buffyversetop5 | Entries tagged with cat: preseries

sparrow2000

summer_of_giles is always a highlight of my fandom year, both as a writer and a consumer. Here are five fics that really jumped out at me, but with the caveat that as always there is a ton of great stuff that is worth checking out and I'm still way behind with my reading! The SoG DW account has very user friendly tags if you want to go delving back into the archive for goodies from previous years. SoG also has an AO3 account, so that’s another way to get your Giles on.

The Call by pbjellius is a lovely glimpse of pre-Sunnydale Giles who is doing mindless busywork for the Council and dreaming something bigger. And really, if you were a vampire, you don’t want to get between a having a bad day Giles and the pub - just saying!

( More Giles goodies this way... )

thenewbuzwuzz

Happy Ace Week, folks!

Asexual!Oz in "You're Too Picky, Man": An Ace Reading of Oz's Character Arc in BTVS by Coyote (osteophage)
This is really well thought out, and I can't believe I missed this reading until Coyote spelled it out for me in an essay. Honestly, there's no going back for me--the way I see Oz is changed forever.

( Read more... )

dragonyphoenix

Asylum: Buffy’s never left the mental institution and it’s a horror movie / series. I would watch the shit out of this.
Ripper Opening Titles: If Ripper's backstory were a spinoff. Oh yeah, loved this video for years now.
Ripper Trailer: post canon; ooh, looks awesome but might be too scary for little old me.
Illyria Opening Credits: I just found this video this evening. It's so good.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: School Reunion: Asks the question what would Buffy look like if it came back now? It would look freaking awesome.

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

summer_of_giles is a lovely sandbox to play in every year and to enjoy some wonderful creativity. Here are five fics from SoG I enjoyed this year. (There's a lot more there than just these five, so go over to the comm and have an amble through all the great work.)

The Mirror Broke (But All My Friends Were Laughing) by 23Murasaki. I’m a sucker for a well written AU and this one is lovely. Randall lives post Eyghon and Giles’ life takes a different turn. This is excellently done.

( More Gilsean goodness this way... )

petzipellepingo.livejournal.com

In no particular order :
( Read more... )

thenewbuzwuzz

The best stories from the Bangel ficathon as selected by a Spuffy shipper, let's go!

Unrequited by aboutafox (2097w, T)
Setting: pre-series (Buffy is not present)
What I liked: in this character study, we get to see Angel from his own POV and from Whistler's, not from Buffy's, and I thought that gave him some lovely depth and maybe made him more consistent with AtS!Angel - the interesting, vulnerable kind of Angel. Also, there was at least one joke that I really loved, and a neat OC.

( Read more... )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

This is my last set of recs for this session of

buffyversetop5. Thanks as always to the brilliant mods for hosting this every year, and thank you to everyone who has added wonderful recs, both old and new, to my ‘to read list'. Anyway, on with the motley...

Confidence by Deangerous - nice, believable moment between Cordy and Xander when he tells her about sleeping outside at Christmas.

( More randomness this way... )

flowspuffy.livejournal.com

Can you believe that more than twenty years after the show first aired numerous fanfics are still being written and published? It shows that BtVS really has stood the test of time and that the fandom is still alive and kicking. Yay! So from all those wonderful new stories here are five which are short and Spuffy and have been first published in 2019.

( Read more... )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

summer_of_giles always gives us lovely stuff each year, and here are just a few that I loved this year. Of course, there are a lot more, so make sure you go check up the comm for the rest of this year's lovelies.

The Tyranny of Numbers by

aadler is fascinating. It’s Giles, Dawn and set well post Chosen. To say much about it would give the game away, so I’m just going to go with the author’s summary - People change. Sometimes the changes don’t make sense. Sometimes they make … a kind of sense. Now go read and find out what’s going on.

( More Gilesian treats... )

snickfic

I had trouble coming up with a theme, since this is literally "two fics I read this year and really loved" + "some other stuff I love." XD Anyway, I hope folks enjoy! I've certainly gotten a lot of enjoyment out of buffyversetop5 over the years. <3

( mix of characters and pairings behind the cut! )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

Yay for the return of

buffyversetop5. Thank you to

petzipellepingo and

yourlibrarian for continuing to host this lovely celebration of our fandom every year.

Since we’re running up to Halloween, here are five stories that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This is a mixture of pairings and canon characters.

For All My Pains A World of Sighs by

baudown makes my heart ache at the same time as it gives me chills. This is mainly focused on Spike and his kills and is wonderfully written, and the short section at the end with Xander is haunting and beautiful. This has some slash.

( More fics that make me shiver... )

rebcake.livejournal.com

One of our Classic Fandom treasures is

hello_spikey, whose secret identity includes being an award-winning professional speculative fiction writer. Shhhh. We had her first!

While not all of her stories are on AO3 yet, many are. Versatility is her hallmark. I daresay that among her works there is a story with a pairing, a rating, a kink, or a mood to suit the tastes of any Buffyverse fic fan. Here is a brief selection of a very few of my personal favorites, in ascending order of length:

Once More, With Lorne (Teen, 1624 words)
Lorne investigates reports of an entire town bursting into song.

( More, hello_spikey, more! )

lusciousxander

1) Another Harris Family Joke by punch_kicker15: BUFFY: Have you ever done an exchange program?
XANDER: My dad tried to sell me to some Armenians once, does that count? - Inca Mummy Girl

2) When Xander Harris Was A Girl by nothorse: After the road-trip Xander had a demony accident. And now she must cope.

3) Dirty Boy by dipenates: Xander feels like he and Faith are on the same page, like they have a connection. Episode tag for 3.05 "Consequences".

4) Words to Live By by Sparrow2000: After Sunnydale collapses, Xander gets an unexpected visitor. A fic that will take a very dark turn.

5) Letters Never Send by nothorse: Xander tries to write a letter to Jesse's parents.

lusciousxander

1) Sands of Time by James and Wolfing: I can never describe how much this story means to me. It was the first fanfic I ever read. It holds a special place in my heart. It's Xander angst at its finest and I'm a huge Xander angst fan. I love the Xander/Giles relationship here, perhaps even more than the Xander/Spike relationship. I love the chapter about Giles' family and Xander meeting them for the first time. I also love the part where Xander tastes his father's blood on Spike's lips - so chilling!

2) The Giles Thing by DrSquidlove: Another Xander fic I adore! It had probably the best portrayal of Xander's parents that I've ever seen in fics, and IMO the closest to the show's canon. The author writes the relationships between the characters so perfectly, and the characters' reaction to the relationship between Xander and Giles, especially Buffy and Joyce, was amazing.

3) Cuckoo in the Nest by Liz-Marcs: Told completely from Tony Harris' unreliable narration! I loved watching the show through Xander's father's eyes! A wonderful character study.

4) Sidelines by Anna S: The perfect "What if Xander was the gay Scooby instead of Willow" fic!

5) Late Night Double Feature by Kimberly A: The sequel for Just a Jump to the Left which I adore because it's the closest of an unrequited love story where Xander is in love with Spike while Spike is oblivious that I can find! Xander faces the consequences of the time loop in the previous fic, and realizes that making changes in his relationship with Spike isn't quite as easy as he'd like.

dragonyphoenix

I'm unsure of exactly when Buffyverse Top 5 ends, so I'm getting this in before work. Indri has written what may well be my favorite Buffy fanfic of all time In the Morning of the Magicians, Giles and Ethan, the electric Kool-Aid funky Satan groove year, in the early seventies. I decided to share stories from her rec list but a lot of the links were dead so I've been looking up stories; I've started posting a list of her recs here if anyone else is interested. I can't say they're the top 5 because I haven't read all the stories in her list yet.

Herself NYC captured captured Spike's darker side, the vampire's indifference for human life, but also something of the poet who cares for something higher, and I'm thinking of the poet where he tells her to run like hell if she sees him again, in Manhattan Nocturne.

( the rest of the stories are dragging me away from the computer, shouting that I'll be late for work if I don't get a move on )

petzipellepingo.livejournal.com

In no particular order :
( Read more... )

dragonyphoenix

Snowpuppies Chosen is a series of vignettes, Slayers and their Watchers. They're short and they're all dark, but they're amazing. Note, Snowpuppies lists Mission Accomplished as an inspiration for these stories but here link is broken. You can read it here.
( the rest of the stories are pondering the eternal question: hundreds of channels and noting to watch )

dragonyphoenix

or something close to a white hat anyway! I'm exhausted so this list may be shortish on descriptions but anything I recommend with Ethan in it will be near and dear to my heart.

1. Absent Friends by il mio capitano. Oh, yeah, awesome. I recently asked if anyone could find this story for me. Basically all I'd recalled was the pub crawl based on The World's End and that Ethan was in it. Turns out it features Giles rather than Xander but given how fond I am of Giles and Ethan together, that was hardly a drawback. This one's more white-hatish rather than an out and out white-hat tale.

( the rest of the links are busy putting me too bed )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

There is no particular theme that connects these apart from that they're all pretty short and do their job very well.

The Watcher’s Mistress by elisi is a great Buffy/Dr Who ficlet in which Giles and Missy find themselves compatible. This is a lovely idea, nicely executed.

( More goodies... )

dragonyphoenix

These works may or may not have been posted in 2018 but they were all nominated for the 2018 Headline Awards which celebrates the works of Anthony Head, the actor who played Giles. And that last bit probably goes without saying. If you have any favorite works featuring Giles, I'm certain GilesCandy would love to see you nominate for the Headline Awards.

Of course I can't say these are the best works nominated for the Headline Awards because there are too many great works to pick from but these are all works that spoke to me.

1. GilesCandy's video Hallelujah.She picked images covering all the seasons that go so well with the song.
( the rest of the works are mocking me for watching Christmas specials before Halloween )

thenewbuzwuzz

Mostly Spuffy.

A Touch of Her Style
by myrabeth
(R, 49,339w, complete)
Author's summary: Season 2, but with a different pre-series history. Robin Wood moves to Sunnydale to back up Buffy in her on-going battles with Drusilla. But when Buffy's romance with Angel takes a dark and dangerous turn, Robin determines his assistance won't be enough, and calls in some back up of his own: the old family friend who wears his mother's coat.

( Read more... )

thenewbuzwuzz

...or at least they never contradict canon... uh, BtVS canon, at any rate. This is a list of missing scene fic, until I run out of missing scene fic -- bear with me. Almost everything is Spuffy, and all of it is complete.

1. Pre-series: met a seriously scary Hungarian countess.
House-Guests From Hell And How To Send Them Back There
by

shapinglight
(Fanged Four, T, 12,353w, complete)
I loved all the characters here, but Dru was especially fabulous. And the way that historical person fits into the story is just awe-inspiring.

( Read more... )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

I’ll finish my spamming with five fics that have nothing in common apart from the fact I thought they were great and they were written in 2017.

A new ficlet by

baudown is always a pleasure because I love her elegant use of language and the way she can paint such a detailed portrait in such a short time. Trapped is a prime example - it’s Xander contemplating the contradictions of his vampire, beause no one can do contrary quite like Spike.

( More random recs... )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

Here are five longer fics from

summer_of_giles I really enjoyed.

Second Sight by

il_mio_capitano finds our intrepid Watcher thrown back to his 21 year old self, two months before Eyhgon. This isn’t about the Eyhgon incident, but it is about choices. I really liked the portrayal of Giles’ father in this fic, and his grandmother is wonderful - just remember to comb your hair and wash behind your ears before you meet her.

( More Gilesian goodness... )

rebcake

I love sparkling dialog, but a story without it can feel timeless. Most of these are about Slayers we haven't met before, but are fascinating in their own right. Links are to AO3, when possible.

The Queen, The Soldier by

beer_good_foamy (PG, Gen)
Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there was a town. And in the town was a girl, who didn't want to die. The story of a slayer who did things differently when faced with a people-eating giant.

( Four more exciting tales, and a bonus! )

thenewbuzwuzz

( You're about to view content that the poster has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: chipper

rbfvid.livejournal.com

Five favorite pre-series shorts of the past year, arranged from shortest to longest.

Prodigal Son by

dragonyphoenix (or here is AO3 link). Giles, three encounters after Randall's funeral. Three incredibly powerful insights on how young Ripper was turning into Giles.

( Read more... )

rbfvid.livejournal.com

Five favorite scary stories. Just keep in mind that some of these go with major character death warning. Won't tell which ones, because I'm evil like that. And because spoilers.

Truly and Forever by

thuviaptarth. What if Willow managed to resurrect Tara? Rated NC-17, and not exactly for the smut.

( Read more... )

rbfvid.livejournal.com

rebcake asked for pre-series fic focused on Darla or Dru, and I'm happy to oblige (though I doubt I can offer anything new to her). All stories rated PG to PG-13 (yes, I'm shocked, too!)

Traveller by

selenak. Darla might not know the rules yet, but she had always known how to make men break them. Darla and the Master, in the beginning.

( Read more... )

yourlibrarian

Dawn Meets Cordy by onegirlinalltheworld. So this isn't a fic about pre-series Dawn but I thought it was a nifty idea about how Dawn and Cordelia might have bonded in S2.

( Read more... )

dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com

Open on Sunday hasn’t had a post since July. As a memorial, I found five great - I went through a bunch but I didn’t read them all - drabbles written for an Open on Sunday prompt.

1.

punch_kicker15’s If You Are What You Say You Are because I’m a sucker for a happy ending.

2.

romanyg’s Woman of Property because I’m also a sucker for angst

3.

beer_good_foamy’s Advant Gardener because no one writes humor like Beer Good Foamy

4.

baudown’s Parlour Games because awesome Spander

5.

nihilistbear’s Kiss from “Once More With Feeling” because ouch!

And while I’m here, the first prompt since April has recently been posted at Giles Shorts. Go. Write.

dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com

1. Dead!Giles 'verse by

thea_bromine. Spike helps a dying Giles. Things get strange.

2. Of Old Mystics by Omphalos and

wolfling. After the Council has fallen, Giles rescues Ethan from the Initiative only to learn that together they have a destiny. One of my long-time faves.

3. Responsible Adults by mydiera and

sadbhyl. Giles/Ethan/Joyce. On the night Ethan would have pulled that Fyarl transformation spell on Giles, Joyce joins them. Things change from there.
Note: Sadbhyl wrote an essay: When You Girls Are Older You'll Understand (Rupert Giles/Joyce Summers/Ethan Rayne)

4. Bookends by

il_mio_capitano. Buffy/Giles. Mmm, a story that brightens my day when a new chapter is posted.

5. In the Morning of the Magicians by

indri. Ripper/Ethan back in the day. On of my favorite BtVS stories.

beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com

To contrast the last post, here are five fics of varying degrees of seriousness that I liked.

What if? by

mej_lj. The Council is very good at finding and training girls. What happens to all the ones who aren't chosen?

( Four more )

chasingdemons.livejournal.com

The

sb_fag_ends Halloween Challenge happens in the last week of October. Participating writers compete to fill the most prompts with short Spuffy stories of 1,000 words or less. It’s actually more complicated, but I can never figure out the rules. The important thing is the results. Whimsical, eclectic and comedic themes expertly written. One of the most fun fandom events of the year. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Party Hard
by

drizzlydaze
On Buffy’s 16th birthday, one week after she’s first told she’s the slayer, she meets Spike.

( See the rest of my pics below the cut )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

Peers over the parapet and waves at everone. Wow, where did 2015 go!

I admit to shameless pillaging from my end of year review, but then why reinvent the wheel. There were a lot more than five gen fics that I loved this year, so this is just a cross-section of them.

Last Man Standing by

thea_bromine finds a potential trainee watcher having a chat with the head of the Council. This is lovely, vivid storytelling and well worth a read.

( And there's more... )

yourlibrarian

1) A Fine Spur by lettered. The first of a series of Bruce POV Avengers stories, well before Ultron's Bruce and Natasha storyline and wayyy better. ( Read more... )

dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com

As I was waiting for Buffyverse Top 5 to begin this month, these came to mind as in I didn't go looking at my bookmarks.

1. Indri's In the Morning of the Magicians. This is totally my head-canon for how Ripper and Ethan met. It has so many things going for it. Bourgeois Ripper who is put off by his friends' lifestyle. The story Ripper is telling himself keeps changing as he realizes he's not going to make it big as a musician. How Eyghon would not have been invoked without both Ripper and Ethan in the mix, but Ripper denies all blame, putting it all on Ethan. This is what breaks Ethan, taking the blame onto himself and thinking that he doesn't know how to have friends and that's what turns him into the Ethan from BtVS. It's a marvelous tale.

( the rest of the recs are at the halloween party / samhain ritual that I'm late for )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

So to prove that I don’t just read Xander-centric fic, here are five that I really like that don’t have a Xander anywhere in sight!

In The Time of Wolves by

valyssia is a brilliant study of Willow’s grief after Joyce’s death. There’s just something about this one that gets right under my skin.

( And there’s more... )

dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com

worksafe.

1. Polly Esther's The Odd Couple homage focusing on Giles and Spike as roommates is hilarious.

( the rest of the recs are wondering how that Thai Basil Rice would taste reheated )

baudown.livejournal.com

Last year, I posted five historical fics, and promised I would post five more. I didn't get around to it then, so here they are now:

1. Sacred, by Valancy -- An encounter between Angel, Spike, and Dru, set sometime after the events of the Boxer Rebellion. This is one of those stories that makes you think, "Oh, of course that would have happened." A beautifully written, emotionally authentic story with spot-on voices and characterization. I've only recently discovered this story, and unfortunately have been able to find very little of the author's other work.

( Read more... )

rbfvid.livejournal.com

Some favorite fanart drawings from the past year.
Click either on the links or on the thumbnails to get to full-size images.
( See more... )

beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com

A Half-Formed Thing by

brutti_ma_buoni (Willow/Tara)
There's probably dozens of fics on the the topic "What if character X got split in two in 'The Replacement'", but this one is excellent - picking Willow apart, the good and the bad sprinkled liberally all over, refusing to pretend that either half is expendable.

( Four more )

lusciousxander.livejournal.com

I haven't really read a lot of BtVS fics this year, but these five stood out for me. :)

( 2014 Fics )

baudown.livejournal.com

I adore historical fics, and it was really hard to narrow this list down to five. You may be getting a "Five More" list soon!

1. Sweet William, by Peasant -- The early days of William and the Fanged Four. One of my favorite buffyverse fics, historical or otherwise.

2. A Winter's Tale, by Coquette -- The Fanged Four on a Northern journey. Beautiful writing, engrossing plot.

3. Delight Becomes Pictorial, by glossiolalia -- William/Angelus. Dark, hot.

4. Many Loves, by Anonymous -- The loves of William (and Spike), from turning until after The Gift.

5. Thicker Than Water, by Tara R. -- Shanghai, 1900. An encounter between Angelus and William. Or is it Angel and Spike?

dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com

1. Snowpuppies' Chosen series is a delightfully dark set of stories, each with a different Slayer.

( the rest of the stories are running around being girly, kicking ass )

baudown.livejournal.com

Five fics that will get under your skin:

1. The Loving Dead, by witling -- Xander is being haunted. Is it ghosts, or ghosts of the past? Eerie, atmospheric, and a little bit heartbreaking. A beautifully rendered Xander.

2. Macrame, by Anna S -- Willow overuses magic. Magic has consequences. As always, the writing is extraordinary. Spander.

3. Skin Deep, by Doyle -- A short and very scary season 7 AU. Yikes.

4. Cuckoo in the Nest, by liz marks -- A character study of Tony Harris, an all-too human monster. This will hit you like a punch to the gut. This one stuck with me for a long, long time.

5. Red Frame, White Light, by sparrow2000 -- Post-soul Spike's craziness takes a slightly different form. His encounter with Xander is shivery perfection.

dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com

Yay! I thougth this was starting tommorow but it's today! Oooh, and loving the batty background.

Of course I'm going to start with slash. Wow, and every single one of these has Giles in it. Fixated much?

1. Indri's In the Morning of the Magicians is now my head canon for Ripper/Ethan, how they met, and why they invoked Eyghon. Delightful.

( the rest of the recs have started a donnybrook over what kind of porny music they should be playing )

yourlibrarian

1) Bring Home the Dawn by argentumlupine. Podfic performance of the fic by Mercurie. "Robin watches his mother go out on patrol every night."

( Read more... )

lusciousxander.livejournal.com

1) Forget-me-not by

mierke: Ten years have passed since Chosen. Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles meet by the crater where Sunnydale used to be every year to catch up on what's happening in their lives. Bittersweet and sad, shows you how the Scoobies have drifted apart yet still make time to see each other and catch up. Just like blood-related families on Christmas and Thanksgiving.
( Check out the rest! )

sparrow2000.livejournal.com

Five terrific fics from

summer_of_giles 2013.

The Last Watcher by

shapinglight is Giles/Ethan and a brilliant reminder that sometimes Giles at his most civil is also Giles at his most terrifying. Just lovely.

( For more Giles loveliness... )

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