5 Spuffy fics with premises of famous movies

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

We often notice film references on BtVS, be it "Frankenstein" (Adam story arc) or "It's a Wonderful Life" (The Wish), "Freddy Krueger" (Killed by Death) or "Stepford Wives" (Ted). But there are cinematographic paths that canonical characters had never taken - and fics fill the gaps.
Keep in mind that it's not AUs but fics in which canonical characters find themselves in an unusual situation we've seen in some movie.

1. Memory Box by grave_tidings (Candlekeeper)
http://grave-tidings.tripod.com/fictions/memory_box.htm

I'm not a big fan of the movie "The Lake House" (Keanu and Sandra looked much more attractive when they recited Whedon's dialogues in Speed) but I found the idea of a mailbox with a time-shifting abilities fresh and intriguing. Candlekeeper's Memory Box slightly alterates the premise: in summer 2003 Buffy gets from Giles a writing box that belonged to William in XIX century... This story is available in two versions - plain text and PDF which preserves the story graphics and specific fonts of Spike and Buffy's handwriting.

2. Fixing the Factors by kargrif, jackofspikes and maryperk73703
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=immortal_spuffy&keyword=Fixing+The+Factors&filter=all
or
http://216.177.131.147/stories.php?go=chapters&no=4553

"Groundhog Day" is one of my favorite films and definitely a classic. As the same day repeats again and again, Bill Murray's character gradually learns to accept life as it is and finally comes to an epiphany. The same happens to Buffy and Spike when the same day that repeats again and again. Only Buffy and Spike can remember the previous versions of the day so they join forces to beat the spell. It takes them 21 days to figure out the situation, to destroy the spell, to defeat Adam - and, of course, to fall for each other. Interestingly, author chose a day during The Yoko Factor - the momnet when Buffy and Spike's relationship hit one of its lowest points.

3. Three's The Charm by mommanerd
http://community.livejournal.com/seasonal_spuffy/145995.html
http://community.livejournal.com/seasonal_spuffy/146324.html
http://community.livejournal.com/seasonal_spuffy/146519.html
http://community.livejournal.com/seasonal_spuffy/146761.html
http://community.livejournal.com/seasonal_spuffy/147196.html

Not movie-correlated in the strict sense of the word but modeled after a famous episode of a TV show Star Trek - an episode that was based on Fredric Brown's famous story Arena (1944). The premise is as intriguing as simple: put the characters into an experimental situation that seemingly checks participants' strength but in fact tests their morals. Three's The Charm by mommanerd is another inventive exploration of Spuffy dynamics. Funny, sharp and thouroughly enjoyable. Set in season 5.

4. Thumbing Your Way to Vegas by kellyhk
http://community.livejournal.com/seasonal_spuffy/86398.html

One of my favorite BtVS essayists, tallgent, often compares Buffy and Spike to Han and Leya in "Star Wars". Obviously, compelling ideas fly in the air, because kellyhk recently wrote a post-NFA Spuffy adventures in Return of the Jedi style in which Buffy "plays" Leia and Spike "plays" Han Solo.

5. Green Card by Ripe Wicked Plum
http://orion.lunarpages.com/~darkwa2/fff/greencard.html
It was written before 2006 but I still want to recommend it because it was my first movie-correlated fic.
Post-season 4. To prevent Spike's deportation, Joyce proposes to marry him. Afraid for her mother, Buffy steps in as Spike's bride. The set-up of a famous Gerard Depardieu/Andy McDowell romcom of the same title results in different story, but characters dynamics is pretty much the same: they're at each other's throats until they surrender to passion. Ensemble fic with Spuffy bent.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Great post! This is something that I haven't seen rec'd before so kudos to you for coming up with this.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Jossverse fanfic is so rich on interesting premises because Joss taught us that everything is possible as long as we are interested in exploring the characters' journeys.

[yourlibrarian]

I had to whip out a new icon in honor of your post :D What a great list idea and these sound so interesting, especially the first one. I hope I have time soon to dig into these.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Awww, it's flattering! :) Seriously, Jossverse characters are so compelling they beg for complex and unusual plots - the ones we can easier find in movies than in soaps.

[kargrif.livejournal.com]

thanks so much for the pimp!! i did need to make one correction, Fixing the Factors wasn't just written by me, it was a 3-way collab under the name immortal_spuffy or ImmortallySpuffy on most sites, the 3 authors are myself, jackofspikes and maryperk73703 just didn't want to take credit for something that wasn't just me *hugs* thanks again and glad you enjoyed our story enough to recc' it!

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Oops! Sorry. I corrected my mistake. Thanks for pointing it!

[kargrif.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I was re-reading the recc' again and thought i'd let you in on a secret, we picked Yoko Factor because it was the only epi that had Angel and Riley both in it, cause we couldn't dust/torture them if they wasn't around, lmao!! Looking back on our original notes the fic didn't turn out anything like what we had planned in the beginning (besides the spuffy of course) but we had a blast doing it, thanks again for the recc'!

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Bad, evil girls!!! :) Actually, I was a bit squirmy about Angel scenes because I love him. Although I understand that it was the absence of consequences that caused all this outrage and Buffy was just venting. Still, I was happy when in the end Buffy reconsiled with Angel.
And, IMHO, you guys did the best job with Forrest, when Buffy told him about Riley: "He'll never be your boyfriend". I always suspected that Forrest had hots for Riley, he was so jealous of Buffy, it was unnatural, unless he was in love with "big jungle cat"! :)

[kargrif.livejournal.com]

LMAO!! that was Jack that decided that Forrest wanted to be Riley's snuggle bunny! And I understand about the Angel thing, I really don't hate him, but the way both of the boys acted in Yoko Factor was beyond childish, all 'he started it!', it was too easy to take advantage of all that.

[grave-tidings.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the rec. I agree with you regarding "The Lake House," by the way. Thanks again.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Thank *you* for writing your wonderful story. If I remember correctly, Hollywood borrowed the idea from some South Korean sci-fi romantic drama. Obviously if Hollywood finds it intriguing enough to to make a big-budget movie, fanficcers shouldn't eschew this path! :)

[darynthe.livejournal.com]

*cries of happiness* Oh I love you and want to have your babies!! I've been looking out liek forever for a Groundhog day version of Spuffy! Gonna read all your recs and start with this!!!

Yippieee!!!!!!!!

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Our babies will love vampire stories! :)

I also recommend you to check I'll Be Home For Christmas by Lady Anne - another Groundhog Day-style Spuffy story.

http://vampires-kiss.net/archive/viewstory.php?sid=783

I didn't include the rec into the initial post because the fic was written before 2006 - but it's another keeper. Middle of season 7, Buffy is intent to save Spike from The First and bring him home before Christmas.

[darynthe.livejournal.com]

Oh so sweet a plot! I just melted to goo. :)

Thank you honey! On my way to save and read. I juts love GHD, that movie is my favorite of all time!

[shapinglight]

That's a terrific list. Can't wait to have a look at them. The last one appeals to me especially, as I'm rather fond of Green Card

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

I discovered Green Card by chance, browsing through <lj user="darkwaif"'s recs at her site. She had made terrific illustration for the fics she loves and collected them at her site http://members.aol.com/darkwaif/home.html

[jamalov29.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful list! I've only read the last one.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to attract your attention to the other four. And - I'm fascinated with your avatar.

[jamalov29.livejournal.com]

The beautiful icon is from bogwitch.

[kathiejmie.livejournal.com]

thank you for these recs. i haven't read any of them and several sound quite interesting.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll like the stories. It's amazing how creative Buffyverse ficcers are.

[mommanerd.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I've been meaning to do some re-writes on "Three's the Charm", and this is great motivation. That story ended up being bigger than what I originally planned, and it played havoc with my deadline.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. My favorite fics are the ones I actually had fun writing, and this was one of them.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

I know, deadlines are hard - I only can write short ficlets when I have a deadline. But your story rocks and I think Spuffy is the right couple to put in "Arena" position, because the worse the situation the less they act in denial mode. :)

[katekat]

this is a really great list! i love that you kind of found a new way to sort through some (i'm sure) fabulous fics... thanks for posting!

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Thanks!
The idea to unite these fics in a top five was came to me unexpectedly - I was checking my notes where I write one-phrase descriptions of fics and suddenly realised that ficwriters often pay homage to well-known films.