I miss Buffy

[spikesjojo]

I miss Buffy. I miss the whole finding the B-verse and finding fanfic and finding people to rec fics to, and getting recs, and the Buffy community where small things led to long discussions and I have Buffy thoughts. I was playing on the Buffy Board for a while, and I might go back, but it's not as much fun. The mods said that people were leaving

Comments

[kats_meow]

Oh, yeah, miss all the discussions and the fandom and the delicious waiting for new shows. There's nothing else that has come close!

One thing I love about how Joss has woven stories is that some are obvious plot holes and if you want to be cynical about it, they're obvious flaws, but if you choose to be optimistic, it means *you* get to fill in the blanks about what happened or could have happened.

There is so much un-mined plotty goodness during the Initiative time, for instance. I like to think that they tried to chip a lot of vampires and got it right with Spike, so they both wanted to keep an eye on him and set him free in his environment to see how he'd tick. I think they were always looking for new ways to make soldiers and in the case of supernatural beings, rather than eradicate them, to make them into fighters and weapons. And also testing on subjects simply for testing's sake - to see what might happen, simply because they could.

[spikesjojo]

The flaws are where the stories can be mined - and polished.

Question - if they are making some sort of soldier - then why make it impossible for him to even point a fake gun?

I do get the feeling that they weren't letting out any others if they had them - so he may well have been the one survivor. They seemed to want him back, and then they seemed to lose interest.

Maybe the whole point was to see what fighting skills he adapts for survival - it might have been purely informational instead of nearing a goal.

[debris4spike]

I so miss it.  Although still have not watched Angel.

Yes I have read a few Spuffy fics where Xander and Riley end up together.  I certainly don't think Anya was ever his love at all.

Yes it does seem weird about the Initiative ... especially if it had been around in WWII .... so many years then nothing .... although we know that Riley was still involved, we don't know the why's and what's

[spikesjojo]

Angel is seriously worth watching - I'm about to start a late night rewatch of the whole series. It's murkier, more adult, and some of the character arcs are amazing. Wesley's arc is mesmerizing, and Denisoff is really amazing.

I agree - if the govt knew about demons since WWII, and had already set up their own demon initiative to experiment on and control them, then Maggie was nothing more than a cog in the machine.

[trepkos]

Yes, I miss Buffy too. The Initiative storyline was one that struck a chord with me, as I've read a lot about vivisection. I'm sure they did a lot of experiments on vampires etc. but I always assumed the chip they put in Spike was a one-off prototype.

[spikesjojo]

I tend to think that horrible things happened to Spike, but his memory was wiped. We saw what they did with Oz, just in the first few hours of having him - tasering him repeatedly to see how his body responded.

Spike, with his big mouth and astute observations probably managed to get under everyone's nerves. He would want some sort of confrontation - it would be a chance to escape. But when we see him, he has no idea what has happened to him in the past weeks.

There are a few stories in this area - Initiative torture - that are great, but I would love more. :D

[trepkos]

I guess you've read mine already?

[spikesjojo]

Link, please! I tend to remember stories but not authors....which is a deep failing but one i have learned to accept. :)

[slaymesoftly]

I'm being lazy and not reading the other comments first, so probably repeating stuff here. I was never a visitor to or fan of the really old time Buffy boards, so I missed a lot of drama there, but I've enjoyed plenty of conversations on LJ. Sad to think no one wants to really examine the verse

[spikesjojo]

Lazy is good. I am with Heinlein in believing that all human progress came from lazy people. Everyone else just did things the way they should be done, and lazy people took one look and said 'you gotta be kidding me - there has to be an easier way that that.' :D

[slaymesoftly]

Well, if Spike was there for two weeks, with vampire healing and being drugged most of the time, he could easily have been chipped early on and had no idea about it and no healing wound to clue him in. In my fics I usually imply or say that the were experimenting on the vamps, collecting data and so on, but also looking for one strong enough (mentally and physically) to use the chip on so he would be controllable. Like I said, I've written the same things so many times, my head canon is probably affecting my memory of real canon. LOL

No question the First was behind a lot of stuff in season 7. I think we can assume that it was busier than just the bits we saw of it. I think it was pretty obvious that it was sowing dissension in whatever ways possible. Speculating upon what those were would make for some interesting between-the-scenes fic. :)

[perpetual]

Yeah, I got bored with Buffy Boards when they started to push being "nice" over having engaging discussions. Although I was a late arrival and didn't post much, so maybe it was always like that.

[spikesjojo]

Well, their board and their rules. When i got there, there was one mod who completely lost it when anyone said anything nice about Spike.

I don't really know all of it, but I enjoyed taking apart arguments logically,, and driving more than a few people insane. The problem is that, with one other person, it just turned into hair pulling and screaming.

I bounce back there every once in a while to check out the new posts and the subjects all seem pretty lightweight. It was great fun while it lasted, but if we can't really debate on a discussion board then what is the purpose of being there?

Like I said, I do like the people - even the mods. I can respect that they want their board to run a certain way. i just don't like it that way.

[perpetual]

I'd probably want to put the effort in to get debates going without breaking their rules, but sadly I haven't been in the Buffy headspace for a while now. I miss fandom a lot, but it's like missing college...can't go back again.