Arrant Nonsense

Why, yes, I wander around in Wank_Report to see what the buzz in fandom (and other places) is all about these days. Some of it is hilarious, some of it is sad, and some of it is rage-inducing.

This one is more WTF-inducing than anything else, and I wouldn't be linking to it if it weren't for this post, in which the poster asserts that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an anti-feminist show.

Why, yes, that was my head you heard exploding. A show that had women as the most powerful beings on the planet...was anti-feminist.

Her reasoning?
Buffy - whenever she becomes sexually involved, is the victim of abuse
Faith - depicted as sexually open, is "evil"
Jenny - gets involved with Giles, is killed for shock value
Anya - depicted as sexually open, is jilted at the altar and also goes "evil"
Tara - in a committed lesbian relationship, killed for shock value
Willow - in a committed lesbian relationship, "magic" formerly equated with this relationship now equated to crack, goes evil

Waitaminute. Buffy was the "victim of abuse"? WHEN? Was that before or after she beat the everliving snot out of Spike and left him to die in an alley? Was that before or after she said "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you"? When did she ever let Angelus abuse her? She's the friggin' Slayer, dude; she gave as good as she got. When did Riley abuse her? HOW THE HELL could Riley abuse her in the first place? Did I miss that episode? Parker? She kicked his ass.

Faith? Was evil for about a season. After that? Big Damn Hero. Ditto Anya.

You could debate the "killing for shock value" bit until the cows come home. I personally disagree with that assessment; there were plotful reasons that Jenny and Tara died, and while some folks might not like those particular plots, they weren't pointless. Angelus had damn good reasons for wanting Jenny dead; Tara's death was the catalyst for Willow's meltdown and subsequent redemption.

As for Willow and the "crack magic" aspect, the poster seems to be assuming a cause-and-effect with the Tara relationship that I just don't see, since Will started with the magic before she met Tara. Also? Willow = Big Damn Hero in "Chosen" and through the rest of S7 as well.

Dude, Joss tortures all his characters. You could even argue that Jenny had it a lot easier than Giles did; after all, she's just dead. Giles had to find her in his bed and then live with that image seared on his brain for the rest of his life. Angel goes evil with a moment of pure happiness...think he doesn't consider that every time he gets laid? Xander leaves Anya at the altar and loses an eye. Riley cheats on Buffy with a vamp ho and loses Buffy completely.

In the meantime, Harmony has sex with the liaison to the Senior Partners and gets a letter of recommendation from Angel before he goes off to fight evil. The liaison? Dies. Lindsey falls in love with another liaison--and is killed by a "flunky." Eve's fate, meantime, is unknown, although I always assumed she died when the building came down. She might have lived, though.

Point being, no one in the BuffyVerse was allowed happy couplehood, at least not for long. Hell, Fred and Wes got ONE episode, and as far as we know didn't even sleep together before Fred became Illyria and Wes's world came crashing down on his poor head. Oh, and look. He died too.

It's amazing what you can read into a show when you're looking at it through a certain pair of glasses or smoking the bad crack.

Okay, I'm sure I had a towel over here somewhere...ah, there it is. *cleans up*

Okay, I now have one more reason to hate the Future-Where-NY-Blew-Up. Having read the latest Heroes graphic novel, all I have to say is:

A FEDERAL PENITENTIARY IN MOAB IS JUST WRONG, Y'ALL.

Speaking of comics, I have scanned the page of today's Buffy comic that had my brain leaking out of my ears and give it to you ( under the cut (spoiler, duh). )

I'm getting really tired of the wank surrounding the Buffy comics. Oh, noes! Our precious Xander-in-Africa fics have been Jossed! Whatever shall we do? ...goes the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Suck it up, you morons, says the other side. Joss is Boss, what he says goes. He says the comics are canon, and thus the comics are canon. No Xander-in-Africa fics for YOU! /soup Nazi

Except.

Andrew said that Xander was in Africa during "Damage," about six months after "Chosen."

The comics take place eighteen months after "Chosen."

So...where's the contradiction, exactly? Cuz, I ain't seein' it. Therefore, fly, be free! Your Xander-in-Africa stories do not contradict the comics, and you don't have to be all "I'm ignoring the comics because they violate my shiny view of what should be"--at least, not for the sake of Xander-in-Africa.

---

In other news, and to keep myself honest, I've broken 2600 words on the WerewolfFic. It's not exactly galloping towards a conclusion, more like shambling sideways and falling over on occasion. *sigh*

The Buffy comic, the first few issues of which are penned by Joss himself and will be considered canon by him, comes out today. I'll be going out to grab mine a little later today. How about you?

Buffy comic!
	I already have mine. You don't have yours yet? Dude, you're just slow.
	Oh, yes, I'm planning on getting it later today or this week.
	Eh, I'll wait for the trade.
	Comic? There's a comic?
	Comic? Dude, you really ARE a geek. Grow up.
	"Chosen" was a good enough place to end. I don't need any more canon; fanfic is good enough.
	Who's Buffy?
Free polls from Pollhost.com

And while I have no illusions about being one of the "cool kids," I might as well do it as well, even though I'm late to the party. Yes, a Buffy retrospective.

It seems only fitting that I'm late to this party, since I was late to the show and very late to the fandom. See, I'm one of those strange people who really loved the movie beyond all reason and was disappointed by "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and the subsequent three or four episodes, and stopped watching for a few years after that. It seemed to me that the show hadn't captured the flavor of the movie at all, the humor was missing, it was darker, Sarah was awkward and didn't move as well as Kristy...and there was the whole not-just-vampires thing. Even the theme song grated. It all added up to a great big "ugh" for me at the time.

( Dude, this got long... )
Therefore, THANK YOU, JOSS. If it wasn't for you, this online community of fans wouldn't exist, I wouldn't have made the wonderful friends I have, and I probably wouldn't have started writing again--or, if I had, it would have taken me much longer to get to where I am.

Teasers:



( More 'Talk Nerdy to Me' icons under the cut, along with a couple of Heroes ones just because. )

In other news, the Life, the Universe, and Everything sci-fi writers' convention begins tomorrow in Provo. Yay!

But I was inspired by spikeylover's most excellent vid to make icons instead.



I have scribbled a slight amount on the cya_ficathon backup that I said I'd do.

I have no idea where it's going, of course. Typical...

Sticking them all behind a cut because I'm just lazy that way. Critters, Puppet!Angel, Lost, and icons created just for WriterCon pins ( here )

So, I've got a past-due spacesanta assignment, right? And what have I been doing?

Um.

Making Discworld icons.

I lose at the intrawebs. I'm a bad, bad girl. Someone smack me, please.

However, I'll share. I've got a bunch of others I can post now too, various icontests that are done with. Art on the Discworld icons is by Paul Kidby, who is a genius.

Teasers:



( The rest are under the pretty LJ-cut... )*whew* That's a lot of html...

Oh, and they're all gankable, if anyone wants the silly things.

Also, please remember to vote in my poll!

Anywho. Iconage ahoy. Lots of "Madagascar" icons, some from closed icontests, an anthropomorphic personification of my Very Evil Muse, and one inspired by the lovely jerib_78 finding a Riddick/Anne-Rice-verse crossover.

Teasers:



( More this way... )