Ten years on

I’m usually late with anniversaries, although since BtVS didn’t air in the UK until 1998 you could say that I’m being obscenely early with this one. Buffy and I first met through a newspaper article and the early dates were fun, she was smart and exotically American, we had a similar sense of humour and shared memories of evil PE teachers. I remember the feeling that things had shifted up a gear at the beginning of season 2. Puppy fat had been lost literally and metaphorically and I liked that but still mostly appreciated the show for its cleverness – Cordelia and Xander falling into each others arms to knowing strings, Angel turning evil as the way to escape the UST trap. Time went by, the BBC sold its soul to snooker and the internets became my orb of Thessala. Then season six came around and I finally fell in love with resurrected Buffy. The Buffy who’d been ripped out of heaven and lost everything she once was but was still resolved to spare her friends from knowing what they’d done.

The final two seasons have their detractors (or so I’ve read) but they were my honeymoon period with the show and the fandom. The first post I ever made online was to try and justify the Potentials storyline in response to an essay by azdak about BtVS’s treatment of the Other. About a week later heresluck posted an essay on feminism and community which said it all and more so much better. Fannish anniversaries are all about lists, so to celebrate Buffy’s tenth here’s a list of some of the posts and discussions about BtVS that drew me into fandom


Feminist community in BtVS by heresluck

Please shoot me now: I'm going to talk about Seeing Red by superplin

Depression and narrative in genre TV by coffeeandink

A Fireman, When the Floods Roll Back by butterfly

Funny syphilis – canon and comedy in BtVS and AtS byazdak

Ranting again about the politics of S7 by dlgood

Power Corruption and Lies by londonkds

The Educated Fangirl's Guide To The Spike Wars by selenak