Memory lane

[chani]

A fandom is a strange thing. I would have never believed I could be part of one 5 years ago...Yet here am I.

I remember it well. I got hooked on BTVS as they showed season 5 in its original language on the French cable 

Until then I had only watched it from time to time  (mostly because Giles first and Spike afterwards caught my interest) but I wasn't an avid fan and hadn't realized how good the writing was (it was dubbed in French ! ). I was already supporting Spuffy and hoped it would happen so I went to look for spoilers on the Internet while watching reruns of season 4 (a season I hadn't fully seen  at the time!). I found the Slayer Spoiler site that led me to the Buffy Cross and Stake Spoiler Board. Season 6 was running in the States then. I started downloading episodes, and when I couldn't get one, fortunately we had Leoff's wildfeed !

So basically I came to the fandom in the middle of a 'shippers war. I lurked for a couple of month and in February 2002 I dared to post for the first time...coming out as a Love's Bitch during a bet on whether Spike was evil or not. The Spike haters thought they had won when Seeing Red aired, but Grave and Spike winning his soul back ended the bet...

Despite showing up at the worst time (a lot of posters were Spike fans so the anti-Spike were very virulent), I found that board very exciting because everyone was speculating on what would happen or parsing the previous episodes. And shadowkat67 used to post her essays over there then. Somehow, probably because of the time zones, I managed to miss all the nasty stuff, and even became friends with people who weren't necessarily Spuffies.  Then the Daily 'Shipping News thread was created and we could have fun while supporting various 'ships, without fighting each other. Those were silly days and we played a lot on Spike Mountain...

In June 2002, Jane from thehappyblog made me read fanfictions and porn in English for the first time in my life! On her list of links, you could find Laure Alexander,  sabershadowkat and nautibitz... I learnt a lot of new vocabulary during that summer! Then I became a member of a fanfic reading club and I found it was very cool...Do you remember, pjzallday, how you and I used to give the lowest marks to the fanfictions we were supposed to grade? I found herself_nyc 's stories and  kantayra's "Double Spiked" then!

I can't believe it has been 4 years.!

 

It feels like I have been sired as a Buffy fan during spring/summer 2002. 

When season 7 started, I was like the others, waiting for Tuesday, bookmarking Buffy-related sites, analyzing transcripts and pictures, arguing online about Spike's soul, the new Big Bad, Principal Charming as we called Robin Wood back then...

BTVS changed my life, made me learn many things computer-wise, made me improve my poor English that I had NOT practiced since Highschool. I got to meet people who shared the same passion, I got to travel to the United States in July/August 2004 when Jane and Gadget invited me in Las Vegas...and over there I met in person other Buffy fans in Vegas, in California, in New York...among them  afew LJ buddies pfeifferpack, psubrat, ladyemorgaine, scarlett2u...
Later in 2005 I met franceslievens while she was in Paris and sister_luck and I went to see James Marsters in London.

At the beginning of 2005 a new change happened. After bitching for a while because I was sad to see so many fans leave Buffy boards for LJ , I got my own LJ in order to discuss other series and to post on movies. I never left my Internet home, the C&S, but I needed a site and LJ seemed easier than to build a website at the time. But when I look at my flist and at the archives on my LJ now, I can see it's still mostly about Buffy!

As much as I would it to be, my LJ isn't really a site on movies and tv programs, it's still part of the Buffy fandom. People who read it and leave comments are Buffy fans even though some of them rarely post about BTVS anymore. They are either writers or 'shippers (some are Spuffies, some are into 'ships I'm allergic to, but it doesn't matter) or simply Buffy watchers and Joss followers!

As for me, I have watched other series since BTVS ended, I enjoyed The Shield, Rescue Me, Carnivale's season 2, I even kept downloading episodes...first episodes of Ats of course, because Spike was on it, and then episodes of Lost, of Nip/Tuck season 3, of Battelstar Galactica...but none of them left me osbessed as BTVS used to, and still does. I don't feel the need to rewatch episodes over and over , to go back and analyze them again, to buy DVDs. And I have no desire to read fanfictions. As much as I like certain couples like Jin/Sun in Lost or Helo/Sharon in BSG, it never crossed my head to look for NC-17 stories featuring them!

I started watching Veronica Mars a couple of weeks ago on the cable, and it's intertaining indeed but it is defintely not Buffy either...Maybe I'm missing something, but the writing is far from being Buffy level IMO, and the characters don't move me the way BTVS characters used to.

Moving on isn't something I do easily. I haven't moved on from the C&S nor have I moved on from the Jossverse, and I don't want to. It works the same when it comes to 'ships. I can't imagine myself moving on from Spuffy to another OTP just to try something fresh or something different. I love Spike to bits, he's my favourite character but it's Spuffy that led me to read fanfictions, not my fantasies about Spike. I also have that Githania thing as chrissie_linnit would say, that many people don't understand but it's simply my naughty side showing...I could live without reading Githan fanfictions but I'm addicted to Spuffy stories. They brighten my days, they made everything tastier.

So thanks to all the Spuffy writers that might see this!

 ETA: I posted in a hurry and left for the movies...so now I'm fixing typos....

Comments

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

I've watched about 4 episodes of Veronica Mars now, and I'm actually finding that I want to watch more. I wasn't sure about that to start with. I agree the writing isn't Buffy, but there are little snatches of humour that appeal to me, and I don't dislike the actress who plays Veronica. I'm giving it a chance, but the jury is still out.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Yeah I like the humour and the relationship between Veronica and her father, and also the way certain scenes are shot...but the highschool stuff, the boyfriends thing, is getting old. Or maybe *I* am getting old!

Even the main theme isn't that refreshing...Have you ever heard of an American show called "Pasadena" ? It was like "Dynasty" meets "Twin Peaks"...Same kind of rich community as VM, with a mystery too (someone has been murdered)and a teenage girl was investigating, ready to compromise her own very rich family. And her name was....Lily!
It wasn't the same atmosphere as VM but...

[fraidycatx3.livejournal.com]

Interesting post. Like you I started watching in season 5, and like you I was/am a Spuffy. The show was largely responsible for getting me on line thru web tv when I got a library book out about the show and discovered there was lots of on line buffy stuff. My real life friends certainly never watched it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered so many people that did. I lurked on the Cross and Stake and later joined the yahoo group where I met you. Web tv is gone here and now I even have a computer so the show is largely responsibe for the fact I have become a little bit computer literate.
And finally like you, no show has captured my interest the way Buffy did, even several years later.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

My RL friends still don't understand my addiction!

I forgot to mention We Band of Buggered in my post. I think I came there in 2003 because Scarlett and Peaches made me, and I also went to the Naughty Board because of Jane. But somehow the C&S has remained my home...and most of the WeBob posters were also C&S posters or used to be, at the time. Same with the NB. Those groups were made by people who got upset by the rules and the fights on the C&S and the way some posters got always deleted while others never did...

Of course those two ramifications made me meet new people too, like you, Poshcat, Kathleen ! :- )

[poshcat.livejournal.com]

I love posts like these. ::squish::

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

What are you squishing exactly?

But I bet that, in a month, when you'll FINALLY, reply (*veg*), I'll be wondering why I asked that!

[poshcat.livejournal.com]

I am squishing your Spuffy-loving heart. Or your boobies, whichever you prefer. Hee.

::answers in bionic time OMG::

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

*smooch*

Come back soon...

[jamalov29.livejournal.com]

Je suis impressionnée par ta mémoire. J'ai le souvenir que j'ai sérieusement été attirée par Btvs quand la saison 4 finissait d'être diffusée en France sur M6, donc quand la saison 5 se terminait auw USA. A l'époque je ne m'interessais qu'à la série télévisée, et je ne me souviens pas vraiment dans quelles circonstances je suis ' tombée ' par hasard sur une fanfic.
Peut-être en suivant un lien à partir d'un site français.. Et je sais que je m'étais dit aussitôt :'Fan fiction? Qu'est-ce que c'est que ce principe? Pourquoi écrire des histoires imaginaires à partir de la série? La seule et unique histoire valable, c'est Joss qui l'écrit!!! '
Et puis je suis allée voir de quoi il s'agissait, et j'ai lu "Chains" , une ré-écriture époustouflante de la fin de la saison 2, par un auteur allemand ( qui écrivait en anglais ) et qui écrivait Spike/Buffy ! Donc totalement en avance par rapport aux spuffy fics qui sont vraiment apparues à la fin de la saison 5 je pense.

C'était trés bien écrit , avec des scènes d'un érotisme sulfureux.. et je suis irrémédiablement tombée dnas une attirance profonde pour les fanfictions, dévorant tout ce que je trouvais. Peu de temps aprés j'ai découvert Sabershadowkitten..

J'allais lire les analyses et spoilers de Leoff's wildfeed!

Je n'arrive pas à m'interesser à une nouvelle série, et ne le cherche pas vraiment. Mais si j'entendais beaucoup de bien sur une , j'essaierais.

Spuffy lead me to fanfiction : I started to fantasize about them as a couple as soon as season 5 began on M6 , and you can imagine how thrilled I was when we had the famous Spike's dream.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

L'avantage du cable c'est qu'on avait sur série club les saisons avant M6, mais je n'ai pas eu le cable tout de suite!

La première fois que j'ai vu BTVS c'était donc sur M6 et en fait je suis tombée sur la deuxième partie de Becoming. J'ai regardé car un ami à moi (Lieutenant de police!) m'avait dit que c'était bien, ce que j'avais beaucoup de mal à croire alors, pensant que c'était une série kitch pour ados avec des monstres à trois balles!

Ensuite j'ai regardé de temps en temps la saison 3, sans être plus que ça fascinée ( il manquait un ingrédient important dans cette saison!)et c'est quand j'ai eu le cable que tout a changé. J'ai découvert BTVS en V.O et j'ai commencé à regarder plus régulièrement. Entre les reprises de la saison 4 (dont Something Blue évidemment que j'ai quand même vu!)et la saison 5 sur Série Club, je suis vraiment devenue fan et pro-Spuffy.

J'ai vraiment tout vu dans le désordre en fait car la saison 2, je ne l'ai vue qu'en rediffusion. Quant à la saison 1, je l'ai vue beaucoup plus tard, en rediffusion aussi alors que je téléchargeais déjà la saison 6!

Enfin c'est vraiment grâce aux Dvds que j'ai pu avoir une vue d'ensemble un peu plus cohérente. J'ai d'abord acheté la saison 4 à l'été 2002, puis la saison 5 et dès que ceux de la saison 6 sont sortis en France je me suis jetée dessus!

J'aime beaucoup les séries, j'ai toujours aimé ça, et elles sont plutôt de grande qualité aux US (tous les bons scénaristes sont à la télé en fait!), mais Buffy c'était vraiment spécial.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

If it weren't for the C&S I'd never been part of the fandom. Most of my flist is Buffy-related as well. Sometimes I want it differently, but you guys are the friends I made on the internet and there isn't anything else that can catch my interest the way Buffy and the Jossverse have.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Amen !

;- )

[pfeifferpack.livejournal.com]

Ah, my sweet, much of what you've written here could be from my own head as well! I have met such wonderful people by joining this fandom (something I would NEVER have expected to do, mych less write!!!). Everyone that has touched my life is now a real, important part of my life...not as a trend or fad but as permanent as my so called RL friends (after all, is not the time I spend online talking of important and trivial things real???).

I am Spuffy, not projecting myself (he belongs to the one he truly loves....Buffy!)..in fact, I tend to identify with Spike so much that it would be narcissim to really project!!! LOL

I read a very few non Spuffy pairings with Spike because I can't buy into most. I love the other characters but Spike is central. No other show has captured me so and I just don't think any will.

I watch Lost but don't really ship and read/write fic, same with House and Dr Who (recent doctor was so wonderful...they are only now showing them on SciFi channel), the L&O series. Truthfully I only make certain I don't miss Lost and Dr. Who because I have such limited time to watch TV at all. No show makes me rewatch, dream, write, hunger for more stories, etc. like Buffy (and to a lesser degree, Angel). It was and remains Magic.

As for the famdom...I can't imagine going back to my life before. The people I have met, the hobbies I have developed have forever altered me. Who would have seen me writing? NEEDING to write? Loving to write? Sharing that writing?

Gonna stop hijacking your journal sweetie.....you said it all so well!

Love,
Kathleen

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Actually I think that inconsciously, I identify to Buffy which explains why it's so difficult for me to read Spike with someone else while it's less painful if Buffy is temporary with someone else.

I can't buy Spander, Spara, Spiles, Spiley, Spillow, Spaith at all so I never read them. I need a 'ship to be credible given to what we saw on screen, that's all, and all those are not IMO. I am not much into AU fic, or All Humans fic btw. Spawn by elisi is credible because wrong for them, so I can buy it, but only because Buffy is no longer there and despair/comfort is part of the 'ship. I can bear a bit of Spangel, especially prior to Buffy, but it's painful still. Same with Spike/Dru.

Actually to be honest, even if I loved some very alternate universe fanfictions that were well written, I love my Spuffy fanfic to be canon, or simply post-NFA!

[chrissie-linnit.livejournal.com]

You've made me feel all warm and nostalgic. *smiles*

My entry into the world of fandom was very much as your's. I started with BtVS Season four and lurked until the tail end of the shipper wars before being tempted to join in some highly entertaining threads on BC&S. Had it not been for my illness, I'm sure I would still be loyally there today and although I seldom visit, I do regards the C&S Board as a virtual home. Prodigal children are always given a warm reception.

You got my on to LJ, Chani, and I can never thank you enough. The warmth of you, Frances, Sis, Kashy and PB made sure I stayed around, and gradually I've garnered more LJ friends. A few more from C&S as well as fanfic writers and ONE friend, journal_ist who found me because of a wholly unrelated to fanfiction shared interest!

You're right that most of what is talked about is Jossverse related, but I think that's because it's a shared interest rather than people aren't interested in anything else one might write about. I love reading your film or TV show reviews, but I know I couldn't comment on those posts because I seldom go to the cinema and hardly ever watch TV these days so I have nothing constructive to add. I really like it when anyone on my LJ writes about their daily life - in school/college/uni, at work, holidays, shopping, people watching, singing/dancing lessons, bitching, laughing etc. - makes me feel alive. I love it when we make up silly meme's, ask obscure questions, share pictures/jokes.

Spike, Spuffy, BtVS and the Jossverse might have been the seed that started things, but the garden is blossoming beautifully. Hurrah.

I feel like a group hug now...

*HUUUUUGGGGGGGSSSSSS EVERYONE !!! *

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

The board misses your very complicated polls that were so hard to answer! ;- )

*hugs*

So have you dreamt of Githan lately?

[pjzallday.livejournal.com]

Do you remember, pjzallday, how you and I used to give the lowest marks to the fanfictions we were supposed to grade?

Perhaps that was the teacher in us? Or maybe we're just fic snobs.

:-)

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

A bit of both probably!

Actually I think you were worse than me. I remember a time you said I was too generous with the mark I gave (don't recall the fic though)!

You know, it's on that board that I realized the potential of Githan, after we had to review "Anywhere But Here" where there was a hint at Giles/Ethan...

[candlelightfrot.livejournal.com]

I too miss some of those days. Wow... seems a century ago in Internet time.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Does Internet time work like dog years?

:- )