pearlofthewoods

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Mmmmm I feel a Spuffy x Stardust fic coming on…

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Buffy was at the club but unfortunately, so were all the vampires.

what i love very much about buffy as a show is it seems like you cant say "they shouldve been at the club" because they were, critically, at the club literally all the time. however, despite this, and i can't emphasize this enough, oh my god, they shouldve been at the club. especially buffy herself. no one shouldve been at the club more. and she WAS. however, in the ways that are important, she also was not

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I love that Joyce feels so safe with Spike that she feels comfortable joking around him/at his expense. Cause realistically, he’s still relatively evil and pretty dangerous (should he really want to be, even though it’d cause him pain).

But there’s absolutely no fear on Joyce’s part, and there hasn’t ever been, even back when he wasn’t chipped.

And I don’t think Spike would’ve ever even hurt her if he could, he just has too much respect for the lady.

"I love what you neglected to do with the place"

Joyce is so funny. I love that her and Spike get along and that Buffy trusts Spike to keep Dawn and Joyce safe.

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Buffy Summers, Our Lady of Effulgence.

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I’ve seen so many videos like this too, both about ships (particularly jegulus) and about specific fics people believe have ‘ruined’ the fandom.

To be honest, I think it’s particularly an HP/marauders phenomenon. Not that this doesn’t happen in other fandoms, but so many of the fanfic scandals (like fic binding for profit, AI in fanfilms) and now this, happen here. And I’m so tired of it.

It’s probably a result of being such a large fandom- people are used to choice and to so much fic to read that they can treat it like ‘content’- whereas in a smaller fandom you might just have to treasure what few small fics for your ship/fandom you have.

I think people on Tiktok are slowly becoming more aware that critiquing fics directly isn’t ok, but instead I’m just seeing it replaced with negativity about certain ships that people dislike.

And I understand, I’m not the biggest jegulus fan in the world, but I wouldn’t go into the comments section of someone’s video about jegulus or their fic hating on the ship and its portrayal.

I think this is even more crucial when we get to ships that have no basis in canon (such as jegulus) because the entire basis of the ship that you’re hating on is fanfiction.

That ship doesn’t exist outside of a fanfiction context and outside of the fic writers who built that relationship dynamic from the ground up.

So when you dunk on a ship that’s entirely fan created, you can only be dunking on the labour of love by the fic writers who write for that ship and for the fandom as a whole.

Since there is no interaction in canon, the only ‘dynamic’ between those characters that you’re criticising consists solely of the fic versions that you’ve read.

Obviously it’s different when we come to discussing preferences in ships that both have a basis in canon.

For example, another fandom I’m in is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In BTVS, Buffy has 2 big canonical ships within the source material, so when I discuss why I prefer one ship over another, I only ever reference the dynamics of the characters in canon to make my point. Never fanfiction.

Of course there’s validity in saying you don’t read jegulus because there’s no canon basis or canonical interaction, but I find that’s not what people do. They never leave it there.

They say ‘I hate jegulus and what it’s done to the fandom’ or ‘I hate how y’all make james fall in love with a death-eater, he would never’ etc.

My brother in Christ, Jegulus doesn’t exist in canon. You don’t have to read it.

When you ‘hate’ on jegulus and their dynamic, you’re hating fanfic writers’ portrayals of jegulus. That’s the only jegulus content there is to hate.

I will say it now. I don’t personally read jegulus, I like my ships to have some basis in canon if I can. That’s just my preference. But that’s no reason to hate on the work of other fic writers. Click away, there’s always something else to read.

And if you can’t find precisely the ship and dynamic you’re looking for? Then congratulations, it’s time to get writing my friend.

we are incredibly blesseddddd in the harry potter fandom. no matter what era you are reading, there is such a wide array of fics for you to enjoy - such a multitudeeee of long-fics, aus, ships, tropes etc etc. we are so blessed to have this much to engage with.

but with that comes a lot of entitlement i feel. because there's more to "compare", there's more to call "the big fics" or "the best fics" and suddenly we're no longer blessed, because people don't appreciate fandom for what it is - a bunch of losers (affectionate) sitting in their rooms, writing fanfiction about wizards in their spare time, and sharing it with strangers online. rather it starts becoming competitive.

and 99.99% of the time, it's not the people writing these fics that start the comparisons and the competitions, it's those reading it. they'll publicly question why a fic has so many hits, they'll assume that fandom etiquette no longer applies just because a fic is popular, and they'll forget that these are people writing them, not just ao3 pseudonyms. they'll critique writing styles, get hung up on typos or grammatical errors etc etc. they'll start saying which piece of creative writing done by a person in their free time as a hobby is "worth it" and which ones aren't. and it's wild because they're the ones that have put these fics at the top. they're the ones that have decided these fics are the most worthy,,, and then they critique them?

and most of this is because of the hierarchy, absolutely. there's been a mass separation of readers-writers because people refuse to engage, and they start viewing themselves as "customers" receiving a "product" and they complain when it doesn't fit their standards. some of it is also the changing face of fandom spaces as they get big on more traction-based platforms like tiktok. all of it comes down to entitlement.

they start enforcing standards for fanfictions to live up to and start dictating what "good" writing is, as if that doesn't go against the very nature of a fandom space. a space where everybody's voice is heard and everybody has the same opportunity to create things (side tangent: this is not the time to be dictating what voices/experiences/talents deserve to be heard. free and open sources of literature are incredibly important right now. we often talk about the fact we hold fanfiction to the same standard as publit, which yes we do and that is not what we should be doing. but now we're starting to police it the same way publit is, and now is not the time. there is never a time tbh, but now when book bans are running rampant across the world? you want to decide which fics deserve to be read and which ones don't? hm).

and the worst thing is that not only are people critiquing the works we already have, but they demand more.

they'll say there's no more long-fics getting written, and then they won't go and engage with WIPs and encourage authors to continue, they won't start a fic until it's complete and then complain that nothing is complete. they'll say there's not enough fics for a certain ship, and instead of engaging with those producing them or encouraging love and engagement for them with others, they'll go into comment sections and hate on another ship. they'll say there's not enough of a certain trope and then they'll read one and go "hm. not like that" or not enough of a certain character and then go "actually i don't see them like this so this is written awfully".

most of all, they'll say that certain fics or ships have a ruined a fandom, and then they'll post things that go sooooo against what a fandom is, and just add to what is actually ruining wider fandom spaces - entitlement.

you are not entitled to long-fics, these are being written by people in their free time, and you refuse to engage with them as they're being written. you are not entitled to perfect grammar and presentation, fanfiction is for everybody and it is not a profession, it's a hobby. you are not entitled to the characterisations that you deem to be best, everything is malleable and you engage with what you like (better yet, write it yourself if you're so open to shitting on others. you do it then). you are not entitled to regular and consistent updates, you do not get a monopoly over this person's time. and you're going to see a lot less works over time if this is the way you treat them.

you are not entitled to any content in a fandom space, and no one is required to provide it for you. and most of all, your opinions and your characterisations and things you enjoy are not more worthy than anyone elses' - reading is subjective, we learnt this in primary school.

fandom is for self-exploration and it is self-curated. it's so self-curated and if you are having such a negative time in fandom because you can't find anything "good" or "worth it"? maybe there's some self-reflection to do as well. maybe you should sit and wonder why you feel entitled to things and why you feel the need to pit authors against each other or critique free works publicly, instead of wondering why other people are reading them.

we are so incredibly blessed to be in a fandom as diverse as this one with such an array of interpretations and such a wide spread of fics to choose from, but let's return to our roots and remember that - despite how many there are - everything is written by a Human Being. in their Free Time. For Fun.

and it's not fun to watch videos calling works bad get thousands of views and likes. you are not owed anything. and it is not okay to say these things just because "they'll never see it" - it says a lotttt about you as a person that there has to be some kind of impact for you to be kind.

it's like,,, would you go to a free bake sale and go "god i fucking hate red velvet!!!" and tell them they're doing a bad job, or would you pick up the chocolate cupcake you like instead and move on with your day whilst acknowledging that someone, not you but someone elseee, might like red velvet??? ykkkk??? you get me????

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Idk how James Marsters pulls off that Disney princess eye twinkle.

oh sweet anon, i feel you.

I think there’s perhaps something in the shape of his eyes that makes him all innocent-looking, even if Spike’s just caused the usual chaos that follows in his wake.

He can go from bad-boy smize™ to wide-eyed angelic just like ✨that✨.

And when that doe-eyed look combines with the head tilt…something magical occurs…

…a Disney-princess twinkle you might say.

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The effulgent Buffy Summers 😭

“What’s another word for ‘gleaming’?” - William ‘Spike’ Pratt (Somewhere in Victorian England)

You know how in the comics it’s revealed that in Spike’s memories Buffy quite literally glows…

What if this is what Buffy looks like to Spike on the daily? No wonder he fell so deeply in love with her 😭

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“now how come you’re better than me at this”

“cuz i dont have the patience of a 2 year old”

“true. yours is a 3 year old”

“oh look my hand slipped”

“Oi.”

commission of buffy painting spike nails 💅 for @summrsbuffy

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“She’ll tell you. Someday she’ll tell you.”

Happy 2025 spuffy girlies! Let’s start the year how we mean to go on😭

You can find the original edit on my TikTok here <3

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"The destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young man" - wdym rests? He got crushed, absolutely flattened. Destiny turned that man into a pancake

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You know how in the comics it’s revealed that in Spike’s memories Buffy quite literally glows…

What if this is what Buffy looks like to Spike on the daily? No wonder he fell so deeply in love with her 😭

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early episodes of Buffy are like "high school sucks, you should be at the club" and then they go to the club and something tries to kill them

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Mother, Daughter, and Demonic Spirit. 😅

Happy New Year!

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From the very first moment James Potter met Lily Evans, he knew he would die for her. Too bad the world made sure he had to.

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Happy New Year to the fanfiction writers, the artists, the shippers, and the ones who just really, really love their favorite characters. You keep the fandom alive.