The Mezzanine

I think I've finally realised why I disagree with Xander-shippers.


Intro-ish dissertation on the subject of shippers

( ridiculous stereotypes )

The genus Xandus Shipperus

( best friend ever! )

The point

( 'good' characters )

Glad I've finally worked that out. It's been bugging me for months now.

I've always thought of Buffy season 5 as having four episodes of not-much at the start. (Granted, one episode of the not-much is utterly awesome because it's entirely about Dawn and I love her with every fibre of my being, but still...) It just meanders around on Monster Of The Week silliness until we finally find out what the season's about in episode five.

I basically think of it like this:
Episode 1: Not much happens, in a vaguely funny way.
Episode 2: Not much happens (although it's hilarious and Dawnish).
Episode 3: Not much happens, boringly.
Episode 4: Not much happens, yet again.
Episode 5: DAWN IS THE KEY! GLORY IS AFTER HER! MONKS! DAWN! BUFFY! GLORY! THIS WHOLE SEASON IS ABOUT THIS STUFF, AND HERE IT ALL IS RIGHT HERE!!!!

However, I may have to revise my opinion. I've just been rewatching, and realised that, in those first few episodes...
- Buffy wants to find out what being the Slayer means.
- Buffy has a little sister, who is getting on her nerves.
- Joyce is sick.
- Riley is feeling insecure about his macho-ness.
- Giles has a new job at The Magic Box.
- Spike has a crush on Buffy.
- Harmony has minions.
- Xander has a new job.
- Willow is getting good at magic.
- Anya has discovered the delights of money.
- Tara feels left out of the Scoobies, and doubtful about being "one of the good guys".

That stuff all happens right then. With the exception of Willow, none of it has been mentioned before. And, with the possible exception of Harmony, all of it will have major plot implications over the next season.

These four episodes are, in fact, one of the most intricate set-ups of future plot that I've seen. And somehow I always missed that...

I saw Fred Clark being a subtle Buffy fan this morning:

“What if I told you it doesn’t help?” the man asks as the woman packs up a truck with supplies for her shelter for at-risk youth. “What would you do if you found out that none of it matters? That it’s all controlled by forces more powerful and uncaring than we can conceive and they will never let it get better down here? What would you do?”

“I’d get this truck packed before the new stuff gets here,” she says. “Wanna give me a hand?”

That scene comes at the end of a very long story. The woman has heard all this before. She’s said all this before. She knows firsthand about “forces more powerful and uncaring than we can conceive” who will “never let it get better down here.” But she’d also met a real hero who’d showed her different and so she changed her name and became a hero herself.

This is what heroes do. They pack the truck despite all the forces that tell them it will never get better down here. They act like it matters even when they’re told it doesn’t matter. They help even when they’re told it doesn’t help — even when, as Dr. Rieux puts it in another story, it means being involved in a “never ending defeat.”

You know, I'd never put that together.

Lily is caught; Lily will never escape; Lily gives in. Lily sits in hell, defeated, knowing that she is never leaving. Knowing that she's trapped - that it doesn't matter what she tries, she can't ever win.

And then Buffy comes in and refuses to give in.


And now Anne, stuck in a crappy world that's always working against her, stands firm and refuses to ever give in. She will not let the world destroy her shelter kids. They have spent their whole lives being stuck in a hell that they can't escape...

...but she is going to stand there and be Anne, and refuse to give in, and show them that there are some things that can be fought.


She kinda rocks.

*needs an Anne icon*

This post by stormwreath got me back to thinking about something I always seem to disagree with people on.

That being, Potentials, Slayers, and the Watchers Council.


( my theory on how this works )

So ends my random thoughts on the Council.

Questions? Comments?

(a repost from LJ, two years later)

So: you want to write fanfic. And you’re worried that your summary will have too much punctuation. Have no fear! With this quick lesson, you can forget about all the /s, &s, and +s running rampant through your summaries, and instead learn how to craft the perfect smushy name that, with one word, can summarise each relationship in your story.

( Xanya, Fresley, and Spinterelle )

I was talking about Fred over at blackfrancine's journal, and (among other things) said the following:

Fred is a survivalist. Utterly. She will do whatever she can to keep herself safe. (Being enslaved in another dimension will do that to you.)
She latches on to the most protective guy. (Starting with Angel, who saved her in Pylea. Then she finds Angel and Lilah together, and Angel becomes unsafe, so it switches to the others.) Seriously - every single time she changes who she's interested in, it's because the Protectiveness Quotient has just changed.

I thought I'd give a brief summary of Fred's relationships, just to show you what I mean.

( spoilers, obviously )

Are you checking my tagged entries?

Everything's cross-posted from here to LJ, these days. But my earlier stuff wasn't.

If you're looking for a tagged entry from my LJ-only days, please look here.