Fanon thoughts.
Sep. 30th, 2002 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflySo, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
liviapenn was saying smart things about fanon.
Which, naturally, led me to consider my own uses of fanon.
Xander's family was fanon way before it was canon. It was pretty much accepted that his family bit the big one. But other Buffy fanon ideas have, over the course of the show, been Jossed into oblivion. Spike being evil before he was turned was a huge fanon belief before Fool for Love aired.
To move into the specific subject that livia mentioned, there's tons of fanon that's contradicted by the show that people still use. Childe and Childer being a favorite of mine. Well, a favorite to make fun of. Even the Master didn't use those terms. Spike and Angel probably wouldn't ever, expecially when you consider the mocking of Anne Rice that they had going on in School Hard. Also, we know that vamps don't cry blood. We've seen weepy vamps. No blood tears here, mate.
The biggest mischaracterization in slash is the bitchifying of Buffy. You want Xander to move to L.A. to live with Spike, Angel, and Doyle, that's all fine and good, but you lose me completely when you imply that Buffy isn't affected at all by Xander leaving until he mention aforementioned foursome. Whether or not you share my deep conviction of Buffy's affection for Xander, the show does, in fact, show that she cares about him and would miss him if he left (The Freshman, Normal Again).
Making Buffy a bitch just makes the author look bad. And it's interesting that many slash fics with Xander do that, because in most fandoms, you only bitchify the canon girlfriend. So, it's to me, you're saying that Buffy is so important to Xander that he couldn't leave unless she became the bitchiest woman who ever lived.
And while we're talking about Buffy, let's talk about Willow-Sue, a character with no foundation in show canon. Willow is smart. Willow is even cool sometimes. Willow is not the Uberhero of All Time, able to fight harder than Buffy, be the most understanding person in the world and steal boyfriends in a single bound.
liviapenn was saying smart things about fanon.Which, naturally, led me to consider my own uses of fanon.
Xander's family was fanon way before it was canon. It was pretty much accepted that his family bit the big one. But other Buffy fanon ideas have, over the course of the show, been Jossed into oblivion. Spike being evil before he was turned was a huge fanon belief before Fool for Love aired.
To move into the specific subject that livia mentioned, there's tons of fanon that's contradicted by the show that people still use. Childe and Childer being a favorite of mine. Well, a favorite to make fun of. Even the Master didn't use those terms. Spike and Angel probably wouldn't ever, expecially when you consider the mocking of Anne Rice that they had going on in School Hard. Also, we know that vamps don't cry blood. We've seen weepy vamps. No blood tears here, mate.
The biggest mischaracterization in slash is the bitchifying of Buffy. You want Xander to move to L.A. to live with Spike, Angel, and Doyle, that's all fine and good, but you lose me completely when you imply that Buffy isn't affected at all by Xander leaving until he mention aforementioned foursome. Whether or not you share my deep conviction of Buffy's affection for Xander, the show does, in fact, show that she cares about him and would miss him if he left (The Freshman, Normal Again).
Making Buffy a bitch just makes the author look bad. And it's interesting that many slash fics with Xander do that, because in most fandoms, you only bitchify the canon girlfriend. So, it's to me, you're saying that Buffy is so important to Xander that he couldn't leave unless she became the bitchiest woman who ever lived.
And while we're talking about Buffy, let's talk about Willow-Sue, a character with no foundation in show canon. Willow is smart. Willow is even cool sometimes. Willow is not the Uberhero of All Time, able to fight harder than Buffy, be the most understanding person in the world and steal boyfriends in a single bound.
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(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-30 04:10 pm (UTC)So yeah, little random - but I just needed to say it. *g*
Re:
Date: 2002-09-30 04:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-30 04:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-30 05:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-30 05:58 pm (UTC)Not true. "You were my Sire man, my *yoda*" implies that Angelus taught Spike at the minimum the whys and wherefores of vamp living.
And there is clear evidence of Darla teaching Angelus both how to feed ("go on, you know what to do") as well as how to be cruel ("Am I learnin' now, Darla?").
I don't think the old vampires got to be old by winging it.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-10-01 12:28 am (UTC)Okay, yes, by Harmony.
Actually, the Spike thing is interesting, because Angel isn't his Sire. Which is Joss becing a bitch really, but, it's canon. And, yeah, Darla taught Angel things, but she was not thinking of him as a child.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-10-01 12:41 am (UTC)However. Spike clearly referred to Angel, and only Angel as his Sire, not once but twice, and in front of others. So he at least obviously *thinks* of Angel(us) as his Sire, whereas his relationship with Drusilla has always been that of lover. An easy interpretation would be that Drusilla sired him (ie bit him, Made him, Turned him , etc.) as seen in FFL, but that Angelus taught him what he needed to know in order to survive, hence the Yoda line in School Hard.
And obviously Darla did not think of Angelus as a CHILD, the very word is pretty much why I use the alternate spelling, because the thought of that kind of thing makes even my kinky slasher self go EW! She did, however, clearly see him as a posession of sorts, she showed him off to her own Sire and yet had no qualms about hitting him over the head to save her own ass. Additionally, she did train him well, and that is what counts in terms of this argument. He survived her attack(s), and in the end, he survived HER.
I do not claim that all 'Sire/Childe'relationships are, as is commonly assumed in fanon, in some way romantic. However, with regard to the Fanged Four, a veritable plethora of familial terms have been used in canon (Grandmother, granddaughter, my boy) which leads me to believe we are at least supposed to assume some sort of bonding took place that went beyond the "norms" of what we see portrayed with other, less long lasting vamps in the Jossverse.
And, as I said, I will have no choice BUT to keep on using the word, until Joss sees fit to provide us with an alternative. Considering he can't even get Spike's age down pat, I shan't hold my breath.
Re:
Date: 2002-10-01 01:18 am (UTC)Going to quote myself here...
Date: 2002-09-30 06:24 pm (UTC)My biggest Jossverse fanfiction pet peeve right now is poorly-done Buffy. First, we have the strangely frequent dumbification of Buffy. She's not an idiot. She's sloppy with language, hasn't time for books, but she's far from stupid. Also, she's often painted as humourless. She of the puns and quips. Humourless. Or her backbone is removed and she's weak-willed Buffy. Or her streak of kindness is ignored, and she's bitch Buffy. Buffy can be bitchy, but Buffy's not a bitch.
And it shows up not only in Xander slash, but in Willow stories, and Angel slash, and Spike slash... heck, I imagine it even shows up in Giles slash. And everytime I see it, my mind boggles.
Re: Going to quote myself here...
Date: 2002-09-30 09:06 pm (UTC)gross generalization here....
Date: 2002-10-01 09:00 am (UTC)As much as it boggles and Pains Me, there are people who do not like Buffy (the character) at all. They hate her, in fact. And that personal bias translates into sloppily conducted vengeance fiction, where the 'author' takes to task everything Wrong and Bad with Buffy and vents their (often it's a young woman writer)disappointment with her. They use a 'sympathetic' character often to mete out justice or be the Good!Foil to Evil!Skanky!Bitchy!31Flavors, all of them Shallow!Buffy (it used to be Willow-sue, or cleverly named doppelgangers like Gabrielle Vanessa Raven Ruby Gloriana Dominica Adeline Smith)but I've seen lots of Tara, Tara-sue, Anya, Dawn, Xander, (yes, Even) Spike fics, where the heavy hand of favoritism comes smack down on our favorite Slayer's head, and pushes her into the ground.
Or you get the contrast fic - which is where Faith kicks out the Jams and proves she's the Better Slayer at being Misunderstood, Pouty, Dressed to Slay, and Buffy is just chopped liver.
Mostly, BuffyasaBitch comes to play when you're dealing with a predominantly shippy fic, and the author can't think of a decent plotline or a characterization for Buffy to get out of the way of their One True Ship (and it's not just down to slash authors, plenty of het fics are antiBuffy breeding grounds), so they stoop to using the Bitch card. The more 'merciful' of the Buffy's a Bitch-she better get away from my Spike and Xander or Spike and Tara or Willow and Angel - just kill Buffy off in some mystical mojo accident, and then either spend a line - saying "oh. she's dead."
Then they break out the wild monkey sex between the Other Two - and Buffy's not touched on again, unless it's in a bitter flashback realizing just how 'flawed' she was.
Sorry, was that bitter in my voice?
Hmm.
It apparently is.
sff-proud fandom misanthrope.
Re: gross generalization here....
Date: 2002-10-01 03:57 pm (UTC)