Spangel Ficcish/fanon trope/Buffy comics navel gazing.

[shapinglight]

This sort of post (ie. where people talked about their own fics) were quite common back in the day, now not so much. But whatever. I was bored at work yesterday and this was the result. Also, I'm procrastinating about starting the next story in my Spike/Giles season 7 series.

Recently, someone was kind enough to read my 2006 fic (boy, that long ago!) Vampire Winter, and leave feedback. When answering their comment, I got sucked into re-reading the story myself.



I've been meaning to re-read it for a while, actually, because I think I should try to put some of my better fics up on Ao3, and at the time people seemed to like Vampire Winter so it's a possible candidate.

I held off the re-read, though, because I was sure I would find the story highly embarrassing now -badly written, full of amateurish mistakes, telling rather than showing, etc, etc. My writing style has changed a little since then, I think (hopefully got better, but who knows? I am still an amateur, after all). In actual fact, the re-read wasn't too painful. The word 'however' was overused (as it is in a lot of my early fics), but not to the point where it was driving me crazy.

The character voices were all right too, in particular Angel and Spike. It was my first ever attempt to write from Buffy's POV, and - yes, I can see my Buffy's not show Buffy. On the other hand, I don't think she's an impossible extrapolation of show Buffy.

What did strike me very forcibly, though, is that I wrote a Bangel fic. At the time, I didn't intend to. I meant to write a Spuffel fic (to use the convenient shorthand), without the threesome sex (which I could never imagine happening). In other words, Buffy was meant to be in love with both vampires. But I can see I failed to produce that. Buffy in the story loves both vampires, but is only in love with Angel. In the story, that doesn't actually matter too much because Spike and Angel are also in love with each other, though neither of them would ever admit it.

Where was I going with this? Oh yes.

A lot of time - and a lot of very bad comics - have passed since then. The very bad comics have led me to think that my description of Buffy's feelings for Spike in Vampire Winter were over generous, and my description of Spike's and Angel's feelings for each other downright risible.

Fine, it's fanfic. It doesn't have to pay any attention to the stupid comics and can, if it wants, stick with the long-established Spangel fic fanon tropes, which mostly involve seeing a familial connection of some variety or other between Angel and Spike, which leads at some point to some serious shagging. When AtS ended, for me at least, those tropes still worked pretty well. Okay, I knew that wasn't quite what I was seeing on screen, but again, it wasn't an impossible extrapolation.

Now, though, it kind of is? Leaving aside the IDW Angel comics, which are closer in feel to AtS, I think (please note I'm not saying they're better comics, just that - perhaps because Joss wasn't really involved with them - they stuck closely to established models), it's clear from what little interaction Spike and Angel have had up to now in the Buffy comics, and despite that Joss-penned Always Darkest web comic - which now I think of it, takes a similar premise to Vampire Winter (Angel and Spike are more interested in each other than they are in Buffy) and turns it into a nightmare - Joss sees them as mainly love-rivals for Buffy and the only real connection between them is that they're both vampires with souls.

They aren't family at all.

So anyway, to get back to Vampire Winter, I found the bits of it I didn't like weren't that it was badly written (it was fine, really), or that it was a Bangel fic (I haven't read much Bangel fic, but I think I wrote the 'ship okay), but more that it expects you to believe something about Spike and Angel that I just don't believe any more myself.

A pity.

Could explain, though, how when I wrote something for rekindlespangel recently, I had to set it one thousand years in the future.

Thoughts? And not specifically about Vampire Winter or the rotten old comics, and how they can spoil perfectly good fanfic tropes for some people (ie. me), but more along the lines of, are there any fanfic tropes you used to love, but which now tend to make you cringe when you come across them in other people's work? And if so, why the change?

Comments

[shapinglight]

I understand that POV. So it's not really the comics that have stopped you wanting to read fic, so much as the sorts of fics you want to read just aren't around.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

Yeah, kind of. It's like when Sue or someone polls whether the comics have affected your view of the shows. I always say no, but they've affected my view of Joss, which in turn affected my view of the shows. Too much banging around from the man behind the curtain, I guess.

Plus, yeah, the kind of fics that interest me now don't seem to be around and I lack talent to write my own. There's also the feeling that--at least around the time I quit, maybe things have changed--fics had more or less become fics of other fics instead of derivations of the show. The whole biting/claiming mini-kerfluffle, for instance.

[shapinglight]

but they've affected my view of Joss, which in turn affected my view of the shows. Too much banging around from the man behind the curtain, I guess.

They've certainly lowered my opinion of him - perhaps unfairly, I don't know. After all, the Buffy characters are his creations. If he sees them totally differently to the way I see them, that's my problem not his.

On the other hand, I do think he's not nearly as good a comics writer as he thinks he is.

-fics had more or less become fics of other fics instead of derivations of the show. The whole biting/claiming mini-kerfluffle, for instance.

That particular kerfuffle passed me by. I'm not even sure which bit of the fandom it took place in. Was it the Spuffy part, or the Spander?

I've never been keen on the 'claiming' trope (which is entirely fanon) and have never written it. In fact, finding it included in a fic is a surefire way of stopping me reading it. As you say, it's an entire subgenre with people riffing off each others' stories and with less and less reference to the source material

On the other hand, I can see how it might appeal to some.

Anyway, not a trope that's ever appealed to me.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

Was it the Spuffy part, or the Spander?

Spuffy. Never been into Spander, mostly because I dislike Xander most of the time. During one of those "This trope annoys me" posts by someone. Must have been 6 years ago at least. It was never so much like/dislike but whether or not it had any basis in the shows. I think it was one of those cases where people are in a group self-affirming things and it eventually just gets accepted. Happens in a lot of places. There are people who swear up and down that Buffy's real name is Elizabeth is another example.

[shapinglight]

Yes, I've seen that one.

I probably did see that one in passing but didn't pay much attention. As I said to kikimay above, I'm much more of a Spuffy 'shipper now than I was one the show was on air or just after.