Fandom Snowflake Challenge #6

[aadler]

Taking on the meme/challenge here.

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #6

We all have a favorite piece of original canon. Maybe that’s a particular episode of a show, maybe a specific scene, maybe a whole storyline. Maybe it’s one of those but from a movie. Maybe a comic, and you have a favorite piece of art. Maybe it’s a chapter or a character in a book, or a song from a musical.

Share your favorite piece of original canon. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment here saying you did it.

Well, since I’m famously fixated on the Buffyverse, that’s where I’ll go for examples.

Musical

Several, actually.

First and most, Sarah McLachlan’s “Full of Grace” as the background for the ending of the final episode of Buffy’s Season 2. It was, in my opinion, the absolute perfect matching of mood, theme, and song. Heartbreaking, even after more than 25 years.

A solid second place, Kim Richey’s “A Place Called Home” in the Angel episode “A Hole in the World” (S5-15). Not quite as much impact as “Full of Grace”, but the same basic kind of thing and done well. (And it wasn’t just the song, it was the matching of music to story; an Alias episode used the same song, with a certain degree of success, but it simply wasn’t as effective.)

The next two I rank roughly equal: the Sundays singing “Wild Horses” at Buffy’s prom (S3-20, “the Prom”) while she danced with Angel. Matched with that, “Goodbye to You” by Michelle Branch, as the ending music for the Buffy “Tabula Rasa” episode (S6-08) where Willow’s misuse of magic finally drove Tara away.

Visual

Moments, mostly, on this.

“Anne” (S3-01), when Buffy finally cuts loose in the demon foundry, bitch-smacking all the overseers coming at her, and then stops atop the platform, a hammer in one hand and a hand-scythe in the other, just waiting for (daring them) whoever wants to be next to take a try. Me, I’d have stood back and urged somebody else forward, ’cause it wouldn’t have been me putting myself in front of her.

“Graduation Day”, Part 1 (S3-21), when Joyce asks flippantly, “What, is some terrible demon going to attack the school?”, and Buffy just turns away with the most Oh, boy look in her eyes. That one expression stays with me.

“Tough Love” (S5-19), when Glory was threatening Tara with brain-sucking if she didn’t reveal the location of the Key, and Tara just looked at her. Glory was pretty much the most physically powerful foe Buffy ever faced, and Tara was the physically weakest member of the Scooby gang … but, even if she couldn’t beat Glory, she could defy her, knowing what the consequences would be and never flinching. I never really liked Tara before that — no active dislike, but no particular regard because I felt the writers expected it of the fans without having done the work to earn it — but that was the moment when she won me over.

Yes, I note that the visuals that stick with me most forcefully seem to be facial expressions, usually in the eyes. Make of that what you will.

Thematic

I loved every part of “The Zeppo” (S3-13). Part of what made it so much fun was that it clearly took place in the middle of a standard Buffy episode — complete with romantic-anguish-interplay between Buffy and Angel — but we only got glimpses of those parts, Xander just catching the edges of the ‘more important’ moments while he dealt with lesser issues that just accidentally wound up with him saving all the others (and the world, since they wouldn’t have been able to stop the Hellmouth from opening if he hadn’t forced the disarming of the bomb directly underneath them). And when he responded to Cordelia’s derisive scorn by simply smiling and moving on, to her exasperated bewilderment … perfect.

Finally, for a change of pace (but I’ve made the comparison before), the X-Files episode “Bad Blood” (S5-12), the one with the RV park vampires and Mulder and Scully doing a Rashomon-type perspective-switch retellings of the events therein. I’ve heard that many X-Files fans disliked that episode, feeling that it ridiculed their beloved idols, just as a number of Buffy fans felt “The Zeppo” was just dumb. Me, I got a huge charge out of both of them, and have re-watched them any number of times. Comedy, even when it borders on slapstick, really CAN be fun.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Full of Grace has been so over used in so many vids over the last like thirty years that it when you go back, you're suddenly hit with this, OH, but it was *perfect* realisation.

[aadler]

I’ve never actually seen “Full of Grace” anywhere else, but I would imagine it’s basically the same comparison I made between having “A Place Called Home” featured in both Angel and Alias: same song, sounds good both places, but it’s just a better match in one particular spot. Doesn’t hurt that “Becoming”, Part 2 was arguably the best of all the Buffy episodes.

[luvbarryfefe]

Full of Grace will always be the song that I most associate with Buffy. Becoming 2 will always be the penultimate episode for me as well. Thank you for the memories.