#btvs season 7 meta

[juniperhillpatient]

I want to hear you ramble about how awesome it would be if Dawn being a potential hadn't been a fake-out and she would have become a real slayer alongside her big sis

Oh, shit can you IMAGINE??? It makes so much sense, too, if you really think about it!!!

Okay, Watsonian POV - Dawn is MADE out of Buffy's blood. Essentially, as a human person, she IS Buffy. I mean, she's the Key, but that's WHAT she is not WHO she is. She is made from the slayer's essence. So, it's completely logical, in-universe, that she would ALSO be a slayer. It really requires no explanation or stretch of the imagination, because in the context that Dawn is literally a magical Key to a Hell dimension made from her sister (the slayer!)'s blood, why on earth WOULDN'T she be a slayer?

Now - we're talking Whedonverse - so from a Doylist POV - we know that the narrative is more important than anything. The metaphor & hashtag meaning behind the story is ALWAYS going to be just a little bit more important than the textual logical stuff in Whedonverse.

But like!!! The THING is!!! Dawn being the slayer makes sense on BOTH fronts!!! Actually!!!

Let's talk about how BTVS season 6 ended. Like, just for a second, let's talk about it. Because Buffy & Dawn had been struggling to communicate all season.

Buffy is unable to be the caretaker that Dawn needs because she is scrambling to even feel alive after being dragged out of heaven. Hashtag metaphor for suicide attempt hashtag depression ETC. Buffy is going THROUGH it in season 6 & it sucks for Dawn, who's also just lost her mom, too.

But the thing is!!! The WAY that the Summers sisters are able to overcome their difficulties & regain their strength as people & their bond as a family in the end!!! Is by COMING TOGETHER!!!

I was going to argue that Buffy & Dawn standing together & fighting is one of the strongest moments in season 6, but I'm actually going to say that it's one of the strongest moments in the series.

Buffy & Dawn fighting together is the culmination of their conflict as sisters, of Buffy not understanding that Dawn IS strong, of Dawn not understanding that Buffy DOES need support, of their loss & grief as a family - of everything.

So, yeah, Dawn becoming a slayer herself? That would've been AMAZING for the series. I would have loved to see Dawn fight alongside Buffy & I don't understand how the opportunity was slept on!!!

[raisedbythetv89]

THE PARALLELS THAT MAKE ME SOB they are mirrors of each other, spike is buffy's shadow self. Our shadow selves are all the things we're ashamed of, our deepest pain we bury away, the things society conditions us to hate & to hide, repressed desires & wants. Healing journeys always involve radical acceptance & the healing/integration of the shadow self with the light so that the two halves can exist in harmony. In greek mythology the process called shadow work where you delve into your shadow in order to heal is usually represented by journeying to the underworld.

Buffy starts s6 underground and when she claws herself out despite physically being above ground, sunnydale is now hell to her. Life is hell to her. S6 is Buffy fighting against doing shadow work with everything she's got while being trapped in her own personal hell & that is represented in how much she fights the pull she feels to spike. This time is about her shadow self so she feels the most at ease when she's with him while also fighting the truth of that reality with every fiber of her being because she's terrified. She can't go back to who she was before but she keeps trying and fighting against the new version of herself she's being forced to become.

The season ends with her again emerging from underground but this time with Dawn & acceptance about her new life path she is now on. She no longer wishes she was dead. She no longer is fighting the call to heal her shadow self. She's accepted this next phase of her life which involves no longer keeping the slayer & the girl separate when she realizes she needs to teach dawn & show her the world but also with the return of Spike in s7.

Buffy healing, protecting and defending Spike is healing HERSELF because he IS her (Buffy stabbing faith, another shadow self, for angel was representing how much pain and self harm Buffy was willing to put herself through to be with him) so as Buffy's shadow, Spike, cared for her in s6, she cares for her shadow in return in s7 and the process is incredibly painful for both of them while also being insanely transformative and healing and it ends w/ the two halves integrating (their clasped hands lighting in fire) & then Buffy is freed from Sunnydale aka the underworld

[thepunkmuppet]

thinking about an alternate season 7 wherein instead of every potential slayer being hunted and then activated, every past slayer gets brought back to life. I don’t really like post-chosen content anyway, but when I do read / look at it the whole slayer academy, everyone’s a slayer thing is really stupid to me ngl 💀

previous slayers, though… nikki wood and xin rong interacting with spike, actually finding out about the slayer before buffy, slayers with different backgrounds and situations and personalities, KENDRA?! I just love it so much.

you’d be able to focus on a relatively small cast of slayers, much like the potentials, throughout the season. this would include buffy, faith, kendra, nikki, and some other american slayers from varying time periods with a couple interesting international characters too (maybe a slayer from ancient greece / rome / egypt, or an anglo-saxon one or something). these are all experienced slayers, so no need to focus on training - it would be more about lore, history and their personal character journeys, assimilating them into society (creating some fun bottle episodes, maybe a day out on the town with dawn and a historical slayer) and trying to figure out why they were all brought back. also, if you want to keep the first as the main villain, then it can look like any one of them because they’re all technically dead, which means you can still have that episode with the dead potential revealing herself as the first and all the mistrust that’s threaded throughout the season.

plus with nikki back, there would be no need for the stupid sleeper agent thing with spike or the ridiculous fight between him and robin. all the same ideas (and the flashbacks to spike’s mum) could still be explored, and in a way better way imo.

I reckon the reason they were brought back would probably be the powers that be (tying nicely into angel ofc) trying to defeat the first. and of course the ending would be this huge battle, as all the slayers from around the world come to sunnydale, and maybe to add some drama they would all disappear and die again when the battle’s done as they have fulfilled their purpose (a classic finale knife to the heart that would have everyone sobbing, especially over nikki and kendra).

there’s also the added thing of like,, I appreciate the show was leaning towards a theme of “hope for the future” with the potentials angle, but literally every other aspect of the season is about harkening back to the past. faith, robin, the first taking the form of previous characters, the high school, the slayer origins, etc etc. so I just think this idea would work so much better with the themes of the season, and tie in really nicely.

and the most obvious perk of this concept is kendra! she was forgotten about so quickly, and this season would really give the writers a chance to redeem themselves for the terrible way poc characters have been treated throughout the show (ignoring what they did to robin. FUCK that but that’s another conversation). I think the show really downplayed how much kendra’s death would have affected buffy, and seeing the two of them interact after buffy has changed so much and kendra’s still the same would be amazing. there’s also the interesting concept that, having been brought back from the dead, kendra still be 17, and therefore closer in age to dawn than to buffy, which could make for some really nice interactions between the two of them. also of course the biggest most exciting thing is having buffy, faith and kendra all interact. they all represent places on a spectrum in terms of personality, and I would LOVE to see kendra and faith interact and how much of a unit they would likely become as a trio.

there’s also the theme of buffy feeling (and being) alone in this season that would hopefully go away, as she would now have dozens of people who truly understand her, giving her a proper support system which I would love to see (season 7 scoobies can actually eat shit btw <3)

so. was this born out of my hatred for insufferable kennedy and the annoying potentials? yes absolutely. do I now want them to rewrite and re-film the entire last season 20 years later? yes absolutely I’m so glad you understand

side note wouldn’t it be sick if in the final battle there’s just this one slo-mo shot where buffy stakes a vamp and through the dust she sees the first slayer looking at her from across the battlefield before she disappears amongst the fight. WHAT it would literally be awesome hello?!

also also other side note sorry but Mother(TM) nikki wood would NEVER kick buffy out of her own house. fuck them kids fr

[elysianholly]

The First

So I’m in Season 3 of my Buffy rewatch and just passed Amends, and holy cow, is this ever an informative episode.

We have the first appearance of The First, who will go dormant again for four years until emerging as the Big Bad in Season 7. The entire conceit of this episode is The First understands Angel’s desires and weaknesses and tries to manipulate those to its own end.

And what is Angel’s desire? Buffy, obviously.

The First knows Angel has the capacity to hurt Buffy. He's done so already, after all. More than anyone else has at this point in the series.

And in fairness to Angel—he is trying very hard in this episode. He’s being tormented by visions of his victims, most prominently the visage of Jenny Calendar. These visions weaken him to the point where he shows up in Buffy’s room specifically to tell her to “stay away from him.” But he can’t stay away from her—even Buffy points out that he’s not making any sense.

And there is Jenny Calendar in the background, saying:

“She wants you to touch her. What are you waiting for?” “She wants you to taste her. Think of the peace. You'll never have to see us again.”

Essentially making the “she was asking for it” case to goad Angel into SAing Buffy. This wouldn’t be nearly as telling on its own, without Angel’s admission at the end of the episode:

Angel: It told me to kill you. You were in the dream. You know. It told me to lose my soul in you and become a monster again. Buffy: I know what it told you. What does it matter? Angel: Because I wanted to! Because I want you so badly! I want to take comfort in you, and I know it'll cost me my soul, and a part of me doesn't care.

Now, it’s important to acknowledge that despite this desire, Angel did not give in. He did not SA Buffy. He did not try to touch her. He chose death instead. It is equally important, however, to acknowledge that the reason he was so tormented in this episode is because The First was appealing to an existing desire that he was trying to suppress, specifically the knowledge that:

He could do this

He has done this

Some part of him still wants to do this

The “Because I wanted to” admission is everything. Without it, The First has no hold on Angel. Remove the Buffy of it all and The First could taunt him with victims past, sure, but its goal was very specific: get Angel to go bad. And failing that, get Angel to remove himself from the equation. I’m sure it would have also accepted “get Angel to violate Buffy and spiral even further” because, as we see at the end, the Powers need him to believe in himself. The best way to get Angel to not believe in himself is to make him responsible for harming Buffy.

Anyway, skip ahead. Like four years ahead.

We have almost the exact same situation. Spike is newly souled and tormented by both his past victims and especially what he did to Buffy. We have The First now appearing AS BUFFY to Spike, Spike incapable of discerning what’s real and what’s not, and confirmation that The First definitely has plans for him. Plans that will position him in opposition to Buffy, weaken her, and essentially kill any chance that she will do exactly what she ends up doing.

It’s also important to note that Spike is much less mentally sound than Angel was when The First starts fucking with him.

So what does The First do? It brainwashes him. It notably does not try to convince Spike that Buffy “wants him to touch her.” It does not play on an existing desire to cause Buffy harm. It does not attempt to appeal to the part of Spike that assaulted Buffy in the bathroom the way it appealed to the part of Angel that spent years happily assaulting women before he was cursed.

And this is important because if that desire existed, there would be literally no reason for The First not to use it. Are we expected to believe The First evolved in the years since it attempted to goad Angel into attacking Buffy because “she was asking for it?" That orchestrating another assault wouldn’t further isolate Spike, if not drive him to do what Angel nearly did and remove himself from the equation entirely? We know from later in the season that The First is fine with Spike killing himself. Hell, we're shown that if The First can't use Spike, it wants him dead and is willing to manipulate others to see that realized.

But The First literally had to brainwash Spike to get him to do anything it wants, and the second it unleashes him on Buffy, he snaps out of it. She brings him back to the light. She says she'll help him.

And The First is noticeably pissed off. This was not what it wanted. Spike under Buffy's care was dangerous to its goal.

So why didn’t it try to manipulate Spike into assaulting Buffy again? Make sure she'd never invite him back inside her home? Why didn't it appeal to his worst urges the way it did Angel?

Angel: Because I wanted to!

Like I said, Amends is an informative episode. It shows us how The First operates (doubled down in S7 with its manipulation of Robin Wood). Even more, how The First interacts with Angel compared to how it interacts with Spike tells us a lot about who these characters are as men, as vampires, and specifically men who have hurt Buffy.

[theoverlookedoneedits1997]

Another early edit of mine. I love them so much.

[confusedguytoo]

You know what would be a fun fic idea?  Box sets of Buffy season 1-6 dropped into Buffy’s house while the potentials are there so they can see what Buffy went through

[jupitermelichios]

the thing is, I think Spike taking back the duster actually works really well as a character beat for spike - up to that point in season 7 he's been essentially doing what angel does, treating the soulless version of himself as a sepperate character, distancing himself physically and emotionally from his own past, and him taking back the coat is the moment he does what angel never fully learns to do, and accepts that he's spike just as much as he's william pratt, that he's the bad as well as the good, and I really like that as a character beat for him, i think it's a good concept and i think the execution works

it's just that the writers decided that moment had to come at the expense of robin, and that was a really stupid choice

it drives me up the wall, because if you treat robin as a sexy lamp, if you disregard that he's supposed to be an actual character we care about, everything about the moment works - the beat of slayers always ultimately chosing their calling over those they love works really well with buffy's character arc, spike taking back the coat and accepting that he's both the monster and the hero works for his character arc, but both of them come at the expense of robin. they take this character who looked like he was going to be a main cast member, and tell the audience 'don't get attached, he doesn't matter'

Genuinely, I think the only reason he even survives the season finale is because they'd made it so clear the audience shouldn't care about him that it wouldn't have had any real emotional weight if he'd died

and that's so stupid, because he should be such a cool character! the concept is fantastic, his existence adds so much to the world and could have given us this fascinating window into the watchers and the slayer system that neither BtVS or Angel ever really gave us, DB Woodside is great in the role, the little glimpses we get of his relationship with faith are really fun, there's a lot of potential in the concept of a teacher who's fully aware of the supernatural and the slayers... and then they do nothing with him except use him as a prop for that one scene.

honestly, I think my hot take (apart from that joss and the btvs writers were really shit at writing people of colour) is that he should have joined the gang in season 6. the confrontation with spike should have happened with spike, with the monster who killed his mom, not the ensoulled version. him taking back the coat would have worked then, both for spike, and for Robin, because it could have been a character beat about him instead of just being about spike, while also tying in nicely with spike's breakdown at the end of that season. it could have been this moment of robin looking directly in the camera and reminding the audience that no matter how charming james masters is, spike is still a monster, a tearing down of a hero in a season about the tearing down of heroes, at the same time as being a real moment of arrival for robin's character.

plus robin's presence could have jived really well with the theme of heroes having feet of clay, with the adult world being scary and overwhelming, because again, robin is a human who was functionally raised as a slayer (watchers don't teach their kids to fight the way he does, i am convinced that he basically had the same upbringing as kendra) so he is this window into how fucked up the whole system is. He would have added a lot tothe season as a side character, and then he'd be perfectly possitioned to slot into the gap left by Spike as buffy's right hand man, the other character who actually knows how to fight role that faith, riley, and spike had filled in previous seasons, right from the beginning of season 7.

which would then mean he could actually be in season 7 for more than like 4 episodes! He could have a character arc! You could even have his character arc resolve in him giving the coat back to spike for the final confrontation of the show if you want that visual, given him finding closure over his mother's death is the most obvious character arc to give him! But crucially, it would have been his choice, his character beat, not only spike's.

just... there's so much potential there that never even came close to realised and it's so frustrating.

sometimes i think about how btvs decided to make robin wood the villain for wanting revenge on the vampire who struts around in the coat he ripped off his mum’s corpse after murdering her. and sometimes i think about how, if the writers had actually wanted us to understand how spike had changed having got his soul, and if they wanted to actually physically show us a changed spike, they could have had him surrender the duster to robin. it wouldn’t make everything alright, but it would have been a sign that he feels genuinely guilty, whether or not wood forgives him. 

and then, handing over the duster would mean that spike cuts a very different silhouette to his previous appearances, as well as the fact that simply watching him at all times without the coat he wore as armour, or a badge of honour, would have been jarring but in a good way. don’t replace the coat, make him go coatless, show us spike without his armour of leather, show us a more vulnerable character reflected through his lack of outer layer that he so frequently wore. have him hand the coat off, tell robin that his mother’s final words were of him, and that it’s only right he stops wearing the coat as a sign of respect.

take nikki’s possession back from the vampire who murdered her and give it back to the grieving boy who just wanted his mother.

[coraniaid]

Top five btvs headcannons?

Hmm. Lots of options to choose from, but let's go with:

Of all the deaths we see on the show that the characters are weirdly blase about and never talk about again (which is most of them) the one I feel should matter most is Kendra's. The writers very obviously don't care about Kendra at all (in a way that makes me pretty angry if I think about it for long) but, at the same, the only way I can reconcile my idea of Who Buffy Is As A Person with the events of the post-Becoming seasons is to try to persuade myself that Buffy is thinking about Kendra a lot of the time, and that this meaningfully affects her relationship with Faith in Season 3 (and, for that matter, with Dawn in Season 5 and the Potentials in Season 7 too). Because, yes, Faith represents a lot of Buffy's own supressed thoughts and desires, and yes, there are lots of parallels in Season 3 between Faith and Angel. But the very fact Faith exists as a Slayer at all should be enough to remind Buffy of the Slayer who was called after her and died before her. How could that not bleed into her relationship with Faith as a person? How can Buffy not look at Faith and be constantly thinking of the Slayer she failed to save? (According to the show's writers, the answer is: very, very easily.[1])

Sort of a meta-headcanon (a headcanon schema?), but: as far as possible, I like to believe that the Buffy characters who are meant to be friends might actually talk to each other sometimes. And when we don't see various personal conflicts get resolved on screen, yet everything seems back to normal later (especially between seasons), I tend to assume they just talked things through a bit off-camera. Probably Buffy and Xander had a conversation after Dead Man's Party which involved him offering a grovelling apology, which is why they're still on speaking terms later that season. Probably Joyce and Buffy actually talked a bit about her being the Slayer before Faith, Hope & Trick, so that Joyce's claim to have "tried to march in the Slayer Pride Parade isn't as absurd as it seems to be on the face of it". Probably Giles and Buffy talked about the Cruciamentum a bit after Helpless, which is why she's forgiven him by the time the next episode starts and she never brings his role up in it again. In particular, this is why I kind of hate the reveal in Season 7's Selfless that Xander never admitted to his Lie in Becoming, and that Buffy just spent the last five years thinking Willow decided to try to cast the spell to restore Angel's soul again without asking Buffy's permission or giving her any warning she was about to try it beyond "kick his ass".

There really isn't any evidence for it in canon and I suspect it's ultimately purely the invention of one of the early 2000s Fuffy writers, but I really like the popular fanfiction conceit that there is some sort of mystical connection between Slayers which (in a way that varies a little depending on the writer) gives them some additional awareness of the other Slayer's presence or emotional state. Not just because I'm enough of a sap to think that that's kind of romantic (although I am and I do), but because it's a nice way to explain away some slightly contrived bits of plotting in the show (all three Slayers have a way of finding each other very quickly when the plot requires it). In the same spirit, though with perhaps a little more evidence in canon, I like the idea that Buffy and Faith's shared dreams don't just happen when we see them, but have basically been going on ever since Faith arrived in Sunnydale (or at least since Faith's coma). Also, relatedly, I still like this headcanon I posted last month.

Sort of an anti-headcanon in some ways, but I refuse to accept that Buffy's memory of trying to tell her parents about vampires back in LA -- and being briefly institutionalized as a result -- (which was revealed/retconned in Season 6's Normal Again) is real. I think that (whatever the show claims) it had to have been a false memory implanted by the same demon that was giving her visions of still being there. Say what you like about whether or not the Joyce we see on the show was a good parent, but this is just blatant character assassination of the worst sort. It completely changes how we have to see Buffy's relationship with her mother and makes several scenes and outright plot points absurd (even if Joyce is the sort of monster who could forget about having her doctor locked up, even after learning that actually Buffy was always telling the truth, why would a Buffy who had been through that still keep a diary in the house she shares with her mother where she talked about the supernatural or prominently put up crucifixes in her house or make jokes about 'saving the world from vampires' when her mother asked her what she was thinking? why would she care about her mother's opinion of her at all? why would she wait until Season 2 to run away from home, and why would she ever come back?). Taken seriously, this just totally undermines a major part of Buffy's character and one of the most important relationships in her life. And for what? A stupid "maybe this is all a dream?" ending to the episode that means nothing and never goes anywhere. No, fuck that. Didn't happen and I simply refuse to believe it did. (I also strongly dislike the idea that it's a false memory caused by Dawn's presence; Dawn doesn't deserve to be blamed for that and her existence isn't meant to have had that big of an impact on the world.)

[1] Actually if I'm being totally honest I suspect that if you polled most of the show's writers with this question the answer you'd get back would be "who's Kendra?"

[deadboydetectives-confessions]

Man, I love a lot of the shows that I grew up with, but I as I was trying to think of more possible DBD crossovers to suggest, I thought of BtVS & it's wild now to think of how that was considered "feminist" & "progessive" for its time (oh the ways in which Joss Whedon & Neil Gaiman are cut from the same fucked up cloth, wrt how they both have made careers out of presenting themselves as "feminist men," which is it's own rant, tbh) and the ways that DBD just casually blows BtVS out of the water in terms of gender parity & racial & sexual diversity:

--DBD shows up out of the gate with two main cast members who are women of color, something BtVS never had in seven seasons. Closest we got is Kendra & she was a recurring character who was killed early. & season seven with some of the potentials I guess -- I don't think any of the potentials were main cast though (was Kennedy?)

--DBD has no straight, white men wrt the main cast or recurring cast. Charles is a person of color, Edwin is gay/queer/mlm, Tragic Mick is black, TCK & Monty are some flavor of queer, all the rest of the regulars are women or female-coded. Meanwhile, BtVS has Xander for 7 seasons. It's not until Andrew -- who was a villian! -- that we get a queer man as a regular/main cast member and that's season 6 & from what I remember it is kind of frustratingly done! (Season 4 is the first canonical queer rep with Willow/Tara. Retroactively we know Willow is queer from tge get go, but watching in real time it was a surprise when she came out) And as homoerotic as Angel, Spike, & Giles might be to fans, they're all written as straight on the show and they're all white. The first character of color who gets a main role is in season fucking seven with Principle Wood.

--there's not a true female big bad on BtVS until the 5th season. I love Drusilla, but Angel is the S2 big bad not her. There's the S4 millitary professor lady (totally forget her name), but ultimately it's her creation, Adam, who is the big bad. Meanwhile DBD is blessed with Esther right out of the gate.

--Ratio wise, I always think about how of the 90's Trek series Voyager is the "feminist" one, but if you look at the main cast the ratio of men:women is always 2:1 in every season it aired. BtVS isn't as bad as Voyager & tbh I forget who was main cast vs supporting (like, Tara should have been main cast but wasn't, I know that), but DBD is just set up from the on-set in a way that feels so much more female-powered, imo.

Anyway, I just wanted to take a second to appreciate all that. When I see meta posts about Crystal seeped with with misogynoir or when I get frustrated that there seem to be more fics that focus on TCK or Monty than there are fics that focus on Niko or Jenny or when I get bummed that there aren't any canonical ace or trans or nonbinary characters, it's also nice to remember how things used to be and how much the media landscape has improved. I can name multiple shows currently on with queer characters. Multiple shows with black women & other women of color in the main cast. I still have a lot of fondness for BtVS & I'm definitely using it as a scapegoat here, but it's true that my enjoyment had a lot of caveats & I don't feel that when watching DBD. I really appreciate that.

.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Friday, August 23rd

JINX: We have found that the signs of the alignment are moving faster than expected. GLORY: (primping in mirror) Meaning? JINX: If you are to use the key, you must act quickly. GLORY: Fine. (puts mirror down) I have been cooling my heels in this crappy little town long enough. (lies down on bed) Sunnydale's got too many demons and not enough retail outlets. (Picks up a pair of shoes)

~~Checkpoint~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Inappropriate Favour by forsaken2003 (Spike/Xander, R)

Dean’s Failures by mmooch (Buffy, Supernatural crossover, T)

a habit that's happened before by explosionshark (Buffy/Faith, T)

Injured by The_Crazy_Knight (Buffy/Giles, T)

Inappropriate Favour by forsaken2003 (Spike/Xander, M)

Red Fruit Punch by Foxxzilla (Buffy/Spike, M)

Dean's Failure by mmooch (Buffy, Supernatural crossover, FR13)

[Chaptered Fiction]

A Different Path, Chapter 19 by Anaxilea (Buffy/Faith, M)

In the Company of Witches and Slayers: Chapter 140 by VladimirHarkonnen (TheLightdancer) (Willow/Tara, E)

Slayer & Rose Bride, Chapter 14 (complete!) by acpendra, Sparkle 94 (acpendra) (Buffy, Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena crossover, M)

A Slayer's Greatest Weapon- Book one- BTVS, Chapter 7 by KHandE11 (Ensemble, Wolfblood crossover, T)

Less Is Not Enough, Chapter 6 by Passionpire88 (Buffy/OC, Spike, Once Upon A Time crossover, M)

Further From Home, Chapter 7 by zombiesam (Buffy/Giles, E)

Stupid Thing, Chapter 3 by mistigrisunshine (Buffy/Spike, T)

Supply Issues, Chapter 2 by wickedrum (Buffy/Spike, T)

If You Ever, Chapter 3 by Mirrored_Illusions (Buffy, Stargate crossover, T)

Free to a Good Home, Chapter 1 by though_you_try (Buffy/Spike, M)

The Neighbor's Point of View, Chapter 124 by the_big_bad (Buffy/Spike, PG)

To All We Guard, Chapter 27 by simmony (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Along Came Two, Chapter 8 by LilithSwan (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Like A Feather, Chapter 8 (complete!) by Willow25 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork (+meta): cordy surviving season 4 by artsying-ifer (worksafe)

Vidlet: Buffy is taking it by yeomar645

Fanvid: Spike & Buffy - You Don't Have To Love Me by Sheebz D

Fanvid: Buffy l Where did it go wrong? by Dacy Toxic

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel - Dream Away by juliaroxs241

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel - Seventeen by juliaroxs241

Fanvid: BUFFY SUMMERS || SAD EDIT BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER by ALEXEDITZ

Fanvid: Window To Your Soul - by Delerium - 04x13 - The I in Team by NessaKins91 (Buffy/Riley)

Fanvid: Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with Like A Prayer (Choir Version, Deadpool & Wolverine) by Jess Wilson

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel - Endlessly Yours (with Lyrics and Arabic subtitle) by Vision Dream Media

Vidlet: “For You” || BTVS || @makky_cc by Makkyyyy

[Reviews & Recaps]

Video: Buffy S02E20 "Go Fish" Spoiler Review by LGRN - Entertainment

Podcast: Buffering the Vampire Slayer | 8.01 The Long Way Home by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

Video: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4: Episode 6 - Wild at Heart by The Cheshire Kiwi

Video: Buffy and the Inherent Flaw of Media Tie-In Novels by Another Booktube Channel

Podcast: Re-Broadcast: Buffering the Vampire Slayer's 3.19 "Enemies" by Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure

Video: Analyzing Buffy’s “Restless” by Sky James

[Recs]

Fic rec: Learning Curve by Kateykakes (Buffy/Angel, G) recced by I Will Remember You Marathon

[Fandom Discussions]

When Willow and Tara moved into the Summers house after Buffy died by lindseymcdonaldseyelashes

I wish that Angel got the attention Spike does on Tumblr by putinskremlinqueen4palestine64

I wish that Tumblr had less of Cangel and more of Bangel and Xandelia by putinskremlinqueen4palestine64

What would happen if people outside the Watcher's Council discovered the existence of the Undead? continued by AlphaFoxtrot

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Would Faith had been openly bi if Buffy had been on TV today? by jdpm1991

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[filmslore]

imagine what we could’ve had if we got more after season 6… they tried to do too much in one season they neglected soooo many characters like willow and spike and we lost their arcs to this really rushed and haphazard season 😭 we were robbed

Just to expand on S7′s unwillingness to challenge the audience on Spike… it’s such a frustrating season for me, as a fan of Spike’s character, because like so much of the season it is so close to something so interesting, but refuses to actually go there.

Seeing Spike with a soul is so potentially rich, because it’s not something we’ve ever seen on the show before. Angel’s situation was different - not because of anything magically different about his soul, but the fact that we are first introduced to Angel and get attached to Angel, before the sudden turn to Angelus. The soul canon is irrelevant - what matters is that Angel with a soul is a different character to Angel with a soul. He acts different, he talks different, he dresses different - he’s a different character. So when he gets his soul back, it’s easy for the audience to see that as simply a reversion to the original character they already knew.

Whereas Spike’s story is a bit more interesting, because the character the audience has experienced for five seasons is a Spike without a soul. That’s the character we love and have grown attached to. When you give that character a soul, you can’t do an Angelus and have him act like a completely different character. He has to be recognisably Spike, as we’ve known him. He has to be the same person or we will not care about the character. So that opens up this incredibly fascinating territory to explore. If Spike is the same person with or without a soul, then can he be forgiven for the crimes he committed before? Where is the line drawn when it comes to moral responibility? Or if he is different without a soul, then is he no longer Spike? Can anything he did before this point really count - including the good stuff like protecting Dawn? What about his relationship with Buffy? This is really interesting, fertile ground for storytelling and either direction you go in, the audience is going to be challenged.

And so they decide to go in neither direction. They straddle the line. They have their cake and eat it too. Spike is absolved completely of any previous crimes. The show is didactic about this - he has a soul now, so it’s fine. Yet, at the same time, there is no change in Spike as a character. He’s still basically the same. The show engineers a situation in which Spike is killing again, and yet cannot reasonably be held accountable for it - yet other characters are held accountable for how they react to it.

Nowhere is this line-hopping more apparent than in how the show approaches Nikki’s coat. The coat is an essential component of the character the audience recognises as Spike. Spike is indivisible from his iconography, and the coat is part of that. Fool For Love makes sure to soak that iconography in blood, and so make Spike’s crimes invisible from Spike. It is metaphorically a dead woman’s flayed skin. S7 then reminds us of this history through Robin, and the pain he experiences seeing a man in his mother’s metaphorical flayed skin. And Get it Done doubles down on this - the coat is tied to this idea of the “old Spike”, the person who tried to kill Buffy. The person who killed Nikki. And yet, when it comes to confronting Robin, the show is insistent on this Spike being new and different. He has a soul now. 

So which is it? Are we going to get rid of this piece of iconography because it represents “old Spike” (challenging!)? Or are we going to keep it and have Spike literally shoulder his old crimes (challenging!). What they do is neither. He doesn’t need to feel guilty about anything he’s done, but he gets to keep the coat because it looks cool. It does not explore the tension of that, because it’s not interested in risking the audience liking Spike less. The show’s stance is vague - and not so that the show can explore the ambiguities, but so that in any given situation, Spike can always be in the right. I don’t care if he is or not - I care that this approach is deeply boring.

It’s so frustrating. Spike is a deeply complex character who has always existed to to challenge the audience on what they thought they knew about vampires, and love, and the soul. Yet at all opportunities, S7 refuses to say anything challenging about Spike, and so avoids any stories that are actually you know, interesting.

[raisedbythetv89]

Buffy has always been VERY intelligent and clever. She’s a quick thinker and very resourceful.

When Anya becomes a vengeance demon again Buffy doesn’t take action against her until she causes a massacre that also traumatizes a young girl so can we PLEASE stop this narrative of Buffy just easily and carelessly deciding to kill Anya?

Because not only was it not a quick and easy decision HER GOAL WAS NEVER TO KILL HER THAT’S WHY SHE GRABBED A SWORD SHE KNOWS SWORDS DONT KILL VENGEANCE DEMONS AS IS ESTABLISHED IN SEASON 6!!!!!

She recognized self destruction after heartbreak because of her own and Willow’s in season 6 and she knew talking with Anya would get her NO WHERE just like Spike trying to talk her out of turning herself in to the police when she thought she killed katrina because she believed she deserved to be punished and trying to reason with dark willow was completely pointless

She uses the fight to force Anya to confront the reality and what the consequences will be if she continues down this path while ensuring this fight won’t actually kill her. Buffy knows she can’t ignore this and she can’t waste time struggling with the decision of whether or not to kill her because she did that with Angel and so many more people died in the process.

BUFFY IS GROWN!!! SHE HAS LEARNED FROM ALL HER EXPERIENCE AND MISTAKES AND IT SHOWS!!!!!! But everyone is so used to her TORTURING herself over these kinds of decisions they’re unable to recognize she has gained the wisdom and experience to act instinctively and decisively even when no one else agrees because SHE KNOWS it’s right and that is always proven to be true!!!!!! She is finally not letting a bunch of people who are not the slayer tell her how to be the slayer because she never should have been listening to anyone else in the first place. She’s proven to be right time and time again with Spike, Anya, Caleb and y’all still are doubting her….. SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE IS DOING!!!!! AND IT ALWAYS ENDS UP BEING THE RIGHT CALL!!!!!!! How anyone can watch her owning her shit as a leader and a slayer clearly demonstrating the last 6 years of suffering weren’t for nothing as she is now confident in herself and her judgement and think she’s heartless or stupid or careless or biased I just CANT. USE YOUR BRAINS!!! LOOK AT THE ENTIRE CONTEXT OF THE SHOW IM BEGGING YOU FOR THE SAKE OF MY SANITY

It’s also the perfect way to show xander how cruel and heartless him always telling/shaming/guilting her to kill angel is at the same time. He finally got a taste of his own medicine and he couldn’t handle it even a little. She showed what a fucking hypocrite he’s always been because everyone else? If you love someone who’s done evil you’re a horrible person and they need to die but if it’s someone HE loves it’s different even though Anya has definitely caused more deaths than angel and spike combined and was forced to be good rather than it being her own choice and went BACK to being evil of her own free will after he actually fucked up and caused all of this in the first place while never taking any blame himself even though he blamed buffy for angel and spike’s actions any chance he could even the ones directed at her when the blame never lied with her in the first place

Y’all see a woman not torturing herself over every little thing and being confident and you’re like wow what a cold heartless bitch and that’s GROSS and just absolutely reeking of misogyny

[thepunkmuppet]

gonna incorporate this into my alternate season 7 fic, and wanted to make a quick brain fart post about it here:

spike should’ve had the chip taken out in season 7.

frankly, I think they only gave him his soul back as a way to still have him be a functional main character after doing what he did to buffy in seeing red - and even then it’s still hard to look at him the same way after that.

spike was already growing as a character on his own, beginning to do things for unselfish reasons, like comforting buffy in fool for love and (most notably) staying with dawn and the scoobies when buffy died. and it was so interesting and compelling! his struggle between his nature and his changing morals and feelings: wanting to be a monster again, to do what he wants and have what he desires, but at the same time wanting to be a better man for buffy and doing good deeds because of how loving her has slowly and imperceptibly changed him forever.

giving him the soul was just… pointless. his characterisation literally didn’t change at all, he spent maybe 3 or 4 episodes moping in a basement and acting crazy before being literally fine the next episode and seemingly not feeling that much remorse for killing robin’s mother anyway. the sleeper plotline was also useless, and would’ve been made way better if he was killing of his own accord having had the chip taken out, and feeling all sorts of complex feelings about it, leading to some juicy drama and character insights.

I think having the chip be removed would be PERFECT, as we could then explore how different he is to other vampires and how much he has grown. I can imagine him trying to feed on innocents and go on killing sprees, but not being able to, which doesn’t even make sense because vampires don’t have consciences, but regardless he just can’t bring himself to do it. I can imagine him feeding on rapists, kidnappers and murderers, much like angel when he first got his soul back, and being so utterly FURIOUS that he isn’t what he used to be (and especially furious that he kind of doesn’t WANT to be that person anymore).

idk man I just feel like there was such a clear route to go down, and instead they took the black-and-white approach and just said “he’s got his soul back he’s good now that wasn’t him” (even though his characterisation was exactly the same, but i digress). personally I prefer the much more interesting “he just got everything he’s ever wanted for over half the series and got the chip out, but he doesn’t want to be a monster anymore because he grew as a person, which vampires shouldn’t be able to do but spike is somehow unique and his love for buffy fundamentally changed him and now he has to deal with that fact and choose whether to become a hero or a villain of his own accord”.

OR SOMETHING I GUESS IDK WHO AM I TO COMMENT I WASN’T EVEN FUCKING ALIVE WHEN THEY WROTE IT GODDD IF I COULD TIME TRAVEL TO THAT WRITER’S ROOM-

[ashesandhackles]

you are probably why I watched Buffy and what a great decision it was. If only my friends could also be convinced to watch a 90-00s show with ugly vamp faces, realistic non-cgi monsters and 7 seasons with so many monster-of-the-week episodes! Any advice on this, short of holding them hostage in front of tv playing btvs episodes?

First of all - really flattering I convinced you to watch Buffy! I have barely done any Buffy meta, so the power of obsessive reblogging says wonders xD

Hahahha, well I convinced people on the power of Buffy Summers! Lots of elements of the show is dated - but Buffy Summers is a character that transcends all of that. But this was an argument for people who I know will enjoy Buffy as a character. Maybe use arguments that is tailored to your friend's taste? Find out what they like - and use that as a selling point. Buffy mixes genres a lot, so there is something for everyone 💖

[petpluto]

I think there was the basis of a story to be told about the girl who states she will and does cry at the random bystander who gets caught in the crossfire, and how she ends up being the woman who told a group of scared girls that the girl who just committed suicide was a weak stupid idiot; and while I personally wasn’t looking for that story in season 7, I’m not convinced the show did that on purpose and if they did I don’t think they did it coherently. Instead, Buffy’s characterization seemed to rapidly shift purely based on what would isolate her (and what was needed for Spike’s story) without regard to who she had been even earlier in season 7.

And I think the potentials were a lot like a majority of Sunnydale High students - anticipating that this blonde girl will take care of the danger on the day to day, and they might get involved in a battle. Or two. They were kids, who were instructed to go to Sunnydale for protection and training, and basically just continued living their horror movie scenario where an incorporeal being fed them their worst fears and corporeal beings tried to slaughter them because of who they could become. Even Buffy was generally only hunted because of who she was on occasion, not every moment of her life at 16. And the others, as much as they helped (and without them the world would have ended like 4 times before high school was over), got to disengage from time to time. They weren’t out patrolling every single night. They didn’t have a calling. And, with the exception of Angelus, they weren’t stalked in their own homes.

I don’t think the potentials were particularly well written, but I definitely understand their fear and their anger. Every moment of their lives is now dedicated to fighting a fight they don’t want. They are being forced into this like Buffy was; but they don’t even have the power of the slayer. And they have minimal privacy, a bathroom occasionally on the fritz, and at least one person who might kill them in the house at various points.

I don’t know - if they had to make Buffy cold in season 7 (and I don’t think they did), I’d have liked it to be her story. Struggling under this new strain, leading people who don’t trust her and don’t want to be led. Her anger at being responsible for people who don’t want to fight actually being explored as a reaction to being around their age when she was forced into this battle, and why should they be any different? To the realization she has to let them be different. That just because she was turned into an adolescent soldier when she would have rather been anything else doesn’t mean one of these girls needs to be forced to do the same. That she had suffered and died (twice) but has the opportunity to help create a world where that isn’t true for these girls.

And she did do those things. She did sacrifice herself, her love, her free time, and everything else for this cause and fight. But season 7 goes from “I suffered so you should too” to “I suffered and you shouldn’t have to” in like the last 3 episodes (and, again, I am not convinced that was meant to be the thesis of the season), and I think it might have improved things if it was actually meant to be the thesis and if they’d started the “so you shouldn’t have to” switch a little sooner than those last three episodes. If the writers were determined to have the gang kick Buffy out only to have her become leader again, I want a better story of how we get there and how they come back from that.

Buffy going from “I’m sixteen years old. I don’t want to die”, to being callous to and about the deaths of the girls under her care.

Buffy going from “then the last thing she sees will be me protecting her” to acknowledging she would sacrifice Dawn to save the world.

Buffy going to the greater good over the recognition of each person’s humanity.

Thinking about Buffy being *rebuked* and cast out for this mindset, and being isolated physically like she had been emotionally for the last almost 2 years.

Thinking about Buffy restrengthening her ties with the gang, reinforcing their meaning in her life.

Thinking about Buffy sharing her power, and making sure no girl was forced into this life.

Thinking about how season 7 had good bones for a hero falls and rises again.

[invisible-pink-toast]

was rewatching 7x19 empty places and that scene where they throw buffy out of her own house makes me SO MAD (spike is totally right, they are sad sad ungrateful traitors) but with keeping some of the less-than-stellar writing choices of s7 in mind i can see where it came from.... for most of the characters

the potentials: are scared, are dying, don’t have superpowers. they nearly died again and have connected more with faith then buffy so i can understand them questioning buffy’s leadership. unfortunately they all conveniently forget that the only reason any of them are alive is because buffy took them in and protected them, let them stay in her house & eat her food (but the way kennedy and rona are written here is very ungrateful and aggressive - hello writers, why did you have to write the only woc in the room as the “bad guys”??)

xander: literally just went through an incredibly traumatising, painful and life altering experience in a battle that was led by buffy. so i think he gets a pass here. also he has often disagreed with buffy (usually relating to spike or angel) but definitely disagreed with her last time there was an awful publicly-gang-up-on-buffy in her living room in ‘dead man’s party’ so it’s actually pretty in character

giles: as much as i love giles in seasons 1-5 (with all his flaws and complications) the way he’s written in s6-7 is so inconsistent and ooc. i think spike hit the nail on the head with the fact that giles is feeling “outdone” and unneeded by buffy, so him being fine with taking away her leadership sucks (and s1-5 giles wouldn’t stand for it) but the way he’s written here... it makes sense. 

faith: doesn’t outright challenge buffy’s leadership, but does step up and question what’s happening which... is honestly pretty fair. she is a slayer too. she’s actually the slayer rn. but buffy not trusting faith is also pretty fair (although after willow... a little inconsistent). faith went evil and then mia so next in line or not buffy had to pick up her slack. there was always going to be tension between two slayers with leading, i feel like faith was quite calm and strategic here. she also specifically says she doesn’t want to be leader but no one listens to her 

anya: was dissapointed with anya here - her speech doesn’t even make sense. but given that buffy (correctly) tried to kill her when she was a vengeance demon, it’s easy to see that anya would be a little vengeful. there’s hints of this throughout the season, but post-ep5 they don’t really let anya be anything more than comic relief, which is a shame because if there was more build up (and a speech that made sense) i could really see why she’d oppose buffy here

robin wood: buffy literally said she’d kill him if he went after spike again. complicated because spike one of the team’s best fighters who they’ll need, and someone buffy cares about, but to wood spike’s just the vamp that killed his mom. so i get where he’s coming from. he’s also very chill in this scene. 

the two characters who i just can’t understand here are: 

willow: huh? what? “With everything that’s happened I… I’m worried about your judgement.” willow you turned evil and tried to kill all your friends and destroy the world. and buffy didn’t give up on you! you literally have no right to question other people’s judgements??? 

could’ve made more sense if they’d kept up this thread from ‘selfless’ - ‘I’m really sorry for letting you down / So I can’t do everything- but I should at least be able to do something. / But you need help, Buffy. I know you, and I know you’ll never admit it, but you need help.’ If Willow was coming from a place of concern for Buffy I could get it. Or if they’d built up Willow’s relationship with Faith, the similarities in their arcs, and Buffy’s distrust of Faith could put doubt in Willow’s view of her relationship with Buffy. but they didn’t. so it’s very left field for willow to suddenly not support buffy. 

and of course... 

dawn!!!! 

dawn what are you doing????? 

“Then you can’t stay here. Buffy, I love you. But you were right, we have to be together in this. You can’t be a part of it. So I need you to leave. I’m sorry. This is my house too.”

i?????

i will never understand this. i know a lot of people hate dawn - but i actually love her! i think she’s a great character!! sure she has her moments, but she’s been through a lot of trauma and the writing gets iffy with other characters throughout the seasons too. but i just don’t understand dawn here. 

she has not always had buffy’s back - because dawn’s a teenager and she didn’t always understand what was going on. but dawn knows exactly what’s going on here?? 

this is the sister who defied everyone and refused to let dawn die - and sacrificed herself instead. the sister who came back from the dead and had to put herself back together one piece at a time. the sister who had to smile through her grief and take on a shitty job so that she could be dawn’s guardian and pay the bills. like the last big buffy-dawn moment was in ‘him’ when buffy fought through the love spell and once again risked her own life and saved dawn’s

so dawn betraying buffy here comes out of nowhere! 

when i saw this for the first time and everyone was on buffy, and dawn finally stood up, i was so relieved. i thought someone would finally be on buffy’s side. for dawn to kick buffy out of their house is even more extreme then the others wanting faith to lead. i just don’t get it. it feels very ooc and is never resolved. 

so i’m just going to pretend that instead of andrew going with spike - dawn is the one who goes with him!

that honestly makes sense. buffy would want dawn away from danger, she trusts dawn with spike. also then we would get dawn-and-spike scenes!! because i love their relationship! and s7 ruined and then forgot about it!! so they can make up and reconnect. 

and then dawn wouldn’t be there for the coup. because if a well-written dawn was there when everyone betrayed buffy, she would’ve been throwing hands and following her sister out the door. also with willow her not supporting buffy is either properly built up, or she is the only one to support buffy and is outvoted. and i can see andrew just not saying anything because (despite being a murderer) he’s kind of nonconfrontational lmao

so then when spike and dawn get back to the house, they can both be shocked and outraged. and then either spike can leave dawn there (because someone with sense needs to be around to defeat the apocalypse) or dawn comes with him to find buffy and we get some quality buffy-dawn-spike in their own weird little family unit moments. dawn could even leave the room for spike to give buffy his big speech in private. 

but dawn would never betray her sister.