5 Classic Remixes

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

It's buffyversetop5 classic recs time again, and to start off my lists this year I wanted to give kudos to authors who can remix - who can take someone else’s story and put a new spin on it, or expand it in an unexpected way. Here are five Remixes that I love.

Walking Higher by Liz Marcs in which Xander visits each of his old friends. This one just kills me and I defy you not to be bawling like a baby by the end. It’s also got a really effective mix of 2nd and 3rd person voice that works beautifully for the narrative. This is a remix of Winter Garden by kirvin.


Otherwise a Perfect Sky by aadler is a bleak and beautiful. It's a remix of Come Crashing Down by deird1. The world has gone to hell and the people in the Safety Zone are hanging on by their finger nails.

After the angst, you might want something a bit more fluffy, so Daisy Chains by anyjay would fit the bill. Queen Dawn enjoys a lazy British summer day and contemplates whether she should meddle in the affairs of the adults in her life. This is a lovely remix of antennapedia’s Cloud Animals which is a terrific Xander/Giles story.

Orientation by verity finds Buffy working through her concerns about Xander becoming her Watcher. This is a nice, adult moment between the two, and it’s a lovely remix of this untitled ficlet by sroni

Finally, The Ballad of Charles Whitman by nwhepcat is a remix of Liz Marcs' Revelations. Xander discovers he has a power and it’s not one he would ever have wanted. Liz’s original story is from the point of view of the Scoobies, and what hepcat does brilliantly in the remix is get inside Xander’s head. This is a master class in remixing.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Great lists with some of the Buffyverse's best authors. Thanks for posting.

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

It was a real pleasure rereading these when I was putting this together.

[yourlibrarian]

What a great list choice! And nice to see that most of the original stories are still online. Maybe someone else will know where "Winter Garden" can be found. We're definitely a bit of a fic search community these days as well!

[yourlibrarian]

Hah, I actually found Winter Garden myself while trying to see if I could download the remix at AO3!

Here you go: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29888

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. I only had the link for the LJ entry, and the LJ had been purged, but I hadn't had a chance to go hunting around. I will update the original post!

[yourlibrarian]

One other really interesting thing about that remix is the long author's note at the beginning discussing remix selection and writing -- it could be its own meta post!

[aadler]

It’s always pleasant to be recommended, of course (and you keep doing it!), but even apart from “Otherwise a Perfect Sky” — for which, thank you again — you have some solid stories here, of which I was already familiar with several.

I didn’t actually give “Orientation” enough attention when it first came out; even though it remixes one of my favorite (**cough**sroni!**cough***) people, I must have been preoccupied that year, or just forgot to remember. This wasn’t simply a matter of getting fresh insight with a perspective switch, it followed the original idea out to greater depth, and showed us new insights into authentic portrayals of familiar characters.

“the Ballad of Charles Whitman”, of course, is what got me into remixes in the first place. I had barely heard the word before, but this story … I have many times seen a good writer remix a so-so story and produce something impressive, but this was what happens when a good story by a good writer got chosen by a writer who was just as good and determined to do full justice to the original subject. The result was stunning, and addicted me to remixes instantly and on the spot. The only thing that even came close, in making that kind of impression on me, was from liz_marcs herself in her “Reaping the Whirlwind (the Boom Boom Boom Ba Remix)” … which ultimately fell short only because “the Ballad of Charles Whitman” came first and you never forget your first.

I applaud your taste, even if it does include me.