moscow_watcher

Written for buffyversemeta metathon

Title: Ten Years of Buffy and Spike
Summary: Spuffy fanfiction is invariably popular. Why?
Spoilers: All BtVS seasons.
Word count: around 1200
Notes: Thanks for latestartercds for beta work. I'd be happy to hear from other fans, whether they agree or disagree. Usually I post within Spuffy community and share my thoughts with like-minded people. I'd love to know outside opinions.
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I'm awed. So many brilliant essays, great authors, fresh and original ideas worthy of academic publications. I feel humbled and a bit uneasy. Still, I offer my notes of the subject I've been passionate about for the last 5 years: the phenomenon of Spuffy fanfiction. I don't feel competent enough to talk about other characters and couples, unfortunately.

Ten years ago Buffy and Spike have met onscreen. Four years ago the show has ended. Yet Spuffy fanfiction is still popular. There is a lot of currently active Spuffy archives (see the list below). A lot of Spuffy stories appear on LJ, Fanfiction.net and other portals. Why? Here's my take.
( Read On )

My new article "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": Future Is Now". for AccociatedContent collects my thoughts on Whedonverse, modern entertainment and interaction between professional and amateur art. Curiously, the impetus for this article was a Spuffy-bashing paper written by another fan.
I love fics by Ducks aka theantijoss. I respect her work and consider her one of the best BtVS\AtS ficwriters. But recently her dislike of Spuffy turned her into professional Spuffy-hater and now she confesses that she earns money by blaming Buffy and Spike on damaging of "the show's meta-narrative of female empowerment" as well as negative influence on young viewers.
Recently she published on AssociatedContent a very agressive and harsh paper "Messages About Sex and Violence in the Buffy/Spike Relationship on Buffy the Vampire Slayer A Fine Line Between Love and Hate" - an extremely biaised, slanted and one-sided view on the Spuffy relationship. Before you click on the link to her paper, be warned that she gets more money with every click. (reference link)
I don't know if her anti-Spuffy manifesto is a an attempt to start a quest against Buffy and Spike in official media or she decided to write about the most popular BtVS couple because Spuffy invariably attracts interest. Anyway, I found it unfair that Spuffy is mispresented by only one, extremely prejudiced opinion on AccociatedContent so I wrote a response. Actually I should be grateful to Ducks because her article urged me to collect my scattered thoughts on professional and amateur art, on writer's responsibility and BtVS phenomenon. Unlike her, I won't get a dime for my article because AssociatedContent managers can only pay to legal residents of the United States. But I didn't write it for money. I wrote it because I love Buffy and Spike. So - read, recommend, comment, agree, disagree; I'm open to debates.

Found out today.

Scene from 5.04 Out Of My Mind. Aired 17 Oct 2000.



“MAMA, 1881.”

Joss knew it. All the time. Knew about William and his mother. Knew it when he worked on FFL. Knew when he wrote OMWF and Lessons, when he rewrote the ending of BY.

I'm speechless.