I should be taking a test today in my online stats course, but the instructor FUBARed while posting the exam. So, instead, I'm getting some amusement at the MASS PANIC going on in the class forums and catching up on some fanfic reading. Oh, Sundays...

I've come across an interesting (to me) observation. I can read early-season B/A fics with little difficulty as far as "buying" it. Oh, it doesn't rock my boat or anything, but...of course, I can see it.

However, when B/A fics are set farther and farther away from, say, S4, I have more and more difficulty suspending my disbelief. I think it's cause I see Sanctuary/The Yoko Factor as the final death knell of the canon ship, so when I read a fic set post-NFA with Buffy and Angel together (with no explanation), I'm left squinting and going, "Huh. I don't get it."

Course, the opposite holds true for Buffy/Spike. I can buy Buffy/Spike fics set, say, S5 and on. No problem. However, as B/S fics are set earlier and earlier in the series, I find I'm having to make greater mental leaps to assuage my love for canon-compliance.

On the other hand, since I am a Spuffy shipper, certain well-written B/S fics set in S1-S4 still rock my boat to the point where I just mentally hand-wave away the fact that I could never ever buy the canon-ness of it (Especially S1-S3 fics because Buffy was so into Angel during those seasons...I just can't see it).

It's like...well, like the Buffy/Xander ship. I could buy it for fics set in S1 or S2 (maybe S3...though it would have to work at it). By the time we get to S7, though, Buffy/Xander not only sets off an immediate squick reaction in me, I just can't buy that those two would get together.

Yeah, I have no real point to these thoughts. I just thought they were interesting, and, hey, I have some free time, apparently.