Two BtVS/AtS vid and fic recs
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halfamoonVid rec, hot off the press: Origin Stories - storyboard and editing by giandujakiss, commissioned and conceived by untrue-accounts for Sweet Charity. untrue-accounts has posted lyrics here.
An unsparing look at Buffyverse women and characters of color who struggle against domination, marginalization, and silence imposed by the stories of white men, it burns all the way down. Specific focus on the relationship between Spike and the Slayer line, in particular Nikki and Robin Wood and Dana from AtS S5. As the summary says, It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat. etothey has an outstanding, can't-miss commentary here. If you liked any of the recs in Through Critical Eyes - or even if you didn't - watch this vid. If I could leap out of your screen and grab you by the collar, I would.
Fic rec, older but still awesome: Five in One, by Selena.
I've recced this here because it explores themes similar to those of Origin Stories. Vivid and sharp as a knife, it digs into five different lines from BtVS/AtS canon and gives each of those nameless or minor-character victims - most of them women - a voice, a history, a crushing weight denied them in the show.
ETA: Even at a casual glance, there's already an influx of great commentary on Origin Stories; I look forward to seeing more.
untrue-accounts comments on Robin's unnoticed heroism
minnow1212 comments on Nikki and the injustice perpetrated against her dual communities
skywardprodigal comments on how It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat = how white women betray women of color while fighting for the same things, robbing children of color and the adults those children eventually become. If they manage to live.
untrue-accounts and giandujakiss explain Robin's POV as a collective for the Slayers/Potentials/ignored voices and a critique of Buffy-the-character
counteragent and untrue-accounts talk about Dana, Robin's symbolic identity as a Slayer whose fight is that of his mother's and all Slayers, and how their stories are irrevocably compromised because of the show's issues
skywardprodigal asks How the hell did Buffy equate redeeming problematic power with putting it squarely in the hands of the epitome of young white womanhood and undying, white manhood provided it's subordinate to white womanhood?
goluxexmachina discusses fetishizing stories about girls getting exploited and violated and how seriously racially heirarchized the Jossverse ended up even down to intra-racial conflicts, with blonde Buffy beating down dark-haired (get-it, dark?) Faith, and the skeevy scene of the white triumvirate of Angel, Spike, and Wes taking down brown Dana (she's taken back by the slayers, but this means she's ultimately handed off to the custody of another white trio: Buffy, Giles, and Andrew).
ETA2:
aycheb problematizes making Robin the main POV and ultimately only through him the non-eponymous Vampire Slayers
And then I had some thoughts inspired by aycheb re: Robin's POV and Slayers past, present, and future, so I've copied them here (gently edited for cogency, I hope).
The sense of the argument that I got from the vid was that for all the sympathy and grief Buffy shows over the deaths of the Potentials, her major close-ups in vid footage are when she's with Spike: Buffy lying in bed with Spike's arm around her, Buffy holding the bag of blood at arm's length for Spike - which is an interesting image in itself insofar as it captures a sense of sometimes-unwilling collusion with the enemy. But (as far as the vid's concerned) it's still collusion, and all the sympathy she shows for the Potentials - and by extension, for the women we Spike see murder in the vid pre- and post-soul - isn't enough to make up for the complicity that kills.
As for the Potentials themselves, I think you're right in positing that the vid's shift to them is commentary on the show's disproportionate focus on white characters; obviously, they're also victims of white patriarchy, as we see in the Caleb shots. goluxexmachina has some incisive thoughts on the show's dangerous tendency toward fetishizing girls getting exploited and violated, which I've linked in my rec post. As Patricia Hill Collins says, "Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed"; I think the vid pretty explicitly characterizes the Potentials as members of that last category.
Which leads us to Robin's story!
Robin has his own story to tell but having him speak for the Slayers, leading the potentials into the school, telling them where to go, re-appropriating his mothers coat, feels problematic.
That whole Watchers-are-almost-all-dudes (except Lydia-who-appears-once and evil Gwen Post) and Slayers-are-young-girls thing always brings up the specter of patriarchy, because it's a patriarchal system; Buffy telling off the Watcher's Council in S5 didn't kill it. In fact, I think it's perfectly valid to see Robin leading the Potentials into the school as an extension of that patriarchal hold on the Watcher-Slayer relationship, and that's a valid critique of the Robin POV in "Origin Stories." Again, see Collins quote above re: simultaneously oppressor and oppressed.
Textually he cleaves to the Watcher’s side, it’s Giles he entrusts with his mother’s identity and when he speaks of the potentials as weapons, as soldiers, he's paraphrasing Quentin Travers and the Council's definition of them as instruments in the war against evil.
With respect to Robin confiding in and enlisting Giles in the Spike Goes Down! operation, this underscores that aspect of alliance with the patriarchy, but I think it also highlights how isolated characters of color are in the show - if Robin needs an ally, he has to be able to appeal to that person on some common ground, and Council-thinking-with-patriarchal-overtones is his best bet, since the show gives him very few other connections with Buffy's crew. Which is not to say that Robin himself doesn't believe in his reasoning, but if we're looking at Nikki's Legacy: Who's Got the Right to Uphold It and How, I think the vid casts serious doubt on Buffy's right to appropriate Nikki's words, if Buffy's the other serious candidate for that banner. I think the show explicitly sets those two options against each other and goes for Buffy's right, Robin's wrong. Again, as I've alluded to above, the vid argues that in choosing Spike time and again, Buffy does weigh him in the balance against the threat of future victims - possibly the Potentials - and still values him over them. The Potentials, while not completely expendable, must be valued in accordance with their use as soldiers in her army, given that she explicitly allows Spike to live even after his murders post-soul (and reiterates it for Robin's benefit) because Spike's the best fighter. As skywardprodigal says in commentary I've linked at halfamoon, how the hell did Buffy-the-show equate redeeming problematic power with putting it squarely in the hands of the epitome of young white womanhood and undying, white manhood provided it's subordinate to white womanhood?
It feels a little as if Nikki’s story has once again been set aside in favour of a narrative about two men fighting over her coat, as if that lousy piece of leather had more significance than she did.
etothey notes that black men appear in the show as aggressors, faces of the patriarchy, which we see in the vid; I think one of the goals of "Origin Stories" is to highlight, question, and partially reclaim the role of black men and characters of color in the show, and making us see things through Robin's eyes is a big step in that direction. After all, a significant part of Robin's portrayal on the show is the big black male aggressor who tricks, traps, and tries to kill Spike. I also thought the Robin POV was a good way of showing how the intimate responsibility to redress the injustices we've seen perpetrated on the past line of all-nonwhite Slayers - who are defined by their deaths at Spike's hands - keep falling on people (Robin, Dana) for whom society is set up such that they'll never be allowed the authority to do the job.
And it is an intimate responsibility - they act because they identify with those dead Slayers who are women of color, and in some ways that's coded as going straight down to the blood* - Robin was brought up by a Watcher precisely because of that originating event, Nikki's death - his whole life has been shaped by what happened to his mother the Slayer and how; Dana's tuned into all the Slayers of the ages, and the vid flashes from the paint-striped face of the black First Slayer to Dana's face striped with blood. Not that this is an unproblematic attitude for the show to take, but it helps the vid's Robin POV make sense for me, since I really do feel it has to be as much about the unhappy legacy he inherits as it is about Nikki herself, given that Nikki is only part of the story of how characters of color get fucked over in the Buffyverse - the past framed by the present. (skywardprodigal's interpretation of the vid is "It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat = how white women betray POC while fighting for the same things, robbing children of color and the adults those children eventually become. If they manage to live.")
It's about being allowed to stake some claim to that legacy and that story, as opposed to having your own definition of yourself smacked down / taken away, and that's an even more pressing concern for Robin, who we know is driven by that consciousness of the past. I think that Nikki's coat is mainly important as a symbol of who's really going to be allowed to help define the issue. Characters of color: nuh-uh. Spike gets the last word in all his face-offs, figuratively (via coat) and/or literally. As the final voice of white authority, Buffy reinforces it vis-à-vis Robin.
As for a Wesley/Robin parallel, it's certainly there. However, I think it serves as a good critique of the dangers of allying yourself with the Great White Patriarchy - if Robin's alliance with Giles is a silent one in the vid, Dana's story makes it clear that those Watchers are as likely to shoot you up and shut you down as support you, depending on their own interests, if you're acting against the GWP. Really, I see either Angel (as the head W&H honcho) or Wesley as more analogous to Buffy in the Dana vs. Spike / Robin vs. Spike episodes, given that Wesley strikes the final blow in shooting down Dana, and Buffy's words to Robin are the final blow after Spike taunts and beats the crap out of him. Robin's already losing to Spike when Buffy arrives to rescue Spike / tell Robin off; Dana's succeeded in cutting off Spike's hands when Angel and Wesley arrive to rescue Spike. But the two episodes end the same way: Spike wins in that he gets to sets the final terms of how we think about their stories. The Robin POV reframes things so it's as if Robin looks to the past and sees Slayers who are women of color, defeated by Spike; looks to the present and sees Slayers who either collude with Spike or fall victim to that collusion / white patriarchy; looks to the future in Dana, who has access to all Slayer experience, and still sees defeat all over again. Robin himself has failed - or rather, the Buffyverse narrative has failed him. Robin's position allows him a unique perspective on the persistent failures of the Buffyverse and the stories it tells.
*Identification with the Slayer line as linked to blood also appears with respect to Buffy-the-character, as in the episode "Buffy vs. Dracula."
ETA 3:
selenak (author of Five in One) compares Robin's place in the Buffyverse narrative with that of Daniel Holtz from AtS S3 - be sure to read the comments, too!
ETA 4: The co-creators speak!
untrue-accounts lucidly unpacks three origin stories for the coat, the vid, and the title
giandujakiss gives an illuminating backstory for the vid's interpretative structure
Feel free to comment with links to more commentary!
An unsparing look at Buffyverse women and characters of color who struggle against domination, marginalization, and silence imposed by the stories of white men, it burns all the way down. Specific focus on the relationship between Spike and the Slayer line, in particular Nikki and Robin Wood and Dana from AtS S5. As the summary says, It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat. etothey has an outstanding, can't-miss commentary here. If you liked any of the recs in Through Critical Eyes - or even if you didn't - watch this vid. If I could leap out of your screen and grab you by the collar, I would.
Fic rec, older but still awesome: Five in One, by Selena.
I've recced this here because it explores themes similar to those of Origin Stories. Vivid and sharp as a knife, it digs into five different lines from BtVS/AtS canon and gives each of those nameless or minor-character victims - most of them women - a voice, a history, a crushing weight denied them in the show.
ETA: Even at a casual glance, there's already an influx of great commentary on Origin Stories; I look forward to seeing more.
untrue-accounts comments on Robin's unnoticed heroism
minnow1212 comments on Nikki and the injustice perpetrated against her dual communities
skywardprodigal comments on how It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat = how white women betray women of color while fighting for the same things, robbing children of color and the adults those children eventually become. If they manage to live.
untrue-accounts and giandujakiss explain Robin's POV as a collective for the Slayers/Potentials/ignored voices and a critique of Buffy-the-character
counteragent and untrue-accounts talk about Dana, Robin's symbolic identity as a Slayer whose fight is that of his mother's and all Slayers, and how their stories are irrevocably compromised because of the show's issues
skywardprodigal asks How the hell did Buffy equate redeeming problematic power with putting it squarely in the hands of the epitome of young white womanhood and undying, white manhood provided it's subordinate to white womanhood?
goluxexmachina discusses fetishizing stories about girls getting exploited and violated and how seriously racially heirarchized the Jossverse ended up even down to intra-racial conflicts, with blonde Buffy beating down dark-haired (get-it, dark?) Faith, and the skeevy scene of the white triumvirate of Angel, Spike, and Wes taking down brown Dana (she's taken back by the slayers, but this means she's ultimately handed off to the custody of another white trio: Buffy, Giles, and Andrew).
ETA2:
aycheb problematizes making Robin the main POV and ultimately only through him the non-eponymous Vampire Slayers
And then I had some thoughts inspired by aycheb re: Robin's POV and Slayers past, present, and future, so I've copied them here (gently edited for cogency, I hope).
The sense of the argument that I got from the vid was that for all the sympathy and grief Buffy shows over the deaths of the Potentials, her major close-ups in vid footage are when she's with Spike: Buffy lying in bed with Spike's arm around her, Buffy holding the bag of blood at arm's length for Spike - which is an interesting image in itself insofar as it captures a sense of sometimes-unwilling collusion with the enemy. But (as far as the vid's concerned) it's still collusion, and all the sympathy she shows for the Potentials - and by extension, for the women we Spike see murder in the vid pre- and post-soul - isn't enough to make up for the complicity that kills.
As for the Potentials themselves, I think you're right in positing that the vid's shift to them is commentary on the show's disproportionate focus on white characters; obviously, they're also victims of white patriarchy, as we see in the Caleb shots. goluxexmachina has some incisive thoughts on the show's dangerous tendency toward fetishizing girls getting exploited and violated, which I've linked in my rec post. As Patricia Hill Collins says, "Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed"; I think the vid pretty explicitly characterizes the Potentials as members of that last category.
Which leads us to Robin's story!
Robin has his own story to tell but having him speak for the Slayers, leading the potentials into the school, telling them where to go, re-appropriating his mothers coat, feels problematic.
That whole Watchers-are-almost-all-dudes (except Lydia-who-appears-once and evil Gwen Post) and Slayers-are-young-girls thing always brings up the specter of patriarchy, because it's a patriarchal system; Buffy telling off the Watcher's Council in S5 didn't kill it. In fact, I think it's perfectly valid to see Robin leading the Potentials into the school as an extension of that patriarchal hold on the Watcher-Slayer relationship, and that's a valid critique of the Robin POV in "Origin Stories." Again, see Collins quote above re: simultaneously oppressor and oppressed.
Textually he cleaves to the Watcher’s side, it’s Giles he entrusts with his mother’s identity and when he speaks of the potentials as weapons, as soldiers, he's paraphrasing Quentin Travers and the Council's definition of them as instruments in the war against evil.
With respect to Robin confiding in and enlisting Giles in the Spike Goes Down! operation, this underscores that aspect of alliance with the patriarchy, but I think it also highlights how isolated characters of color are in the show - if Robin needs an ally, he has to be able to appeal to that person on some common ground, and Council-thinking-with-patriarchal-overtones is his best bet, since the show gives him very few other connections with Buffy's crew. Which is not to say that Robin himself doesn't believe in his reasoning, but if we're looking at Nikki's Legacy: Who's Got the Right to Uphold It and How, I think the vid casts serious doubt on Buffy's right to appropriate Nikki's words, if Buffy's the other serious candidate for that banner. I think the show explicitly sets those two options against each other and goes for Buffy's right, Robin's wrong. Again, as I've alluded to above, the vid argues that in choosing Spike time and again, Buffy does weigh him in the balance against the threat of future victims - possibly the Potentials - and still values him over them. The Potentials, while not completely expendable, must be valued in accordance with their use as soldiers in her army, given that she explicitly allows Spike to live even after his murders post-soul (and reiterates it for Robin's benefit) because Spike's the best fighter. As skywardprodigal says in commentary I've linked at halfamoon, how the hell did Buffy-the-show equate redeeming problematic power with putting it squarely in the hands of the epitome of young white womanhood and undying, white manhood provided it's subordinate to white womanhood?
It feels a little as if Nikki’s story has once again been set aside in favour of a narrative about two men fighting over her coat, as if that lousy piece of leather had more significance than she did.
etothey notes that black men appear in the show as aggressors, faces of the patriarchy, which we see in the vid; I think one of the goals of "Origin Stories" is to highlight, question, and partially reclaim the role of black men and characters of color in the show, and making us see things through Robin's eyes is a big step in that direction. After all, a significant part of Robin's portrayal on the show is the big black male aggressor who tricks, traps, and tries to kill Spike. I also thought the Robin POV was a good way of showing how the intimate responsibility to redress the injustices we've seen perpetrated on the past line of all-nonwhite Slayers - who are defined by their deaths at Spike's hands - keep falling on people (Robin, Dana) for whom society is set up such that they'll never be allowed the authority to do the job.
And it is an intimate responsibility - they act because they identify with those dead Slayers who are women of color, and in some ways that's coded as going straight down to the blood* - Robin was brought up by a Watcher precisely because of that originating event, Nikki's death - his whole life has been shaped by what happened to his mother the Slayer and how; Dana's tuned into all the Slayers of the ages, and the vid flashes from the paint-striped face of the black First Slayer to Dana's face striped with blood. Not that this is an unproblematic attitude for the show to take, but it helps the vid's Robin POV make sense for me, since I really do feel it has to be as much about the unhappy legacy he inherits as it is about Nikki herself, given that Nikki is only part of the story of how characters of color get fucked over in the Buffyverse - the past framed by the present. (skywardprodigal's interpretation of the vid is "It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat = how white women betray POC while fighting for the same things, robbing children of color and the adults those children eventually become. If they manage to live.")
It's about being allowed to stake some claim to that legacy and that story, as opposed to having your own definition of yourself smacked down / taken away, and that's an even more pressing concern for Robin, who we know is driven by that consciousness of the past. I think that Nikki's coat is mainly important as a symbol of who's really going to be allowed to help define the issue. Characters of color: nuh-uh. Spike gets the last word in all his face-offs, figuratively (via coat) and/or literally. As the final voice of white authority, Buffy reinforces it vis-à-vis Robin.
As for a Wesley/Robin parallel, it's certainly there. However, I think it serves as a good critique of the dangers of allying yourself with the Great White Patriarchy - if Robin's alliance with Giles is a silent one in the vid, Dana's story makes it clear that those Watchers are as likely to shoot you up and shut you down as support you, depending on their own interests, if you're acting against the GWP. Really, I see either Angel (as the head W&H honcho) or Wesley as more analogous to Buffy in the Dana vs. Spike / Robin vs. Spike episodes, given that Wesley strikes the final blow in shooting down Dana, and Buffy's words to Robin are the final blow after Spike taunts and beats the crap out of him. Robin's already losing to Spike when Buffy arrives to rescue Spike / tell Robin off; Dana's succeeded in cutting off Spike's hands when Angel and Wesley arrive to rescue Spike. But the two episodes end the same way: Spike wins in that he gets to sets the final terms of how we think about their stories. The Robin POV reframes things so it's as if Robin looks to the past and sees Slayers who are women of color, defeated by Spike; looks to the present and sees Slayers who either collude with Spike or fall victim to that collusion / white patriarchy; looks to the future in Dana, who has access to all Slayer experience, and still sees defeat all over again. Robin himself has failed - or rather, the Buffyverse narrative has failed him. Robin's position allows him a unique perspective on the persistent failures of the Buffyverse and the stories it tells.
*Identification with the Slayer line as linked to blood also appears with respect to Buffy-the-character, as in the episode "Buffy vs. Dracula."
ETA 3:
selenak (author of Five in One) compares Robin's place in the Buffyverse narrative with that of Daniel Holtz from AtS S3 - be sure to read the comments, too!
ETA 4: The co-creators speak!
untrue-accounts lucidly unpacks three origin stories for the coat, the vid, and the title
giandujakiss gives an illuminating backstory for the vid's interpretative structure
Feel free to comment with links to more commentary!
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