#also is Joss involved

[prose-for-hire]

Have we all heard about the reboot?

What are everyone’s thoughts ?! 💖

[bloomfish]

I know season 6 of Buffy is widely hated but tbh after season 5 it's probably my favourite. Like it's got problems (obviously.) and is generally really dark and grim but overall is a really solid season with great standalone episodes. The trio + dark willow are great villains. The overall themes of the season and the metaphor for depression is really bold and I think by and large they succeeded. I mean the writing is definitely questionable at times and Choices Were Made that I don't agree with but it also has some of the strongest writing in all of Buffy and I love it tbh. They really said "the hardest thing in this world is to live in it".

[tlaquetzqui]

Dear God imagine thinking a film (Cuties was what reminded me of this) can’t be using something it is depicting as bad, for titillation. Like…are you unfamiliar with “exploitation” as a film genre? Never hear of a women-in-prison movie?

If you genuinely think “Cuties wasn’t intended for sexual gratification because you’re supposed to think those long lingering shots of twerking fifth-graders are a bad thing”, you’re not old enough to watch good-faith films about that kind of subject.

[aestatismors]

I paid six fucking dollars for that

"you did it. you reached 30 tags."

[yellowocaballero]

Continuing the JJK posting: Gojo is such a mystifying character.

Action show where swinging out the gate you introduce a character who is so incredibly powerful you then have to, before every fight, establish why Gojo can't just show up and fix the problem in seconds. His existence weakens the stakes of everything. The rest of the show you are backflipping ridding yourself of him. He jobs two major bad guys off the gate and every subsequent extensive fight with them feels like cleaning up his leftovers. Put him in a box, he's ruining the game balance. So absolutely broken. As a writer it makes your job so difficult, but it's also the entire point of him. "Hey I want to write the single most badass character of all time who can do the most insane shit but I will also engage with that", rock on king.

I think he's most interesting when understood as somebody who is fundamentally alien and removed from ordinary human thought processes. In his world there is absolutely nothing he cannot do, and the thought 'maybe I can't do something' just doesn't occur to him. He is capable of doing whatever he wants and of killing anybody who tries to stop him from doing what he wants. If he is not doing something, it is because he does not want to do it. If he wants to do something (kill all of his superiors) and he's not doing it, it's because he doesn't think it's the most effective route towards what he has decided to do. I think this informs the majority of his actions (and, importantly, what he doesn't do)(murder). I think he's reasoned out that you should have a general reason to do things, and it feels like sheer luck that he places value and meaning in human life, and as such you shouldn't kill them without a strong reason. Watching the flashback arc, if I hadn't seen a) JJK and b) Naruto and you asked me which shitty teen became a law abiding school teacher and which became a mass murderer I would have guessed the wrong ones.

Anyway, the way I like to think of him, he's a raging narcissist with a god complex to match. Horrifically, he's actually a good teacher, but he is also a teacher as an ego/'raising my child army' thing. He would be the kind of mother who is a good mother but lowkey had kids also as an ego/unconditional love/lots of attention/'surely my child will worship me' thing. Gets randomly into new hobbies, obsesses over them, gorges himself on the novelty factor, before dropping them in a week once he gets too good at them. Rinse and repeat. The only hobby that does not eventually grow boring is annoying people, so it's his only hobby. Geto told him age 15 that he'll never have any friends if he keeps on casually reminding people that they live on his sufferance, so he developed another back-up hobby more conducive for friendship of helping people forget that they live on his sufferance. This has convinced him that he's a god of subterfuge, intrigue, and trickery. Does eat women out, but is convinced that this makes him God's gift to women, and is actually pretty terrible in bed because his partner's desires never even occur to him. Is convinced he's as good at sex as he is everything else. Sex is actually the one thing he's bad at, but he's not ready to hear that.

In S1 he overall left me with the general impression that his entire idea of how high school worked was sourced from anime, and as such decided that being a teacher involved nothing but field trips, sports games, beach episodes, sports festivals, etc. Did not know how the classroom component worked so he skips it. Jossed, but also left me convinced that it would be very funny if he was an immortal 150-whatever years old and had founded the high school himself out of, you guessed it, an ego thing, and never once properly learned how high schools worked and just arbitrarily made his own aging students the new principals so he could continue engaging in training the kids who are too Misfit (TM) to get apprenticeships and living his fun slice of life anime life and raising a child army of kids who will worship him any day now. Annnyyyy day now. Any day now.

[coraniaid]

If the new Buffy soft reboot/sequel series goes ahead (which it may well still not; it sounds as though nobody's even picked up a pilot yet) and if they want to win me over (which they don't; I am not the target audience for this), I hope that it doesn't try to focus on attempting to be a definitive answer to the question of "what has Buffy Summers been doing for the past twenty years?". As I've said before, I think Chosen was a close to perfect ending to her story and I'm not sure it's possible to improve on it. She got to escape being the protagonist of the universe; she got to finally be destiny-free and make her own future. What more can anyone hope for than that? Set it in the world of the old show, sure, have the new Slayer be the child of Robin Wood or something if you must, but let the original characters' fates be as ambiguous as you can.

Instead of trying to recapture what made the original show work, or following up on decades old plot lines and characters, or awkwardly recreating fan favorite moments beat for beat, I hope they focus on a new Slayer and her story. One that makes sense for the 2020s in the way the old show made sense for the 1990s.

Apparently SMG will have a "recurring" role -- and if there's going to be a new show at all I'm glad SMG will be involved in some capacity -- but I hope that that's as a mentor figure to a new Chosen One (presumably also called Buffy? well, in-universe she can be named after her more famous counterpart, I suppose). I hope the reboot can try to be respectful of the original show's legacy -- the landscape of genre television has changed so, so much since Buffy first aired, in no small part thanks to Buffy itself -- while not trying to live solely in the old show's shadow.

I hope it does well enough to attract people back to the old show, and maybe encourages somebody to finally give approval to a second attempt at a HD remaster of that version of the show (a competently done one would be nice).

But, whatever happens, I don't think it can tarnish the legacy of the old show (more than anything we've since learned about Joss Whedon has already done, anyway), because -- if it does turn out to be bad, as if being honest I suspect it will -- we can just ... ignore it? Write it off as merely a possible future or an AU or just pretend it never happened at all; mine any interesting ideas it has for fanfic and ignore the rest. I don't think a Buffy reboot needs to happen, but I don't think it's the end of the world if it does either.

I've spent years not accepting the claims to canonicity of the post-Chosen comics and more recently pretending that the new Slayers audio drama doesn't exist; I can manage to ignore one more thing if I have to.

[mermaidsirennikita]

I’m a WHORE for bodyguard romances but I haven’t read them in a veeeeeerrrrrry long time.

Any recs???

Absolutelyyyy

Princess by Gaelen Foley. A newer all-time favorite of mine, the ultimate bodyguard book imo. He was raised by her parents after the age of 13, she's a princess, he feels unworthy as hell but is also an ELITE killer.... She wants to be with him so badly and puts her entire back into trying to seduce him. He gravitates between going "GET OFF ME" *shakes leg she's currently clinging to* and "you're a bad girl huh" because he's so trying to resist but is also desperately in love with/horny for her. Alternates between perfect angst and perfect hilarity. He fucks her while probably bleeding internally. *chef's kiss*

Dearest Rogue by Elizabeth Hoyt. No bodyguard romance rec list can go without this one! He's a retired captain of the guard, she's a duke's sister who's recently lost her vision. He's suuuuper into her but is all "I'm OLD, and she's a DUKE'S SISTER". But then some motherfucker tries to kidnap her (future hero of another book, naturally) and they have to go on the run. There's only one bed (and one of the best dry humping scenes I've ever read) ensues.

The Duke Identity by Grace Callaway. This one is a lot of fun because she's an underworld princess, and he's actually working for the feds, but he's undercover as her bodyguard and she's actually a nightmare woman who one day decides she must have him and doggedly pursues him like her life depends on it. Also, he wears glasses.

A Fated Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen. A fantasy romance based on viking culture; the heroine is coerced into marrying this gross old man because of a prophecy, but he really has zero interest in her sexually. And then he's all "POWERFUL STRONG MEGARAKE SON OF MINE, YOU SHALL GUARD HER WITH YOUR LIFE". Not realizing that she met the son first and they had a Moment. Has a scene where he fingerbangs her in the furs~ with like, seventy people including his dad sleeping nearby.

The Professional by Kresley Cole. A Russian mafia book; the heroine turns out to be the secret daughter of a mob boss, and the hero is sent in to collect her/protect her. Verrry kinky, very hot, very fun.

Joss and The Countess by S.M. LaViolette. Joss is technically Alicia's footman, but she's actually employed him to be her bodyguard while she (a widow 12 years his senior) bops around town trying to find a lover now that her husband is dead. Joss.... is a former gigolo.... and knows EXACTLY what she needs. Which is a dom. A dom who will toss her about the bedroom.

Heart of Iron by Bec McMaster. Paranormal historical, a fluttery debutante type girl gets involved with some undercover mission stuff. The hero, a virgin werewolf, is assigned as her bodyguard. The problem: he can't have sex with her, because werewolfitude is passed through bodily fluids!!!!

Moonglow by Kristen Callihan. Another paranormal historical werewolf book, the hero is the heroine's unofficial bodyguard because someone is trying to kill her. She's a witch, he's a Scottish werewolf rake, he's also recently had problems getting it up... But those problems sure don't seem to be an issue around HER...

Temptation of the Highlander by Elisa Braden. The heroine fled England because someone was stalking her, and the hero is a massive Scot who's been enlisted to protect her. You know how it goes.

Knockout by Sarah MacLean. Blueblood Imogen keeps getting into trouble because she blows things up. Detective Tommy gets hired by her family to protect her; the family does not know that Tommy and Imogen have been circling each other for mONTHS.

Waiting for a Scot Like You by Eva Leigh. A widow on her way to an orgy (because she can finally have fun now that her husband is dead) enlists a Scottish veteran as her bodyguard. He's very grumpy, and also very dominant.

The Lyonesse Series (ongoing) by Sierra Simone. BUT OF COURSE. Tristan is hired as the bodyguard for Mark, who he begins a sexual relationship with... only to find out that Mark is engaged to Isolde (they have an agreement, it's not really cheating). And when Mark sends a heartbroken Tristan over to collect Isolde for the wedding... shit goes down.

(He goes down.)

Lord of Danger by Anne Stuart. Anne Stuart usually has primary and secondary romances in her historicals. The primary romance doesn't have a bodyguard thing (though it's delicious) but the secondary one does. And it's GREAT, because the hero is a knight sworn to celibacy, and the heroine is a beautiful flirt who drives him INSANE.

[isagrimorie]

A followup series is nearing a pilot order from Hulu, with Sarah Michelle Gellar expected to star, reprising her signature role as Buffy Summers, sources said. Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, a self-professed lifelong Buffy fan, is set to direct the pilot, written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face).

Beyond the pilot order, I hear the reboot is starting a writers room soon, a sign that Hulu and the studios have high expectations for the project going to series. It is unclear yet whether other original Buffy cast members would return; that is considered likely.

Described as the next chapter in the Buffyverse, the new incarnation is executive produced by Gellar, Zhao, Nora and Lilla Zuckerman as well as the original series’ executive producers Gail Berman of the Jackal Group and Fran Kuzui & Kaz Kuzui via Suite B. Also executive producing the pilot is Dolly Parton whose company Sandollar was producer on the original. Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who also wrote the 1992 movie the series was based on, has no involvement in the reboot.

!!!!

First all, click bait title but as the first paragraph indicated its a FOLLOW UP SERIES. It's the NEXT Chapter.

This new show is NOT a reboot.

My two cents here is-- of course, Buffy can come back without Joss Whedon.

I just hope there's some old writers (Jane Espenson, etc) who can come in as consulting producers on the other hand: The main writers are from Poker Face which had a case of the week style of episodes with some whimsy!

Also! Gail Berman is back including Fran and Kaz Kuzui the original executive producers and DOLLY PARTON.

Also, SMG gets to be an executive producer now on Buffy, something she wasn't given. I'm GLAD.

THEN, there's a whole Chloe Zhao of it all, this pilot is gonna be lyrical and beautiful and the most tone poem of all Buffys. It'll be the later season BtVS where it had experimental episodes and specials.

And, yes, this show can be successful without Joss Whedon.

'Cause you know he wrote and over saw the Buffy Season 8 comics onwards (and aside from Angel and Faith), I would throw the whole comics out the window. (Xander and Dawn?? Ugh. No.)

(Buffy's bisexuality being canon though, they can keep).

Unfortunately, Eliza Dushku won't be part of this return because of Michael Weatherly.

Xander, I wouldn't mind not seeing again. I did like later season Xander but Nicholas Brendan has burned too many bridges and good will.

Weirdly, I don't know if Alyson Hannigan will return. Maybe she will, Sarah and Alyson don't have bad blood, and work is work.

I do want to see Anya and Cordelia back though. This is the buffyverse where no one stays dead! Also, Anthony Stewart Head making a cameo would be so fun! I know Seth Green might like to do a cameo because Green and SMG are good friends.

TBH, I don't want to see Andrew or the vampire boys anywhere near this production. At least not the first year.

(But really, at all. It's gonna be ship wars again, and honestly, I am too old to live through the stupid Spike Wars again. Also, Spike pulling focus from Buffy. No thank you. I'm done with that, no more re-litigating.)

Apparently Sarah really enjoyed doing Dexter and realized there is a way to get a show back, and this is what got her to changer her mind about reprising the role of Buffy.

[buffysummers]

thoughts on the buffy reboot?? idk how to feel

I think it should be left alone. Very rarely do you have such a satisfying finale... I (obviously) know the show is very popular and it continues to find new audiences. From a financial/marketing standpoint, I get why anyone would want to tap into it. It's apparently not a reboot but a sequel series. There's still a lot of material to work with.

I know Joss Whedon is a terrible person but he is also a genius. And I just don't know how it will work without his input or at least his writing team. I guess we shall have to wait and see if the other writers jump on board. (Wouldn't they need Whedon's approval to do this?? I don't see him saying yes and not wanting to be involved. Or saying no and trying to block it. He is an asshole after all.)

[quibbs]

if its ok to ask do you have any recommendations, of like, songs, movies, tv shows, books, comics, webcomics,,,, like. literally anything of the sort. and similarly, if its ok to ask, what inspired soil that binds us?

ok sorry this took me so long to answer! i just kept thinking about it instead of writing about it. a problem that is common for me, lol. anyway i think pieces of media that tend to have the strongest effect on me tend to be bittersweer, have a particular focus on interconnectivity between everyone involved, and are character focused/character dynamic focused. that's what tends to wring the most inspiration and joy out of me. i also really love pieces of media that are bad but are made with so much sincerity and passion that it does NOT matter to me how bad it is- i also find those pieces of art UNFATHOMBLY inspiring.

so: soil that binds us i think spiritually had 4 influences that shines above the rest.

-NARUTO [sincere, long form, teen-oriented, shonen energy, the power of love and friendship will save us, action scenes and BLOOD, the fun matters most for a lot of it],

-HOMESTUCK [exceedingly complicated, irreverent, balancing vulnerable and invulnerable in a clinically insane way, emphasis on the protagonists psyche, interconnectivity as a priority, kind of expecting you to get lost along the way, the fun matters most]

-THE LAST OF US [a game that inspires literally everything I will ever do forever, inspired me to be more vulnerable, character driven, post-apocalyptic, finding light and tenderness whilst trapped in HELL through your relationships with others, excels in the feeling of bittersweet, etc]

-anddd DRAGON AGE [another game that literally inspires everything i do, interconnectivity, character focused/character dynamic focused, sincere, good balance of gritty and silly, the first thing i turn to to analyze characters for because none of those characters have ever left my head after 15 years .]

those are my biggest media inspirations for soil that binds us but, especially as a teenager, music shaped what directions i took the characters like playdough. a lot of what defined my characters came from this playlist as i was writing them. i always started with the feeling first (which songs are good at) and then expounded upon the feeling i found in the song in written form. highly reccomend it!!! music is so inspiring and i always turn to it when i'm stuck.

as for tv shows/movies- despite the fact that he is (rightfully) extremely clowned on now, a lot of joss whedon works shaped my skull. buffy the vampire slayer and it's less good spin-off show angel DO live in my brain forever and in a special little hall of it's own. i'm pretty sure it inspired a lot of dragon age, too, so there you go.

i wish i had more comics/books to recommend you, but i actually don't read a lot of them these days!!! which is ironic, i know. i just keep losing time. I think maybe the closest written thing i can think of that is similar to my comic is the locked tomb trilogy- and that was a series that was ALSO heavily inspired by homestuck. same with undertale. so maybe look out for anything homestuck seems to have inadvertently given birth to!! i wish you luck on your hunt for comics that scratch the itch for you.... i know they're out there, and if they're not, give it a few years haha. homestucks reach is very far. GOOD LUCK!

[baltears]

more severance thoughts

- idk what this theory is about miss huang being related to gemma or ms casey because she seems like way more of an obvious foil/parallel to harmony. most likely she's a kid who is being raised by lumon and if we can judge by the rest of management she is not severed so maybe she's another product of a lumon orphanage. suuuper interested to see where they go with harmonys character this season as she starts to seriously question her faith in kier/lumon and i think miss huang will play a role in that or parallel that bc we are watching that dogmatism and combination of intense reverence to authority & equally intense force of personality be established in her. theres a sense of suppressed fear & resentment toward milchick that reminds me of harmonys relationship with the board/natalie in s1

- milchick remains king of the smize. NEED to know more abt him. also desperately want him and harmony to interact again

- the fact that lumon actually cares about the work caught me off guard bc i had been ignoring it due to the innies not knowing what it is and having basically no way of finding out. but like somebody mentioned that mark could be reformatting caseys chip and yeah that would make sense.... esp as the reason why they would need mark specifically to finish the project and can't just replace him. curious too about the other, 'spare' mdr workers and why the turnover happened as they apparently weren't working for lumon at the time they received their pineapple bribes. if mark is indeed reformatting her chip i just really wonder what everyone else is doing like do they all have a corresponding person like gemma? the worker besides mark we know the most about is petey but his loved ones all appear to have survived him. likewise were there additional circumstances around helena joining the severed workforce which apparently no eagan has ever done despite the obviously good optics of that? she could have just stayed unsevered and been ceo. can anyone be severed and if so why can at least some not be easily replaced? who is crucial and why, is it just mark because the situation with ms casey is some kind of high stakes leap-forward experiment?

- speaking of petey i do think it's possible we could see him again in some way, it does appear that the chip could contain extensive information about the brain, meaning he or part of him could potentially have been preserved in that form.

- also speaking of petey i anticipate the return of june and potentially her getting involved in serious anti lumon efforts which could add some complications for mark. but like sooner or later she's going to try to figure out what actually happened to her dad similarly to mark trying to investigate what actually happened to gemma

- is mark the only 'man on the inside' contacted by regabhi whose outie knows about reintegration and who is working against lumon? i kind of suspect burt could also be reintegrated or moving in that direction but like at least 1 other person must be or must have been. i also hope we get more info on why and how petey contacted her or if vice versa why she felt it was safe to reach out to him

- this show is a lot like dollhouse and as flawed as dollhouse is that does make me happy bc i do think it deserves a critical reexamination thats not about just pointing out every time joss whedon wrote something weird or revealing about himself. like yeah he did that. there's other stuff going on here though. i kind of think the chilly reception & cancelation of dollhouse might have contributed to his seemingly totally giving up on his artistic integrity around 2012 and personally i think as much as he sucks he had a point that the show deserved a different kind of attention than it was getting and really got shafted because it was genuinely ahead of its time in some ways

[olderthannetfic]

ONTF, you're older than I am, you're highly media literate, maybe you'll know: what was the appeal of the Joss Whedon style of writing to begin with? Everyone whateverishly wording their phrasey bits in that very Whedon-y way never did anything for me, positive or negative, and the constant need to have comedy during serious moments or interrupt a serious moment with either snark or a remark that nods towards tropes diffuses the tension to the point where I can't get invested. None of his characters ever felt capable of having sincere moments like most characters in other things I watch, and the few moments of that they did have would get undermined by one of the aforementioned flaws.

I do think the "omg worst writer EVER!" crowd is a bit much, because I've seen things so bad that Whedon looks like Shakespeare by comparison. But my half-sister, who is 25 years older than me and thus in her late 40's, swears Joss' style is revolutionary and deep. And frankly I've been wrong about a lot of media I used to hate and I'm open to the idea I'm missing something. It's super likely given my limited media exposure, though I am admittedly trying to work on that and branch out into more genres of media and more formats so I don't become that 'guy who has only seen Boss Baby thinks every movie has Boss Baby vibes' meme.

So. What am I missing? What's the context I'm missing and the key here that will allow me to appreciate the appeal of and enduring fandom for Whedon's work? I am admittedly a fandom baby but I am willing to learn.

--

I mean... I despised him from the get go, other than the Buffy movie, which I still quote that death scene from regularly, so I'm probably not the best person to describe what's appealing about his style.

But one-liners during action are a common taste even if I'm fonder of the sorts of homoerotic 80s trash Ruthless Reviews used to cover.

Ironic distance is also popular and easier to swallow than earnestness for a lot of people.

However, I do think Buffy's original audience was connecting with it emotionally. Look at the part where Buffy's all upset after the most clownishly 1980s take on loss of virginity and heavyhanded metaphors for guys being jerks that just made every writer involved seem excessively middle-aged and out of touch Giles asks if she has any idea what could have happened to Angel. For people who weren't going to high school in 90s California, that bilge was apparently very moving. Certainly, there are parts of Buffy where the quips die down for some actual emotional moments.

People like style. Something that commits to being aggressively stylized will often stand out from the bland clones that surround it. Look at Wes Anderson (another creator I don't particularly like). Whedon's godawful faux-witty dialogue did sound different from other things on TV at the time. He also lets women say some of the one-liners, which is sorely missing from most media.

But mostly, he was formative for a lot of people, and I had to live through many, many years of them earnestly entreating me to give his shitty writing another chance because this time I would somehow connect with this sex-negative parasite and his casting aesthetic that I didn't find hot or interesting.

(I like dumb and campy things. I just like them to star a bunch of body builders from New Zealand, not waifs.)

People always hold up the things they imprinted on as more revolutionary and deep than they seem in retrospect. In Whedon's case, his already obnoxious style suffers from having been copied so much since, but even if he weren't famous or popular, if you were talking to that one person whose adolescence was defined by their love of him, they'd say all this same nonsense your sister does.

[desultory-novice]

Have you gone over your interpreted dynamics that Magolor, Susie and Taranza may have with each other? (asking for 1-on-1 each, so three dynamics total)

My apologies if you've gone over them already, I just don't recall.

I have not!

In fact, I don't think I've done many character + character dynamics, so please, everyone interested, I request you send me even more combos! (Must...clean all this angst...off my dashboard...!)

Now then! Onto the dynamics!

-

Magolor + Susie

[Continued Below]

These two are possibly my favorite dynamic-holders of the Wave 3 gang! You've got your classic red oni blue oni except that Magolor is the exuberant one and Susie is the (slightly) more reserved!

Magolor is interested in ancient tech for its ability to make his dreams come true. Susie is interested in turning it INTO something that can be used to make dreams come true. Re-use vs repurpose.

And I think that old tech > new tech disparity would be at the center of their dealings with each other. (Frankly, everyone in the cast is "old tech" compared to Susie but someone has to be at the top XD)

Susie operates on a planetary scale: "How can my (father's) company be used to make things better?" whereas Magolor is very "I will make a thing that people will come to from all over to feel better!"

They're so near to each other's way of thinking but fundamentally different in a few ways that means they don't quite see eye to eye. But I think they can absolutely get involved in long drawn out discussions that involve lots of "Yes! And...!"

Clash indicates to us that Magolor DOES find Susie somewhat pesky. I can't help but wonder if part of that comes from a (potentially incorrect) assumption that Susie must have had EVERYTHING she ever wanted while Magolor had to dig around in the dirt of Halcandra alone for X number of years hoping to find a magic theme park building doohickey amongst the wreckage. (We know Susie's childhood was anything but ideal but HE doesn't.)

I guess DX josses the idea that the two of them met while Magolor was wandering AD, which is a shame as that was a very neat headcanon, but even if they had, I always assumed it would have been a neutral/short-lived partnership. Not enough to dramatically change their feelings toward one another.

...I also think that Susie will be constantly looking for opportunities to opportunities to turn the Lor Starcutter pink (which it wouldn't necessarily mind, but Magolor is vehemently against!) So, yeah, I would say "great collaborators when they're working together but not all the time, and Magolor is usually the one to snap first."

-

Susie + Taranza

I've said I only "ship" one ship in this fandom, and that's true, but I am also guilty of thinking, "Susie/Taranza kinda makes sense, right?"

I mean, he very much seems to be preparing himself to flirt (?) with her in the Star Allies opening sequence. He's looking for a new queen to worship, and would Susie find that so awful, really...?

Not that I want to characterize Taranza as a pitiful loser simp-type for her, so I think it would be nice if they approached each other on more equal terms. In this case, I would think that  their dynamics come from a shared appreciation for beautiful things.

If you were to stick all three in one living space, Susie and Taranza would be the neat freaks, making sure everything is organized (and laid out in an aesthetically pleasing fashion too!) meanwhile Magolor lives on half-finished energy drinks and sleeps on the floor. XD

They are also, obviously, notable for being the two major characters in the modern games to have lost a loved one on-screen in a big Kirby game event. They really should be allowed to use this to bond.

And I'd like to think they have.

So they're kind of low-key get along. Nothing bombastic - they don't set the world on fire with how good they get along, but you're not too surprised when you see them out shopping together either.

-

Taranza + Magolor

I have a LOT of thoughts about the wizards. (In fact, I keep creating backstories for these two, because despite there being a few dedicated fans of this ship, I don't see a whole lot of people dig into Magolor having a shared backstory with Tara and Secty?!)

Despite that, my feelings on them tend to change depending upon how important I find giving them a potential backstory together. Because when on screen they feel very... neutral? They don't have the dynamism of Magolor and Susie's potential clashes, nor the obvious "lonely spider seeks confident beautiful queen" of Taranza and Susie.

Clash!Taranza sits on Magolor's shoppe, chilling out, and that is... really the best way I can describe them? They are very chill.

The concept of them talking deep magic with each other is interesting, but Taranza is a follower type of character. Someone who needs someone to be a catalyst before he will go off.

Magolor could be that for him, but I think Magolor needs to get in over his head first before he will go to Taranza for assistance.

Having said that, I think that what these two have over the other Wave 3 pair dynamics is the highest level of TRUST.

I once read a Japanese doujin about Magolor that was, frankly, even more depressing than MY most depressing works (if you know, you know, but I'm not linking it) but there was a moment when Magolor talks to Taranza about a serious issue and watching the two talk serious to each other (interspersed with some moments of comic melodrama from Taranza) was utterly FASCINATING~

I don't think they become their "true" selves to each other often, but I think that when they do talk about srs business, they are two of the strongest characters in the whole cast to do so...! (Which is probably why I would never "ship" them in the classical sense? I don't see them as going out on dates or sharing the same dessert or coffee shop stuff. When they are at their "closest" they are discussing forbidden history or the skeletons in their prospective closets....)

So, on the surface? They have a very vanilla friendship with nothing to stand out. But these two COULD (if they wanted to) get up to stuff so cursed it would drive even Marx from the room.

[fandomshatewomen]

What makes the marvels hate even more frustrating is that people aren't just giving black and brown superheroines a chance but they also won't give female directors of color a chance. First Cathy Yan, then Chloe Zhao and now Nia DaCosta, and yet directors like Joss Whedon and James Gunn still get praised for their involvement in superhero films

So yeah qwhite interesting how comic book fans refuse to show up for female directors of color.

mod ali

[raisedbythetv89]

Just saw someone being judgmental towards Buffy and Buffy ALONE for victim blaming in the Beauty and the Beasts episode…..

GEE I WONDER WHY BUFFY WOULD CURRENTLY THINK EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO VICTIMS IS THEIR FAULT AND WAS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO PREVENT

Calling out only ONE character in btvs for this behavior, and the one who is victim blamed herself the most is not the call out you think it is…. Like have you been paying attention AT ALL up to this point??? Do you only see the victim blaming when it’s that blatantly obvious???

Btvs has a SYSTEMIC victim blaming problem that obviously stems directly from jw himself as xander is also the biggest perpetrator of blaming Buffy for every single terrible thing that happens to or even AROUND her followed by Joyce, Riley and Faith. Anya, Cordy, and Spike’s (in season 4) are used less frequently to blame Buffy as well with joss pretending they are just being blunt and honest but it’s just furthering the “everything is Buffy’s fault” narrative and that is NEVER countered by the narrative or any of the other characters!!!! Occasionally Willow will advocate for not attacking Buffy or assigning blame but even that is rooted in her fear of conflict and wanting to keep the peace more often than it being about believing Buffy isn’t at fault and just defending her.

It’s not until season 6 and joss is less involved that we finally get Spike telling Buffy “it isn’t her fault” with Katrina and Tara forgiving her for both loving and using Spike and girlie has an entire mental breakdown both times because being forgiven and accepted instead of blamed for mistakes literally DOES NOT COMPUTE and she BEGS to be punished and told she’s wrong because she doesn’t know how to accept anything else because of her treatment at the hands of her “friends”, family and romantic partners for the last five years

Even in fiction we need to practice not just looking at a person’s problematic behavior on an individual level but within the context of the systems they live in and the community they are surrounded by.

If you’re genuinely shocked and confused the parentified slayer who has heard “one girl in all the world” more times than she can count, was blamed by her mother for “not making better choices and having better judgment” when she was the victim of a manipulative and predatory older man and feels responsible for all the harm and deaths ANGELUS caused just because she had sex once AND for having to send Angel to hell and therefore feels responsible for nursing him back to health as well you haven’t been paying attention to the actual dynamics at play or what’s been going on up to that point AT ALL.

[sothischickshe]

how do you feel about the buffy reboot news? (i know nothing about buffy except that you like it)

Hey sweetie!! 👋😊💖 How are you?? Hope you're doing well 😘

You seem to know plenty about buffy to me bc u heard abt this before I did 😱😱😱

I guess I'm cautiously optimistic! 👀 I feel like there's been talk of a buffy reboot in the past which didn't materialise so I'm not getting hopes toooo up yet. But it sounds like smg (actor who played buffy) is firmly on board 👍 (tho I don't think any other main cast are as yet confirmed?); joss (original creator; horrid person) isn't 👍; sounds like several women involved in the creative team 👍

But I haven't seen much info & I'm keen to know more! I would be soooo into watching a woman in her late 40s stabbing & punching stuff!!!! I'd probs be less interested in a buffy mentoring young slayers a la the potentials in s7 thing 🙄

Idk this could be incredible!!! But also btvs the series got to wrap up really well, and the media landscape now is v different with v casual cancellations :(

So yea! Cautiously optimistic 🙏👀

But also wdym u haven't seen buffy???? Are you planning to remedy this??????????