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.

[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.

[poshcat.livejournal.com]

I love posts like these. ::squish::

[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.

[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.

[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

[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 !!! *

[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.

:-)

[candlelightfrot.livejournal.com]

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