#and it would be more to add into Buffy and Faith not getting along because of Buffy and Jenny’s complex relationship

[fictiongods]

Literally all of Faiths mommy issues could have been fixed if she literally just got to meet Jenny Calendar

[violettathepiratequeen]

I have solved the mystery of why Spike feels so off in AtS Season 5. Because I'm rewatching Buffy's cameos in S1 of Angel and she feels the same way, in that she just doesn't feel like Buffy, at all. She's bitchier, whinier, way more self-absorbed, which was kinda the problem with Spike in AtS S5 as well.

And I can't help but wonder if that's because it's how Angel secretly sees them, so that's how they're portrayed on his show. It explains why he's such a dull hunk of wood and Spike is just charisma and sexiness and love and devotion and danger and pain on BtVS. Because that's how Buffy subconsciously sees them. Of course the actions are still the actions, obviously, however they're perceived, but that's not what I'm talking about. I mean that the characters were written and created from the POV of the protagonist, and even the actions we're not fond of just came along because the protagonist expected nothing less of them.

Would have been interesting to have a Spike series and see how he views these two lol. I'm guessing Angel as one of those French aristrocrats in a powdered wig and Buffy as a sword-wielding queen of the fairies.

----

Editing to add that I actually think there is a very clear divide on who belongs on which show. Angel, Cordy, Wesley, Faith, Harmony, Dru, and Darla THRIVED on AtS character-wise, and I actually liked every single one of them so much better on that show than I did on Buffy.

Spike and Buffy belong on the original. I'm a strong believer in crossovers, but only in micro doses, haha, and not destroying the stories that BtVS had been so carefully building.

Andrew can bop around on whatever show he wants, he's good at picking up the flavor of whoever he gets close to, like a mushroom.

[explosionshark]

hyped that you're writing again!

Fuffy (Faith/Buffy) + scrape, rain, dame

(maybe a noir vibe?)

okay lmao i know you've been wanting this for a minute, I hope it satisfies

-

Faith's never seen rain like this, not in the entire time she's been in California. And she might be a recent transplant but she's not stupid — this is no regular summer storm. No, this has to be something else. Driving winds, great freezing wet gouts of water gushing from midnight black clouds, like God himself opened a vein. An arterial baptism for the City of Angels, a place so choked in sin that the blood of lamb wasn't cutting it anymore and the Father, despairing, had no choice but to offer his own.

That or Buffy was right and there's a powerful coven at work and they're running out of time to stop them.

Speaking of Buffy—

She's got her hand clamped tight— bruising tight— around Faith's wrist, heels that couldn't be worse for this weather for if they were trying splashing noisily through filthy puddles in the sidewalk as she ran ahead, tugging Faith along behind her.

“Come on, Faith, come on,” Buffy's saying and Faith wonders, dazedly, why she sounds so scared until she feels herself falter on the slippery pavement, shoots a hand out to steady herself on a glass storefront beside her and sees, even through the dark and dim, the bright red streak of blood her palms leave behind.

Oh, yeah. She's shot.

It's a struggle to tear her mind free of the gauzy haze that surrounds it, but when Faith's ears pick up the distant sound of a motor getting less distant by the second, she manages it.

“They're coming back around,” she wheezes, sure that her voice is too pained and weak for Buffy to hear over the weather.

But she does, judging by the quiet curse she lets out, the way she squeezes Faith's hand. “Okay, okay. I know a place. Hang on, okay? Just a little farther.”

Faith would be the first to admit, if anyone would bother to stop and ask her, that in her current circumstances she is probably not the person best qualified to judge her condition. She's biased, in her own way, and being down a few pints of blood is probably not helping. But she's a detective, or at least Buffy has asked her to play the part, so she can do what detectives seem to do in those dime novels she reads from time to time: look at the evidence, draw a conclusion.

Faith + shot + the goons in that old beater coming back around to take another shot at putting the chill on her and it all adds up to one thing: she doesn't have much of a choice about whether to trust Buffy or not or if she wants to keep running after her through all these dark, filthy allies. 

All her life, Faith has been sure that she'd kick off this way someday: running. Running a con, or from the cops or after some dame with a face too sweet and a mouth too pink and inviting for Faith’s own good. Faith knows enough to know she doesn't know exactly what kind of scheme she's let herself get drawn into, but she figures whatever it is, her chances are still better with Buffy than with those hoods and their irons.

So she goes.

And within a few minutes, Buffy is tugging her to a stop in front of a nondescript door in the alleyway of some big brick building Faith doesn't recognize, someplace downtown. Faith, no stranger to running for her life, is a little disappointed that she'd failed to memorize how they'd ended up here, but she figures she can afford to cut herself a little slack tonight, given the circumstances.

She sags, exhausted, knees shaking, against Buffy, no doubt getting blood all over that smart dove gray coat she'd shown up wearing, that Faith had, a few happier hours ago, fantasized about peeling off her. Ruined now, no doubt.

“Sorry,” Faith mumbles, or tries to, because what comes out of her mouth is more like “Shrrrgghh.”

“Shh, it's okay, hang on,” Buffy says, voice a little too frantic to be comforting. She pounds on the door again, again until she finally lets loose an aggrieved sigh and puts her shoulder through it. She makes it look effortless but Faith hears the wood splinter, sees the metal of the steel lock bend like putty.

Everything else happens in a blur. Buffy hauls her through the doorway, down a dark hall until a man… a green man? With little red horns? Intercepts them. He's wearing a plush royal blue smoking jacket and a look of perfect terror but he does as Buffy bids him and ushers them into a sparsely furnished room with a mattress on a metal frame and not much else.

Buffy settles Faith down on the bed, saying over her shoulder to the man, “Sorry about the blood. And your door.”

He waves her off and rushes back out of the room, returning moments later with what looks like a doctor's bag.

“Now, let's see the damage,” he says, sounding far too cheerful for a man peeling her bloodstained shirt up from her skin. “Sorry, darling,” he at least has the good grace to say. “I know this is terribly ungentlemanly of me, but please bear with me now.”

At this Buffy stumbles back knocking into a dresser and toppling a small mirror onto the floor, where it shatters into bits. As if we needed any more bad luck, Faith thinks.

Aloud, she says, “Where y’goin’?”

Buffy shakes her head, voice quavering. “I'm squeamish. I can't watch.”

And then trips her way out of the room, falling all over herself to leave.

“She'll be okay,” the man says, kindly, warm hands easing her back onto the bed. He produces a bottle, something home brewed but strong that he urges her to sip. “So will you. I'm Lorne, by the way. I promise you're in good hands.”

Faith doesn't doubt him. Life has seen fit to instill in Faith certain skills for survival, one of these being discerning quickly and with good accuracy how much a man with intent to touch her wants to cause pain. There's nothing in Lorne’s hands that reads malice or danger.

No, that thrum of simple minded fear, that prey animal feeling pulsing through Faith's body isn't because of Lorne at all.

It lingers as she watches the door Buffy disappeared from with all the intensity of a rabbit struck still in the brush, waiting for the hawk to pass.

To distract from the pain in her side as Lorne goes to work with his tweezers and alcohol and gauze, Faith recalls Buffy's face. They've had their moments in the weeks since Buffy approached her, asked for her help. Long hot glances and lingering touches, loaded silences and innuendo both. Nothing has come of it, but one of Faith’s other survival skills, honed over the years, has been learning how to tell when a broad wants what she has to offer. And she’s felt that want from Buffy, choked as it is by what Faith had assumed this whole time was an abundance of caution. Maybe she had a secret beau, maybe she’d been burned before, maybe she just didn’t think Faith was worth the risk. But Faith had felt the want in her, before. 

And that was nothing compared to the hunger she saw in Buffy tonight, when they’d finally stopped running and Lorne had exposed the sick oozing wound in her side and she had lurched forward, helpless as a drunk. Oh, she’d caught herself right away, pulled back, a little too far, but Faith had seen it. Had seen the way her mouth went slack before she tightened it to a pained grimace, had seen her nostrils flare, her hands shake, the way her pupils had gone big and black, like a gowed-up dope fiend.

Faith had seen. And so now, she thinks about it like a detective, lining up the evidence. How they always met at night, how Buffy had knocked that door in like it was nothing, the way she was able to lug Faith around like she was made of cotton and air.

By the time Lorne is finished, Faith is exhausted, and slips into a deep, dreamless sleep. She wakes up in the daylight, for Lorne to change her bandages.

“Buffy had to go home,” Lorne lies as easily as he stitches her up. “She’ll be back in the evening.”

They talk a little, before she falls back asleep. “Weren’t you green last night?” she asks.

“Guilty,” he says and explains.

“Demon was my second guess,” Faith says amicably, squinting and tilting her head to try to see past the glamour. No such luck, it's solid work. “First was that I was hallucinating from blood loss.”

She drinks some broth, has a few more nips of whisky, and falls back asleep.

It is indeed evening when Buffy comes back. She’s cleaned up, looking sober and genuinely concerned as she hovers in the doorway.

Faith wonders, for one terrifying moment, how much she still smells like blood. If she’s in danger from Buffy losing it.

Then she thinks, if all Buffy wanted out of her was a quick meal, she could have had it weeks ago. 

“You might as well come on in,” Faith offers, eventually, sick of the silent staring. “You’re lettin’ in a draft.”

Hesitantly, Buffy steps into the room. She shuts the door behind her and pauses until Faith gestures to the chair at her bedside.

Settling down, Buffy asks, “How are you feeling? Lorne says the wound looks good. He doesn’t think it’ll get infected.”

Faith shrugs, regretting it immediately but hoping the pain doesn’t show on her face. “S’alright. Basically a scrape.”

“The bullet went all the way through you and out the other side.”

“A deep scrape,” Faith amends. 

Buffy shakes her head and Faith, goddamn her, feels her breath catch in her throat, despite everything.

“Where you been?” Faith asks, trying to sound casual. “Catching up with the mugs that tried to give me lead poisoning?” 

“No. I couldn’t find any sign of them when I left here last night.” 

“Grabbing a bite?” Faith tries, watching carefully for—

Buffy freezes.

Faith waits.

“Yes,” Buffy answers slowly. “I had something to eat.”

“I could tell,” Faith says. “You look steadier than last night.”

She waits another beat while Buffy looks at the floor.

“So, who was he?” Faith asks.

There it is. Buffy’s gaze snaps up to meet hers. “The man who tried to shoot you? I told you I didn’t find any trace of him.”

“Not him.” Faith says, then, despite the pain, she leans forward, holding catching Buffy’s eye and holding it. “Who’d you eat?”

“I didn’t hurt anyone,” Buffy says in a rush. “On the square. I didn’t.”

“C’mon, drop the veil,” Faith says. “I know what you are. A vamp, in both senses of the word.”

“I didn’t hurt anyone,” Buffy insists.

Faith frowns. “So, what? Thralls? Heard about a guy back east who paid hookers for it. That your bag?”

“I… There’s this butcher shop—”

Faith rolls her eyes, “Don’t give me that—”

“I mean it!” Buffy practically shouts. “I don’t feed from humans. I swear.”

Faith wants to believe it. She wants it so badly she’s not sure she trusts the feeling. 

“If you don’t, you’re the first bloodsucker I’ve ever met who doesn’t hunt.” Faith says. “So, what’s different about you?”

“I have a soul.” Faith rolls her eyes and Buffy, affronted, cuts her off before she can speak. “I do. Look, it’s a long story and I’ll tell it to you later, but for right now I need you to trust me. This shouldn’t change anything about our deal. You keep helping me, I’ll pay you what you’re owed, and together we save this city from a whole heap of trouble.”

“You expect me to trust you?” Faiths asks, head aching, wound aching, heart aching, and a special new kind of exhausted she's never been before. She wishes she knew how to stop the way her heart still speeds up when Buffy looked at her just like this — big eyed and sincere. “After lying to me?”

“No.” Buffy reaches out, tentatively and lays her hand over Faith’s. “I expect you to trust me after saving your life last night.”

Warmth flows up Faith’s body, from her belly all the way to the roots of her hair. Just like that.

Dizzy over a dame, she thinks, exasperated. A vampire dame. Ain’t I the world’s biggest chump.

“You said it was a long story,” Faith says, finally. “You ending up with a soul…”

“Yes.”

“Well,” leaning back into bed, Faith is careful to let her hand continue to rest under Buffy’s grip. She jerks her chin down toward the patched wound in her side. “As you can see, I got nothing but time.”

Buffy waits a beat, then nods. “Okay. It all started with a man. His name was Angel…”

[breezybeej]

Faith season 4:

The Jonathan episode. Adam makes a statement that is very interesting in the broader theme of the season. He is not susceptible to Jonathan's spell because he knows himself. He is aware of who he is and is therefore immune to Jonathan changing that awareness. Down to the molecule, he says.

Buffy is the only member of the team who becomes aware of what Jonathan is doing. Once she starts unraveling the thread, the rest of the Scoobies gradually join her. But that's a fun indication that Buffy really is starting to know herself. And who she is is the Slayer. She first notices something is wrong when Jonathan is better at fighting than she is. That is her role. That is who she is.

Let's go back to this year's girl. Isn't it crazy how Buffy has an episode with Faith where they literally become each other, feel each other's emotions, and afterwards Buffy has a more complete awareness of herself.

On Faith's end, she started her body swap plan not really giving a shit about her role as the Slayer. She only killed the first vampire because she wanted to drag the charade along farther until she could get the hell out of Dodge. (Which by the way Buffy said she would do if she were in Faith's position. Funny how faith tried to take that advice in the end before succumbing to her better self.)

Over the course of these episodes , faith embodies Buffy's attitudes more and more until at the end she is almost indistinguishable. She is the spunky one-liner throwing blonde Slayer girl who fights evil. We see that if faith has a chance at redemption, she just is Buffy.

And when she is faced with her own body again, she reacts with violence. She doesn't want to go back, she is disgusted at herself and what she has done. Who she was and will have to be again.

What emotions do you think lingered when Buffy got back into her own body after this tantrum? Do you think she could recognize the feeling of "fear that you will have to go back"? Do you think she could feel the desperation to cling to Buffy Summers? The desire to continue being her? (She is basically looking into a mirror and screaming "you're nothing! Disgusting! Murderous bitch! You're nothing! You're disgusting!") All of those things are what people said of faith to her in Buffy's body over the course of the episode, btw.

It is almost exactly the same arc that Spike followed where he hung out with the Scoobies individually and learned about himself via the physical manifestations of Buffy's psyche AKA the Scoobies. By the end, he had a much better understanding of himself and was taking control of his life again. At the end of this arc, faith has left Buffy in a state of knowing more about herself and we don't see where she goes after that. I get the feeling that I'm going to be a wreck when I find out.

The reason all of this has driven me insane over the past few days is that Buffy was in Faith's shoes literally. She had no hope of anyone believing her, and her a deranged psychopath but she still managed to be Buffy. She still converged with Faith at that chapel to kill those vampires and rescue those people. In Buffy's shoes, Faith did not become her own self again. She became more like Buffy. But she could not convey this change to her. It wasn't until Buffy experienced faiths physical emotional responses that she understood.

I know it's the same thing when Faith had sex with Riley. You could see the confusion as the physical feeling swelled up within her from Buffy's body responding to Riley. By experiencing those emotions, she realized that Angel was not "just some guy" she threw off and Riley was not "some random guy" she picked up.

All of these things add up to Buffy reaching some level of self-actualization. When she has nothing, she still knows who she is. When everyone else in the world has forgotten her role as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she knows. Even in the No-Shrimpverse. And of all of the people, it was her own shadow that shined the light and revealed this to her.

Once I actually finish the series, I really want to go back and reorganize all these thoughts and actually lay them out in an outline and collect evidence and quotes and things. I'm disgusted with myself. I hate this show.

[the-royal-orora]

My idea on who (from other works) would be great candidates to be part of the Animorphs

So basically, here are who I feel would fit perfectly alongside the Animorph gang (Ax, Cassie, Jake, Marco, Rachel and the Auxiliary Animorphs)

*This is a mixture of what I like/are interested in and what other people like/are interested in. So just because I mention them doesn't necessarily mean I'm a fan of the work they are from*

Lastly, I'm adding what I personally feel would fit, however feel free to add onto this if you see something that I might have missed. Also, if I get anything wrong, feel free to correct me. (I'm doing my best to put research into this)

By the way, for this, assume that they have all been given the morphing ability by the morphing cube

From Stranger Things: Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Eleven, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Max Mayfield, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson

Harry Potter: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger

Scooby Doo: Shaggy Rogers, Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, Scooby Doo 

Supernatural: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester 

Doctor Who: The Doctor (Along with their companions. Not listed due the number of them)

Monsterverse: Madison Russell, Bernie Hayes, Josh Valentine

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Angel, Xander, Oz, Kendra, Faith

The Imperfects: Juan Ruiz, Tilda Weber, Abbi Singh

H2O: Just Add Water: Cleo Sertori, Emma Gilbert, Rikki Chadwick, Bella Hartley, Lewis McCartney

Jimmy Neutron: Jimmy Neutron (with Goddard as a Chee), Carl Wheezer, Sheen Estevez, Cindy Vortex, Libby Folfax, Nick Dean 

 Danny Phantom: Danny Phantom, Sam, Tucker Foley

Spongebob: Sandy Cheeks

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Frylock, Meatwad (I would put Shake, but... I feel like he would be a volunteer controller and sell the Animorphs out)

The Slender Man Mythos: Jay Merrick, Tim Wright, Brian, Evan (without HABIT), Jeff, Stan Frederick

Mandela Catalogue: Adam Murray, Cesar Torres, Jonah Marshall, Mark Heathcliff (the first two are a maybe, the last two feel more fitting)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, April O'Neil

Teen Titans: Starfire, Robin, Beast Boy, Terra, Raven, Cyborg

Gravity Falls: Dipper, Mabel

Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra: Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko, Korra, Asami Sato, Mako, Bolin

Adventure Time: Finn, Jake, Marceline

T.U.F.F. Puppy: Dudley Puppy, Kitty Katswell

The Powerpuff Girls: Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup

Friendship Is Magic: The Mane: Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike

Kim Possible: Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Wade Load

Ed, Edd n Eddy: Edd "Double D"

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Rangers

Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Sabrina Spellman, Salem

iCarly: Carly, Sam, Freddie, (maybe?) Spencer, Harper

Hocus Pocus: Max Dennison, Allison, Thackery Binx, Becca, Izzy, Cassie, (maybe?) Billy Butcherson

Monster House: DJ, Chowder, Jenny

Mean Girls: Cady Heron

GTA (all a maybe): Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, Trevor Philips, Jimmy, Lamar Davis, Lester, Niko Bellic, Johnny Klebitz, Carl "CJ" Johnson, Sean "Sweet" Johnson

Phineas and Ferb: Phineas Flynn, Ferbs "Ferb" Fletcher, Perry the Platypus

Futurama: Philip J. Fry, Leela, Bender, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Zoidberg, Amy Wong, Hermes Conrad 

RWBY: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long

Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy

Super Mario Bros.: Mario, Luigi

The Legend of Zelda: Link

Ben 10: Ben

This is all I can think of for now. Again, please add more if you can think of any!

[ifeveristoday]

welcome to wild speculations corner

Mmmm, that fresh Boom! verse content just keeps coming and coming. Now that Hellmouth #5 has been released and I’ve had some time to let it sink in along with re-reading the whole event over and taking notes for a future post, and the preview for Angel & Spike #9 - I’ve got some speculations and theories because of course I do.

KATE. I really like how Boom! verse is exhuming these characters that we didn’t really get to know or get a greater understanding of in canon - Kate was always going to suffer post the whole Buffy/Angel relationship as a possible love interest for Angel, same with Riley, and it did not help that they gave her very little to do. Looks like Angel has/had been working with Kate and she knows he’s a vampire already in the Boom! verse.

I always appreciate more ladies, especially in the Angel realm so I’m interested in seeing how Kate complicates/adds to the dynamic. And I’m dying for team Sunnydale (though it looks more likely that it will be either Buffy, Cordelia, Anya to make an appearance in the future - but I hope Buffy shows up in Ring of Fire.) to meet her as well.

I was in Hell for two weeks is going to be Angel’s go-to answer for anything now, isn’t it? I hope so.

Also Angel you couldn’t kill Drusilla, and I doubt you’ll be able to kill Spike. Fred is back, she must have gotten away from Lilah - I’ll have to reread the previous Angel.

The Hellmouth is activated, but the Hellmother is trapped in a lake with Dru and Other! Buffy, and no mention of it being closed - so that must still be affecting the surrounding area, including LA. Is Baphomet connected it as well, as a lord of hell or whatever.

TWO WEEKS. Hellmouth really happened over a period of two weeks? Buffy #8 has Joyce lamenting that Buffy’s on an out of state field trip for a week - continuity error there or Joyce was so frazzled by the goings-on she didn’t bother asking Buffy where she had been, which goes with the Joyce not Knowing Buffy’s Inner/Real Life thing.

Also, I’m trying not to be all Comic Book Guy about this series because I love it, but this is something that annoys me and wonder why the editor didn’t catch it.

Hellmouth began in October and issue 5 has it end somewhere in December, with Giles referencing it’s not even Christmas yet and Anya is decorating for the holidays - so there must have been a time skip directly after Buffy and co. got out of the Hellmouth? Or as @jenny-calendar says, it’s just Anya being chaotic and celebrating early.

It would make sense for Willow to have been thinking of a study abroad program then if she had months to process it instead of just...two weeks. That’s a lot of trauma to contemplate about - channeling your darkest emotions and then having your childhood best friend give up his life for yours, and then going on with your life as if nothing had happened because the real world can’t know - and being Buffy’s support - that is a lot to take on for Willow.

But, with the scene with Giles and Buffy in the library preceding Willow telling her plans, Giles is visibly upset about Xander’s ‘death’ (is he really gone? it is the Buffyverse after all) and his behavior during the whole deal and not being there for her and Buffy - that feels like an immediate reaction, not one that takes place months later.

Time, make it make sense.

And Buffy - after all the self-recrimination and fears about being alone despite her Calling - and getting saved by her friends to prove she’s not alone, shouldering the responsibility of the Hellmouth right after she tells Giles it’s not his, aaaaaggghhhh Buffy. I love you and you’re still my favorite, but it really isn’t your fault! Stop taking on the world’s flaws as your own.

Buffy being so supportive of Giles and Willow and most likely not telling anyone what she experienced in the Hellmouth - that is repressed trauma that more than likely will come back to fuck you up later. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same is what I’m saying.

There’s also the question mark over Robin, and future summaries for Buffy all say that the fallout from Hellmouth isn’t done, and Kendra’s going to be taking care of it - but Buffy is not there? Missing?

Just after they got her back - one scenario is that because of Xander’s loss and Willow’s departure, she has lost her greatest source of emotional support and can’t handle it - sure, there’s Cordelia, and Rose, and Robin - but they aren’t her best friends, and I sense that Loner! Buffy is going to make a return.

She could leave for LA to see Angel, because he’s the only other person who knows what happened in Hellmouth and could offer some support - or with Anya’s cryptic reply about the previous slayer before Buffy - go on the search for her. I don’t know if Giles would go with her because Kendra needs a Watcher, but there’s always Anya. Maybe Anya and Buffy go on a road trip!

That would be amazing.

I still want to know what Wolfram and Hart’s role is in all of this, because they’ve appeared in Angel and been referenced by Anya in Boom! Buffy. Also I just want to see Lilah again.

The summary for #Angel and Spike 9 reads: 

After the events of Hellmouth, Spike is here to stay, and Angel will just have to deal with it. That is, if he ever comes back from the Hellmouth. This whole saving the world from evil can't be that hard, can it? Spike isn't used to playing the good guy, but he's pretty sure he and the team can handle a few lawyers.

However, in #10: Spike and his, uh, Team Spike of Fred, Gunn & their new ally Lorne race against the clock to find a supernatural artifact before Wolfram & Hart. But if they're going to save the day, Team Spike is going to have find a way not to kill each other first. AND WHAT HAPPENED TO ANGEL?

Buffy has “Every Generation” coming in April and the summary is: The SECRET ORIGINS of some of the most important Slayers in history… ? …and the First Appearance of a new character with a familiar face who will change the way you look at Buffy and everything about her world. ? This is the Buffy comic that everyone will be talking about and the most important new character in over twenty years! Whoa, slow your roll, Boom. Overhype kills things.

New character with a familiar face? The way Hellmouth ends is with the reveal that there are multiverses with their own Hellmouths and therefore their own Slayers to guard it - and we saw a Slayer! Willow along with normal(?) Buffy and Xander. Is the new character with a familiar face this Slayer, or is another Buffy, or is it...Faith? 

The summaries for Buffy #13-14 read: 

After the shocking conclusion to Hellmouth, The Slayer must defend Sunnydale... AND IT'S KENDRA? * But as The New Slayer must confront an all-new threat to the ENTIRE WORLD, she'll need to pull the Scooby gang together once more after what happened to Buffy... * WAIT...WHAT HAPPENED TO BUFFY? * The next big Whedonverse epic is here! 

Kendra The Vampire Slayer-and the all-new Scooby gang-must defend Sunnydale from the aftershocks of the Hellmouth and a new threat that feels very familiar! But can they fill the void left behind by Buffy? And will this issue answer the question of what, exactly, happened to Buffy?

This could be an example of omission - is it OG Boom! Buffy, or is the broken Other! Buffy who failed in her ‘verse showing up again. All new Scooby Gang is clearly Rose, Cordy and Robin - which mirrors Buffy, Xander and Willow.

It does seem to me that there’s another 4 issues of the Boom! verse that Buffy and Angel will be gone/temporarily not their regular selves, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re the ones gone - but will they be in the same place again?

Oh, Boom. You’ve got me again. While Hellmouth as a whole doesn’t rate 5/5 (I’d give it 3.5), I did enjoy a lot about it and I think as a first event, it was worth it, especially issue 5. Hopefully Ring of Fire will be tighter plotted, though I still think Jordie is much better at characterization/emotional beats than Bryan is.

I just remembered that Jordie co-wrote Hellmouth with Jeremy Lambert, so I wonder if the parts I didn’t like were due to his input, or if I just expect so much from Jordie now - probably a mixture of both?

[tyrusquacks]

Misdirections- Chapter 1: Nice Stranger

Read it on AO3

Previous: Prologue

One year later

A sleep-deprived Cyrus reluctantly drags his feet to his last period class. He is clearly having a bad day today. And as if that wasn’t enough, he has chemistry last. The mere thought of having to watch Mr. Wright dryly explaining how to do a stoichiometry problem while he fiddles with his pencil sends an involuntary groan down his throat. Cyrus isn’t usually quick to judge people, but two weeks into his senior year, he’d already decided that Mr. Wright must be the most boring person on this planet and that at best, this class would be a total waste of his time.

That’s probably what annoys him the most whenever he sits there wanting to be anywhere else. Lately, Cyrus finds himself running out of time so often that he can’t afford to waste any. For example, today is Friday so he should theoretically feel comforted by the quickly approaching relief of the weekend. In reality, he is anything but, because today is SAT prep day. Most people had taken the test once in the spring of their junior year, and maybe a second time during the summer, which Cyrus also had done. And yet despite scoring in the 1500s both times, he was determined to take the test one last time in October to make he sure he got as close to a perfect 1600 as he could.

But now as he waits outside his chemistry class, leaning against the nearest locker, eyes closed, and running on a meager four hours of sleep, he begins to rethink his decision. Just as Cyrus begins to think that he might be able to take a nap standing up, Mr. Wright strolls into the classroom, no more excited to be there than his students. Cyrus senses the movement of his classmates going inside and switches to autopilot as he opens his eyes and follows everyone inside, hoping to get through the next 50 minutes without boring himself to death.

To make matters worse, chemistry was the only class he didn’t share with at least one of his best friends, Andi and Buffy. As he looks up to the clock for the 1000th time, slumped in his chair with his chin resting on his hand, Cyrus can’t help but think about how much less agonizing this class could be if he could even steal a glance to one of his friends to silently communicate his despair. Cyrus looks at the clock again. It’s only been maybe 30 seconds since the last time. Right when he decides that this couldn’t get any worse, his stomach rumbles impossibly loudly as to prove him wrong.

Of course he’s hungry. Because he stayed up late last night doing the practice problems his private SAT tutor had assigned him for today, he had missed his morning alarm and was late to school, not that he is normally a morning person anyway. Per the school’s strictly enforced lateness policy, this meant that he could not leave the building to buy his lunch, so he was stuck with questionable cafeteria food. Buffy was kind enough to sneak in some fries for him when she’d gotten back from lunch outside with Marty, but if the second growl he’s hearing from his stomach is any indication, it wasn’t nearly enough.

Already bored out of his mind, Cyrus sighs, seeing no additional harm in reminiscing the rest of this godawful day. Things had gone downhill after lunch. This year’s first bake sale for the student government was, to put it mildly, an epic fail. All because people can’t do the simple task of keeping their promises. As a result, they only brought about a quarter of the baked goods they said they would bring for the bake sale. To add insult to injury, two of the three people who had agreed to help Cyrus sell completely bailed.

Even then, he hadn’t given up and was still hoping that he’d be able to pull it off and sell the limited amount of cookies and cupcakes he had. Unfortunately, today was Friday which meant that the longer lunch period and the fact people had more money early in the school year had incentivized a significant amount of the student population to eat outside. He can’t believe he wasted his free period trying.

Cyrus looks at the clock one more time. Ten minutes left. Mr. Wright is done lecturing and the students are left to work independently on a few problems. Though he couldn’t care less, Cyrus pretends to be working diligently because he still has to keep up his “good student” reputation. While he scribbles random numbers on the worksheet, Cyrus mentally makes a list of what he’s gonna do as soon class dismissed, reminding himself that every minute should be accounted for.

First, he’d run—or more realistically walk briskly—to his locker and dump his chemistry textbook and shove all the notes he’ll need for the weekend into his bookbag. On his way out, he’d probably run into Andi and Buffy and shout a goodbye at them. Maybe a quick hug. Then he’d rush to the train station and cross his fingers that the trains are running on schedule so that his twenty-minute commute to the Upper West Side goes as smoothly as possible.

If all goes to plan, he’ll be able to get a snack before his tutor arrives. After the session, he’d work on his college essay until dinner. Finally, he would FaceTime Buffy and Andi and they’d take turns complaining about the stresses of senior year. The weekly Good Hair Crew video call was the only thing he looking forward too, except that sandwich he may or may not have time for. If he wasn’t completely exhausted by then, maybe he’d get a headstart on his history project. But if he is being honest with himself, that was highly unlikely.

In the midst of all this mental planning, the bell rings, indicating the end of the period and of a dreadful school day for Cyrus. Nearly everything goes to plan, and he even gets to be in a group hug with Andi and Buffy who were conveniently waiting for him at his locker, aware of their friend’s earlier misfortunes. As the girls’ basketball team captain, Buffy has a meeting with the coach about this year’s tryouts after school and Andi is doing community service by helping the AP Art teacher, so they say their goodbyes and Cyrus promptly heads towards the exit, relieved that something today is going right for once.

With his faith in the universe renewed, Cyrus walks in long strides towards the train station, fueled solely by the thought of a hypothetical sandwich. It was only a three-minute walk, but today Cyrus makes it in two. Since every member of the Good Hair Crew lives in a different part of the city and took a different train, Cyrus had gotten used to taking the train alone. He wastes no time in looking for his student MetroCard, having stored it in his wallet phone case which his friends jokingly teased him about whenever they got the chance. But he didn’t care because it did the job. Cyrus swipes his card and pushes against the turnstile in one swift motion. He looks up at the countdown clock. One minute until his train arrives.

Perfect. It looks like I’m having that sandwich after all.

He continues to walk along the platform towards the head of the train because he’d figured out a long time ago that the third subway car was closest to the exit when he got off at his stop. He’s almost there when he sees the train arriving. As he takes his last few steps, he notices a fairly group of teenage boys. Quite frankly, they’re being so loud that it’s hard to miss them. The boys are standing right in the area where Cyrus likes to board the train, causing him to roll his eyes when he realizes he’s about to be in an enclosed space with them. Still, he decides not to get any closer and positions himself to use the other door.

The train slows down to a stop and all the doors open. While waiting for the passengers to get off, Cyrus shot one more glance at the mob of testosterone who at least had the decency of splitting up so people could get through.

That’s when Cyrus recognizes him. Actually, he’d recognize that head of blond hair any day, anywhere, anytime. Turns out, these guys go to his school. And they’re friends with him. Friends with Reed.

Fuck.

Cyrus is not expecting to see him here. It’s easy enough to ignore a junior at school, but there aren’t that many people in the subway car at this time of the day. He can’t risk Reed seeing him. Who knows what he might do? Especially with his friends around…

In the meantime, people start to step into the train. Lost in his panic, Cyrus doesn’t realize that he’s blocking the way, but a quick shove from an impatient middle-aged woman pulls him out of his thoughts. A voice comes through the intercom: Stand clear of the closing doors, please. Cyrus’ body goes into flight mode. He was as determined to avoid Reed as he was to eat that sandwich today. So he runs to the first door of the closest car just as the doors close behind him.

For a moment, he thinks he’s escaped the worst. Cyrus goes to move forward because he hates standing in front of the doors, only to be yanked back by his backpack. He knows almost immediately what’s going on: his bag is stuck in between the doors. But before he even has time to struggle, someone steps directly in front of him and reaches over his head and pulls the double doors apart with both hands to force them open before taking a step back.

“Oh my God,” is the only thing that comes out of his mouth. He is about to say something else when the train starts moving abruptly, sending Cyrus, who wasn’t holding on to the pole, stumbling to the side. He thinks he’s going to start falling for sure, but and hand firmly grasps his arm and brings him back to balance.

“Woah there,” his savior says, and for the first time, Cyrus looks up at him. Woah, Cyrus thinks, but he doesn’t say it. Suddenly, he is very aware of the stranger’s lingering grip on his arm and the vague scent of citrus that was definitely not coming from him.

The boy in front of him clears his throat and Cyrus realizes that he’s staring but he can’t help it. His eyes are just so… so green, and he was standing so close. After a moment, however, he looks away and collects himself enough to grab the nearest pole and straighten his posture with the little bit of dignity he had left. The other boy lets go of his arm and moves a reasonable distance away.

“You okay?” he asks with genuine concern in his voice.

“Um yeah. I- I’m okay. Thanks for...you know, thanks for the help,” Cyrus responds, trying his hardest to smile in the least awkward way possible. He feels the heat of embarrassment rise to his cheek and stares at his feet.

“Yeah, no problem.” Cyrus doesn’t know what to respond, so he doesn’t.

At the next stop, a seat empties next to where the boy was standing. He nudges Cyrus and motions towards the seat with his head.

“You wanna sit?” he asks.

“Sure, thanks,” Cyrus replies before taking off his backpack and sliding into the seat. Now that it was clear to him that he wouldn’t be making conversation with the other boy, he pulls out his headphones from his pocket, plugs it into his phone, and puts Troye Sivan on shuffle. It actually isn’t that unusual. New Yorkers in public transportation are quite impersonal, and people tend to be on their phones, listening to music or playing games during their commute. In fact, it would have been weird he’d attempted to start a conversation. He is a stranger, after all. A nice one, but still a stranger.

After a few stops, the “nice stranger”, as Cyrus begins to call him in his mind, gets off the train. Cyrus feels his body relax immediately and he takes a deep breath. Somehow, this triggers another growl in his stomach which reminds him of everything that happened in the day before his most recent incident. Inevitably, he is reminded of Reed and his obnoxious friends.

How had he forgotten? Forgotten that Reed also takes this train? He then remembers that a lot had changed over the summer. He probably wasn’t paying attention to it before, but he definitely knew that Reed took this train too. It’s just that it hadn’t been a problem before.

But everything is different now and he knows that too. He also knows that he can’t allow a repeat of what happened today. Sure, it wasn’t a guarantee that Reed and his friends would catch the same train as him every time, but the very possibility of it happening made Cyrus’ palms sweaty. No way. He couldn’t afford it.

On his way home, Cyrus decides to stop getting into the third subway car altogether. There was no doubt in his mind that taking a few extra steps to the exit was worth reducing the risk of running into the blond to zero. And who knows? Maybe it would increase his chances of running into someone else.

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 3x07 Revelations

aka subtext and secrets

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and rant about it in 10-3k words. What you can expect: long run-on sentences and disjointed observations, often focused on one tiny detail about the episode. What you shouldn’t be expecting: actual reviews that make sense.

And today marks the third 7th episode milestone of this rewatch, so the deal should be obvious by now: big reveals and set ups for the season are in order.

As far as big season themes go, Revelations combines explicit Buffy/Faith subtext, the will-they-won’t-they dance of a post-season 2 Buffy/Angel, and Faith being turned to the dark side by an authority figure showing specific interest in her. So yup. There’s definitely a lot of set up here to delve into.

But before that, I once again have to talk a bit about Willow and Xander, and how they’re handling the reveal of Angel being alive in light of their own little secret transgressions.

On a surface level, Willow seemed the most understanding and supportive towards Buffy. Which I was glad of, because I once again felt like there was a disproportionate blame leveled against her, and that gives me all these bad feelings in my tummy.

On the other hand... Willow’s mentality stems from a ‘who am I to judge when I’ve been secretly cheating on my bf’ mindset, and that’s not always the healthiest way to deal. It’s certainly not a bad thing - it’s a chance for self-awareness and empathy -, but for one thing, it leaves the door open for not holding other people responsible for their actions due to your own guilt. (Which doesn’t necessarily apply here, but will be relevant a few seasons from now.)

There’s also the issue that if you’re too wrapped up in that guilt and your own head, you might not actually be able to empathize with and support others properly through their own issues. (Once again though, I’m pointing this out mostly for future reference.)

In any case, I did like that Willow tried to use the opportunity to come clean to Buffy about her own secrets at that point, even if she chickened out post-demon slayage. Her reactions during that fight were adorable though.

And then we got Xander on the complete opposite side of that spectrum.

That’s not to say that Xander isn’t overcompensating for his own guilt here though. In fact, the reason why he ends up finding out about Angel is because he volunteered to go the cemetery... alone. Just to bring Buffy and Faith up do speed on their findings.

I actually was with Xander more than I expected during this ep. It was logical and understandable for him to follow Angel, and then tell Giles about what he saw. As usual, he did go over the line during Buffy’s intervention, but I also liked how Cordelia debunked Buffy’s jealousy comment and that, as an audience member, we were aware of the circumstances of him ‘spying’ on them.

At this point, it does certainly feel like Xander’s dislike of Angel has nothing to do with jealousy... but then again, as I pointed out many times, Xander is a rather emotional character. So if his gut is telling him that Angel is the worst, there’s no way of discerning how much of that is leftover sulkiness back from season 1.

In any case, he certainly believes himself to be justified in his rage, which is why he has little care as to how his ramblings will come off to Faith. Who then decides with a lack of context that Angel slayage is in order, and Xander even volunteers to accompany her in that.

See, this is why I’m having trouble blaming Buffy for keeping Angel’s reappearance a secret from the gang. Sure, keeping it a secret made the reveal definitely worse, but come on! Look at their reactions! And then Giles said that she must have known that it was wrong or otherwise she wouldn’t have kept it from them, and... Here’s a hot take.

Just because you feel guilty about doing something, doesn’t mean that it’s actually wrong. It wasn’t wrong of Buffy to care for Angel after he was brought back, and it was damn reasonable that she didn’t think that the rest of the gang would understand. (Which again goes back to the “Kick his ass” moment.)

So while I understand where the gang is coming from, and can sympathize with their distrust of Angel, and them feeling betrayed by Buffy... I’m with my girl on this one.

#Buffy’sDoneNothingWrong

But then we get to the main attraction of this episode. Faith.

Again, I love that the episode starts with some pretty explicit subtext hint at Buffy and Faith’s relationship. The gang is theorizing about whether or not Buffy’s dating someone new. Buffy appears and says that she wouldn’t use the word ‘dating’, but she’s definitely going out with someone tonight. And that someone is Faith.

It’s all very subtle.

And then Gwendolyn Post appears, and announces herself as Faith’s new Watcher. She also makes some great effort at making Giles feel inadequate in the process, but that’s beside the point.

Faith immediately says that she doesn’t get along with authority figures... mostly ‘cause they tend to die around her. Besides, she’s already got Giles, and they’re fine with the gang.

But then Gwendolyn manages to get under her skin, when she comments on the secret meeting the rest of the Scoobies had. Now, from an outsider perspective, it might seem understandable why Faith wasn’t invited to the Buffy intervention meeting. For her however, this just served as a wake-up call about her place in the group.

Giles isn’t her Watcher. He’s Buffy’s. All of the gang... they’re Buffy’s friends. And apparently, Faith hasn’t even earned her stripes to be in Buffy’s inner circle yet.

So when Gwendolyn offers to train her and asks for her trust in return... Faith accepts, despite herself. Sure, she isn’t as cozy as Giles, and doesn’t approve of having a social group, but at least she’d be her Watcher. And it’s not like Faith has a lot of friends, or trusts anyone to let in to begin with.

And yet, Faith going after Angel... That wasn’t Gwendolyn’s influence. That was Faith thinking that she was helping Buffy, that she was perhaps even saving her from herself.

You can also add the subtext here to Faith’s motivation, even if it’s only on a subconscious level. And the fact that Faith and Xander are planning to do this together - after the latter was accused of still having some jealousy goggles on, no less -, could actually support that claim.

Once Gwendolyn betrays her though, Faith’s at a low point. Despite her bravado, it’s obvious how much Faith craves a support system; but now not only did she learn her lesson about trusting people once again, she also came to the conclusion that she’s not really part of Buffy’s family either.

Buffy:  I'm on your side. Faith:  I'm on my side, and that's enough. Buffy:  Not always.

That scene at the end between them, as short as it is, is still probably my favorite of the episode. Buffy comes offering an olive branch after everything, reassuring Faith that they were all fooled by Gwendolyn, and that despite their fight earlier, despite keeping secrets from her and everyone else, she’s still in her corner.

But Faith is lost in her own head. She doesn’t feel like she can trust Buffy anymore. She knows that she isn’t the most important person in Buffy’s life and fears that she’d choose her friends or Angel over her in a heartbeat. (Which kind of reminds me of how maybe Faith and Willow are more similar than they’d care to admit...)

And yet, at the end of the scene, Faith still calls out to Buffy. She considers one last time to open up, to let her in...

...And then retreats back into herself. In her cheap motel room that someone should really get her out of. But the fact that not one adult cares to do so, is emblematic of the validity of Faith’s issues.

People will let you down. So why not let them down first?

[preserving-ferretbrain]

I, Whedon

by Dan H

Monday, 23 February 2009

Dan on Joss Whedon, Nice Guy Syndrome, and the Man!Feminist~

So what with the release of Dollhouse, Joss Whedon's new series about how men treat womenthere's been a certain number of people on this site talking about good old JW's much vaunted feminist credentials. While none of us would go so far as

actually calling him a rapist

a lot of us get a little bit uncomfortable with the way he tries to pass off scenes of hot women wearing skimpy costumes as empowering.

A few of us have spent a while trying to put our fingers on exactly what we find so frustrating about Joss Whedon, and now our esteemed editor and I have started to rewatch Firefly, I think I've worked out exactly what it is:

Joss Whedon thinks exactly like me.

Or, to put it another way, Joss Whedon thinks exactly the way I used to before I grew up, got a girlfriend, and became less of an insecure douchebag.

Basically, Joss Whedon's portrayal of women tallies almost perfectly with the phenomenon known generally on the internet as

Nice Guy Syndrome

.

Just to clarify, the term “Nice Guy Syndrome” has two essentially contrary meanings (check out the

Urban Dictionary Entry

. Its first use is the perceived phenomenon whereby women date “jerks” because they're stupid/insecure/oppressed by the patriarchy/have Stockholm Syndrome when they should really be dating “nice guys” like – well – whichever guy is using the phrase. The second meaning of the phrase is the phenomenon of creepy, insecure guys who can't get a date because of the messed up way they treat women (usually by pretending they want to be “

friends

” with women they actually want to sleep with) who ascribe their lack of sexual conquests to their being “too nice”.

It's this second definition that I'm talking about here. I know exactly what these guys are like, because I used to be one and, to be honest, part of me probably still is.

To lay it all on the line, both for the women in the audience who are wondering why the fuck these creepy guys are following them around, and for the men in the audience who are wondering why women find them so creepy, the key points of Nice Guy thinking are these:

Respect For Women is Paramount: The basis of Nice Guy thinking is the idea that Women must be Respected. It is the duty of men who Respect women to protect women from men who No Not Respect them. A woman is, of course, powerless before a man who Does Not Respect her, she can be saved only by the intervention of a Nice Guy.

Women Do Not Enjoy Sex: This is the central, axiomatic tenet of Nice Guy thinking. Sex is a service a woman performs for a man. Ideally she will perform it willingly for a Good man (i.e. me) who cares about her and Respects her, but frequently women are tricked or forced into providing sex for Bad Men because women are Stupid.

Men Are Evil, Male Sexuality is Evil: To be sexually attracted to a woman is fundamentally disrespectful. After all, women don't like sex, they only provide it out of a sense of social obligation. Therefore a man who respects women will do his utmost to suppress any sexual desires he has, and he will certainly not tell a woman he is attracted to her (a really Respectful relationship has to grow out of friendship remember). Nice Guys tend to idealise lesbianism as the perfect non-exploitative relationship for women, they tend to do this to give them an excuse to fantasise about hot chicks doing it.

Women Are Weak and Stupid: The reason it is so important to Respect women is because you, and only you, are capable of protecting them from the undeserving men who would demean them. Women are not capable of protecting themselves, or making their own decisions. A woman who has sex with another man is effectively being abused. A woman who has sex with you is wilfully degrading herself for your benefit.

In short, this all adds up to one fucker of a Madonna/Whore complex, and a totally sexist worldview which is inextricably bound up with the belief that you Truly Understand Women.

Enter the Man!Feminist

I'm not going to get into the “can men be feminists” argument here. What I am going to say is that in my experience guys who pride themselves on their ability to understand women are guys women want to stay the fuck away from them. Men who self-define as feminists should, at the very least, take a long hard look at the way they think about women.

Anyway, this was supposed to be an article about Joss Whedon. Where to begin.

Joss Whedon is a feminist. And how. His shows are packed full of “strong women” and feminist themes and sisters doing it for themselves. Unfortunately they're also packed full of examples of fucked up Nice Guy logic.

I'm going to start with the big issue here, which is Whedon's portrayal of male and female sexuality. It isn't universal, but there is a strong tendency in Joss Whedon's works to view male sexuality as evil (see point three above) and female sexuality as play-acting (see point two).

I'm not going to count Angel and his Curse, that was a specific plot-event, and it was supposed to mirror a classic teen issue (“I had sex with this guy and he totally changed!”) but after the Angel drama, Buffy's next sexual encounter is with Parker who, while manipulative, is direct and honest about the fact that he's after sex. Of course the way he treats Buffy is horrible, but that's sort of my point – he's the Nice Guy's classic idea of the “jerk” who extracts sex from women by trickery. And of course corn-fed Iowa boy Riley only realises his own attraction to Buffy when it manifests in his punching Parker in the face (thus allowing the worthy Nice Guy to overcome the unworthy Jerk and claim his reward in the shape of hot Buffysex). Then of course Riley gets written out for being too boring, and Buffy gets with Spike.

The Buffy/Spike arc is telling, particularly when taken over the course of seasons 5-7. Like Parker, Spike is quite upfront about the fact that his attraction to Buffy is sexual and it's this as much as the fact that he's a soulless killing machine that makes their relationship so destructive. Buffy clearly doesn't actually enjoy having sex with him (see point two) she's just reacting badly to her traumatic resurrection experience. And of course Spike's Evil Male Sexuality finally culminates in an attempt to rape Buffy (because remember folks, all men are

potential rapists

). Then between series six and seven, Spike gets his soul back, effectively redeeming him, and his redemption, of course, manifests as his no longer being overtly sexually attracted to Buffy. His redemption arc culminates, in fact, when Buffy gives Spike the “best night of his life” by lying platonically with him while the world burns.

There's a bunch of similar examples in Buffy, Oz isn't allowed to have sex with Willow until he has first proven himself worthy by refusing to have sex with her, and of course when Willow gets together with Tara, Oz is effectively retconned out, with Joss insisting that Willow is definitely gaybecause, as per point three, lesbianism is inherently empowering. Faith's promiscuity is deeply intertwined with her psychological scars, and Anya's love of sex is presented, along with her literal-mindedness and love of money, as a mark of her ex-demon “otherness”.

Now I should stress here that I'm not saying that Joss Whedon has done anything wrong with his portrayal of the characters in Buffy. Like my earlier article on

race in fantasy

this is basically a call for people to be honest about their assumptions.

Anyway, that's Buffy. Next stop: Firefly.

Madonna, Whores, and Sacred Prostitution

The first thing I should say is that there actually are some reasonably sexually active women in Firefly. Wash and Zoe's relationship is clearly healthy and functional, and Kaylee has been heard to bemon the fact that she “ain't had nothing 'twixt her nethers don't run on batteries” (although that line was from the movie, and has been denounced by fans as out of character).

But if you're going to talk about sex in Firefly you really have to talk about Inara.

Inara, for those who haven't seen the series and couldn't work out what was going on in the film is a “Companion”. Companions are kind of space-Geishas, super-high-class prostitutes who are trained in – well – pretty much everything (possibly including espionage and martial arts, if we're to judge by Saffron, the evil Companion who appears in the episode Our Mrs Reynolds). Companions occupy a ludicrously exalted position in the society of the “'verse” (as Whedon cutely calls it) roughly equivalent to modern movie stars or corporate high-flyers. Whenever Inara walks into a room, people flock around her saying “oh my Lord, a real Companion, I've never seen one before! You're so amazing and empowered!” We are told at great length how the Companions are valued and respected, how a companion always chooses her clients, and how they basically have a free pass to go anywhere and do anything within the Alliance.

But every two episodes, somebody will smack Inara and call her a whore.

Not only does Mal (which means bad, in the Latin, by the way) constantly condemn her profession, but most of her clients treat her like property, or try to “take her away” from her fantastically prestigious career, or just generally treat her like shit. This is completely stupid. It's like having a series set in the present day in which one of your characters is on the board of directors for GSK, and having every third person they meet treat them like a street drug dealer. It's also a classic example of the way that Whedon will try to have his cake and eat it when it comes to these sorts of issues.

Inara is a classic male fantasy, but more than that, she's a classic Nice Guy fantasy. She's a woman you can have sex with without feeling bad about it. Indeed the whole Companion ethos is constructed around the assumptions of the Nice Guy worldview. Respect is paramount, and the whole thing is sublimated in ritual to ensure that respect is maximised at all times. The companions do not enjoy sex (you never once see Inara have an orgasm). The role of the companion is to select men who she considers worthy and allow them to have sex with her. It's “empowering” only in the sense that the Companion is always detached from the whole proceedings, the perfect untouchable being who briefly lowers herself to be with her client

Put simply, it's a very male idea of what female sexuality is and should be, and viewed as an ideal of female sexual behaviour, it's actually kinda creepy. Inara doesn't choose clients who she's attracted to, or people she thinks will satisfy her sexually (a number of her clients in the series are virgins she's been hired to make a man out of). Her decision to service somebody or not is almost entirely a judgement of their moral character which, yet again, is a pillar of the Nice Guy ethos, where sex is a reward for good behaviour.

And needless to say, Inara is always underneath.

Dirty Girls

The final element of the Nice Guy ethos is the most controversial and the most destructive. Deep down, all Nice Guys believe that women are weak, stupid bitches who don't know what's good for them.

This is the bit I'm going to get most flak for trying to pin on ol' Joss, but bear with me.

The really dangerous thing about the Nice Guy ethos is that it leads you down circular lines of argument like “I'm a nice guy, so there's nothing wrong with the way I'm acting towards this girl” or – to relate this back to good old JW “Joss got an award from Equality Now! That means nothing he creates could ever be sexist in any way”.

To put it another way, Nice Guys like to believe that the world is divided into Nice Guys and Jerks, and that the only reason that there are any problems with sexism at all is because of the Jerks (and that incidentally part of the reason there are so many Jerks out there is because women keep having sex with them, so really the women are to blame).

To put it yet another way, Nice Guys believe that there are Good People and Bad People, and everything the Good People do is Good and everything the Bad People do is Bad.

Let's bring this back to Whedon.

In the Firefly episode Shindig, Inara hooks up with an evil man named Atherton Wing. Atherton Wing acts like the stereotypical Jerk. He takes Inara for granted, gloats about the fact that everybody wants to have sex with her but only he gets to, and keeps going on about how she's his because he bought and paid for her. He asks Inara to come and stay with him to be his Personal Companion, and she considers it even though he is patently evil. Finally Mal baits him into calling Inara a whore, at which point Mal punches him and they wind up in a duel.

This then leads to the following exchange

Inara: You have a strange sense of nobility Captain. You'll lay a man out for implying I'm a whore but you keep calling me one to my face. Mal: I might not show respect to your job, but he didn't respect *you*. That's the difference. Inara, he doesn't even see you.

First off, see that word “respect” again. Remember guys, that's what it's all about. You respect women, other guys don't. How do you know? Well you know you respect women, don't you? And the other guy treats them differently to you, so the other guy must not respect women.

Secondly, look at what happened here for fuck's sake. Inara, a Companion, one of the most highly paid, high-status individuals in the entire 'verse, falls in with a Bad Man and she is completely incapable of extricating herself without Mal's help. She's supposed to be the goddamned poster child for female empowerment in the series but the moment she's faced with a man who (horror of horrors) “doesn't respect her” she becomes totally powerless and has to be rescued by Mal. Mal who, let us not forget, calls her a whore, pays no attention to her wishes, and generally treats her very, very badly.

But it's okay, because he respects her. Just “her” of course. He doesn't respect her choices, her career, her wishes or her privacy, but he respects “her” as a kind of abstract entity. But in the Whedonverse that's the way it is, there are Bad Misogynists who Oppress Women and there are Good Guys who fight against them. The idea that an otherwise sympathetic character could have an attitude towards women that isn't appropriate (or even, shock horror, that Joss Whedon could have attitudes that are not appropriate) is simply unthinkable. He's a feminist, therefore he cannot be sexist. He respects her, therefore his actions are respectful.

A big part of Joss Whedon's problem is that he wants at one and the same time to have empowered female characters and also draw attention to the fundamentally disempowering situations women often face. As far as it goes, this is laudable, but he frequently lacks the subtlety to do these ideas justice. Worse, because he is so fond of presenting Good, Virtuous, Powerful Women versus Bad Oppressive Misogynists he frequently falls into the all-too-common trap of presenting abuse and oppression as being direct causes of virtue or, worse, empowerment.

To bring this up to date, with a final example the pilot episode of Dollhouse sees Eliza Dushku taking on the persona of a shit-hot hostage negotiator. Said shit-hot hostage negotiator became a shit-hot hostage negotiator because, as a child, she was abducted and sexually abused. By drawing a direct line between childhood abuse and adult success, Whedon confuses empowerment with obsession. The shit-hot hostage negotiator literally would not have become the woman she was without the man who abused her. She owed her success to him absolutely. By entangling his female protagonists' successes so intimately with the indignities they suffer at the hands of his male villains, he creates a world in which women are defined only by how men treat them, and the only choice he gives them is whether to accept or reject the roles men put them into, and that is anything but feminist.Themes:

TV & Movies

,

Sci-fi / Fantasy

,

Whedonverse

,

Minority Warrior

~

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~Comments (

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Arthur B

at 11:28 on 2009-02-23

Its first use is the perceived phenomenon whereby women date “jerks” because they're stupid/insecure/oppressed by the patriarchy/have Stockholm Syndrome when they should really be dating “nice guys” like – well – whichever guy is using the phrase. The second meaning of the phrase is the phenomenon of creepy, insecure guys who can't get a date because of the messed up way they treat women (usually by pretending they want to be “friends” with women they actually want to sleep with) who ascribe their lack of sexual conquests to their being “too nice”.

I'm pretty sure the first definition was invented by guys who fit the second...

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Rami

at 15:23 on 2009-02-23*agrees with Arthur*

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Rami

at 16:30 on 2009-02-23I read part of

a book once

that argued that the "Nice Guy" effect goes beyond just sexual relationships -- that it's a kind of dysfunction that views *any* interpersonal interaction as an implicit contract of that nature. So you get thought patterns like: "I did well in school, therefore I deserve my parents' affection"; "I organize group activites and provide pizza, therefore I deserve Extra Regard and Love from my social circle"; "I Respect and Honor women, therefore I deserve for them to want to sleep with me".

There was lots of his argument that I'm not sure I agree with but it all seems to hit very close to the

geek social fallacies

, which is to say, very close to home...

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Dan H

at 19:08 on 2009-02-23Interesting, you might have a point there. It ties in rather nicely with good old Joel from Surrey and "I worked hard at school so I deserve to get into Oxford."

On another point (and I know it's a bit gauche to be suggesting further reading for my own article - sorry folks) it strikes me that one of the few times I've seen the "empowered prostitute" thing working in fiction is in Jaqueline Carey's otherwise awful Kushiel series. It works there, I think, for all the reasons Inara doesn't work: people genuinely treat the high-status prostitutes with respect, the main character seems to actually enjoy what she does, and enjoy it in the "get off on it" sense as well as the "derive spiritual fulfillment" sense.

Clue: when you compare unfavorably to Jacqueline Carey, you are in trouble.

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Nathalie H

at 20:37 on 2009-02-23Ooh, good article! I think I agree with everything you've had said (which is not as common as I'd like when it relates to feminism) - I think you've explained the things that bother me about Joss.

I'd like to follow up on this:

"The companions do not enjoy sex (you never once see Inara have an orgasm)." - that is true, but that may be because of US TV limitations. It's probably also worth considering Inara's one episode of sleeping with a woman, which according to your Nice Guy code appears to be the best thing for women...she appears to be enjoying herself, but then she always /appears/ to be enjoying herself. All we learn is that 'people are surprised' and 'people think two women is hot', which...yeah.

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http://rudecyrus.livejournal.com/

at 20:58 on 2009-02-23Don't you mean "hot-shit hostage negotiator"?

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Nathalie H

at 21:15 on 2009-02-23(Follow up to previous comment fail - should be "you've said", and agreeing not being as common as I'd like relates to men's viewpoints rather than yours personally. Should not comment while I'm watching TV!)

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Shim

at 21:27 on 2009-02-23

Not only does Mal (which means bad, in the Latin, by the way) constantly condemn her profession, but most of her clients treat her like property, or try to “take her away” from her fantastically prestigious career, or just generally treat her like shit. This is completely stupid.

Agreed. Actually, if it were just Mal, I could sort of forgive it. You could construct some... thing... where Mal was meant to be unconsciously hypocritical about his sexism, being as he is a bit erratic anyway, and disliked the "Companions" bit as part of the culture he's rejected, so kept undermining it (which... isn't that difficult). Trouble is, as you said, Inara

only

gets respect at the plot-convenient moments. The rest of the crew barely notice her or are entirely blasé about her, even the posh kids (who you'd expect to be inclined towards the normal hierarchy) don't seem to show any deference. And the culture shows none of the etiquette rules you'd expect, or explanations for why Companions have special status, to help suspend disbelief.

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http://descrime.livejournal.com/

at 23:24 on 2009-02-23The problem with Companion -> Geisha -> female empowerment is that geisha weren't empowered. They had status, but that's hardly the same thing. The geisha were slaves. Their knowledge/skills and their behavior was all scripted around what men wanted and would pay for. They were taught to repress emotion and reflect only what men wanted to see. It was only the top geisha "stars" who got to be choosy about their clientele. I don't find any of that particularly empowering.

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http://wormwood-pearl.livejournal.com/

at 09:42 on 2009-02-24I

submitted this to reddit"> :)

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Dan H

at 14:29 on 2009-02-24

Their knowledge/skills and their behavior was all scripted around what men wanted and would pay for.

The Companions, however, seem to live in this special magic world (or "post patriarchy society" as the "Whedon is totally feminist" crowd like to call it) where "what men want and will pay for" magically overlaps totally with "what the Companion wants to do" which also, weirdly, seems to overlap entirely with "her lying there looking motherly while the guy lies on top of her and thrusts like a sixteen year old."

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Rami

at 14:39 on 2009-02-24@wormwood-pearl: Yay! Someone actually used the bookmarking feature! I knew I put it there for a reason...

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Wardog

at 15:06 on 2009-02-24I think is a really interesting article, Dan, and I really want to say something about it ... but I'm not sure what to say. I think I'm still just traumatised by Nice Guy Syndrome... as A WOMAN I should know about this stuff, right?

Also I think it's slightly dodgy ground to try and establish what lies "behind" Whedon's presentation of women. After all, this has changed a lot over the years. Although Buffy was probably self-consciously constructed to be a "feminist" heroine, Early Season Buffy is "empowered" almost by chance. I mean, she's a bubbly 16 year old who worries about cheerleading and boys, and just happens to kill vampires competantly on the side. I suppose what I always liked about her is that being into cheerleading and worrying about boys (i.e. being a person) was never really presented as a hindrance to her being good at her job. Set that against someone like Starbuck who is "strong" only when she's pretending to be a man, and the rest of time is a nuclear-explosion sized mess. Or, for that matter, bloody Cameron in House - the fact she is a woman (and thus, inclined to be over-emotional when she should be professional) is always portrayed as some kind of hindrance to her doctoring.

Sorry, this is a heap of undigested thoughts.

Talking about Firefly is also awkward because there just isn't enough of it. I mean, we never really find out what is with the Companion Guild - if it is EVIL and OPPRESSIVE, or if they're secret ninja assassins or what. And we never really see what Whedon was trying to do with Inara - admittedly what he seems to be starting to do is rather depressing. I think there's also a lot of like in Inara, if not for the messy virgin/whore issue. None of the women in Firefly are standard hotties - Kaylee is adorable and girly, Inara is poised and graceful, Zoe is Amazonian, and all of them are clearly very good at their very different jobs. I love Kaylee's touchy-feely mechanical skills.

It's just there's so much that's awkward and unfortunate in Inara. She's gets all hot and flustered over Mal, which leads to her behaving like an idiot a lot of the time. *None* of her clients ever seem to respect her (the first guy whinges that she's sped the clock up to cheat him of his cash, Atherton Wing is an arse, the guy in Canton has an overbearing father who keeps hustling her to just get on with the bonking), except the one woman to whom she gives a back masage while they talk about the softness of each other's skin (which is, of course, what lesbians spend all their time together doing...). Kaylee is all awestruck about how wonderful companions are but, again, she's a woman.

Anyway, I'm babbling now.

But, yes, v. interesting article.

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Dan H

at 17:18 on 2009-02-24

Also I think it's slightly dodgy ground to try and establish what lies "behind" Whedon's presentation of women.

Oh absolutely, but I thrive in slightly dodgy ground.

Much like the Rowling Calvinism article I don't actually mean to say that I know for certain that Joss Whedon thinks about women this way, just that I keep getting the *creepy impression* that he does, and I know from first hand experience that thinking about women this way is in no way incompatible with self-defining as a "feminist."

Which I suppose makes this sort of a meta-article really, the whole point of which winds up being "guys who self-define as feminists, Joss Whedon included, should take a good honest look at how they actually think about women because guys, there is a non zero chance you are a creepy asshole."

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Wardog

at 16:28 on 2009-02-26Much like the Rowling Calvinism article I don't actually mean to say that I know for certain that Joss Whedon thinks about women this way, just that I keep getting the *creepy impression* that he does, and I know from first hand experience that thinking about women this way is in no way incompatible with self-defining as a "feminist."

To be fair to you, there is definitely something "off" with the Whedonverse.

I am more forcibly struck by it than ever since embarking upon the second series of Veronica Mars - of may be one of the most successful "empowered" women I have seen on television. Veronica has a lot of strengths and a lot of, quite interesting, weaknesses to balance them out. I think what I like best about it, actually, is that she is a *person* I can admire and, in some respects, aspire to be more like. The key word being "person" not "WOMAN".

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Sonia Mitchell

at 23:05 on 2009-02-27

I think what I like best about it, actually, is that she is a *person* I can admire and, in some respects, aspire to be more like. The key word being "person" not "WOMAN".

Reminds me of the comments beneath your article on

Mesuline

(I've been playing with the random button too) re. gay characters in fantasy. The OMG we're including empowered women/gay people/disabled people/etc! being a step up from invisible but still some way off Veronica Mars (as you describe her - not that I've seen VM). Not sure if I'm in total agreement as it applies to Firefly (not seen enough of Buffy to comment) but this is definitely an interesting article.

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http://arkan2.livejournal.com/

at 15:30 on 2009-02-28Just when I think your reviews can't get any more brilliant, you come out with something like this. Your insight and clarity are matched by few others of my acquaintance (and several of the rest are also on this site, I might add). I salute.

There are a lot of specifics to this article which I will address later, when I have more time and cognitive energy at my disposal to give this wonderful essay they intelligent response it deserves.

For now, I feel obligated to render Kyra a friendly warning re:

Veronica Mars

. Warning: the following material is heavily biased, and if you really want to continue watching with an open mind, I suggest you don't read it, I just thought I should give you the option of knowing what you're (probably) in for. (Like I said, very biased, you might find yourself disagreeing when you see it yourself.)

Veronica Mars

starts out good, but somewhere by the beginning of the third season the main character devolves into (and this is my feminist cred taking one for the team, but some things have to be said) a real

bitch

. She treats the people who love her like crap, even when they go to heroic lengths for her benefit, and constantly plays the victim whenever they do not comply with her wishes (well, that last one may just be her boyfriend). Oh, and she keeps making the same mistakes about mistrusting people based on total hearsay (the way she dumped Logan at the end of season 1) over and over and

over

and over again.

On a show where at least half the cast are lovable jerks, you wouldn't think this would be a problem, and it probably wouldn't: except that the writers obviously intend us to ascribe to Veronica's view of reality. Logan and Dick and Vinnie and all the other jerks are lovable

because

they act like jerks, and the writers make it clear to the audience that they're supposed to be jerks. Veronica is vile because she's a jerk, and the writers make it clear to the audience that she's supposed to be heroic.

To invert your message, Kyra, and use Whedon to illustrate a point about

Veronica Mars

: the difference between Veronica and all the other jerks in the cast is like the difference between Mal and Jayne on

Firefly

. They're both jerks, but Jayne is an admitted jerk, whereas the writers keep trying to tell us, despite all the evidence, that Mal is a Nice Guy, who's maybe just a little rough around the edges.

Also, in season 3, Veronica goes off to college, and one of the overarching themes of the season is her interactions with campus feminazis. I wish I were making that up.

... Wow, I didn't expect that to turn into a rant. [insert chagrined smile emoticon here]

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http://miss-morland.livejournal.com/

at 14:49 on 2009-03-02I'll confess to not being very familiar with Whedon's shows, but I still found this article very interesting - the Nice Guy logic seems to be fairly common in popular culture (and society in general). Then again, the Whore/Madonna logic isn't exactly new...

One of the things that annoy me the most, is that Nice Guy logic gives women basically two options: you can be with a Jerk who may do things like beat or rape you, or you can be with a Nice Guy, who'll never do that sort of thing, but who is just as controlling as the Jerk. Either way, you can't win, because having a partner that treats you like an equal is out of the question. (Unless you're a lesbian, of course, and then you don't have to have any nasty sex, because women are totally sexless, you know.)

Also, when women choose macho Jerks, it's seen as a proof that 'we want men who treat us badly', because that's the way of nature, isn't it? [insert eyeroll here]

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Dan H

at 14:55 on 2009-03-02

Also, when women choose macho Jerks, it's seen as a proof that 'we want men who treat us badly', because that's the way of nature, isn't it? [insert eyeroll here]

It's *science*. You can't argue with *science*.

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http://arkan2.livejournal.com/

at 00:30 on 2009-03-25Reply to “I, Whedon”

For someone so obsessed with punctuality in person, I always seem to join these parties at about the time the music has gone on its fourth repeat, the refreshments are down to the crumbs, the organizers are beginning to put away the balloons and decorations, and even the diehards are beginning to think it's time to go home.

Still, now that I've finally put together the time to say what I have to say, I'm damn well going to say it.

So first, I'm linking Kyra's article

Consuming Problems

, which I just read last week. In Kyra's first comment she says:

Possibly it's the weird transaction to which popular culture tends to reduce relationships: the man gives the woman romance, in return she gives him sex. When both should surely be mutual activities =P

Which is an interesting perspective on the those Nice Guy assumptions. (Personally, I'm all in favor of romance, although “embarrassing and awkward”? Yeah, definitely.)

As for the main argument … well, that's about six hits to the self-esteem in rapid succession, especially that “Heartless Bitches” essay. As if I didn't have enough problems with insecurity. Oh well.

The really dangerous thing about the Nice Guy ethos is that it leads you down circular lines of argument like “I'm a nice guy, so there's nothing wrong with the way I'm acting towards this girl” or – to relate this back to good old JW “Joss got an award from Equality Now! That means nothing he creates could ever be sexist in any way”.

It's just a slightly modified version of the privilege self-defense mechanism “I'm not sexist/racist/heterosexist/classist/ableist/ageist/whatever, therefore I'm not part of the problem and I don't need to do anything differently.” The upgraded version is “I support women's rights/the NAACP/give money to charity/etc. therefore I'm doing my part for equality and I don't need to do anything differently.”

Whedon's portrayal of sexism as being the sole province of the Misogynist-of-the-Week makes him an enabler. The none batshit-crazy misogynists in his audience (i.e. more than 99.9% of them) can breathe a sigh of relief, suitably assured that they are not in any way a part of the problem.

To put it yet another way, Nice Guys believe that there are Good People and Bad People, and everything the Good People do is Good and everything the Bad People do is Bad.

I think that basically sums up what I just said in the last two paragraphs. And maybe that explains Mal and his behavior: sure he's objectively no better than Jayne, but because he's Good/a member of the

Elect

(yay for referencing my first ever ferretbrain essay!) everything he does—including insulting Inara and kicking helpless prisoners into engines—is automatically Good, too.

Nathalie H, notice also in that one scene where Inara is with another woman, they talk about how great it is to be “just us girls,” away from men where they can “be themselves.” (As my sister pointed out, apparently Inara

really is

that melodramatic when she's just being herself.)

Which I suppose makes this sort of a meta-article really, the whole point of which winds up being "guys who self-define as feminists, Joss Whedon included, should take a good honest look at how they actually think about women because guys, there is a non zero chance you are a creepy asshole."

Exactly.

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http://arkan2.livejournal.com/

at 15:06 on 2009-03-26Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this. A while ago I read an

essay

by internet columnist Karen Healey about the portrayal of "strong women" in

Buffy

,

Angel

, and

Firefly

. As I recall, the comment thread also contained something about female sexuality in particular being depicted negatively.

From what I saw, it doesn't exactly fit the Nice Guy Syndrome model, but it's another way of looking at the portrayal of women and sexuality in Whedon's work that doesn't come from either the "Whedon can do no wrong" or the "Whedon is a rapist and everything he does is misogynistic" camps.

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Wardog

at 16:17 on 2009-03-26Interesting post, thanks for the link.

There's also a link to

to this

in the article ... which makes me hit the wtf button.

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Arthur B

at 16:24 on 2009-03-26Kyra, that link is incredible. Curse the day that

Firefly

was cancelled and we were denied this genius.

Inara: NOOOOOOOOOO DON'T LOOK AT ME I HAVE THE DEATH CUNT

Mal: I KISS YOUR DAINTY HAND FOR I AM YOUR PURE WHITE KNIGHT WHO RESPECTS YOU, EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE THE DEATH CUNT

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Wardog

at 16:28 on 2009-03-26I *know*, I *know* - it's awful! Makes me actually relieved they stopped Firefly when they did - and that's heresy!

What gets me is:

Mal: INARA, YOU FILTHY WHORE ... oh, you've been gang-raped ... my mistake, you're not a filthy whore.

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Arthur B

at 16:39 on 2009-03-26It reads more to me like:

MAL: Inara, I do not like you, because you are a slutty slut who sluts about the place.

INARA: Oh no, Reavers! I must turn myself into a chemical weapon so that none may touch my venomous DEATH CUNT.

MAL: Inara, I like you now, because you can't slut about the place thanks to the DEATH CUNT which

beckons to me in my dreams but I can never ever have it because it is unattainable, unattainable like you are, sweet Inara, let me place you on this pedestal and kiss your sweet hand, yes, let Mal take care of it, let Joss Mal take care of it all...

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Dan H

at 23:27 on 2009-03-26Tragically it's even worse than that. Comedy DEATH CUNT jokes aside it's basically

MAL: Inara, you may think you're a strong independent woman who is able to make her own choices, but really you just want a man to treat you like a woman.

INARA: No Mal, I really am a strong independent woman and I make my own choices and am totally empowered.

[ INARA gets GANG RAPED by REAVERS ]

MAL: See!

INARA: You're right! My horrific abuse experience has made me realize that your perception of me is more accurate than my own!

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Dan H

at 23:28 on 2009-03-26(Of course, it's not Joss Whedon, it's Tim Minnear. I bet Joss Whedon was all like "no Tim, don't do that, it would be totally fucked up", but then the networks were all like "no, put it in, we want to mess your show up" - this being of course the only possible interpretation of any flaw in the works of the Great Man).

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Arthur B

at 23:42 on 2009-03-26I think we're agreed that the story requires one or both of Inara and Mal being completely pathetic, just in different ways; given that it was never filmed, I suppose we'll never find out for sure...

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Wardog

at 09:29 on 2009-03-27Of course, the other rather indicative thing about this idea is that it's an anti-rape weapon that only works *after* you've been raped. Flaw, much?

It seems to me rather illustrative of much of Whedon's thinking on this issue - i.e. that punishing people for committing rape is more important than preventing rape happening.

Sigh.

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http://fintinobrien.livejournal.com/

at 10:02 on 2009-03-27I like how its effectiveness as a deterrent is completely undercut by the fact that nobody knows she has the frackin' weapon. Way to prevent rape, jackass.

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Dan H

at 11:30 on 2009-03-27

It seems to me rather illustrative of much of Whedon's thinking on this issue - i.e. that punishing people for committing rape is more important than preventing rape happening.

This, again, is why I'm so iffy about Joss Whedon's attitude towards women. It's not that he hates women or is anti-woman, it's that he's the kind of guy (as are a great many of us, I think) who is really into the idea of protecting women or, better still, punishing men who don't treat women "right".

For a lot of guys "girl gets horribly abused, I beat up the abuser, she is eternally grateful and we have teh hot secks" is a fantasy and, as a fantasy, it's relatively harmless (in the sense that fantasies aren't real, and any guy with half a brain eventually works out that other people's abuse experiences aren't about you). The problem comes when you try to dress that fantasy up as feminism.

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Arthur B

at 12:54 on 2009-03-27

I like how its effectiveness as a deterrent is completely undercut by the fact that nobody knows she has the frackin' weapon. Way to prevent rape, jackass.

This is almost precisely like the anti-rape device in

Snow Crash

, which fails horribly for similar reasons. Supposedly, the idea is that if Mr Potential Rapist doesn't

know

whether any particular woman possesses a vagina dentata, or whatever the hell it is the weapon is meant to be, then he's going to play it safe and not rape anyone.

This doesn't really work in universes with insane space rapists (especially insane space rapists who are perfectly willing to continue gang-raping someone after the first few guys drop dead screaming OH GOD IT'S A TRAP SAVE YOURSELF). The whole point of a deterrent (other than you don't keep it secret -

vhy didn't you tell the world, eh?

) is that the person it's deterring needs to have some kind of self-preservation instinct and the capacity to understand the threat, and as I understand it it's debatable as to whether the Reavers possess either.

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Arthur B

at 12:56 on 2009-03-27(I should add that it doesn't work in our world either, because a potential rapist never knows whether a woman is carrying a gun, or a knife, or whether he'll be caught for his crimes and shanked in a grimy jail cell.)

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Viorica

at 16:05 on 2009-03-27I . . . I . . .

. . . I have no words. So after Inara has learned her place and understands that Mal will only respect her if she's had her sexual freedom taken away, what? They have sex?

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Dan H

at 16:47 on 2009-03-27I don't think that the implication is that they have sex (can't blow that good ol' will-they-won't-they now can you), but it's still clearly supposed to be a touching, romantic scene and not

as creepy as all fuck

.

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Viorica

at 22:19 on 2009-03-27I . . . okay, I'm not at all averse to hurt/comfort, but the idea of people being drawn together due to the girl being sexually abused is just . . . EW. EW. EW.

(Incidentally, this far from the only instance of this sort of thing in Joss's work- last week's episode of Dollhouse had a women sobbing on the floor as her boyfriend cradled her after a fairly sexualised attack. It wasn't nearly as bad as this, but it was still kind of creepy.)

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Dan H

at 22:29 on 2009-03-27As ever it's all about context and awareness. Ultimately there's nothing intrinsically wrong with hurt/comfort (as I understand it is called in fandom), there's not even anything *specifically* wrong with a guy who likes the idea of "comforting" vulnerable women (with his PENIS).

It's when he lies to himself about the "with his PENIS" bit and pretends that his attraction to hurt and abused women comes from his EMPATHY with the FEMALE CONDITION that it gets skeevy.

Incidentally I'm really loving typing "with his PENIS".

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Viorica

at 23:24 on 2009-03-27Well in the Dollhouse example there had quite a bit of comforting done (with his PENIS) before the attack or the cuddling, so as I said- not nearly on the same level.

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Wardog

at 21:53 on 2009-03-28I really really badly want to participate in this discussion because I want an excuse to say 'with his PENIS' ... but I can't think of anything ...

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http://fintinobrien.livejournal.com/

at 09:35 on 2009-03-29I'm just enjoying mentally removing the quotation marks.

Incidentally I'm really loving typing with his PENIS.

Heehee, I'm a child. :D

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Morgus

at 18:33 on 2009-12-06I think the problems that you have with sexuality in the Whedonverse stem from the fact that the sensibility portrayed is essentially traditional. Everybody's monogamous, the only lesbian couple is an outlier in every way, and the protagonist wants nothing more than to be normal. The symptoms of "nice guy syndrome" overlap with "traditional, 'safe' relationship syndrome."

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Morgus

at 18:34 on 2009-12-06Now that I think of it, I have never seen a genuine polyamorous group potrayed in media outside of porn. Whedon's "problem" may not be that he's a "nice guy," but that he's a product of Western society.

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Morgus

at 19:00 on 2009-12-06This gave me a great thought about liberalism in general. It's not really about accepting people who are marginal, it's about creating an ideal of normalcy that everyone, presumably, can agree with and conform to. Or at least that's the goal of "mainstream" liberalism.

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Wardog

at 09:25 on 2009-12-07I'm not sure more polyamory in the Whedonverse would help with his portrayal of sexuality.

Also maybe I'm being down on pornography here, and admittedly my knowledge of it is perhaps less than yours, but I can't really recall many genuine, functional and loving polyamorous groups portrayed in porn either. Unless you are counting the device that everyone fucks everyone else as polyamory (something, I suspect, most practising polyamorists would take issue with).

And finally saying the problems with somebody's atttiude to / portrayal of something springs from the fact they are "a product of Western society" is about as helpful as pointing out they wrote their text a certain way because they had two arms. We are all products of the ideologies that shape us - that's, uh, kind of the way it is.

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Morgus

at 00:10 on 2009-12-09>Also maybe I'm being down on pornography here, and admittedly my knowledge of it is perhaps less than yours, but I can't really recall many genuine, functional and loving polyamorous groups portrayed in porn either.

That kind of strengthens my point about truly alternative relationships being completely foreign to society as a whole. And no, I have never seen any such relationship in porn.

>And finally saying the problems with somebody's atttiude to / portrayal of something springs from the fact they are "a product of Western society" is about as helpful as pointing out they wrote their text a certain way because they had two arms. We are all products of the ideologies that shape us - that's, uh, kind of the way it is.

I guess I really should have been more clear about my "thesis." Marriage exists more or less to inhibit sexual competition, and that, I think, is also the core of "nice guy" syndrome.

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Arthur B

at 00:18 on 2009-12-09Woah! That's an awfully simple explanation you're offer for an awfully big concept. Is marriage

really

that simple?

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Morgus

at 07:13 on 2009-12-09Anything on top of what I said is purely subjective, IMO. Kind of like Marx's "false consciousness." Economic motives are everything, questions of race and religion are distractions.

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Arthur B

at 11:23 on 2009-12-09Yes, but even if you restrict yourself to the material benefits of marriage it's still more complex than reducing competition. What about children? Obligating people to look after their own kids through a powerful social expectation that people should only have children within a marriage has historically been a big deal, for example.

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Rami

at 19:36 on 2009-12-09

Economic motives are everything, questions of race and religion are distractions.

There's a lot more to the 'economic' motives of marriage, IMO (including financial motives) than sexual competition. And inhibition of sexual competition is just as subjective as other motives (like those Arthur mentions).

That kind of strengthens my point about truly alternative relationships being completely foreign to society as a whole. And no, I have never seen any such relationship in porn.

Surely by definition an 'alternative' relationship is one that is foreign to society as a whole ;-)?

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Morgus

at 02:52 on 2009-12-12>What about children? Obligating people to look after their own kids through a powerful social expectation that people should only have children within a marriage has historically been a big deal, for example.

I view the desire to increase the size of one's herd the ultimate manifestation of material greed.

>There's a lot more to the 'economic' motives of marriage, IMO (including financial motives) than sexual competition.

By "economic" I mean "materialistic." Status within society, building up of one's social group, etc.

>Surely by definition an 'alternative' relationship is one that is foreign to society as a whole ;-)?

My point (which you are distracting yourself from perhaps on purpose) is that relationships are essentially homogeneous. That is also the great lie of our "consumer choice." Yes, there is, on the surface, great variety, but our place as a consumer and the seller's place as a seller is essentially the same regardless of one's choice of product or venue. One's desire does not make one an individual, especially if it's for what everyone else wants. Vast resources are wasted to hide this fact.

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Guy

at 03:39 on 2009-12-12@Morgus: I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the Marxist/Materialist worldview, but I also think there's a problem with evaluating it as an ideology if you don't have some sense of what it would take to demonstrate it to be incorrect. I mean, OK, we can start by looking at various social phenomena and saying, "Yep, that's part of the economic base, that's only part of the social superstructure, that thing over there is base..." &c &c. But if somebody picks out some example and wants to argue that it shows that not all relationships are fundamentally driven by economic motives or structures, how are you going to respond? By what criteria are you going to judge the validity of their counter-example? If you say it's "self-evident" that it's invalid, or the criteria of validity boils down to "proper materialist interpretation = valid, other = not valid", then you end up stuck in the bubble of a self-validating ideology. I know it's a big ask, but, can you say anything about what your criteria of falsification would be?

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Morgus

at 07:27 on 2009-12-12>I know it's a big ask, but, can you say anything about what your criteria of falsification would be?

Self-sacrifice of one sort or another. Priesthood doesn't count, that brings great status. (and wealth) Kind of like Yukio Mishima, he said that he did not believe in the sincerity of Westerners, since they kept their sincerity locked within their torsos. He was referring, of course, to seppuku, which he ended up committing quite publicly.

Another less gruesome criteria would be the degree to which a person is individuated. If he/she pursued goals or had a way of thinking that had nothing to do with the world of the "people" or any established group or immediate, simple-minded self-interest. In short, I would accept a person who had displayed an ability to transcend the linearity that arbitrarily limits the human condition.

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Wardog

at 15:51 on 2009-12-12Lol!Rand.

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Morgus

at 19:59 on 2009-12-12Nope, Ayn Rand only acknowledged "rational" self-interest, IOW simplistic money-grubbing. Even if there were rules governing this idealized quest for money, the basic motive was inherently banal.

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Rami

at 22:44 on 2009-12-12Still don't quite follow. But...

By "economic" I mean "materialistic." Status within society, building up of one's social group, etc.

given the above and your implication that "rational" self-interest != self-interest, I'm thinking our basic definitions of key terms differ too much for me to understand your point unless you expand further.

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Morgus

at 22:55 on 2009-12-12I really don't know where your confusion's coming from. I'm not a proponent of simple-minded self-interest, and I've said so repeatedly. "Rational" self-interest is another form of simple-minded self-interest dressed up as logical positivism. Long story short, I dislike banal motivations veiled as heroic, transcendent things.

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Arthur B

at 23:02 on 2009-12-12But given your views on the purpose of marriage, it sounds like you don't believe that people by and large have any non-banal motives...

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Rami

at 23:47 on 2009-12-12

I really don't know where your confusion's coming from.

Well, for instance, you said "economic interest", and seemed to mean by it something different from what I mean when I say "economic interest". You also seem to understand "rational" self-interest differently. Extrapolating from that, I would expect that your definition of "simple-minded self-interest" would differ from mine too, so I have no definite idea of what you mean when you say it. How are you defining "simple-minded"?

I dislike banal motivations veiled as heroic, transcendent things

I don't know which culture you grew up in, but in mine marriage is always understood as a useful thing that serves certain functions. Not heroic or transcendent.

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Morgus

at 01:14 on 2009-12-13>But given your views on the purpose of marriage, it sounds like you don't believe that people by and large have any non-banal motives...

Yes, that is precisely my point. Those who conceive of better things are great people.

>How are you defining "simple-minded"?

Linear, unimaginative, gotten from some other, still more mundane source like your church, your parents, or corporate America.

>I don't know which culture you grew up in, but in mine marriage is always understood as a useful thing that serves certain functions. Not heroic or transcendent.

"But marriage is about love! And sanctity and shit!"

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Morgus

at 06:34 on 2009-12-13And back to the point. Nobody's disputed that Whedon's sensibility is traditional, they've disputed only my wording of my criticisms.

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Rami

at 07:01 on 2009-12-13

Nobody's disputed that Whedon's sensibility is traditional

Well, I'd not call it traditional per se

1

, but I don't think anyone was arguing about that to begin with -- I think we're mostly agreed that it's problematic.

they've disputed only my wording of my criticisms.

Well you did make a few other assertions beyond "the sensibility Whedon portrays is traditional" ;-)

[1]: Assuming Anglo-American 'tradition', yes, there's a good deal of overlap with Nice Guy but I really don't think either is a pure superset of the other...

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Wardog

at 19:33 on 2009-12-13I also rather think this discussion that wandered rather far from the original article. Shall we rein it in?

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Morgus

at 23:12 on 2009-12-13yeah okay mom

And btw all the 4 bulletpoints at the beginning of the article could easily describe the Victorian view of human sexuality. Just sayin'.

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Melissa G.

at 00:19 on 2009-12-14

yeah okay mom

Um, that was rather rude. And Kyra makes a valid point. This has nothing to do with the original article anymore. And the discussion doesn't seem to be going anywhere so why not just put an end to it?

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Morgus

at 00:58 on 2009-12-14Strange how the Internet both disinhibits people and makes them more overly sensitive. That was really my way of jokingly backing out of this while reiterating my point.

If you don't want to move us off track any more, then don't respond to this. I am done.

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Rami

at 02:36 on 2009-12-14

That was really my way of jokingly backing out of this while reiterating my point.

Try appending a ;-) to indicate humorous intent, it works better on the Internets :-)

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Morgus

at 03:06 on 2009-12-14noooo you are off track

oh shit so am i

edit: I just looked at my first post. It comes like 9 months after the one before. It appears that digression is healthy.

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Rami

at 03:29 on 2009-12-14

noooo you are off track oh shit so am i

WTF???

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Arthur B

at 03:41 on 2009-12-14

I just looked at my first post. It comes like 9 months after the one before. It appears that digression is healthy.

Here on FB, we don't mind if the conversation on an article peters out. We're not against someone resurrecting a discussion if they have a new point to make, but we also recognise that there are times when nobody has anything useful to say and it's best if people stop posting for a while.

This is one of those times.

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Arthur B

at 20:36 on 2012-11-30Super-special three year necro because I finally started watching

Firefly

and uuuuuuh...

I mean, maybe I'm not being fair and I'm judging it in the light of the article but the Inara/Companion stuff is just toe-curling and I 100% see Dan's point about it being a kind of Nice Guy fantasy (right down to several of her clients apparently being Nice Guys).

On top of that I'm having trouble sussing how she even fits into this culture. Most people think Companions are awesome, but they only seem to mention their existence when Inara happens to be in the room - so far I've yet to see an Alliance officer griping about his long tour of duty and daydreaming about hooking up with a Companion he'd employed back home or anything like that. On top of Mal being unceasingly unpleasant about her profession, Shepherd seems to disapprove when he first meets her, so even though Shepherd comes around fairly quickly it still seems as though there's some social stigma attached to it (because where else did Mal learn that "whore" was a word you could use to insult people with?) but this only seems to come up when Whedon needs Mal to be unpleasant to Inara. Unless there's an episode which unpacks all this late in the series (or a diversion revolving around it in the movie) it doesn't seem we ever get any insight into the history of the institution and how it came into being and got to the level of social acceptance it has, which would seem to be an obvious and necessary thing to work out considering the amount of work which has clearly gone into figuring out other aspects of the future history here. On top of that, I don't feel that I'm getting enough indications as to whether Mal and Shepherd's disapproval of the concept pegs them as conservative but in line with a substantial body of feeling in the general population, or markedly old-fashioned in a way which makes their view of the subject eccentric or extreme, or so far out of step with public opinion that they're being kind of nuts about it - in other words, I haven't the slightest idea what level of social acceptance the Companions are meant to have.

It feels, in fact, like something Whedon ham-fistedly patched in because he wanted prostitutes in his space Western without the consequences of having prostitutes, in the same way that the Reavers are his way of having a culture of people living out in the wasteland with a reputation for brutal atrocities against settlers without having Native Americans portrayed in the way they were often portrayed in the nastier sort of golden age Westerns, and how the Browncoats were a way to have a Confederacy analogue without the slavery angle.

I dunno how I feel about all that. On the one hand it's obviously a step up from having an unreconstructed Western with all the nastier setting elements intact. On the other hand, seeing the main character giving the old "We [the South] Will Rise Again!" line and having his belief that the war was about freedom from central government meddling be actually justified gives me shivers.

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Arthur B

at 20:43 on 2012-11-30Ew, I'm watching the "I don't respect your job but he doesn't respect

you

" episode.

Between this and the fact I have seen literally nothing so far to make me imagine that the Alliance as a whole are evil aside from the River thing (and nothing to suggest that that isn't the responsibility of a small conspiracy within an otherwise benign society rather than evidence of all-pervasive corruption) and I'm beginning to think that the only way I'm going to enjoy this show is if I regard Mal as an unutterable prick who deserves whatever horrible stuff happens to him.

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Michal

at 00:24 on 2012-12-01Well Arthur, there's a certain a "major" plot twist in

Serenity

that bears a striking resemblance to a short story by Michael Moorcock. Which means you'll just have to watch it to the end now to find out what that resemblance is.

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Arthur B

at 01:25 on 2012-12-01Unless it involves Simon and Inara merging to become an androgynous Antichrist who consumes the world, or Mal having a breakdown where he almost but not quite accepts the fact that he murdered the whole crew and dumped the bodies in the cryo-berths, or Vera the assault rifle killing Jayne, turning into a humanoid form and declaring "Farewell, friend, I was a thousand times more evil than thou", I think I'm going to be disappointed. ;)

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James D

at 06:39 on 2012-12-01

On top of that I'm having trouble sussing how she even fits into this culture.

Well first of all it's important to note that there are regular ol' prostitutes in Firefly too (as you'll see in one of the later episodes), and the Companions look down on them just as much as Mal does. I get the idea that Companions are basically just like highly-trained, high-priced prostitutes controlled by a central body who requires them to undergo regular health checkups and pass various tests before 'licensing' them (these details are mentioned). Regular prostitutes can't get these licenses, thus they're looked down upon. Because of how beautiful/smart/good in bed the Companions are, they're in absurdly high demand and can basically pick and choose from a large pool of potential clients. More cultured types give them a moral pass, more conservative, old-fashioned types like Mal and Shepherd Book (who have presumably had little exposure to Companions due to living out in the boonies) tend to be less approving. It seems like the whole "Companion" thing is Whedon's ideal for legal prostitution, rather than a separate thing altogether.

In principle I don't really see anything wrong with it, but the whole Nice Guy angle is definitely creepy. Also, I think Mal taking issue with Inara's profession was set up as a conflict that would initially keep them from getting romantically involved despite obvious chemistry, but would eventually resolve - Mal would later loosen the stick up his butt, come to terms with Inara's profession, and they'd finally hook up. Of course, it ended after only one season, so who knows what would have happened otherwise.

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http://jmkmagnum.blogspot.com/

at 07:20 on 2012-12-01I could see that working, but they went WAY overboard on making Mal disgustingly judgmental and disrespectful toward Inara. It doesn't feel like they have great chemistry that if Mal could just get over his superficial hangups they would be great together; it feels like Mal is sexually attracted to her and has an attitude of "If all your life choices and personality were different, I wouldn't have to look down at you." And so more than rooting for him to modernize his views, I root for him to get the hell away from Inara and let her live her life.

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Dan H

at 13:44 on 2012-12-01@Arthur

On top of Mal being unceasingly unpleasant about her profession, Shepherd seems to disapprove when he first meets her, so even though Shepherd comes around fairly quickly it still seems as though there's some social stigma attached to it (because where else did Mal learn that "whore" was a word you could use to insult people with?) but this only seems to come up when Whedon needs Mal to be unpleasant to Inara.

It should come as no surprise to those who know anything about Whedon fandom that I've heard people cite this very issue as evidence that the way Mal treats Inara is *one hundred percent okay*.

Because, you see, Firefly is set in a post-patriarchy society, and so when Mal calls Inara a whore, he isn't using a misogynistic, gendered insult in order to assert his superiority over her, he's just expressing his entirely rational, entirely well-founded disregard for her profession - just as you might call Jane "mercenary" or Book "preacher" or for that matter call Simon a "quack".

This, after all, is the ideal of all social justice movements - to get to the point where we can be as racist and misogynistic as we like but it will be okay because everybody will be equal anyway.

@James D

Regular prostitutes can't get these licenses, thus they're looked down upon.

I agree that that's how it seems to work in the setting (and I'm aware that all you're doing here is pointing out how things work in-universe, not arguing for any particular interpretation of it), it's just that this makes things *even more* fucked up, because it means that Mal's attitude problem goes from being "looks down Inara because she is a prostitute, which is wrong because it is none of his damned business whether she is a prostitute or not" to "looks down on Inara because he *mistakenly believes* her to be a prostitute, when in fact she is a Companion, which is okay because Companions are special."

Kyra and I have just watched Easy A, which suffers from exactly this problem. It's about a girl who gets a reputation for being a slut because she lies about losing her virginity. She spends the entire movie being horrendously slut-shamed, which the movie seems to feel is wrong *only* because it is based on a factual error - as in the reason it's wrong to slut-shame this girl is because she isn't a slut, not because slut-shaming is wrong *in general*. It's full of horrible scenes where she pontificates whether maybe pretending to be a slut is as bad as really being a slut, and people say things like "I know you're not really a whore, because a real whore doesn't know she's a whore".

It seems like the whole "Companion" thing is Whedon's ideal for legal prostitution, rather than a separate thing altogether.

Pretty much this, but once again that just creeps me out even more. Ironically, Whedon here is arguing for exactly the kind of ridiculous straw man "legalized prostitution" that Chester Brown was arguing against in

Paying For It

, where legalization isn't about providing prostitutes with better working conditions, or proper legal protection, or any level of social acceptability *as a whole* - it's just about making sure that the only people who are allowed to be prostitutes are really hot.

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Fishing in the Mud

at 14:33 on 2012-12-01

the reason it's wrong to slut-shame this girl is because she isn't a slut, not because slut-shaming is wrong *in general*.

It's been years since I saw

Easy A

, but I still get slightly sick thinking about it. What a disgusting piece of filth. It's strange the way it seemed to completely miss what's actually wrong with slut-shaming, as you outlined, but to clearly understand how gross slut-shaming is and how pathetic and hypocritical slut-shamers are. It's all the worse for almost managing to be decent.

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Dan H

at 15:04 on 2012-12-01It kept coming *so close* to redeeming itself. There's the bit towards the end when she talks to her mother, and she's like "oh yeah, I was a total slut in high school" and you believe for about ten seconds that it's going to point out that there would have been *nothing wrong with that*. Then she follow up with "I had a very low sense of self-worth."

The very last line is, in fact "it's none of your damned business" but in the context of the wider film it seems a lot like she's saying "it's none of your business whether I have sex with my current boyfriend, because what goes on in a conventional monogamous relationship is understood to be private, in a way that the broader details of my sexual behaviour are not."

Gah.

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Arthur B

at 15:59 on 2012-12-01Watched

Our Mrs Reynolds

last night and yeeeeeeeeeah I think I'm done.

Note to

Firefly

fans about to write in with "but it gets so good in episode 7/10/14/the movie!" - I'm not interested and I'm not going to read what you have to say. The series is just too much of a slog and too prone to fall over its own incoherent setting and Minority Warring for me to devote any more time to it.

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James D

at 17:49 on 2012-12-01

Pretty much this, but once again that just creeps me out even more. Ironically, Whedon here is arguing for exactly the kind of ridiculous straw man "legalized prostitution" that Chester Brown was arguing against in Paying For It, where legalization isn't about providing prostitutes with better working conditions, or proper legal protection, or any level of social acceptability *as a whole* - it's just about making sure that the only people who are allowed to be prostitutes are really hot.

Yeah, it also would have been nice to see, say, a male Companion, or a Companion that isn't traditionally attractive. To be honest the whole thing just doesn't seem terribly thought-out; it seems like he just wanted one of the crew members to be a prostitute, since it's unusual/shocking/challenging/etc. at least for the basic cable crowd.

You have to remember who his initial audience was here; I don't know how much you non-American types know about regular Fox programming, but it's generally "edgy" in certain specific ways (see: the Simpsons, Family Guy) and very conservative in others. You might even say they're edgy in a reactionary way, what with Family Guy often pushing the line in terms of what racist/sexist/homophobic jokes it can get away with (despite its superficial white guy liberal leanings in general).

So Whedon decided he didn't want to make her just a regular prostitute, that would be too gritty and/or unsympathetic (either for his taste or for Fox's), instead making her a "special" prostitute, and attached some half-assed ideas about the sex trade in general. But really he never does anything with those ideas - Mal never has to explain his fundamental assumptions about prostitution being immoral, because I think his attitude was meant to be a stand-in for the average Fox viewer's. Not that that excuses Whedon or anything - just that I think he bit off way more than he could chew given his medium, and probably should have scrapped the whole idea.

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Fishing in the Mud

at 18:04 on 2012-12-01

it's generally "edgy" in certain specific ways (see: the Simpsons, Family Guy) and very conservative in others.

Not to mention

Glee

, created especially for the mainstream America that most certainly is not homophobic, racist, sexist, or bigoted in any way, but does think it's a bit unfair that minorities get treated better than everyone else and should really stop whining.

"I had a very low sense of self-worth."

There's nothing wrong with being a slut as long as you hate yourself for it. That way the Nice Guy you decide to settle down with when you get tired of sex with Alpha Jerks can reassure you that you're a good person after all for seeing the light and deciding to devote yourself to him. He will be in charge of your virtue from then on, you'll have his permission to feel good about yourself.

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Jules V.O.

at 02:20 on 2012-12-02

Of course, it ended after only one season, so who knows what would have happened otherwise.

Actually, we *do* know what would have happened otherwise:

gang rape by reavers.

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Daniel F

at 11:23 on 2012-12-02

Watched Our Mrs Reynolds last night and yeeeeeeeeeah I think I'm done.

But you didn't even get to

Heart of Gold

or

Objects in Space

!

It got worse, I'm afraid.

Quite early on while watching

Buffy

, I reached the conclusion that Joss Whedon is at his best when he's not consciously trying to be feminist, and when he's not thinking about gender issues at all. The more he tries, the worse the end result. In the context of

Firefly

, I found that the show is at its best when Inara is not in the plot. I don't know about the best, but

Ariel

is still the episode I enjoyed the most, and it starts by inventing an excuse to exclude Inara for the duration of the episode.

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Dan H

at 11:35 on 2012-12-02

Actually, we *do* know what would have happened otherwise: gang rape by reavers.

Worse: Gang rape by Reavers, the primary narrative purpose of which was to allow Mal to demonstrate *how good he would be for Inara* by *not being disgusted by the fact that she had been raped*.

This little titbit made me particularly uncomfortable because I suspect that "girl I fancy gets raped, I am totally supportive about it, she totally has sex with me" is a far more common fantasy than any of us would like to admit.

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Michal

at 13:49 on 2012-12-02What is up with anti-rape devices in science fiction that only work while you're being raped? First the dentata in Snowcrash, then this thing.

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http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/

at 14:51 on 2012-12-02Well, I don't know if this is what Stephenson or Minear had in mind, but what occurs to me in the face of both of these stories is that if you're in a situation where you're going to get raped, there's no reason to believe that that's where it will end, and a device that doesn't protect you from rape but does incapacitate or kill your attacker might save your life. In theory, anyway. In practice, that kind of thinking assumes that there's only one attacker and that you're going to be in a position (and in a state) to escape once they're taken care of, neither of which strike me as reasonable assumptions for the sort of situation where such a device might conceivably be of use. I suspect the actual appeal for writers is the ironic reversal - the attribute that supposedly makes women vulnerable makes them dangerous - hence the popularity of the vagina dentata trope in general.

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Arthur B

at 15:27 on 2012-12-02I seem to remember that in

Snow Crash

the dentata is mentioned as being there for deterrent purposes - because rapists never know who's got a dentata, they don't know whether they're going to lose a dick in a rape attempt.

In practice, as I mentioned upthread, rapists these days never know whether someone they're targeting is carrying a gun or a knife or mace or whatever. Doesn't stop 'em!

Also the discussion of the device in

Snow Crash

seems to assume that rape always consists of complete strangers attacking you and humping you briefly in an alleyway.

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Fishing in the Mud

at 16:12 on 2012-12-02Knowing that a potential victim might be armed probably fails to move them because they can't actually imagine a weak, helpless woman knowing how to use a gun or knife properly. I would guess the image of vagina dentata working effectively is exponentially more vivid.

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James D

at 20:12 on 2012-12-02Also you have to be in a position to use a knife/gun/mace/whatever effectively, which if the rapist gets the jump on you might not be an option. From what I understand, the dentata just works without you having to do anything except insert it beforehand.

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Dan H

at 23:30 on 2012-12-02

Also you have to be in a position to use a knife/gun/mace/whatever effectively, which if the rapist gets the jump on you might not be an option. From what I understand, the dentata just works without you having to do anything except insert it beforehand.

Of course the flip side of that is that the dentata only works in the case of actual vaginal penetration. If it's meant to be used as a way of incapacitating a rapist so that they can't harm you *after* they've raped you, it's still in practice far less reliable than pretty much every other kind of cybernetic weapon implant you might want to get. If it's meant to be a deterrent, it's one that is - without wanting to think too deeply about the details - easily circumvented.

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James D

at 23:39 on 2012-12-02

If it's meant to be a deterrent, it's one that is - without wanting to think too deeply about the details - easily circumvented.

The obvious solution is to have dentata in every part of your body. FOOL PROOF

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Arthur B

at 01:23 on 2012-12-03Uh, is it just me or is this getting kind of unnecessary?

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Wardog

at 10:06 on 2012-12-03Well, it's slightly more entertaining that thinking too hard about the doomed hypothetical future of Firefly. I mean, I know there's lots to dislike about the show, and the gender politics are all Whedony and unpleasant, but ... uh ... I quite liked it.

That doesn't mean it's not wildly problematic in very many ways, and perhaps the only reason I like it so much is because it didn't have a chance to go horribly wrong, but I thought it was fun and witty, and actually I was pretty passionate about it when it first aired. Or rather after it was aired and cancelled.

I think it's harder to watch in retrospect because The Whedon Problems have sort of developed over time. It's easy to downplay how fucking awesome Buffy, and some of Angel, was in the light of, well, Dollhouse and Whedon deciding he was god's gift to feminism. Before he basically decided that liking to watch hot women run around in tight fitting clothing was morally equivalent to raping them and that sent him off on a Nice Guy Minority Warrior spin ... he did good stuff.

I miss that guy.

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Arthur B

at 10:40 on 2012-12-03Eh, I find Whedon's wit to be kind of grating personally. (In particular, I find that the more it comes out in his writing the more the characters end up sounding like the stock Whedon characters he's been using since the early days rather than distinct individuals.)

Possibly this is a "you had to be there at the time" thing because I came onboard

Buffy

fairly late (mainly catching episodes when I happened to be in Dan's presence and the show happened to be on) and I don't recall having a reaction more positive than "eh, this is OK". I guess maybe I'd be more appreciative of his stuff if I'd got on the Whedon train earlier (say, during the early

Buffy

period or something) but as it is my first exposure to him involved more mediocre stuff so even his better material just ends up reminding me of the mediocre stuff, if you see what I mean.

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Robinson L

at 15:30 on 2012-12-03

Arthur: as it is my first exposure to him involved more mediocre stuff so even his better material just ends up reminding me of the mediocre stuff, if you see what I mean.

Yeah, that makes sense. Ptolemaeus and I recently re-watched the first three seasons of

Buffy

, and even that wasn't as great as we remembered. (Even in his early years, Whedon had an inflated sense of his own profundity.)

I also am quite fond of

Firefly

, despite its more deplorable elements (e.g. the protagonist), but I can see how you'd come to the conclusion that it's not worth your while, and it really doesn't get significantly better. As Dan has already mentioned, in some places it gets even worse.

Kyra: Before he basically decided that liking to watch hot women run around in tight fitting clothing was morally equivalent to raping them and that sent him off on a Nice Guy Minority Warrior spin ... he did good stuff. I miss that guy.

Me too. Still, there's always the

Avengers

movie/

Avengers Assemble

.

Dan: Because, you see, Firefly is set in a post-patriarchy society, and so when Mal calls Inara a whore, he isn't using a misogynistic, gendered insult in order to assert his superiority over her, he's just expressing his entirely rational, entirely well-founded disregard for her profession - just as you might call Jane "mercenary" or Book "preacher" or for that matter call Simon a "quack".

Apart from not really being an at all accurate picture of what social justice movements struggle for (as you point out), this argument is also ludicrous just on the face of it, considering how many villainous cartoon misogynists Whedon populates the

Firefly

'Verse with to make his hamfisted gender commentaries.

This little titbit made me particularly uncomfortable because I suspect that "girl I fancy gets raped, I am totally supportive about it, she totally has sex with me" is a far more common fantasy than any of us would like to admit.

Well, there's nothing wrong with fantasies, even about stuff that would be highly messed up in the real world, so long as you don't try projecting those fantasies onto the real world ... like by portraying such a fantasy as series drama, for instance.

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Fishing in the Mud

at 18:04 on 2012-12-03

Buffy

worked for me when I first watched it because I'd never seen anything like it before, and I often had no idea where it was going. There was a brightness and innocence to it that made it genuinely fun. Buffy's pathos felt warm and real and unavoidable, not hard and dry and bloodless like it did in the later seasons. I don't think this is all hindsight on my part, even though I haven't seen the show in at least five or six years.

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Bookwyrm

at 04:54 on 2013-01-27Hi! This is my first time commenting here. I came across this short story after reading this article. Its probably unintentional but it kind of reads like a cautionary tale against this sort of behavior.

http://www.halloweenghoststories.com/featured/index.html

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/yeKsQ_cNqux16s489peIhdzZ2dSaOlA-#da226

at 03:40 on 2013-08-05I will use Buffy for most examples as I am more familiar with this, his longest running project. . .

Rape is all about power. The rape scenes in Buffy are no different. Buffy was the one with the power. The chosen. The heavenly, loved, good one. She trained Spike to be sexually violent with the rapes she performed on him. Pushing and degrading him; beating him and demanding he perform sexual acts. She was the one in control, with all power. When Spike broke emotionally and reciprocated, he was judged to have shown how evil he had been, was, and always would be. A double standard that is dangerous to encourage.

Wheton's simplistic view that Buffy is justified in her treatment of Spike because he is all evil, encourages the viewer to subconsciously believe that anything they do to a person they define as "evil" is justified. The slayer and the vampire are on fairly equal footing physically. They should both have been judged as rapist or neither should have been judged as such. It doesn't matter that Spike was an evil vampire without a soul, for the character arch had already surpassed that basic premise.

The positive message of equality and forgiveness, even atonement for past acts, are given lip service in the series but they become superimposed with the concept that one evil act makes us, and everything we do, always and forever evil. The second message is even more simplistic, juvenile, and dangerous, for it demonstrates that certain chosen few are not to be judged by the same criteria as everyone else. It stereotypically enhances the fact that, in Whedon's world, the privileged, regardless of their sex, is all-powerful. Evil men show it, good men keep it hidden, and those with power don't even have to acknowledge it. Huge fallacies.

A good man can perform acts of evil, and an evil man can perform acts of good. It is the nature of the beast. Therefore man, being defined in this context to include both sexes, is neither good nor evil. There is just man, in all his imperfections. If you attempt to judge a man's entire moral compass by one single act, or even a lot of acts during one period of his growth and development, then you do not judge the man. A man should be judged on the total sum of his parts for the development he has achieved to date, with the understanding that new experiences will have an effect and will alter and change him. Man is not a stagnate creature. He is not the man he was; nor is he the man he will become.

Though Whedon had ample time, in Spike's character arch, this level of development was never achieved and any time the journey was begun, the Spike character was reset to ground zero. Almost like James Marsters brought more depth to the role than was intended and so the character was punished for the transgression. The same hold's true in all Whedon's excellently casted series.

I wasn't sold on the rape concept and couldn't even suspend my disbelief long enough to see the scene as anything more than an end of season rating ploy. I viewed Inara's rape episode in Firefly with similar trepidation, and there are numerous instances in Whedon's work from which to extrapolate.

I won't even get into the glaring inequality that appears when you view that both Angel and Spike were working to become “champions”, a telling word that. Whereas, if she hadn't been chosen by outside forces, Buffy would have been an airhead. Other than to say the men were the “earners” while the woman was “the little girl to bestow gifts upon but not capable of walking the path on her own.” Which is further demonstrated by the fact that the slayers had watchers and the champions choose their own path.

As for empowering women, the all powerful slayer, does not even have the strength of character to live her life in the open and instead hides in the shadows to obtain the sexual relief that Wheton's male characters flaunt and mostly take for granted. The message being that women should be ashamed of their sexual appetites and must work to suppress and hide them, least they be found out and the woman subsequently fall from grace. Inara is allowed to have sex, but not to enjoy it, and has to be paid to perform it. Faith, being Buffy's foil, is showed as the unstable and nasty, common, girl, who repeatedly falls outside of the norms and morays society demands. Thus, is she to be despised, because she openly pursues such sexual liaisons. Faith is also written as crude and unacceptable because she isn't diplomatic and she repeatedly shows human qualities that keep her from being chosen one material.

Even employment is harangued. Their are many women in food service who are intelligent, warm, and friendly. That are working to better themselves because they were not born into privileged circumstances. Many are working for their families survival, and if that isn't a noble act, I don't know what is! Joss portrays them as end of the line, throw away characters. Social services is also not immune to his prosaic view of woman. He had an opportunity to show that we all fall on hard times and can struggle and overcome. He failed to do so.

True empowerment comes from knowing if we do what is necessary, with dignity and decency, even if we never climb any higher on society's perceived social ladder, we are worthy and have overcome, regardless of the outer trappings of our souls.

His views are too cut and dry, to one-sided and are mired too much in the upper crust motif of his life. Good actors of both sexes, who journey outside Whedon's work morality, appear to be left behind because they manage to raise questions, to shine the light of inquiry into the character they portray in ways that Joss Whedon will grudgingly capitalize upon, while he reins in the character to assure that those questions remain out of focus and unexamined. Then, those actors seem to be condemned and dropped by the wayside as quickly as feasibly possible. I would question his level of devotion to his supporters who constantly ask for, but never see, the actors they have grown to love receive any roles with substance. The individual talent pool that is not being taped seems to grow exponentially.

So, is this all evil/all good concept he repeatedly embodies in his work, Joss Whedon's internal beliefs manifested? Scary thought. I watch Joss Whedon's projects for enjoyable escapism. His works are not my answer to the feminine mystique. Nor is he my guru.

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Arthur B

at 13:14 on 2017-08-31It feels timely to dust this one off since

this wave just broke

.

To be fair, by this point

even the Torygraph kind of gets that Joss isn't as good an ally as he proclaims himself to be

. But it kind of feels like a sea change has happened.

Whedonesque has shuttered

, and whilst the decision to close isn't overtly connected to the open letter the fact that they suggest donations to a C-PTSD charity when Kai's open letter talks about how she had to work through that kind of points to it being a factor.

There's separating the art from the artist, of course, and more power to you if you feel able to do that, but Whedon's proclamation of his woke bae nature isn't art, it's self-promotional rhetoric, and whilst the fact that someone has behaved badly and caused harm to others shouldn't in principle have any effect on the validity of their arguments - truth is truth even if Hitler is saying it - it's hard to look past the hypocrisy, especially when his feminist talking points are so tied to the image of himself he promotes.

You don't get to claim the brownie points for being One Of The Good Guys unless you actually are a good guy, and Dan's diagnosis of Whedon with Nice Guy Syndrome in retrospect seems dead on.

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Robinson L

at 00:00 on 2017-10-31On the one hand, this is sadly consistent with the increasingly dubious quality of the feminist discourse in his works—and makes all the messed up sexual politics, especially concerning consent, in

Dollhouse

that much creepier. (I’m a little amazed that

Telegraph

article didn’t cite any examples from

Dollhouse

; it seems such a natural choice.)

On the other hand, up to this point I could’ve seen Whedon as basically a decent guy whose feminist analysis isn’t as sophisticated as he thinks it is. I didn’t think the occasional bouts of awfulness in his storytelling necessarily reflected back on him as a person. Maybe I’m too naive.

In any event, I’m sure I’ll still retain a soft spot for

Buffy

,

Angel

, certain elements of

Firefly

which don’t involve the main character, and the first

Avengers

movie. But, well, yeah, this really sucks, no pun intended.

(By the way, I clicked the link for the

Telegraph

article and it took me to the donotlink site. I copy-pasted the tinyurl provided on the donotlink site into url bar, and it took me directly to the

Telegraph

article, complete with the regular url. Does that mean I did something wrong?)

Oh yeah, final thought:

While none of us would go so far as actually calling him a rapist

I remember at the time, we generally agreed this accusation was a tad overblown—I certainly thought so. In light of Ms. Cole’s revelation, though, it seems eerily close to the truth.

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Arthur B

at 10:25 on 2017-10-31

I remember at the time, we generally agreed this accusation was a tad overblown—I certainly thought so. In light of Ms. Cole’s revelation, though, it seems eerily close to the truth.

Yeah, in retrospect I still can't get onboard with, eg, assuming a particular character is a rapist and an abuser based solely on the fact that they're the white partner in an interracial relationship, or for that matter armchair diagnosing Whedon as a rapist based solely on the content of his work.

That said, I can totally see merit in saying that a particular work expresses a rape culture worldview, and doing so doesn't necessarily amount to accusing the creator of rape. It is unfortunately the case that it's completely possible for someone to perpetuate rape culture and rape apologetics without themselves being a rapist; that's kind of how rape culture perpetuates itself to begin with. And it's going to be pretty hard to keep what Kai's had to say out of mind when tackling Whedon's work from here on out.

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Robinson L

at 20:30 on 2017-10-31Oh yeah, I didn't mean to imply I agree with the

reasoning

in that post, even in hindsight. You're absolutely right that an artistic work can promote rape culture without the artist(s) behind it being rapists - there are numerous such works out there.

I just find it morbidly interesting that, even though I still find the logic which led up to it faulty, the accusation itself ultimately proved not so far off the mark as I originally assumed.

[jennycalendar]

regarding honor and honesty in the workplace (35/43)

read it on ao3!

slow burn is over; expect some Quality domestic fluff :’)

from the personal files of Jenny Calendar:

It is 12:51 in the morning, and Rupert and I are once again working on a case.

“The part I don’t get,” said Jenny through a mouthful of Cheetos, swallowing when Rupert looked a bit confused by her muffled words, “the part I don’t get is why Cordelia hasn’t vanished off the face of the earth along with Wesley and Angel. Like, Lilah’s really goddamn good at covering her tracks—she was already planning to shoot me in an alley. It isn’t Wolfram and Hart’s MO to leave loose ends unless they’re planning on following up later.”

“Cordelia did something rather clever,” said Rupert, smiling slightly and placing a piece of paper down on the kitchen table. Jenny picked it up, taking a good look at it, and saw that it was a printout of an Instagram post—the picture showing Cordelia, all decked out and smiling beatifically at the camera. She was wearing the dark green dress she’d worn the night of the gala. “She returned to Instagram with a post about how she’d taken some unexpected offline time to begin preparing a—um—vlog?”

“Video blog,” said Jenny. “Or video log, depending.”

“Thank you for a very needed translation, dear,” said Rupert, squeezing Jenny’s shoulder as, leaning on his walking stick, he crossed the kitchen to reach above the sink and awkwardly take the kettle from a cabinet. “At any rate, Cordelia made her presence known online again with promises of a daily vlog, which meant that her disappearance might legitimately spark a buzz of online gossip. As our daughters noted, her online following is quite sizable.”

“God, that girl really is smart,” said Jenny, impressed.

“It was a failsafe in the event of a Wolfram and Hart emergency,” Rupert explained, his smile flickering, “but she knows it’s something of a double-edged sword. As long as she’s posting, Wolfram and Hart can keep consistent tabs on what she’s doing and the people she’s visiting.”

“Okay,” said Jenny. “I see the problem. How are we supposed to get to Cordelia and start making plans?”

“This is the part I don’t think you’ll like,” said Rupert.

“What?”

“You haven’t asked me yet why Buffy was acting so oddly a few days ago,” said Rupert somewhat uncomfortably, turning on the sink to fill the kettle. “I feel as though that should be a question you should begin considering.”

Jenny blinked, and then took another look at Rupert. “No,” she said. “Rupert, you didn’t.”

“Jenny—”

“You had our daughter go and meet Cordelia?”

“In my defense—”

“There is literally nothing you can say that will make putting our daughter in actual mortal danger sound like a good choice!”

“All right, now that’s a blanket statement,” said Rupert, irritation added to the guilt in his tone. He placed the now-full kettle down on the stovetop, turning the burner on. “Might I get a sentence out, or do you have more that you would like to add?”

“Only that I don’t think it’s something Buffy should be involved in under any circumstances,” said Jenny archly.

“Have you possibly entertained the notion that I completely agree?” Rupert pointed out.

“Would Buffy have gone to meet Cordelia if you completely agreed?”

“Yes, she would have,” said Rupert shortly, “because Buffy went without my permission.”

Jenny felt her anger dissipate and she winced a little. “Oh,” she said. “I’m sorry. I just—” She waved a hand, then said, “I-I worry about you and the kids.”

Rupert’s face softened as the kettle went off. Turning off the burner, he reached for his walking stick, awkwardly crossing the kitchen to lean down and give Jenny a very soft kiss. They were both smiling a little nervously when he pulled away. “I’m well aware,” he said, “though it surprises me that you’re still willing to work this rather dangerous case with me.”

“Yeah, well,” said Jenny. “Hate to admit it, but you make a few damn good points about my not wanting to live my life with Lilah looking over my shoulder.” She reached up, tracing his jawline with a fingertip. “Not to mention that you’d probably just do this case anyway no matter how hard I try to talk you out of it.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Rupert agreed, and kissed her forehead before pulling back all the way, moving across the kitchen to begin setting up the tea.

“So tell me about what happened with Buffy.”

“Well,” said Rupert, “as you know, our daughters all have a knack for figuring us out both aptly and quickly.”

“Yeah, I’m still mad at them for not telling me outright that you’ve been in love with me since the Jurassic era,” said Jenny, mouth twitching.

“Proterozoic, actually,” said Rupert with dignity, which made Jenny bite her lip and smile at the kitchen table. “And the point that I am trying to make is that the girls quite easily figured out what I was doing. Faith wasn’t at all fond of the idea of keeping things from you, but did accept that it was my decision to make in the long run—”

“So that’s why she was mad at you,” said Jenny. “You know you can’t get the girls to keep things from me again, right?”

“Extenuating circumstances—”

“Swear to god, Rupert, I will break up with you right now if you say you’ll ever get the girls to keep things from me that might put this family in danger,” said Jenny mildly, wishing she had a mug of tea to raise to her lips in a dramatic yet powerful gesture.

Rupert smiled wryly and nodded. “Goes both ways,” he said.

“Obviously,” Jenny agreed.

“At any rate,” said Rupert, “Buffy was quite determined to help out in any way she could. She pieced together quite quickly that Cordelia would be a useful asset, left the house under the guise of getting milk, and met Cordelia at a coffee shop to ‘catch up on old times.’ She’s having lunch with Willow and Cordelia at Cordelia’s apartment in a few days, and she says they’ll be using that time to discuss possible strategies for locating Angel and his team.”

“Wait,” said Jenny. “Buffy knows about Angel?”

Rupert’s hand shook as he poured out the tea. “It was a rather emotional conversation,” he said, “but yes. She knows Angel’s back in town, and she says she’s dealing with it as best she can.”

Jenny smiled. “I’m glad she’s got some healthy coping mechanisms up her sleeve,” she said. Then, “She’s going to be in so much trouble for not telling me about seeing Cordelia.”

“I told her as much,” said Rupert. “She said getting lectured by you would be worth it if she knew she’d be able to help take down the people who got me shot.”

Jenny felt her smile flutter a bit. “Oh,” she said. “You know what? Maybe—we should talk to the girls, see if they can help.”

“Jenny,”said Rupert, reproving and a bit horrified.

“Hey,” said Jenny. “You had the good fortune of not having to be the one there while the girls watched a parent bleed out. I know for a fact that taking Wolfram and Hart down would make me feel a hell of a lot better about all the shit they put us through. I’m pretty sure Buffy’s got the same outlook, and I think she deserves to be a part of whatever justice we serve. Faith and Dawn too, as a matter of fact.”

“This is our job,” said Rupert. “Not theirs.”

“You know they’re just gonna go ahead and do it with or without us,” Jenny countered. “Just like you did when I told you I didn’t want you working this case. Why not make sure they’re helping in a way that isn’t going to end up with them getting killed?”

Rupert placed a mug of tea down in front of her, studying her with a grudging adoration. “You are intolerably, frustratingly right,” he said.

“Aww. I love you too.” Jenny took the mug, taking a long sip, then said, “Needs more sugar.”

“I am injured,” said Rupert, “and suffering, get your own bloody sugar,” and sat down next to her at the kitchen table with his own mug.

“Okay,” Jenny whispered, and kissed him.

Jenny and Rupert ended up falling asleep on the couch watching early-morning sitcoms, and woke up when the sun started shining through the curtains. Groaning, Jenny buried her face in Rupert’s pajama shirt, mumbling vaguely and wondering if she could manage a few more minutes of sleep at least.

“I’ll make breakfast,” said Rupert wearily.

“Ugh,” said Jenny, “no, you’re—you still need rest, I can make breakfast—”

“As it happens,” said Buffy, “us kids can very happily solve this problem for the both of you.”

Jenny looked up, surprised and still a little sleepy, and saw that the girls were all standing with a sizable breakfast tray, complete with slightly sloppy pancakes, two champagne glasses of orange juice, and a fruit salad. “We tried to make the pancakes heart-shaped,” said Buffy a little apologetically, “you know, to celebrate you guys being in love and stuff? But turns out Dad’s the only one who can really pull it off.”

“Do I have to start calling Giles my dad now?” Faith asked, smirking.

“I’m calling Jenny my evil stepmother,” said Dawn with satisfaction. “I always wanted an evil stepmother when I was little.”

Gently disentangling herself from Rupert, Jenny pulled herself up to cross the living room and carefully hug each of the girls, making sure not to jostle the tray in the process. She lingered on Buffy, because she knew for a fact that 1) making a lavish congratulations-breakfast wasn’t Dawn’s style, and 2) Faith tended to express her appreciation by just flat-out telling people she was happy for them. “Thanks,” she said softly. After a moment of deliberation, she added, “You know, your dad told me about your meeting with Cordelia.”

Buffy visibly steeled herself. “Yeah?”

“I definitely don’t like the idea of my kid being involved in this line of work,” said Jenny carefully, “but I also think that forbidding you from it is just going to make you more determined to do it. If you want to meet Cordelia, we’re okay with it, but we have to go over the finer points of collecting information.”

“Oh,” said Buffy, looking surprised.

“What?”

“I was honestly kinda expecting you to chew me out,” said Buffy a little sheepishly. “Dad was furious.”

“Rightfully so,” said Rupert blearily, and pulled the knitted throw around himself, snuggling further into the couch.

“Well, what you did definitely wasn’t wise,” Jenny agreed, “but you’re legally an adult now, and I feel as though trying to protect you by keeping you uninformed about case work is only going to lead to you being placed in progressively more dangerous situations if this is a path you decide you want to pursue.”

“What about us?” Dawn piped up.

“Yeah, I’m pretty close to being a legal adult,” Faith added hopefully.

Jenny considered this, then glanced over at Rupert, who was now sitting up and looking at the girls with a slightly more alert expression. “Penny for your thoughts, sweetheart?” she asked.

Rupert smiled a little at the endearment. “Only that I very much agree with you inasmuch as keeping the girls up to date,” he said, “but also that Dawn isn’t yet in high school and I definitely don’t want her involved in this at the same capacity as Buffy.”

Dawn scowled.

“Hold that frown, Dawn, that doesn’t mean we’re not taking you seriously,” said Jenny patiently. “Buffy’s also been taking weekly self-defense classes for the last two years. She can hold her own better than your dad can, in my humble opinion—”

“Thanks ever so much, Jenny—”

“Shut up, I’m making a point.” Jenny skirted the coffee table to sit down next to Rupert, kissing him on the cheek and letting him lie back down with his head in her lap. The girls looked positively thrilled with this development. “Dawn, would you be okay with helping your dad compile and organize hard copies of our information? Not to mention we need someone who actually knows how to use a computer—”

“I know how to use your laptop,” said Rupert, his voice softening and slowing as Jenny idly ran a hand through his hair, “you’re so—hmm—dramatic—”

“What about me?” Faith persisted. “I’m not down for sitting still.”

Jenny considered this, then said, “You and I are going to start coming up with a game plan as to how we’re going to use the info we get from Cordelia. It’s behind-the-scenes work—”

“—but if your mother’s in charge of it, we know it’s the most important work there is,” Rupert mumbled, and smiled slightly when Jenny brushed her fingers against his cheek.

[pyresrpgear]

Imho Ted and a few other eps from season one get painted with the “bad episode” brush simply because they were in season one. The writing staff didn't have their feet under them yet. They were still figuring out who the characters were. A less stellar fx budget that early. (hell they barely had a budget at all that first season. He who shall not be named had wanted to make an extra opening credits for the pilot episode that included Eric Balfour to drive home the fact that anyone could die at any time, look se killed off somebody in the credits in the first episode. NOBODY IS SAFE! But they didn't have the money to even do that by the end of production.) And they were writing a mid-season replacement show that was only going to air if other things got canceled.

I think Ted would have been better received, hit harder, and lead to a potential deeper storyline if it had aired in season 3. Especially if it had happened after Faith killed that human. Imagine what would have been going on in Buffy’s head when she thought she had killed him with the knowledge already hanging over her head that Faith had murdered someone and didn't give a single fuck. And then after the episode she is relieved of most of the guilt because Ted was a robot, but then she is second-guessing herself the whole rest of the season. She watched Faith, a fellow Slayer, murder a man and then Buffy does nearly the same thing when she thought he was just human. Are Slayers just murders who have the benefit of having monsters to kill keeping them from turning on humans? Is she going to end up like Faith? Is she a cold-blooded killer just waiting to happen?

The other one I can think of that I think would have worked better in a later season was when Willow was getting cyber bullied when the Internet was just barely a thing yet. For that reason alone the writing was a little clunky.

If I recall correctly (it's been a while since I've watched season 1) that was the episode where Willow was scanning books for Giles to make things easier to research and she scanned a book that had been a prison for a demon. That set him loose onto the net and he started manipulating the whole situation to get Willow and a bunch of other kids to eventually build him a robot body. But he also posed as Willow's new online boyfriend. Like I said, I haven't seen it in a while.

But I think that would have worked better anywhere from season three through season six probably. Might even have worked better if it had happened to Dawn. She's doing the scanning as part of Giles getting ready to leave in season six, before he has told anyone. She's already the odd one out being younger than the rest of the scoobies, and not having anybody outside the gang she can talk to about it would be isolating. Then drop a batch of cyberbullying on top of that along with someone removed from the situation who is willing to listen no matter how weird it gets. Plus several more years of technological development and the writers getting more used to it. All adds up to a better-received episode in my mind.

The first season of every show is “bad” when compared to what it grows into. It's too bad so many people don't go back and look closer.

genuinely Ted is on of the most horrifying episodes of Buffy and it’s a shame the episode is largely written off as bad. Unfortunately, nobody believing you about your mother’s creepy boyfriend is something which happens all too often in real life, but the added element of Ted drugging Joyce into complacency, as well as Xander and Willow so they won’t ask questions, is downright terrifying. Ted is quite literally a serial killer moving in on his next target, Joyce, and Buffy is in his away. Ted acts to isolated her from her friends and family, and to ensure no one will believe her, even after Ted threats to hit her. And with the reveal of Buffy’s time in a mental institution in season 6, Ted’s threat becomes even deeper, he is actively using Buffy’s worst fear against her. While the concept is played seriously, had Ted not been revealed to be a robot in the end and Buffy truly killed a man, the episode would delve into psychological horror thriller territory.

[mshellbrat]

Hey guys! Here is the third installment of my “Here or There” verse. This is also my offering for @thebookjumper Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon for the Prompt: Choose! I hope you enjoy and I would love to hear what you think. :-)

Summary:  What starts out as a marathon night with Thea, quickly turns into a truth session when the younger Queen refuses to play along with more of Ollie's lies. After brother and sister clear the air, Thea jumps on Team Oliver and helps big bro binge as much Buffy as he can stand. Oliver attempts to bridge the growing gap between himself and his favorite blonde genius.

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING!

Here goes...

“So....” Thea looked toward her brother with lifted brows, “why are we doing this again?”

Oliver stared back at her. “I wanted to spend some time with you. Is that not okay?”

His entirely too perceptive little sister snorted. “You wanted to spend some time with me watching,” she picked up the DVD set sitting between them on the couch in the casual family room of the mansion, “cult classic supernatural television?” Thea canted her head to the side. “That's what you're going with?”

Oliver kept his bland mask in place. It never worked with Thea, but other than the truth it was all he had. “I've heard it's a good show.”

“Did you hear that after or BEFORE the island?” Thea drawled. “Because this show both started and ended airing before you ever took that faithful trip.”

Oliver frowned. “Last week?”

Thea groaned and banged her head down on the back of the couch. “You are so HOPELESS! How are we even related?”

“Have you seen it?” Oliver asked.

“Yes,” Thea told him, “I have seen every episode of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', Oliver. It's a cult classic. It's like...a girl power right of passage!”

That didn't exactly sound appealing, but Oliver was determined to find some way to bridge this divide between himself and Felicity. If that meant sitting through some chick show, he could do it. He WOULD do it...because he wasn't about to sit back and let this Landon geek sweep his girl off her feet with 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' references. He needed to level the playing field.

Oliver painted on a big smile, shrugged, and stared down his stubborn sister. “Then you can explain what's going on to me.”

Thea turned her body on the couch to face him, crossed her arms over her chest, and lifted her brows. “Okay, Oliver, I will totally agree to play your guide to all things Buffy,” he started to relax and she shook her head, “IF, and only if, you cut the bullshit and tell me what's really going on and why you suddenly decided to catch up on an old television show when I know for a fact you haven't even seen 'The Avengers' yet.”

“Isn't that a comic book?” Oliver frowned.

“POINT MADE!” Thea jumped and pointed her finger at him.

Oliver straightened his mouth and tried to think of something to tell her. He didn't even fully understand himself what he was doing. He knew he wasn't ready to be...to admit how he felt about Felicity. He knew he couldn't give her what she deserved and that she would probably be better off without him. But he couldn't let her go. He had to fix this. He had to...to try. Maybe if he could show Felicity that he was trying then she wouldn't write him off completely. But how could he even start explaining that to Thea when she had no idea who Felicity really was to him? Hell, his sister had no idea who he even was anymore. She still thought he was that irresponsible asshole from before the island.

Thea glared at him. “Try the truth, Ollie. It's a new concept.” After waiting a long minute more, the brunette decided he was a lost cause. She climbed to her feet and looked down at him, but now her eyes were bitter and sad. “The choice is yours, Ollie, but I'm done playing games. I'm not about to let you pretend you want to spend time with me, when this is obviously just one more lie to add to the stack you've been feeding me for over a year now. This is just a waste of my time.” She turned to leave.

“THEA, wait!” Oliver stood up and started after her. He snagged her arm and turned her back toward him. “I'm not lying, okay? I do want to spend time with you.” He met her watery eyes and cursed himself once again for being a shit big brother. He tried to show her his sincerity. “I could watch this show by myself, but I didn't want to. I thought it was something you might enjoy...something we could do together.”

She eyed him doubtfully. “I did enjoy it...years ago.” She looked away. “Let's just say Buffy goes through a lot of crap and I could relate.”

His chest hurt just thinking about everything his baby sister had been forced to endure this early in her young life...and even worse knowing that there was still another shoe out there waiting to drop. Every time he thought about Merlyn and his MOTHER, about Thea and the secret that they were all keeping from her for her own good, it made him sick. No wonder Thea was so disgusted with all of them. No wonder she didn't trust them anymore. They didn't deserve her trust.

Well, Oliver decided, he could at least try to be honest about this. He took in a deep breath and blew it out. He closed his eyes. “There's this girl...”

Thea snorted. Her shoulders shook with laughter and she tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling. “Oh my god, Ollie! When ISN'T there a girl?” She smirked at him. “Is this about Sara?”

“NO!” Oliver forced. He shook his head, once again frustrated at himself for his own dumbass mistakes. “This isn't about Sara. There is no me and Sara. That's over. It never should've happened in the first place.”

Thea huffed. “This under the category marked 'duh'.” She tilted her head to the side. “How you ever thought that was going to work out well is beyond me. That relationship is guilt and pain and...yea more guilt and pain.”

“Thanks, Thea,” Oliver drawled. “I really needed to hear that right now. That's really helpful.”

Thea rolled her eyes. “So who is the girl this time?”

Oliver sighed and looked away from her stare. “I'd...rather not say.”

Thea studied his evasive expression. Oliver could practically see her running through options in that lightning-quick brain of hers. Then she blinked. “Oh my god, you are such a freaking cliché. It's the secretary, isn't it? You are chasing after your blonde bimbo secretary that mom hates!”

Oliver winced and bit back the wave of rage her description inspired. It wasn't Thea's fault. She didn't know Felicity. All she had was second-hand information and the opinion of their mother. He couldn't take out his frustration on his sister. He could, however, set her straight. “Felicity is a genius, Thea. An actual, graduated from M.I.T. at nineteen-years-old, smartest woman I have ever met, genius. She is NOT a bimbo. And she is only my executive assistant because I begged her to be. She's doing it as a favor to me.”

He turned away from his sister and carded his hands through his short hair. “Hearing you talk about her that way? I'm disappointed in you. You don't even know her.” He pinned her with his stare. “And I know for a fact that she's never been anything but nice to you. Because that's who Felicity is, Thea. Felicity is nice.” He took a step back toward her. “Felicity is beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, and kind. She doesn't deserve your judgment or your scorn.”

Thea's eyes widened and she threw her hands up in the air. “Okay, okay...I get it. You like her and she's perfect and really really nice. I shouldn't have said anything against her. I'm sorry.” She paused and tilted her chin down and looked up at him through her lashes. “But you do have to admit that the circumstances are a little suspicious.”

“And that's my fault, Thea,” Oliver insisted, “not hers.” He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “All of the rumors going around about Felicity, the way she's being treated and looked down on, that's all because of me. Because I'm a selfish bastard and I wanted her close to me. I didn't even think about how that would affect her.”

Thea blinked and frowned. “So...this has been going on for a while?”

Oliver blew out a long breath. “It's...” he ground his teeth, “I don't even really know when it started. She just...crept up on me.” He started pacing. “And now she's pulling away and I CAN'T lose her. She's...important.”

“So definitely before the whole Sara thing then,” Thea realized.

Oliver froze. He squeezed his eyes closed and looked down. “It's not like that, Thea. I didn't cheat on her. We weren't together.” But that wasn't the whole story and he knew it.

“Well thank god for small favors, because if she's as intelligent as you say she is, she's not putting up with that shit,” Thea said.

A laugh escaped Oliver's throat. “No, no, Felicity definitely will not put up with my shit, Thea. And that, among many other reasons, is why I can't even begin to deserve her.”

“Wow,” Thea stepped forward and slapped her hand against his back, “that's some hardcore brooding you've got going on there, brother dear. You must be really serious about this one.”

Oliver sighed. He turned and looked at her. “I want my friend back. I want my...my girl back. Even if I don't deserve her.”

Thea nodded. “And somehow this all comes back around to watching 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'?”

Oliver huffed a laugh. “She likes this stuff.” He reached down and picked up the DVD set. “All kinds of this stuff. She likes movies and television and games.”

Thea pursed her lips. “She's a geek?”

Oliver grinned. “Maybe, but she's a lot more than that.”

“But this is your way in, right?” Thea said. “You want to impress her with your vast geek knowledge?”

“She's talking to this guy,” Oliver admitted.

Thea laughed. “OH, oh, here we go!” She waved her hand eagerly at her brother. “Lay it on me.”

Oliver took in a deep breath and blew it out. “She met him on some internet dating site. He knows about this stuff and they're bonding over it.” He frowned and balled his hands into fists. “They have these debates about favorite superheroes and best vampire...or something.”

Thea kept laughing. “Well, that's actually Damon Salvatore, but if we're sticking to Buffy? Safe bet says Spike.” She grabbed the DVDs from Oliver and headed for the entertainment center. She flipped open the first case and popped out the disk.

“See!” Oliver pointed to Thea. “That's what I need! I need to know who that Spike person is. She likes him!”

“Of course she likes him,” Thea rolled her eyes, “he's Spike.” She plopped down on the couch and patted the seat across from her. “Now cop a squat, Ollie. I'm gonna teach you about the Buffyverse. I'll be your Yoda.”

Oliver sighed in relief and sat down beside his sister. He turned to look at her as she lifted the remote and booted the first disk. She held her free hand up in warning and cut her eyes his way. “And if the words 'who is Yoda' leave your mouth? I don't know you.”

Oliver threw his head back and laughed...a genuine laugh, a real laugh. A huge smile curled Thea's lips and as Oliver watched tears filled his sister's eyes. She dove forward across the distance between them and hugged him as hard as she could. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. Then he pulled her closer into the middle of the couch and maneuvered them until Thea leaning against him and they were both facing the television screen as the first episode started.

The next week...

“I just don't know, Sara,” Oliver heard Felicity talking as he made his way down the steps and into the foundry. “We have a lot of the same interests, but...”

“Don't you think you might be being a little too picky?” Sara asked. The blonde assassin was leaning up against Felicity's station. She threw Oliver a grin when she spotted him. “It was your first date, Felicity. You need to give the guy a real chance. He might have been nervous.”

Oliver glared at his ex. Sara had been overly supportive of this whole 'internet dating' thing. She was enjoying this a little too much.

“He told our waitress to scamper, Sara,” Felicity said, “like...scamper. Like she was a mouse!” The genius' blonde ponytail swayed to the side as she looked up at her friend. “It was rude. She was only doing her job. Also? I was afraid to eat anything after that because I don't like spit! And I do like food! This girl,” she waved down her appealingly curvy body encased in a tight bright blue dress, “likes to eat and I left hungry. I'm starving now and the boys will tell you that I DO get hangry.”

“I brought Big Belly,” Oliver spoke up as he walked over to join them. He held out a bag and drink to Felicity. “I got your usual.”

“Oh,” a wide smile curled Felicity's lips and her blue eyes sparkled up at him, “that was so sweet! Thank you, Oliver. You are my hero.” She turned and dug into the bag.

Oliver smiled smugly at Sara. The assassin stuck her tongue out at him. Then she looked back to Felicity. “But you did say he was hot, right?”

Felicity snorted. “Super hot...I mean like REALLY hot...like smoking hot (no pun intended).” She shook her head. “That man could start a heatwave in the middle of winter.”

Oliver frowned.

Sara snickered. “So, don't you think he's worth a second chance?”

Felicity chomped down on a fry and frowned as she considered it. “I'm not that shallow. I don't fall for men based strictly on their physical appearance.” She waved another fry at Sara. “There are a lot of ugly hot men in this world, Sara Lance. I appreciate a man's inner beauty. I mean the last guy I liked was Barry!” Seeming to realize what she'd just said, Felicity winced and hurried to explain. “Not that Barry's not hot! Barry's very very hot! I just meant that I can't go from witty and thoughtful and brilliant to...to scamper!”

Sara chuckled and Oliver swallowed his own laugh. Sara threw her hands in the air. “Okay, I said my piece. I just think you may be giving up too easily.” She threw Oliver a pointed look as she walked away.

“So,” Oliver cleared his throat and stepped closer to Felicity, “no more Landon?”

Felicity sucked on the straw of her milkshake unhappily, her shoulders slumped. “I guess not. It's kinda depressing, actually. I'm gonna have to start all over now.” She dug out another fry and popped it into her mouth. “And I was really looking forward to that Buffy marathon, too! We were going to write our favorite episodes on pieces of paper and draw them randomly out of a hat.” She looked up at Oliver and stuck out her lower lip. “It was my idea!”

Oliver took in a deep breath and blew it out. He leaned back against the desk beside her and shrugged. “Well, I could probably help you out with that.”

Felicity smiled up at him. “As sweet as that it, Oliver, I really don't think you can arrow someone just for being a jerk and ruining my fun.”

Oliver huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes. Didn't he wish he could go around arrowing every man that came near his girl. “No, I uh...I meant I could fill in as your marathon da...uh...marathon partner.”

Now Felicity's mouth dropped open. She stared up at him stunned. If her expression wasn't so damn cute, and if he wasn't so determined not to let this opportunity pass him by, Oliver would have made an excuse and hurried away to train with Sara and Digg. As it was, he waited anxiously for her reaction.

The blonde finally shook herself and spoke. “You...I mean, you don't have to do that, Oliver. I'm sure you have plans...or...something better to do?”

“I'll never have something better to do than spend time with you,” Oliver told her. He rushed on before she could react. “But I've only seen the first three seasons, so you can choose the episodes if that works for you.”

“You've only seen the first three seasons?” Felicity repeated. “You've...seen the first three seasons?”

“Yes,” Oliver nodded. “But I don't want you to miss out on any episodes you really want to watch.”

Felicity frowned at him again. Her forehead scrunched together in that way that he found so adorable. Then she narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger at him. “You cannot skip ahead and watch Buffy episodes out of order! There is a process, Oliver! Watching episodes all willy nilly will blunt the emotional impact and ruin your viewing experience!”

Now he frowned. “But you said...”

“I've seen them all before,” she poked him in the side with her finger, “multiple times! And I can't listen to 'Full of Grace' by Sarah McLachlan to this day without bursting into tears!”

“Okay,” he said. Was that a no on the marathon? He looked away and his stomach churned. He really wanted this. He wanted this time with her. He wanted a chance to...to try. He didn't know what he was supposed to do now.

Felicity heaved a loud sigh and shook her head. She turned back to face her station. “We'll just have to start at the beginning of the fourth season and go from there. It's a good one anyway. There's plenty of Spike, and yes we will have to endure Riley and the uber-boring that is Adam, but really 'Pangs', 'Something Blue', 'Hush'...these gems make everything else worthwhile.” She nodded and her ponytail flipped. “You have to take the bad with the good, Oliver. You can't just skip to dessert.”

What? Oliver paused and ran her words back through his mind. A smile curved his lips and he watched Felicity out of the corner of his eye. “So...this Friday then?”

Felicity nodded again and Oliver knew she was keeping herself carefully turned away from him. Her cheeks flushed pink. “It's a da...uh...it's a marathon! We'll work out the details later.” She motioned to where she could see Digg and Sara squaring off on the mats across the way. “You should go...do your thing. I need some personal time with my babies.”

Oliver smirked. “Okay, I'll go do my thing while you wrest information from your dread machines.”

He started to walk off to join his other partners. He heard Felicity groan loudly and bang her head down against her desk behind him. “He can not start quoting Buffy to me! That isn't fair!” Grinning ear to ear he kept walking.

Thanks for reading!

@thebookjumper @olicityhiatusficathon

[lilbreck]

Title: Chapter 4: Twenty-Five to Life Characters: Angel, Anya Jenkins, Charles Gunn, Cordelia Chase, Faith Lehane, Fred Burkle, Rupert Giles, Spike, Tara Maclay, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris Rating/Warning: FRT Word Count: 4,178 A/N: Though I list a lot of characters, and some of them actually do get dialog, some of them just pass through.

Read Elsewhere: Personal Archive \ LiveJournal \ InsaneJournal \ Dreamwidth \ AO3 \ FF.net

"I just want to make sure we're all on the same page here. The one with the insane writing that tells us bringing a convicted murderer back into town is a good idea."

As much as she loved Xander, he really did not know when to quit. Giles, unlike most times, was doing nothing to dissuade his ranting. Willow listened with only half her attention as Tara explained ��for the third time that night alone—why they needed to bring Faith back to Sunnydale. The rest of her attention was focused on the bag she was packing. Granted, she wouldn't need much in the way of clothes since she was only planning on being gone for a few days at most. The rest of her bag was full of various spell ingredients she might need.

When Anya had protested taking the items, Willow had tried to explain that she might not be able to find them in Los Angeles. That hadn't worked either, but before Willow could even draw a breath to argue even more, Spike had thrown down a wad of cash on the counter which put a smile on Anya's face and silenced her. Willow didn't even bother to ask where he'd gotten the money –she probably wouldn't like the answer—and only sent him a silent thank you.

As she zipped up her bag, she could hear Xander's condescending reply, "Perhaps you missed the part where she killed a man and is now in prison."

She could see Tara ready to once again explain something that should have been unnecessary to explain in the first place while Giles continued to stand silently by, staring at the floor. Something in her just snapped. She barely recognized her own voice.

"Enough. Buffy is gone. Bringing her back would be too cruel. We need a slayer for the Hellmouth. The spell I put on the town yesterday will only hold for a little bit. After that it would have to be redone."

When Xander made to argue some more, Willow interrupted, already knowing what he would say, "The spell may keep demons peaceful, but it would only take someone vaguely interested in magic to find out what the spell is and they could break it. We need the Slayer. We need Faith."

He stared at her mulishly, so Willow tried softening her tone, "I understand why you wouldn't want to be around her, Xander. I get that it can be hard being around someone who tried to kill you…"

Xander didn't look mollified at all when he said, "Maybe you forgot, but she tried to kill you, too."

Willow had managed to downplay any danger that Faith would pose to her from Tara until now. By the nasty expression Xander wasn't trying to hide from her, he realized it and was all too happy to change that.

"Honey, are you sure you should be going to get her? I mean, if she's tried to kill you before…"

Willow faced Tara with her best reassuring smile. "Faith turned herself in. She's not the same girl who accidentally killed a man." The last was said with a pointed look at Xander who looked unrepentant.

"Besides, Red won't be going alone."

Willow glanced at the door to her room where Spike stood, a small bag of his own at his feet. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or upset that he had joined in the conversation. Tara's expression said she was more than sure she didn't like the situation.

"If Faith really isn't a threat, maybe I should go with you."

As much as Willow would love to spend time with Tara –they really hadn't had a lot of quality time lately—this just wasn't the right time for it.

"I'm not sure we'll get back before the spell needs redone. If we can't, I need you and Giles here to cast it. Besides, Spike isn't going because of Faith. There are demons in LA"

Tara –and Xander—had nothing to say to that, and followed her and Spike to the front door. As she stepped off the porch, Willow turned back to face her girlfriend.

"While we're in LA, you should start packing up your stuff."

While Tara seemed to know exactly what was going on, Xander seemed lost. With a sad smile, she explained, "With Buffybot gone, we're going to have to report Buffy missing. After a while, her dad is going to probably want to sell the house."

She could see the same grief on Xander's face that she had experienced when she had realized that Buffy's home wasn't really Buffy's home now. Perhaps sensing that she didn't want to talk about it anymore, Giles chose then to walk up to her and wrap her in a warm and much-needed hug.

His voice was soft and understanding when he whispered, "Take care of yourself, Willow."

Without saying anything more, she turned and walked to the curb where Spike was waiting by her by her parent's car. He held his hands out for the keys, but she shook her head, causing him to roll his eyes and make his way to the passenger seat. Her parents may have left the car for her use while they were out of town, but she was sure they wouldn't want her driving to LA with it. No need to add the offense of letting someone they didn't know behind the wheel as well.

Willow made it a point to pay close attention to her driving until the house on Revello Drive was out of sight so she had an excuse not to see Tara staring after her. More and more, she was getting the feeling that her girlfriend was not happy with their situation. She just didn't know how to fix it. And, so, she was being avoidy girl.

Spike, for his part, was more than ready to let the ride go by in silence. Though he would kill for a smoke. It's not that he was afraid of seeing Angel, he just really wasn't too keen on the notion that the gelled wonder would find out about his little electronic leash. Theoretically, he could have stayed in Sunnydale –Willow was damn well capable of taking care of herself— but he just couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend some time with just the two of them.

Unfortunately, he had already agreed to go before he dawned on him that their time alone would be spent with Angel and his hapless band of do-gooders. He held his peace for the whole two-hour drive, right up until they pulled in behind the hotel where his absentee grandsire was making his home.

"Angelus always did have a taste for the dramatically gothic. Right then, Red, here's the plan… we roll in, throw a jab or two at Angelkins, then nab the slayer. No need to go bringing up my pesky little chip."

Willow just looked at him for a moment in obvious confusion before he could see understanding slowly come to her. Shaking her head, she tried to reassure him.

"I'm sure Angel's friends wouldn't…" She quickly lost steam as his eyebrow raised. As she looked toward the hotel, he could see the moment when she gave up. Her shoulders dropped along with her expression and she gave a resigned sigh.

"Maybe we should just avoid talking about all things Initiative and their experiments."

When he only hummed in agreement, she nodded her head and climbed out of the car. Knowing he didn't really have a choice since he'd foolishly agreed to come, he climbed out after her. For Willow's sake, he really hoped Angel didn't make things difficult. Though, he would love to see her put the old man in his place.

While he was aware that Willow knew exactly where she was going –she'd been there before after all – she still looked nervous and unsure. However, just before they got to the doors where any of Angel's little merry band could see them, she squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. He could still hear her slightly elevated heart rate, but she could probably fool someone who wasn't paying attention. Maybe.

When they walked into the lobby – leave it to Angelus to decide he needed an entire hotel to live in – the four people at the front desk off to the right didn't notice them at first. While he only knew three of them through Willow's detailed babblings from the other night, he easily recognized the cheerleader and couldn't resist the urge to rattle her a bit.

"Cordelia! Still as smashing as ever."

Cordelia looked tense but not ready to go for a weapon, so he could only assume that she at least knew he had been working with the Sunnydale chapter of the white hat brigade. The other three only looked mildly curious. Honestly, how people with such shoddy instincts managed to not only survive but also slay a few demons was beyond him.

"Spike, still trying to bring back the Billy Idol look, I see."

He could see Wesley's panic clearly written in the man's eyes and he looked on the verge of scrambling for a weapon when he heard Spike's name. Gunn, though he tensed up, looked far more calm and ready for a fight if it should come to that. Angel at least had one good fighter on his team. Fred looked relaxed though extremely curious. It could be she had never heard of him or those years in the demon world that Willow had told him about made a vampire seem like a small threat.

While he was assessing her crew, Cordelia seemed to finally notice that Willow was standing there with him.

"Willow. Oh, no, who died this time? Is it Xander?"

He could hear Willow's heartbeat beat just a bit faster as she hurried to reassure Cordelia, "No, no. No one's dead."

Spike tuned out Willow's explanation and focused on Angel who had come out of what looked to be the hotel's office. Angel, in turn, was focused on him. There was a strong urge in him to simply attack the vampire he'd both hated and… liked on and off for nearly as long as he could remember. However, he'd made a promise to Will, and he was going to stick by it. Angel's expression was unreadable which irritated Spike to no end.

Both vampires were broken from their silent staring contest by the sound of Cordelia's less than dulcet question.

"Why the hell would you want to get her out of prison? What kind of brain damage do you have that makes getting Psycho Slayer out of jail sound like a good idea?"

Her little tirade seemed to help the baby watcher grow a spine and he pipped in with a condescending, "We simply cannot allow you…"

There was a sense of dread that started to well up in the pit of Spike's stomach and he took a step closer to Willow, ready to try and calm her down if necessary. Her voice was cold and hard when she answered and it didn't put him the slightest bit at ease.

"We didn't come here to ask permission, Wesley. We were simply paying you the courtesy of letting you know that Faith would no longer be in jail. Now, if we're through here, I need to find a place to stay so I can get some rest before I talk to Faith tomorrow."

Before she could turn to leave, however, Angel tried to salvage the situation. His voice was soft and in no way confrontational. If Spike didn't hate the bastard so much, he'd almost be grateful. Dealing with a cranky Willow was not how he wanted to spend his night.

"Just, hold on a minute, Willow. We're all just in a bit of a shock. How bad is it?"

Like she so often did when no longer feeling attacked, Willow reverted to her sweet and accommodating self. Though, she didn't bother to sugar-coat what had happened.

"Hellions attacked the other night. They had us all cornered. We lost the Buffybot and we almost lost everyone."

Angel, of course, latched onto the one part of Willow's explanation that Spike didn't want him to. His brow furrowed and Spike could see the question before he asked it, so he interrupted, hoping to quickly move past it.

"Three geeks, good with electronics, long and boring story."

Nodding his head, Angel let it go and turned his attention back to Willow.

"There's no reason you have to go somewhere else for the night. We've got over sixty rooms here, we can spare a couple."

He could barely tell what Wesley and Cordelia were trying to say as they spoke over each other. He could only tell they didn't like the idea of him staying there.

Angel's voice was brooked no arguments when he said, "Cordy, Wes, Gunn, you guys go ahead and take off for the night. Maybe take tomorrow off as well."

While both Cordelia and Wes stalked off the way he and Will had come in, they still gave him wide berth. He had to admit, it did his ego good. It had been a while since any humans he encountered were afraid of him. Gunn held back, giving Angel a serious look.

"You sure about this, Angel."

When Angel simply nodded, Gunn turned and left the same way his friends had, though he didn't go out of his way to go around Spike and even tipped his head to Willow, giving a little wave. Honestly, he could start to like the bloke.

When it was just the four of them left, Angel gave some ridiculously cheesy smile and told Willow she could pick any room she wanted. Spike was only half listening as he prattled on about making sure it had a bed and wasn't falling apart. He rolled his eyes and followed Willow when she turned back and headed up one of the sets of stairs by the door they entered. Before he could set foot on the first step, however, he felt his arm grabbed.

The better part of a year living with a chip in his head had trained Spike to not randomly strike out before knowing who he was he was attacking. Instead, he turned and found Angel, though the older vampire was watching Willow continue up the stairs with a serious look. Before he could ask what the bloody wanker wanted, he heard Willow's asking, "You're not planning on starting a fight with him, are you?"

He recognized that tone in her voice. It was the same one she used when she had lost all patience with Xander's picking and Anya's whining. Apparently, Angel was smart enough to know that tone wasn't one to be messed with.

"No fighting, Willow. Promise."

When Willow was out of sight, instead of the fight he expected –he didn't put any weight in his sire's promises – Angel only asked, "How bad is it?"

Spike didn't bother to hide his disbelieving huff when he answered, "Bloody Hellions showed up. Did you miss that conversation, Peaches?"

Angel didn't rise to his bait, only said, "No. I mean, how bad is it with Willow?"

As much as Spike wanted to tell him to fuck off and that they didn't need him to come riding into save the day or any such nonsense… he was tired. He was damn well tired of being the only one who saw how close Willow was to cracking.

"I caught them about to go against any sort of natural order and bring Buffy back from the dead. I managed to convince Willow to at least check that the Slayer was in some sort of Hell and that they wouldn't be yanking her out of paradise or some nonsense.

"She's drowning, Angel, and she's desperate for any sort of lifeline. Her useless friends and dishrag of a girlfriend keep expecting her to have all the answers and barely even raise an eyebrow at all the red flags she's sending up."

Angel looked troubled. Or maybe hungry. It really was hard to tell with this souled version of the vampire he knew. Either way, seemed to reach some sort of decision, if the firmly nodded head was any indication.

"If Faith turns her down tomorrow, I'll have a talk with her. Maybe she'll listen to me."

Angel opened his mouth to say something probably pathetic and sappy by Spike's estimation. However, he was interrupted by a soft and solemn voice.

"It's a good thing she has you to look after her. It's hard enough to try and lead a normal life, I mean if she's still going to college and all like she said the last time she was here. If you add on fighting off demons, and vampires, and whatever Hellions are, I can't imagine anyone being able to handle that all on their own. And the way you tell it, the rest of her friends aren't really the best at supporting her either."

Spike could only stare at her wide-eyed for a beat or two. It was more than possible she could give Willow a run for her money in the babble department. Though, unlike his witch, she was apparently as silent as any vampire when she wanted to be. Perhaps it was too much time spent with white hats, but he couldn't bring himself to snip at her, instead just replying, "I try my best, pet."

When he turned a questioning look on Angel, he only gave a small smile and said, "She's Fred. She does that."

Not bothering to wish them goodnight, he walked up the stairs and followed Willow's scent. He was stopped in his tracks halfway down the hall however, when he heard Fred ask Angel, "So how long has your friend been in love with Willow?"

He didn't bother to stick around to hear whatever Angel would say after he got past his shocked stuttering. He heard Willow moving around behind one of the doors as he came upon it. He knew that she'd want to go over tomorrow's plan just one more time. Part of him hesitated out of some irrational fear that she'd take one look at him and somehow be aware of what Angel's newest little pet had said. Bollocks. If she hadn't bloody well figured it already, she wasn't going to do so now. Making up his mind, he knocked on her door.

Willow was grateful that Spike was there to listen to her go over her plan for the millionth time without complaint. Granted, it's possible he tuned out whatever she was saying, but he made it so she could think out loud and not have anyone look at her strange. People really overlooked how important that could be. In the pre-dawn hours, as she made the roughly five-hour drive to the prison in Stockton, she found herself wishing Spike was there with her so she could go over the plan at least one more time.

Not that she was nervous.

She kept telling herself that as she parked in the visitor's lot at the prison. She almost believed it by the time she had convinced the staff there that, not only was she Faith's lawyer, but that she actually had an appointment to see her. Willow was sure that Tara wouldn't approve of the bit of magic she used to do so, nor would she approve of her plan to use magic to alter people's memories to get Faith released.

Honestly, though, it was either that or a jail-break with Faith hiding out as a wanted fugitive. That wouldn't really work for their plans seeing as Sunnydale would probably be one of the places they'd look for a runaway Faith. If Tara asked, she would calming explain. Willow was sure her girlfriend would eventually see that it was necessary.

As she saw Faith walking toward her through the prison bars, she suddenly realized that, in all her planning, she had never actually come up with a conversation. She looked confused but not angry, which Willow took as a good sign. She picked up the phone on her side as the slayer sat down across from her on the other side of the glass. Once she had picked up the phone, Faith didn't bother with small talk.

"They told me my lawyer was here to see me. I don't remember hiring you."

Her voice, while still a bit husky and sarcastic, lacked the anger that Willowed remembered from their last encounter. Well, the last encounter when it had been Faith in her own body. Oh, and look, there she was just staring through the glass, waiting for Willow to say something.

"Well, uh, Faith…"

Apparently, her time in prison had not given her infinite patience. Looking for all the world like this was a conversation she didn't want to have, she interrupted, "Look, Red, if this is about Buffy, you're about five months too late. Angel already filled me in."

While Faith may have been wrong about why Willow was there, it still provided just the opening she needed.

Keeping her voice relatively quiet, she began, "No, actually, this isn't about Buffy. It's about Sunnydale. Without a slayer, the demons are getting out of control. We need a slayer, Faith. We need you."

Looking less than moved, Faith leaned back in her chair and shot back, "Well, I'm about one year in, so why don't you check back with me in twenty-four years. A little less if I'm a really good girl."

As she had been doing a lot recently, Willow lost her calm. There went her Zen right out the window. It also might have been the more than likely bullet or shatter proof glass between them giving her a bit of courage.

"You know, Faith, coming in here I knew you were a lot of things. A probable boyfriend stealer, a best friend stealer, and a murderer. I just figured you'd gotten past that whole 'running with your tail between your legs' phase after Kakistos. Guess I was wrong."

Suddenly Willow could see a bit of the old anger in Faith. Maybe that's what they really needed. At least, she hoped that's what they needed and not just a sign that she'd chosen the wrong tact.

"You wanna run that by me again, Willow?"

Since she had already started, Willow couldn't really find it in her to even want to stop. She might have a bit of resentment still built up from when Faith had tried to kill her that one time. Two, if you count graduation.

"I was more than happy to let you sit in your little cell and hide away while you did what you needed to pay for your sins or whatever. But you're the slayer, and now you're the only slayer. Me and you don't have the luxury of you sitting pretty while the world burns."

Fight back tears and struggling to keep her voice lowered, Willow leaned in and continued, "Hellions rode into town, Faith. They had all my friends chained up and we were all going to die. It's a miracle I managed to throw enough magic to get them to run. I don't know what's gonna happen the next time. Just… We need you, Faith."

Faith looked very uncomfortable as she looked everywhere but at Willow. Finally, eyeing up the glass between them, she asked, "So, what's the plan then? I just bust through here and we take a dive through the window and make a run for it?"

Willow could feel her eyes go wide and she held up her hands almost as if that could prevent Faith from doing just what she'd said.

"N-no, no! Tonight, I'll do a little work on the computer and a little spell, and tomorrow we'll come to pick you up. You can walk out of here free and clear because, as far as anyone will know, tomorrow will be your release day for a far lesser charge."

She could actually see Faith physically relax before she said, "Cool, 'cause I wasn't looking forward to going full on fugitive."

Willow could see her mentally struggling with something before she leaned in closer and looked Willow in the eyes.

"You doin' okay, Will? Like, really."

It was on the tip of her tongue to give the standard 'right as rain' type of answer, or maybe even shoot Faith's own 'five by five' at her. What came out, however, was the truth. And possibly a few tears.

"Not really, no. I think I'll get there, but right now it's hard."

Faith appeared as emotionally drained from their visit as she was, so Willow told her she'd be back to get her tomorrow and quietly said goodbye. She could only hope she'd been telling the truth when she'd said that she'd get there because, right about now, she would really love to be doing okay again.

[oncethrown]

Shadowhunters is Finally Getting Good: A Writer’s Perspective

This is going to get long, so basically this is where I’m going:

1. Shadowhunters is still finding itself, similar to how Buffy the Vampire Slayer kinda sucked until it grabbed onto its “Monsters as Life Metaphors” structure halfway through Season 2.

2. Because The Mortal Instruments series is such a catastrophic narrative failure, Shadowhunters doesn’t have compelling plot points to string their own original story between, the way True Blood was able to do with their own sub-par source material.

3. The strong character writing is just starting to free the show from the restrictions of its source material.

Where We Are Now

-The company that owns the rights to The Mortal Instruments is using Shadowhunters to return on a damaged investment. They bought the rights to a popular book series, and made a movie that bombed so hard that when the numbers came in, they stopped production on the sequel within weeks. They lost a shit ton of money on what should have been a good investment, and were unwilling to throw too much good money after bad, which is why there wasn’t much investment in the first season. The first season’s low budget affects more than the special effects. It plays into who they can hire, how long they have to rehearse, how long they have to shoot, every element of production.

-The source material is shit, and it’s an albatross around the show’s neck. The movie sucked so hard because it was a pretty faithful adaption of the books, which are torturously long, and full of one note characters who only exist to spout faux-clever dialogue, or facilitate CC’s incest fantasies. They are driven by entirely by plot, not character, which makes for flat fiction.

-The first season had to be, to an extent, experimental. They had to figure out the right mix between what they had to keep to engage book fans, and what they had to add to make it possible for it to be a TV show, because the book doesn’t have enough material to be a couple seasons of TV.

-The first season worked to clear the very low bar of of being less racist, tokenist, slut-shaming, girl-hating, bi-phobic, and all around disgusting than the books. They succeeded. Yay.

-Successfully moving past the tragedy of the movie into an expanded episode order and expanded budget mean that season two is essentially a brand new show.

- That season is trying to fight its way free of what it had to be in the first season, and the failure of the movie, and the ball and chain of the books.

The Problems

1. The Show Has Turned Every Pointless, Cardboard Dialogue Spouter from the Books into a Compelling, Nuanced Character, and Now There Are Too Many

The book characters have interesting things on their character sheets, but never become interesting. The show has recomposited characters out of the character elements used in the books, and created complex, compelling, nuanced characters, who have ties and relationships to eachother, who are impacted by the world around them, and who make decisions and affect the world around them and eachother, instead of just waiting around for Clary to discover her special rune magic, or for Magnus to portal them somewhere.

Unfortunately, a bunch of cardboard cutouts creating obstacles to, and eventually enabling brother-sister fucking don’t suck up too much plot time, but 11 suddenly worth-while characters (Clary, Simon, Alec, Isabelle, Jace, Maryse, Jocelyn, Luke, Raphael, Maia, Magnus) plus a few new additions we are invested in to some degree (Lydia, Aldertree, Iris), and a few random additions that don’t seem to do much but create more dialogue and scoot plots along (Valentine, Meliorn, Raj, Max, Dot, Gretel, Suspiciously Important Girl With Glasses) all end up battling for screen time, to the detriment of each other.

For every charming interaction between Maia and Simon, we don’t get to see Luke dealing with Jocelyn’s death. When we get a glimpse into the tenderness of Magnus and Raphael’s relationship, there’s less time to see Magnus and Alec learn where they cross and divide. When we see that Alec and Maryse still love each other, even if the have so much shit left to work through , that takes potential minutes away from someone trying to talk to Jace about being abducted and tortured. There is so much potential, and it’s not possible to turn all of it into plot when there are only 45 minutes a week to work with.

1A. Except Valentine, Who is A Spectacularly Shitty Villain

Valentine is one long HHHHHHHZZZZZZMMMMMMMHHHHHhhzzzzmmmmhhhh on an evil kazoo.

A good villain is the hero of their own story, but they have to be more than that. A good villain has to taunt you with the possibility that they could be the hero of your story. They have to want something in a way that you can understand the wanting, even if what they want isn’t something you would want.

Kylo Ren is a good villain. He wants to be a super powerful Jedi and big deal leader in the Empire and the movie shows you that he wants that because he’s actually a pathetic little snot streak, drowning in his inability to live up to the standards of toxic masculinity around him, while wearing a silly helmet. The desire makes sense.

Spider-Man Villains are good villains. They are typically super smart scientists trying to solve a problem, but their science gives them some sort of mutation that casts them out of the society they were trying to improve.

Magneto is a great villain. A holocaust survivor who believes he sees the writing on the wall and won’t let history repeat itself.  

(Quick fact about Oncethrown: I went to go see the Johnny Depp version of Sweeny Todd in theaters in college and didn’t realize he was the villain until the very last scene. (The last last scene. Even after he throws Mrs. Lovett in the oven) Because he was unfairly jailed by a man who wanted him gone so that he could rape Sweeny todd’s wife to be raped into insanity and leave her out on the street to rot, and I was totally onboard with the quest for vengeance up until the moment the blood started pouring out if his neck.)

Valentine is just generically evil. He was born into the most powerful class in his world, was annoyed that his society wouldn’t let him become even more powerful, and now is experimenting on a class he already could kill with little to no repercussions, and working to eradicate them… because he can?

He doesn’t love or care about anyone either. There’s nothing to hold onto about Valentine. He’s just an opposing force. He could be a block of wood with angry eyebrows and the effect on the plot would be about the same.

1B. Except Aldertree, Who We Were Promised Would Be And Interesting Villain is Just A Random Force For Bad.

Aldertree came in to bring the erratic New York Institute back under Clave control. And he started out doing that. He threw the downworlders out of the Institute, he left Jace to rot in jail because he wouldn’t swear total fealty to the Clave, he nearly let Alec die because he threatened very important Shadowhunter traditions by refusing to marry a suitable woman in order to date a man, and a downworlder.

The yin-fen plot line originally was in this same functional but boring vein, until the last episode (spoilers) where he was clearly trying to get Izzy to trade sex for drugs (end spoilers). Generic Rapist Evil not interesting either. All he ended up doing was giving Alec a “Reclaiming the Institute Plotline” which would have been a really, really good piece in that whole “Effects of Institutionalizing Discrimination” theme… if any time had been devoted to it at all this season. Like… Alec originally ceded his authority to Lydia. The way he came for Aldertree just wasn’t given the building blocks to be satisfying.

2. The Books Didn’t Have Layers, and the Show is Trying to Graft an Interesting Theme Onto the Book’s Pocked and Diseased Foundation

The books are just an excuse for incest. The show is attempting to develop a narrative about institutionalized discrimination and oppression, and how characters are influenced by the way that affects their societies, upbringings, relationships and lives.

There is a really underdeveloped attempt at this in the books which more or less boils down to “Shadowhunters are mean to downworlders, and it’s not totally fair, but they are still the heroes, because they are all described as sexually attractive.”

The show is running into a lot of complications as they try to smoosh this theme onto the source material they have to work with.

-The main plot of “Evil McEvil is a Racist Who Wants To Start A Genocide Because Of Evil and Overt Racism”is sucking up all the air in the room for more compelling and important elements of the show,  such as every idea presented in Maia and Simon’s conversation about how Shadowhunters pretend that everyone is on the same team, but don’t understand what the daily existence of downworlders is really like in a world that Shadowhunters essentially rule.

Or Alec’s struggle to be both a Shadowhunter and a gay man falling in love with a downworlder.

Or Isabelle and Lydia’s season one speaking out about Law vs. Justice in the Shadowhunter world.

Or Clary’s 10 minute plot about not being trained well enough to be a real shadowhunter, but knowing too much to ever be a mundane again

The adherence to the main plot of book one and two is one of the things turning Clary into a mess of a white savior who doesn’t learn from her mistakes. She’s the entry point character, she’s bringing us into this world, and she’s the hero of the story. So... she’s white and straight with magic powers, trying to solve racism and homophobia in a story where the whole society she enters into is built around it, and has been for centuries.

3. The Clusterfuck of Potential We Are Working Out Of Now

So 2.08 and 2.09 I think prove that we are watching a show that is just about to get there. Both of these episodes had insular plots solved within the confines of the episode while also having consequences in the season stretching story.

Good characters are interacting with each other in interesting ways. (Except Lydia. Where is Lydia? I love her and I want her back) There are some growing pain failures (everything Izzy has said and done all season), some serious fuck ups (the lack of consent before the lack of malec sex scene) and a lot of unfortunate leaning on shitty and easy tropes (Izzy and Raphael fall into a drug fueled affair, Alec pushes Magnus into sex in a 3 minute side plot, Valentine exists and we have to watch him) But they are setting up more and more really solid pieces with places to go and I’m excited to see it happen.

4. The Things They Need to Fix (this is mostly rambling)

-Give fewer characters better plots per episode instead of trying to give everyone a couple minutes of screen time.

-Give characters goal and personality and development driven season arcs that create plots instead of having them constantly reacting to plot elements that are not character driven (purely from a writing standpoint, this is the biggest flaw with Isabelle’s plot line. The addiction drives her plot, not her personality, and Aldertree doesn’t have a character based reason to give her the drug to being with. “Just because I’m an asshole” isn’t really good enough. That’s why Alec is the best part of season 1. Everything he says and does is driven by a couple easily defined elements of his character.)

-If you are going to sell the diversity aspect of your show, be aware of the full context of the plot lines you are assigning your actors. It’s not great that there are 4 latinx actors, and the two of them with accents are in a drug dealing/addiction/sex for drugs plot line. It’s great that your only canon couple is a gay interracial couple. It’s great that they got a really sweet build up, and they have great communication scenes and they are really building a strong relationship. It’s not great that they do not touch while a lot of totally gratuitous sex is happening around them.

-Figure out who you really need, and jettison the dead weight. -Why is Raj still on this show? All he does is say nasty shit about women. He’s disgusting, he’s boring, and he’s pointless. Literally every single time he’s on screen he could be replaced by someone we care about and it would tighten the episode. -We ditched Robert because as far as the impact on the main characters goes, he’s a redundancy on Maryse’s storyline, and she has all the good elements. -Aldertree is pointless. Maryse could have had Aldertree’s “WE ARE REALLY FUCKING GOING WITH WHAT THE CLAVE SAYS” storyline and it would have been a lot more interesting with the rest of the plot.Lydia could have had that plot too. “You fucked up at the wedding, reign in this nonsense or we are shipping you our to wrangle island”

[the-royal-orora]

My idea on who (from other works) would be great candidates to be part of the Animorphs

So basically, here are who I feel would fit perfectly alongside the Animorph gang (Ax, Cassie, Jake, Marco, Rachel and the Auxiliary Animorphs)

*This is a mixture of what I like/are interested in and what other people like/are interested in. So just because I mention them doesn't necessarily mean I'm a fan of the work they are from*

Lastly, I'm adding what I personally feel would fit, however feel free to add onto this if you see something that I might have missed. Also, if I get anything wrong, feel free to correct me. (I'm doing my best to put research into this)

By the way, for this, assume that they have all been given the morphing ability by the morphing cube

Big Wolf on Campus: Tommy Dawkins, Merton Dingle, Lori Baxter

From Stranger Things: Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Eleven, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Max Mayfield, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson

Harry Potter: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger

Scooby Doo: Shaggy Rogers, Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, Scooby Doo 

Supernatural: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester 

Doctor Who: The Doctor (Along with their companions. Not listed due the number of them)

Monsterverse: Madison Russell, Bernie Hayes, Josh Valentine

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Angel, Xander, Oz, Kendra, Faith

The Imperfects: Juan Ruiz, Tilda Weber, Abbi Singh

H2O: Just Add Water: Cleo Sertori, Emma Gilbert, Rikki Chadwick, Bella Hartley, Lewis McCartney

Jimmy Neutron: Jimmy Neutron (with Goddard as a Chee), Carl Wheezer, Sheen Estevez, Cindy Vortex, Libby Folfax, Nick Dean 

 Danny Phantom: Danny Phantom, Sam, Tucker Foley

Spongebob: Sandy Cheeks

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Frylock, Meatwad (I would put Shake, but... I feel like he would be a volunteer controller and sell the Animorphs out)

The Slender Man Mythos: Jay Merrick, Tim Wright, Brian, Evan (without HABIT), Jeff, Stan Frederick

Mandela Catalogue: Adam Murray, Cesar Torres, Jonah Marshall, Mark Heathcliff (the first two are a maybe, the last two feel more fitting)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, April O'Neil

Teen Titans: Starfire, Robin, Beast Boy, Terra, Raven, Cyborg

Gravity Falls: Dipper, Mabel

Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra: Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko, Korra, Asami Sato, Mako, Bolin

Adventure Time: Finn, Jake, Marceline

T.U.F.F. Puppy: Dudley Puppy, Kitty Katswell

The Powerpuff Girls: Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup

Friendship Is Magic: The Mane: Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike

Kim Possible: Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Wade Load

Ed, Edd n Eddy: Edd "Double D"

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Rangers

Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Sabrina Spellman, Salem

iCarly: Carly, Sam, Freddie, (maybe?) Spencer, Harper

Hocus Pocus: Max Dennison, Allison, Thackery Binx, Becca, Izzy, Cassie, (maybe?) Billy Butcherson

Monster House: DJ, Chowder, Jenny

Mean Girls: Cady Heron

GTA (all a maybe): Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, Trevor Philips, Jimmy, Lamar Davis, Lester, Niko Bellic, Johnny Klebitz, Carl "CJ" Johnson, Sean "Sweet" Johnson

Phineas and Ferb: Phineas Flynn, Ferbs "Ferb" Fletcher, Perry the Platypus

Futurama: Philip J. Fry, Leela, Bender, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Zoidberg, Amy Wong, Hermes Conrad 

RWBY: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long

Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy

Super Mario Bros.: Mario, Luigi

The Legend of Zelda: Link

This is all I can think of for now. Again, please add more if you can think of any!

[jennycalendar]

loving parents (3/?)

ao3

“Giles, no offense, but you’re the least whim-driven person I know,” Buffy informs him with some amusement. “There’s no way you and Ms. Calendar would be buying a new house unless something really big was about to—” She stops very suddenly.

this chapter could also be titled “celia goes on a procrastination-fueled writing kick; has many feelings about buffy and giles’s relationship”

Keeping secrets is something that Giles is generally rather skilled at. Being a Watcher, while a technically esteemed profession, is more often than not one that relies on lies of omission—or perhaps just lies in general. However, these secrets usually aren’t happy things, and as time goes by, Giles is finding it more and more difficult to not tell someone about the baby.

“What’s up with House Hunters over there?” Faith asks him, jerking a thumb towards Jenny, who’s looking through the real estate listings with a cup of decaf. “You guys planning on moving?” She asks the question casually, but her smile is slightly tense.

“Perhaps,” says Giles carefully. “A bigger house might be somewhat more suitable, given how often the rest of you are over.”

“Don’t worry, Faith,” Jenny adds, giving Faith a reassuring smile. “There’s always going to be a place for you wherever we live.”

Faith considers this, relaxing slightly, then climbs over Giles’s legs to squeeze in next to Jenny on the couch. She rests a hand on Jenny’s shoulder, glancing at the different houses with mild interest. “That one has four bedrooms?” she says disbelievingly. “It’s dirt cheap.”

“One of the advantages of living on a Hellmouth,” replies Jenny, circling the listing. “Lots of properties get freed up.”

Faith makes a face.

Giles looks worriedly over at Jenny, wondering if this reminder of the dangers they face daily might have frightened her a bit in regards to their child. It takes him a moment to realize that it’s him who’s frightened, and another moment to remind himself that this child won’t only have two Vampire Slayers protecting them, they’ll have Jenny Calendar as a mother, so really, there’s no need to worry—

“You are making the weirdest face right now,” Buffy informs him, sounding half-worried and half-amused. “You okay?”

“Hmm?” Giles turns to Buffy. “What—oh, yes, yes, fine.”

Buffy’s eyes go from Giles to Jenny to the real estate listings. Slowly, she says, “How come you guys are looking into buying a new house now?”

“Call it a whim,” says Giles as casually as he can.

“Giles, no offense, but you’re the least whim-driven person I know,” Buffy informs him with some amusement. “There’s no way you and Ms. Calendar would be buying a new house unless something really big was about to—” She stops very suddenly.

“Holy shit, B,” says Faith, “I think I see where you’re going with this.”

Giles freezes.

“Is the Hellmouth about to open in the middle of this living room?” Faith asks teasingly. “Is that why you’re planning to move out?”

“Good lord, Faith,” says Giles, laughing mostly out of relief. “No. We’re just—”

“Planning ahead,” says Jenny helpfully, circling a listing. “This one’s nice. Three bedrooms, a cute little porch, and ooh, it’s right near UC Sunnydale! Faith, you could swing by and grab lunch between classes.”

“Three bedrooms?” Faith repeats, frowning.

“Yep,” says Jenny, without offering any explanation.

“So, what, two spare rooms instead of one?” There’s a small, thoughtful smile on Buffy’s face. “Isn’t that a waste of space?”

“Hardly,” says Giles, thinking of the small crib that he’s sent for from England. It’s been in the family for generations, protected with charms and runes to keep a small child sleeping safely through the night. “We have plans for the other spare room.”

Buffy tilts her head a little. “And I’m guessing that you guys aren’t ready to tell us those plans yet,” she says, in a way that makes Giles feel very much like Buffy knows more than she’s letting on. He’s grateful to her for not pressing the subject anymore, though.

“Not just yet,” says Jenny carefully, her hand fluttering to rest surreptitiously on her stomach.

Giles sees Buffy’s eyes go to Jenny’s hand, he watches Buffy clap her hands to her mouth in badly suppressed delight, and (though he really shouldn’t) he feels a rush of pride. Clever girl. “I’m going to go make some tea for everyone,” he informs the room.

“I’m coming with you,” says Buffy loudly, jumping up with a big grin on her face. “Faith, you keep Ms. Calendar company, okay? I have to talk to Giles right now.”

So much for not pressing the subject. Giles is startled to find that he doesn’t mind all that much. Faith seems to not have made the connection, though, because her face doesn’t change as she rests her head on Jenny’s shoulder. She looks quiet and peaceful, the way she always does when she’s at home.

“Make Faith hot chocolate,” Jenny instructs Rupert with playfully dramatic imperiousness. “Extra marshmallows.”

“Double extra whipped cream,” Faith adds, taking Jenny’s marker and circling one of the houses. “Six bedrooms, reasonable price. We could all live there, Jen, whaddaya say?”

Buffy follows Giles into the kitchen, shutting the door behind them. As soon as she’s sure that no one’s listening, she whispers, “How far along is she?”

Giles considers this, then says, “Not nearly far along enough for me to answer that question.”

“So is that a yes or a no?”

“It’s what it is,” says Giles, who is rather enjoying being the ambiguous one for a change. “Take it as you will.”

“Giles,” Buffy whines.

“I really am looking forward to having a bigger house,” Giles comments to no one in particular, rummaging in one of the cupboards for the hot chocolate mix. “Perhaps with a bigger kitchen. I can repaint the bedrooms—our landlord didn’t let us do that here.”

Buffy sighs dramatically. Then she says, “I’m just going to have to pretend I’m surprised when you guys break the news, huh?”

Giles turns to look at Buffy. There’s a shy, proud smile on her face, and he feels a warm flutter in his chest. Not for the first time, he considers the fact that he is, in a sense, already a father. “I suppose so,” he says, and reaches over to squeeze Buffy’s hand.

She squeezes it back, a pattern of long-short-longs that Giles can’t quite decipher. “Dawn taught me Morse Code,” she informs him. “I messed it up, but that was supposed to mean—” She smiles a little. “It would have meant that I think you’re a great dad,” she says. “Or. You know. That you’re going to be one.”

“Thank you,” says Giles softly. Then, clearing his throat, “I didn’t technically tell you anything.”

“Gotcha,” Buffy agrees.

 Buffy and Faith leave with their usual dramatic goodbyes, off to patrol. Jenny fusses with Faith’s jacket at the door and makes her promise to come straight back afterwards for a check-in because of that last time Faith didn’t tell anyone about a near-fatal injury and started bleeding all over Xander’s couch and don’t even think about downplaying something serious like that again, okay, I’m warning you, Faith. Faith has the resigned-yet-shyly-pleased look on her face that Giles has become more and more accustomed to seeing.

“I’m gonna be fine,” she says for the seventh time, and gives Jenny an awkward hug. “Sheesh. You’re such a mom.”

Jenny’s eyes widen over Faith’s shoulder, and then she hugs Faith very tightly back. “Come back safe,” she says, pulling back and smoothing down Faith’s hair.

Faith bats away Jenny’s hands, grinning. “Whatever,” she says, shrugging Jenny off, and slings an arm over Buffy’s shoulder. “C’mon, B, let’s kill something.”

As Faith steers her out of the house, Buffy looks back at Giles and mouths bye, Dad with a big grin on her face. Giles catches this and grins, ducking his head.

“Bye, Dad?” Jenny repeats from next to him, her voice a mixture of amusement and genuine inquiry.

Giles winces. “Oh,” he manages. “Um. Well. She—sort of—”

Jenny laughs. “Easy, Rupert, you’re about to stress yourself to death.” She stands on tiptoe, kissing his nose. “Buffy’s a smart girl,” she says. “I kinda figured it’d click with her, and you’re not all that great at keeping happy secrets.”

“I am so,” says Giles with indignance.

“You’re really not.” Jenny steps into his arms, resting her head on his chest. “You’re, like, intensely excitable,” she tells him affectionately. “I’m honestly still amazed that you pulled off proposing to me.”

“Yes, thank you,” says Giles. He wants to be irritated, but it’s a bit difficult when Jenny’s this content. He smiles a bit, instead, and adds, “When do you think we should start—making plans?”

“Plans?” Jenny echoes, her voice sleepy and low.

“Hmm. Perhaps not now.” Giles leans down, picking Jenny up in a bridal carry (she laughs in surprise) and teases, “Best not get used to this; I’ll not be picking you and the baby up.”

“You’re picking me and the baby up right now, smart-ass,” Jenny counters drowsily as he carries her into the bedroom.

“The baby’s small right now,” Giles informs Jenny, pressing a kiss to her neck. “I can manage.”