#a robot version of buffy??????

[andthesunwillalwaysshine]

have been screaming crying laughing for days because the buffy writers really made me lowkey start shipping spike and buffy and feel for spike and shit but also i never wanted them to actually get together like my shipping had a limit but sane me came back and now i'm officially over them (best villain but now he got even grosser so no)

[frauleinfunf]

these shots were back to back and have completely different birth dates on them plus one says sophomore and one says senior 😭

[sunny-rants]

ok I’m only on season 5 but can someone explain to me how Xander is the universally hated one for, from what I can tell, some bad choices and worse jokes, while Spike, the fandom’s babygirl and beloved heartthrob, literally stalks Buffy, holds her captive, and then commissions a robot version of her when it’s made clear he’ll never have her. like someone please explain it because the math is not mathing.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Now that there's an animated adaptation of Midnight Sun coming, and given the industry's recent track record (see: Minecraft Movie), what's the worst, bad faith, cash grab adaptation idea you can imagine? I figure if we inoculate ourselves then the reality won't suck so much.

My nightmare: Streaming has a long history of making shitty attempts at "adult animation", so we'll get an Edward who constantly cusses and does lewd jokes. It'll be like the HBO adult animated Velma (Scooby Doo) show where the writers' disdain for the characters fills every scene. The first episode will focus on how Carlisle helps plan a murder of some overly suspicious deputy so they can keep living in Forks.

Anyways, worst case theories? So we can feel better when it's not THAT bad? Or else use the apollo prophecy meme on your post a year or two from now.

My 'realistic' prediction

Twilight: The Edgy Animated Adult Series with Twelve Times More Drugs and Swearing

Oh man, yours is worse than mine. I mean this guessing the future business is a little silly in general, but I think that wouldn't happen as Twilight's not...

How do I put this?

Scooby Doo is a beloved, vintage, IP that's so well-known it's a part of American culture/Americana. It's in that weird place where it's acceptable to do edgy reboots of it because everyone already knows the premise of the Scooby gang, each individual character, the bad guys, and their mysteries.

You don't have to explain who any of the characters are supposed to be, so you get a "ah ha ha ha isn't it funny that Velma swears now?" because you know she's from a 1960's cartoon.

Twilight's not quite old enough for that and, at least in my opinion, not pervasive enough for that. It was a huge sensation, but was never as big as HP, and dominated only a subset of the YA audience (female-targeted YA romance). Ask a person off the street and the most they can probably, maybe, tell you is "sparkly vampires and Team Edward and Team Jacob". So, at best you get riffs like we saw when Twilight came out with the Simpsons and various other parodies where the parodies... really didn't know what to do with the characters or what it was even about. "Milhouse turns into a poodle, I guess? Is that funny? It's funny, right?"

Twilight just isn't old enough and as big as it was, I don't think was widespread enough.

So, I think we're going to get an earnest reboot.

But you do now have me concerned. And I may be eating my words later on this post and reblogging with a clown face.

Other Theories

Alright, let's see what we've got/what we can come up with:

Yours: HBO adult comedy horror fest

Mine: Boring, Snoozeville, Tame, Generically Arted Palatable Twilight that is Designed to Be as Appealing as Possible

Other options I can think of are...

Interview with a Vampirepalooza/Oh God I Don't Know What's Popular: given the recent success of Interview with a Vampire, an edgier adult story with adult characters, Netflix will look to make Twilight their exact own version of that. Except they won't understand what made it work there. We sexy it up but in a CW way, the kids are all still in high school but the fact that the Cullens are fucking each other is brought up relentlessly in an edgy way. The vampires all look hot, hot, hot but in a normal human way where you're not terrified they're some crystal robot out to eat your limbs. We'll keep some of the artsy weird dialogue, but Edward will be both somehow made more sympathetic (as he is the lead we end up with) and 'dark' where he's dangerous in a sexy way and not in a "you smell like my personal heroin way".

The Buffy Route: remember that one teen show from the 90's that was so good it spun off an entire genre of television that essentially hadn't existed before? Twilight becomes a fun teen oriented show where the characters say witty, fun, teenage-like things and get into episodic mysteries while somehow trying to remain in the realm of Twilight. Edward loses his edge, Bella loses her unrelatable nature, and we really play up every time a character has a funny line and write a lot more in there. Unfortunately, it's not a well written teen comedy show and so the lines are just generally bad and the plot never seems to go anywhere and it's just boring.

Hannibal the Twilight: some really artsy director gets involved and we now have a show where the symbolism of Edward walking around as a man-deer takes over the entire fucking thing. Nothing ever happens, Edward just shows up in Bella's dreams as a snarling man deer. When characters talk to each other, it's in artsy nonsense dialogue where it feels like both are reading 2000's era chatbot scripts to one another as they mix metaphors about ponies, china pottery, and dust motes. The plot is so non-existant the only important episodes to watch in a season are the premier and finale, except even then it's unclear what happened.

Audience Input

Anyone else got any wild guesses here?

[mybloodyvampire]

Was just thinking how ridiculously creative the writers were at making Spike and Buffy kiss/get it on onscreen before they actually ever kiss/get it on.

Under a spell, dreams, daydreams, sexy roleplay with others, robot versions of Buffy, and I still feel I'm forgetting some

Special shoutout to Buffy's pretending-to-be-a robot-so-it-doesn't-count kiss. Wee bit of a stretch, but she makes it work

[coraniaid]

Anyway, here are seven episodes of Buffy which I'd have given Amy Madison a cameo in.

The goal isn't to change the plot of any of these episodes substantially or to change Amy's overall arc (such as it is). Rather the idea is to do just enough work to make Amy feel like a recurring character with the weight of, say, pre-S6 Jonathan Levinson or pre-AtS Harmony Kendall. Somebody who is stil clearly a minor character, but who feels a lot more thought out than Amy herself often does.

I think you can do that with just a few strategically chosen cameos. Here are my picks:

1) S1E12 Prophecy Girl

Prophecy Girl brings back Jenny Calendar (previously only seen in I Robot, You Jane) and the previous week Out of Sight, Out of Mind had brought back Harmony (previously only seen in The Harvest). Both Harmony and Jenny would go on to be popular recurring characters, and I think making a second appearance in the first season would do wonders for Amy as well.

While I'm at it, I'd slightly rework Cordelia's story this episode -- cutting out her doomed boyfriend Kevin, who replaces Out of Sight, Out of Mind's Mitch without explanation and will never be mentioned again; and the slightly uncharacteristic friendly way in which Willow and Cordelia treat each other this episode. In my version of the episode, it would be Amy who roped Willow in to help set up the sound system at the Bronze for the Spring Fling, and it would be some of Amy's friends that they found murdered by vampires in the Audio-Visual Club.

(I wouldn't rob Cordelia of any of her other scenes, of course: she'd still get to drive her car through the school halls and bite a vampire.)

I think adding Amy like this would serve to remind the viewer that (i) Amy exists; (ii) Amy and Willow are friends; (iii) even with her mother gone, horrible things keep happening to Amy Madison.

2) S2E01 When She Was Bad

Nothing fancy here; just a quick establishing scene at some point to remind us Amy still exists (in the same way Larry makes a cameo at the beginning of Season 3). Have her show up at the library and ask if any of the gang have seen Jenny Calendar, because she's meant to be teaching a class but nobody's seen her all day, maybe? Rather than the approach that canon takes, where nobody seems to realize Jenny has been kidnapped at all, even though we know she was captured at least a day before Buffy goes to rescue Cordelia (and the gang spend all of that day at school, where Jenny Calendar should be working...).

Again, the point of this addition is to mainly remind the audience that Amy exists, but we're also setting up the idea that Amy might eventually look to learn more than computer science from Ms. Calendar.

3) S2E06 Halloween

Just one scene here as well: Amy commiserating with Buffy and the others, and admitting that Snyder "volunteered" her to go out accompanying kids that evening as well. The point being that we see that Amy has dressed up as a witch for Halloween...

(We wouldn't see Amy again all episode, and we wouldn't know whether she got her costume from Ethan's, but down the line the idea that Amy might have gotten a bit of a head start as a witch from her experiences this episode -- in the same way Xander remembered some of his military knowledge -- could definitely be a fun fan theory.)

If anybody asks Amy if she's comfortable dressing up as a witch after what her mother did, maybe she can reference back to the attack on the AV club or Ms. Calendar being kidnapped and suggest that she knows now that there are worse things in the world than witches...

4) S3E02 Dead Man's Party

OK, if I were rewriting this episode I'd find it hard not to make bigger changes. At the very least, I'd want to have a few more scenes from the POV of characters other than Buffy (so that there's less of a sense of Buffy's friends all treating her horribly for no reason). And who better for Willow to be pouring her frustrations out to than her fellow fledgling witch Amy?

Give Amy a line about "missing Ms. Calendar too" as well, and Willow's final speech to Buffy about spending the summer "trying to communicate with the spirit world" take on an interesting subtext.

5) S3E09 The Wish

This is an interesting one because I'm half-convinced Amy was meant to be in this epsiode anyway. It's the only episode before Amy gets ratted in which she's mentioned on screen (Willow tells us that she's heard some gossip about Cordelia from Amy, which is -- in canon, anyway -- the first indication we get in the whole show that Amy and Willow have started hanging out).

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Nancy's role this episode (in the alternate Wish dimension) wasn't originally meant to go to Amy. That's how I'd play it, anyway. (Of course, if Buffy didn't come to Sunnydale she wouldn't have been around to save Amy from her mom. But I think that's easy enough to fix: just throw in a line about Amy being grateful to Giles and the other Whte Hats for "saving her" from some unspecific fate, and make sure to establish that this version of Amy can't do magic.)

Of course, this Amy would have the same fate as Nancy -- fittingly, killed by Willow -- but I don't think we'd need to have that happen off-screen the way it does in the actual episode.

6) S5E22 Grave

I really don't think Amy's abrupt descent into magical drug addict works ... well, at all. So I'd like to see a much bigger change to her arc after being de-ratted (something like @idle-flower suggests here, for example). I just don't think her villain arc this season makes any sense (and I know it robs Willow of a lot of the moral agency she should have at this point).

Failing that sort of change, though, I'd at least like Amy's mini-arc this season to .. resolve? She gets the door slammed on her face by Willow all the way back in Doublemeat Palace and then we never see her again. We don't even know if she's staying with her dad, or if her dad left town, or what. How is she surviving at all? At least throw in a scene of Amy discovering whatever's left of Rack and looking angry and vengeful about it, surely? Remind us she exists, and that things aren't going great for her.

7) S7E12 The Killer In Me

You might object to this one on the grounds that Amy is already in this episode.

The thing is though, I'm not sure that episode's writers remember that she is? Amy is outed as being responsible for Willow's predicament, Kennedy promises to stop her, Amy snaps her fingers -- teleporting Kennedy away -- and ... that's it. That's the last we hear from, or about, Amy Madison. Not just in the episode, but in the whole show. She doesn't suffer any consequences, she never gets a face to face confrontation with Willow, there's no obvious reason why she wouldn't be free to try again and again. Surely we can do better than that?

At least give us a scene of Amy fleeing Sunnydale ahead of the First's wave of destruction, or reacting to Willow getting her own body back. Something that we can pretend amounts to closure for a character who has, after all, been a part of the show since the third ever episode. Even if her continued appearance on the show, season after season, wasn't ever something the writers conciously planned.

[nicollekidman]

people being SO shitty to spike about loving buffy like he hasn’t been helping them for two seasons and hanging out with dawn meanwhile they can’t tell when they’re talking to a robot version of buffy…… man when the scoobies/giles ain’t shit they ain’t shit!

[wasted-women]

ROUND 1C, MATCH 3 OUT OF 8!

Causes of Death & Propaganda Under the Cut:

Tara Maclay

Cause of Death: Shot in crossfire

Propaganda:

Ok so idk if she actually counts but I'm submitting her and please throw her out if not. Here's why I think Tara was fridged: the sole purpose of her death was to further the plot and cause pain to other characters. Now, because it's Buffy, these other characters were women. So her death was only to cause pain to her girlfriend (ex-girlfriend? They were broken up but mending) Willow, cause her to relapse into magic, and then make her essentially the big bad of the season. All of this was then to cause Buffy, the protag, to have to fight her best friend and be told she needed to either stop her or kill her. So while Buffy and Willow are both women, Tara's death was solely to cause them pain as significant other and protagonist and to further the plot. (It's also bury your guys and Joss Whedon sooooo). Tara literally was killed sloppily for no other reason than as a plot device in a desperate "well we already killed our protag and brought her back to life, how do we raise the stakes from here" ploy necessitated by crappy writing. If she doesn't count, again please throw her out, but I feel like she counts as fridging esp when looking at how Joss Whedon rights Buffy in this season to essentially bc a self insert of man pain but as a woman.

this is the only lgbt example I can think of but it definitely counts imo. link to death scene here (scene starts a minute into the video, with obvious trigger warnings for death and blood and gunshots): https://youtu.be/01NxsKojYyM?si=dxZvcvOhp3x6S8ha

Stuffing a woman in the fridge is one thing, but stuffing a queer woman who was one half of a beloved same-sex couple on a TV show famous for its strong female characters for the sake of drama while enforcing negative LGBT+ stereotypes in the process is really something else.

Her girlfriend, Willow essentially plays the role of the man in the relationship. Tara dies to facilitate her villain arc. Xander is also sad about her death and he is a man.

Mako Mori

Cause of Death: Exploded in a helicopter

Propaganda:

The Mako Mori test has been proposed as a "better" version of the Bechdel Test (which I'm well aware of the bechdel tests point and common misuse) she has a full, rich arc that is not romance oriented in the first movie. Also she pilots a giant robot. In the second movie she's textbook definition fridged.

Daenerys Targareon

Cause of Death: Stabbed by her lover for becoming a tyrant

Propaganda:

I'm just. I can't believe she hasn't been submitted yet. Classic example of end game fridging, where she *had* to be killed by her male lover to bring him pain and Man Tears TM. Clearly it effects him (sad) more than her (dead). Now obv Dany had a whole plot prior to this, but her death itself is such a classic example of fridging that I have to submit her, it legit only happened for a stupid "plot" to bring Jon ManPain. It was a death so stupid that GOT, what once was a cultural touchstone, isn't talked about except in how bad the end was

[juanabaloo]

HC for Faith in 3x14 Bad Girls: i don't have any real quibbles with Faith's spiral / reaction to accidentally killing Finch the Mayor's aide. i think it is logical. but i think it adds a delicious layer (JUICY ANGST) to her reaction if it reminds her of a previous death.

pre Sunnydale back in Boston maybe she doesn't know her own strength, esp if she recently got her powers. maybe she accidentally kills some guy she just means to shove, bc Slayer strength and all that. like she meant for him to take a step back and instead he goes back like 20 feet and gets accidentally impaled. later she figures it out (maybe Diana helps, maybe not) - and she says "i didn't know."

or perhaps it's a truly similar situation, Diana (her watcher) is keeping an eye as she patrols but these vamps come out of a club into the alley and there's vamps and regular people running around and she accidentally stakes a human.

Diana assures her it was just an accident and calms down a very upset Faith. Diana disposes of the body, telling Faith after how she did it. they talk about it at length afterwards, back in the safety of Diana's place (where Faith is living). says all the same stuff Giles does about how this has happened before. "how many people do you think a Slayer saves? it is terrible and regrettable but sometimes there are casualties" etc.

"you should not pretend it didn't happen but you cannot think about it while you are out on patrol. you have to move past it Faith. a moment's hesitation is all a vampire needs to kill you. you have to stay focused, this is your work, it is not meant to be carefree fun."

[really this works either way, the "don't know my own strength" version or the "vamps and people running around" version. bc Diana can help her process and learn from both.]

and Diana's reaction - calm and reasonable and supportive - really shakes Faith. she is NOT used to this. Diana did not assume the worst of her, didn't ignore her mistake but also assumed Faith would be better next time. Diana trusts her, doesn't limit her patrolling at all, and Faith gloms onto Diana even harder than before. (until ofc Diana dies, when Faith couldn't save her from Kakistos)

and then she and Buffy are in the groove and it's so much fun and then Bad Girls Finch happens and it immediately guts Faith. it reminds her of how alone she is, bc Diana is not there to help her, even just talking to her. it reminds her what a failure she is bc this is now THE SECOND time it happened. that she should have learned from before and she did not. it reminds her how she will never be as good of a Slayer as Buffy, bc ofc Faith doesn't know about how Buffy killed humans* before bc the show pretends it never happened and oh yeah CEO of repression Buffy never talks about it.

( * ) for the fact checkers: i believe the list is Ted (before she knew he was a robot), the zookeeper in The Pack, the coach in Go Fish, the germans in Homecoming, and a Knight of Byzantium. sure some of these are more passive and all IMO deserved but Ted is the biggest one for me.

Faith still blames herself for Diana dying bc she couldn't stop Kakistos. AND NOW it doesn't even matter that her and Buffy killed Kakistos and she "avenged" Diana (her words, not Diana's). bc the best things that Faith learned from Diana don't matter anymore. they aren't true anymore. Diana believed in Faith, believed Faith could become a better Slayer, that Faith could learn from her mistakes. Faith let Diana down (again) when she accidentally kills Finch. Faith now believes Diana was wrong to believe in her, and Faith loses all faith in herself. (sorry there really isn't a better word)

[gothamsgaygirlgang]

thinking about how season 6 of Buffy is unintentionally mocking or parodying(?) reboots like with season 5 meant to be the end of the series and buffy's speech to spike about how everything felt wrapped up and she was "finished", the imagery of buffy's decaying corpse being restored and how she has to dig herself out of her own grave, how Buffy isn't actually in the first episode just a shoddy robot copy of herself, how all the characters are on a downward spiral and seem off

it kinda feels like a more drawn out version of those futurama jokes they have when ever the series gets renewed

I really like season 6 and this isn't meant to be me shitting on it or anything, I just think it's an interesting thing to consider and how perception and intention with media changes over time

[buffster]

The Replacement (BTVS 5.03)

This is part of my ongoing Buffyverse Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the shows. You can find the BTVS list here and the ATS list here. Gifs are not mine.

This episode got heavy on the psycho-analysis. Let's dive in.

We open on Xander's continued humiliation in his parent's basement. He's double dating with Buffy and Riley and--I assume--doesn't have the cash to take this party literally anywhere else. The cat peed on his hot plate--eliminating their food options--and his parents quickly start fighting horribly upstairs.

All signs point to Xander developing his easy-going, friendly, always-has-a-joke personality as a way to cope with his parent's toxic relationship. If he was able to lighten the mood it probably gave him a sense of safety when it calmed down the screaming and throwing. No wonder he's charming with even the most hostile people.

Xander witnesses Riley please Buffy with some shoulder rubbing and quickly tries it on Anya who--whoops--has a dislocated shoulder. But it's not all paradise in Briley land. Riley is feeling a little neglected in the relationship as Buffy dives headlong into slaying. He makes some subtle remarks but never opts to just communicate his needs to Buffy.

Riley: Hey, Buff. Maybe you oughtta leave the work behind sometimes. You're not always a slayer on duty, you know.

Buffy: Well, it would drive you crazy if this was an army movie and they were all, you know, saluting backwards and, and… invading all willy-nilly.

Subtext here:

Riley: Hey Buffy, pay attention to me on our date night.

Buffy: Oh, he's annoyed I'm analyzing the movie. Sorry!

The awkward date seems to finally give Xander a push to look at apartments. They immediately assume Riley is the one looking. Anya's matter-of-fact dissection of his life is definitely not helping his self-esteem, either.

Anya: Which is when, Xander? 'Cause right now things are looking pretty un-together and you can't expect me to just wait around-

Xander: Quiet, please. Anya, what is this? What's going on with you?

Anya: What's going on is my arm is hurt and I'm tired and I don't really feel like finishing the tour of beautiful things I can't have.

We're also getting a little more Anya character development this season as we see her adjust to what it means to be human. This episode highlights some of their issues as a couple. Anya is looking for a protector and a provider, which leaves Xander constantly feeling like he's not enough. Xander needs someone to bolster his confidence and self-worth, which I don't think Anya's matter-of-fact attitude really does. There's also a sense that neither of them are really seeing the other. Anya looks at Xander and sees the role he plays in the list of things she wants to accomplish during her human life. Xander looks at Anya and sees someone to bolster his ego and--to be honest--someone who embarrasses him.

The demon Toth plans to attack Buffy but hits Xander instead.

Xander: So, you take the bullet for the swinging Scooby-friends and what do you get? A pat on the head? A tasteful medal? No! You get left for dead under a light layer of moldy socks and banana peels!

How did Xander genuinely believe his friends would just leave him there? Goodness.

The Xander split raises the question of whether Xander is wearing his weakness as a defense mechanism. As I said, a jovial, non-threatening personality probably worked to disarm his father and mother and created a sense of safety. The "weak" version of Xander is the most Xander-like of the two, to the extent we're suspicious the other one isn't Xander at all. Strong Xander dresses well and carries himself with confidence. He nods solemnly as Giles explains what likely happened, while "weak" Xander is shouting, "It's probably a robot!" Does Xander feel safer being the joke even as it cuts at his self-esteem?

Xander: I'm just... another great humiliation. And this time it's even worse. This demon, he's like, taking my life and, everyone's treating him...everyone's treating him like a grown-up. Well, I'm starting to feel like... Like, it's doing everything better, it's smarter and... I don't know. Maybe I should just let it have it. Take my life, please.

I do think Willow has a point that there's a connection missing between Xander and Anya. He doesn't think of her for some time during the whole fiasco, signaling she's not his partner in a real way. It seems more like they stumbled into a relationship and never saw a reason to end things than anything else. Xander says he "needs her" but...why? Though Riley claims Anya "wants the whole package", I got the sense she was far more attracted to strong Xander and could have done away with the other part.

I want to touch on Buffy and Dawn's sibling rivalry for a second. I think part of it is meant to be attributed to Buffy having to acclimate to a sister after always being an only child, but I say Joyce gets some of the blame here too. Children need adults to intervene and create boundaries. Why is Joyce allowing Dawn to stand in the hallway and harass Buffy? You're just not fostering a good relationship here, Joyce.

After we learn that Toth meant to split Buffy into slayer Buffy and regular Buffy, Buffy has concerns:

Buffy: Well, you have been kinda rankly about the whole "Slayer" gig. Instead of Slayer Buffy you could have Buffy Buffy.

Riley: I have Buffy Buffy. Being the slayer is part of who you are. You keep thinking I don't get that, but --

Buffy: I just know how unfun it can be. Bad hours, frequent bruising, cranky monsters-

Riley: Buffy, if you led a perfectly normal life, you wouldn't be half as crazy as you are. I gotta have that. I'm talking toes, elbows, the whole bad-ice-skating-movie obsession, everything. There's no part of you I'm not in love with.

The thing is, I don't think Riley does have a problem with slaying. At least not with the slaying itself. He has a problem with what being a Slayer means: Buffy doesn't look to him as a partner. Riley isn't strong enough to stand by her side. She has to protect him and therefore must stand alone. I think this fact also carries over to other areas of her life, which is why she doesn't lean on him even in areas where she could. The trauma of Angelus also left a lasting impact on her and she's unable to fully lean on anyone. There is a part of her that stands apart...Riley senses that and becomes insecure. Add in some abandonment trauma from her dad, and I think Buffy has some clear attachment issues. None of this has anything to do with Riley himself, but he doesn't get that.

He seems to take the view that allowing someone into her Slaying life is letting them in completely, but I don't think that's true. Later in the season she lets Spike stand by her side because he can physically handle it, but it's not until she tests him again and again that she begins to think he might not leave her and she feels safe to open up. And we're only beginning to get there by series end. Riley is missing the point here, is what I'm saying!

Once the Xanders are back as one, the gang helps Xander finally move out of the basement. He thinks people only want cool Xander, and we see Dawn whisper that she likes the weak part of him, too. Xander also mentions that Anya always make him feel insecure, which I don't think is a great sign.

Riley: Hey, I'm well aware of how lucky I am. Like, lottery lucky. Buffy's like nobody else in the world. When I'm with her, it's like I'm split in two -- half of me is just on fire, going crazy if I'm not touching her. Other half is so still and peaceful, just perfectly content. Just knows: this is the one. But she doesn't love me.

I'm going to hold thoughts on this until later in the season.

Character Notes:

Riley Finn: We continue to see his identity is increasingly tied up in being Buffy's boyfriend. It's not that she's the center of his world...it's that she's his entire world. He genuinely likes psychology and wants to lock the Xanders in separate rooms and do experiments on them.

Spike: We see him scavenging at the local dump.

Xander Harris: He has a collection of Babylon 5 commemorative plates. Also "for my seventh birthday I wanted a toy fire truck and I didn't get it and you were really nice about it and then the house next door burned down and real fire trucks came and for years I thought you set the fire for me. And if you did, you can tell me." Every Christmas he watches Charlie Brown with Willow and does the Snoopy dance.

[torntruth]

[ 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 ] —

comment a letter below if you would like to do one of these that i list below , comment two if you care to combine them.

a. time traveler / immortal , i would prefer to do this with ellen ripley as the time traveler because i have a whole plot idea of why weyland-yutani discovered the technology and why she needs to stop them BUT this is up for plotting for other various such as emily or diana being the immortals. b. grace harper specific thread , as in she doesn't trust synths / robots for a reason and she learns to trust a specific one because they help her with her robot parts without a word. c. claire specific thread , apocalypse / live action themed. i just want some more horror and angst , let's fight our way through the zombie themed apocalypse and tear apart umbrella. d. us inspired au , big urge for horror and action lately so let's rewrite us a little to our specifications and go with it. e. diana specific thread , some fight including ares and his return or when they first started fighting. f. body guard / celebrity au , preferably with kristen as the body guard but it can all be plotted out. g. mad max / rage au , the world is mostly dust now and everyone is fighting for their lives just for some water , preferably with loosum hagar ( sigourney weaver fc ) . h. any of ellen ripley's big au , buffy the vampire slayer , dead by daylight or the walking dead. i. grace harper's captain america verse , or marvel verse really. she's a version of captain america. j. durge + kristen specific , learning about their close backgrounds.

[initiumseries]

I agree, I heard Spike starts to do things to redeem himself independent from Buffy in season five of Angel but I haven't watched it yet.

I wish it had been a gradual thing and Buffy only began to trust Spike by mid season. Part of why Season Seven didn't work for me is that we are told Spike is Buffy's rock, that she relies on him, but really she's the one doing everything for him most of the season. Sorry for the venting...

No worries about venting. It's all good.

Yeah, him doing that on s5 of Angel is kind of meaningless because it's not BTVS so he HAS to do that, there's no Buffy there to impress there. The whole problem is that while around Buffy, Spike never does anything because it's the right thing to do, but because it will impress/make Buffy happy that he did it.

The idea that Buffy would find stability and consistency in a volatile character like Spike is so laughable, because we've SEEN what it's like when Buffy has someone to retreat to. That was Angel. We watched that develop and grow over 3 seasons, and they want me to buy that somehow, the vampire who has repeatedly tried to kill her, manipulated her, stalked her, obsessed over her, made a robot version of her, helped isolate and physically harmed her, kidnapped and tied her up, then tried to rape her when she ended things, then got a soul out of spite to punish and force her hand, and then was under the thrall of the Big Evil of the season and killing potentials...was somehow...a stabilizing influence for her? HOW? It doesn't even make sense narratively lol. Like why insult us as the viewers like this?? For SPIKE?? We didn't have to do that lol.

[rjalker]

I turned Buffy the weredog into a robot. because why not.

[ID: A simple drawing of a robot with a dog-like head, standing upright. It has mostly dark grey metal, but with the forearms, hands, lower legs, and parts of the face in brown. The rounded joints between limbs are black, and the face has a red screen, with more on the torso. The robot head has floppy ears and a head shaped like it has a muzzle. End ID.]

this art and character are public domain. she literally came from a dream lol. (well, the weredog version, not this robot here, I'm just recoloring lineart I made)

[buffy-targaryen]

I feel like if the writers were really and truly trying to set Spike up as a legitimate - if ill advised - love interest for Buffy and not as an antagonistic and dangerous presence in her life they could’ve done one thing differently in season five, and that’s the Buffy Bot.

Spike is shown to have humanity, and that he is capable of a demons version of love. I personally don’t think a vampire or demon’s version of love is good or healthy but that doesn’t mean they don’t have it or aren’t capable of learning, and Spike is a very good candidate to show us how that could work.

Spike’s a vampire forced into proximity to humanity because he’s had a chip put into his head and he can no longer act out the death and mayhem that he loves. His violent fixation on The Slayer morphs into an unhealthy, unrequited and violent obsession with Buffy Summers which he deems is love in its truest sense. We as viewers know that it’s not, it can’t be, not when he’s declaring it as he’s tying her up and threatening her with torture and death (and after a prolonged period of stalking and underwear/teenage photo stealing), but Spike believes it. He genuinely thinks he’s truly in love with Buffy.

Crush could’ve been a learning moment for him which turned into a fumbled attempt to ease his pain, Spike still would’ve gone to Warren for the Buffy Bot, but instead of asking Warren to make a personality-less sex robot (gross), he could’ve made a girlfriend. This could’ve been a moment to show that Spike - who is demonstrably observant of everyone and how they feel and what they’re like - is actually extremely attuned to Buffy and knows her incredibly well. Instead we get what we got which is that Spike clearly isn’t actually interested in Buffy as a person, he knows nothing about her, he wants his fantasy version of the Slayer that he can fuck and who hero worships him.

I feel like if they wanted to show growth or even an attempt at growth for this character they could’ve started here. Spike loves Buffy but he doesn’t know how to move past her turning him down and locking him out, so he sources a version of her that won’t. It’s still wrong, the robot will still undoubtedly be used for sex (again, gross, and also; how?), but it would leave a much less vile taste in the mouth.

Also it would make more sense why Buffy’s friends don’t recognise the difference between her and the Buffy Bot if she was actually identical to the real thing.

[cobalt-knave]

Kill Your Double Flash Exchange

Hey, y'all. I'm running another quick flash exchange. It is themed around doubles, dopplegangers, clones, robot clones, alternate universe versions of one's self, time duplicates, etc.

It is multifandom. Some fandoms already nominated include WOE.BEGONE, Welcome To Night Vale, Original Work, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Magnus Archives, Stargate SG-1, Doctor Who, Teen Wolf, Omniscient Reader, the Shaperaverse, The Mechanisms, The Hidden People, Supergirl, Naruto, Gattaca, Ace Attorney, and more.

Schedule: Nominations and sign ups start now, end August 17 at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Works due by August 24 at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Reveals August 25 at 8pm Eastern Time.

Word count min: 200 words. Art min: clean sketch.

Collection. Tagset.

PLEASE read all of the FAQs before nominating and signing up.