Memory lane
Mar. 25th, 2006 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniA 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. Andshadowkat67 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 fromthehappyblog 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.!
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 buddiespfeifferpack, psubrat, ladyemorgaine, scarlett2u...
Later in 2005 I metfranceslievens 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 aschrissie_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....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!
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-25 09:13 pm (UTC)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
no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 10:51 am (UTC)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!