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Going back in time is weird.
Jan. 4th, 2005 01:09 amDuring my vacation, I stayed with a friend in Ottawa. My friend very kindly offered to share in my obsession a little, so we watched some Buffy. Unfortunately I hadn't thought to pack my DVDs (terrible oversight!) so we ended up renting from Blockbuster, and what they had was disk 1 and disk 4 from Season 3. In other words: "Anne," "Dead Man's Party," "Faith, Hope & Trick," "Beauty and the Beasts," and then "Helpless," "The Zeppo," "Bad Girls," and "Consequences."
It was weird watching these eps with a friend who was seeing them for the first time. She was very angry at Joyce for the way she treated Buffy in "Dead Man's Party," and she disliked both Faith and Wesley on sight. Very similar to my own initial reaction in each case...but now all these characters are like old friends, and it was hard to stop myself from saying anything about what lies in store for each of them.
Going back and watching those eps, I realize the extreme irony that in the long term, the people who will be Angel's most important and dedicated friends (amongst those in Sunnydale at the time) will be Cordelia, Wesley and Faith. I mean, seriously. Watch S3, and think about that. Isn't it bizarre and hilarious?
Watching the start/middle of S3 also made me hurt on behalf of Faith. Especially when Buffy says she'll never give up on Faith, when I know she does about one episode later. So then I went out looking for fic in Faith's voice, and found a good one which I'd like to rec:
Theory of a Girl by Jintian.
This is the story of Faith, in her own voice, after she goes to jail. It goes AU after "The Gift." I love Jintian's insight into what makes Faith tick; this story is beautiful and hard-edged and agonizing, just like canon Faith. There's a sequel, Theurgy, which is also wonderful. That one's Faith/Buffy. (Since normally I can be counted on for the Spike love, I feel I should warn that Spike comes across as kind of a jerk in these stories—but it makes sense in context, seen from Faith's POV.)
It was weird watching these eps with a friend who was seeing them for the first time. She was very angry at Joyce for the way she treated Buffy in "Dead Man's Party," and she disliked both Faith and Wesley on sight. Very similar to my own initial reaction in each case...but now all these characters are like old friends, and it was hard to stop myself from saying anything about what lies in store for each of them.
Going back and watching those eps, I realize the extreme irony that in the long term, the people who will be Angel's most important and dedicated friends (amongst those in Sunnydale at the time) will be Cordelia, Wesley and Faith. I mean, seriously. Watch S3, and think about that. Isn't it bizarre and hilarious?
Watching the start/middle of S3 also made me hurt on behalf of Faith. Especially when Buffy says she'll never give up on Faith, when I know she does about one episode later. So then I went out looking for fic in Faith's voice, and found a good one which I'd like to rec:
Theory of a Girl by Jintian.
This is the story of Faith, in her own voice, after she goes to jail. It goes AU after "The Gift." I love Jintian's insight into what makes Faith tick; this story is beautiful and hard-edged and agonizing, just like canon Faith. There's a sequel, Theurgy, which is also wonderful. That one's Faith/Buffy. (Since normally I can be counted on for the Spike love, I feel I should warn that Spike comes across as kind of a jerk in these stories—but it makes sense in context, seen from Faith's POV.)
