Bring me your BtVS recs!

[such_heights]

Hello, internets!

So for the last little while purplefringe and I have been marathoning Buffy from the beginning. My knowledge of Buffy is scatty but I've seen at least an episode or two from every season, often more - Phoebe's brand new to it.

Not reacting in spoilery ways to events has been a challenge, one that I've occasionally failed.

*watching 2x03*
me: omg look there's Oz! Hi Oz, hi! :DDD
purplefringe: ...
me: I mean. Hey, random background guitar dude character who's definitely not anyone significant. >.>

So that's been fun. Anyway, we find ourselves in need of fanworks as we go! We're currently in early s3, so if anyone happens to know of any vids, fic, fanart etc that's just for s1 and 2, that would be fab, but by all means link me to your favourites from any era in the Buffyverse, and I'll pass them on to purplefringe as and when.

Please do link me to your bookmarks/masterlists etc as well as individual works, and self-recs are completely encouraged. I have a few vids stashed on my hard drive but I'm sure I'm missing a lot of awesome.

Bonus points for fanworks on the happier side of things, or ones that at least don't heap on extra angst to go with all the canon woe. Bonus points also for team cuteness or things focusing on Buffy, Willow or Giles. I think we're mostly enjoying the canon ships at the moment but if you want to point me to some recruiter works for other things then by all means do so.

Hurrah! ... is it hometime yet so I can go watch more? :D?

Presumed spoilers for everything in the comments.

Comments

[juniperphoenix]

This won't get me any bonus points, but I love it and I love that it exists.

Dance By the Light of the Moon (2935 words) by melannen
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: the Series, classic movies, It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Spike/Drusilla
Characters: Spike, Drusilla, Violet, George Bailey
Summary:

"No angels," Dru breathed, stepping up against the man again. "No peaches for William, no angels for Georgie, no wings for Peter and Paul. And only bells to pay Old Bailey with. Do you want to die, nice man?"

[raanve]

Well, this is jumping a bit far afield if you're in S3, and I (admittedly) don't read a lot of Buffy fic -- though I love this show and am in the middle of a rewatch myself. Still! My favorite BtVS fic right now is Annakovsky's Umad Learns Sumerian, which is a post-S6 Dawn fic. It just.. I love you, Dawn. <3

[such_heights]

ooooh that looks fab, thanks very much! <333 DRU <333

[such_heights]

oh yayyyy - DAWN! <333 (ahahaha I cannot wait for purplefringe to meet Dawn omg, I haven't mentioned her at all. :DD)

[juniperphoenix]

Ooh, that reminds me of another great Dawn story: Sailor's Delight by general_jinjur. Post-series and post-apocalyptic; crossover with SGA and fusion with Night of the Comet (knowledge of the latter is not required).

[liseuse]

I have no recs because I somehow watched all of Buffy and never read any fic for it. So I am just going to sit here, in the comments, and reap the glory. (Heh, Glory. See what I did there.)

[watersword]

Fortune Prove (13354 words) by Brightknightie
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jenny/Giles, Buffy/Angel, Willow/Oz
Characters: Willow Rosenberg, Buffy Summers, Jenny Calendar, Rupert Giles, Tara Maclay, Principal Snyder, Xander Harris, Oz Osbourne
Summary:

While Willow worries about which university to attend, a software presentation to the faculty sprouts a Hellmouthy glitch that gives her visions of Giles and Jenny's future.  (Diverges from canon at "Surprise.")
    "So this is the 'we live on a major mystical convergence and it leaks' kind of glitch."
(Original: May 2009.)

Bookmarker's Tags: Jossed, jossed by joss, technopaganism
Bookmarker's Notes:

"Look," Willow tried again. "Angel is as devoted to you as— as Giles is to Ms. Calendar! And I've seen some of those letters Angel writes you. That's probably more actual words than I get from Oz right here in Sunnydale."

"Nice try, Will." Buffy poured them two bowls of cereal. "But you know there's a big difference between your man of few words sliding his arm around your shoulders in the cafeteria, and mine mailing sketches from Tibet and Burma and Zambia and— why don't we have a geography class this year? I would get such good grades now!"

"And yet, somehow, both Northwestern and UC-Sunnydale accepted you." Willow got out the honey, sugar, milk and some bananas, just in case the Slayer metabolism didn't run entirely on empty calories. All binaries for Buffy: here or there, sucrose or fructose, Northwestern or UC. Willow envied those fifty/fifty odds of making the right choice.

I choose to believe in this, because frankly I like it better than what canon gave us. I heart Jenny Calendar's technopaganism, and I heart Willow having an actualfax mentor, and I heart early Buffy-and-Angel.

[bradcpu]

My favorite Buffy fic is a Faith-centric one set during Halloween S3, but with references to the end of S3. I've always thought it was the best exploration of the character that I've seen in fic, and it's a big part of why I got sucked into the fandom. Not all that cheery, but kind of uplifting in a way. It's called "Tearing the Veil," here:

http://www.dreamsmithstories.com/index1.html

I've also written a few, most of them similar in tone to the one above but not nearly as good. :P Almost all of mine were written in the S4-S5 time frame.

http://bradcpu.livejournal.com/tag/buffy%20fic

[such_heights]

That sounds fantastic, thank you!

[such_heights]

Oooh awesome, thanks a lot! Faith! <333

[xans]

They were doing a replay of the series from the start on tv here recently, I watched a few with my fiance (nostalgia for me, first time for him) and I swear I had that exact "Hi Oz!" reaction that he didn't understand. Unfortunately the series didn't really grab him so we stopped watching and then I don't know if they changed the times it was on or just stopped screening but it doesn't seem to be on anymore.

Unfortunately, I have no fic recs. I think I've encountered a couple crossover fics, like Faith running into various characters from various fandoms (SPN, SG1/SGA and Criminal Minds come to mind) but I've not really looked into the BtVS/AtS fandom all that much.

[out_there]

me: omg look there's Oz! Hi Oz, hi! :DDD
purplefringe: ...
me: I mean. Hey, random background guitar dude character who's definitely not anyone significant. >.>


HEE! I do the exact same thing (oh, look, it's Oz/Anya/Willow/Faith/Wes/etc, etc, "Hi you!"). I sometimes even wave at the screen. But I can see how bad that would be for spoiling people.

I can't find the link now (I'm at work) ut my go-to place for BtVS recs was "Polyamorous Recs" -- a google search should find it -- or stuff recced by thete1 but that was back by blog so those recs might not exist anymore. I suspect theforthvine probably has some good BtVS recs if you check her tags.

[usuallyhats]

Seconding the rec for Umad Learns Sumerian!

I posted some Buffy vid recs here and here - I think they all cover the whole series, though, apart from "I Just Wanna Live", which is seasons 1-3. Other Buffy vids I like: Five on the Dime (by shati), Peacekeeper (by sisabet) and I'll Be There (by milly).

[frayadjacent]

Because you encouraged it, I will shamelessly tell you about my own Buffy character vid with no plot/character spoilers. (Except that Buffy slays vampires.) I intended it as a recruiter vid. :)

Here's my dreamwidth post: http://frayadjacent.dreamwidth.org/1602.html

Also, I've been seeing you around dreamwidth (and maybe vidpub?) and enjoying your episodic DW vids; do you mind if I add you to my reading list?