMPSCARE AHHHHHHHHH

• The sound of a militaristic drumbeat constantly playing in the Master’s head is a great motif. One of the things I did like about Simm’s portrayal was how well he got across the maddening effect of the drumbeat’s sound in his head.

• The series finale was soooo crazy. I loved how the consequences of the Master’s plan were shown to have been so hard to crack that it took a whole year for them to even get close to him. It really built up the Master as a new kind of villain for this revamped version of the show. Also, fucking good on Martha for busting her ass to travel the globe and gather the support of millions. She’s such a badass

• “Good old J.K.!” *thousand yard stare*

Alright, that about wraps it up for Series 3! I had a great time with this series, even if it took me a bit to get through. Time to crack on, though. Gotta keep this speedrun train going. Onto Series 4, which (for the most part) marks David Tennant’s final tenure as the 10th Doctor.

#doctor who #doctor who: the ultimate speedrun marathon #the tenth doctor #david tennant #martha jones #freema agyeman

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coraniaid · 1 year

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I'll admit to being more than slightly bemused by the (apparently very popular) fandom take that Drusilla somehow broke up with Spike for his own good or because she cared about his happiness more than her own. Especially the idea that this is actually why she first broke up with him in the gap between Season 2 and 3.

Bemused by both by the confidence with which its adherents talk about it, as if it were the only possible reading of the show, and by the fact that it's held up as something that the show did right.

Because, the thing is, I don't think there's any support for it in canon whatsoever. And – even if there were – I think it's just such a shallow and uninteresting way to look at Drusilla's character and what Spike means to her. Nothing in their relationship as seen in Season 2 suggests Drusilla would ever put Spike's emotional needs ahead of her own. Quite the opposite in fact.

(And good for her!)

To be clear, I'm not for a moment suggesting that Drusilla doesn't love Spike. The capacity to love is a very important part of both their characters -- it's one of the things that make Spike and Drusilla such a big upgrade on the various recurring vampires the show features before them -- and Drusilla/Spike is honestly one of my favorite relationships in the show. But it is a relationship that is explicitly possessive and obsessive. As the Judge says:

“You two [Spike and Drusilla] stink of … affection and jealousy”,

-- The Judge, Surprise (S2E13)

We see plenty of that jealousy in action when Angelus comes back in the second half of the season.

Does Spike seem willing to give Dru up at this point? Does he ask himself if that would make her happier? Of course not. In fact, he betrays her and foils her plan to end the world just to keep her with him. So why can’t she be as petty and self-interested as he is? Why don’t her feelings matter?

Frankly, there's barely any evidence in the text that Drusilla even knew Spike was in love with Buffy before he told her he was. Certainly not that she knew years in advance, or possibly even before she sired him, as I’ve seen some people on here assert.

Yes, there's the flashback in Fool For Love that makes it clear Drusilla knew Spike was obsessing over Buffy after the end of Season 2. Specifically, she says this:

“I can still see her floating all around you, laughing. Why? Why won't you push her away? ... I look at you, all I see is the Slayer.”

-- Drusilla [to Spike], Fool For Love (S5E07)

But it’s a pretty big jump from 'I can tell you are still obsessed about the Slayer we spent most of a year fighting before you sided with her and double-crossed me and my other boyfriend' to 'actually you are definitely in love with her and I think you’d be happier with her than me'. And it’s an even bigger leap from that to 'I’ve known you were going to fall in love with her for years, and I’ve long ago resigned myself to giving you up'.

If nothing else, it’s really weird that she seems so upset up about it now, if that’s how you view that scene. Why didn't she comment on these visions before leaving Sunnydale, if she'd been having them before this point?

On the contrary, I think it’s pretty clear both that these visions Drusilla’s having are a recent development, and that (as evidenced by her repeated question: "Why?") she doesn’t yet know what they mean. If she knew, why wouldn’t she say it? Dru’s hardly known for her tact and self-control.

(And it’s not as if Drusilla needs a secret reason to break up with Spike after the events of Becoming, either. The reasons Spike gives when he comes back to town in Season 3's Lovers Walk are more than sufficient.)

And yes, of course, later that season Drusilla tells Spike that she already knew he was in love with Buffy:

"I knew before you did. I knew you loved the Slayer. The pixies in my head whispered it to me."

-- Drusilla [to Spike], Crush (S5E14)

But -- crucially, I think -- the context here is that she tells him this only after he has already announced that he is in love with Buffy. When he has Drusilla tied up and is threatening to kill her to prove how much Buffy means to him. It is not, at this point, a particularly impressive bit of fortune-telling to know how Spike feels. He has literally just said it for her to hear, seconds beforehand.

She doesn’t even hint at knowing about Spike's feelings for Buffy before then. Instead she … comes to town to try to make him leave with her. That’s literally the opposite of willingly giving him up!

And really, none of Drusilla’s behavior in the rest of the episode makes sense if she already knew that Spike loved Buffy enough he’d choose her over him. Why assume that she is telling the truth when she now claims that she did know? Is it not more likely that she is lying here, to try to save face and regain control of the situation? I think it is. A lot more likely.

The only reason Drusilla is even back in Sunnydale in Crush is because she has arrived to invite Spike to go back with her to LA. When Spike tells her he can’t, she immediately jumps to the chip as being the reason he doesn’t want to leave ("tin soldiers put funny little knick-knacks in your brain").

Later in the episode, when Buffy shows up in Spike’s crypt, Drusilla boasts that Spike’s been feeding again “but I know what he really wants to eat” and suggests to him that they tie her up and torture her before killing her. Which is a pretty reasonable suggestion for her to make if she assumes that Spike's obsession with the Slayer means he wants to kill her. And a rather odd one to make if she knows Spike loves the Slayer more than he loves her.

Drusilla is clearly surprised when, instead of helping her kill the Slayer, Spike instead stuns her and ties them both up. She complains about it to him:

“Not nice to change the game in mid-play Spike. You've taken my chair and the music hasn't stopped. I think I shall be very cross with you when I'm free again.”

-- Drusilla, Crush (S5E14)

It’s only at this point, when Spike has (again) betrayed her and is threatening to prove his love for the Slayer by killing her, that Drusilla announces that she already knew. And you all believe her? Why? Nothing she does this episode makes sense if she’s telling the truth.

If she knew Spike was in love with the Slayer, why would Drusilla come to Sunnydale to ask him to leave? If she knew Spike was in love with the Slayer, why would she focus exclusively on the chip as the reason he wouldn’t agree to do that? If she knew Spike was in love with the Slayer, why would she arrange a situation where he can save the Slayer’s life by attacking her? If she knew Spike was in love with the Slayer, why complain that he has “changed the rules” when he does just that?

Note too that when Drusilla finally leaves town for good, she tells Spike sadly “even I can’t help you now”. How is that compatible with the reading that she had already willingly given Spike up before this episode? How does any of her behavior on screen make sense if this is what you think is going on?

(And, again, even if this reading were explicitly canon, it would just … kind of suck? It is not as if Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are shows lacking in female characters who are made to suffer and sacrifice for the sake of male characters’ emotional arcs and future happiness, is it? Why go out of your way to fabricate yet another example?)

#btvs #if there's something in the comics or whatever that supports this take then I'm sorry but the comics aren't canon #if it didn't air on screen during the seven seasons of the show then I don't care about it

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