It's, obviously, obvious.


Dracula looks like a doof while fighting.


Spike just looks bad-ass.

On an unrelated note, I need to write something up about the insane lopsided power relationship between Riley and Spike. I mean, I'm fairly neutral on Riley, but wow does he act like a douchebag to Spike.

I'll admit that I have a thing for fanvids. Because I'm a sucker for somebody combining my favorite show with music and making it all pretty. And I think I'm probably a picky watcher because I like flashy effects and fast cuts and all sorts of things that'll make me go, "Oooo! Purty!" because I have the attention span of a cracked out goldfish.

And I tend to squirrel away vids in fear that they'll disappear from the internet (I think it's because I've been on the internet for a long, long time and have seen a lot of cool stuff vanish. So now I download stuff I like just on the off chance it may disappear into the ether). So I decided to just take stock of the vids I have for Buffy and do up a rec list. These are just vids that I've enjoyed. I tried to trace them back to where I downloaded them, but some aren't available anymore.

Oh, and yes, there's a whole bunch of Spike and Spuffy. Duh.

Lots of gushing below. This is your warning.

( It's moving pictures choreographed with music. What downside could there possibly be?Collapse )

*Edit: This post got away from me. Here's my mea culpa.

Oh, here. I'm just gonna make an unpopular post, but, hey. Oh well.

For the love of fucking god, folks, Spike ain't perfect. He isn't a saint. He isn't in a special Do No Wrong bubble. He isn't victimized by the women around him. He isn't Uber Super Nice Guy.

Spike's a jerk. A douchebag. A very rude, bad man. He kills people. He rapes people. He yells at people. He partakes in gratuitous violence. He doesn't always have a good handle on his emotions, and he lashes out sometimes. He was a complete and total douchebag to Harmony. He's often an ass to just about everybody he meets. In fact, he revels in being an ass.

Recognizing the fact that Spike is kinda not-nice doesn't mean that everybody else around him is Perfect Saint Buffy/Dru/Harmony/Xander/Giles/Whoever. Making an assessment of one person doesn't automatically follow to making an assessment of anybody else. If I say Spike was a douchebag sometimes in S6, it doesn't mean that Buffy wasn't, either.

Spike's whole "thing" is his redemption arc. Redemption. Going from bad to good. That means recognizing that Spike was bad at some point. And not just, "Forced by other people to be bad but really a gentle sort, himself" bad. But "Likes young girls and violence and killing and is a bad, rude man to most anybody he meets" bad.

And me saying all this about Spike isn't me making any sort of commentary on any other characters. Cause you know what? They ain't saints, either! And I could make a similar post for each and every one of them. It's the Buffyverse. Nobody gets through the series without resorting to douchebaggery at some point.

( My rantage went long. As usual. Have a cut.Collapse )

This rant brought to you by my sudden frustration with the idea that Spike Can Do No Wrong. It's not directed at anybody in particular, though it is prompted by recent discussions around the LJ. However, please note that I didn't once mention the word "boyfriend" because, frankly, I don't care to make assessments as to whether Spike was a "lousy" boyfriend to Dru by human or vamp standards or whatnot. Not the point. Don't bring it up. Seriously.

James Marsters, my dear, would you please stop being so damned sexy? With your cheekbones chiseled by God, Himself, and your well-defined and perfectly toned scrumptious compact body, and that yummy fake British accent, and your panty-wetting panther bed crawl of pure raw sex....

Not that I'm opposed to any of this overwhelming sexiness on its own, but it's mighty distracting when in an episode as I'm compelled by your seductive rays of naughty pleasure to rewind the sexy scenes and play them a couple times. Inevitably, this throws me out of the episode, breaks the flow of the story, and leaves me in a fangirlish stupor for the next hour or so by which point I've found I have lost all recollection of the preceding plot and that I have to start over from the beginning.

This obviously leads me to a loop as I, again, hit your various scenes of sexiness and have to start the process over again.

In other words, I almost couldn't watch The Harsh Light of Day past the shirtless!Spike scene. It's just too damn much sexiness. And people worry about the oodles amount of sex in porn? They obviously haven't seen James Marsters' gorgeous body prowling across the bed. I had to wipe the sex off my screen afterward.

I consider myself a very resilient fangirl that I was able to make it past that scene and calm down my squee enough to follow the rest of the episode...finally.

This was written for penny_lane_42 who needed a non-S7-spoilery defense of Spike in relation to the AR. And I think she and I share the same basic opinion of the AR, so I hope this is sufficient. Most of these points are conclusions I've come to after extensive pondering and discussion. The vast majority of the discussion has taken place in flocked posts, though.

I would prefer this not be linked to by any comms or link round-up posts. I don't feel up to hosting a fandom-wide discussion on the topic at this time. Individual recs to friends are fine, though.

As a note to those not in the know, I'm an ardent feminist and very vocal about my anti-rape stance. Yes, these views were difficult to reconcile with my love for Spike. And I'm still of the opinion that the writers made an error of judgment in including an attempted rape scene because of the larger cultural context and issues that go along with it.

Now, onto the post.

( Five points about the Seeing Red attempted rapeCollapse )

In honor of the fact that I'm gearing up to do my Fool for Love review (which is likely to be very long and in-depth and will consist of me gushing about how awesome it is), here's an FFL poll. For fun.

( Poll is under the cut. It has ten questions and is, therefore, long.Collapse )

Okay, serious poll time. These are some poll questions prompted by discussions I've had in various places in the past few weeks, but I've never addressed any of these directly (well, one of them). There are no right or wrong answers on this one. A few are highly speculative. And the first two questions are completely unrelated to the last three questions. These have just been bouncing around my head for a while so I'm gonna smush them into one poll because I can.

Feel free to share your thoughts on these, especially if you choose "Other" on any of them. While I've made my opinion on most of these fairly well-known in comments, this poll isn't meant to be leading or anything. I'm just curious to hear other viewpoints. :)

Oh, and this non-comic reader is highly amused by the latest comic release for S8. Joss keeps reminding me why I love him so much.

( Poll under the cut. Only five questions.Collapse )

Okay, following along with the warnings debate is just starting to irritate me. I've been raising my eyebrow way too much. I mean, it's just making me flail cause...dude, people are just asking for a warning; they aren't asking anybody to build a replica of the Eiffel Tower out of toilet paper. It's not an outrageous request. Course, then I engaged with one of the "anti-warning" folks because their post just made very little sense to me, and now I'm all *headdesky*. Meh.

So to cheer me up, and to bring some potential happiness to you guys, have a gratuitous Spike poll! In line with the earlier polls about recognizing episodes/seasons based on what a character looks like.

The poll shows you a screencap from each season Spike was in (excluding S3 because that would be a gimme). Select which episode the cap is from.

Enjoy! The first comment will be an answer key. :)

( Picture poll below the cut. Spike! It has Spike!Collapse )

Because this fic kinda requires it, here's a commentary for Lotophagi. I also owe commentary on Lingering...and I still have to do a post for pennydrdful. I haven't forgotten! Just...you know...easily distracted...

Comments in red.

( Lotophagi: possibly the most pretentious fic I've ever done...Collapse )

Title: Lotophagi
Pairing: assumed Spike/Buffy, but it's not the point of the fic
Warning: Possibly disturbing Spike violence of the unredeemed kind
Word Count: 1,195

Author's Note: This fic...is an odd one. It's really a pretty meta-type fic as I wrote it after a run-in with someone who had a not-so-complimentary opinion on Spike's character. This fic was my way of attempting to understand their point of view.

A few things about the fic (that are implied in the actual fic, but I'll explicitly spell them out here): This takes place 1 year after NFA in a world where Buffy and Spike got together after AtS, and then they died together in battle. This fic appends its own version of Heaven and Hell to the series. These are not the Christian Heaven and Hell. And this fic isn't at all speculating on the canonicity of these afterlives. It's just the setting.

Very special thanks to both drknit and pennydrdful who beta'd this fic and gave me valuable feedback on it.

I wrote a commentary for this fic if you're interested.

( Lotophagi: a race of people from an island dominated by lotus plants; lotus-eaters...Collapse )

So, this question got brought up in comments to a recent entry. And I find myself curious, especially as I'm coming up on FFL in my reviews. Then the first question made me think of the second one. And then I realized I had never asked about the Chosen scene that wasn't. So here. Have a poll.

Poll #1398903
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 97

In Fool for Love, did Spike tell Buffy the truth about his past as a bloody awful poet and his rejection by Cecily?

After Fool for Love, did Buffy confide in Spike about her mother's illness?

So...what did Buffy and Spike do during the "fade to black" scene in Chosen?

( My answers below the cut...cause you careCollapse )

I've been thinking a lot lately. Ever since I saw those two episodes of AtS where Fred dies, the wheels in my head have been turning and I've been coming to some conclusions about stuff. In particular, I've been rethinking my stance on Joss' feminism and on the feminist text of Buffy.

I've always been quite a defender of Joss in that regard. I argued that he isn't perfect and I would happily point out mistakes that he'd made, but I believed he had the best of intentions. Now, in light of the horrible misogyny that is the fridging of Fred, I'm having to change a few of my opinions about BtVS.

There are several aspects that have often bothered me about the show, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I believed in Joss' good intentions. Since I'm quickly losing that belief, I feel the need to explicate those aspects in this post.

( This is my thinky-thoughts icon. Feminist thinky-thoughts in this case.Collapse )

Well, in the past week or so, I've found some spare time here and there to go through the Spike scenes in S2 and S3 and, once again, keep track of the nickname-usage. That way, I'm all caught up and I just need to keep track as I'm reviewing.

In case you missed it, I made a post about S4 earlier with the hard data from my notes. This is just the same style. I noted that he oftentimes used slight variations on the same nickname ("my sweet" instead of just "sweet"). I counted them as the same.

Also, as before, I did keep track of who he was speaking to when he used each nickname. However, I haven't yet organized that data (And probably won't until I have all seasons complete).

So here goes. Hope you'll find some use/amusement out of it. :)

( Numbers, numbers, numbers below the cutCollapse )

A while back, I started keeping track of the nicknames Spike uses while doing my episode reviews. This was prompted by me being annoyed by fanfic's overuse of certain nicknames (Some which had, apparently, never been used in the show). So I wanted to get some actual data on how often Spike uses people's real names, what nicknames he does use, etc etc. I was keeping it to myself cause it is a wee bit compulsive, but stormwreath asked for it, so here.

( Does hard data turn you on?Collapse )

Still sick. Yay.

But I was thinking today about how sexy Spike is and how he has chemistry with, like, everybody. So I decided to put together some pretty pictures as examples. Cause one can never have enough Spike.

( Spikey goodness below the cut. Also, shameless fangirling ahead.Collapse )

A while back, a fandom friend of mine told me he had started writing an analysis of the Beneath You church scene (BY scene). This friend has, to my great sorrow, dropped off into the abyss that is the internet. Now, with all this talk of S7, souls, Spike, and Buffy flying around, I've decided to take on the task of analyzing this brilliant scene. I'm sure his version would be better, but, hey, I got more style (And pretty pictures). :)

First let's set the stage. S6 was a disastrous affair for Spike and Buffy. Their relationship exploded in a horrifying way in Seeing Red, prompting the identity crisis that leads Spike to getting his soul.

That's not the beginning for this scene, though. We have to go back as far as S2 to fully encompass everything the BY scene addresses. This scene, though it is primarily a monologue by Spike, is also largely about Buffy.

It's about the very core of Buffy's beliefs about the demon world around her, indoctrinated into her by the Council and confirmed in S2 when Angel loses his soul. Demons without souls cannot love. They cannot be good. They should be killed. Buffy has held firm to this belief for six seasons, even as Spike went to great lengths (often going too far) to prove his love for her.

It's a love she couldn't accept, though. If Buffy accepts that demons can love, then she has to question why Angel stopped loving her when he lost his soul. She has to examine why a soulless vampire like Spike, her former enemy, can love her so intensely while Angel, her destined true love, could not without a soul.

And while her love for Angel ultimately cost him his soul in S2, it's Spike's love for her that leads him on the path to getting his.

This is where we start in the BY scene. Spike having just returned, unsure of himself and being driven insane by the First Evil. He puts every effort at the beginning of the episode to clean himself up so he can be of help to Buffy. It's probably the one coherent thought in his head: Help Buffy. And the entire episode sees his struggle to maintain his composure until he eventually loses it by the time we get to the BY scene.

( Line-by-line analysis of the scene below the cutCollapse )

Thanks for keeping me entertained while housesitting, guys. There were a bunch of insightful and interesting responses to my last entry. I didn't even bother replying to comments because I felt like keeping my own opinion to myself on this one and just seeing what others thought. Definitely some interesting stuff there.

I'm also not surprised that I'm in the minority on this one. Well, that seems to be a pattern with me. :)

Now I'm gonna take the mic and explain my strangely literal opinion that very few people will agree with.

In answer to the question: "Does Spike need a soul to be redeemed?", I initially chose "No". I changed that to "Other" on the poll when I realized that I would have to make some stipulations on my answer. However, generally, my answer is "No".

( I would sell my soul for some chocolate right now. Okay not really. I have some chocolate.Collapse )

Well, my Spike poll prompted some interesting results. Well, interesting for me. Spike's a multi-faceted character and I like seeing which "part" of him people tend to prefer (With the understanding that the whole of him is likewise appreciated).

Nobody chose evil!Spike! I suppose that's understandable considering I probably have a bunch of later season fans on my flist who like Spike as he was when he was actually a cast member.

snarky!Spike was the obvious winner, though. That's the defining Spike trait. Willow's smart. Xander's funny. Giles is British. And Spike is snarky. Yes, there's more to them all. But that's the trait. Hell, it's what makes him more interesting than Angel, even with a soul. His snarkiness and "outsider" status with the group allows him to sit on the outskirts and make the commentary that none of the Scoobies could get away with. And he does so in a funny way. That's why we love him.

( There were other options, actually...they're below...Collapse )

It occurs to me I've never done a poll. Ever. And I might as well since I can. Plus, I'm kinda sick and not so much with the posting the past couple days. So here's one for the Spike fans. Just for kicks.

You can only pick one. Yep. Even if you like several varieties of Spike, choose the one you like best.

Poll #1331463 Preferred Spike
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 49

Which Spike do you like best?