#Buffy the vampire slayer classic comic

[oveliagirlhaditright]

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I made another post, when I freaked out in finding out that Micaela Tomasi from "The Gatekeeper Trilogy" appeared in one of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer classic comics... Though I never compiled pictures of her from the comic with any of her moments from the books. Though, actually, this scene of her ISN'T from "The Gatekeeper Trilogy," but rather "Dark Congress" (I can't find the one "Gatekeeper Trilogy" book I would have wanted to use right now), as Micaela appears in quite a few of the Buffy tie-in novels (and also this comic). And how I love it.

[thepunkmuppet]

followers and mutuals and just anybody exploring these tags!!!

i want to make something and i have no motivation so!!!

anyone and everyone send me an ask to choose between either two doctor who (+ torchwood) characters or two buffyverse characters and i will make a gifset :)

[acotarmemes]

ACOTAR polls // crossover

[lightdancer1]

Speaking of that bigger discussion:

One of the elements that makes Buffy simultaneously superb when it's good and mediocre to awful when it isn't is that each of the main characters goes through very different arcs. Spike is the Anne Rice vampire, Angel is a heroic version of Konrad Curze, Buffy has the classical hero's journey, Giles is the Obi-Wan who never quite dies, Dawn is the Lovecraftian monster who's equal parts adorable and annoying (so the ultimate little sister), Xander has the reliable and unfortunately human aspects of being the normal guy who normal guys. Anya is the unrepentant murderous sadist who's charismatic and effective with her powers and a dork among dorks without them.

Willow, OTOH, has the arc that is at the most radically divergent with everyone else. Everyone else to a point fits in neatly with the genre conventions here, Willow fits straight into the DC or Marvel kind of setting of higher-powered superpowered being who had to be downplayed in Season 7 for the same reasons the DCAU struggled to write Superman. Everyone else leads a horror-comedy where the two poles of their lives grind against each other like icebergs in the Arctic or Antarctic Sea.

Willow lives an arc rooted in a much more direct superhero element, but where other people might expect Superman or Batman (and Angel is closer to Batman than anyone here, hence the Konrad Curze joke), she is unknown to herself living Jean Grey going Dark Phoenix and being both easily forgiven and avoiding the Dark Phoenix problem thanks to the comics of being given a pass by her actions being completely separated from her.

Each of the main characters in Buffy has at least three major genres overlapping and shaping their lives. Giles, Faith, Buffy, the Potentials turned Slayers, and the monsters they fight, as well as Tara and Amy Madison are all living the life of urban fantasy, deeply rooted in that old order as direct embodiments of its ideals (The Master and Kakistos for the villains, Kendra and Quentin Travers for the heroes), or rebelling against it (Buffy and Tara), or going down the hero to villain path, either with a way back or not (Faith and Amy Madison).

Xander is living the most direct Kolchak the Night Stalker kind of urban fantasy life. Perfectly normal dude in a world of demonic monsters out there trying to erase all human life and even demonic life as well, who goes out there to fight the good fight.

And then there's Willow, whose life is straight out of the X-Men arcs.....including the one where the hero went nuts and tried to kill a bunch of people and had to be brought down by her own side. As characters in a work don't know the genre they're in, this is IMO the ultimate reason some form of Dark Willow was always inevitable. Willow being who she is and what she is, with her brilliance and all, was pretty much assured to go straight into magic as soon as she knew it existed. With her brilliance she would grasp power without understanding precision or all the nuances of using it.

Insofar as the characters know they're living any kind of genre experience, it's urban fantasy. All the trappings of modern life with vampires and dragons in the shadowy alleys of a modern urban region. So when one of them is living an iconic superhero arc and perhaps under the impression it's one of the more classical goofy Silver Age ones, failure to understand that or how swiftly things go wrong is perhaps the biggest single reason why Willow's path to the dark side, even temporarily, is likely to happen.

Almost nobody human would take access to the kind of power she discovers she has well. As she's the most powerful sorceress on Earth, at minimum, her capacity for fuckups are correspondingly bigger. And as long as her friends just thought of how cute she was it was never going to occur to them that her small fuckups which are humongous deals by the standards of other sorcerers might one day be less handwaved and funny and more 'bring the brown pants' tier terrifying.

Admittedly this is why 2020s me likes Willow even more than 2000s me did, woman gains enormous power but is entirely human about wielding it is my jam, writing-wise, and it makes writing Willow a lot more fun as she's one of the few canon characters that comes closest to the kind of vibe I like to work with.

[martiniluvr]

★ why’s a girl like you…

bio

nat! she/her, 21, latina, trilingual, capricorn, intj ★

interests

fashion; labels, couture history, fashion week, runway moments, the eras of modelling ★

pop culture; legendary feuds, iconic performances, it-couples, era-defining red carpet outfits ★

misc; astrology, weightlifting, the sims, writing, makeup, cooking, world politics ★

entertainment

movies; the mummy (1999), the phantom of the opera (2005), cruel intentions (1999), gone girl (2014), dark knight trilogy, scream (1996), batman: hush (2019), jurassic park (1993), basically every rom com and chick flick from 1982-2010 ★

television; young justice, community, buffy the vampire slayer, sex and the city, smallville, gossip girl, justice league unlimited, the amazing world of gumball, teen titans, the office, rupaul’s drag race, peaky blinders, teen wolf, the vampire diaries, derry girls ★

special interests; dc comics (+ dick grayson, jason todd, the bats, catwoman, superman, the justice league), star wars, spider-man ★

music

artists; lady gaga, michael jackson, arctic monkeys, hozier, britney spears, 2pac, sade, beyoncé, childish gambino, the weeknd, pink floyd, fleetwood mac, oasis, tears for fears, depeche mode, deftones ★

genres; r&b, pop, rap/hip hop, most rock, nu metal, classical, musicals…lil bit of everything ★

…in a place like this? ★

[myths-tournaments]

Awful Characters Round 1 Part 3 (3/8)

Propaganda under the cut!

JASON TODD

I have actually seen Twitter fans being insane about him yeah it's actually a little sad He's an ex-murder victim with a vendetta who's killed dozens of people and became a crime lord to take control of the drug trade (and keep it away from school, but try telling that to somebody who dislikes him). He also gets represented as the bloodthirsty Robin, which is just beyond false if you actually read the issues he's in, but that's partially on DC, too, for trying to badly retcon his past.

SPIKE

Spike is a mass murderering vampire without a soul (for most of the show), is in general an asshole, and also is off and on presented as incredibly sexist. In his lowest moment on the show he tries to rape Buffy (while still soulless). His relationship with Buffy is incredibly toxic. It's great I love it As for have I seen it, not exactly? Btvs is an older fandom that doesn't tend to get dragged into this kinda discourse, but within the fandom people who are trying to be anti Spike will bring this shit up to prop up their own awful guy (gender neutral) to ship buffy with, classic ship war stuff

[niuniente]

YES THAT'S THE THING! The only negative thing I have heard about Buffy since it started airing in the late 90's is that Buffy always goes back to Angel, no matter what, and it can get boring.

After all, this is an extremely popular series. A cult classic. It has won lots of prizes and gotten nominations. Has gotten books, comics, a movie. Angel even got his own series!

And here I am, not believing what I'm seeing because the writing just sucks SO BAD AND MAKES NO SENSE and no, you can't say it's because the series is old.

This all is happening in S5. There have been inklings over the course that this series is indeed made by a man, because only a man would write romance or women like that. Nothing super big, just slightly annoying like "oh my god, no woman would actually think or do that".

The problem in S5 is that the series/creator clearly can't either understand what a healthy devotion is OR/AND can't commit to write Spike in one way only. He constantly contradicts himself without any given reason, which in this case would only be a severe mental health issue.

Spike is pictured as this lovesick puppy who would do anything for Buffy, a bit shy and really taking his time to gather his courage to confess his feelings, and who is also making sure that his actions won't hurt Buffy or her family, even if it would hurt or kill him. Like, this soft, gentle, sensitive man who will do anything to keep his lover safe and would never harm them in anyway. Every mother's dream son-in-law.

But Spike is also, at the very same time, pictured from this male perspective of a lovesick man; oh, isn't it romantic how he steals Buffy's clothes to smell them, has built an altar for her, has a Buffy mannequin at his crypt he treats violently when he gets angry, stalks her around her home because he can't help his feelings, how Spike asks her current girlfriend to roleplay Buffy in bedroom because otherwise he doesn't want to have sex with her, how he commissions this personal Buffy sex toy for his own pleasure and orgasms only, and how he kidnaps Buffy and tells Buffy he kills her if he can't have her? Oh, what romantic devotion, this man is SO in LOVE!

AND HE KEEPS GOING BACK AND FORTH! THIS EPISODE, HE WANTS TO KILL BUFFY. NEXT EPISODE HE ALMOST GETS KILLED HIMSELF BECAUSE HE WOULD NEVER ALLOW ANYTHING BAD TO HAPPEN TO BUFFY. WELL NOW HE STALKS BUFFY AND WANTS HER FOR HIMSELF ONLY, BUT NO, WAIT, HE'S ACTUALLY PROTECTING BUFFY'S FAMILY BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT TO BRING ANY SADNESS TO BUFFY.

Like, who the hell is he? Do you want him to be the every woman's dream man or every woman's nightmare? He can't be both at the same time, not without an explanation and no, him being a vampire and sensitive isn't a valid explanation for such drastic differences.

And BUFFY? Sweet lord, Buffy! She's all just "eew, no" about this whole ordeal of having an obsessive man who has killed two Slayers (and is apparently the only vampire who has ever won against a Slayer) after her. No worry in the world. No concern that this man could kill or rape her, or hurt her family in his temper tantrum? Just scolds him by saying "gross" and "leave me alone".

And here I thought the biggest issue for the upcoming Buffy and Spike romance would be Angel's existence.

Of course, the series is probably going to brush all this freaky stuff off like "Nah, never happened and look, he was just so desperately in love and Buffy is so very strong she is not afraid of anyone and has no sense of self-protection as a woman".

I just don't understand how this level of character writing is considered even remotely plausible, not to mention something to be celebrated as an excellent cult classic?

Maybe it's just the Season 5. Maybe I'm just too old. And too sad. I just want better for Buffy and Spike, separately and together.

EDIT: OK TURNS OUT THE CREATOR OF THE SERIES HATED SPIKE AND HIS ACTOR FOR MAKING SPIKE A FAN FAVORITE AND RUINING HIS ARTISTIC PLANS, AND THAT THE CREATOR IS BASICALLY JUST A MAN SIZE WALKING DICK. A clear attempt to make fans hate Spike in S5 writing.

[mayamidnightmelody]

The 1990s was a pivotal decade for geek culture, solidifying many of the trends and franchises that continue to influence pop culture today. Here's an exploration of the various facets of geekdom in the 90s:

Video Games

The 1990s were a golden era for video games, seeing the rise of iconic franchises and gaming consoles.

Consoles and Games:

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis were at the forefront of the early 90s gaming scene. Classics like "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past," "Super Mario World," and "Sonic the Hedgehog" became household names.

The mid-90s introduced the Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. Games like "Final Fantasy VII," "Metal Gear Solid," "Super Mario 64," and "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" revolutionized the industry with their storytelling and 3D graphics.

PC Gaming:

The rise of PC gaming brought titles like "Doom," "Quake," "Warcraft," and "Starcraft," which laid the groundwork for modern first-person shooters and real-time strategy games.

The introduction of the CD-ROM allowed for more complex and graphically intense games, expanding the possibilities of game design.

Comic Books and Graphic Novels

The 90s was a transformative period for comics, marked by a combination of innovation and market upheavals.

Marvel and DC Comics:

Marvel experienced a surge in popularity with the introduction of new characters like Deadpool and the significant events like the "X-Men's Age of Apocalypse" and "Spider-Man's Clone Saga."

DC Comics shook the world with storylines such as "The Death of Superman" and "Batman: Knightfall."

Independent Publishers:

The formation of Image Comics by former Marvel artists brought a wave of creator-owned series like "Spawn," "The Savage Dragon," and "WildC.A.T.s."

Vertigo, an imprint of DC, produced critically acclaimed titles such as "Sandman" by Neil Gaiman and "Preacher" by Garth Ennis, pushing the boundaries of mature storytelling in comics.

Science Fiction and Fantasy

The 90s were a golden age for science fiction and fantasy, both in literature and on screen.

Television:

"Star Trek" had a strong presence with "The Next Generation" continuing its success, followed by "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager."

"The X-Files" became a cultural phenomenon, blending science fiction with horror and conspiracy theories.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" redefined the fantasy genre on television, combining teenage drama with supernatural elements.

Movies:

Blockbuster franchises like "Jurassic Park," "The Matrix," and "Men in Black" showcased cutting-edge special effects and imaginative storytelling.

The re-release of the original "Star Wars" trilogy in special editions prepared the groundwork for the much-anticipated prequel trilogy.

Anime and Manga

The 90s saw the global explosion of anime and manga, making Japanese pop culture a mainstream phenomenon.

Anime:

Series like "Dragon Ball Z," "Sailor Moon," and "Pokémon" became immensely popular worldwide, introducing many to the world of anime.

Films by Studio Ghibli, such as "Princess Mononoke" and "My Neighbor Totoro," received critical acclaim and international recognition.

Manga:

Manga series like "Naruto," "One Piece," and "Berserk" began their runs, setting the stage for long-lasting popularity.

The publication of "Shonen Jump" in English brought many of these series to Western audiences.

Role-Playing Games (RPGs)

The 90s were a significant decade for tabletop RPGs, with many classic games being developed and popularized.

Dungeons & Dragons:

The release of the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) in 1989 carried through the 90s, with campaigns like "Planescape" and "Dark Sun" becoming fan favorites.

Other RPGs:

"Vampire: The Masquerade" by White Wolf Publishing introduced the World of Darkness, a setting that offered a dark, gothic-punk alternative to traditional fantasy RPGs.

The cyberpunk genre was well represented by games like "Shadowrun" and "Cyberpunk 2020," capturing the gritty, high-tech, low-life aesthetic.

Collectibles and Trading Card Games

The 90s witnessed the birth and explosion of collectible card games (CCGs), with "Magic: The Gathering" leading the charge.

Magic: The Gathering:

Created by Richard Garfield and released by Wizards of the Coast in 1993, "Magic: The Gathering" became a groundbreaking and immensely popular game, sparking a new industry of collectible card games.

Pokémon:

The Pokémon Trading Card Game, released in 1996, quickly became a massive hit alongside the video games and TV series, contributing to the global Pokémon craze.

Internet and Technology

The rise of the internet in the 90s played a crucial role in shaping geek culture.

Early Internet Communities:

Bulletin board systems (BBS), forums, and newsgroups like Usenet allowed geeks to connect and share their interests in ways that were never before possible.

The creation of fan sites and the use of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) facilitated the growth of online communities dedicated to various fandoms.

Technology:

The proliferation of personal computers and the advent of the World Wide Web democratized access to information and entertainment, allowing geek culture to flourish and expand globally.

In conclusion, the 1990s were a transformative decade for geek culture, characterized by the rise of influential media, the advent of groundbreaking technology, and the growth of vibrant communities. The era laid the foundation for many of the trends and franchises that continue to shape geekdom today.

[sunnydalestudies]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) Whedon's Version

Part 1/3: Changes to the Script and Story

When discussing BtVS, many people often focus solely on the show without considering what the additional media has to offer. There are comics, accompanying novels, and even a prequel film that many people forget about. Indeed, the world’s first introduction to Buffy happened in 1992 with the movie starring Kristen Swanson, and that is where I want to start.

Joss Whedon claims that the character of Buffy Summers had been with him for a long time, but when he sold his script to Sandollar in 1991, he was not pleased with the results. Whether it was Fran Rubel Kuzui as director, the 20th Century Fox executives, the actors changing their lines, or whatever else that made the changes, the original script and the film we can watch now are not quite the same. Here, I will highlight some critical changes that change how we interpret the film.

First, the film made various changes to the script’s dialogue, which impacted jokes, foreshadowing, and misogynistic conversations. Thankfully, in the audience’s first introduction to Buffy, the film preserves Whedon’s dialogue. Buffy’s Valley Girl persona is alive and well, and we see her as the popular, air-headed, hilarious, and beautiful character all fans love. The dialogue in this scene is beautifully Whedon: full of quick-witted and fast-paced jokes and slang. Although I can’t say that I support Whedon in any way, I have to say that dialogue is one of his greatest strengths. That is why it is so disappointing when, shortly after, Buffy makes an unimpressive joke about doing her homework. In the script, Buffy says to Cassandra, “there’s a lot cooler things that you could be doing than your homework,” to which Cassandra asks, “like what,” and Buffy replies, “like my homework.” In the movie, as they are making plans, Buffy instead says, “I don’t know, guys. I really wanna get a head start on my homework,” which her friends laugh at. Despite this being a minute change to the script, it is disappointing to see alterations that waste Whedon’s writing and replace it with a subpar joke.

A more meaningful dialogue change appears when Buffy and her friends first run into Pike and Benny in the movie theatre. After Benny shushes the chatting group of girls, Buffy predicts the plot so he doesn’t have to follow as closely: “everyone gets horribly killed except the blonde girl in the nightie, who finally kills the monster with a machete but it’s not really dead.” It’s a simple plot summary of several popular horror films, but what is telling here is what it says about Buffy and the Buffyverse. Firstly, this explanation loosely foreshadows the rest of the movie by portraying what will happen at the dance: many students are horribly killed except the blonde girl in a white dress, who finally kills Lothos and Amilyn, but Lothos lamely covering his face and Amilyn’s overly dramatic flailing around the basement after Buffy stakes them indicate they might not be dead—although this may be due to the fans of the series expecting them to dust, and he does dust in the script, so it was probably due to the film’s low budget since the dusting effect was surprisingly pricey. Secondly, this knowing explanation displays Buffy’s intelligence. She may not be classically book-smart, but Buffy’s intelligence concerning pop culture and social situations gives her the upper hand throughout the film, show, and comics. This intelligence leads to my third point: Buffy exemplifies many contradictory horror tropes. Whedon founded the character of Buffy on the subversion of the trope of the blonde girl walking into the alley and getting attacked. In his version, the girl is who wins. Alongside this trope, this film also plays with those of the ‘final girl’ and ‘promiscuous blonde girl who gets killed off first.’ Whedon also plays with these tropes in his horror satire film Cabin in the Woods(2012), which is a trope lover’s delight, but he only uses the tropes there rather than subverting them. Only in the Buffyverse do we see the intersection of these two tropes: the promiscuous (and yes, film Buffy is promiscuous) blonde girl evolving into the final girl, becoming the one to outsmart the bad guys, not despite her initial airheadedness, but because of it, using her social skills and catty attitude to save the day. At first glance, this is a simple line, but it holds layers of meaning, and it is too bad that the film omits it.

Before moving on from dialogue, I want to touch on a few instances of misogynistic language and actions in the script and film. In the scene where Buffy kisses her boyfriend in his car by laying across his friend’s lap with her butt in his face, the friend calls the boyfriend a ‘pushover’ for spending time with her and asks to ‘borrow’ Buffy. In the script, the friend calls him ‘pussy-whipped,’ and Buffy remains silent after this comment, but the film changes this term, and Buffy displays more agency as she voices her discontent at this comment. The scene remains uncomfortable and gross, but the changes make it slightly easier to digest. An exchange from the script that the film thankfully omitted appears a little later when Buffy runs into her absentee mother in the kitchen, who asks her, “have you gained a few pounds? maybe it’s that outfit,” before asking what her boyfriend will think about it. This type of exchange is not atypical for the 90s, but I am still glad they decided to take it out. Finally, near the end of the film, a piece of dialogue I believe they should have removed is when Buffy steals a man’s motorcycle after he hits on her, to which he responds by calling her a ‘dyke.’ This homophobia is prevalent in 90s movies—take a look at Bring It On (1999) to see a horrific example—but it is still disappointing to see that Whedon wrote this line, especially considering the empowering lesbian characters he would later write.

As much as these changes to the dialogue can impact our understanding of the film, the plot is also significantly changed, and even the script’s first scene is completely absent from the film. Perhaps the first rule of any form of storytelling is that a successful story shows rather than tells. Yet, the film decides to tell us. Whedon’s script opens with a historical twist on the ‘blonde girl walks into a dark alleyway, gets attacked, wins’ horror genre subversion as a ‘dark ages’ barmaid saves a knight from a vampire before a group of vampires, including Lothos, kills her, and a watcher explains the slayer line to the next chosen one. The film, instead, skips this first scene and delivers the exposition by voiceover, which is not an inherently negative way to contextualize, but the hook—and the entire idea of slayers—is lost in these opening moments. Fans watching the film today are likely familiar with the concept of slayers and how it all works, but this context is bland and forgettable for those who may not be familiar with Whedon's world-building.

The most notable alteration to Whedon’s script appears in Buffy’s first meeting with Lothos and Merrick’s death. If you are a fan of the series, you would know that Merrick’s death greatly impacted Buffy and is a primary reason she claims to be ‘retired’ in the first episode: because she lost him and blames herself for it. Interestingly, Whedon’s version of this scene in the script is more fast-paced and nearly emotionless. In fact, in Whedon’s version, Merrick brings a gun to confront Lothos while Buffy hides in the shadows, and just as Lothos is about to attack Merrick, Merrick shoots himself in the head and dies instantly. The script skims over this formative experience for Buffy while the film depicts a tender moment and explains why Buffy blames herself. In the film, Merrick is the one hiding in the shadows as Lothos hypnotizes Buffy, and as Lothos is about to bite her, Merrick rushes out with a knife, which Lothos quickly turns on Merrick and stabs him in the chest. Buffy then cradles Merrick as he dies, and he tells her, “remember about the music. Listen. When the music stops, the rest is…” before trailing off and passing away. I will feature the use of guns in the Buffyverse and Donald Sutherland’s changes to his dialogue in future posts, but this line is vital to the plot yet absent from the script. In the film, Merrick’s last words allow Buffy to tune out Lothos’ voice and focus on the silence to resist being hypnotized, ultimately allowing her to beat him, but it is entirely absent from the script. I cannot say why the film added this line of dialogue, but I believe the touching final moment that Merrick and Buffy share is an incredible addition that humanizes the characters and solidifies Merrick as an essential influence in Buffy’s life.

There are a lot of differences between the script and the final film, ranging from alterations to dialogue to changes in setting, all the way to reconstructing plot points. The script was Whedon’s making, but ultimately, he lost control over the final project once he sold it; thus, is it his? Is the film canonical? How does it fit with the series? I am glad they made some of these changes while disappointed with others, but in the end, however you feel about this film as part of the Buffyverse, it is an incredibly entertaining piece of 90s media that I would recommend to Buffy fans and non-fans alike.

That’s that for this Sunnydale study session! 

Liz

[fuckmemurderman]

Hey, freaks (affectionate), it's only 2 weeks to Halloween and I thought I'd rustle up a collection of Halloween movies you wouldn't normally consider in your lineup (yes, I consider all of these to be Halloween movies) and I highly recommend them. Again, as always, do NOT interact with this post or talk to/follow me if you are under 18.

The Halloween Tree (1993) - my absolute favorite movie fully serious. It's an animated movie about a group of kids meeting on Halloween night to go trick-or-treating but one of them is missing. They get caught up in a magical adventure through time and space learning about different cultures and their influence on modern Halloween while they look for their friend with the help of an ancient sorcerer whose intentions are not entirely clear. Based on a Ray Bradbury book of the same name (I think the movie is 1000x better though).

Van Helsing (2004) - the Hugh Jackman horror action masterpiece. If you don't know anything about it, it's about an alternate version of the character Van Helsing who works for the Vatican hunting monsters from classic Gothic literature. He is called on a mission to kill Dracula which has mysterious significance to his own past that he cannot remember. It's campy, it's fun, and it has an absolutely killer soundtrack. Lots of great practical effects and the CGI is stylized so it's aged pretty well in the 20 years since its release.

The Crow (1994) - now is an especially good time to watch this incredible movie because honestly fuck that remake and everyone who thought it would be a good idea. If you don't know this one, it's a revenge story about a musician who was murdered with his fiancee the night before their wedding by a gang of thugs. He is resurrected a year later with superhuman abilities, giving him the opportunity to kill everyone involved with the murder. It's at its core a beautiful story about love and protecting the innocent and it gets so much deeper than a simple "eye for an eye" type plot. It's based on a comic but it isn't a direct adaptation. (Side note: the cat does NOT die or get hurt!)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) - the movie that came before the tv show and is just as good. Basic story is a high school cheerleader finds out she is the chosen one destined to hunt vampires and other evils and she is not about it at first. Think Clueless meets The Lost Boys. It's funny, it's got good drama, the villain is compelling - it's a lot of fun.

Urban Legend (1998) - an underrated slasher using common urban legends to murder a bunch of college kids. It's every bit as good as Scream in similar ways but it was overshadowed by more popular films at the time. It has really good twists and the mystery of who the killer is makes it a really engaging watch. (Side note: the dog DOES die but you can easily avoid seeing it)

House on Haunted Hill (1999) - a remake that is better than the original imo. A wealthy roller coaster designer invites a group of seemingly unrelated people to a party in a former insane asylum for an overnight challenge: whoever can stay the whole night in the supposedly haunted building wins a large sum of cash. The problem is that the building is extremely haunted and they are all in danger. They are also all linked to the building in some way and the ghosts are very angry with them in particular.

Butterfly Kisses (2015) - one of the best found footage movies I've ever seen no exaggeration. It's about an amateur filmmaker who inexplicably discovered an unfinished project of some missing film students in his house. The students were researching a local urban legend of a supernatural being called Peeping Tom who, if you manage to see him, will get closer to you each time you blink until he is able to touch you and then he kills you. It's extremely well done and manages to do what The Blair Witch Project did without having any more similarities than the film students getting into something bigger than they thought.

ParaNorman (2012) - brilliant stop motion animation telling the story of a bullied kid with the ability to talk to the dead as he is needed to break a curse dating back to the witch hunts. It's a little goofy in parts but it's really a heartbreaking tragedy in the meat of it and as a former bullied kid it really hit home for me in a way most movies don't. Definitely watch in a good headspace.

Rec (2007) - found footage following a local news crew recording a fluff segment that turns into a fast paced fight for survival against a rage virus type infection spreading through an apartment building. It's got a basic zombie survival setup but it is so well done and so scary it really stands apart from most of its peers (and if you know me you know I am SO sick of zombie movies I could puke. This is an exception). Lots of jarring violence and overwhelming panic it's a wild ride the instant it gets going.

The Frighteners (1996) - kind of a forgotten gem of a supernatural murder mystery. A disgraced psychic investigator who everyone thinks is a fraud but he can actually see ghosts finds himself caught up in a series of unexplained deaths that seem to be caused by the Grim Reaper. I can't really say much more about it without spoilers but it's really really good and has some excellent twists.

Cry_Wolf (2005) - a meta slasher that takes itself a little more seriously. It uses the concept of a Mafia/Werewolf lying game and applies it to a prep school whodunnit. A foreign transfer student with a history of troublemaking falls in with a group of popular kids at his new school and they decide to prank their fellow students by creating a fake serial killer in a chain email just to scare everyone. They end up getting scared themselves when the killer they imagined seems to have come to life and is targeting them. I was OBSESSED with this movie as a teenager and it still is a decent watch now.

This is just general movies I like to watch around Halloween. If you're looking for specific types of movies (werewolf, shark, psychological, etc.) hit up my inbox and I'll get you a list of my favorites!

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 3 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Angel

I don’t remember if he was Catholic as a human (he was Irish like a few hundred years ago so probably) but his guilt complex as a vampire is so fucking massive it has to be Catholic lbr

well he's from 1700s ireland so. theres that. he's (for most of the series) the only vampire with a soul and he uses that soul to feel really guilty for everything all the time. he moves to LA and starts saving people from demons to try and atone for everything he did while he was a soulless vampire

he makes exactly one facial expression and its |:<

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler Propaganda:

good lord where do i start. in the animated series he converts logan to catholisism and then fucks off basically thats the main thing he did there. i think one time they tried to make him a demon to explain how he looked but everyone hated that. he sold his soul one time to help his friends out after he died. he and logan have a weird little gay thing. he was a priest one time but he was made a priest by a fake bishop from a religion that hates mutants iirc so he just wasnt a priest. like 3 people have written him in a way i like and one of those is my friend just talking about how they view him.

wow marvel loves making catholic characters dress/look like demons

Kurt is a mutant who was born to mystique who looks a LOT like a devil (technically is half one but that cannon truth isn’t real go back to bed), his mother dropped him off a cliff when he was born and he was picked up by a Romani group/circus (fuck old comics man) however he then narrowly escaped being sold to a freak show and found himself in a small German town. There he met a kind priest, who showed him God, and he quickly grew attached to the idea- However, it wasn’t long before people began labeling him a demon and soon the whole town was against him with pitchforks and fire. Cornered and injured, Kurt thought this might be the end for him- maybe he would see heaven so long after finding it- but he was then saved by Charles Xavier who invited him to the X-Men. AND ITS BEEN SO MANY YEARS AND HE HAS BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH THERE. SO MUCH. SO GOD DAMN MUCH. BUT THE MOST AAAA THING TO ME CONCERNING HIS FAITH HE WHEN HE LITERALLY DIED AND WENT TO HEAVEN BUT THEN BECAUSE OF DRAMA WITH HIS FATHER HAD TO BRING HIS FRIENDS IN WITH HIM FROM THE BEYOND. THEN WITH ALOT OF TROUBLE THEY FOUGHT HIS FATHER AND THE ONLY WAY KURT SAW TO STOP HIM WAS IN A MOVE THAT STRIPPED THEM BOTH OF THEIR SOULS AND PUT THEM BACK ON EARTH. SO KURT CANONICALLY HAS NOW LOST HIS ABILITY FOR ETERNAL PEACE, LOST HIS VERY SOUL, TO SAVE PEOPLE- AND ALSO TOLD NO ONE NOT EVEN HIS GAY LOVER WOLVERINE.

Nightcrawler is a mutant vigilante who looks like a classical demon. He can’t even go to church without people panicking and trying to exorcize him. Despite it all, he’s so full of faith and hope and compassion, and he wants to believe the best of everyone. Also, he’s bffs with an extremely angry Jewish sword lesbian. That has nothing to do with anything, but it’s important to me that you all know that.

What if you were a devout christian and literally looked like the devil? He nearly became the pope, which was a plot by some supervillains that also involved faking a rapture? There is nothing like comics I swear to god.

A catholic who is half demon I don’t think I can better explain a struggle than that. But his character is so relatable to people who feel unwelcome with their congregation because of something that is a part of them but still feeling a connection to the faith. Kurt actively engaged in his faith and shares how his faith helps him through all the things he has faced in life and how he found a home with those of the church who leave the judging to God.

so they made kurt a priest briefly before deciding to retcon it, resulting in nightcrawler actually being part of a plan by villains to promote him to pope then reveal to the world that the pope is a demon. wild.

I have a side blog and a tattoo about him and i really really want him to win

Wisecracking devil-appearing devout Catholic with the Best superpower (teleportation)? HECK YES

German Catholic circus acrobat who looks like a demon & can teleport through a hellish alternate dimension with a puff of sulfur. Character of all time.

hes catholic and his dad is the devil. what could be funnier than that. also hes my silly little guy.

Nightcrawler is the world’s most fun catholic priest. I first was introduced to this kindhearted teleporting acrobat while he saved a boat full of stowaway refugees from inter dimensional pirates with swashbuckling gusto!

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I meant to upload this Buffy and Cordy Classic comic during the last Coffy Week and then forgot. Oh well: nothing wrong with doing so now. This comic is silly, of course (which is the point of it). But it's also really, really cute and I love it. I'm always here for more Buffy and Cordy stuff, and them bonding like they deserved to.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Monday, August 19 - Tuesday, August 20, Part II

[Fandom Discussions]

anyone have any more fics or rants or opinions about spike starving by a “good guys”? by yanamorgan

I can identify four distinct phases of Angel’s character arc thus far: by agirlinsearchof

that throwaway line in Checkpoint about Giles getting his old job as a Watcher back by coraniaid

I never really thought about the “moment of happiness = sex” but... by hawkstincan

Woah did I NOT remember the beginning of season three of BtVS by alchemistc

Why do vampires’s clothes disintegrate in Buffy when you stake them? by vaiyamagic

no matter how many years pass and how many buffy rewatches i embark upon, i’ll always get teary eyed when buffy wins class protector at prom. by ohrevienssoleil

Most disturbing episodes by Stake fodder

How well have Buffy and Angel aged? by burrunjor

Watchers - how were they ‘chosen’? by American Aurora

The best weapon on Angel is when Lorne scream sings. by Practical_Scale8071

I don’t like Spike. by Illustrious-Neat5520

How does Buffy get around town? by clickyr

Thoughts on this very practical looking battlesuit from S08#11? by zarif_chow

I love how the show handles Joyce after season 5 by alghamdis

It’s hard to take vampires seriously as a threat when this mf is out here getting foiled by a janitor by nowlan101

Minor character moment by samof1994

This man is facing vampires with no plan, no resources, just handing out fades by EisenhowersPowerHour

Willow-Centric Fanfics by LiviaDruzilla

This montage in Him is classic by Practical_Scale8071

Wesley and his chemistry by ceecee1909

Buffy leaving Ward to die - her first brutal moment by nota-banana

What's your personal canon for why Drusilla and her 2 sisters seemingly weren't married by beeemkcl

Why do you think Drusilla and her 2 sisters seemingly weren't married before they died? by beeemkcl (This is a different post than the one above, with different replies.)

There a reason the council didn't warn Buffy? (Spoilers) by Tsole96

Do you think Anya ever crossed paths with evil Angelus, Spike, Drusilla and/or Darla? by GreyStagg

Do slayers gain past knowledge and instinct when they are called? by Tsole96

What was your reaction to the end of “Seeing Red”? by austinrussell24

Has Spike actually changed by 5.14 “Crush” by AccordingReference3

Wes and Lilah had the hottest physical relationship I didn't see coming by Practical_Scale8071

Who's side are you on? by Broad-Gas8411

My thoughts about spike by Careless-whisper-

Just watched Once More With Feeling again... by Amonette2012

No one could ever convince me this was not ICONIC by ElephantWorldly5010

Intervention was a weird episode that I don't really like [no spoilers beyond Intervention] by spectacleskeptic

Watching for the first time by Piratedking12

Glory and Cordy's life are both similar and mirror images of each other. by iceswordsman

Be accurate. by AndrewHeard

Funko First Look! by SnooDoggos5311

Was the Bathroom Scene Necessary? by talcanal

Dawn’s Wild Sandwich by officialgenovia

What are you go-to "feel good" episodes? by Whedonite144

I wish... by MonsterTournament

Appreciation for how the show relates so well to reality and my life by ginime_

What if Angel wasn’t cursed with his actual soul? by Beans_0492

"How should they have dealt with Buffy's trauma?" (Seeing Red) by foreseethefuture

How would yall have felt about a full Angel crossover? by Eagles56

Faith's accidental killing of the Mayor's assistant by jogaforacont

BOOM! Comics collecting and timeline? by antsdenunz

Imagine it: Buffy has been renewed for Season 8 and you've been hired to be the showrunner. by LanaLanaFofana

I am not prepared. by Red-Church

Witness arias by Extra-Aside-6419

I literally just finished the show right now and... by JotaroKujo0ra

Opinions on “Where the wild things are?” by Fuzzy-Reference1061

I'll always believe that whatever Angel is up to in 2024 he's still thinking about Buffy by sKullsHavezzz

**** was only brain sucked for one day, change my mind by brian5mbv

Doing a rewatch and I'm up to S4 - omg some of this writing is killing me! by Pawneewafflesarelife

A little something by wisteria_grey

Spike…. :( by No-Sherbet7806

Eliza Dushku talking about Fuffy by blondebandit69

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

PUBLICATION: From Buffy to Star Wars, It's Time to End This Troublesome Trope by CBR

PUBLICATION: RETRO REVIEW: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Elevated the Stakes for Long-Form Television by CBR

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[terastalungrad]

Once again, I'm annoyed by people pretending Dr Who has a canon.

This week, I blocked someone on Twitter for claiming Big Finish stories are "Elseworld" stories, unless confirmed by the TV series. It's just the perfect tweet to annoy me.

Elseworlds

Elseworlds was an imprint of DC comics that presented alternate realities, set outside of DC's "canonical" stories.

Actually, I've started in the wrong place.

Canons

Canons are usually a big list of works, defined as significant by some authority.

"Significant" can mean different things:

The Biblical canon are books considered authentic - i.e. the Gospel According to Luke is considered a genuine book of the Bible, as opposed to some made-up nonsense.

The Sherlock Holmes canon are the books and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, as opposed to works by any other writers.

The western canon is a list of works of art and philosophy considered to have achieved classic status.

For various nerd properties like DC comics, Marvel comics, Star Wars, Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the "canons" are the works considered to be valid parts of the big picture. The Last Jedi, for example, is considered to have happened from the perspective of any stories set after it. Knights of the Old Republic, on the other hand, is non-canonical, and stories set later are free to ignore it.

Dr Who canon

Dr Who doesn't have a canon.

This sometimes surprises Dr Who fans, especially when they're also fans of comics or Star Things. But unlike those other things, nobody with the authority to declare a Dr Who canon has ever done so.

In fact, the first two showrunners of Dr Who in the 21st century actively stated that there IS no Dr Who canon, and the third said nothing on the subject at all.

The owners of Star Trek, Star Wars, Buffy, Marvel and DC had incentives to determine official canons - mostly financial. "These comics are canonical Buffy!" might sell more comics. "Old Star Wars novels don't count!" makes it easier to market NEW books as the ones that are really worth buying.

With so many nerd properties making declarations about what's in/out of the canon, a lot of people have absorbed the idea that a canon is an intrinsic feature of long-form storytelling.

But it isn't.

Continuity

"Continuity" IS an intrinsic feature of long-form storytelling, and maybe that's what people are thinking of. People often use the word "canonised" when the word they really mean is "references".

For instance, in the 2017 Dr Who episode "The Doctor Falls", the Doctor references the events of the 1987 Dr Who comic, "The World Shapers". People claimed that this canonised the comic - that the comic was now a valid part of Dr Who.

The implication being that, until the Doctor referenced it on TV, it was NOT a valid part of Dr Who.

But that's just not how this show works. The show happily references - and ignores - whatever it likes. The show's been regularly referencing spin-off material since 1964, when the show was a year old, referencing a Dalek comic. The same story contradicted a TV story from earlier that year.

Elseworlds

"Elseworlds" was useful branding for DC comics. The fact that these stories were set outside of normal continuity was a selling point. You knew you were in for fun you wouldn't get in canonical comics. Marvel's equivalent was called "What If". Doctor Who's closest equivalent is the audio series "Doctor Who Unbound" from Big Finish.

The selling point of Big Finish audios is that they're explicitly set within normal Dr Who continuity. They're not required reading or anything - you're free to ignore them, and the show will still make sense - but they're consciously part of the same story. That's how they're written, that's how they're produced, and that's the understanding on which the BBC licenses Dr Who to the company.

So when someone tweets "Big Finish are Elseworld stories", they're exactly, precisely wrong.

But that's because they're not trying to be correct. They're trying to convey a feeling, not a fact.

Authenticity

To this person, Big Finish audios don't feel authentic. The Girl Who Lived feels to them like a real Dr Who story that's part of the tapestry, and The Sword of Orion doesn't.

And the irony here is that if they'd expressed themselves this way, I'd have enjoyed the observation. But "this bit doesn't feel like MY Dr Who" isn't how fans like to express themselves. They prefer to say "that bit doesn't count".

So often, people will say "Dr Who books aren't canon", and what they mean is, they don't want to read Dr Who books, but they also don't want to be considered anything less than full dedicated Dr Who fans. They feel threatened - insulted - by the idea that being a true fan should require them to read novels, so rather than say "they're not for me", they say "they don't even count".

I hate this attitude. Dismissiveness woven into unearned authority. Who are you to say what parts of Dr Who are valid? Even the BBC don't do that. Even the writers and producers don't do that.

And it's especially annoying with Dr Who, because.

It's Not Even True

More than any other nerd media I can think of, Dr Who cheerfully builds on stories from its own spinoff media all the time.

You have to accept that Dr Who's spinoff media established elements of Dr Who on TV ...

(jumping here from the future to say - you can just ignore this massive paragraph, and the one coming up too)

... if the Daleks are made of Dalekanium, if the Tardis was built by an advanced civilisation, if the Doctor met Nelson/Churchill/Picasso, if the Dalek invasion of Earth was thwarted by the Earth's magnetic core, unless the Doctor lies to Davros, if the Daleks are accelerated evolution, if the Doctor can levitate, if the time vortex is blue when travelling backwards in time, if it's red wen travelling forwards, if Rose Tyler visited Justicia, if the Doctor met Arthur Dent, if Sarah Jane's K9 is broken, if the Void exists beyond the Doctor's universe, if the Daleks count in rels, if the Doctor has a brother, if the Face of Boe's final words are true, if the Citadel of the Time Lords exists in an enormous dome, if the Tardis is designed for six pilots, if the Doctor's a complicated space-time event, if Autons are vulnerable to heat and radio waves, if the Tardis archives old console rooms, if the Doctor was taught to swordfight by Richard the Lionheart, if he fought with Errol Flynn, if Kate Stewart has children, if the Master survived the events of Death in Heaven, if the Doctor wears pants with question marks on them, if the Doctor visited frost fairs before his trip with Bill, if Venusian Aikido requires five arms, if the Doctor loves the musical Hamilton, if Graham is from Essex, if there are talking cats on Gallifrey, if the Time Lords intentionally restricted regenerations to 12 per Time Lord, if the Doctor and Yaz witnessed the gunpowder plot, if the Doctor's previous incarnations exist in her mind, and if the Doctor can regenerate back into previous incarnations.

Other stuff introduced in spinoff media before featuring on TV:

The planet Vulcan, the Dalek Emperor, the President of Earth, the Dalek Supreme, the planet Karn, the Dalek lie detector, the glass Dalek, the Time War, UNIT officer Muriel Frost, Kronkburgers, the planet Lucifer, the nickname "the Oncoming Storm", the Kaled God of War, Millingdale ice cream, sabre-tooth gorillas, the Butler Institute, Davros's mechanical hand, UNIT's NYC base, the Space Agency, Henrietta Goodheart of the Silver Cloak, the planet Arcadia, Chelonians, Haemogoths, Professore Arthur Candy, Luna University, Kate Stewart, Paternoster Row, the Paul McGann Doctor's companions, the War Council of Gallifrey, class 1C at Coal Hill School (taught by both Barbara and Clara), Abslom Daak, Hyperspace Body Swap, vampire monkeys, the Velosians, the sonic trowel, the Ninth Dimension, the planet in Smile, Rassilon looking like Don Warrington, the Siege of Atropos, the type 75 Tardis.

The very idea that the absolutely wild selection of stories that led to these things are valid part of Dr Who but no other spinoff media sotires count - it's just such obvious nonsense, even by the standards of Dr Who fans' theories on canonicity.

So why say it at all?

To Ruin People's Fun

I'm not much of a Big Finish guy to be honest. Love the books, ADORE the comics, but I'm a lot pickier when I engage with the audios.

But they have a really passionate fanbase in their own right, and that's just lovely. Big Finish audios outnumber TV stories. It's a bigger piece of the pie.

And what I will say is, Big Finish fans are rarely obnoxious enough to sneer at other Dr Who fans. It's only the TV fans doing that.

Fiction

Fiction is a creative work featuring the imaginary.

People can be so invested in their fandoms that they throw their wright around to insist that some stories are more imaginary than others.

But these are all just stories. Even Star Wars. Even DC. You can just ignore the creators, you know. Enjoy the stories you want - and ignore the ones you dislike.

I've never seen Star Wars 9. I don't see it as a valid part of Star Wars. But it IS canonical. But woo, here I am, deciding on my OWN personal list of significant stuff (a ploss, if you will).

And there's all sorts of Dr Who stuff I consider true even though it's not in ANY media. Like the idea that she's been Jo Martin twice (once before Hartnell, once between Troughton and Pertwee). That's more real to me than the idea that Graham created a support group for old companions.

This week, someone on Twitter claimed Big Finish stories are "Elseworld" stories, unless confirmed by the TV series. So I blocked them, condemning their future tweets to a reality outside my own.

[anotherlesbiandad]

okay fuck it it's about time i make a pinned post

what you'll find on this blog:

- a Lot of reblogs for various fandoms. these fandoms include (but are not limited to) community, supernatural, dc comics, percy jackson/hoo, buffy the vampire slayer, firefly, seinfeld, project hail mary, the hunger games, sherlock holmes (mostly acd canon but the occasional bbc post), doctor who, marauders, zigverse!marauders (of which i am the founder), teenage mutant ninja turtles, and okay jesus the list is gonna keep going if i let it

- discussion of classic literature and mythology (mostly greco-roman) when i feel like it. please send me asks about this if you want to become my best friend

- poor formatting

- the occasional fic or fic rec

- reblog bait and ask games cause i'm lonely and want to feel connected to something

- a lot of random ass thoughts, mostly to do with something above or my mental issues

those of you who have been following me for a while probably know about zigverse, and when i make a zigverse master post (eventually) i'll link it here.

if you're here from one of my poetry sideblogs please i am begging you to be sworn to secrecy about what i write over there. i'm working off of the honor system here

i used to draw over on this account, but have since deleted like all of my fanart. from here. it still exists on my art sideblog, but i'm not comfortable linking it here, so you'll just have to trust me that you might see it at some point

DNI LIST: honestly just like. don't be a dick? if you're following me and you're a dick to me then i'm gonna block you, but other than that have at it.

except for you wincesties.

okay that's pretty much it idk bye