#buffy summers ( self. )

[liam-summers]

Bangel + Cookie Dough 🍪

“Angel. I do…sometimes think that far ahead.”

[greensaplinggrace]

the fact of the matter is that buffy ends up isolated no matter what the scoobies do because she bears the burden of the slayer alone at the end of the day and nothing can change that. the problem with this isn't that she's separate from them, it's that they don't want to acknowledge that she is, and in doing so they drive a wedge between them that just grows and grows. the best thing about spike is that he's similar enough to this other side of buffy to understand it and her by extension. he is the only person around who can support that side of her.

most of buffy's issues in season six stem from the scoobies rejecting a part of buffy that spike accepts. and this shame she feels for her reliance on spike and the presence of this darkness and isolation she cannot avoid is largely because of them. i'm sick of this bizarre assumption that pointing out where the scoobies go wrong in their relationship with buffy somehow equals an uncritical uplifting of spike. just because he understands her and represents a certain aspect of her doesn't mean he doesn't fuck up. i mean that's kind of the whole point of their season six dynamic. one of his biggest issues is that he thinks he's helping her by enabling her completely because he doesn't have the ability to properly identify the line between self acceptance and self destruction - pursuit of the id is one of his biggest character traits. that's what makes the end of season six and his decision to get the soul so interesting (although of course there's just as much i can say about the narrative framing of that in regards to lore consistency and the story's obsession with angel, but that's a whole other thing).

point is, the scoobies cannot understand all of buffy, and when they refuse to acknowledge this they destroy their chances of building any bridges to even a simple relationship with that other side of buffy or helping her carry that burden in any way. meanwhile, spike is in the proper position to understand buffy as the slayer and hold his own with her in such a way, but his definition of love is wholly obsessive and destructive. while i disagree that he's incapable of love and even of loving selflessly without his soul, i think spike's version of love in particular is self destructive in a way that enables buffy's own desire to hurt herself through hurting him (see the aforementioned shame regarding her shadow self). spike cannot identify why allowing buffy to give in to her dark side in such a way is bad because he struggles to understand how she could use this to resent herself - although i do think he realizes it's happening on some level.

spike is also buffy's only form of catharsis and the only one that actually listens to what she is saying during a time when everybody else is dismissing her because of the aforementioned inability to understand her as the slayer. it's a clusterfuck - and a clusterfuck that needed to be shattered with a hammer for any kind of relief. and quite frankly to disregard the scoobies' own part in this situation does a disservice to buffy as a character. to be honest, she deserves fucking better than what everyone in her life gives her, especially the scoobies, who grow to take her for granted and feel entitled to controlling her life as a way of keeping her conformed - again, due to the aforementioned lack of desire to acknowledge this other part of her that they cannot connect with.

which leads to season seven, where spike is the only person on the show who has developed and changed enough to remain at buffy's side helping her carry the burden. while everyone else suffered during season six, none of them opened their eyes to what they were doing to buffy - and if they did, none of them acted on it. spike is the only one to acknowledge the damage he's done and work to become better for buffy in any way he can. he is the only one that ends up able to carry that burden with her because he is the only one capable of facing the truth and acting on his desire to do better.

the fucking problem isn't that he hurt buffy - because to be quite frank everybody did - it's that he's the only person on the whole damn show to acknowledge his place in buffy's life, and to acknowledge the burdens she bears, and actively change himself for her. did you know he has almost all of the genuine apologies in the entire show? seven seasons and all of the harm the scoobies cause buffy, and it's fucking spike that is acting like a mature person capable of being a proper partner.

[ptieuca]

[overworkedblorbobattle]

Overworked Blorbo Battle Round 2 Poll: 16

[angelthemanspanker]

The way some people characterise Buffy in fics like you described genuinely put me off Buffy fandom for years, it was absolutely everywhere, in Spuffy fics, in faith/buffy fics, it felt like I couldn't read a fic without the obligatory 'Buffy apologises to whoever the fuck for being so mean' and I just stopped, it was so baffling

For real its so weirdly pervasive. It genuinely blows my mind bc I totally get the urge to use your fic to call out a character/plot point you don't like, more power to you. Like I'm constantly imagining rewrites of the scenes where Xander is at his most insufferable but no one in-show is verbalising obvious holes in his bullshit (my big one is that besides a one off line from Buffy that everyone in the show ignores and a DELETED line from Giles is that NO ONE calls him on his absolutely infuriating "I was jealous of Angel being with the girl I like and I'm gonna have the gall to pretend it was bc I saw him turning evil coming" BULLSHIT)

But like. Buffy? You came out of this show and the person you had beef with and want to call out is BUFFY? THE VAMPIRE SLAYER? The protagonist of all time? Bc she's mean sometimes :( people try to apologise for trying to kill her and she's so unsympathetic :( she carries out her responsibility as the Slayer whether she wants to or not even if the person she's targeting is a character I like :( why won't she apologise. why won't she apologise. why does she insist on taking up space. why can't she just be nice all the time. yes my ao3 tag is princessspuffy why do you ask. yeah I know their relationship is abusive but I think Spike would forgive her :)

[lecoindecachou]

Buffy was only ever with Spike because she was trying to hurt herself, he was 100% a symptom of her depression post-coming back from the dead and it's canon that she never loved him, y'all can die mad about it.

[girl4music]

🎶Did you really beam me up?

In a cloud of sparkling dust

Just to do experiments on

Tell me I was the chosen one

Show me that this world is bigger than us

Then sent me back where I came from

For a moment I knew cosmic love🎶

[romantichopelessly]

Buffy “you have a superiority complex, but you have an inferiority complex about it” Summers & Richard “they were always walking away from him. but he never seemed to be able to walk away from them.” “repugnant.” Gansey III you would have loveeeeed The Archer by Taylor Swift. “who could ever leave me, darling but who could stay” would have fixed them.

[ravenbees]

Babygirl

[the-sparkling-diamond-satine]

wip guessing game: permanent

BtVS non-binary they/them Buffy. Dropping this one under a cut for self-harm tw reasons

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

Buffy knows that they should probably be opposed to the idea of permanently marring their skin but somehow, they aren’t.

[willowthewiccanwitch]

rewatching Buffy makes me INSANE... its like oh the classic "as the chosen one i will be normal" angst but also she doesn't even really want to be a normal girl but also she does because the choice was taken from her but also she never would have been normal even if it hadnt ben because she'd still be the slayer even if she wasnt the slayer like she would have just felt alienated from the opposite direction like hiding inside the normality instead of just aching for the idea of it and she never has to confront that shed'd never have been "normal" because fate stepped in to say she'd never have it first!! and then they pretended she was heterosexual!!! and I'm supposed to be okay with this!!!!!!

[hersterical]

Shout out to Buffy Summers for having homoerotic tension with all four of her shadow-selves, including two who are a different gender than her. That takes some skill (Applies more to Spike than Angel imo, but I think the bangel tension can also be described as homoerotic)

[marlasomething]

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

(Main) Character(s): Buffy Summers, Anya Jenkins, Spike

(Main) Ship(s): Spuffy

Word count: 1995

Other(s): rewrite of the infamous no-wedding of S6

[beatriceeverytuesday-old]

New chapter alert!

Read it on AO3!

Title: He Slays Monsters

Rating: E

Pairing: Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers

Summary: Buffy takes an acting class with Willow at UC Sunnydale. This sets off a chain of events that have Buffy questioning things like what it means to be a girl, and whether she’s so sure she is one after all.

Chapter five is now posted!

[buffvamporigfan]

I am sharing the first fanfiction I ever wrote which is a crossover between Buffy The Vampire Slayer and The Vampire Diaries fandom

[ladiesandwitches]

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