#fuffy meta

[raisedbythetv89]

btvs writers: faith and spike are representative of buffy's shadow self

me: right of course that's very obvious, makes sense please proceed

season 2 when spike is introduced he obviously was not her shadow consciously in all the writers minds at that point in time however on rewatches we can still interpret their earlier behaviors as such and there is A LOT to interpret: buffy and her shadow are both with other people who who connect them to each other and it was angel who sent spike on his path that would lead him to kill two slayers which leads him to buffy and despite being enemies they are unsuccessful in destroying each other and even manage to form a truce and work together. Buffy is told she's on her own by whistler and Spike then shows up to be her only ally

me: remembering, "I can be alone with you here" in s6. ok yeah so they are one - when she's alone with spike she's alone with herself. her and her shadow are literally teaming up to kill the monster who is a threat to her and our shadow selves are incredibly protective of us which is why society teaches us to hate those parts of ourselves in the first place so they can better manipulate, exploit, and abuse us. so even though the concept of a shadow self hasn't been introduced yet spike is still behaving in alignment with that from the very beginning (if you do not know or acknowledge your shadow self it will try to destroy you in order to call attention to it and try and force you to acknowledge it's existence and meet all your suppressed and ignored needs)

season 3: buffy can't fool one shadow about what's really going on with her and stabs the other shadow for angel and puts her into a coma

me: damn buffy fucking hates herself and being with angel in season 3 is a huge self betrayal and a form of self harm and both shadows call attention to that and faith literally tries to get angel away from her by killing him (not saying faith consciously is trying to protect buffy just that through the shadow lens that’s how her behavior can be interpreted)

season 4: buffy has the least consistent interactions with both shadow selves but the interactions she does have with both of them come between her and riley and cause major conflicts - riley works for the people who hunt and neuter her shadow self in an attempt to use and control his strength for their own means

me: ok so when buffy is with riley she is the most disconnected from herself which is why she's unable to emotionally connect with him because she can only connect with riley as much as she is connected to herself and she literally can't be connected to her shadow around riley because he already neutered her shadow and was angry with her for hiding spike from him after he escaped - we have moved from self hatred and betrayal to complete self abandonment - fuck.

season 5: the pull to her shadow is becoming harder to ignore, she is sneaking out of her bed and away from riley in order to be in graveyards closer to her shadow, to be free to be herself. buffy's behavior does not match the narrative she gives about her relationship to her shadow - she says she hates him, that she doesn't trust him and is repulsed by him and yet only confides in him and regularly seeks out his help and support and relies on him to protect her family. she looks to him for guidance to tell her about herself and he tells her of her death wish. dawn, the representative of buffy's innocence and inner child, is introduced and feels safe with her shadow and is always seeking him out

me: ok so just like when her shadow tried to get rid of angel in season 3 because he was a danger to her now her shadow is trying to come between her and riley because he's even more of a threat to buffy because he's trying to constrict her and shove her into the smallest box he can fit her into and have control over her strength and power and it terrifies her that spike is right about her death wish and that he knows that about her so she both fears her connection to her shadow with spike but also relies on it to keep dawn safe

season 6: tells him he's the only person she can stand to be around and is fucking him seven ways til sunday every chance she gets

me: ugh poor buffy she is caught between trying to love herself while still putting pleasing and meeting the expectations of everyone around her first and it's tearing her apart

season 7: buffy literally brings her shadow out of the dark (the school basement) and first into her world (via xander's) and then into her actual home - she cares for him, she supports him, she rescues him she says the literal words I don't hate like that, not anymore... she protects her shadow and she is no longer afraid to upset the people around her as long as she is doing what she knows is right and what she knows she needs to do

me: yay!!! Buffy loves herself!!! she's no longer putting pleasing other people above her own needs!! she isn't afraid to love and care for her shadow openly for all to see! no more self abandonment or betrayal! she is empowered!!!!

me engaging with fandom and seeing people hate season 7 buffy: *whispering to the person next to me* do you think they forgot about the symbolisms and the metaphors and got caught up in the ship wars or do you think they just hate empowered women and prefer them to be doormats who hate themselves?

[boopsterliv]

In my interpretation of OUAT and BtVS, Swanfire has a lot more narrative similarities to Spuffy than Captain Swan does. And I know, Jane Espenson wrote content for both ships, but I feel like on a deeper level the way I view Spike and Buffy’s dynamic is similar to the way I view Emma and Neals dynamic, while the way I see Captain Swan is similar to how I see Fuffy, which has a similar yet very different dynamic from Spuffy, just like CS has a very different dynamic from Swanfire. 

And sure, this could sound pretentious and a bit ignorant, but a lot of the Once fandom sees Neal (and his dad) the way I’ve seen some of the BtVS fandom (particularly on Reddit) sees Spike. I’m not in any way saying CS is bad (pre-season 4 and onwards anyway). I’m just so tired of seeing Neal and Spike dragged through the mud over every misstep they take.

So TL;DR: Neal and Spike are my precious baby boys and you better leave them alone >:(

[bisexualbuffy]

alright motherfuckers.

it’s time. watching s3ep5: homecoming. and y’all know.. my fuffy ass can barely handle this.., this post ain’t even gonna get to the later Actual homecoming dance scene, just this one.

we start off this scene with the infamous “Buffy and Faith are in the library getting all hot and sweaty” line. a line that Keeps Me Awake at night. i kno the line was just xander being xander, but it makes me wonder if they’ve said any of these things with those two around. buffy’d probably slap his shoulder (lightly) and scrunch her face and call him a perv. faith on the other hand would be like ‘well hey i’d be down for that haha’ and no one really knows if she’s joking (hint: she’s not)

anyways. background info here. scott hope, aka the sickly, twelve year old-lookin’ fellow that buffy was into for all of five seconds, broke up with her. She’s angry and getting out some aggression with training. also: wearin dat sports bra. damn. faith’s like ‘haha guys should break up with you more often’ and if i’m not mistaken, she’s the only character we see who’s giving the ‘fuck that guy, you’re great and deserve better’ kind of encouragement that one needs after a break-up.

and then, faith lehane asks buffy summers to the dance.

the more i watch this scene, the less i see it as ‘subtext’. it’s not even ‘sub’, it’s just ‘text’: buffy and scott broke up, she’s single, and faith asked her out.

ah yes... look at that completely Heterosexual™ reaction. buffy doesn’t exactly know what to say, and she’s obviously surprised at first. up to this point, we’ve only seen her dating/crushing on men (and that continues til the comics, with satsu, though people argue they weren’t Really a thing but that’s a discussion for a different post) but we’ve seen quite a bit of dialogue (between joyce and buffy, especially) that uses being the slayer as a metaphor for being queer. even in the script, it says buffy’s considering faith’s offer, but gets out a flustered, smiley ‘i don’t know about that’. 

and then, faith does something so completely textbook queer i’m surprised i didn’t notice it the first time.

she backtracks real quick to Heterosexual Grounds at the first hint of rejection. the amount of times i’ve done this with girls of indeterminate sexuality is... well, a lot. it’s a foolproof way to see if she has feelings for you or sees you as just a friend, without totally having to out yourself. faith may have jumped the gun here (like... come on, that flustered smile? buffy was defnitely considering saying yes) but knowing what we do with the angel situation, it’s probably better she did. however, by the look on buffy’s face and her response, i honestly think she knew faith was serious. i think she’s probably known faith was into her like that (need i bring up: ‘mixed signals--i have faith for that’ in s7) and i have to ask: if angel hadn’t been back, would this play out the same way? maybe this scene, but later on... i’m not so sure.

tl;dr: faith lehane is a textbook queer and buffy summers isn’t that clueless.