~~love and catalysts and damn, i'm proud to be a redemptionista

[reenka]

that scene. oh my dear gahd, that -scene- in the basement, with spike and buffy. that is EVERYTHING i want to happen with harry & draco.
    everything, goddamnit.
    all those people who want spike/draco evil. who think being a redemptionist makes one weak and soft.
    god. that. just. breaks through all that.

``I believe in you, Spike."

just.
    i don't know. what else is there?
and i know. i know this is only possible because spike -wanted- to change, and buffy recognized that. but he did it for buffy. she was the catalyst.
    *laughs* i realize this isn't very useful to anyone who didn't watch the episode, but wah. i can be t00by if i feel like it, so there. i sort of liked buffy in this one. she is... not as lost as she was last season, not as cynical, more open, more real, somehow. she takes responsibility, and fights back in healthier ways. she is learning balance.
    and how cool is the amazing good-cop/bad-cop team of xander and anya?? and how much do i love the Trio??! a -lot-. ahem.
    muwahahah, and no clex this week, only another doomed lurve for our destined hero.

~~
in other news, cassie claire's fanart for the latest chapter-- blows me away. especially this by linn, which is yet another h/d pic that makes me chagrined that i've ever thought i did anything right. sigh. gahd. that is... just...intense. malfoy. malfoy. malfoy. *breathes* he looks unbelievable. the first time i saw that intensity that usually comes through the best fic, the emotional volatility. all there. amazing.
~~

vanityfair already mentioned this, but i had to reproduce it. gah. i dunno, but this poem just seemed eerily fitting to me, when i read it. kind of inspires me to write, but in a muted way, that isn't clear to me as of yet.



Three sorts of serpents do resemble thee:
That dangerous eye-killing cockatrice,
The enchanting siren, which doth so entice,
The weeping crocodile--these vile pernicious three.
The basilisk his nature takes from thee,
Who for my life in secret wait dost lie,
And to my heart sendst poison from thine eye:
Thus do I feel the pain, the cause, yet cannot see.
Fair-maid no more, but Mer-maid be thy name,
Who with thy sweet alluring harmony
Hast played the thief, and stolen my heart from me,
And like a tyrant makst my grief thy game:
Thou crocodile, who when thou hast me slain,
Lamentst my death, with tears of thy disdain.


--- Michael Drayton

*sigh* the only poem/lyric that hit me as hard (with the h/d vibe) was `ghost', by the indigo girls. the basilisk and the serpent imagery is just -ripe- for interpretation, in light of the CoS especially. so i'm sharing in the hopes it'll spark something in someone who wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

~~

and. RestrictedSection.Org blows my mind. wah. it looks so, so, so, so cool you guys..!

*squees unrepentantly*
so much smut...! so little time..!

Comments

eeee!!!

[kittywitch.livejournal.com]

Harry telling Draco he believes in him, and Draco getting teary!!
*dies*

I thought Buffy was just beautiful tonight. Those two have the loveliest speeches, like in Season 6 when she first came home from digging her way outta that grave, and he did the "Every night I save you" speech.
I still die about that.

[silviakundera.livejournal.com]

that scene. oh my dear gahd, that -scene- in the basement, with spike and buffy. that is EVERYTHING i want to happen with harry & draco.
everything, goddamnit.
all those people who want spike/draco evil. who think being a redemptionist makes one weak and soft.

Yes! (!!) Spike isn't ALL soft and mushy! He's still barely restrained violence! and gah, the images he brought up. He's still bitter and often does and says the exactly wrong thing.

And that's what I LOVE about him. And that's why I can believe it. They took season 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 to get us to this point. We could see the transition.

and that's what I'd need in a Draco redemptionist fic. I'd need the transition. Too many of them just hop from the end of Season 2 to tonight's episode. And, you know, you just couldn't have shown me this eppy right after "Becoming". Or even in the beginning of Season 5. Both Spike and Buffy had a lot of journeying to come to this point -- both of them.

and, hmmm. yeah. I think that's also a problem with some Draco redemptionist fic. They ignore the Harry needs to move as well. It's not just Draco moving into Harry's space. It needs to be Draco and Harry moving into a new space, of their own making.

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

Please, please and please. Some of us don't HAVE Season 7 yet. Some of us really, really hate spoilers. LJ-cut?

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Word to everything you said!

I stopped watching buffy after Season four, but that was half because of the fandom at the time, and half because I didn't like chipped!Spike. (Not redeemed!Spike, but the fact that he was chipped. I don't know why, possibly the fact that he had no choice about the whole thing ... I'm babbling.)

But, yes. H/D, for me, is all about the both of them learning that things are not completely black or white, and sort of moving into that communal grey area.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

erk. usually do that, thought i wasn't going in enough detail... plus it wasn't a review, per se... but i realize i wasn't thinking straight.
today, looking at it again, i realize that was-- um-- definitely tmi.
sowwy....

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually read most of it. I've become adept at noticing phrases like "tonight's Buffy!" and crossing my eyes until it stops. So don't worry too much.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

yes~!
hee. was wondering if i waited longer, if i'd come up with something... more thought-out-seeming than that.
but. that `new space' thing-- that is definitely what i'm looking for, that doesn't tend to happen. at least, i haven't seen it in any finished long!fic in hp...
except perhaps `artful facade'... hmmm... but that's not exactly going for the redemption angle, as far as i can tell.

and yes~! being redeemed isn't a clear-cut thing, doesn't make you a saint. some things don't wash off, and neither does it make sense to try and wash them off, like angel tries to.
buffy certainly isn't pure and innocent, and is never going to get that way. it's all about-- i don't know-- hope, maybe. a willingness to be human, to change, to really be open.
before certain things happen, naturally they wouldn't even know what it even -entails- to be redeemed.

no one is really all that "good" and "nice", on buffy, anyway.
not anya, not willow, not buffy. maybe xander, but he's just a doof, anyway :D
and then there's jonathan and of course tara. but they're like-- contrasts. balances. they always seem fated to die. so. they're like-- missing something. that keeps them alive. i dunno. maybe that was reaching. but still.

no one's tame. but i guess it's redeeming to be someone that someone can believe in... because you're trying, at least, even if you're not succeeding a lot of the time.
maybe~:)