Femslash Fridays

I've been enjoying The Toast -- especially their comedy posts -- for a few months now, but I only discovered Femslash Fridays today.  Work procrastination, here I come!

The Buffy/Faith entry is mostly a reminder of why I avoid BtVS meta by people who aren't as crushingly emotionally invested in this show as I am.  They quip, I go, "but ... but..." in my whiniest voice.  Alas, as interesting as I find Buffy & Faith's dynamic, this is not the pairing for me.

The Sansa/Brienne entry, on the other hand, shows that my love of butch/femme easily overcomes problems like unfamiliarity with the source.  (OK, I am vaguely familiar with the source via fannish osmosis.  This is just another reason why I'm sad I'll never watch or read it.)

You know those women who out-gentleman every man you’ve ever met in your life? The ones who take the weird toxic masculinity of our society and refine it into an art form that involves less misogyny and more pocket squares? Brienne is that woman.

:: dies ::
 

The Kaylee/Inara section, of course, is perfect.  Who else thought these two were a couple the first time you saw "Serenity"?  I mean, the way they say, "hey you" is just all sorts of sexy.

TV Meme: Day 4

Day 04 - Your favourite show ever:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Here's some reasons why:

The characters: Buffy herself is my favourite character of all time.  I'll save the why of that for Day 14, but suffice to say I've never seen a character that seemed as fully realised to me as Buffy Summers.  And the love doesn't stop there: I'm still in awe of the coherent, multi-dimensional characterisation that show drew -- across seven seasons -- for Willow, Xander, Giles, Anya, Joyce, Spike, and many others.  Their complex relationships, their love and loyalty, their fights and insecurities -- never has a collection of characters felt so real to me.

The heart: it's not just about feeling real though.  The Whites and Schraders are also complex, multi-faceted characters with interesting, strong, very authentic relationships.  But something Buffy has in spades that many shows of similar quality lack is an attention not just to their characters' failings, but also to their strengths, their capacity to love and to give to each other.  The fact that, even if they fail, they try to do better.  The show has hope, and heart.  In the last year or some I've come to realise that shows have to have this kind of heart for me to truly love them.

The many different relationships among women.  And, relatedly, the way it explores women's power.  I don't always agree with the positions it seems to be taking, but it poses the questions in ways that I still really enjoy.

Out of sheer laziness, for the rest of BtVS's many attributes, I refer the reader to Mike Marinaro's spoiler-free meta: 10 Things Buffy Does Best.  I'm not sure I agree that Buffy is as singular in its quality as he makes out here -- i.e., I agree it does these things well, but I'd argue there are a handful of other shows that also do. I think it's a mix of the high quality elements he lays out here, my own personal taste, and the fact that Buffy came before most of those other shows, that puts it on top for me.

( 30 Questions )