#one thing about me is that i will find the spuffy parallels in everything and especially tie EVERYTHING to the after life speech | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chasingfictions · 1 year

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Nat is Buffy coded and Misty is spike coded. Nat is just a girl trying to do the best she can, and Misty is the monster that would do anything for her. Every time Nat rejects Misty she is reminded of the monster she is. Every time Nat accepts her, Misty feels like maybe she isn’t a monster after all. Thinking about them for too long makes me want to cry

STOP IT RIGHT NOW. ok bc literally the spuffy mistynat continuum is about being freak4freak . i also think it's about monstrosity from nat's side of things too. nat is the one of the survivors who is the Most realistic about what happened she's kind of the only one having a normal response to what they did. to what she specifically did. nat as the hunter. nat understanding herself to be a monster and it's not that she doesnt think she's one it's just that the crushing reality of that is too much for her. but misty is so matter of fact about everything misty is free of shame. like misty has self hatred but she doesnt have shame. and nat embracing the monster in misty is her also saying well maybe i dont have to feel awful all the time maybe i can just be. literally you do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting!!!!!!!! you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

which is also what it is for buffy!!!!!!!!! buffy's shame at being the slayer buffy's shame at being made of the same thing as monsters of being like monsters. and then you have spike and faith as narrative parallels who are both like no being this specific kind of monster is my favorite thing to be. this is a good thing to be. you can be a good thing to be. buffy's shame at caring for, loving, wanting spike being about what it says about her. buffy accepting that she loves spike, wants spike, directly correlating to moments where she is allowing herself to live more easily in the world. buffy telling spike: "i do want you" when she's breaking up with him. she is accepting the want and she's also saying i need to find a way to be alive. i deserve to want to be alive. buffy telling spike "i love you" as they destroy the hellmouth as they change the slayer cycle, as she refuses to die again, instead makes the world a place where she can keep living, where she says okay a body like mine gets to live. a person like me gets to live.

misty spending all season trying to keep natalie alive. helping her find travis because she knows nat needs it to feel whole and she wants to keep her safe as she does it. leading nat away from travis' body before theyre arrested. snorting the coke for her. kidnapping jessica to keep her friends safe and we know natalie is the person she means most by that.

spike saving buffy's life again and again. trying to. "i did save you. not when it counted of course but after that. every night after that. every night i save you." catching her in once more with feeling. "life's not a song. life isnt bliss life is just this it's living . you have to go on living. so one of us is living." buffy telling spike that being with him makes things easier. spike trying to get buffy to accept her darkness and her desire because he thinks she genuinely needs to, that it will make her happy, that it will set her free. buffy seeking out spike when she wants to feel okay. "i can be alone with you here" . the flooded back porch scene. "the only person i can stand to be around is a neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker." "i just wanna feel." buffy going to his crypt again and again. sun sets and she appears.

natalie seeking out misty. natalie being suspicious of misty so she stalks her and breaks into her house, but when misty gives her the first bit of proof that it wasnt her, nat just sticks around. nat trusts her. nat seeks misty out and stays with her again and again and again. nat complains about spending time with misty and then keeps seeking out misty to spend more time with her and she always seems so happy when they do. do you see. DO YOU SEE.

#ask #yellowjackets #yellowjackets meta #btvs meta

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taramaclaywasaterf · 5 years

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Okay so first of all, everything you say on Spuffy should be considered holy text... second of all, what do you think of Glory?

GLORY!!! Oh, Glory, how you make me almost as conflicted as Spuffy does. My feminist brain is beyond annoyed about Joss’s inability to write women who aren’t hyper-feminine, but my Buffy fan brain (and my lesbian monkey brain) transform me into another one of her minions whenever I talk about her. I just start groveling for her affection and calling her increasingly absurd names like the classic “oh Glittering, Glistening, Glorificus” and “Most Glamorous Yet Tasteful One” and offering to bring her the bloody body of Bob Barker.

First, my feminist brain: Glory’s character as a whole is pretty much the epitome of liberal feminism. She’s hyper-feminine all the time. She’s conventionally attractive and is unapologetic in her fixation on her appearance. She’s the poster-child for the phrase “winged eyeliner sharp enough to kill a man.” She’s essentially the god of libfems lol. She paints the picture that looking good = empowerment . (And, funnily enough, that picture is unintentionally destroyed the second Ben manages to take back control of their body, only to find himself wearing some skimpy dress...showing just how dehumanizing and degrading those clothes really are.)

She promotes the idea that our appearance and how well we adhere/conform to femininity is all that matters. That we ~Do It For Ourselves~ instead of societal pressure and oppressive gender roles forcing us to.

She wears tiny dresses and high heels in battle, cares more about her hair than the people she’s killed, and has to look good 24/7...and all this is painted as something that makes her a Super Cool Powerful Independent Woman. Worst of all? SHES AN ANCIENT EVIL GOD! SHES NOT EVEN HUMAN! This form isn’t her true form!!! She should have no concept of- let alone CARE about human beauty constructs! I get that she was supposed to have, like, been confined in Ben when he was created to be her vessel or whatever, so she did spend 20+ years observing the human world, but her whole character is based around the fact that she’s a fucking GOD. She thinks humans are beneath her. She doesn’t care what we think of her. She has a whole speech about it to Dawn in The Weight of the World. So why would a literal GOD give a single shit about conforming to humans (Eurocentric) ideas of beauty, unless the implication that the writers are going for is that femininity is ~*empowering*~ and innate and all that misogynistic bullshit.

It’s sort of like Eleven in the first season of Stranger Things, how she saw a picture of Nancy in Mike’s house and was jealous of the fact that Nancy was feminine and beautiful, despite the fact that El really had no concept of femininity, considering she spent her life in a literal government facility getting tested on like a lab rat. It’s as if these male writers somehow think femininity is an innate part of woman/girlhood...as if a literal God and an abused child with a limited vocabulary and no life experience beyond torture would innately be drawn to pink frilly dresses, simply because they’re female.

There’s also the whole thing about, ya know, Ben being created to be her vessel to contain her, and him fighting his whole life to have control of his whole body. It feels very...gross. I don’t know if this was the intention, so I’m not gonna go too much into it, but it does feel a bit like Ben is meant to counteract all the messages of female empowerment and stuff in the show. Like, here we have a man trying his whole life to break free from the control of a female God, who degrades him and keeps him from his job and his school. He has no true control over his body, it’s not actually his own. It’s sorta a parallel to vampire slayers, whose “gift” was forced on them as well. And slayers are a metaphor for female oppression, so that parallel, intentional or not, makes me feel.. not great. I can’t fully articulate this, but I hope you get what I’m tryna say.

My Buffy fan brain, however? I LOVE Glory. She’s such an entertaining character. Joss has a way of giving us twists on villains that we’ve never seen before. He throws tropes in our faces knowing that we’ll fall for them, then he slaps us across the face for being so stupid.

I adore the way Glory thought it was BORING that she fought a vampire slayer when she and Buffy met for the first time. I love how she saw Buffy as some annoying cliche, and really didn’t give a shit about her, because it was an interesting change of pace from everyone thinking Buffy was the greatest. I love how she just went to the fucking Magic Box and BOUGHT the supplies for her spell...like, what other villain would do that?! And it fit her character perfectly!!! I love how, in a weird way, she actually seemed to care about her minions a bit? Like when Ben stabbed Jinx, there was a moment that Glory seemed to genuinely be worried about him, before turning her attention to what Ben had told Jinx about the key being human. I love how she just walked right into Buffy’s house to threaten her, and acted like it was merely some minor inconvenience for her. I love her reaction to the Buffybot. I especially love her speech to Dawn about being the one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind. She’s fascinating and entertaining and Clare Kramer was absolutely flawless in the way she played this character. I obviously hate Glory for what she did to Tara and Dawn, but that’s a part of what makes her character so great: she doesn’t care who she hurts, she just wants to go home. I don’t like her as a person, but she makes some fantastic TV. Which is another thing Joss managed to do well: complex villains.

All around, I think Glory was a really cool Big Bad to throw into the mix, but looking at the writing behind her character through a sort of critical lens shows a lot of misogyny that stops me from being able to call her an all-time favorite. Which sucks, because she really is quite great.

#asks #anon #buffy

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theprofoundslayer · 6 years

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WHAT THEY BROKE SPUFFY UP? I'm not even a shipper and that is SO STUPID. After all that growing in S10??? (Speaking of which, I'm so mad they dropped Andrew's arc, and while his appearance in S12 wasn't... bad, it also completely ignored his growth in S10. I could go on.) Did they ever address demon Jonathan?

Yep, broke them up at the beginning of Season 12 off screen.. Sth about them not working when there isn’t an apocalypse around and that it was mutual and blah blah blah.. It was completely out of the blue and in the last comic issue, they basically left things open for the future with this:

So, yeah, sweet scene that some even view as an implied Spuffy endgame.. I find it quite unsatisfying and repetitive to the scene they shared in the previous issue of the season.. It’s just open to interpretation and very diplomatic and.. not enough. Not to me at least. But i still accept it cause it is the lesser of two evils. At least no one is dead and they still love each other and there is a hopeful aura to this.. Still, weak writing imho.

As for Andrew and the rest of the Scoobies everything was rushed in the 4 final issues and the season was very Buffy focused. Willow, Giles, Xander, Dawn and Andrew mostly existed to further the action.. Spike and Angel mostly existed for Spuffy and Bangel season 7 parallels and nostalgia points from both BTVS and AtS references.. All in all season 12 feels very disconnected to the previous comic seasons which is why my feelings are highly mixed.. Maybe it’s because they didn’t give them more space to write? But somehow i feel it’s because Whedon returned as a writer and dismissed or ignored or didn’t care about s10 and on.. which makes me mad, because Christos Gage worked hard on building character developments in both Buffy and Angel characters before this mess. And as you can imagine, no, demon Jonathan was never mentioned again either.

To sum up, Season 12 only fixed the dark future of Fray and the rest felt OOC and like a weird AU inside the comics with a desperate try to tie it all up in the final comic, which was the best of all 4 s12 issues, but average too.

#kiranwearsscienceblues #spuffy #buffy season 12 #buffy 12x04 #btvs comics #thanks for the ask #hope you're doing well btw kiran it's been a long time #my meta

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missusgordo · 6 years

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I never get it when Joss labels Spuffy long-term. Aren't Buffy and Spike just generally incompatible? Spike is this fool-for-love, and Buffy's all about The Slayer. Spike isn't all-in, he doesn't care about the mission the way Buffy does. He has no drive, no ambition. Like wouldn't that bother her? I'm not claiming to know the characters better than Joss, but ... is Spike really the better fit for Buffy or do Joss & co. just WANT him to be?

Sometimes I think some of us fans do know the characters better than Joss. I think writers often get ideas for things they want to do and they carry those ideas regardless of what it might mean for the characters, whether that means the character has to change substantially or regress. Joss is guilty of this many many times over (Oz’s exit, Cangel, Twilight and others). You could argue that Spuffy fits in here as well. For it to be believable that Buffy would ever get into a relationship with Spike, Buffy had to become terribly depressed and feeling down on herself to consider the idea of sleeping with Spike.

And honestly, of all of the “you have to change a character for it to work” stuff Joss has done this one felt pretty organic. I’m not entirely in love with the execution of the depression arc but I find it believable. I have a LOT of problems with the fall out of s6 but less of a problem with s6 itself. But spuffy to me only worked for that short time period in which Buffy was having this depression and this leads me to addressing your next point which is….

Is Spike a better “long-term” fit for Buffy?

Joss famously said during the 20 year anniversary:

“…in terms of a long-term relationship: Spike’s kinda your guy because he actually went and got a soul because of her.”

But I am always of the opinion that Buffy doesn’t owe Spike anything. He (or rather his demon) made the decision to go out and get a soul not at her behest, not because she told him if he had a soul she could love him, but because he knew it was the only way that he would ever be able to find his way back to her after the AR. And I don’t think that makes her indebted to him or that this should be the reason that she loves him.

The two other guys in Buffy’s life where she was in mutual relationship (where she wasn’t in denial about it) with were Angel and Riley. Both Angel and Riley were mission driven and both held ideals in a greater calling that wasn’t just related to Buffy. I think these are things that Buffy admires and respects. Spike is (certainly in the show and delatably in the comics) about doing things for Buffy. He is really her “yes” man and he will go with whatever it is she needs. I have my qualms with Riley but even he would challenge her and I think that what they had more closely mirrored what she had with Angel which is a partnership. The only problem, of course, was that Riley wasn’t strong enough and even further, he was insecure about the power inequality. Where as Angel was happy and willing to watch Buffy kick some ass.

I think the best fit for Buffy is a true partner. Someone who is her equal. Not someone who will just blindly follow her lead. I think that is the best “long term” fit for her. And I think that person is now Angel. That may not have been what he was when they were together in the early seasons but in the later seasons, you can see that Angel will not follow Buffy’s lead just because she asks him to. He will stand up for what he believes. In doing so, I think he would make Buffy a better leader and vise versa.

I think that Buffy and Angel have had many life parallels that leads me to believe that they would be a better fit today than they were back in Season 3. They have both had to try and raise a teenager, sacrifice friends and family for the battle against evil, they both know what it is like to lead a team into battle, and they both understand that the most important thing is not just love for each other but their greater calling to protect the world. They have both shown an understanding that they are willing to sacrifice each other for the greater good.

I don’t see that same understanding with Spike and Buffy. I see Spike as putting his love in Buffy first above everything else. And while I understand how some may find that all consuming kind of love (which ironically is more “Romeo-and-Juliet-like” than Buffy/Angel) romantic, long term I don’t think it works. Buffy says it as much here:

SPIKE: Great love is wild … and passionate and dangerous. It burns and consumes.BUFFY: Until there’s nothing left. Love like that doesn’t last.

So I find myself disagreeing with Joss. Spike isn’t your long term guy. Angel is.

#Buffy #sp*ke #angel #anti-sp*ffy #Bangel #answered #thanks for the ask #I got slightly off topic #oh well

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marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer · 7 years

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MTVS Epic Rewatch #160

BTVS 6x10 Wrecked

Stray Thoughts

1) To me, “Wrecked” is “Dead Man’s Party”/”Empty Places” levels of uncomfortable to watch. It’s worse than a train wreck because you’re not morbidly compelled to watch in spite of yourself. I had to will myself to watch this, that’s how dreadful it was for me. Even more so because I find it hard to buy the parallels the writers were so eager to draw between Willow’s and Buffy’s predicament. Yes, Buffy and Willow are far removed from the characters we grew to love in the early seasons. Willow is hooked on magic, smug and reckless. Buffy is depressed, detached and apathetic. The difference is, Willow has found herself on a path she chose for herself (the writers suddenly deciding to equate magic with drugs does not negate the fact that Willow came to magic of her own volition and that the show had not treated magic as a drug prior to this season...), while Buffy is trying to deal with the wreckage of a situation that was thrust upon her without her consent (by none other than Willow...) Moreover, Willow’s abuse of magic and recklessness have tangible repercussions on those around her. It’s not even that her friends might suffer collateral damage, she had been actively using magic to manipulate and abuse them. Buffy’s “drug”, on the other hand, is Spike. While her relationship with him was definitely unhealthy, she wasn’t hurting anyone other than probably herself and Spike (although that’s not the reason why by the end of the episode she chose to stay away from him - sparing his feelings wasn’t her priority, she was trying to protect her friends ¿?) I think there’s a big difference between “My friends won’t like/will disapprove of what I’m doing with my life [the person I’m banging]” and “I am emotionally and physically hurting my friends with what I’m doing with my life [abusing magic]”

So, while I can understand why Buffy is reluctant to continue her affair with Spike (and tbh even as a Spuffy shipper I wish she would’ve drawn the line here), her sleeping with Spike is hardly equivalent to Willow’s abuse of magic in terms of the consequences for those around them.

Okay, long introduction over. I just had to get that off my chest before it had been nagging at me since I finished the episode.

BUFFY: When... When did the building fall down? SPIKE: I don't know. Must have been sometime between the first time and the, uh...

SPIKE: I just don't see why you have to run off so quick. Thought we could...

BUFFY: Not gonna happen. Last night was the end of this freak show.

SPIKE: Don't say that.

BUFFY: What did you think was gonna happen? What, we're gonna read the newspaper together, play footsie under the rubble?

Buffy wasn’t really tactful, but she was making a good point.

4) Of course, even if she didn’t picture babies and a house in the suburbs with Spike, she does enjoy fooling around with him. And I get it, girl. It doesn’t last too long, though, because Spike being Spike he had to be all gross and...

SPIKE: I knew. I knew the only thing better than killing a slayer would be f... BUFFY: What?!

That sets her off, and she quickly dismisses his theory that she’s a vampire groupie by setting Angel apart from him and calling Spike “convenient”.

And while that’s true, I don’t think it was only about “convenience”. If she only needed to have sex with someone, she could’ve tried and find someone else. Someone she wasn’t supposedly disgusted by. Or a dildo, which is far less problematic and occasionally far more efficient, lbr. And while Spike was convenient in the sense that A) he was there, and B) he was following her around like a puppy and declaring his love at every turn, Buffy wouldn’t have slept with him if she hadn’t been attracted/turned-on by him, you know?

5) OMG, Tara reverts to stuttering when Willow shows up with Amy, that’s how much it hurt her to think that Willow was already dating someone else.

And then Willow tries to set her straight by explaining it was Amy the Rat but instead of making things better, she makes everything a million times worse because that’s how Tara knows she hasn’t quit doing magic. And if there was something more hurtful than Willow dating someone, it was Willow doing magic in spite of the fact that was the reason Tara had left her. I think Tara definitely feels like Willow cared more about magic than she did about her, you know?

DAWN: You should rest. You're beat from monster-wrestling all night.

7) I know I’ve called Willow lazy before, but in all fairness, I would totally use magic to try and shut the curtains while I’m curled up in bed. Except Willow was all drained out of magic because of the previous night. See? That’s what happens when you go on a magic-binge: there’s none left for the important stuff like shutting the curtains without leaving the warm of your bed.

8) I believe this theory 100%

XANDER: Anya has a theory. She thinks that Martha Stewart froze that guy. ANYA: Don't be ridiculous. Martha Stewart isn't a demon. She's a witch. XANDER: Please, she... Really? ANYA: Of course. Nobody could do that much decoupage without calling on the powers of darkness.

9) See 1) above. Buffy tries to defend Willow because she’s seeing herself reflected in Xander’s and Anya’s comments, but the difference is, Willow’s actions were hurting others (as well as herself.)

BUFFY: She's just... helping Amy through a transition. XANDER: And making herself a playmate to do magic with. Someone who won't monitor her like Tara. BUFFY: No, Willow's a grown-up. You know, maybe she doesn't need to be monitored. You know, she's going through something, but we're not her. I mean ... m-maybe she has reasons for acting this way. And, so what if she crossed a line? You know, we all do stuff. Stupid stuff. But, then we learn. And, and we learn, and, and we don't do it again. Okay, so, you know, who are we to get all judgey?

XANDER: Not judgey, Buff. Just, observey. ANYA: Yeah, all we're saying is, she's acting different. You know, she's not herself.

10) Considering Amy had been a rat for over three years, that means she had been visiting Rack while she was a teenager... which is super creepy for all sorts of reasons but especially the one below...

11) If you read the whole Rack scenes in terms of the magic=drugs metaphor, Amy and Willow were basically prostituting themselves for drugs/magic...

RACK: Amy said. Amy said I could help you. But did Amy say how you could help me?

WILLOW: No, I-I have some money, a-a bit-

RACK: Not money.

WILLOW: Well, I could help you with your computer, I'm really handy-

RACK: Just relax, I'm not gonna hurt you. You gotta give a little to get a little, right?

AMY: It's okay. It's over fast.

RACK: That's right. I'm just gonna take a little tour.

Yikes, show. Y I K E S.

12) This scene is Trainspotting levels of creepy/scary...

13) This is so sad...

14) I love the running joke about how slaying makes you hungry... and horny...

DAWN: I'll leave a note for Buffy on the refrigerator. That's the first place she goes after patrolling. She's such a pig after she kills things.

15) This show is usually so good when it comes to writing metaphors into the narrative. I mean, the metaphors are not exactly subtle (like Angel losing his soul and ditching Buffy after having sex with her...) but they aren’t heavy-handed either. Except for the magic=drugs metaphor. I usually pride myself in saying that BTVS is a show that doesn’t underestimate its viewers’ intelligence, but let’s be real, the writers must’ve thought we were a bunch of dimwits if they thought they had to go this far to hammer the metaphor into us. I mean...

16) Oh, Dawnie! There’s nothing wrong with a meat party in your mouth, as long as you are of age and consent to it ;)

WILLOW: So, the burger was good? You liked it? DAWN: Are you kidding? It was like a meat party in my mouth. Okay, now I'm just a kid, and even *I* know that came out wrong.

17) Willow starts asking Dawn questions about Tara, like if she was sad or if she had mentioned Willow in their conversation. (which was kind of shitty in itself - I mean, you shouldn’t bring a 15-year-old girl into your relationship drama, you know? even if said girl has shown approval of your relationship and wants you to get back together with your ex...) And in my mind I was like: “Oh, okay, so this must be when she makes the decision to go to Rack’s, because talking about Tara triggered her and she needed the palliative.” Like, I could almost understand why she needed the magic/drugs. But then Dawn notices they have been walking down the wrong path for a while, which means that Willow was set on visiting Rack - and dragging Dawn along - before bringing Tara up. So, uncool all around.

18)

DAWN: Well, what about the movie? It starts at nine.

WILLOW: We'll make it. I, I'll just be a minute. And it doesn't matter if we miss the trailers.

DAWN: I like the trailers.

So do I, Dawn :(

19) OH MY GOD, SHOW, WE GET IT! MAGIC = DRUGS!!

20) I’m both Buffy and Spike, tbh.

BUFFY: Last night... was the most perverse... degrading experience of my life. SPIKE: Yeah. Me too.

21) Even as Buffy continues to claim she’s disgusted by Spike and herself for agreeing to have sex with him, she’s really not as adamant as she used to be when actual feelings - his or her own - were brought up in their conversations. Like, when he tells her that she knows he loves her, she doesn’t refute this statement as she would’ve done before (”you’re in love with pain” “you don’t know what feelings are”.) Moreover, when Spike argues that their night together made her feel something, she quietly tells him: “Not love” instead of dismissing the idea of feeling something for him altogether.

22) So, the super witch runs into ther magic-created monster, and she can’t do shit to fend him off? It’s the meek 15-year-old girl who has to do it.

And like 5 seconds after being scared shittless, she’s playing Mario Kart with the car she hijacked and laughing it off, not paying attention to the girl sitting next to her who is rightfully terrified and screaming in fear?

See? This is what I mean when I say Willow thought she was almighty. She honestly believed she could do no wrong. Even in a situation in which has clearly fucked up, she still believes she’s going to get her way. And yes, I get she was highor whatever, but this still was Willow only heightened.

23) ugh this scene is so difficult to watch, but damn did she have it coming...

(the screenshot makes it look kind of hilarious, though, but it’s so uncomfortable to watch)

24) But then Willow breaks down and it’s hard not to feel for her because we can tell she’s truly sorry. And this is why I love Buffy so damn much...

In spite of what Willow had put Dawn through and in spite of her own anger at her friend, Buffy still understands that Willow needs her, and so she casts her own feelings aside and finds it in her to comfort and help her. This is why she’s a hero - her never-ending forgiveness and selflessness.

25) Okay, this is why I believe Willow didn’t need a trigger (Tara’s death) to go dark...

WILLOW: I don't know. The magic, I... I thought I had it under control, and then... I didn't. (...) But I mean... if you could be... you know, plain old Willow or super Willow, who would you be? (...)

BUFFY: Will, there's nothing wrong with you. You don't need magic to be special.

WILLOW: Don't I? I mean, Buffy, who was I? Just... some girl. Tara didn't even know that girl.

Tell me if this doesn’t have “supervillain origin story” written all over it.

26) “It’s over.”

Easier said than done, isn’t it?

#Buffy the Vampire Slayer #BTVS #Buffy Summers #Willow Rosenberg #Joss Whedon #MTVSepicrewatch #BTVSrewatch2015 #Spike #Spuffy #mine #recap #Wrecked #btvsrecap

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