Top 5 Late 2022 Works

Alone by garnigal. Little look at how Buffy takes stock after Sunnydale disappears.

( 550 ) faith in buffy the vampire slayer by hieroglyph. Part of a project to icon all of her appearances throughout BtVS and Angel.

Read more... )

Top 5 2022 Tumblr art of Buffyverse women

1. Drusilla, the masterpiece by spikedru
2. Harmony by inkblotdemon turns out Harmony was from 2021, so here's Cordelia by demonlandline instead.
3. Punk Dawn by spikedru
4. Buffy and Faith by acid-cloud-turtle
5. Faith, Buffy, and Kendra by doughnutcleric


Top 5 Dark or Sad Stories

Let's wrack up those negative emotions, shall we? 

1. Twelfth Sister: The Council's always known kill one Slayer you get a new one, but now they realize they can kill one Slayer and revive her. It's so dark but so beautifully written. I just love this story. Here's a snippet: "Because, gentleman," he replied, his voice now tinged with a hint of acid, "why should we simply settle for another Kendra? Why should we settle for just one, when we could have a dozen? When we could have a hundred?"

2. Falling Like Icarus: Oh, this is so sad. I don't want to give anything away so I'll just say Xander/Anya and share the summary: She'd come so close to the sun, to joy, but now her wings are melting and she's falling, like Icarus. Xander and Anya's world is shattered with just one word.

3. Extinction: A drabble from Open on Sunday. I'm not sure anything I say here could do it justice. Powerful.

4. Mission Accomplished: Poignant. The unexpected difficulty of a Watcher's last duty to his Slayer. I adore the juxtaposition of the explanation of this terrible duty in Watcher training vs. the reality of having to face it.

5. Blackout: A dying Xander brings his daughter to Spike and Angel. Every time I read this - every time - I cry at the end. This story takes a tragic even and makes it heartwarming.

Top 5 Late 2020 Works

This list became unexpectedly difficult when two of the five recs I had prepped ended up linking to deleted accounts! That seems a high percentage in less than a year?

1) Five People Whose Loan Applications Were Approved At Sunnydale Securities Bank (And One Whose Wasn't) by beer_good_foamy. "So how does Sunnydale… work, exactly? Well, it's a long and complex story of corruption and denial, but let's check in with one of the cogs that make the wheels spin. Remember the loan officer who turned Buffy down in "Flooded"...? Here's his Sunnydale story in six installments, occasionally interacting with the main storyline." The devil is in the details, alright.

Read more... )

Top 5 Late 2019 Works

This year's session of Top 5 closes in 25 hours! So if anyone's still got recs to make this year, post soon or save them for next year :)

With our sessions running late in a year, we don't catch everything still to come. But it's still new to Top 5, so here's a shiny new set of works!

1) Footprints by kerk_hiraeth. Being a librarian, Giles knows the value of ephemera. Read more... )
deird1: Faith and Wesley, with text "rogue demon hunters" (Faith Wesley rogue demon hunters)
[personal profile] deird12020-10-26 10:08 am

5 crossover fics

Reaping the Whirlwind (Boom Boom Ba Remix), by Liz_Marcs

Dead Like Me crossover. Dawn Summers dies, and becomes a reaper.



Miss Summers Goes To Washington, by Beer_Good_Foamy

West Wing crossover. The Scoobies turn up for Big Block of Cheese Day.



Father Goose and the Black Knight, by Litmouse

Law and Order: SVU crossover. Xander and Faith are under investigation. (Very long, but definitely worth your time.)



Misunderstandings, by DonSample

Stargate: SG1 crossover. Are they battling aliens, or demons? Hard to say.



A Gift of Ordinary Magic, by Liz_Marcs

Harry Potter crossover. Magic has left the universe, and Xander is miserable.

Five Fun Stories by New Authors on AO3 (2019)

As far as I'm aware, the authors on this list posted their first Buffyverse work this year (though I'm not necessarily linking their first work, and also it might be a one-off in between their works for other fandoms).

Advice to the Lovelorn by rosa_himmelblau (crossover with House, M.D., Spike, Greg House, background House/Wilson)
Dr. House meets Spike, to great comedic effect.

Read more... )

Flash Forward Weekend!

We've now moved into the final days of our session and are focusing on recs from 2019! To kick us off, here are some of mine:

No. 6 Buffy/Angel dots by electric_heart. I thought the style was snazzy!

Buffy to finish out 2016 by artofjph. I liked the sort of jagged look that suited Buffy's inner state.

P.O.T.D. by Twinkles. Painted Illyria and Fred. What I really liked about this was the way the artist captured Fred's smile so well.

No. 17 Faith in battle by pureimagination. I quite liked this close up of her, it really gets across action in a close up.

Daddy Angel by pureimagination. Not as many icons out there of Angel cradling a baby even though he did so quite a few times and there's so many kidfics out there!

5 Awesome Oz fics

I love Oz, and when he’s written well, it makes me very happy. Here are five fics that do just that…

No Cold and Heat by [livejournal.com profile] idyll makes me tear up every time I read it because it is so damn beautiful - bleak, and sad with a chink of light in the clouds that makes my heart ache. Oz is rescued and now must find himself. There’s a hint of slash at the end, but really this is a story that’s all about Oz.

More Ozness this way... )

Five Meta Posts by impalementation [2019]

Starting early with the 2019 links.
It feels like, every time I glance at the Sunnydale Digest lately, tumblr user impalementation is poised to blow my mind by saying things like

"randomly thinking about the demon bikers in bargaining"

or Read more... )

Classic Recs 2019 – Images

1) Lie to Me by watcherspet. One thing that Tumblr has been great for is for the development of gifsets as a fandom art form. While many of them are just nice collections of scenes, my favorites are the ones which serve as a sort of meta, usually by juxtaposing images (within or across fandoms) or by adding text in a form of commentary.

This was one of my favorites from this past year. The use of these scenes stand in sharp contrast to Giles' efforts to provide a sort of reductive but comforting promise.

2) Someone Needs to Stop Me by Palizinhas. A little Jenny/Giles bit of humor. I'm sure he's not the only librarian to have thought about this.

3) Scooby Aesthetic Spreads by Alien Commune. Yet another form of fanwork that hasn't been around as long.

4) Ebullient Faith by timetobegin. I love the way #7 captures Faith's energy. Wonderful set of icons all around.

5) A little headcanon of mine that takes place after the Prom by Official Rapunzel Fitzherbert. Drawing of Buffy and Giles, wonderfully emotional. "I just like to imagine that they had their ice cream. And there was lots of shmoop."

Five Short Fics About My Xander

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.

5 Crossovers with The West Wing

Quite a while back I decided one of my Top 5 lists would be stories rec'd on Indri's site which is where I ran across Donna the Vampire Slayer, a crossover with The West Wing. Listening to The Sunnydale Fanfic Club, a podcast that discusses fanfic with the authors, I heard that Beer Good Foamy has a West Wing crossover, Miss Summers Goes to Washington. And thus the BtVS / West Wing crossover rec list was born.

the stories are sad because CJ never gets to be a Slayer )

(no subject)

Favorite 2017 meta posts, in no particular order :

1. Meta on the vampires of the Buffyverse by [livejournal.com profile] hannahforlove.

2. Meta on Fred and Illyria by [livejournal.com profile] deird1.

3. Meta on Buffy's relationships with Spike and Angel by [livejournal.com profile] itsnotmymind.

4. Meta on School Hard by [livejournal.com profile] molly_may.

5. Meta on Faith's mental state by [livejournal.com profile] itsnotmymind.

5 vids I really like

I really admire people who can put visuals together, either art or videos. I can play with words to my heart’s content, but pictures are way beyond me. Here are five vids that have got under my skin over the years.

If you’re looking for a reminder that Buffy wasn’t just about quips and kicky boots, then
Bad Mood Rising by Robin’s Revenge is just the ticket. I love the use of a much more brooding version of this song to look at the darker side of Scoobydom.

Clickity click for more vids )

Five classic fics that make me shiver

I love [livejournal.com profile] buffyversetop5 classic recs. It's a great time to rootle around in the vault and rediscover fics that got me hooked on fandom way, way back in the day. As we're coming up to Halloween, here are five fics that make me shiver.

Three Ring by [livejournal.com profile] brutti_ma_buoni finds Xander and Willow on a school trip to a less than normal circus. There aren’t any clowns in this fic, but if there were, I’m damn sure they’d be scary. This story always makes me want to go back and read Something Wicked This Way Comes. This is Gen.

Follow the trail of breadcrumbs to the gingerbread house... )

Top 5 Everyone In the Kitchen Sink

So here's a bit of many characters, fandoms, and working on the formats ;)

1) Five Vampires Dr. Horrible Never Met by snowpuppies. Dr. Horrible has a plan to become more evil. Unfortunately, he needs the help of a vampire.

2) Foreign Spices May Disagree With You by AnonEhouse. Saffron's good at conning but some people have been running a way longer game.

3) Nine Rules for Living in a Broken World by Wisdom Eagle. Various crossovers set in the Dark Angel universe, though my favorite of these is II. Dance with your head held high with Original Cindy and Gunn.

4) I Hate You by double_dutchess. Sometimes it isn't a thin line, it's just hate between vampires.

5) The Director Will See You Now by toucanpie. What if SHIELD were responsible for more than just chasing down and sorting out the unexplainable? What if the fate of the world rested in their hands? (The Cabin in the Woods fusion).