I miss Buffy fandom

April 29th, 2008 7:15pm by rusty-halo | 20 Comments »

i-miss-buffy-fandom

I miss Buffy fandom.

*digs up hideous old icon for nostalgia’s sake*

Current Mood: nostalgic emoticon nostalgic

Tags: buffy the vampire slayer

  1. 20 Responses to “I miss Buffy fandom”

  2. redeem147 on April 29, 2008 7:55 pm | Link

    I did my seasonal spuffy post today, so I guess I’m still IN Buffy fandom.

    Well, that and the monthly local Buffy dinners.

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    rusty-halo on April 29, 2008 8:15 pm | Link

    I’m glad it’s still making you happy. :)

    I’m just so completely over it that it’s impossible for me to engage in the show or discussions or fanfic or anything. (Although I suppose I’m still very peripherally involved by keeping All About Spike going, even without updates. I’m pleased that people are still posting fic reviews almost every day.)

    But, man, I really miss that excitement of discovering fandom itself along with enjoying a show. And of the sense of community that we had on BAPS and Tabula Rasa.

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    redeem147 on April 29, 2008 8:22 pm | Link

    Believe it or not, that’s what I’m getting now in Bollywood fandom. We have an active local group.

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  3. Herself on April 29, 2008 9:22 pm | Link

    And Buffy fandom misses you!

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    rusty-halo on April 29, 2008 9:26 pm | Link

    *hugs you tightly*

    I wish I could get back into it. You have no idea. I miss the people and the culture so much. But I’m just utterly burned out on the show/meta/fanfic and I still can’t bring myself to watch/read anymore. *sigh*

    I love seeing you guys on my friendslist who are still enjoying it, though. :)

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    10zlaine on May 2, 2008 5:06 pm | Link

    *lolz*

    and in other, semi-related things, i think that if you were rewatching angel, at least the beginning seasons, you would really enjoy it this time around in a very different way, particularly since we weren’t as invested in it and thus can appreciate it better. i’ve really enjoyed the episodes i catch, occasionally, ‘tho i can’t watch any btvs. (but i’m thinking the earliest stuff might be palatable.)

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    rusty-halo on May 2, 2008 5:09 pm | Link

    I always had a hard time with Angel, mainly because I thought it was boring. I mostly just watched it for the BtVS connection. I liked Wes, and Cordelia was okay sometimes, but there was all this focus on Angel and I just found him boring/annoying/self-righteous/hypocritical/portrayed by an interminably bad actor/etc.

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    10zlaine on May 2, 2008 5:14 pm | Link

    me too, actually. i only ever watched each episode once. that’s why i’m so surprised rewatching episodes. check it back out when you are bored.

    omg why aren’t i getting ready to leave in about 48 hours????

    but, at least right now i’m not, um, looking at skeezy things…

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  4. Jerry on April 29, 2008 10:41 pm | Link

    I don’t know if there’s any getting back to that. I think most people had limited previous experience with online fandom, which is a big deal, since in following all subsequent fannish shows, I’ve encountered the “burned by BtVS” effect. But also, as someone not especially bitter about how the show ended, I just haven’t been similarly grabbed by anything since, and don’t really expect to be.

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    rusty-halo on April 29, 2008 10:51 pm | Link

    What’s the “burned by BtVS” effect? Like the “I will never invest in a TV show again because Joss Whedon broke my heart” thing? I think I sort of have that… I can invest, but not nearly as passionately. Because in the end, it’s just a TV show, and the creators are writing it to sell advertising space, not to please me. [/cynical]

    I think you’re right about not being able to get back to that kind of fannish experience. It wasn’t just that the canon was new, it was that fandom itself was new to me. There was so much to learn–the history of fandom, the terms, the comparisons between fandoms, the way wanks and flame wars work, the meta… everything was new and shiny. Now it’s all old hat.

    Doctor Who is the first thing that’s grabbed me anything like the way BtVS did. But it’s got its forty years of fanwars, leading to a bitter fandom that mostly just makes me want to beat my head against a wall (a few lovely people excepted). And as much as I mostly like the canon, if the fandom isn’t fun, what’s the point?

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    Jerry on April 29, 2008 10:58 pm | Link

    Yeah, that’s pretty much what I meant about BtVS. I didn’t take it so personally, since I’d come to accept that for a TV show to not suck over time, it’s practically got to defy gravity, but I think a lot of people had an irrational level of faith in Joss (I thought he was good, and still do, but he works in the same world everyone else in TV does).

    I have been somewhat let down by the inability to find other shows I can read as deeply as BtVS. Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica are the two that sort of compare, but neither quite measures up, imo.

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    rusty-halo on April 30, 2008 12:46 am | Link

    I was really hoping to get into Battlestar Galactica, but I found it too depressing and humorless. Like literally I’d watch it and be in a bad mood for a day. Not very conducive to a positive fannish experience.

    And it seems like Supernatural and Stargate have really creative fandoms that could be fun to get into, but I can’t stand the canon in either case. So that doesn’t work.

    I’m being very cautiously optimistic about The Sarah Connor Chronicles. (It got renewed, right?) I liked what I saw so far, and I feel like if they keep developing it further it could end up being really cool. (*crosses fingers*)

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    Jerry on April 30, 2008 10:01 am | Link

    I find SCC just as grim as BSG is, although after only one short season, there’s more hope that the creators will find away to lighten it up (which clearly isn’t going to be the case with BSG).

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    rusty-halo on April 30, 2008 10:44 am | Link

    That was my main caveat about the SCC too; not enough humor. (Although I think there was some with Cameron trying to fit in at high school.) But, yeah, I was hoping it would get funnier as it progressed. (Like X-Files, which definitely got funnier as the writers got more comfortable with the characters and setup.)

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  5. a_white_rain on April 29, 2008 11:22 pm | Link

    I have fandoms like that. Usually, I’m glad it over. But sometimes I miss the gleeful feeling I had before my soul was ripped out and fandom killed me dead.

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    rusty-halo on April 29, 2008 11:51 pm | Link

    Yeah. I think it’s a combination of it being my first fandom and my feeling like I had a place there and was contributing positively. Most of my close fannish friends go back to BtVS fandom. It was like… even when we got bitter about the show, the fandom was this intense bonding experience.

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    a_white_rain on April 29, 2008 11:53 pm | Link

    It was like… even when we got bitter about the show, the fandom was this intense bonding experience.
    Yes.

    And re: your talk of Doctor Who fandom. Yes. It’s just. I kinda wish I fell for a show without forty years of wank.

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    rusty-halo on April 30, 2008 12:47 am | Link

    Yeah. Forty years of wank. *shakes head* JayDK did not warn me about that when she got me addicted to this show!

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  6. Estepheia on April 30, 2008 2:37 am | Link

    I miss the Buffy fandom, too.

    I started rewatching S6 - and I have to say, the episodes still grip me. I still think that it’s a great show and I feel a sharp desire to rewatch the whole show (because I can no longer remember all the canon details that used to live in my brain). Unfortunately, I don’t have the time for fandom - any fandom. Not anymore, because I have a job.

    Also, my kids are growing up so fast, I don’t want to suddenly wake up and they are about to move out. ;) They are 8 and 11 - fun to do things with. Fun to watch movies with.

    I enjoy Doctor Who (and Torchwood), but I find it hard to remember individual episodes. *shrug* And I don’t feel a need to “fix” the storyline or read stories in which the canon is fixed. It does not quite trigger the same hunger that BtVS evoked.

    I think Joss was right in never giving us exactly what we wanted. He always kept us hungry, and that’s what made us creative.

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    rusty-halo on April 30, 2008 11:36 am | Link

    I’ve kind of been thinking I might like to re-watch the series. I still don’t think I could stand anything after “Tabula Rasa” without getting all bitter and annoyed, but I could probably enjoy most of what came before. Especially seasons two and three, which I think were just really well-written.

    You’re totally right about focusing on your family! I can’t imagine dealing with work and family in addition to fandom. I had enough trouble juggling college, part-time work, and fandom back in the day. And it’s awesome that your kids are at the age where they’re fun to hang out with. :)

    Two things drew me to thinking fannishly about Doctor Who: the Tenth Doctor as a character (I can’t get enough exploration of his issues) and the Doctor/Master relationship (where they had two amazing actors with great chemistry and two characters with tons of history and all kinds of love/hate/need issues with each other… and didn’t spend nearly enough time on it). I’m definitely left “wanting more” … but there’s not enough in the fandom to keep me interested, since it mostly consists of bitching about how the Tenth Doctor is soooo mean and squabbling over companions and whining about how RTD is blaspheming against the perfection of old school canon. Argh.

    I wish we had the kind of Doctor and Doctor/Master fic that we got in Spike fandom… seriously, I have never been into a fandom with anything near the quality and quantity of writing we had with Spike. There are a couple of good Doctor/Master writers (TO WHICH I CLING) but not enough to keep my brain fully engaged.

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