chani | Entries tagged with btvs

My ten Buffy things that make me love the show for ever!

1) A writing based on metaphors. BTVS looked like a teen show with a stupid name, but it was one of the deepest and cleverest series ever made. A show that is about teenagers isn't necessarily a teen show. BTVS was demanding and layered (more than Angel the series that was more mainstream). It changed the way I watched television and taught me to parse episodes.

2) "Hush". A true masterpiece. Form matched content which is supposed to be the main goal of poetry. It had the scariest villains ever and the most hilarious scene too.

3) "Restless". If "Hush" was pure poetry, "Restless" was a mere symphony. It is the show's true musical episode, not OMWF. I loved Xander's dream the most. And only on Buffy you could see one of Sappho's poems written in Greek on Tara's back for only a few seconds shot!

4) Rupert Giles. He was the first reason I watched the show. Green-eyed British men have always been my weakness...

5) Ethan Rayne. Only four episodes and yet unforgettable. Robin Sacks gave us something precious. And Giles and Ethan were obviously made for each other!

6) Good dialogues. Some lines were funny, other were quite profound as in "To forgive is an act of compassion, Buffy. It's not done because people deserve it, it's done because they need it."

7) Spuffy. It was simply the hottest 'ship before it officially happened (sexual tension fueled the Buffy/Spike scene and there was "Something Blue" of course) but also when it occured ("Smashed"): all it took was the actors' chemistry and performances, and that zipper sound...no need to have soft porn/nudity ala True Blood!

8) William's nod to Cecily in "Fool For Love". It was Marsters' best piece of acting in an arty episode (the subway scene was something!).

9) Foreshadowing. It was so fun to pick up the clues and speculate before or afterwards!

10) Subversion of tropes and general boldness. I don't think that Whedon has been that daring and subversive in any of his other works after BTVS.

I am not 100% sure it's true, but apparently Robin Sachs died 4 days ago and was found today. It's all over twitter right now, and already on his Wikipedia page.

Ethan Rayne was easily my favourite non regular Buffy characters. Robin was such an amazing and charismatic actor, and like the greatest ones he had a VOICE.

I remember seeing Robin Sachs in various things – even when he wasn't easy to recognize like in Babylon 5, and I admit that I watched that silly Dynasty mini-sequel because he played Adam Carrington! – but he will forever be Ethan Rayne the magus, the bringer of Chaos.

After Buffy/Spike, Ethan/Giles was my OTP, and the reason I found out about slash fanfiction. Robin Sachs and Tony Head had such a great chemistry, and played each other so well. "A New Man' is among my favourite episodes, and "Band Candy" was also a lot of fun.

I don't know, it does seem like the end of an era. 13 days ago my beloved cat Bastet died, after 19 years of being my faithful companion and my dear friend, and now this.

It feels that my youth is really gone for good now.

:- (

Current Mood: sad

I was flipping the channels yesterday and suddenly came across reruns of BTVS (it was the end of season 3, "Graduation Day" Part I and II, in French), so I decided to fetch my DVDs and I'm having a season 4 marathon!

I have always considered season 4 to be the best season of Buffy, and so far I'm having a great time. The episode with Buffy's roommate, Kathy, is just so funny, and I love "The Gem of Amara" of course (Vamp!Harmony is terrific, Spike's lines are priceless, Anya/Xander first time is great) and season 4 Giles is just yummy....

I can't wait for the return of Ethan Rayne!!!!!!!!

It's all

selenak 's fault because she got me thinking about Breaking Bad and possible crossovers.

( Spoilers for all shows mentioned )

If I ever needed something to remind me the reason I loved Spike so much, here is a list of the 50 best Spike moments (for James Marster's 50th birthday).

Also I've been re-watching the first season of The Wire and feeling the Omar love all over again (and the Bubbles love, and the Daniels love, and the McNulty love...but Omar Little is just so special).

Several posts from my flist make me think of death lately, more precisely fictional deaths and how death is pictured on screen or which "kinds of death" work the most. In RL I'm rather terrified by death, but in fiction I rather "dig it". It's probably the Greek in me that loves tragedy, or perhaps it's the mediaevalist who tends to see works of fiction as artes moriendi.

Anyway, I wanted to make a post on death in series from my tv Pantheon, but I'd rather make several entries in order not to spoil anyone for some people might have not seen certain series yet. I thought about that last night when it was so hot that I couldn't sleep...

I won't write an essay on death for each show – I don't have the time to do that – but I will try to categorize some memorable deaths in six great tv shows(BtVS, BSG, OZ, The Wire, Deadwood and Breaking Bad), that in my humble opinion are the best tv shows ever. There are many other shows that I love dearly, but those six really are the first class series. Also the categories may change for the shows in questions are very different(I haven't begun to think of what I will pick for OZ!), but I'll try to keep some constant themes.

Let's start by the series whose creator is known for killing many characters (yet when I thought about it, I realised he didn't kill that many regular characters compared to others...), that is Buffy The Vampire Slayer. And I mean the tv show as the comics don't exist in my book.

( Read more... )

If you think of other categories, feel free to add your own.

This is for old times sake...

1 - Which Whedon series is your favorite?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

More depth and style than the other Whedon series.
( Read more... )

29 - If you could tell Joss Whedon one thing, Buffy related or not, what would it be?

Well done, man, I owe you, but forget the comics, and watch out...there are other gods on the tv Olympus. For instance, there's that British writer named Stephen Moffat, he is brilliant...

Long time no Buffy post, but I came across this link and remembered...

http://www.syfy.co.uk/buffy

I voted for "Hush". There were some other great episodes on the list (and also two episodes I strongly dislike, "Amends" and "Innocence") but "Hush" is a true masterpiece.

I've been reading reactions to the last episode of Breaking Bad, and it's obvious that the audience is pretty much divided in two teams: the viewers who root for the good guy aka Hank, and those who love cool villains and root for the bad guys.

I have never been that intrigued by "cool villains" because I see them as tv tropes most of the time (my favourite villain this year was a mature woman in Justified! She was not "cool" but she was one of the greatest villains ever), and as much as I adore Hank, I find myself rooting for Walt these days.( cut for length not for spoilers )

Now I'm back to reading stuff on inquisition...

( 30 in one )

Since it's Joss Whedon's birthday, we need a Buffy post...

I found this adorable video thanks to antennapedia. I am not a Giles/Buffy 'shipper (I'm a Giles/Ethan 'shipper and I'd rather support Giles/Willow!)but this silent movie is wonderful. Kudos to polly1esther for making it!

And yet here I am, discussing Buffy again, and it's all

stormwreath 's and

jamalov29 's fault!

There were talks about feminism and feminist icon on their lj and it triggered that Buffy-trained muscle that has been dormant for a while, a part of my brain I thought I no longer had a use of. I told

jamalov29 that I disagreed with her views according to which Joss had made Buffy fall from feminist grace in season6 and therefore done worse to the feminist icon then than the comics did later. I "shortly" explained myself on her lj but I need to gather my thoughts and write down something a bit more articulate. Besides there's nothing on tv tonight!

So it's like the good old time...

Keep in mind though, that I don't read the comics and therefore won't discuss them much (that would be unfair) in this post. However, I couldn't completely avoid some reactions the comics caused and will hint at them and use what I understood from said reactions to back up my "reading".

( Feminism and Buffy )

ETA: David Lavery put on his blog links to an issue of Slayage, "the journal of the Whedon studies association" and here's a link to an essay on the limits of feminism you might want to read

The story started 8 years ago, as I began to post on the Buffy Cross and Stake Spoiler Board. BtvS was in its 6th season and there was a shippers war, and it was just so fun. I had never been part of any fandom until then, and suddenly, a new virtual world opened before my eyes. A world in a foreign language! It was like a big game based on spoilers and specualtions, and discussions and arguments, and silliness too(the twister threads or the Daily Shipping News were not a serious place!) and it went in English. It took me some time to dare to post and play on the board because my English was so clumsy (still is, so imagine at the time!). A few people that are on my flist might remember it. Sadly most of them have been missing in action for a while. Where are you, old friends?

Fanfiction became part of the game; Spuffy fanfiction mostly because I found myself to be a Spike/Buffy 'shipper. Jane, if you read this, it was totally your fault, you had me read naughty fanfictions. Part of the appeal was that the stories in question were in English and I learnt a lot of pornographical vocabulary! Fanfiction was educational. My knowledge in the tongue of Shakespeare expanded.

Kantayra, nautibitz, herself, and all the big names of the time, have been my guides and teachers!

Reading fanfiction was also like being a little girl again and playing with dolls. It's an analogy I have often used and I still think it's relevant(and I guess that fanfiction writer play with dolls too). And I loved my Spike doll and my Buffy doll so much. I adored their epic, complicated, angsty and sexy romance. With the passing of time, my English improved; I came to enjoy the writing, to acknowledge the talent that certain fanfiction writers truly had, I even became picky...while still playing with my favourite dolls. I even joined a fanfiction club in which we gave marks! Later I found new authors thanks to LJ. Just check my flist!

I also found out that fanfiction helped to make up for what the show couldn't or hadn't put on screen. It filled up the holes (and not necessarily thanks to porny sessions); it went paths that open doors had only hinted at; some fictions tried to fix things sometimes, a bit like Willow using magic in season 6. Fanfiction was addictive. I stayed away from All Human fictions because I was attached to the show and my dolls had to remain a slayer and a vampire. I was rather a canon suppporter too. I remained faithful to my OTP (how funny that the acronym is so natural now!)concerning the characters of Buffy and Spike, but I indulged in reading Giles/Ethan fanfiction because the pairing was intriguing and sexy, and the show never made it obvious ––even though it's totally canon (Robin Sachs and Jane Espenson said so)! Spuffy was my passion and Githan was my péché mignon*. The thing is that I'm neither into nor against slash per se, but the Githan porn was simply magnificent. And we had so little of Ethan on screen that it was always a pleasure to meet him again in fanfiction. Dear Ethan...

It's funny because as much as I loved certain pairings in other tv shows––Helo and Athena on BSG, Desmond and Penny on Lost, Sam and Gene on Life on Mars, Pullo and Vorenus on Rome–– I have never been really compelled to read fanfictions about them (it may have happened once or twice concerning Helo and Sharon, out of curiousity), to carry on the story outside the tv show. I guess that it's because there was no frustrations to work on. Helo/Athena is a sort of Spuffy that overcame the obstacles in the show, a complete Spuffy on screen; Penny/Desmond is an obvious uber romantic pairing that endows Lost with an infinite grace; Sam/Gene or Pullo/Vorenus were perfect the way they described on screen, their love story––although non sexual and non romantic––was lovely and poignant; and above all, it was the core of the show so I didn't need them to have steamy sex in fanfiction (Vorenus/Mark Anthony that's another matter I could be tempted to explore!).

BtVs is still my favourite show, the best tv work I've seen so far, and I'm glad I own all the episodes on DVD so I can immerse myself again in the Buffyverse any time, but I don't play wih my dolls anymore. Perhaps I had read too many Spuffy fan fictions over the year and I ended up having an indigestion, I don't know. Besides, having spent years speculating on spoilers, parsing the episodes of Buffy and writing essays on boards, I hardly feel the need to join current discussions in the LJ fandom. LJ is for writing about my current interests/obsessions and for chatting with friends. It's great that there's new blood and enthousiasm about all things Buffy, but I don't want to repeat myself ad infinitum and ramble on as if I were in some sort of time loop and my matrix would experience a permanent déjà-vu bug. I guess that, when it comes to my reflections and contributions on Buffy, well, missa est.

So, I thought that fanfiction was history, that I had quit for good, that I was cured. That ship has sailed and stuff like that. But two days ago I read a fanfiction and I did enjoy it. It was a Caprica fanfic, filled with angst and sex, based on Joseph/Daniel pairing. I doubt that anything like that will ever happen between the characters on screen despite the chemistry, the bonding/antagonism and the (sexual) tension, and I don't even want it to happen on the show for I do love Amanda and Daniel together. I know that I could read again a Daniel/Joseph fic though. To a certain extent, Spuffy was a serious affair to me, hence my sticking to canon and avoiding the comics, but now, I understand that fanfiction can be a pure fantasy corner that leaves the "reality" untainted. Reading it is like putting the holoband on, or playing a game.

Also, if some talented person were to put online a very good Giles/Ethan fic (you know, like the onesTrekker used to write!)I might read it...

Maybe I am not cured after all.

*ETA: For

stormwreath and other English speakers, a "péché mignon" is a French expression meaning a weakness...a bit sinful, but not a capital or deadly sin, rather venial hence "mignon".

There's a new episode of Caprica tonight (tomorrow for me!) at least!

Do you want to know what Sam Adama's tattoes mean? Jane Espenson explained it in here.

I can't help thinking that Jane did it because she went to Joss' school and it makes me want to rewatch Willow writing Sappho's poem on Tara's back in "Restless".

Watching yesterday's episode of Dollhouse, "Belonging", I kept thinking:

- the actors are great but Enver is fabulous. How cute Victor is!!!!
- where's Tahmoh? Do handlers get a day off when their dolls don't have any engagement?
- if Joss Whedon is not God, he is really an unconscious Catholic! Well, sort of.

Because now we know that, no matter how paradise-like the place may look and how painful the engagement may turn, the dollhouse is neither Heaven nor Hell, it's just a Purgatory. Yes, after the palimpsest on Chaucer's tales, now the show plays on Dante's territory. Once and again, it's all about the journey.

( Belonging )

A few days ago, I heard about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' fate as I was finishing Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2, and I watched Caprica pilot thanks to the Internet fairy.

When I first heard that there would be a the spin-off, I was rather skeptical. I didn't really see the point of telling the story of what happened some fifty years before the Cylons destroyed the colonies, so I wasn't sure I would watch the 82 minute movie, less alone like it, but I thought I could give it a try, and honestly I did enjoy Caprica. It is quite different from BSG even though there are connections through Bear McCreary's music, the Adama family (William isn't Bill yet but he's there as a young boy) and the "birth" of the first "cybernetic life-form node" that is a CYLON. The line "A Cylon? Interesting." was a killer.
I spotted flaws here and there, and yes there was some stuff that bothered me but I was left wanting more, wanting to know what would be going to happen next. I guess it's a good thing given that Caprica is a prequel! The Greystones are really intriguing and touching, especially Daniel. Eric Stoltz was simply amazing.

Also looks like Ron Moore and Joss Whedon keep giving nods to each other's work. I couldn't help noticing that two characters have names that connect them to Buffy: Cyrus Xander and Clarisse Willow! It can't be a coincidence! Or was it Jane Espenson's wink at her former boss?

So I recommend Caprica to anyone who likes intelligent Sci-Fi. You don't even need to have seen BSG in order to understand it. But it's better to see to pilot, unspoiled!

( Spoilers )

Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2 is terrific. I loved it. I can't believe that there isn't a lot more fans of Powers out there. He is a genius and manages to move me every time (I cried reading certain pieces from The Time of Our Singing!). For anyone interested, Galatea 2.2 tells the story of a writer anmed Richard Powers, who's going through a life crisis and gets involved by acognitive neurologist in a crazy project: building an intelligent machine, a machine who can read and comment on the readings in question. Here is what I wrote about the novel on my Goodreads account.

No this isn't a post about Buffy but the answers to the Music Quiz I did yesterday since 5 songs have remained unguessed. Those 5 were difficult though. Answers are linked to youtube videos and I explain in bold the "Buffy" or "Dollhouse" connections.

1. "Moonlight Mile" by The Rolling Stones (from Sticky Fingers). One of their best songs !
2. "Sao Paulo Rain" by Tom McRae( from his debut album). A song Xander listens to after the wedding fiasco in season 6. The youtube vid is a Buffy/Angel one but I shall bear some Bangel just for Tom...;- )
3. The dance of the puppets /The rusted chains of prison moons..."In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson
5. "Always on My Mind" by Elvis Presley (of course!) . Ah Elvis' voice.....
6. "Life On Mars?" by David Bowie. Tom did a cover but I prefer David's version.
7. "The Crystal Ship" by The Doors
8. "Pavlov's Bells" by Aimee Mann. She sang it in "Sleeper" during BTVS season 7.
9. "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones. Spike hums it in "Crush", season 5.
10. "All I Know" by Art Garfunkel. It's a lovely song and if you watch Nip/Tuck you must know the track for it was used in the wonderful ending scene of the season 2 finale . One of the greatest tv twists ever.
11. "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush . When I was a young teen I prefered "Babooshka" though and wanted her outfit from the video! I loved that song and played it all the time driving my family nuts. Ah the 80's !!!!
12. This is what you get/ this is what you get. It's "Karma Police" by Radiohead!
13. "Fantasy" by Earth, Wind & Fire
14. "Mad About You" by Sting
15. Waking to these sounds again / I wonder how I'll sleep "Over and Over" by Morcheeba (Big Calm)
16. Holding hands/Skipping like a stone/On our way/To see what we have done "Burn the Witch" by Queens of the Stone Age (Lullaby to Paralyze).
17. I'm coming up only to hold you under/ I'm coming up only to show you wrong "The Funeral" by Band of Horses.
18. "Children of the Revolution" by T-Rex(Marc Bolan singing).
19. "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who. Giles sings it at the Bronze in BTVS season 4, and Willow swoons over his voice.
20. "I Go To Sleep" by Sia (written by the singer of The Kinks, but it's The Pretenders' cover is the most famous). Sia's cover can be heard at the end of the 4th episode of Dollhouse.

I know Sia since she keeps borrowing the marvellous Oli Krauss to play with her. Oli is the cello genius that has been touring with Tom McRae for years.

By the way Tom is 40 today. Happy Birthday dear Tom !!!!

LJ is very quiet in my corner these days but I'm totally stealing

stormwreath's idea of music meme !

Can you guess 20 of songs(in English) that I often play on my computer, from the first two lines (or the first two lines of the chorus if the title appears int he first two lines of the song)? Gimme the title, the artist and if possible, the album.

Turns out that four of them are Buffy-related and one is Dollhouse-related!

1. When the wind blows and the rain feels cold /With a head full of snow
2. There's always a party on a funeral row, where the cross flashes red to the street.
3. The dance of the puppets /The rusted chains of prison moons
5. Maybe I didn't love you quite as good as I should have, maybe I didn't hold you quite as often as I could have,
6. It's a god-awful small affair/to the girl with a mousy hair
7. Before you slip into unconsciousness/I'd like to have another kiss
8. Oh, Mario,/Sit here by the window;
9. Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go/just put me in a wheelchair, get me on a plane
10. I bruise you, you bruise me/we both bruise too easily
11. Out on the wiley, windy moors/Wed roll and fall in green.
12. this is what you get/ this is what you get,
13. Every man has a place, in his heart theres a space/And the world cant erase his fantasies
14. A stoness throw from Jerusalem/ I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
15. Waking to these sounds again / I wonder how I'll sleep
16. Holding hands/Skipping like a stone/On our way/To see what we have done
17. I'm coming up only to hold you under/ I'm coming up only to show you wrong
18. Well you can bump and grind/ If it's good for your mind
19. No one knows what its like/To be the bad man
20. When I look up from my pillow/ I dream you are there with me

ETA - songs already guessed are in italics.

So yesterday I spent 4:30 hours (including two interludes) at the opera. I did enjoy that Lohengrin even though I wasn't always convinced by Carsen's mise en scène. The voices were great. Waltraud Meier was a vibrant and flamboyant Ortrud and Mireille Delunsch's performance as Elsa was more than just credible. Ben Heppner sang well too but I must say that he's not very convincing as the young and handsome Swan Knight. He looked a bit ridiculous in his armour, and was still heavy and clumsy in his suit.

Lohengrin isn't my favourite opera but the famous ouverture with the violins is sublime, and so is the prelude before the last Act. Also what I like is the fact it's based on a fake suspense and somewhat of a misunderstanding. The big secret of the Swan Knight that he reveals only in the end is his name...which happens to be the title of the opera!

Of course the secrecy that surrounds the Swan Knight, Elsa being saved by him but not being allowed to question him about his origins and her blind faith in her fiancé/husband is an allegory of Christian's faith since Lohengrin is Parsifal's son and the Knight of the Holy Grail.

Also the opera is more about Elsa and Ortrud than about Lohengrin himself. The two women mirror each other. One is mystical, quite hysterical actually, the other is a calculator, plotting her revenge. One is good and innocent, the other is evil. I can't help thinking of Shakespeare there. Ortrud is to Elsa what Iago is to Othello. She's perfidious but she may be there only to represent that part of Elsa that cannot die...the side that still calls upon the ancient gods (Wotan and Freia), that side that keeps doubting. Ortrud never gave up, she doesn't bow and she's still alive in the end.

What's the connection with Buffy? Well, when BTVS was on and I was posting on the BC&S spoiler board one of my hobby-horses was to seek and point out links to opera works. I found many and I may post someday, on LJ, a compendium of all the opera stuff that we can find on Buffy but until I get around to writing it...

( Fantaisie on Buffy & Lohengrin )

Buffy was supposed to want normal...but liked a monster in her man.

Spike was anything but normal, because he just didn't fit in the norm, no matter how much he wanted to belong. Being an anomaly, as David Fury put it during Ats season 5, was his destiny. William looked like a freak among his Victorian peers and even sounded like a freak through his poetry.Vamp!William wasn't better. Angelus, Dru and probably Darla (and above all William himself!) tried to make the young vampire fit in his new life but he kept behaving in an abnormal way...seeking Slayers when he should have tried to avoid them. The Spike we met in season 2 wasn't a normal vampire, he obvioulsy stood out and Buffy's instinct recognized the anomaly, making the most of it.

From season 4 to season 6, we got a chipped Spike that couldn't fit anywhere. He could no longer be a vampire, but he was still a freak to the human beings. He could never have been one of the Scoobies.

And of course choosing to get his soul back was quite a freak thing to do. Once again souled Spike didn't seem to fit the norm, a norm that had been set by Angel. The Scoobies weren't that suprise btw...Why? Because by then they were used to Spike's oddity.

( In which I question the nature of freaks and bring Tod Browning and Victor Hugo on... )

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Beethoven - "Emperor" Concerto

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Entries tagged with btvs

Ten years later

The Magus is no more

Old flame

The silly post

Those iconic characters that will stay with you for ever...

A macabre post

A Whedon meme caught on flist chez shadowkat67

Vote for greatest Buffy episode !!!!

The men's world that tv may be

That 30 days of BtVS meme that I've missed...until now

Buffy silent movie style

Not an essay...

Fan fiction and me - A manifesto...or a confession, whatever

I need my fix

Purgatorium Sancti Jossii

Artificial Intelligence and connections

Once More With Feelings

Musical quiz

Buffy, the anti-Elsa ?

That freak named Spike