The Mezzanine

I went to a comedy show last night. Currently in Australia, but it's usually in the UK. If you're reading my blog, you'd probably enjoy it.

It's called BUFFY REVAMPED. And what happens is, Spike stands on stage for an hour, telling everyone the plot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's hilarious.

Highlights include:
- Songs from the perspective of Buffy, Faith, and Xander (all performed by Spike wearing appropriate bits of costume)
- An overhead projector presentation about the Initiative
- Season 5 told mainly through poems by William the Bloody

He described Dawn as being "like a new board game, or a Christopher Nolan film; not shit, but you need time to get used to it".


It's fun! Go see it!

Excuse me while I import an argument from Reddit over to Dreamwidth...

I mean, this is worrying. So you just completely ignore all the context? Everything bad he's done? Just so you can have your little "twu wub" nonsense? Like, ship who you want, but acknowledge what is actually there.

And flamey hands of goodness? You mean when he specifically realised and voiced the fact that Buffy doesn't love him romantically at the time?

Oh, my dear anti-Spuffy person. *sighs*

(1) In my very long list of reasons why I ship Buffy/Spike, I didn't once mention "true love". In fact, I barely mentioned love at all.

(2) Whether or not Buffy and Spike have "true love", and whether or not Buffy is in love with Spike during Chosen is fairly irrelevant to whether or not I'm allowed to ship them.

(3) No, I'm not ignoring all the bad stuff Spike has done. It's just not a reason that I ship Buffy/Spike, which is what I was talking about.

(4) If you're planning on shipping Buffy only with people who haven't ever been evil, you're confining yourself to Riley and Xander as potential partners. Do you in fact ship Buffy/Riley or Buffy/Xander?

(5) If you do, as I suspect, actually ship Buffy/Angel, why on earth do you think that Angel's history of bad behaviour is more forgiveable than Spike's?

(6) Is all this mainly about the attempted rape? And if so, why would I consider that a bigger barrier to a relationship than the fact that he's eaten people?

I am rewatching much television, and find myself newly fascinated by a series of four episodes that all came out in fairly quick sucession. They are:
Spirits (from Stargate SG-1)
Pangs (from Buffy)
The Indians in the Lobby (from The West Wing)
Skinwalker (from Smallville)

I find these interesting, because:
- They are all clearly written in an attempt to get Native Americans represented on television more (a fairly good idea).
- They are all clearly trying to be highly respectful of Native American culture (a fairly good thing).
AND YET
- They all fail horribly (with one exception).

So, here's my theory. I think the writers were each handed instructions of "write an episode of your tv show about Native Americans", and did the best job they could. But, because of the complete dearth of Native Americans in the previous few decades of television shows, the writers were all flying blind.

And, if you look at the episodes in question, they're all taking a very logical approach to fitting this episode into their show:
Stargate puts Native Americans in space, and relates Native American mythology to aliens (as they do with EVERY OTHER CULTURE).
Buffy raises a vengeful Native American spirit, to take vengeance for past wrongs (one of the more common Buffy plotlines).
The West Wing raises a political discussion on a subject of concern, and come up with absolutely no solutions (see: EVERY OTHER episode of The West Wing).
Smallville gives Native Americans an important link to Superman's destiny (as they do with EVERYTHING ELSE).

But, comparing and constrasting, I think there's a simple reason why the West Wing episode works, while all the others fail so horribly. All the other shows are taking a stereotype of 18th century Native American culture, dumping it unchanged into their script, and talking about "how connected these people are to their culture!". Which… doesn't work at all.

Whereas The West Wing is talking to Native Americans NOW about issues which affect them NOW. They're treated as real people, rather than mythical, totally-connected-to-their-really-awesome-culture stereotypes.

My post-series Buffyverse tends to be full on contradiction. If you look at my fic, you'll find all sorts of couples, Buffy dying before Faith, Faith dying before Buffy, Giles dying before everyone... It's all a bit of a weird mess. (And I like it that way.)

There are a few things, however, that I definitely think happen. They always happen, no matter what else my fic does – and I get irrationally irritated every time someone else's fanfic contradicts them.

Here's my headcanon:

- They all end up where Andrew says they are in Damage, for at least that year. (Buffy and Dawn in Italy, Giles in England, Willow and Kennedy in South America, Xander in Africa)

- Only one person (don't care who) survives the battle at the end of AtS.

- Buffy and Faith are joint Head Slayers. They are also besties (or a couple).

- Willow and Kennedy never break up. Kennedy never stops feeling like Willow's heart still belongs to Tara.

- At least once, Kennedy and Buffy got extremely drunk together and had a massive session of complaining about relationships, exes, and romance in general.

- Dawn goes to university in Boston, and studies languages and ancient texts.

- Dawn and Andrew are best friends.



Minor things, but important in my head. I'd be interested to know what the rest of you have as your headcanon absolutes.

I have been rewatching Veronica Mars, a show I saw so long ago I've forgotten almost everything.

The husband is seeing it with me for the first time, and in trying to explain the basic character dynamics, I found myself saying "Duncan is Angel, and Logan is Spike." Which led to the inevitable...

Veronica Mars: Buffy. The superpowered one. (Within the constraints of the genre. Buffy's superpowers are horror-themed; Veronica has superpowers of detection.)

Keith Mars: Giles. The mentor, who is at once both encouraging and trying to shield his protegee from the worst of it.

Wallace Fennel: Xander. The helpful friend, who's never really a romantic option.

Cindy Mackenzie: Willow. Slightly socially awkward, but skilled at an area where she can really help the heroine. (Computers for both characters, in fact.)

Duncan Kane: Angel. Mysterious, brooding love interest.

Logan Echolls: Spike. Snarky, wise-cracking love interest.

Troy Vandegraff: Parker. Charming, but ultimately amoral, love interest.

And, weirdly enough...

Eli Navarro: Cordelia. Not in the heroine's main social circle, but can be relied on to do helpful things when required.

The husband: “I love how the writers keep hooking Giles up with all the hot women, with no explanation. Like, he’s this stuffy, bookish guy, and he keeps getting new girlfriends! How does that even happen?!”

Me: “...you realise Giles is pretty much the most attractive guy on the show, right?”

Rewatching The Pack...

I have to say, I love Willow here. Particularly that she insists on staying behind to watch Xander because "I know you better than Buffy does", and Xander takes it as "I knew you'd still be you, inside it all." Like she knew he would - because that was Xander's reaction to Jesse becoming a vampire. And because she's well aware that he underestimates her.

And really, she insisted on it because she thinks Buffy's a bit gullible and kind-hearted, and she does know Xander better than Buffy does, and is aware of how he'll behave if he's manipulating her.

I just... YAY. :) Don't try manipulating Willow, guys. It never, ever works.

Going slightly different on this one. While I can (and will) mention my favourite romance, I thought I'd mention all my favourite romances. Or, in fact, pretty much pair off as many characters as possible.

( favourite romance(s) )

Next time someone starts doing episode-by-episode reviews of their first time watching BtVS, I'm going to hop in my time machine, zoom off to the future, and check out what they think of Smashed.

Because if their opinion of Buffy/Spike takes a nosedive at the end of the episode, then it's not worth me wasting my time reading all the previous reviews.